In the past, the history of the world has been with few such vessels. The people required them not and Mighty Sea-serpents and peace made the venture unnecessary. Sailors find abundant fish in the shallows, where they can dart back to land at the first sign of a Serpant-wake, but trans-border crossing require each to head deeper into the waters, to where the deamons of the sea live. Each of you will start research off with the Fishing Boat, basically making better fishing boats than the Missionaries left the people with and soon you will be able to build Penteconters. Neither of these are true war ships, yet if you persist in taking them to war, so be it. The types of ships have all been modified slightly, Soldiers will function as rowers, boarding parties, anti-boarding parties, etc, etc, so the crew compliments given below can be seen as your force. Any crew less than 50% will not move the ship. (Except for a Liburne which needs 200 people to row it no more-no less so it is always a 2 country mover) . Between 50 and 100% of strength and they will move the ship at 1/2 speed.
Note:- You still pay for your men, .the monthly cost is for the ship, the captain etc,
FISHING BOAT
An unarmed boat for small forrays into enemy teritory. Ideal for cross-ocean spying. The only boat not attacked by coastal defenses.
PENTACONTER
Purely a military version of the fishing boat. Not of much use other than teaching your woodworkers how to work.
BIREME
The first troop carrier. Carrying 100 men you still need 10 of them too capture an enemy coastline. VEry weakly armored and armed.
TRIREME
The perfect partrol boat. Strong, fast and armed with a catapult. Yet not full of expensive and valuable troops.
QUADRIREME
Better than the Trireme for invasion, and possibly the first true invasion ship. Carrying 400 men allows for few ships an opportunity to capture an enemy country.
QUINQUEREME
Bristliing with catapults and carrying a healthy number of troops. Perfect for coastal bombardment before putting your troops ashore.
LIBURNE
The true troop carrier. Slow and not well armed, its 4000 men can cause havoc when they put ashore.
HORSE-BARGE
A Horse Barge must be towed by another ship. A Liburne suffers no movement penalty but all others tow at a 2 movement rate. ...less than Quardrireme cannot tow the barge ..The monthly cost is also expensive due to that flat bottom drawing many cracks and barnacles....A Barge can carry 2000 horses each with their riders...or 4000 men and (1000 dismantled Catapults or 1000 dismantled chariots). (Catapults or Chariots can be reassembled in one month at the destination. They cannot be used for an initial assault.)
From each step to the next will require one research slot. (If you use two, you can progress two levels.) The research can also be spied (Will have to be specific: Spy 12:- Liburne Plans) so beware of your neighbours...by this manner you can spy only the boats being built. Research can also be sold or swapped...your termns. No matter what, if you get plans for a Liburne, but can only build a Bireme then you wont be able to build those inbetween.
SEE RESEARCH FOR OTHER INFORMATION
Fishing boats and Penteconters can be built anywhere. However, for the rest you need boatyards of better. These are built with wood or stone.
The yard can build ships up to its size ( based on the ships number). EG: A Jugeyard can build 14 Triremes at a time or 8 Liburnes or any combination that makes 56, get it??, (Liburne is ship number/size 7)
NOTE:-Normal Movement takes place spread out over the turn. This gives rise to a few strange situations.
SHIP CLASSES
No Class Men Build Month Move Cats Strength 1 Fishing Boat 50 200 40 3 N/A 2 2 Pentaconter 50 300 60 4 N/A 5 3 Bireme 100 400 80 4 N/A 10 4 Trireme 170 500 100 5 1 20 5 Quadrireme 400 750 150 4 2 30 6 Quinquereme 550 1000 200 3 4 50 7 Liburne 4000 2000 400 2 0 100 8 Horse Barge VAR 1500 500 2 0 30
DESCRIPTIONS
ADDITIONAL BUILDING COSTS AND RESTRICTIONS
No ship log cost 1 Fishing Boat 50 2 Pentaconter 100 3 Bireme 400 4 Trireme 750 5 Quadrireme 1250 6 Quinquereme 2000 7 Liburne 3000 8 Horse Barge 3000
YARD FOR SHIP BUILD TIME STRUC STR Boatyard 3&4 1 Month 20 Shipyard 3,4,5&6 2 Months 40 Jugeyard 1-8 3 Months 56
MOVEMENT
If you are landing troops in a country under attack by your own forces, you may have them join the attack, or not, your choice.
Normally, however ships land on enemy shores after the recruit phase. So attacking a treasury country will mean that the ships will face the countries recruits etc.(see later ie weather, for other cases of movement)
UNLOADING AND LOADING OF SHIPS.
Sailing boats and Penteconters take no time to load or unload. Biremes and triremes take 1/2 a movement to load and 1/2 to unload. All the rest take 1 Movement to Load, and 1 to Unload. So a Liburne can load and move one square in a turn.
These restrictions include ration loading, negotiation of the narrows, sail trimming, sounding etc, etc, .
These include: Weather; Serpents and enemy warships. Commands for each encounter must be given separately each turn.
WEATHER:-
Weather prediction has never been studied, it has never been needed. So, unless you have studied Meterology and have a station, with bad weather, you have two options:- Ride out the storm at sea or put to shore.
Putting to shore immediately constitutes an invasion that will be seen by the local fishermen and a fight will ensue, However, because the storm has blocked all visibility, the landing is undiscovered and takes place during the movement phase, when an army may have moved out of the country and before recruits are gleaned. Landing is seen as the default, with the troops surrendering, so if you don't want this to happen, give orders each turn.
If you decide to rough it out at sea, a number of things can happen, the ships strength could reduce due to damage, the ships are sunk, the ships are lost randomly and could land at the wrong coast (no navigation for ships was ever developed) or face the wrath of deep-sea serpents or being wrecked against the shore (depending on the direction and force of wind), you could lose sailors, or any number of things.
SEA-SERPENTS
There are 3 great serpants in the seas of the world. They are always moving about. They are massive things of legend and strike fear into the very heart of a man. Of all the things on the sea, you will meet least of all but when you do, you are in trouble. The only ship relatively safe from them is the juggernaut Liburne. A serpent always attacks anything on the surface and your sailors have a number of options to begin with. Fight, Run, Run-aground, Run-a-harbour.
Run: You attempt to outrun the serpent, This is your default! Not wise in a slow boat, but can work, your forces can fight with any catapults on board but the rest are rowing like the wind.
Run Aground is the sailors favourite when near land. They smash their ships against the reefs or slide them onto the beaches and run or swim in to shore, the boats are lost to you but can be found and studied and the soldiers will follow your instructions or fight. Soldiers will normally only do this when they have a random morale check fail. (Difficult even for poor troops, near impossible for elite). (The result is suimilar too landing on Coastal spikes!)
Run-a-Harbour. Your force hits the coast and holds up, hoping to lose the serpent in the wilds whilst not fighting the inhabitants, .(there is a low percentage failure rate for each.) putting to sea when the beast has gone. The serpent still gets attacks whilst your fleet tack and dart for cover.
Attack is handled separately later.
Ships can be passed as you head for different locations, or you can end up in the same location. If you pass then it all depends on orders given. You can Flee, run, engage or engage and chase, the DEFAULT is engage.
Flee, means that all ships go as fast as they can, so a Trireme and a Liburne will be separated and if the enemy engage and chase then the Liburne will be caught alone.
If one runs and the other engages then a battle ensues but with all slower( Not smaller) ships being sunk first.
If both engage then, .duh.
With engage and chase you pursue the enemy, giving up on your move to destroy the enemy.
Ships that occupy the same area are forced to fight at least one encounter. A retreat % can be given for any ship vs ship encounter (see sample move) If a ship/fleet has used all its movement, then flees, it is classified as forced marching and the fleet has a maximum of 1 move during the next turn (Land troops etc)
In the immortal words of The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy...DONT PANIC!
I run the combat...I worry about the way things work...you doont need to.
Attack: This is a match of attack capabilities compared to strength of the enemy/beast. If two single ships are faceing off, then thsoe ships score, from the table below, are added to a random number from 1-100. The scores are compared and the diference is the amount of damage the loser takes to his boat..If more than one boat/ship is involved, then all of the strengths are added together. Again added to a random value, and again the damage is the difference. The only difference is that more than one boat can be sunk at a time (from the smaller ships up!!). However...this is not all, if it was then the victor would never take any damage..not fair nor accurate. So, additional damage based on the ships number or added numbers will also be dealt out (Excluding Horse Barges).
| SHIP | ATTACK FACTOR |
| Fishing Boat | 2 |
| Pentaconter | 5 |
| Bireme | 10 |
| Trireme | 42 |
| Quadrireme | 54 |
| Quinquereme | 73 |
| Liburne | 30 |
| Horse Barge | N/A |
So a Trireme ship attacking 5 fishing boats and a Bireme will look like this:
TRIREME: 42
FB/B's: (5*5)+10 =35
If the Trireme's random number is 35 and the rest is 25 then the final scores are 77 vs 60 so the Trireme does 17+4 (ship number 4) points of damage and sinks 4 FB's and damages the other with one point. The Bireme and FB's do 5*2+3 points of damage...or 13 points (It has 20).
They roll again: The Trireme now scores a 2 (+42=44) and the rest a 90..(+10+5=+15=105).the trireme is sunk! However, the additional 4 means that the last Pentaconter sinks as well. This would continue until one has run, or one fleet has been sunk.
If you look closely you will see that a lone Trireme can sink an entire fleet of fishing ships...this was historically the case. However, even a fishing boat can get a few arrows in or a lucky gaff or fire those lucky fire-arrows especially when they swarm around a Trireme like ants around a caterpillar.
[NOTE :- this system is very simplified and those strength numbers assume that a maximum of 200 (no room to fight for more) of your men can fight and row and shoot arrows and whatever even if they are not archers, which is oversimplified. Think of it as a combination of ramming and repel-borders, ram etc etc. Limitations of good firing platforms and deck-sides give rise to the limitation of 200 able troops to fight in a turn. So you wont have 4000 archers firing at that serpent from a Liburne....
Remember, 1000 men are still needed to c onquer a country.
Also remember that a minimum of 50% of the crew are needed to sail your ships, so if you start with 1000 and 600 die, a ship or two will have to be left. NOTE:- Before you land troops, enemy shipping and coastal defenses must be cleared from the area. A ship landing troops needs to negotiate shallows and is an easy target.
(obvious)
Costs
Boatyard to Shipyard: 1 month and 5000gp
Shipyard to Jugeyard 1 month and 5000gp
Boatyard to Jugeyard 1 month and 10000gp
COASTAL SPIKES: Are what they are called. They are logs sharpened on both ends and placed under the surf soo an approaching hip tears its bottom out on them. 10% of the crew men and horses will die and the ships will be rendered useless. All dismantled catapults and chariots will be lost. Once the land is yours you may remove any spikes to facilitate future landings. Remember, coastal spikes workk against your ships as well. There is no safe passage through them.
LAND CATAPULTS: Any land catapults can be used to defend against shipping. They are slow to move however and not as useful as they should be. Additionally only a small portion can be brought to bear. 150 Catapults maximum can be used for coastal defence. For Example.
PCA9 250: COASTAL DEFENCE
For the 250 a Coastal defence factor of 25 will be gained(Same as shipping combat factor) Strength 12. For additional damage dealt..land catapults=3
TREBUCHETS: Improved fixed position catapults. Wide arc of fire. Coastal defence factor 75. Strength 25. For additional damage dealt..Trebuchets=7
So a cost protected by Trebuchets and Catapults will give a protection as if it was a fleet with a strength of 100. As damage is taken, this number reduces accordingly. If you want it higher..have a fleet patrolling as well...then all of the figures are added together.
EXAMPLE:
A Trireme attacks a costline. Its factor 42 (Fast mobility, only facing a small area of coast etc.... The coast 100. They roll and damage is dished out accordingly.
Two Triremes attack Their factor is 84...so even if the favour is still with the coast the odds are improving.
ALL COASTAL DEFENSES AND ENEMY SHIPPING MUST FIRST BE NEUTRALISED
You can also use catapult bearing ships to knock out your opponants yards. Each catapult on a ship can cause up to four points of damage per assault plus the ships number (Except Liburne/Horse Barge). A bombardment takes 1 movement point. Useful if you dont want to land troops.
An Attacking example would be: One Trebuchet and a Quinquereme are attacking a Jugeyard. They bombard for one movement point. They do 4+6+(5*4) damage or 30 points. The jugeyard is reduced to size 26. Liburnes cannot be built(it dropped below 40(ship yard) So if 8 Liburnes were being built all but 3 are destroyed (caused by the falling masonry) and those three cannot be finished until the yard is repaired. (You pay for them though...)
REPAIR YARD
A yard costs 100gp per size point to repair.
REPAIR SHIP
A ship costs 10gp per strength point to repair. The repair must take place where the ship can be built (for my laziness there is no penalty for building new ships due to space or men) So a Pentaconter can be repaired at any owned land whilst a Liburne needs a Jugeyard.
Turn:
NAVAL
BUILD New Jugeyard at 1
BUILD 9 TRIREMES AT Southern coast of 3 (5000gp : 7500 wood)
Create fleet, Serpent Spawn (You can also move the ones above)
1) Penteconter 5
2) Biremes 10
2) Trireme 42
Total SAS: 57
LOAD FLEET (As above) (1/2move)
SAIL FLEET 1-3-4-5 (3 Move)
LAND ARMY (1/2 Move)
JOIN ARMY AT 5 (Give any land rules you want)
WEATHER:- Ride out any storm
SERPENTS:- Run
SHIPPING
PASSING:- Engage and Chase retreat at 66% (ie two ships)
OCCUPY:- Fight till death
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
TURN REPORT
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CASH:-----
WOOD:-----
NEW Judgeyard being built. 1/3 complete
9 Triremes built & Empty. All present at 3-S
Serpent Spawn Fleet created and loaded as indicated.
1) Penteconter
4) Bireme
6) Trireme
LOG BOOK
Fleet sails 1-3 No problem, King's Rest still Neutral.
Fleet Sails 3-4, Weather fine. King's Folley Neutral. WAKE SEEN! Run order given. Bireme attacked Serpent gets a coil high around the Bireme which sinks, broken, all hands lost. Penteconter attacked SHIP ATTACK STRENGTH=47 Serpent a lot, lot higher, Penteconter sinks all hands lost. Trireme escapes in confusion.
Fleet sails 4-5, , Weather fine. 2 Enemy Biremes sighted. Loaded with Pikemen. Trireme SAS=42 ENEMY FLEET=20
Trireme attacks central Bireme ramming it below the waterline, oarsmen retreat as arrows are sent in to the abandoning crew. The Bireme sinks. The Triremes catapult holes the other below the waterline, ..it too sinks, ..Prisoners taken 50 pikemen.
Land crew to join army. Ships empty at harbour.
Fantasy Gaming: Strategic or Role
Last Updated February 27, 1998
Web Page by Mike Jones
([email protected])
URL= http://
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The man who has ceased to learn ought not to be allowed to wander around loose in these dangerous days. M.M. Coady
