# Warring Fleets tags: #game/wargame/warring-fleets ![[Warring Fleets (cover).jpg|600]] Two Hour Wargames' fantasy naval-combat game — the part of the hobby where you push resin galleons around a felt sea and pretend the smoke is coming from somewhere other than your wallet. **Warring Fleets** is Ed Teixeira's 2002 crack at ancient-and-medieval-style galley warfare with a fantasy paint job: you fight on the coast, in sight of land, because that's where the fleets of Talomir are brave enough to sail. It's a classic THW reaction-system game — quick, bloody, and only as deep as the table you set up, with all the solo and campaign bones the house is known for. ## Setting The world of **Talomir** is a crowded, quarrelsome coast — a patchwork of city-states and kingdoms whose navies stick to the shore because few of them trust the open sea. **Capalan** and **Altengard** run the "modern" fleets that try to stand off and batter enemies with artillery; the slavers of **Kjoth** and the freebooters of **Mirholme** represent the shadier side. Each fleet is a people with its own culture on the water. Battles are quick and bloody affairs — sails furled, movement by oar, boarding and ramming doing what gunpowder does in other games. It's history's galley age dressed up in fantasy, and that's the whole charm. ## Mechanics Standard THW reaction-system bones, scaled to the open water. You need two or more D6, a ruler in inches, ship models or counters in a consistent scale, a Log Sheet per fleet, and a flat surface at least three feet by six. - **Defining ships:** every vessel is rated for **Rate** (rough size), **CV** — Combat Value of the crew — and **AC** (Armor Class). Ships come in three classes, distinct counter sizes, with leaders flagged or color-coded. Ships mounted for other rulesets work as long as both sides use the same system. - **Pre-battle sequence:** define the ships, assign leaders, establish each side's **War Rating**, determine the attacker, select battlefield terrain, and set up initial placement. - **Turn sequence and actions:** activation with movement phases — closing, **ramming**, the **oar rake**, **grappling**, **towing** — then firing, significant damage, **boarding and melee**, and the ever-present risk to your leaders. **Engines and artillery** and the **corvus** (the boarding bridge) are in the special-weapons kit, along with **elites** and **frenzy**. - **Reaction checks:** the THW signature — when things go sideways you test and get a result: **Carry On**, **Turn Away**, **Breaking Off**, or **Strike**. Crew can only be pushed so far before they decide the sea is safer downwind. - **Terrain:** coasts, breakwater, beach, islands, and isthmus shape how you approach — with right-of-refusal on placement, because nobody likes a table where you've already lost. - **Scenarios and campaigns:** six printed battles — **Breakout, Last Stand, Grain Run, Trapped, Show the Flag, First Blush** — plus full campaign play and **solo or same-side gaming** if you'd rather run the whole affair yourself. Navy lists and designer notes round out the back, with a nod to historical adaptation and a crossover into the [[Colonial Adventures]]-style THW family. ## Editions - **Warring Fleets** (2002) — the fantasy naval-combat game, written by Ed Teixeira for Two Hour Wargames. *In the library.* ## References - [Two-Hour Wargames](https://www.twohourwargames.com/)