Row Well

We got in another round of outdoor gaming this Saturday. This time it was galley warfare using a friend's galley warfare rules, called Row Well and Live, and his Xyston 1/600 scale galleys. I have played the rules before, but it has been a while and there have been some changes. 

My galleys for the game

The rules are tactical in scope and each of us ran a couple galleys. Experienced players could probably run two to five galleys. But there are some key decisions to make about moving your ships and there is a lot to do when you get into combat, so more ships per player can slow things down.

The battle was a meeting type action and victory was basically "row well and live" in a 2 player vs. 2 player setup. On my side of the table placed our ships a little farther back than the other side, so we were somewhat behind in getting into action. 

I'm on the right, closest to the back, while my ally is very close to the enemy

 We started out the game a cruising speed, so that we wouldn't fatigue the rowers. I had a medium and heavy galley (a teteres or, if you prefer, quadrireme and a hepteres or septireme). My ships only had archers and marines for combat, while everyone else's heavy ships had some sort of bolt thrower or catapult. But my medium ship did have a superior crew, which would help out. 

There were some tentative moves as we relearned the game. But the action started out soon enough with archers and catapults getting into action.

Catapults with fire pots start a blaze

The scrum on the left started with bow and catapult fire and an oar rake attempt, which failed. But this set up a ram attack by my ally's medium ship. The ram was successful, but didn't do a lot of damage because the attacker had not gotten up to full speed.

Burning ships and a ram

On the next turn, the medium ship turned and grappled with the opponents light hemiolia, while the heavy ships tried to douse their fires. The subsequent boarding action saw the hemiolia surrender.

Grappling and boarding action

Over on my side of the table, we were finally getting close enough to shoot at each other. I didn't do well on the imitative rolls, which allowed my opponent to try an oar rake (which failed). But I did cause a lot of casualties with my superior archers. After seeing what happened to the other hemiolia, my opponent decided to keep his out of arrow range and try to sneak into the non-firing arcs.

The ships pass as the oar rake fails

On the other side of the table, the still-burning enemy heavy ship moved to grapple as other ship pelted it with arrows and stones. The initial boarding combat was inconclusive and would run for another turn. By then the enemy's marines had been whittled down and they surrendered.

The boarding attempt fails and we get more galley slaves

On my side of the table, I was working to turn my ships around and catch the enemy heavy ship. The light was speeding away and their was no way I was going to catch them.

Turning to pursue the enemy

By the time I turned around and was getting close, the action on the other side of the table was done. Now outnumbered 2 - 1, the remaining enemy galleys headed for home.

We rowed OK and lived

Overall it was a fun game and great to see the Xyston ships on the table. Hopefully we'll see more of these in the future.

It was another successful outdoor game, even though the morning weather was a little threatening. We've got (hopefully) another month of good weekend weather to come and have a few ideas for upcoming games.