Lepanto is a two-player or
multi-player (Ottoman versus Christian) operational level game, designed by
Robert Cowling. The game includes 280 die-cut counters, with the each warship
chit representing two ships per counter; there are three primary ships types:
Galleys, Galliots and Galleasses, each with different capabilities. The
colorful map features the Ionian Sea, printed with the historical set up of
both sides just as the two opposing fleets were arrayed to begin battle, as
well as various charts and tables for easy reference during play. The land area
featured represents the peninsular areas of the Grecian mainland.
The rules entail a variety of mechanics pertaining to 16th
century naval combat, such as Wind Direction, Ramming, Boarding, Small-Arms
Fire, Gunnery Ranges, Exhaustion, Galliot Shoreline Movement, Christian
Small-Arms Advantages, Ottoman Maneuver Advantages, as well as the designations
of the historical admirals in the battle, such as Don Juan, Ali Pasha, etc.
The easy and quick game sequence is as follows:
Movement
Combat
Reorientation
Movement is
regulated in terms of the front and back side of each warship chit. As each
ship completes its movement, it is flipped from its A (Alpha) side over to its
O (Omega) side (or vice versa, if they began the turn on their Omega sides).
When all desired moves have been completed, the player’s remaining ships are
also flipped to their O (Omega) side (or vice versa, if they began the turn on
their Omega sides) to indicate the end of the entire Movement Phase. In this
way, players may easily keep track of which ships have moved, and which have
not, during each game turn.
Victory in the
game is determined by the accumulation of VPs for eliminated and damaged ships
that have been inflicted by each side.
Articles in this issue include:
Poles
in World War I. Poles, then lacking a
nation-state of their own, fought on both sides and in every major power’s army
in WWI.
Mau
Mau Insurrection. The 1950s
guerrilla war in Kenya that served as a model for numerous other African
anti-colonial movements.
Byzantine Naval History. A strategic and
tactical analysis of the navy that was a force in the Mediterranean for 1,000
years.