The Raft

An exciting thing happened: When I approached Andrea from Ganesha Games about sharing the modifications to Nic Wright‘s Galleys & Galleons I’ve been using for my mediterranean coastal forces campaign, he suggested making a standalone game out of it. As you can imagine, I am very excited about this, as Andrea is one of my favourite games designers and his games played a major role in my comeback to wargaming almost 13 years ago.

The working title of the project is Torpedoes & Tides. In this post, I want to talk a bit about how I go about designing the game.

First of all, it’s a spin-off of Galleys & Galleons. All the core rules will be the same: the trademark Ganesha Games activation mechanism, combat resolution with an opposed dice roll, only two stats and several special rules for ships and the damage system using red dice and critical hits. In my review of Galleys & Galleons, I’ve described what I like about the mechanism, especially the damage system. 

It is great to work with such a well-tested and robust fundament and it’s also kind of liberating – in my game designs, I usually hit a point where I questions everything and start to overthrow my core mechanisms, but here, I just accept them as immutable constants.

The core principle of the game is that coastal forces actions were fast and very chaotic and that the rules should reflect that by keeping the player focussed on command and basic tactics, while limiting their control over the events in an enjoyable way. Players also should not be distracted by what, for me, is the Achilles heel of many naval wargames rules: damage resolution systems. Fortunately, all this is already baked into the mechanisms of Galleys & Galleons: the risk-reward activation mechanic limits control while still giving the player agency in how far they will push their luck, and the damage model is quick and simple, needs little bookkeeping and, apart from the critical hits, no tables and charts.

So what’s new? Surprisingly, not that much. Less than I started with for sure – it turns out that some of my amendments were unnecessary, historically implausible or just made the game too cumbersome. One thing I did introduce is a spotting mechanism. This is very simple but, in my opinion, absolutely necessary if coastal forces combat, which almost exclusively happened at night, is to be represented even rudimentarily plausible. I have also introduced a differentiation between ship sizes and weapons system, again as simple as possible: there are large ships which can’t be hurt by small-calibre guns and there are large calibre guns which can damage those ships, have difficulties hitting small targets (such as MTBs) but will cause more damage if they hit. There are also simple rules for things that were of tactical importance, such as starshells (illuminants), smoke generators and, of course, torpedoes!

The environment plays a large role, as visibility is determined by the moon phase (or the absence of the moon). If the moon is present, its position is important as ships that are up-moon are silhouetted against the sky and easier to hit – which poses interesting tactical challenges for the players and makes manoeuvring more important.

The game is aimed at scenario- or campaign-driven narrative games. It will come as a shock to some that it will not include a points system. While points can be helpful in setting up wargames, they are very difficult to determine, as the true value of a vessel always depends on its mission, the enemy it encounters and the environment it must operate in. For example, when attacking a convoy, a motor torpedo boat is extremely valuable, as its torpedoes can potentially sink a ship with one shot. However, the same vessel will be worth much less when fighting against a motor gunboat, which is basically immune to torpedo attacks and will have more powerful guns.

In scenario- or campaign-based play, the composition of the forces is best determined by historical examples or mutual agreement between the players. The rules will include several generic as well as historical scenarios, and I’m sure that after a couple of games, players will get a feeling for creating scenarios and force lists that are fun to play and that fit their collection. I have created more than 130 unit profiles, covering vessels from all major combatants, so most available models should be covered. And if something is missing, it is easy to create your own profiles using the stats and special rules. Speaking of models: As the game uses measuring sticks like most Ganesha Games titles, it can be played in any scale, from 1/1250 up to 1/300 – just chose a set of measuring sticks that feels right to you and that fits the table space you have available.

So when will the rules be published? I make no predictions, not even vague ones, because that’s just tempting fate. They are now at the stage of playtesting, with several people involved (A big thanks to all of you! You will be mentioned in the rulebook!). It looks good so far, but I’m still tinkering with ideas and fine-tuning stuff.

I hope that Torpedoes & Tides might be of interest for you. Do you have any questions? Write them in the comments below or drop me a message on Blue Sky (@thomasbrandstetter.bsky.social) or Facebook.