Dice or No Dice

T he evolution of a set of large scale ancient naval battle rules and basing system has not gone as expected when the project was resumed in December of last year.  At that time the intention was to keep the octagonal basing system that I had used at the start of the project in the dim distant past and simply work up some movement and combat mechanisms to go with them.  By the middle of this year, under the influence of an excellent article by Nick Harbud in Slingshot , I had decided to change the basing system and go down an entirely different route.  Instead of a traditional IGOUGO system, simultaneous movement governed by preset orders seemed to offer several benefits, simplifying movement, making the process more resonant of naval combat dynamics and keeping both sides engaged at all times.  The combat mechanisms were also completely revamped to try to capture a sense of ships jockeying for position where they might be able to deliver effective attacks and giving a sense of ship t