Mare Nostrum

More properly, He Hemetera Thalassa, Mare Nostrum (hereafter MN).

MN is a set of rules for galley actions that I have been perusing lately.

I picked them up last year when I began a short-lived foray into Byzantine naval operations. Because of my recent experiments with galley battles I decided to take another look.

Here are some of my thoughts.

What I Like

There are quite a few aspects of the rules that I really like.

• The emphasis is on fleet actions rather than individual warships. Because of this emphasis, MN employs multi-ship bases, much like my counters.

My counters in action

• Missile combat does no damage, but it reduces a ship base's effectiveness in "melee" combat.
• The rules cover galley warfare in the Mediterranean up to 900 AD, so they cover Byzantines.

Not Sure About This

There is one rule that gives me mixed emotions.

• There is no distinction between ramming and boarding. Both are subsumed into melee.

This makes a lot of sense for fast-play fleet actions, but I worry that it will make combat too generic. The difference between fleets that rely on ramming vs. those that board seems to be an important difference that I would like to model in some fashion.

Not My Cup of Tea

There is nothing inherently wrong with these aspects of the rules. They just don't fit my preferences.

• Fleets consist of multiple squadrons, each with multiple ship bases. As a result, scenarios tend to feature dozens of bases (the sample scenarios generally have 20-40 bases per side). I plan to use about a half dozen stands per side. I'll probably assume that each stand is a squadron.
• Combat resolution uses D10s but I plan to use D6s. I will likely adapt my MicroBattle rules to replicate the results.

My Plans for Galley Wars

I don't really plan to use MN as is, but I will mine it for ideas.

Here is a rundown of my thoughts so far on galley warfare rules.

• The objective is a portable wargame style set of rules with a gridded board (of perhaps 8 x 10 spaces)
• Fleets will consist of ~ 6 squadrons, each of 1 base.
• Movement will be random, perhaps 1-2 spaces per move
• As with MN, missile combat will affect combat effectiveness
• I may adjudicate ramming like a charge, with bonuses in combat. After the ram will come boarding.
• I will use MicroBattle resolution to determine combat results.

That's what I have so far. Stay tuned for more experiments.