Embolos:

Naval Warfare
from Salamis to Actium (Rules)

Reviewed by Peter Manti

Rose, Gregory A. Embolos: Naval Warfare from Salamis to Actium. Xolotl Games Inc. 715 Casemer, Lake Orion MI 48035 (1982). ii + 24 (illustr ) $4.50

EMBOLOS is the Greek word for Ram and the title of this set of ancient naval rules. The 8 1/2" by 5 1/2" 24 page booklet is cleanly printed and includes 11 illustrations as an aid in assimilating the rules. The crucial playing mechanics are reduced to easily readable charts. The charts have not however been placed on a separate page or card for easier reference while in play. The game is designed to be played on a hexagonal grid of 1/4 " hexes, with a minimum of 25 hexes across recommended, and with ship cutouts you must make yourself: penteconters should be 3/4" by 1/4" (occupying one hex) and all other 19 ships listed are to be 1 1/4" by 3/8" (occupying two hexes). The dispatch boat listed in the Ship Characteristic Chart must surely be smaller than even the penteconter, but is here given a counter of the same dimensions as, for instance, a quaredreme. The rules alternately recommend using 1/1200 scale models in place of the counters and point out that larger models (the superbly crafted 1/900 scale Valiants, for instance) may be used by adjusting the hex size: yet even some of the 111200 scale models in my possession, even minus their cast oars, would not fit the recommended hex size. The different ship scales given with 19 different ship types presented as of an identical size and the lack of ground and time scales do not speak well for the rules' simulation qualities. The grid system for ancient naval miniatures and its severe limitations will be familiar to anyone acquainted with Ed Smith's GREEK NAVAL WARFARE or Rich Nelson's SALAMIS and WAR GAME RESEARCH GROUP RULES (WRG): turns, for instance, are limited to units of 60 and the five methods of turning an oared ship are restricted to a single abstracted ability.

Missile fire is abstracted in a manner which eliminates range estimation, which is coherent with the use of hexes whose size is known and which would be easily countable. The bolt-thrower is the only artillery allowed in the game, which was the preferred engine while most ships were aphracts (undecked) and leaving the rower organization exposed and vulnerable to the flat-trajectoried bolts. But as the trend of naval architecture after Salamis was increasingly toward cataphract (fully decked-over) ships in the line of battle (the rules are subtitled "Naval Warfare from Salamis to Actium"), the stonethrowing engine capable of breaking through decking became the preferred ships' artillery and should have been featured importantly in the rules. In addition, a ship is allowed only fore and aft mounted artillery, when in fact a midships mount was least subject to the ship's roll, yaw, and pitch and covered the best ram spot (broadside), making the midships mounting the mechanically and historically preferred ballista position.

The relatively flat trajectory bolts are also allowed to fire directly through the forestern and sternposts and given an enormous arc of fire, when in fact engines were cleckbolted and fixed in place and had themselves no lateral arc at all.

The six different methods of grappling and boarding are abstracted into a single 75% chance ability subject to various cumulative modifiers. There is no element of command control for fleets or squadrons, and morale considerations of any type are entirely absent.

The movement system is phased to match ten possible levels of speed: all ships moving at full speed would move one-tenth their movement in each phase while a ship moving at level one speed, for instance, would take its entire hex allotment in phase five. The phased movement system adequately reflects the advantages of relative speed differentials, has the not-so-incidental quality of eliminating arguments as to who reached where when, and, excluding real-time simulation, has always seemed the superior movement method if properly integrated with the missile and melee aspects. While ships are allowed only four turns per game of fast speed, there are no real provisions for rower fatigue, the single most important battle limitation of warfare under oars. At fast speeds, the decrease of control, the increased risk and extent of damage due to rower disorganization, and the self-damage invariably inflicted if the ship rams another, are unaccounted for in the rules.

Ships ramming each other head-on, going at five knots each for example, would have damage correctly calculated at the ten knot (cumulative) level; conversely, a ship proceeding at six knots that rammed a ship that it had been pursuing going at five knots would calculate damage at the one knot level. EMBOLOS is the only set of ancient naval rules to date which reasonably handles this elementary principal of physical mechanics; evry other set of rules currently available treats ships in virtual isolation and would have the head-on ram example above going in at five knots each while the stern ram would be calculated at the pursuing ship's full six knots, totally ignoring the subtractive factor of the speed of a ship pursued on a line identical or nearly parallel to its course.

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