“Mahound
is in his paradise above the evening star,
(Don John
of Austria is going to war.)
~ Excerpt from Lepanto,G.K. Chesterton,
1874
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| Turkish galleys, one packed with Jannisaries, turn the Venetian flank |
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Galleys Guns and Glory
On Sunday at
Kublacon this year I “premiered” my Galleys Guns and Glory! (GGG!) rules and
models for the general public. Previous to this I’ve run several play tests at
my local South Bay Game Club and at during lunch time play test sessions at
work (we have a rocking game room at Cryptic Studios- with enough for 4
miniatures games, a foosball table, ping pong table, and of course the full on
couch and video game set up- I love my job!) but this was the real deal.
Getting ready
Due to work
and life constraints, I was busy painting and making flags or gluing awnings up
until the latish hours of Saturday night, because- sexy game needs. I recruited help from anyone who hovered
around me too slowly (thanks Stanley and John!) to help cut out flags or glue
them onto pins or sort out the models to make sure my count was right.
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| The set up at game start |
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| Venetian Center and reserve advance |
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The Set up
The nice thing about a sea battle is there really isn’t that
much set up- compared to say an AWI game.
I got the ships out, placed and crewed in about 20 minutes, thanks to my
pals for helping me pull things from boxes and getting me induced with caffeine
(yay Peter!)
Players started arriving about a half an hour before the
game started at 9 am, which gave lots of time for looking at models, talking
with everyone, answering a few questions and handing out rules ahead of time
for perusal. Around 9 am we started with
a full complement of 8 players- plus 3 more who joined in and commanded ships
in a battle which other players were nice to
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| Turk Galleys in all their fancy glory |
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| Venetian left flank Large markers are boarding crew, small one is officers and ships crew. |
The forces!
share. As we added in players, I tossed in a few extra ships
with a force count of the Turks with 19 ships, the Venetians 13. The disparity
in numbers was balanced in that the Turks had a much higher number of galiots,
whereas the Venetians had three lanterna galleys to the Turks one. Was it balance? Probably not, but what battle was? It sure
looked good ( and was all the models I had ready to go).
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| The lines close as cannon fire damages and sinks ships |
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| Turkish corsairs push for the flank- and get it! |
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The battle- and a bit
about the rules
As this was a first time out game, I wanted to keep the
scenario simple so it was a full on Turks meet Venetians off the coast kind of
dust up. The story was that the
Lanterna’s held lots of goods, and the Turks were out to intercept. Nobody seemed to complain and the objectives
were pretty clear.
GGG! works on an activation system, where at the beginning
of each turn (and after all cannon reloads are checked for) the commander
places an activation number for each battle, hidden from their opponent. Then
initiative is rolled for, and the first activation on each side is revealed,
with the winner of the initiative going first.
This system is fun as not only does it give a bit of hidden activation
in what is otherwise an open game, but it also means that by turn 3 the
commanders are vying for top activation by the commander. Bribery is not
unheard of. J
So- the Turks won initative and used it to start a fast
flanking maneuver with galiots crammed with corsairs on their right flank. I think the Venetians began in the center
with the lead Lanterna heading straight for the Turks flagship.
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The clash of ship and oar as the line comes together.
Note the smoke markers on ships that have fired and need reloading. | | |
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The crash of oars!
By turn 4 most all the line had crashed into each other in
that way that it looks in all the paintings of the battle of Lepanto. To be honest, as the game designer, that was
my entire goal of this game to recreate that look and feel of battle in the era
of the renaissance galley- and it makes me smile that it actually worked. Well, maybe not my entire goal, but
definitely a pillar of the rules system and the model designs.
Back to the battle; as previously mentioned the Turks
controlled the right flank firing point blank into the Venetian ships before
boarding them and sweeping all before them, but not without taking some casualties. They quickly claimed all the captured ships
as prizes and started getting ready to move to help of the center.
In the Center the Turks lost a lot of boarding crew to cannon
fire at medium ranges, then again at short
range- as the Venetians were able to reload their guns- like a
BAUS! (in the rules, Venetians get a
better chance of reloading guns, as they had better trained crews, guns, and
well- more money!) The Turks made up for
it at close range with a deadly rain of arrows and ramming, which caused loss
of crew to the Venetians, and knocked them off their feet – losing them attacks
in melee. Again the Turkish zeal and
good dice rolls won the day.
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| Stanley Stinnett painted his galleys and converted them to have cloth sails! |
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| The poor Turk galiot player tried to surrender, but blood lust over took the Venetians! |
Venetian Zeal on the
Right flank
On the Venetian right flank, the battle commanded by the
honorable S. Stinnett ( a French mercenary captain what took to ships, ergo his
personal fleur-de-lis tokens) was unstoppable. The Turks barely got within
medium gun range when two of their ships were sunk out right by cannonade. by the end of the fray a lonely Turkish
galiot survived, and her captain tried to actually surrender, but the zeal of
the Venetians had taken them into a fury, and the poor Turk was not
spared. His ship was then towed by the
Venetians as a particular prize.
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| Towing a prize. |
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| The Turkish flagship Lanterna (from earlier in the game) |
Victory to the Turks!
I can’t honestly
remember how many turns the game went (I think it was 7), but at point in the
game we took a look at who owned what. Although the Venetian right flank was
almost intact, the Turks had control of the center and left ( their right) and
although thin in boarding crew on many ships, outnumbered the Venetians
2/1 and had one galley filled with Janissaries
( who get better melee attacks in boarding).
We decided that at this point the Turk owned the seas and
the Venetian right would get away with plenty of prizes while the Turks looted
all their captured ships.
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| Rules book cover by the Talented Colin Upton Esq. |
Rules Review
This game from start to conclusion, including teaching the
rules to all new players took 2 and half hours.
During the game, I posed questions regarding how a system was working
for players, was it clear, and did they have any suggestions on ways to
improve. I got a few key great feedback ideas, which I am incorporating; the key
one is to standardize all to hit values to the same numbers for ease of
remembering.
If any of you out in blog land are interested in a beta
version of the rules, I’d be happy to send you a version.
Just send an email to
woodenwars1815@gmail.com and put Galleys Guns and Glory in the subject
header.
If you provide feedback,
you get your name in the playtesters section. If you make me do a palm slap to
my forehead when I read your feedback (as in “Dhoop! Yeah, that was broken) I’ll
send you a ship!
Cheers and thanks!
