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The game begins |
Barbarossa!
Barbarossa, or red-beard is the surname of the Turkish corsair Khayr ad-Din (c.1483–1546). Barbarossa and his brother Aruj, having seized (1518) Algiers from the Spanish, placed Algeria under Turkish suzerainty. He extended his conquests to the rest of the Barbary States. Between 1533 and 1544, as admiral of the Turkish fleet under Sulayman I, he twice defeated Andrea Doria and ravaged the coasts of Greece, Spain, and Italy. His able son Hasan (d. 1572) succeeded him in Algeria.
Years ago, when I was a student, I used the name for the title to a set of simple wargames rules for 16th Century Galley Warfare. They are available to download from Wargames Forum. Recently I received the following letter from an American Forum member, describing a game with the rules...
Last
month we conducted our first play test of your Barbarossa rules. I had
converted your hex based movement and ranges into an inches based system, but
everything else was left as is. The game was played on a 6' x 8' table
with three players per side. The Christian players each had three galleys
while the Turks each had four. We played two games and had a blast.
The rules are very easy to learn and to use. The games went very fast.
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The game begins |
I've attached three pictures showing some of the combat - the white
"smoke" indicates burning ships (just about everyone used the
flamepots) and the grey "smoke" indicates that a ship has fired its
cannon. In the second picture, I'm standing at the far side of the table
and my son is standing on the extreme left. The ships I used are the
Barbary corsair galleys from the WizKids Pirates of the
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Dice everywhere! |
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The combat hots up... |
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