Lambshead John - Poseidons warriors: classical naval warfare 480-31 BC

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Osprey Games (part of Osprey Publishing),

PO Box 883, Oxford, OX1 9PL, UK

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This electronic edition published in Great Britain in 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Osprey Publishing, part of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

2015 John Lambshead

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You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

John Lambshead has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this book.

Print ISBN: 978-1-4728-1418-0

PDF e-book ISBN: 978-1-4728-1419-7

EPUB e-book ISBN: 978-1-4728-1420-3

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following:

Rod and Carol Langton of Langton Miniatures (www.rodlangton.com), who supplied the models and many of the photographs used in this book.

Dr Andrew Ruddle of The Trireme Trust (www.triremetrust.org.uk) for allowing us to use photos of the Olympias.

Dean Motoyama (wabcorner.blogspot.co.uk) for providing photographs from his personal collection of Langton's ancient galleys.

Frank Becker (tabletopdeutschland.wordpress.com) for supplying photographs of his breath-taking model of Carthage Harbour based on Langton Miniature models.

AUTHOR

John Lambshead is a retired senior scientific civil servant who has worked for the British Museum of Natural History, Southampton University, the University of California, and the Royal Society, with more than a hundred scientific articles to his name. He is also an experienced author and game designer, having written for Baen Books, Games Workshop and Warlord Games amongst others.

ILLUSTRATOR

Giuseppe Rava was born in Faenza in 1963, and took an interest in all things military from an early age. Entirely self-taught, Giuseppe has established himself as a leading military history artist, and is inspired by the works of the great military artists, such as Detaille, Meissonier, Rchling, Lady Butler, Ottenfeld and Angus McBride. He lives and works in Italy. For more on Giuseppe, please visit his website at www.g-rava.it

FOREWORD

This is a set of rules for playing large-scale naval actions between fleets of classical galleys.

Galley combat involved a great deal of sneaky and cunning manoeuvring to position ships to ram an enemy vessel without being rammed in return, especially as so much of the action occurred around coastline or in narrow channels and shallow waters.

Of all naval wargames, ancient war galleys demand the greatest concentration and tactical finesse from players, offering the greatest challenge and providing the most fun of all the warship periods.

Galley warfare is more like a World War II air dogfight than naval combat in the gunpowder or battleship eras because the primary weapon, the ram, is on the bow and thus the whole ship has to be aimed at the target.

These rules use an integrated turn system to recreate the feints and traps employed to tempt the enemy out of position and make his ships vulnerable to a ram. Record-keeping is minimised to maintain a high tempo during game play. Real ancient galleys fought at ramming speed and so do ships in Poseidon's Warriors.

Inside are wargame rules, ship data, famous admirals, historical scenarios, a campaign system and brief historical notes for those who wish to refresh their memory about the weapons, tactics, major battles, campaigns and wars.