"Warships of the Greco-Persian Wars and Peloponnesian Wars" Topic

Hello All,

I am looking at putting together several fleets of miniature ships to game the naval engagements of the Second Persian War and the subsequent Peloponnesian War. I will probably be using Langton 1:1200 vessels.

What types of ships did the Greeks and Persians use in these conflicts besides triremes?

I think Triremes, (and possibly Pentekonters -- for phoenicians), are your best bet, I cannot remember any mention of any other class of warship in my reading of these wars.
Of course, there are any number of transports in use!

Yup, I think it's triremes and transports.

They actually moved a fair number of troops on the triremes, and used them for amphibious landings and so on. I can't recall any actions that involved merchant ships.

You will be doing yourself a great favor if you pick up Lords of the Sea by John Hale, if you haven't already.

Some states were still using larger 2 banked ships of 30-50 oars, possibly a few even larger. Various types of Triere from light Aphract to fully decked.

Troopships were usually older or out of commission vessels or larger merchant galleys, some specially converted to shift horses. Fighting ships were also loaded up for short journeys, longer journeys were a bit risky as extra troops on deck reduced the already poor stability.

Get your info from the horses mouth. It's not expensive.

link

Or even free.
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If you are going to invest time and money in models and getting them ready to play with it is well worth doing a bit of background reading. There are only a few chapters of Herodotus which give us the source material for the Second Persian War so it is not too onerous to read through.

The Osprey on Salamis by William Shepherd is also good.

link
has a listing of the naval battles of the Peloponnesian War
Types of ships are usually not specified though Triremes would have been most common.