WAR GALLEY, GMT

REVIEW
By Lodovico Badali

INTRODUCTION
Here we want to give a general view to this military simulation that covers the naval warfare in the ancient world. 
The subject of War Galley ( the seventh volume in the Great Battle of History series ) is one of the most important, but at the same time the most neglected aspect of the warfare in the Ancient World. It is difficult to say why a so important item is so little covered by the military simulations. Perhaps due to the fact that the naval warfare interests few wargamers than its counterpart played on the ground, or perhaps the ancient warfare seems so distant and less interesting that the more modern objects of the great part of the wargames; or perhaps both the two facts. 
The reality is that it is very difficult to find a simulation on the ancient naval warfare, the title more famous is Trireme, by the Avalon Hill, and in the most cases the ancient naval warfare is treated not like a separate object, but like a part of simulations covering the whole ancient warfare. 
War Galley has the great merit to focalize exclusively on the naval warfare in the ancient world and to do it in modern terms, using a system more realistic and better constructed. The evolution exists in the military simulations too. War Galley is a simulation with a deep and wide background of literature about this subject, it covers every aspect of a naval battle in the Ancient World and allows the players not only to play a “ game “, but also to understand the real situation and problems of a naval battle when the men were the engine of a ship. 

MATERIAL
The quality of the material in the box of War Galley is very good.
The Rulebook is clear and well organized, with a lot of examples and historical notes. Every chapter follows a logical sequence that is, in the most cases, similar to the sequence of play. At the head of the Rulebook there are some terms about the ships, the manoeuvres and the combat terms, which will be very useful reading the rules of play. Even the most difficult manoeuvres, like the Diekplus and the Anastrophe, result clear due to the examples of play and the diagrams. The language is fluent, even if it does not forget the technical terms and the historical precision. We can say that this is the best way to teach a military simulation regarding an object not so well known like others.    
The Scenario Book covers the most important battles from the early fifth century B.C. to the battle of Actium ( 31 B.C. ). There are not the famous battle of Salamis and the two battles of Artemisium: they are the subject of a module, not included in the box, but too interesting to be neglected. The Scenario Book is divided in some chapters each of which covers a particular battle. Every battle has its initial setup, the playing time and difficult, balance, special rules, victory condition and an interesting historical introduction. Obviously, not all the battles are well balanced, but the historical counterpart has not fought them to make us to play a balanced historical reconstruction! 
We can add that the Official Errata are short and in the most cases a player can understand the exact rule without them: too often, in a lot of wargames, the Errata are longer than the rules themselves!
The Playing Aid Charts and Tables are very clear and a player can find in them all the die roll modifiers and other things, which are like a summery of the most important rules. The Playing Aid Charts and Tables are really a great aid to play a battle without the necessity to remember the Sequence of Play, the Ram Sequence and the DRMs that are easily forgotten. The Tables cover all the aspects of the system, above all the actions that take place during the movement and that include the combats, the grappling, the boarding and the missile volleys. 
For every battle there is a Fleet record Sheet on which you can sign the overall status of every ship. These sheets can be used in place of the usual markers or with them: a player can choose the better way for him. We can add that the sheets allow having few or none marker on the map and in this way it is easier to move the counters; even if in some cases, a player using this system could make some errors due to the necessity to give a view on the sheet to remember the situation of his ships. In other words, it is clearer to have on the map all the informational markers to have an immediate knowing of the situation.
Just a couple of words for the maps: we think it is almost impossible to have problems in reading a sea map!
The counters and the markers are well done and with great attention to the particulars. The most part of the ship counters are double-sized and you can see on them even the oars of a galley. The galleys of a fleet have red counters, the other side green: impossible to have problems to identify them. All the markers are clear and, the most important thing, they show their own information in a clear and simple way. Another good thing is that the markers are sufficient to cover all the situations, in the greatest battles too.

THE SYSTEM
In this section of the review we will give a general view about the game and how it works.
Every battle is fought on one or two maps, one map is the sea map, the other is the land map in which there are some parts of land and it serves to play battles, like Depranum, that took place near the land. 
There are no set number of turns, but the game continues until one player has achieved his victory conditions. Usually, the naval battles have the destruction of the enemy fleet like their objective; the most important role of a fleet is to have the control of a sea in order to move troops, supplies and other things through a sea without the risk to take heavy losses. Considering this fact, we can write that a naval battle is usually, even if not always, a battle of destruction: the most part of the scenarios are designed having like victory condition the destruction of the most part of the fleet of the other player. 
The Sequence of Play is divided in several phases two of which have several segments: all the actions are made by both players simultaneously; only during the activation of a squadron, when a player moves it and conducts all the combat actions, the two players play alternatively. Now we see in detail the phases and the segments.
Each turn starts with the WIND DETERMINATION PHASE in which a player rolls a die and consults the Wind Table to determine the strength and the direction of the wind: this phase is ignored in many scenarios.
THE SQUADRON DETERMINATION PHASE. The players determine how many and which ships are in each squadron. Every fleet is divided in several squadrons every of which with a squadron commander. In this phase a player decides if a ship is in one or another squadron, there is not limit of how many ships can be in a squadron, the only limit is the command range of a squadron commander. A ship can change the squadron every turn, only in the module Salamis it is important the integrity of a squadron. 
INITIATIVE PHASE. Each player rolls a die ( six faces ), which can be positively modified by the Admiral’s Initiative Rating, who rolls higher decides if he or the opponent makes the first activation of a squadron: then the activations go on alternatively between the two players.
SPEED LEVEL DETERMINATION PHASE. In this phase the players determine, for every ship, if it uses its cruise speed or its maximum speed. Every ship can use the speed level better for itself; in a squadron some ships can use cruise speed, others maximum speed. The determination of the speed for a ship is one of the most important actions in a turn. A ship using its cruise level speed can do everything, ramming, raking, grappling and if it successfully grapples an enemy ship, in the boarding segment, it can attempt to capture the grappled ship; and it does not risk fatigue for its crew. On the other hand, the ramming and raking attempts are more difficult without the bonus of the maximum speed. Using the maximum speed a ship cannot grapple and then boarding, but it is more effective in the ramming and raking attempts.     
COMMAND SQUADRON ACTIVATION PHASE. This phase is the centre of a turn and of the whole game. During this phase a player activates each ship in a squadron and can make the following possible actions: 
Movement Segment. The active player moves all the ships of a squadron. The movement can include:
Missile Fire. Each ship can fires at a range of two hexes, the target ship can responds one time. The fire can take place during the movement, at the end or at the start of it. The attack and defensive fire are simultaneously. 
Grappling, Ramming, Rake Attempts. An activated ship can make one of these actions ( it is possible to rake and then to ram in the Anastrophe ), in order to grappling a ship must be at its cruise speed level. The target ship can use the Avoidance ( that is move one hex forward or backwater ) when an enemy galley moves adjacent to it. If one of the above actions is successfully, the player uses a marker or the Fleet record Sheet to indicate the status of the target ship and the attacker one. For example, after a successfully raking the target ship receives the marker Crippled that states that galley for the reminder of the game can move only one hex per activation and only in its bow flanks. In other words, it can move only in ring.
Grapple Disengaging. For each galley grappled in the activated squadron, the active player can attempt to disengage rolling a die on the Disengage Table.
At the end of this segment the active player rolls a die for each galley at maximum speed to determine if the galley’s crew is fatigued or not. There are some modifiers to the die roll due to the actions made by the galley; and better is the crew, less is the fatigue.
Boarding Segment. In this segment, after all galleys of an activated squadron have moved, a galley, if it has successfully grappled an enemy ship, can attempt to board and to capture it. A captured ship can be used in the same manner like all the other friendly ships.
Phase-Pass Segment. When a player has finished doing all the actions with his activated squadron, his opponent activates one squadron of his fleet.
End Segment. When all the squadrons of both fleets have been activated, the players go to the phase below.
Individual Squadron Activation Phase. After the activations of the galleys in command, the players activate alternatively their individual squadrons: every galley not in command is an individual squadron. A galley out of command can do everything if it starts its activation adjacent to an enemy ship. If it is not adjacent, the owing player roll a die, if it is equal or less than the crew value the galley can be used normally; if the die roll is higher the galley can move normally, but it cannot move adjacent to an enemy ship.
The Status Resolution Phase. The players may undertake this phase at the same time. In this phase the status of the galleys is determined and there are some other actions.
Disengage Segment. The players may attempt to disengage any of their ship that is “ Fouled “: a galley can be fouled with an enemy galley only due to the consequence of a ramming. 
Ship Recovery Segment. In this segment each player can do all or some of the following things: Attempt to put out fires on the ship ( in a very few scenarios the galleys are missile fire capable ); Check to see if fire spreads to grappled/fouled ships; Remove “ Masts Down “ from all ships ( every galley can use its sail to move faster, but during a battle a sail is more an impediment than an aid ).
Fatigue Recovery Segment. During this segment all the ships that are fatigued reduce their level of fatigue by one ( from three to two, from two to one and if a galley has a fatigue marker of one removes it and it is not longer fatigued ). A fatigued galley cannot use its maximum speed and reduces its cruise speed by the level of the fatigue: for example, if a galley has a cruise speed of five and a fatigue marker of three it has only two MPs, its speed is of two.
Sinking Segment. All rammed ships have a possibility to sink due to the leak in their hull. The owing player roll a die, there are not any modifiers, on a die roll of six the galley sinks. If other galleys are grappled or fouled with it they sink too.
Victory Phase. The players check if one has reached his victory level: if none has reached the victory level the game goes on with a new turn. There are no set number of turns.

THE MOST IMPORTANT ITEMS
In this section we focalize our attention on the five most important items of the game. We will follow the Sequence of Play during our exposure. We will try to give to the readers the importance of each item in the game and some historical examples that allow understanding better the game and its historical accuracy. Our hope is to make a work interesting for the wargamers who already have a copy of the game and for who do not like the naval and/or ancient warfare to see at it with different ayes.
SQUADRON DETERMINATION PHASE 
A squadron is composed by the galleys that are in the command range of a squadron commander: every turn a galley can be part of a different squadron ( only in Salamis expansion it is important the integrity of a squadron ). A player is free to assign how many galleys to a squadron, there is no limit to the number; the only limit is the command range of the squadron commander. The mechanism of this phase is very simple, but its importance is very high. At the start of a scenario the two fleets are distant and the most important thing to do during the first turns is to move the own fleet as better as possible to put it in the better position to attack the enemy fleet. During the first turns the importance of the squadron determination is all in the capability to move the whole fleet in the best way: a player often sees that the map is too narrow or too short to move his fleet like he wants. We suggest being careful to determine the squadrons’ composition, in a naval battle the admiral who moves better is often, not always, the commander who will win the battle. A galley has no mechanical engine, but a human engine, and this fact is important. 
When a battle starts to have all the galleys in command is impossible. A player has to decide which galleys are in a squadron thinking what that squadron should do in the combat. We know it is impossible not to make errors, but the most important thing is to make fewer errors than the opponent. For our experience, we suggest to put each galley in a squadron knowing that each squadron cannot do everything a player want, but it can do the most part of the actions player aspects from it. Each galley has its own crew level, its manpower and the galleys are often different from each other. A trireme is better for ramming and raking; a quinquereme for boarding and there are some big galley, like the octares, which are slow but terrible when they fire or board. When you select a galley for a squadron all this things must be considered: this is the only way to have the maximum from every galley and to put a squadron in condition to do its duty.
SPEED LEVEL DETERMINATION PHASE
In this phase each player decides which galleys use their cruise speed and which of them use the maximum speed. We suggest making the decision covering own galleys so that the other player does not know what the other side has decided. Like we have seen a galley has two possibilities: to use its cruise speed or to use its maximum speed.
During the phase of the approach it is nonsense to use maximum speed and to risk the fatigue: a player who decides to move his galleys at maximum speed during the approach often has his galleys fatigued when the battle starts and pays highly his error. In the middle of a battle the decision is often due to the general situation and the position of a galley. Not always it is possible to do what a player wants and so the speed of a galley is often determined by what it can do than by what a player wants that galley do. 
The most decisive moment to select the speed is when the two fleets are so near than it is possible in the upcoming squadron activation to attack the enemy ships by ramming or raking. If a player prefers to grapple and then to board he has to decide to use the cruise speed. There are not rules to understand when the “ magic “ moment has arrived; only the experience can give an aid to a player. A galley launched at its maximum speed is capable to do great damages to the enemy fleet, but it is vulnerable to the fatigue and the countermoves of the enemy. A player has only his experience and his instinct in order to make this choice and the knowledge of his galleys and their capabilities. Like general suggestion, we can write that the fast galleys, like triremes, are the better ships to use the maximum speed and the slow galleys, like the great octares, are better at their cruise level. And the quinquereme? They are fast and powerful, they are good for ramming, less for raking, and good for boarding: to the players the choice! 
Do not forget that each galley has its own crew level and its own manpower; these factors must be always in mind when you decide the sped to use.
RAMMING
We write about ramming like the most important and the most exiting action that a galley can do. Everyone, even who does not know well the ancient naval warfare, has in his mind a galley that… rams! There some great and beautiful descriptions of ramming in the most ancient historians who had written about a naval battle. Like an interesting introduction and useful background we suggest the eight book of the History of Herodotus in which is described the battle of Salamis. 
Every kind of galley can ram with great success, with the exception of those big ships like Heptares, Octares and Decares, but they are rare and when an order of battle calls for them a fleet has one or at best two of them. The Roster, which every galley has on its bow, is its most powerful weapon: a galley has a little roster on its stern too. During a battle sometime, better seldom, a galley could use its stern roster to ram an enemy ship, like it is described in Herodotus. In the game War Galley a player can use only the bow roster of his galley; we think this is a good decision made by the designers. The use of the stern roster and the possibility of a successfully attempt were so rare that should be a nonsense to make more rules and tables for a fact that cannot change the course of a battle.
When a galley rams another one the active player compares the defence value of the target and the attack value of the ramming galley, then he rolls two six sides dice and if the result is between the two numbers in the table the ramming attempt is successfully. There are some modifiers like the crew level of the target and the attacker, the speed of the ramming galley ( remember you can ram also using cruise level of a galley ), the number of MPs the ramming galley has used in excess of its MPs’ allowance at cruise speed and some others, positive or negative. If the attempt does not succeed the two galleys have a collision, which reduce their movement capability in the next activation. If the attempt succeeds the target is rammed and becomes Dead in the Water, its defence value becomes the victory points earned by the attacker. A galley Dead in the Water can do nothing except for missile fire and grappling and boarding a galley that is adjacent to it: in the Status Resolution Phase the owing player rolls a die, on a result of six, no modifiers, the galley sinks and with it every galley, it is not important if enemy or not, that are grappled or fouled with it sinks too. 
If a ramming attempt succeeds in some cases the attacker can retreat one hex and in this way avoid to be fouled with the defender ( which can always attempts to grapple and to boarding the ramming galley, it has nothing to lose! ), but in most cases the ramming galley remains fouled. Longer is the time a victorious galley is fouled, more are the possibilities that the rammed galley sinks and the enemy with it.       
The ramming attack is the most used system in all the battles and its great effectiveness makes it like the most usable and the most interesting attack mode. We can suggest using it having in mind its great possibilities but also its vulnerability: everything is easy to do with strong galleys and good crews, but often you have neither ones nor the others. 
At the end, we can add that historically a ramming galley was more efficient when its roster rammed the enemy ship in the Midship Flanks ( the target often broke in two parts and sunk in few minutes ) than in the Bow or Stern Flanks.
War Galley is a good military simulation with a simple system and a great historical adherence, if you want to do all that an historical galley could do this game should become a heavy and tedious sequence of tables, dice rolls with a rulebook of some hundreds of pages. 
RAKING
Here we give a look to the second action that a galley can do during its movement. 
Like for ramming a galley can rake either at cruise speed or maximum speed, but in the second case it is more effective. To rake is the action to cut the oars of a side of a galley, in modern terms it the same than to destroy the propellers of a ships or its rudder. 
When the oars of a galley are crippled, the galley has only one MP and it can move only in turn. A player do not get any VP for a successful raking, this action is in the most cases a prelude to a more effective ramming attempt. Raking is often the only way to make a big galley, like the Octares or the others great ships, out of the battle considering the fact that it is almost impossible to boarding or to ramming a ship, which has a great manpower on board and its defence value against a ramming attempt is too high. 
The players, with the triremes or the cataphracted triremes, can use the tactic of the “ Anastrophe “, which combines the raking with the ramming. Only the triremes with the top-line crews have a cache to have success. In an Anastrophe manoeuvre a trireme first rakes the oars of the target from the bow to the stern, then it turns its stern and with its bow pointed towards the stern flank of the enemy ship attempts to ram it. An Anastrophe manoeuvre is like a diamond set in well done ring! 
In conclusion we can add that the players often forget the raking like a kind of attack, which does not give any immediate profit: but this is an error. The raking serves for future actions and for putting some enemy ships out of combat; it is an investment for the victory!
GRAPPLING AND BOARDING
Your galley must use its cruise speed in order to grapple, and if this action is a success, to board an enemy ship. This kind of attack is simpler than the ramming or the raking, and less beautiful in term of manoeuvre: but if you have a fleet composed by Quinqueremes, your crews are not the top and, on the contrary, the marine units on your galleys are stronger than those of the opponent it is the best for you. 
The boarding tactic became the most usual tactic with the introduction of the Quadriremes and then the Quinqueremes. During the First Punic War the Roman fleet had lower rating crews, but on its galleys there were the powerful legionaries: with the ramming and raking tactics the Roman fleet was unable to win a battle against the most experienced and well training Punic crews, but using the boarding the naval battle became more a land battle in which the better Punic crews gave no advance. 
We could write that a naval battle in which the most used tactic is the boarding is less beautiful, but you must use the capabilities of your fleet at their best to win: a commander has to win a battle, not to make a beautiful battle! 
The boarding gives the advantage that a captured galley not only becomes yours and can be used like the others galleys, but also the VPs a player gains is the defence value of the captured ship plus one. 
We add that if a your galley is rammed and an enemy galley is adjacent to it with a successful grappling you can hope that your galley, already dead in the water, sinks and the enemy ship with it; in this case you can earn VPs with a ship, which has already damned.

CONCLUSION
Playing a scenario of War Galley means to feel the problems, the troubles and the emotions of a naval battle in the Ancient Era. It is only a “ simulation “, but it has two great strengths: its playability and its historical accuracy. It is not easy to find them together in the same military simulation. We do not want to add nothing more; each player should have his own opinion playing it.
In our opinion this military simulation has these ratings:
COMPLEXITY    5
OVERALL  JUDGMENT    8.