Trieres of Glory?

(In case you are confused - 'Trieres of Glory' was a name given by my pal Lawrence based on the simplicity of the rules system to this new game!!!)

- Today, we had a multi player playtest of my developing Trireme rules. We had sort of half a game in which several very good suggestions were forthcoming for improvements to the game.

I was pleased that basically the game had some appeal, and the great suggestions I got will, I hope be easy to add to the probationary rules.

I used 4 Ionian Triremes run by the solo system, which was equally under test!

Lawrence had the nearest Greek Triremes, Phil the other two.

This shows the ship dashboards as at game start.

Phil tried to angle his ships out to bypass the Ionians, but realised quickly that this would leave his flanks open.

Lawrence, trying a Periplous manoeuvre!

Phil and the Ionians both shipped their oars as they came nose to nose to prevent their oars getting sheared.

I tried a large 4 ship dashboard today, but found it hard to keep all the counters separate!!!

The Greeks had less problems, but noted the counters are fiddly.

Lawrence and I had their ships pass in a Diekplous manoeuvre, it was noted that placing the ships past each other was unworkeable as a game mechanic, I will change that for the next update too!

Phil managed a grapple and board on one Ionian ship, and with 2 ships managed to capture the Ionian vessel, though not without losing 2 Hoplite stands himself!

All in all this was a very good playtest, and I have a lot of changes to put into the rules which should improve and simplify some game processes:

-I will make the solo system a little more reactive to the positioning of enemy ships.

-I will make archers able to support other troops during Grappling and combat.

-I will make 'Dashboards' better, rather than having lots of loose counters, they will be on the dashboard so you can put a counter on whichever action you have chosen. The dashboards will be bigger, but only as large as for other games we play like Sails/Wings of Glory, and 'What a Tanker', I hope.

-put 'Handles' on the base of the turning templates to make positioning easier and more accurate, and increase the size of the movement template so ship speed is better slightly.

-Ships meeting bow to bow will conform and pass at a standard speed of 3 rather than doing a 'jump' through the enemy ship.

There may be more, but that is the process of playtesting!!!

All in all then, a very useful day!!!