Sailing on with Aegaeon

The 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 to ship action even while moving entire squadrons as single bases.

The starting point in 2023.  Model ships on octagonal bases with several bases to a squadron.  Happily, rebasing is easy since the individual models are put in place with magnets, not stuck on

The basing now aimed for.  Models on a rectangular base on which they can be rearranged to denote different formations and status levels

A half-way house : small, printed bases and record cards to quickly test rules and allow easily portable battles

After some rounds of solo testing, the new scheme was packed up and taken to the Society of Ancients Convention last month, to expose it to the eagle eyes of more experienced gamers and see how well what worked for me could be easily explained to others and give them an enjoyable game.

I prepared a couple of scenarios and set up an initial position using half the squadrons for the first scenario, intending to run through a couple of moves with them to explain the move and combat mechanics before starting the full scenario.  We never made it to that, getting so absorbed in the trial set up that there was only time left to bring on the rest of the squadrons for a couple of turns right at the end.

The intended scenario : 12 squadrons a side

The game actually played : 6 squadrons a side

Despite the reduced scale of the game the players seemed to enjoy things as far as they went, were tolerant of the rough edges and gave some very helpful criticisms and suggestions.  The main points I took away were:-

a) there is too much clutter on the table in the form of markers in general and those for damaged and captured ships in particular;

b) movement is too restricted and I should consider allowing diagonal movement, using methods similar to those used in 'Fighting Sail';

c) a morale mechanism would be helpful, rather than having squadrons fight to the bitter end; and

d) the players liked the record cards but some comment was that there were too many things to keep track of if the size of the game was to be increased.  

Having mulled over these points, I accept the first concern about clutter.  Once I can upgrade to the larger bases with ship models on them, I think I can address all of the concerns on this score.  In his game system 'Wooden Walls', Adrian Nayler represents squadrons by a group of individual models that can be repositioned within their squares to visually represent different formations and squadron status.  This is a very neat way of doing things.  While I intend to keep the squadron bases as I think this makes the business of moving things around the table quicker, my models can be shifted on the base to achieve similar visual indicators of status.

All the status markers made to go with the large bases can be done away with, leaving only an identifier for the squadron, which could be printed directly onto the base rather than having a separate marker.

It is not quite so simple when using the small printed bases as the printed images cannot be moved around.  The solution here is to have more than one base for each squadron, swapping out a 'normal' status base for a 'disordered' or 'demoralized' base as required.

This still leaves the matter of markers for damaged and captured ships.  However, thinking about it I realise that I saw these as being important because my starting point was that the game would be used as part of a campaign, so keeping careful track of resources lost or gained was useful.  This is not the case if the game is used for one off battles.  Furthermore, even in a campaign game there are ways of keeping track of these without putting markers on the table.  So, out go these markers, too!

With regard to movement, under the original system the octagonal bases could move diagonally.  I decided to limit things to orthogonal moves when switching over to the new system as I thought this would keep movement and combat possibilities simpler.  I am still a little uncertain about the effect of changing back to allowing diagonal movement but find the 'Fighting Sail' system quite elegant and have decided to try out something adapted to oared vessels.  

Diagonal movement requires a move points system to prevent more rapid movement along the diagonal on a square grid than other directions.  This should work well with the distinction Aegaeon makes between 'fast' and standard squadrons.  The former can be given 6 move points per turn, the latter 4.  It will require players to be more careful about the notation of movement orders so that the record cards give clear proof of intentions in order to resolve any arguments quickly.

I was conscious of the absence of a morale mechanism before the test game but did not have time to work one out.  Having seen how the other games at the convention handled it and reread the rather sparse ancient source material relating to morale in conflict at sea I am going to introduce a mechanism.  I will start with one that kicks in once a squadron - and at higher level a division or entire fleet - has lost half its strength and play around with it to see how it works out.

Finally there is the question of whether the game is simple enough to scale up from the six squadrons a side that we had for most of the convention game to the twenty to thirty a side that   (perhaps somewhat quixotically) I have in mind.  Part of the answer to this is a matter of familiarity.  A lot more will depend on stripping out distracting and unnecessary elements.  Even more than this, elegance and clarity in design of the record cards and quick reference sheets is essential.  

Prototype for a new squadron record card.  The top elements are the squadron identifier, state identifier and Agility score - with notation of move point allowance.  The second line left box shows the ship type (T = Trieres), quantity (12), points value per ship (1.5 : a squadron cannot have more than 18 points worth of ships in it) and how many marine points are carried.  The middle box is blank here but can show if the ships have any special attributes like a Corvus or reinforced bows.  The last box is the counter of how many effective ships remain in the squadron, this being the number than can be used for ramming or break through attacks.  This counter is magnetised and can be slipped out and replaced by a lower number counter whenever ships are lost. The bottom bars are for clear notation of move, reaction and combat stances.  Colour coding ties in to the colours used on the combat results table in the QRS.

One point that was not raised at the Convention but that is very much in my mind is how well the system will work with the more complex ships and tactics of the Hellenistic age.  The brief test I have made of this so far did not go well.  I have been rethinking the modifiers but need to give the tweaks I have made a more thorough testing, preferably with other players involved rather than solo, before I will know whether Aegaeon can cover the full span from the sea battles of the Ionian revolt until Actium.  I don't think I will get things finished within this year, but the first quarter of 2025 should see something I can be confident with - unless I get distracted by another project like the 30 Years War!