Timz Wargaming Blog

Friday, November 24, 2017

Galleys and Galleons at Elliscon Danielson Connecticut USA November 18, 2017

Another year at the Elliscon gaming convention.

I was running a retro game of TSR's Top Secret in the afternoon, so I ran a quick game of Galleys and Galleons in the morning.

Galleys and Galleons is published by Ganesha Games. It is based on the Song of Blades and Heroes engine. It was written by Nicholas Wright.

I had recently come into possession of twenty plus Christmas Decorations shaped like sailing ships. I glued a lettered bead to each one for identification. I made up identical cards for each one with one Special Rule. Galleon Rigged.

I made up another deck of cards with other random Special Rules. I gave one out for each ship. One had Veteran NCOs, one had Trained Gun Crews, one had Chaser Guns, one had a Master Gunner.

Paul, on the left, was my opponent. On the right is Vic, who was running Command Decision that day at a nearby table.

Paul was new to the game system, but is an experienced gamer, and caught on pretty early.

I had the better wind early on.

The wind shifted in the favor of both fleets. Shot were taken pretty early. There were some good hits early on.

Three ships are crippled at this point, while Paul still has one untouched.

One of Paul's ships fails a Critical Hit roll and sinks. I crash into his remaining ship and grapple. He surges across in a boarding action that fails miserably. My second ship fails activation and plows into my first ship and rolls Strike Colors on All at Sea roll. Pauls boarding parties surge back and cause me to Strike Colors from Extra Damage.

What follows are several after action photos to allow you to see the ships better. The red loops are for damage, the yellow for Striking Colors.

I have to say that, even though I have run several Ganesha Games repeatedly over the last couple years, Galleys and Galleons is giving me the most fun.

I love the activation system and I find most experienced gamers like it, too.

Please buy Ganesha Games products, and those that Andrea Sfiligoi has written for Osprey Games.

Support small press game companies.

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.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Galleys and Galleons at Havoc 2017 in Worcester Massachusetts USA AAR

Galleys and Galleons at Havoc 2017 in Worcester Massachusetts USA.

After Action Report

April 2, 2017

Rules set Galleys and Galleons by Ganesha Games, with supplement rules Fayre Winds and Foul Tides.

Me (Tim) vs Tom

A war galleon and two barques against a pirate galleon, a bomb ketch, and an armed schooner.

Scenario: Pyrate King of Traitor's Atoll

10 round planned.

The Bad: compulsory movement after the wind unexpectantly shifts.

The Good: In Irons is not as bad as you think.

Here is my nametag, I wish I could have made it Saturday to run both games. The sleet storm in Worcester scared me off. Been there, done that.

First moves.

Tim (me) has played many Ganesha Games, Tom is brand new to the franchise.

Tom makes his first moves.

What it looks like to roll a turnover on your first roll.

Tim has two rounds of rolling turnovers on the first ship.

Bomb ketch wandering into the shallows around the island with its shallow draft.

With shallow draft, Tom's bomb ketch is racking up the Victory Points early. The armed schooner took a hammering from Tim's galleon.

The bomb ketch fired a couple times with no damage. We used the compass to keep the wind direction right. We used the CD-ROM templates to read the ship orientation after comparing it to the compass.

Here are my turn gages and CD-ROM wind template.

Tom rolled a 1 on hid red die. He rolled Garbled Orders on the All At Sea table. He took a pot shot at Tim's barque. The rules do not say if this costs an action. I assume it doesn't.

Everyone on Tim's barque ducked!

Tim' barque shoots at the armed schooner. No good gunners on that ship.

The pirate galleon collides and grapples the barque. The barque took two damage, the galleon one. The barque failed to activate next turn, and the following round surrendered to the galleon in a devastating boarding action.

A good look at the measuring sticks I made for this game.

Tom's armed schooner is limping out of play.

Tim's galleon is parked In Irons off the island racking up the Victory Points. Tom could not budge him. If any other ship had the position Tom's bomb ketch had, the game could have turned out differently.

I couldn't find a rule about firing through friendly ships, so we allowed it.

When Tom's galleon captured Tim's barque, we assumed he did not have to pay the 2 Actions to Cut Grapples and move away. I don't know if this is correct, but I would think it is okay.

My CD-ROM wind direction template.

Cards and other tools.

Cards and other tools.

All in all, lots of fun. I think these are great rules. I did not spend much to gear up for the game. The ships were donated to me, and I based and painted them from stuff I already had in the craft room.

Support Galleys and Galleons and all other Ganesha Games and other small press game companies like it.!

End of Galleys and Galleons After Action Report.

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Other games that went on at Havoc on Sunday