Sunday, 5 January 2014

Greek and Persian Galley Stuff


The Battle of Salamis - with a little artistic licence re the sails which would normally be lowered or even left on shore.


Way back in the first half of last year I was mooting the possibility of tackling some ancient galley action in conjunction with the appropriate parts of Command and Colours Ancients. My period of choice was going to be the Greek and Persian Wars and this was inspired by the acquisition of Richard Nelson's books on Salamis, Warfleets of Antiquity and his hex based fleet action rules published by WRG.

My thoughts initially were to use a more detailed set of rules than those published in his book on Salamis but now I am not so sure. My original post More on Ancient Naval Warfare Rules outlined some of my thinking but as I am now looking to include the naval side in the campaign as a whole (which I am sure you do not need reminding included Thermopylae and Plataea). Richard Nelson includes rules for handling the Persian invasion on a strategic level which could easily be translated into Command and Colours forces as well as the fleets involved. It would not need a huge amount of work to get ready - in fact the only issue I currently face is painting the 60 odd galleys required.

I am looking to tackling this as the land side has always interested me and so having both elements available to game would tick a number of boxes.
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8 comments:

  1. David Manley5 January 2014 at 17:49

    I have some fleet and individual ship action ancient rules that I could send you if you were looking for ideas.

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  2. Simon Quinton 5 January 2014 at 18:09

    Sounds interesting. The fleets will look amazing going by the artwork displayed here. I will be watching with interest that is for certain.

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  3. David Crook5 January 2014 at 18:24

    Hi Simon,

    I am quite sure my modest painting skills will fail miserably to capture the essence of the picture but many thanks for the vote of confidence!

    All the best,

    DC

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  4. David Crook5 January 2014 at 18:27

    Hi Dave,

    I suspect I have one of these - Greek Fire and Roman Fury - but any others would be appreciated. I would also value your opinion on Richard Nelson's Fleet action rules by WRG if possible! BTW, what are the Zvezda Armada ships like?

    All the best,

    DC

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  5. Unknown7 January 2014 at 05:25

    Hello David and the other David, for inspiration the other day when the wife and myself were getting ready to watch the new Hobbit movie on the big screen, one of the new movies/trailers we watched from the makers of 300 was
    a movie depiction of the Greeks verses the Romans. Huge battles with Triremes et al.
    I can't remember the name of the movie soon to be released however it looked down right awesome if you are into this era of naval engagement.
    Jeff

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  6. David Crook7 January 2014 at 05:59

    Hi Jeff,

    The trailer is for the 300 prequel/sequel called: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300:_Rise_of_an_Empire

    The action covers the naval battles of Artesium and Salamis and needless to say, March seems like a long way away!

    All the best,

    DC

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  7. Geordie an Exiled FoG8 January 2014 at 21:31

    I will be watching this with keen intent David

    :)

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  8. David Crook9 January 2014 at 06:01

    Hi Geordie,

    Happy new year to you sir. I am keen to crack on with this although I have a couple of jobs before I start that need attention. I am hoping that I can be ready to undertake the great galley-fest around about when the film is released in March.

    The jobs in betwen are the last of the blocks and the 1/2400th scale WW1 ships....;-)

    All the best,

    DC

    ReplyDelete