After playing close to 100 Roman Seas games, the most important
factor on wether a game will be a success or not lies with the
strategy employed by the players, mainly regarding their initial
setup, overall tactics and how they conduct their first move, and the
scenario setup.

Last Friday's game was a convoy game. Some of the best games I have
seen have been convoy games, where one side is escorting cargo/supply
ships, and the other is attempting to stop them. In the future, I
will make sure there are few if any islands/shoals to mess up
maneuvering, and will have the objective of the convoy's ships to
across the width of the board, as apposed to the length (the game
boards are longer than they are wide, with the hex grain running the
width). This is actually how the scenario is set up in the rules.
The convoy must run across the 6 foot width as apposed to running
diagonally across the two (or three) game mats. This gives the
convoy more freedom of movement, which gives a better chance of
having a faster paced, more exciting game.

Last Friday's game was OK, but the convoy players bunched themselves
up and were caught and captured quickly and easily. The typical
Roman tactics of the day was to have the cargo/supply ships scatter
while the escorting Triremes forced battle or covered the
cargo/supply ships' retreat. The "Gods of Luck" were also not in the
favour of the convoy players last Friday. This was the same game
scenario I put on twice at Enfilade 2009 with differing results. Set
up and players tactics play a vital role, but it doesn't help when
the Gods are also against you -- perhaps the convoy players should
have sacrificed a chicken, or something, to the Gods before the game?

Perhaps I need to put together a player's hand book of the "Dos and
Don'ts" of naval combat?


What was tested during this game, without the knowledge of the
players since most were fairly new players to the game, was a new
turning system for small ships, which replaces a previous complicated
system. This part of the play test was successful and is now
incorporated into the rules.


E.H.