Sunday, April 30, 2017

Galleys and Galleons at Ellis Tech Family Game Night Danielson Connecticut USA April 28, 2017

Galleys and Galleons at Ellis Tech Family Game Night Danielson Connecticut USA April 28, 2017

Every year, the Ellis Tech Simulation Club sponsors a family game night to welcome non and casual gamers in and teach some games and generally encourage community interaction.

Even though I am not an alumnus of either Ellis Tech or the sim club, they are kind enough to invite me to come in and run some games.

Galleys and Galleons seems to me to be a great starter game for games in general and miniature in particular.



The venue.



Some ships and my CD-ROM wind gage.


The rules and the fleet.


Ships, measuring sticks, and wind gages.


Ships. Stay with me.

Alright, let's talk about the first game.



Alan chooses the unique vessels, an airship and a submarine. He backs it up with a toothy galleon.


Zack chooses the galleon, the xebec, and the monitor.


There is lots of sea room. The scenario is from the original rulebook. You gain victory points by being closest to the island in the center of the board at the end of the turn. Sinking of opponents ships it highly encouraged.



Zack is fighting the wind but has good activation skills. Alan doesn't seem to be able to give the airship any actions to work with.



Zack's galleon is forced to go where the wind is best for him. He is not remembering to stay close to the island.


Not having any activations to work with yet, the airship blunders into the guns of the xebec and the monitor. While good at activating, Zack is not as good at shooting.



The galleon fires it's chaser guns. The xebec fires a weak broadside



Alan takes a long shot at Zack and puts some hurt on his galleon. Alan is currently In Irons here, but is racking up the victory points, so he is setting pretty.


Zack's galleon, xebec, and monitor all find something to shoot at. Zach's galleon was hit by a long shot from Alan's galleon. Alan's sub trying to open up room to get a better angle of attack.

Now, this is where I think I will invoke a house rule concerning the airship moving at sea level. I don't like the automatic collision that would have occurred when the xebec passed 'under' the airship. I think that if you roll a quality roll when flying over or sailing under at sea level, you can slip by without colliding (maybe some scrapes). Use relative speed, so, if both are moving Slow, then two dice. If travelling faster, roll three dice, but no more.

This game, I let it slide because the players were new. There was no collision. I wanted them to do some shooting.


Sub is close to the shallows, so must approach carefully.


Lots of ineffective shooting.


Zack attempting to get close enough to rack up some victory points, but it is too late.

So, the game goes to Alan for remembering what the victory conditions were. I think everything went pretty well. Zack asked for another game but Alan wanted to move to something else. I moved to the player chair.

Same scenario.

 
The second game. The humble gamemaster takes the oriental fleet.



With some weak wind, the junks move forward.



Zack has no wind to work with at first, the xebec uses its Sweeps.



Tim gets some early victory points, but the wind shifts in Zack's favor. Then Tim has two rounds of immediate turnovers.


The big junk is quickly crippled by the xebec.


Zack's galleon ignores the shallows, taking damage, and grapples the big junk. His other galleon does the same to engage the two smaller junks.


Zack causes a critical hit on one of the smaller junks, causing its magazine to explode. Nothing but splinters left.
 

With the big junk surrendering in the boarding action, the smaller junk that is left turns tail and runs for the hills.

Zack wins a decisive victory.

I would have liked to coax some of the younger folks into playing, but the Star Wars Miniatures was much more inviting. There was also a rousing game of Command Decision Test of Battle featuring Roarke's Drift.  A young lady and her mom changed history and ran the Zulu's over the British run by some experienced boys on the other side of the table.

In my three forays with Galleys and Galleons I have really liked the speed at which the game plays. It actually runs faster than Mighty Monsters, which is usually my go to game in this venue.

I highly recommend this version of A Song of Blades and Heroes.

Please support Andrea and Nic at Ganesha Games.

I am looking forward to Nic publishing Paleo Diet Eat or Be Eaten, using the ASOBH engine.

Support small press gaming companies.

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