Valerio

The Wargame Library Speaker Series continues with Valerio of Alkedo Miniatures, author of Oi Navarcoi! To learn more about the game and follow the latest updates, visit his official page.

Ancient battles are popular on the tabletop, but ancient naval is less played. Why?

I see both gameplay and aesthetic reasons. Land combat requires the combined use of at least heavy and light infantry and cavalry, and possibly also specialized shooting units such as archers, etc. so it has a certain degree of tactical challenge. In ancient naval combat, the distinctions between units are absent or have limited importance, which objectively land combat is a more interesting type of warfare from a tactical point of view. Also, from an aesthetic perspective, land units – and also terrain! - are much more varied and make a far stronger visual impression on the gaming table than naval units, which look all the same apart from the sails (and also, have little or no terrain to speak of). You really must have a passion for ancient naval warfare to play it!

What is it about these large ancient naval engagements that captured your imagination?

What gave me the inspiration to start was a trip to Greece — it was impossible not to imagine that beautiful sea covered with ships! I would enjoy playing at both levels, but I think the very nature of ancient naval combat makes it difficult to simulate clashes between a few ships in a way that is truly enjoyable. What usually happen is a chain of “car crashes”, where I hit you, and then you hit me, and so on and on…

There are some other rules available for this period. Was there something you found missing in those other games you wanted to represent?

I believe that what is missing in many systems is the right level of perspective. Even rule sets that claim to simulate large battles then force the player to maneuver individual ships, perform ramming attacks by finding the correct angle, and so on... As if a rule set for large land battles forced you to move a single figure freely! What was missing, in my view, was a rule set that puts the player in the shoes of a high-level commander, not in those of the captain of each individual ship.

Where does the name come from?

 "It was meant to be a paraphrase of famous expressions in Ancient Greek such as “Hoi Athenaioi” or “hoi polloi.” But then it turned into a kind of joke in English slang—like, “Oi, mates!”

What are some of the top design priorities you had in mind for gameplay?

I believe in the TooFatLardies motto “play the period, not the rules.”. I wanted a ruleset that played like an account from Thucidides, and that very simple basic rulewise, built around a couple of key concepts and mechanisms. In general, I wanted it to be a squadron level game about V century Greece, the age of the Peloponnesian and Persian wars, which has some specificities compared to later periods: one kind of ship in the line, no shooting to speak of, high level of tactical sophistication. From a strategic point of view, I wanted to reward players which had a formulated an overall battle plan – hence the idea of a signal system which allows faster and safer pre-planned manoeuvres. From a tactical point of view, I wanted the player to focus on bringing his squadrons into battle in the formation best suited to the tactical situation and in the best possible order, while perhaps forcing the opponent to carry out more manoeuvres and become disordered in the process.

What possessed you to start sculpting and casting your own range of ancient galleys?

I wanted to play with proper squadrons composed of several ships, not just three or four. I wanted the player’s view to be that of Xerxes at Salamis. I started using 1:1200 scale Liburnians from Navwar, and then, looking at them, I said to myself: “How difficult can it really be to sculpt something so simple?” Obviously, it turned out to be extremely difficult! Especially because I was starting from scratch, with no sculpting experience at all. Still, I have to say that the result was very satisfying, and the fact that they are now distributed by a major company like Irregular Miniatures gives me great satisfaction.