So I have been fiddling about with this variant for a number of years, and these latest times means I have managed to get a few solo test plays done to check the concepts and build a few scenarios. So I think it is ready for review.
The most significant changes are
- combat during movement. Much of the attacking happens as ships move, specifically ramming and diekplus attacks.
- ranged attacks are pretty limited
- melee attacks are the boarding actions, which become increasingly important over the period
- limiting the Command Card deck to keep play moving, especially with the lighter fleets of the Hellenic Period
C&C Ancients Naval Variant
Light Ships (LS) - Triremes, biremes, pentakonters, liburnians, hemiola and tremiola. Fast, but lacking in marines and artillery. 4 blocks with a Green circle, 2 attack dice and move 4. May Evade, No Swords, May Advance and Battle. Retreat 2
Medium Ships (MS) - Quadremes and Quinquremes. Not as fast, more marines but no significant artillery. 4 blocks with a Blue triangle, 3 attack dice and move 3. May Evade Heavy Ship, Swords hits in Close Combat, May Advance, No Battle. Retreat 1
Heavy ships (HS) - Hexaremes to Decares. Slower, many marines and artillery. 3 blocks with a Red Square, 4 attack dice and move 2. 2 dice missile fire. No Evade, Swords hits in Close Combat, No Advance after Battle, retreat 1
Super Heavy Ships (SHS) – Larger polyremes used to mount siege towers, and siege artillery, 2 blocks with a Red Square with White Border. 4 attack dice and move 1. 3 dice missile fire. No Evade. Swords hit in Close Combat, No Advance after Battle, retreat 1. Ignore 1 Sword in Battle. Ramming hits must be re-rolled with only Red results in the re-roll causing a loss.
Transports (TR) – larger transport vessels. 1 block. Move 1 and no Battle. No Evade. Treat as Red for ramming and battle. Swords hit in Close Combat, No Advance after Battle, retreat 1.
Leaders (Ldr) –hit on Leader symbol in Close Combat, attached unit may Advance and Battle. Leader alone evades 1,2 or 3
I have deliberately ignored archers, since they aren't ship killers.
Cards (Note: ideally there needs to be some new Command cards with more nautical relevance, storms, currents and tactics)
Remove the following 22 cards from the deck
Move-Fire-Move
Order Light Troops
Order Medium Troops
Order Heavy Troops
Order Mounted
Clash of Shields
Line Command
Double Time
Mounted Charge
Darken the Sky
Movement Special Attacks
Ram
Attack made during movement with no fightback. Ship unit must not start adjacent to an enemy and must move adjacent and expend 1MP additional to ram. Move ends immediately after attack.
Lighter enemy ships may immediately evade, in which case the ramming ship enters the vacated hex and stops.
Roll 1 die per block. Hit on your color or enemy color if lighter.
Green vs Green, Blue or Red - Green only hits
Blue vs Blue, Red - Blue only hits
Blue vs Green - Blue or Green hits
Red vs Red - Red only hits
Red vs Blue - Red or Blue hits
Red vs Green - Red or Green hits
Ignore all Swords, Leaders and Flag results
Pass Through (Diekplus)
Attack made during movement with no fightback. Ship unit must not start adjacent to an enemy and must expend 1MP to enter enemy hex and 1 MP to exit enemy hex into a vacant hex directly opposite entry hex. Diekplus cannot be evaded.
Move may continue including ram attack if sufficient MP (Anastrophe)
Roll 1 die per 2 blocks. Hit on your color.
Ignore all Swords, Leaders and Flag results
Ranged Combat
Heavy ships at Range 2 get 2 dice. 1 if they moved. Hit on target colour.
Super Heavy Ships get 3 dice and Range 3, 1 if they moved. Hit on target colour.
Melee combat.
As normal, hits on your target color. Flags cause retreat of units that cannot ignore a flag (Exception: Retreats are hits if attacker is Corvus armed)
Corvus
Corvus armed ships melee attack normally, but the opponent cannot retreat, and any flags that cannot be ignored are treated as hits as if the retreat path was blocked
When an enemy ship starts adjacent to a Corvus armed ship, once ordered, it must free itself to move. Roll 1d for each unit attempting to move, with any colour result (Green, Blue or Red) allowing the ship to move normally. A Leader result allows the ship to move normally if a Leader is attached.
Otherwise Swords, Flags and Leader results cancel the movement of the ship, but the ship may still battle
Fire Attacks
Fire armed ships have a missile attack range of 2, and roll 2 dice. Target colour hits, and Swords also hit. For each Sword result, roll an extra die, applying further hits and extra rolls from that roll until the attack is completed.
Terrain
Islands - use Hill counters - Impassable
Coast - use SeaCoast counters - Impassable
Shoals - use Broken Ground counters - enter at 2MP. Roll 2 die with Swords sinking a block
"I will either find a way, or make one."
attrib to Hannibal Barca
