Al Haqb

The Sultan of Al Haqb has been marauding the Greek islands for years. Careful to have avoided angering the larger naval powers in the past, his pirate fleet has now grown so large in size and strength that he has grown recklessly bold. After having defeated a local Ottoman squadron, he has sailed up into the Adriatic sea to avoid pursuit whilst falling upon helpless European merchant shipping.

In Venice however, the Doge has been informed of the Sultans plan by his vast network of over seas spies and has dispatched none other than the great Capitano Mecano in a powerful squadron to bring the pirate heretic to account!

The two sides meet on a glorious August morning, the sun is blazing and the sea is calm. Each side starts at the opposing end of the table and roll for initiative.

Player One: Capitano Ercino Mecano
1 Galleas, 1 Grand Galley, 2 Galleys, 1 Gun boats & 1 Boats

Player Two: Castracani da Barbiano
1 Grand Galley, 2 Galleys, 1 Gun boats & 1 Boats

Player Three: The Sultan of Al Haqb
1 Grand Galley, 2 Galleys & 2 Boats

Player Four: Sheik Yusuf bin Yalah
1 Grand Galley, 2 Galleys & 2 Boats


This was a spur of the moment game to test our naval combat rules and I didn't have time to build additional models. I had expected only two of us would play it, so I wasn't too worried since I had enough galleys for a 2v2 game, but then the number increased to four players so I had to flesh out the forces a bit with the heavier grand galleys and some boats.

The game went fairly well. I was player two and my friend Palle player one. Oleg was player four and Rasmus was player three. Oleg and I have more experience and enthusiasm for naval battles, so it was fairly balanced. The Venetians, being a state pitted against pirates, had a heavier force, but not I thought overwhelmingly so.

It turned out however that the imbalance was enough to see player three annhilated in the first half of the game. Each side started with a traditional galley line (that is to say in a line abreast of each other) in two seperate squadrons. Both Arabians had placed their commanding ships in the centre of their squadrons lines.

The Venetians were also in a traditional line comprised of two squadrons, but had been more astute and placed their flag ship galleas in the centre of the over all force. This was possible because the Venetians had the advantage of an additional grand galley (they also had the two gun boats, but these weren't of much use). Both sides attempted to out flank the other, but since Venetians galleas was in the centre of their two squadrons, it could move to engage either of the Arabian players at will. This it did when player three moved into attack my squadron. I held back and the galleas tipped the balance in our favour (I also had a nice run of sixes at the right moments). The game was quickly over after that, though the second Arabian squardon had managed to hang on and its great galley even fled off table escaping the carnage.

We've run several European ship skirmish battles over the last year but we've not paid much attention to galleys yet. Galleys and ships are very different since they fight in different ways. Galleys can row into the wind and have only weak guns pointing forwards where as ships move by virtue of the wind and carry a great many guns along their flanks. Ships are generally bigger, much tougher and far more dangerous, but galleys can give them a nasty surprise. So far we've yet to run a mixed game, but I think this will be the next naval skirmish we do. The trouble with that is, by the time ships came along, galleys were all but obsolete and there isn't much scope for pitting them against each other. A galleas is a very large and powerful galley. I've written about them previously here.

The rules held up and there was less quibbling than usual, which is nice. I think our naval rules are quite good, just as long as one stays within the historical boundries.