These are the glorious days of the Roman Republic, yet the Mediterranean is infested with pirates. Especially in the eastern parts, where the Romans is waging war against the successors of Alexander the Great, coastal tribes are able to profit from the breakdown of central power. By the year 688 Ab Urbe Condita (i.e. after the foundation of Rome, or 67 BC) the pirate menace is considered so threatening that Gnaeus Pompeius, the greatest general of the Roman Republic, has been invested with wide-ranging powers and a huge treasury to rid the Mare Nostrum of these hoodlums for once and for all.
The winds of the Mediterranean are treacherous and storms can fall upon unsuspecting travellers as well as long lulls. For this reason warfare on these seas is waged by rowing rather than sailing ships. Romans tactics concentrate mostly on boarding and carry large numbers of marines on their ships, but all ships are still fitted with a ram and are thus capable of sinking a ship without hand to hand fighting.
Players will play on either the side of the Romans or the Pirates. Both fleet consists of a dozen or so ships, each player being a Trierarch, or captain of one ship. Each fleet will have a Prefect, or admiral, and several Navarchs, or squadron commanders. Due to the distances between ships communications between Prefects, Navarchs and Trierarchs can only take place by coloured signal flags.
Each squadron has a Movement Umpire (MU) attached, who moves ships and handles other actions by the players’ ships. Players indicate the actions of their ship and crew by placing order counters on a block in front of them. The Movement Umpires may ask the players to roll dice to establish the effect of actions and will inform them of the results of other players’ actions.
When two ships are in the same hex and one of either parties manages to board the other, the players move to the Combat Zone, where the Combat Umpires (CU) will resolve the hand to hand fighting. When a winner has been decided the players return to the map.
Apart from the MUs and CUs there will be one Umpire to keep the time (TU) and there will be one or two Game Umpires (GU) who will make decisions on situations not covered in the rules and may help out in busy corners. In the interest of game play we suggest that you take up difficult questions with the game umpires to ease the task of the MUs and CUs.