Encompassing five centuries of Mediterranean fleet clashes and featuring fourteen different ship types, the hex-hiding Mare Nostrum inherits a couple of concepts that served Qvadriga admirably. Convinced that traditional IGOUGO turn structures and antique wet warfare aren’t good bedfellows, Daniel is once again utilizing a simultaneous order execution system. The fatigue fixation returns too.
WEGO means both sides – human and AI, or human and human in the case of multiplayer – will be issuing orders based on assumptions.
If that enemy quadrireme maintains its heading and speed, my trireme should be able to ram it amidships by darting between those two crippled biremes and making for that hex. … If that septireme is about to do what I think it’s about to do, a ship sent to this hex with a grapple order should spoil its plans. Inevitably some assumptions will turn out to be erroneous – chaos and calamity will regularly interject, scattering tidy formations and shivering inflexible plans.
In Qvadriga there was a deliciously fine line between running horses hard and running them ragged. The design doc suggests player-admirals will face similarly tough speed-related choices in MN. All ships have an X-hexes-per-turn cruising speed (the number by the first arrowhead icon in the above pic) and a faster max speed (the number by the second arrowhead icon. Other icons show seamanship skill, hull strength, ram attack effectiveness, and – the figure in the red box – the number of missile-slinging ‘marines’ on board). Using top speed is tempting but risky as it can, depending on the result of a check roll, generate weariness that prevents similar spurts until oarsmen have rested.
...
If the galley count in the above image alarms your inner loafer, reassure them with the following info. Although control of individual ships is possible, a squadron system should allow large formations to be moved around and engaged and disengaged with relative ease. Certain vessels will have named, trait-blessed bigwigs aboard and these will act as follow-my-lead flagships for nearby craft. Issue one order and multiple ships respond. Stragglers beyond command range (more than four hexes from a commander and unadjacent to an in-command ship) are temporarily controlled by a friendly AI who will endeavour to return them to the fold.
Defined by their core stats and by additional equipment such as towers, catapults and
corvi, ships can be captured and crippled as well as sunk by
rams and set ablaze by Greek fire. A ramming manoeuvre in which the rammer is moving in the same or opposite direction as the ramee when contact is made, is interpreted as an attempt to
‘rake oars’ rather than puncture hull planks. If successful the victim is left with useless splintered oar stubs on one side. A second successful attack completes the immobilization.
Picturing a briny battlefield combed by influential breezes and dotted with ships that could be disabled, entangled, on fire, out of command, or on potential collision courses with friendlies, an obvious question springs to mind. Will the AI cope? Daniel admits MN is far more complex in this respect than Qvadriga, yet seems to be confident he’ll deliver capable/competent adversaries. Describing how the AI operates, he highlights the squadron system (flagships guiding surrounding vessels) as a key behavioural building block.
“The first objective for both the AI and the player is that no ship is out of command. After this, every AI commander decides in general terms what his group should do – whether they should approach or move away from nearby enemies, move forwards or backwards and the average speed to follow, if they should go ramming and raking or try to grapple and board… Once all of this has been decided, each ship under his command tries to conform to the plan according to its particular situation.”
...