Summary: They have great potential, but have a few minor flaws.
I picked them up a few months ago, along with about a dozen of their N-scale/10mm ship kits. (As an aside, I really like their ships. They are very high quality laser cut 1/8 inch or so plywood. They go together really nice and paint up well. Plus it's fun to work with wood for a change!)
The rulebook has 25 high quality full color glossy pages with many diagrams, examples, and illustrations. It is (mostly) well written and easy to read and understand. The rulebook includes quick reference sheets with all the tables and charts needed to play as well as ship data sheets with permission to copy.
The rules include the following sections:
- Historical Introduction
- Game Elements
- Game Preparation
- How to Play, Turns and Activations
- Common Rules
- Actions Permitted to an Activated Galley
- Movement
- Small Arms Fire
- Catapult Firing
- Ram Attack
- Combat
- Additional Equipment of Galleys
- Scenarios
The rules have quite a bit of detail but do not seem complex:
- 5 galley types are included from the small Hemiola to the Quadrireme.
- Crew consists of officers, warriors and auxiliaries.
- Turns use crew-quality-based initiative and single ship activation. Each ship can be activated twice in a single turn. A single activation can be one of move, raise or lower sail, shoot all weapons, ram, or combat (hand to hand)
- Galleys can move via rowing or sailing, with different speeds and maneuverabilities
- Crews can get tired after too much rowing
- Ships with no officers are considered out of command and have limitations on their abilities
- Crew can use javelins, bows, and slings as well as ballistas and catapults
- Combat is essentially a die for each shooter/weapon plus a saving throw. Dice are modified for crew quality and range.
- Some weapons can use incendiaries and ships can start on fire
- Ramming damage is based on the size and speed of the rammer
- Combat (hand to hand) is crew figure on crew figure (kind of like War at Sea or Victory in the Pacific boardgames)
- Corvus and defense towers are also included
4 scenarios are included:
- Recce Flotilla
- Pirate Attack
- Surprise Attack
- Flotilla Engagement
I've only had time for 1 game so far. I've found 2 areas where the rules are unclear or possibly flawed:
- Ramming doesn't seem to do enough damage to be worthwhile. The smallest ship takes 12 damage points before sinking. The smallest ship can inflict 1-4 points with a ram. There are no rules for flooding nor any reduction in capabilities due to damage.
- Ship activation is unclear. At the start of a turn, each side nominates a ship to activate and rolls a die. High roll wins. Ships may be activated twice, but take a die roll penalty for the second activation. But it's unclear if play then continues with each side alternating activations, or is there a dice-off for each activation. I think each activation is a dice-off as that seems to fit what's written the best, but I'm not positive.
Both of these can be easily resolved with "house rules", so I don't think they are serious flaws, and I don't regret buying the rules. I think they will be a lot of fun.
[Edited to fix list formatting]
