Boats and how to depict them within the game

Last night we had an Impetus game, 500 points of Kushite v Ptolemaic.

Being Egypt we had the Nile as one table edge

But because I have got them, I fielded two units in reed boats.They're Mike Yarrow Miniatures
http://www.spanglefish.com/mickyarrowminiatures/index.asp?pageid=188024

But anyway I've got two of these reed boats per base, and one of the crew paddles and one is an archer.
What I did was called them Skirmishers fighting as skirmishers in every way. The only changes I made to the rules was that

1) They couldn't move out of the river.

and to balance this disadvantage out

2) They could fire and move without penalty because they weren't really moving, somebody else was doing the moving for them

They worked well enough, they were neither under nor overpowered. I was then thinking about how other boats or ships could be used. I'd suggest the following for people to ponder

1) Boats can use two scales, they can be a lot smaller scale (1/300 if the player uses 15mm for example). Or they can be the same scale as the figures, as in the case of my two boat units.

2) If they're a lot smaller scale they only fire at their longest range. You pay for them as the appropriate artillery

3) If they're the same scale as the figures they can take more of a part. Depending on the size of the vessel, one unit can fire from it, and two can be transported by it. In this case you measure the ranges from the firing base just as you would any other, and if the troops disembark they move and fight just as would any other.

Obviously most people could ignore them, but I know we've got players who like to do bigger battles or campaigns in which these things might play a part if they wanted.

Jim

Interesting that there are 15mm miniatures of papyrus boats.

GamesPoet wrote:Interesting that there are 15mm miniatures of papyrus boats.

What I love about 15mm is that there are miniatures of pretty well everything

Jim