"Corvus (SoA) rules questions" Topic

1. In a boarding action if there is a 3 or more difference in results in favor of the defender is the attacking ship captured?
2. If a ship is successfully grappled but boarding fails what happens next bound? is the defender allowed to move away or does he initiate a new round of combat?

I'll dig out my copy tomorrow and try and clear these up for you unless the author sees this in the meantime. I don't think he is on TMP any more though.

Found my copy in a stack next to the desk so had a quick look to see if I could sort it now.

1 – If either side scores 3 or more better than the other they capture the enemy ship(s).
Note : the rules are carefully phrased so as NOT to specify attacker/defender in the results so it refers to either.
We usually played that, in a multiple ship action, only those actually in contact with an enemy were captured but this is a house rule.

2 – This is one of those things that isn't really covered in the rules, it was assumed that close combat would continue until one side won. With the potential for other ships to join the melee it isn't as daft as it might sound and certainly reflects some historical descriptions of battles between larger polyremes.

This has come up before and, if I remember correctly, a suggestion was that you can use the same table to ungrapple as that used to grapple. Exception is that you can't ungrapple from a Corvus.

Hope this helps.

Tony Hughes

Well done, Tony !

I was going to shift this question across to the Society Forum if it went unanswered here (because, honestly, I couldn't remember … )

But I think you've got it!

Excellent!

Phil

Thanks Tony that's great

I just found the free version of Corvus, and I've got some questions of my own:

What is the turn order? Is all movement concluded before shooting, does one player do all their movement then all their shooting etc, or does a player activate a single ship and perform all of its actions?

If the last, do players alternate activating ships, or does one player resolve all of their ships before their opponent activates theirs?

It says distance shooting is only done during the enemy's turn, what is the precise timing on that?

(Non-rules) I found Corvus for sale on the Society of Ancients page, is that the same as the free version? Is that cost for a pdf file, or a paper copy?

Thanks!

The SoA ones is the same game but with massively expanded/more explained rues rules ( still very terse though). It also comes with two sheets of top down counters of ships so you can play straight away as well as turning templates.

I have managed to get in a few small games already including with my 8 year old who as able to keep up. As a first time galley player I can not recommend them enough. The price is so negligible it is incredible.

Where did you buy it from that the price is negligible? I only found it for £6.00 GBP(pretty hefty if the book is as short as you say), not to mention Atlantic shopping, which is unlikely to be insignificant.

Is there a US distributor?

I bought it from the SoA. I weight the cost of the book per page quite low and the fact that it is a complete and quality game very highly but opinions on weighting vary. Additionally i have seen colour top down counters priced at a significant percentage of the cost of this game.

I also note that many across the pond look with horror at the potential cost of foreign postage but i find it to be quite acceptable on low mass items.

Fair enough.

Does the full book answer my rules questions?