"House Rules for Poseidon's Warriors?" Topic

Lately I've been playing Poseidon's Warriors again, for battles between Greek and Persian triremes.
I had put it aside because of the well-known "mutual destruction" syndrome — triremes ramming each other head-on and both sinking — but honestly, aside from that, I think the rules work.

My impression is that the system wasn't tested enough before publication, which is a pity, because otherwise it's very playable, quick, and fun.

I've been thinking about it and tried this house rule:

When ramming a galley head-on, you may choose to perform an oar-raking attack instead, and then possibly attempt a boarding action.

It feels plausible to me — what do you think?
I've played a couple of solo games with it, and it seems to work well.

I was wondering if anyone else has come up with something similar, or created other house rules for the game — for example to soften the morale test, which as written is quite brutal.

We have had a similar reaction to the rules but have not tried revisions as yet. My feeling is the bows were the strongest part of an ancient galley so should be less vulnerable than a side strike so sliding off on an oar rake seems plausible or roll for variable damage.

Dumb English. I read your post as "My feeling is arrow-shooters were the strongest part of an ancient galley…" and thus couldn't follow your point.

I don't remember anyone ever talking about a ram hitting a ram directly, so you have to assume that most of the time they slid along the sides and if you were ready and got your oars out of the way you did okay and if your people weren't well trained and didn't move those oars fast, well, it would be very bad.

So yeah, that at least needs fixing.

I read the rules and wasn't impressed enough to play, but whenI get around to galleys I'll probably try them. Im still searching for rules I like in that area.

My solution was to write and publish my own set of fast play rules