In the end I decided to use the basic rule plus an extra bit: Raked galley is crippled. Crippled move 1 hex max, forwards or backwards. In the turn it is first raked, place the crippled marker on that side of the ship, it can only turn in the direction of the marker. At the end of the turn the crippled marker is moved to the back of the ship. Next turn it can move 1 hex forwards or backwards but can turn in either direction (it is considered to have done some oar / oarsmen transfers).
My headache at the moment is doing something about using a prize / recaptured ship as a bridge to get to a grappled enemy vessel beyond, or to defend the prize using the crew of a ship grappled to it. I'm not sure how I'm going to resolve this but, I'm thinking about letting a grappled neighbour risk its crew to defend a prize / recapture and let it be used as a bridge:
Example. Three quinquiremes, 4 manpower each.
Turn 1 – Blue quinquireme is attacked by red quinquireme and taken. All of blues marines are put to the sword. The red quinquireme rolled high (9 – 12) so takes a manpower depletion – it has 3 left.
In the same turn, a second blue quinquireme boards to recapture the prize. Red chooses to defend it with 2 manpower from his galley that is still grappled with it. Blue (4 manpower) retakes the ship without loss and red loses the 2 defending manpower points – the red quinquireme is reduced to 1 manpower.
Turn two: This time blue activates first. Using the recaptured prize as a bridge he launches his marines to capture the red galley – it is 4 Vs 1 and blue succeeds in taking it, rolling high and taking a depletion. Red's last manpower is put to the sword, obviously.
Unless the original prize / recapture is attacked, the blue marines from the second quinquireme are assumed to have returned to their ship. They can defend the ship their ship is grappled with but not the one beyond the 'bridge' as you can only defend a 'next door neighbour'.
I think that will work reasonably well, allowing a better ebb and flow and more risk of casualties. In the game where this situation occurred (if Agrippa's ship had not been depleted by missilery), the boarding and re-boarding of the ship caught between the two enemy flagships could have gone on for ever without a loss to either side. As soon as I decided to use this rule I decided (playing solo) it was best for Agrippa to cut loose before Antony crossed the bridge. It will still need to be tested but I think it will work well.
begins his series on how to paint a 15mm DBA army well, in a reasonable time frame.
