NAVAL BATTLES ON THE ANCIENT SEAS

S T U D I O
 CONTENTS
KEY CONCEPTS 3 2. Operations Phase 10 ASSEMBLING A FLEET 22
Dice 3 2.1 Manoeuvring Actions 10 The Flagship 22
Measurements 4 2.1.1 Moving 10 Ship Mastery Levels 23
Templates 4 2.1.2 Turning 10 Crew-stands 23
Ship Mastery 4 Collisions 11 Melting Pot of Alliances 24
Sails and the Mastery Flags 5 2.2 Captain’s Orders 11 Victory Points 25
Predominant Currents 5 2.2.1 Ramming 12 Ships 26
Drift 6 2.2.2 Away Boarders! 16 MAIN SHIPS 27
Miniature Stands 7 Boarding (sequence) 17 The Trireme 27
Structure Points 7 2.2.3 Unleash Fire 18
AUXILIARY SHIPS 28
Engines of War 7 Unleash Fire (sequence) 19
The Penteconter 28
Chaos Tokens 8 2.2.4 Rallying 20
FLEET LIST:
Activation Tokens 8 3. End Phase 20
THE FLEET OF HELLAS 29
Blessing Tokens 8 3.1 Broken, Unmmaned,
The Hellenic Fleets Special Rules 30
The Navarch 8 and Sunken Ships 20
3.1.1 Broken Ships PLAYING A SCENARIO:
ROUND SEQUENCE 9 20
OPEN ENGAGEMENT 31
3.1.2 Unmmaned Ships 21
1. Command Phase 9
3.1.3 Sunken Ships 21
1.1 Fleet Command Orders 9
3.2 Fleet Upkeep 21
1.2 Initiative 9
3.2.1 Resilience 21
1.2.1 Coordinated Manoeuvres 9
3.2.2 Put Out Fires 21
2

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CREDITS
Game Design: Ricard Fortun-Martinez
Editing: Roger Gerrish and Daniel Molina
Sculpting: Daniel Molina (Dankai Miniatures)
Creative Direction and Technical Designs: Ricard Fortun-Martinez
Concept Art: Lanza Studio
Iconography and Tokens: Carlos Hernandez Ramiro
Cover Art: The Creative Studio - Malaysia
Thalassa Logo: Dai Nguyen
Playtesting: Roger Gerrish, Tim Baker, Daniel Molina, Ricard Fortun-Martinez, Anders Johanson, Charlie Monaghan,
Karl Oliver-Kyriacou, Richard Carlisle, Steve Cumming, Jose Carlos Barrios Juarez, Jose Diaz Coracho,
David Vicente Martinez Calvo, Carlos Federico Yrissarri Melgar.
Special Thanks to Boards and Swords (Derby), Christian Schlumpberger (Bruckenkopf - Fantasy In Germany),
Sarissa Precision Ltd., John Fielding (Vanguard Miniatures Ltd.), and NG Castings Ltd.

Copyright © Room 17 Studio Ltd. Published under license by Wargames Illustrated Ltd.
No part of this product may be reproduced without specific permission. Thalassa title design and
Thalassa logo are trademarks of Room 17 Studio Limited. All rights reserved. Designed and printed in the UK.
 KEY CONCEPTS
DICE
Thalassa primarily uses two types of dice: regular ten- The fleet command dice results can be used as required in
sided dice and special six-sided fleet command dice. the operations phase during any of the players’ activation.
Any unused dice are discarded at the end of the round.
You can use regular six-sided dice (D6) to represent the
R e-Rolls fleet command dice.
Regardless of the type of dice, or the source of the The icons and their correlation with the D6 results are
re-roll, no dice in the game can be re-rolled twice. as follow:

/6 Drift: This order represents the use of water

D10s currents or the tide to shift the position of a ship.
Ten-sided dice are known as D10s and are usually A player can use this order to resolve a Drift with one of
numbered from 1 to 0 (with the 0 representing the their own ships or force an enemy ship to Drift.
number 10). Most tests in the game are conducted by
rolling several D10s. After rolling the dice, players should /5 Blessing: This order represents the commitment
separately check the results of each individual dice to of a crew to their ship, to their crew mates, and to
determine the number of successes obtained. the gods they worship. A player can use this result and
receive a Blessing token ( ).
In most tests a 6+ is considered a success.
/4 Fleet: A player can use this order on a ship of
their choice to trigger a fleet’s unique Fleet
Command special rule. These are individually described
The Rule of 1 and the Rule of 10 in the rules for fleet selection. Each fleet will benefit in a

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When a test using D10s is required, a natural result different way.
of 1 (this being the actual number scored on the dice
before applying any modifiers) is always a failure. /1-3 Manoeuvre: A player can use this order on
On the other hand, a natural result of 10 (or a ‘0’) one of their ships during its activation. This allows
is considered an automatic success even if the score it to make an additional move or turn following the
required was higher than a 10 because of certain normal rules for manoeuvring. This is a bonus action in
penalties or other circumstances. addition to the three manoeuvring actions a ship
normally has.

A player can always burn a fleet command dice

Fleet Command Dice ny of any result to re-roll a Mastery test.
A
Each fleet starts the game with a specific number of fleet
command dice. The fleet command dice represent the
tactical skills of the fleet admiral and the orders they give
to benefit the entire fleet.
The number of starting command dice that are allocated to Players can use any number of their fleet command dice
each fleet is based on its size as measured in points value. at any point during any of their own ships’ activations
(before, during, or after). However, an action cannot be
In the command phase, players roll all their command interrupted to play a fleet command dice. A player cannot
dice. They then put them to one side but with the face up use more than one of their fleet command dice on the
showing the results of the rolls. same ship during a round, either for friend or foe.
We recommend that you place the fleet command dice
next to the ship that has received its effects as a reminder
of this.
 MEASUREMENTS
Players will need a tape measure or a ruler marked When a ship is selected during the creation of the fleet,
in inches. In a game of Thalassa, all distances and players choose its Mastery level.
measurements can be checked before committing an
The Mastery level is the minimum score required on a
action. However, once the ship has been moved from its
D10 to pass a Mastery test.
original position, or dice have been rolled (for a shooting
action, for example), you are committed to that action. In Thalassa, there are three Mastery levels:
Unless otherwise specified, all measurements must be
made from the ship’s main hull (ignoring the line of oars
and any protruding structures such as the ship’s ram and
other decorative parts) to the closest part of the target
model’s hull (also ignoring the line of oars and any
protruding structures).
When taking measurements to determine shooting
ranges or movement distances, players cannot place
markers on the tabletop (such as dice, chits, or any other
form of mark) that could be used as reference.

As might be expected, a ship with a veteran crew will cost

TEMPLATES more to join the fleet than one crewed by young sailors
and commanded by an inexperienced captain.
In addition to dice and other various tokens, players will
need two types of special templates - the Drift and the The basic recruitment cost of a ship in the faction
Ramming templates. These are downloadable from the fleet lists is assumed to include a Neophyte crew. The
Wargames Illustrated website. additional cost required to recruit a more able crew is
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listed in the different fleet lists.

Unlike regular measurements, templates cannot be
speculatively placed to assess the areas covered by When resolving Mastery tests, certain modifiers to the
them. If a player decides to use a template, this is a firm dice roll apply depending on the situation and difficulty
decision that cannot be undone after the template has of the task:
been placed on the table.
• Disadvantaged: The ship has received one or more
Chaos tokens ( ) (see page 8).
SHIP MASTERY
-1 Mastery test
On many occasions, the skill of the captain and the • Coordinating Manoeuvres: The ship is retaining the
crew to control the ship will be put to the test; from initiative (see page 9).
basic navigation and manoeuvring disciplines to more
challenging operations requiring the coordination of the -1 Mastery test
entire crew, like putting out fires, navigating a dangerous
coastline, or simply keeping the crew organised and
motivated.
Most fleets comprise of ships with captains and crew
of varying skills and combat experience. Successfully
managing the actions of each ship in your fleet is the key
to securing victory.
SAILS AND THE MASTERY FLAGS PREDOMINANT CURRENTS
While sails would have been raised to cruise and Thalassa focuses on the close quarters action between
organise the battlelines during the approach phase of fleets of classical wargalleys that have come into contact,
an engagement, in the close quarters action simulated broken formation, and started to engage ship to ship.
during a game of Thalassa, most captains would have had
Manoeuvring primarily relied on multiple banks of well-
sails furled. In many cases, the captains might have had
trained oarsmen to power the ship through the water.
the masts removed. Usually, they would be stored on
However, such power had to be coordinated; the orders of
deck or left on a nearby beach. Sails and masts could be
the captain and the skills of the helmsman at the rudders
a liability in combat, but they were also valuable assets to
were vitally important.
be preserved for sailing.
Wargalleys and their crews also had to take into account
When playing a game, however, the spectacle on the
the currents and tides of their fluid battleground.
tabletop will be improved greatly if players display the
These could be exploited tactically for advantage or to
sails on their ships; as well as looking good, sails can help
disadvantage the opponent. In a game of Thalassa, the
differentiate the ships of the opposing fleets.
direction of these currents is very important.
The mainmast is also the perfect place to position a flag
At the beginning of a game, players determine the
indicating the ship’s Mastery level, either by colour-
dominant direction of the currents and the tide.
coding or writing on the Mastery value with a permanent
marker pen. Unless a scenario says otherwise, the game starts with the
sea moving steadily from left to right and right to left
As an alternative to the Mastery Flags, you may use red,
in relation to the deployment zones of the players. The
yellow, and green colour chits to indicate the mastery of
symbol in the scenario maps indicates the starting
the ship.
direction of the dominant current.
To determine the direction in which the current affects
a ship, trace an imaginary line between the centre of the
table edge from where the current flows, and the ship’s

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mainmast.
Check the diagram below to identify the side of the ship
the current is pushing against.
 DRIFT
During a game of Thalassa, players can both benefit and When resolving a Drift with the current pushing forward
suffer from the effects of the currents displacing the (from stern to bow) or astern (from bow to stern), the
position of their ships. This effect is called Drift. Drift template is placed against the stern or the bow of
Skillful players can take advantage of the Drift for the ship aligned with the main mast (following the white
beneficial manoeuvres, but they can also be affected by dashline as shown below).
involuntary Drifts (caused by the opposing player) that
can detrimentally affect their position.
Drift is resolved using a template the size of a poker card
with two lines crossing its centre as depicted here.

Once the template is placed as above, the ship can be

When resolving a Drift, the controlling player must shifted into its new position anywhere within the bounds
check the direction of the predominant currents at of the template so long as the centre of the main mast
that time and determine if they displace the ship remains within the area covered by the template. Its
6

sideways, from port to starboard or starboard to port, or facing may be changed in any direction within 90° of its
lengthways, from bow to stern or stern to bow. This will original facing.
determine the positioning of the Drifting template and
When a player places a Drift dice ( ) on one of their
the side to use in each case.
own ships, it is they who decide the positioning of the
To resolve a side Drift, when the currents are pushing ship within the Drift template.
towards the port or the starboard of the ship, the Drift
If a ship receives a Drift dice ( ) from the opposing
template must be placed alongside the line of oars on the
player, that player positions the ship. In both cases, the
side of the ship opposite to the direction of the current.
following rules must be observed:
• The centre of the mainmast must be inside the
template area.
• The ship cannot be turned more than 90° from
its original facing.

If after completing a Drift, a ship comes in contact

with another ship (friend or foe) or a solid object like a
wreck or part of the coast, a collision must be resolved
immediately (see page 11).
In these examples (below), the red ship is affected by a Drift Crew-stands have a resilience value that
fleet command dice from another player. After positioning the represents the harm they can receive
Drift template according to the direction of the predominant before removing them from the ship. To
current, the enemy player moves the ship and changes its temporarily mark the wounds received,
facing, ensuring that it doesn’t rotate more than 90° from its players can place wounds tokens next to the affected ship.
original facing and that the centre of the mainmast (yellow
dot) remains within the template area.
STRUCTURE POINTS
Each ship has a number of structure points on its profile
representing their construction, size, and resistance to
shock and heavy impacts by enemy ramming, engines of
war fire, or collisions.
Structure points can never be lost by the
effect of a boarding action or from light
projectiles like arrows or javelins, unless
these attacks carry special rules. The only
exception to this is the ‘overkilling’ of crew-stands during
a boarding action as explained on page 17.
Players can mark the loss of structure points by placing
structure tokens next to the ship’s model.

ENGINES OF WAR
Stand slots can be used to house engines of war like

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catapults, ballistas, and defensive towers. The rules on
how to acquire these engines of war are explained in the
section on how to assemble the fleet.
Engines of war don’t have their own resilience value;
instead, their robust construction is represented by a
Structure point value, usually one.
A ship that resolves a Drif during the operations phase When a ship suffers the loss of a structure point, instead
counts as having moved, and any benefits for being of reducing the ship’s main hull (Structure), a player can
stationary are therefore lost. decide to remove an engine of war instead. Engines of
war and the ship they are mounted on always have the
MINIATURE STANDS same Armour save.
If more than one structure point is lost, the defending
A key element of Thalassa is the use of stands of models player can distribute them amongst engines of war and
to represent the sailors, marines, and other hands vital to the ship itself.
the running of the ship. This includes manning the oars,
steering the ship, repairing it, and of course, fighting the If a ship with no remaining crew stands suffers hits from
enemy. shooting or boarding actions, the controlling player
must remove one engine of war for every uncancelled
Stands can also represent the many varied engines of war hit received to represent the loss of the manning crew or
sometimes carried by these ships. the destruction of the machine at the hands of enemy
Each ship in Thalassa has a number of stand slots that assaulters.
can be filled with various crew and engines of war stands.
Some ship upgrades can also occupy these stand slots, as
explained in the rules for assembling a fleet on page 22.
 CHAOS TOKENS
The stress and confusion suffered by a crew A Blessing token ( ) can be discarded at any time
during battle is represented in the game by an during the activation of a ship to:
accumulation of Chaos tokens ( ). A ship
• Remove one Chaos token ( ).
that carries one or more Chaos tokens ( )
during the game is said to be Disadvantaged. • Re-roll any one D10.
A Disadvantaged ship is affected by the following • Perform other actions that may require Blessing
penalties: tokens ( ).
• -1 Attack Dice (AD) for every , to a minimum
of 1D10.
• -1 to all Mastery tests.
Victory Points
• -1 to the results to hit a target when shooting.
At the end of each round, any unused Blessing tokens
( ) are automatically converted into Victory Points and
therefore can no longer be used during play unless a rule
Broken Morale or special ability indicates otherwise.
As soon as a ship accumulates
more Chaos tokens ( ) than its
Governance value (Gov), as shown
THE NAVARCH
on its profile, the morale of the ship is The Navarch (or Návarchos) is the ancient Greek name
Broken and the controlling player must remove all Chaos for the admiral of the fleet and this character must be
tokens ( ) and replace them with a Broken marker. clearly represented in one of the player’s ships.
While Broken, the controlling player cannot activate the Players must indicate to their opponent which one of
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ship nor play any fleet command dice on it. During each their main ships carries their Navarch, becoming the
end phase, the player can try to restore order and regain fleet’s flagship.
control of the ship as explained on page 20.
The Navarch cannot start the game on board a pirate ship.
The Navarch does not take up a crew or upgrade slot and
ACTIVATION TOKENS cannot be targeted by attacks of any kind.
After a ship has taken its turn during If the flagship sinks, the Navarch will suffer the same fate
the operations phase, and regardless unless they are rescued in time (as explained on page 16).
of the outcome of the mastery test, The flagship benefits from certain special rules explained
the ship must be marked with an in assembling the fleet (page 22).
activation token to avoid confusion
during the round. Losing the Navarch
The grey side of the activation token can be used to If the Navarch is destroyed or forced to leave the
indicate special orders or conditions on the ship that may tabletop, the controlling player must roll one less fleet
appear in future releases. command dice during the command phase for the
remainder of the game.
Additionally, every ship of the fleet must take a Mastery
BLESSING TOKENS test immediately. If the test fails, the ship receives one
Chaos token ( ). This could force a ship to Break.
The ancient nations believed strongly in the
favours of their gods and that their fates were
decided by divine intervention. To represent
this strong belief in supernatural phenomena,
players may receive Blessing tokens ( ) during the game.
 ROUND SEQUENCE
1. Command Phase
2. Operations Phase
3. End Phase

1. COMMAND PHASE
During this phase, both players are preparing their overall 1.2 INITIATIVE
strategy for the coming round. The command phase is
split into two steps: During a round of Thalassa, both fleets alternate the
• Fleet Command Orders activation of their ships.
• Initiative After rolling the fleet command dice, the player that scored
At the beginning of the round, both players roll five more manoeuvring results ( ) may decide to be either
command dice (for a standard sized game) and keep the the first player and activate their first ship, or alternatively
results scored to one side, but visible to their opponent at they can declare their opponent as the first player.
all times.
In case of a draw in manoeuvring results ( ), the player
Any results must be discarded and the player receives who didn’t have the initiative on the previous turn counts
one Blessing token for each one, which can then be used as having scored one additional manoeuvring result ( ).
during the round.
If a tie occurs in turn one, both players roll-off on a D10
The results of the remaining fleet command dice can be

9
with the higher-scoring player deciding whether to go first
allocated to the player’s ships in the fleet to receive their or second.
benefits, or against the opponent’s ships to inflict certain
penalties.

1.1 FLEET COMMAND ORDERS 1.2.1 COORDINATED MANOEUVRES

As mentioned above, at the beginning of the round both Once per round, each player may decide to try and
players take five command dice and roll them. Keeping activate another ship immediately after their previous
the results face up, they can be set aside in a convenient ship has completed its actions.
place from where they can be used during the round. The
To do this, the player simply takes a Mastery test on the
results on these dice can be allocated to the player’s ships
ship they want to activate next. When activating a second
in the fleet to produce benefits, or on the opponent’s
ship this way, the Mastery test incurs a -1 penalty to the
ships to inflict penalties.
result to represent the difficulty of the operation.
A ship cannot benefit from more than one command dice
If the Mastery test is passed, the player may activate the
from the controlling player per round. Additionally, the same
ship as normal. Once this is done, the opponent will
ship can only suffer the penalties of one enemy command dice
activate their next ship as normal.
per round.
A player may only attempt one Coordinated Manoeuvre
A player may re-roll any or all the command dice if
per round unless other rules or abilities allow for more.
they aren’t happy with the results but as a penalty their
flagship automatically receives 1 Chaos token ( ). Only
one re-roll attempt is allowed per turn. Any change on
the command dice as a result of these re-rolls can affect
the initiative order of activation.
 2. OPERATIONS PHASE
During this phase, each ship on the tabletop is activated individually, starting with the player with Initiative, then
alternating with the other player until all ships have activated.
The operations phase is composed of two main parts: the manoeuvring actions and the captain’s orders.
When a player wants to activate one of their ships, they must first pass a ship Mastery test.
• If the test is passed, the ship can perform its manoeuvring actions and receive and execute one captain’s order as
explained next.
• If the test is failed, the ship will not be allowed to perform any of its normal manoeuvring actions. It still receives
one captain’s order during the activation. The ship can also still use a fleet command dice to perform a manoeuvre
or other actions.
The captain’s orders and any manoeuvring the ship is allowed to perform (moving, turning, or ) can be resolved in any
order the player wishes, unless the captain’s order or any other special rule states otherwise.

2.1 MANOEUVRING ACTIONS

Unless the ship is immobilised for some reason, a player The facing of the ship should not have changed in any way. It
can perform up to 3 manoeuvre actions with each ship, should face in exactly the same direction at both the start and
which can be used to move or turn. the end of the move action.
Ships can sometimes perform additional manoeuvre
actions as a result of using fleet command orders, special
command rules, or character perks and scenario rules.
Ships cannot move or be forced to move off the tabletop A large vessel in the sea has quite a bit of momentum.
by any of the edges contained in their deployment zone. Changing speed rapidly is not an easy task. When
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resolving a move manoeuvre, ships must always move

If a ship moves or is pushed off the table in any other the maximum distance indicated on their profile, e.g. a
case, the ship must normally move just to the edge, Trireme has a movement value of 3"; it must always move
thus ending the manoeuvre. The ship receives 1 Chaos the 3" for every movement action. The only exception to
token ( ). this is if the ship must move less due to a collision.
2.1.1 MOVING 2.1.2 TURNING
All ships have a basic distance of movement in inches Turning the ship is another manoeuvring action.
(M) on their profile. A ship can move that distance for Performing this action allows a ship to turn on the
every movement action it takes during its activation. This spot up to 90°. To perform a pivot, place one finger
distance can be resolved directly forward or backward on the centre of the ship’s deck or its mainmast and
(reversing). push the bow or the stern of the miniature to face the
To move a ship, simply measure the required movement desired course. There should be no forward or backward
distance from a convenient point on the ship, e.g. bow movement.
(front) or stern (rear), and move the ship in a strictly If whilst turning, a ship contacts another ship or a
straight line forward or backward the appropriate scenery element, treat it as a collision (see page 11).
distance. If the ship is performing more than one
successive movement action, simply add the distances
together and move that distance.
 COLLISIONS
Except when resolving an Away Boarders, a Ramming, or a Cutting Grapples order, when a ship comes into
contact with another ship (friend or foe) or a solid terrain feature, a collision occurs.
Collisions aren’t necessarily devastating, and in most cases they just generate a bit of confusion and require additional
ship handling. To resolve a collision, the controlling player of the ship affected must take a Mastery test.
• If the test succeeds, the collision produces 1 Chaos token ( ) for the ship. This reflects the crew’s distraction
in avoiding the collision.
• If the test fails, the collision generates 1 Chaos token ( ) and the ship suffers 1 impact on the relevant
location of the hull (front, side, or rear). This hit can be saved as normal to avoid losing a structure point.
If a collision occurs between two opposing ships, both players roll 1D10. The player with the highest score may
decide to launch a boarding action and resolve it immediately as if the Boarders Away! captain’s order had been
given. A ship whose morale has been Broken by the effects of this collision may not take this action.
Alternatively, the player that won the D10 roll-off can decide to push away to avoid a later boarding action (see
page 18).
A ship that has been involved in a collision does not count as stationary.

2.2 CAPTAIN’S ORDERS

It is the job of the captain to judge the condition of their ship and crew and be aware of the ebb and flow of the battle
going on all around. The captain will endeavour to issue orders that best preserve his ship and exploit any opportunities
for victory.

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A ship can always receive ONE order from the captain, either before or after any of the manoeuvring actions have been
performed. This is true even if the player fails the Mastery test to activate the ship. A captain’s order cannot interrupt an
action unless specified.

Ramming (page 12) While a ship is engaged in a boarding action, only the
Away Boarders! order is allowed.
By giving this order, a player can use one of a ship’s
manoeuvring actions to perform a ramming attack (see Unleash Fire (page 18)
the rules for ramming). Any crew-stand armed with ranged missile weapons
Away Boarders! (page 16) (bows, javelins, slings, etc) can open fire against a target
as described in the rules for shooting.
A ship already engaged with an enemy ship or within 3"
of an enemy ship (measured between both ships’ hulls, Rally (page 20)
excluding the lines of oars, the ram, or other protruding One of the most important duties of a captain is to
elements), can make a boarding action against that ship. ensure that his crew maintains high morale and remains
The attacker places their ship so that the lines of oars or disciplined during battle. Failures in those areas can be
the sides of their hulls (if they have no oars), have the disastrous for a ship of war. This captain’s order represents
maximum contact surface with each other. This is called motivational, organisational, and command skills being
Grappling. used to rally the crew in the heat of battle.
If the attacker is boarding a ship already engaged by Special Orders
another ship, players must agree to accommodate them Other special orders can be given as indicated by any
so that the maximum number of ships are touching the special abilities or rules.
maximum contact surface with the minimum repositioning
of the affected ships. In this case, a ship can board an
enemy ship through an already engaged friendly ship.
 2.1.1 RAMMING
A war galley knifing through the water at 10 knots To resolve the order, the controlling player must place
directly at an enemy ship with an intention to ram the ramming template to cover the ram just in front of
is probably the most popular image of classical naval the bow and project in a straight line (as shown in the
combat. Few things could be more terrifying for a sailor image below). The line between the main mast and the
of that period than the splintering crash as the enemy ram on the miniature should be a good reference to
galley’s imposing bronze ram smashes planks and beams trace the line correctly.
asunder. Dazed and thrown to the deck, they must To launch a successful ramming action, part of the
quickly prepare themselves for the enemy marines who template must reach the target vessel.
are sure to follow.
If the ramming action reaches an enemy ship, and the
During the operations phase, a player may replace one course and distance have been determined, the players
of his three manoeuvring actions with the Ramming must identify the point of impact on the target ship.
captain’s order.
A ship that fails its Mastery test to activate cannot execute a
ramming order using fleet command dice.

THE RAMMING TEMPLATE

The ramming template shows five different courses taken to line up on the target ship. The more the attacking ship needs
to adjust its course, the less effective the ram will be. The five courses available are:

Dead ahead
This is the optimum course and offers
a +1 to the impact rolls on the D10s.
12

Adjust starboard/port
A minimal course change that gives no bonus to impact.
Steer starboard/port
A more radical turn that generates a
-1 penalty to the results on the impact rolls.

The area covered by the template is also divided into

three lengths that represent the effects of the distance to
the target at the time the ramming order is executed.
Short: Offers no bonuses to ramming as little momentum
is built up.
Optimal: Adds 1 additional dice to the impact dice pool.
Predictable: Reduces the total number of dice rolled to
impact by 1 as the greater distance allows the sailors on
the target ship to prepare for impact.
 MOMENTUM
FAILED RAM
In addition to the number of dice determined in
If after placing the ramming template, a ship finds the Mass vs Hull table, the momentum gained for
itself out of reach of any enemy ship, or if none of any manoeuvre actions prior to the ram order can
the course lines cross any part of any enemy ship, also be added to the dice total.
the ramming action fails, and the attacking ship
surfs ahead as a consequence of the inertia gained For every Movement action resolved during the
at the start of the ramming command. current activation and before the ramming is
resolved, the attacking player adds 1 dice to the
The controlling player must resolve one frontal move pool of impact dice. This bonus is lost, however, if
manoeuvre and finish its activation immediately. The they are immediately followed by a turning action.
ship also receives 1 Chaos token ( ).
For example, if a ship performs two move actions before
a ram action, it would gain 2 additional impact dice.
However, if a ship moves forward with one action but
To determine the impact zone of the ship affected by
then performs a turn action, the additional impact dice
the ram, look at the diagram below. If the chosen course
for the move action is cancelled.
crosses the oars line (in green), the ramming is resolved
against the side of the ship. If the course overlaps the area
marked in red, the ram will be resolved against the bow
or stern of the boat accordingly. 2.2.1.1 Roll for Impact!
Once the number of impact dice is determined, the
attacking player rolls them, attempting to score 6+ for
success. Certain advantages or special rules may help
or hinder the success of the ram, modifying the result
needed in the impact dice.

13
For example, a Dead Ahead impact benefits from +1 to
impact dice rolls, as explained on the previous page.
After the number of rolls scoring 6+ are calculated, the
Compare the attacking ship’s mass value against the
defending player will use their ship’s armour save value
target ship’s hull value in the impact zone, then refer
to try to cancel the damage by rolling a dice for every
to the table below to determine the number of dice
successful hit scored.
to be rolled to hit, adding a single dice if the ram is
Optimal, or discarding a dice if the ram is Predictable For every unsaved hit, the defending player reduces the
(as explained above). Structure of the ship by 1 point. If a ship’s structure is ever
reduced to 0, the vessel is wrecked and will start sinking.
Hull Value
Crippling ships
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+
Whilst a ram might result in the destruction of an enemy
3 4D 4D 3D 3D 2D 2D 1D 1D
ship, that may not be the ultimate goal of an attacking
4 5D 4D 4D 3D 3D 2D 2D 1D captain. The components and materials used in the
5 5D 5D 4D 4D 3D 3D 2D 2D construction of a fighting ship in the classical age were
Mass Value

6 6D 5D 5D 4D 4D 3D 3D 2D highly valuable and could become important assets. So,

7 6D 6D 5D 5D 4D 4D 3D 3D the objective of a ramming action might be an attempt
8 7D 6D 6D 5D 5D 4D 4D 3D to cripple a ship to the point of rendering it helpless,
allowing it to be towed away after the battle as a prize to
9 7D 7D 6D 6D 5D 5D 4D 4D
be repaired and put back into service, or if beyond repair,
10+ 8D 7D 7D 6D 6D 5D 5D 4D scavenged for its valuable bronze embolon, sails, and
precious wood.
The total number of dice to be rolled represents the
strength and effectiveness of the ram’s IMPACT on the
target’s hull.
 To represent this, every time a ship loses one or more In this example, the Athenian Trireme (blue) has rammed the
structure points as the consequence of a hostile action, Cretan one (yellow), splitting it after resolving a devastating
the attacking player receives the appropriate Victory impact. Once the Cretan player removes the split ship, the
Points for crippling the ship. Athenian player decides to make a bonus forward movement
of 3". Once in its final position, the Cretan player places the
The crippling Victory Points are not rewarded for destroying
shipwreck double-marker.
engines of war, suffering a collision, the effects of fire, or any
other events, even if the loss of structure is suffered as a result
of a previous aggressive action.

TREMOR
The shock caused by an enemy ship ramming at full
speed may not only damage the target ship, but the
crew will most likely have trouble staying at their
stations. Some will be thrown to the deck, while the
unlucky ones may go overboard or even be killed by
the impact.
2.2.1.2 R amming Follow Up
To represent this disorder after being rammed, and
After calculating the effect of the impact on the ships
in addition to any structural loss, the defending ship
involved, and provided the target ship has not been sunk
receives 1 Chaos token ( ).
outright, the attacking player must resolve one of the
following effects:
14

Boarding (Optional)
Splitting a ship
The ramming ship is rotated at the point of impact
When a ship is sunk as a consequence of a ramming
and placed alongside the defending ship, ensuring
action, it is defined as being split.
the maximum contact occurs between the two ships
The defending player removes the destroyed ship and (usually side by side). A boarding action is then resolved
the attacker may move the ramming ship, up to 3" in the between the two ships involved. The ships count as
direction of the ramming attack. Once the attacking ship is being grappled together.
in its final position, the defending player must then place 2
shipwreck tokens no more than 1" from either side of the Reverse (Optional)
attacking ship but without touching any part of the model. The ramming ship can immediately move directly
No further boarding or aggressive actions can be taken, backwards its normal movement distance (3" in the case
and the wreck of the destroyed ship must then follow the of a Trireme) finishing the ramming action. If a ship has
rules for Sinking Ships. any manoeuvres left, these can be resolved normally.
Bounce Off (Compulsory)
If a ramming action doesn’t cause the loss of any
structural points in the target ship, the ships involved
bounce off each other.
In these cases, the attacking ship will also receive 1
Chaos token ( ) and the players must resolve a
Drifting movement for both ships.
First, the defending ship Drifts as if the attacking ship Shipwreck & Debris Markers
was the direction of the predominant current. After
Shipwreck markers represent the bow and stern of a ship
that Drift is resolved, the attacking ship always Drifts
that is sinking after losing all its structure points.
forwards in the direction of the attack, placing the Drift
template against the bow of the ship. A shipwreck marker is treated exactly as any other
obstacle or ship during the game, and that means that
Ships that bounce off can end up colliding with other
any ships that enter into contact with it must stop on its
ships or other scenery elements on the board. In this case,
edge and resolve a collision (see page 11).
resolve as a collision (see page 11).
A shipwreck marker interferes when tracing lines of sight
Sinking ships like any other piece of terrain on the tabletop.
A ship sinking to the depths is a dramatic part of
Thalassa; terrified sailors and marines yelling out trying to
save themselves, holding onto anything that floats, whilst
around them the groan and crack of splintering wood
Shipwreck marker
mixes with the gurgling of the water as the hungry sea
steadily devours the vessel.
When a ship loses all its Structure points, it is considered
to be sinking. As soon as this happens, the controlling The opposite side of the shipwreck markers represent
player replaces the miniature of the ship with a shipwreck the debris left after the main mass of the wreck has
token. been engulfed by the waters. During the end phase, all
shipwreck markers should be flipped over to be turned
The shipwreck token is made of two halves representing into debris markers.
the sinking bow and stern of the ship. To place the token
correctly, the two halves must be separated by a 2" gap as
shown in the example below.
All the ship’s crew and engines of war are automatically Debris marker

15
lost except for any crew-stand with a hero and the
Navarch if they were aboard.
When a ship sinks, the opposing player receives the VP A debris marker can be ignored when shooting or
rewarded by that ship regardless of the reason the ship declaring manoeuvres. However, a ship that enters into
lost its last structure point. contact with a debris marker must pass a Mastery test to
avoid the flotsam of the wreck. If the test fails, the player
must resolve a collision (as explained on page 11).
Once the contact with the debris has been resolved, the
controlling player must remove the debris counter and
continue its activation normally.
If after declaring a ramming action, the selected course
on the ramming template crosses a feature of debris,
the attacking player must first determine the effect of
the debris before continuing with the resolution of the
ramming movement.
If the Mastery test to avoid the debris succeeds, no bonus
for the course or length is received, although penalties
still apply normally.
If a collision occurs, the ramming stalls immediately at
that point.
 Shipwrecked characters 2.2.2 AWAY BOARDERS!
During the battle, opposing ships come together and the
When a Hero or the Navarch are present crews begin engaging in bloody battles on their decks.
on a ship that sinks, place the corresponding character
crew-stand and/or the Navarch token anywhere within 1" Generally, a ship’s fighting force is fairly standard, with
of any of the shipwreck or debris tokens. This represents a handful of hoplites or marines ready to defend the
those individuals hoping to be rescued. rowers with the support of any of the sailors on deck.
The best commanders, however, can exploit the options
If a friendly ship ends its operations phase within 2" of a to man the ships of their fleets in the most effective way.
shipwrecked character, they can be rescued and included They can add toxotai (archers), peltasts (mercenaries), or
as part of the ship’s crew, displacing a lesser crew-stand of other effective shock infantry. Crew complements can be
the player’s choice if there are no free crew slots aboard. customised to fit the Navarch’s battle plan.
The Navarch replaces the captain of the rescuing ship,
which becomes the new flagship. During the game, a captain’s manoeuvres and orders can
bring two opposing ships into a close quarters battle.
These boarding actions must be resolved immediately
after the closing manoeuvre is completed, be it a
ramming action or an approach that leads to throwing
Designer’s Notes
grapples and jamming enemy ships.
Historical references suggest that in many cases,
Regardless of the cause of the engagement, we assume
the crews of attacking ships often calculated their
that the crew of both ships are hurling themselves
ram attacks to damage but not sink the targets.
at each other, defending their ships, and battling the
Whilst we wanted to keep the tabletop relatively
enemy across decks, swinging from line to line in a most
clear of unnecessary debris by removing ships
cinematic and brutal display.
after they lost all their structure points, we wanted
to reward multiple precision strikes rather than To resolve such desperate confrontations, both players
all out brutal ramming. In a way, this encourages must follow the steps explained next.
the ‛milking of Victory Pointsʼ at the expense of
16

leaving enemy ships seaworthy. This gives a choice

to the players in how they conduct their attacks and
encourages historical tactics.
 BOAR DING
1. REPEL BOAR DERS
If any of the engaging ships have weapon
ry that can be used to Repel Boarders (x),
roll as many dice as indicated between the they can now
brackets (x) to attempt to reduce the stren
the enemy attack. As usual, any result of 6+ gth of
is a success. Repel boarders can only affec
round of a boarding action. t the first
For ever y success rolled while repelling boar
ders, the opposing player must discard one
Attack Dice from their dice pool. No arm of their
our saves are allowed, and no wounds are
scored.
2. PR EPA RE THE AT TACK DICE PO
OL
Both players create an Attack Dice pool by
adding together the Attack Dice (AD) valu
the profile of each crew stand participating es from
in the boarding action. This also includes
contributed by engines of war. When calc any AD
ulating the Attack Dice pool remember to
apply:
• -1D10 for ever y hit received in the prev
ious Repel Boarders step.
• -1D10 for ever y Chaos token ( ) accu
mulated.
3. ROLL THE AT TACK DICE
Once the final number of attack dice is esta
blished, both players roll them simultaneous
to hit their opponent on scores of 6+. Befo ly, trying
re rolling to hit, consider that some melee

17
score hits with better or worse results, or crew may
produce modifiers to the enemy armour save
they hit. Roll these separately or use diffe when
rent coloured dice to avoid confusion.
4. ROLL AR MOUR SAV ES
Each side then makes Armour Saves (AS)
to try and cancel enemy hits. Players can choo
use their crew’s best remaining AS value agai se to
nst all hits suffered during a boarding actio
excludes any engine of war as it is not cons n. This
idered crew but an integral part of the ship
’s structure.
Any hit that is not cancelled reduces the
Resilience of a crew-stand by 1 point. Wh
Resilience value of a crew-stand reaches 0, en the
that base must be removed as a casualty. If
is more than 1 crew-stand eligible to be rem there
oved, the controlling player can choose whi
remove first. ch to
Any excess of uncancelled hits that don’t
remove a full crew-stand must be marked
Wound tokens ( ), keeping them next to using
the ship until the next end phase since subs
boarding or firing actions against the sam equent
e ship can continue to accumulate injury
crew stands are eliminated. until new

5. DE TERMINE THE WI NN ER
Compare the uncancelled hits produced by
both sides (don’t forget those accrued on
crew stands) to determine the overall winn removed
er of the boarding action.
 BOARDING ACTION OUTCOME
DRAW
Both sides score the same uncancelled hits
Both ships receive 1 Chaos token ( ). The defending ship (the one that received the boarding action)
may choose to continue fighting or to cut grapples and disengage, as explained below, unless the
ship’s paths to disengage are blocked, in which case the combat must continue.
WIN
One side scores more uncancelled hits
The losing ship receives 1 Chaos token ( ). The winner of the boarding action may choose to
continue fighting or to cut grapples and disengage unless the ship’s paths to disengage are blocked, in
which case the combat must continue.

2.2.2.1 Combat 2.2.3 UNLEASH FIRE

If the combat continues, assume the crews are securing The captain of a ship can choose to give an Unleash Fire
the lines to keep both ships grappled together to create order. This allows engines of war and any crew-stands
a more stable platform for combat. To represent this, armed with ranged weapons to resolve a shooting action
the controlling player of the winning side must now against enemy ships.
reposition their ship to allow the maximum contact
A ship may carry several crew-stands and/or engines of
surface between the ships involved with the minimum
war capable of shooting projectiles. A player may target
18

movement possible.
multiple ships by assigning individual ranged crew-stands
In case of a draw, the defending player is considered the or engines of war to target each ship. For example, a ship
winning side when it comes to rearranging the ships. with two ranged crew-stands and one engine of war may
engage up to three ships if they are eligible targets.
Once the ships are grappled together, the boarding action
will continue in the next round following the regular To resolve a shooting action, check that the target is in
cycle of initiative and activation. the arc of fire of the weapons used. Unless they have any
restrictions in their profile, most ranged weapons have an
2.2.2.2 Cutting Grapples
arc of fire of 360°.
When a ship cuts grapples with another ship, the crew parts
After ensuring that the target is in the arc, the attacking
the ropes, frees the hooks, and uses long poles to break free
player measures the distance between the firing crew-
from the enemy ship and end the boarding action.
stand or engine of war and the closest point on the target
To cut grapples, the controlling player (the player that model’s hull. This should ignore the line of oars, masts,
declared they wanted to cut grapples) can move either ship and any other protruding parts such as the ram or flags.
to create up to a 3" gap between them. Ships being moved
The player then checks to confirm that the target is
when cutting grapples cannot change their facing at all.
within the maximum range of the weapon being fired, as
The movement that occurs when cutting grapples is too shown on their game profile. If the target is within range,
slow to create a collision even if the ship comes into the shooting can proceed.
contact with an obstacle as a result of this manoeuvre. In
To resolve the shooting order, the attacking player rolls a
this case, the ship simply stops at the edge of the obstacle.
number of dice equal to the Shooting Dice (SD) value of
In contrast, a ship that is pushed into a current or water all ranged crew-stands or engines of war participating in
elements that define riffs, banks, or shallow waters, that single shooting action.
continues to suffer the consequences of these, and they
must be resolved imediately.
2.2.3.1 Obscured Targets
When the target of a shooting action is not perfectly It may be necessary to lower your head to the table and
visible to the attacking ship (being partially covered by sight over the firing ship’s hull to see if there is anything
another ship, any shipwreck markers, or terrain features, obscuring the target.
for example), a -1 penalty applies to the result of any
Players are advised to use common sense in determining
Shooting Dice rolls.
whether a target is partially or fully covered when
If the target has more than half of its silhouette covered, declaring ranged attacks and must agree before rolling
the line of sight is considered blocked, and the shot the dice.
cannot be resolved.
If there are still doubts about a shooting attack, the most
Ships involved in boarding actions are considered to sensible thing is to look for a clearer target and not hinder
be blocked targets, and shooting actions against them the game unnecessarily. As a last resort, roll a dice-off to
cannot be declared. determine if the target is obscured or blocked with the
winner making the final call.

U N LE A SH F IR E
1. PR EPA R E T H
E SHOOT ING D
IC E POOL
The attacking player
creates a Shooting D
(SD) value from th ice pool by summin
e profile of each crew g together the Shoo
-stand participating ting Dice
2. ROLL T HE SH in each separate shootin
OOT ING DICE g attack.
(SD)
The attacking player
then rolls their chos
attack in turn, need en number of dice fro

19
ing 6+ for a success. m the pool for each
to these dice rolls. C onsider any penalties shooting
or bonuses that may
be applied
3. ROLL A R MOU
R SAV ES
The defending play
er makes armour sa
upgrades may increa ves to cancel enemy
se the chances of ca hits. Remember that
ncelling hits scored certain
Players may always by the enemy.
use the best saving
roll aboard the ship
Any uncancelled hi for all the hits receive
t is classed as a woun d.
1 point. W hen the d an d re du ce s th e re
resilience value of a silience of a crew-sta
choice is removed fro stand reaches 0, a cr nd by
m play. ew-stand of the cont
rolling player’s
Players must allocat
e wounds to the sam
removed. A second e stand until its resil
stand cannot receive ience is reduced to
wounds if a previous 0 and it is
Leftover hits are ca one still has wounds
rried over until the remaining.
same ship can contin end phase as boarding
ue depleting crew-s or shooting actions
tands. against the
4. R ECEIV E CH
AOS TOK ENS (
After resolving the )
shooting action, if at
1 Chaos token ( least one hit was scor
) to represent the eff ed, the target ship re
1 Chaos token ( ects of being under ceives
) for ever y enemy sh fire. A ship can only ev
attacks received durin ip shooting at it rega er receive
g that shooting actio rdless of the numbe
n. r of shooting
 2.2.4 RALLYING
BLAZE TOKENS
A disciplined crew with good morale is essential in combat. However,
some elements of the crew may not be as enthusiastic about fighting when To represent the effect
things aren’t going according to plan. Fear and fatigue may take a toll, the of fire aboard the ship,
crew may hesitate, squabble, or even mutiny. Good captains know how and players may place Blaze
when to intervene to rally their crew through personal charisma, stirring tokens on top of or
actions, or an iron fist. next to the ship’s model. A Blaze
In the game, the effects of combat fatigue, stress, or fear are represented by token has the same effect as a
the accumulation of Chaos tokens ( ). Chaos token ( ) and indicates
When the ship receives the Rally captain’s order, the controlling player can that the ship is Disadvantaged for
remove 1 Chaos token ( ) or 1 Blaze token ( ) immediately. all Mastery tests and any other
additional effects.
Additionally, the player can discard any fleet command dice to remove 1
additional Chaos token ( ) or 1 additional Blaze token ( ) for every
fleet command dice spent while rallying.

3. END PHASE
Once all ships on both sides have been activated, the end phase begins. Here the players attend to the status of their
ships. Both players can perform these tasks simultaneously unless something requires a particular sequence. In such
cases, these are carried out in the order of the player with the highest initiative first.
20

• Resolve Broken, Unmanned, and Sunken Ships

• Fleet Upkeep

3.1 BROKEN, UNMANNED, AND SUNKEN SHIPS

3.1.1 BROKEN SHIPS
As the ship takes more damage and casualties, the crew’s morale can fall, eroding fighting spirit to the point they
succumb to hopelessness, surrendering to the enemy, or even mutinying.
When a ship has accumulated more Chaos tokens ( ) than its Governance value (Gov), the morale of the ship is
considered broken, and it is marked with the Broken token.
During the end phase, the controlling player of a Broken ship must take a Mastery test to try and regain control of
the ship. Remember to apply the Disadvantaged penalty to this Mastery test as normal.

The Captain’s Will

If the test is passed, the player removes the Broken token and retains as many Chaos tokens ( ) as its Gov value.
Mutiny
If the test is failed, 1 crew-stand or engine of war is lost, and the ship remains Broken.
3.1.2 UNMANNED SHIPS 3.1.3 SUNKEN SHIPS
If a ship has had all crew-stands When a ship loses its last structure point, it immediately
removed as casualties, it is considered sinks; its miniature is replaced by the two-part shipwreck
abandoned or unmanned and adrift. token (as explained on page 15).
From now on, the controlling player must resolve a Drift
In the end phase, all shipwreck tokens on the tabletop turn
at the end of each operations phase instead of activating
into debris tokens to represent the steady sinking of the
that ship. This continues each round until the ship is
ship until it will completely rest at the bottom of the sea.
captured or scuttled.
Simply turn the shipwreck markers on the spot, so they
3.1.2.1 Scuttling a ship show their debris side.
An unmanned ship can be easily sunk by simply Similarly, any debris tokens on the board are removed in
smashing holes under the waterline or setting it on the end phase.
fire. This is called scuttling the ship, and it destroys it
with no chance of recovery. An unmanned ship can be
scuttled in the end phase if an enemy ship is within 1"
3.2 FLEET UPKEEP
of it. The enemy ship’s controlling player simply declares
3.2.1 RESILIENCE
their intention to scuttle the unmanned ship, and the
miniature is replaced by wreck markers (see Sinking During this step, all excess unallocated crew hits that
Ships on page 15). remain are removed from each ship, leaving crew-stands
clear of hits for the new round.
3.1.2.2 Recovering / capturing a ship
3.2.2 PUT OUT FIRES
Alternatively, a ship can be recrewed with any number
of crew-stands (but not engines of war) transferred from When a ship has any Blaze tokens, it is classed as on fire.
another ship within 1" of an unmanned ship. The captain can try to put the fire out at this moment.
To do so, the controlling player must take a Mastery
If the ship is resupplied with friendly crew-stands, the
test reducing its result by -1 for every Blaze token ( )
owning player recovers the ship and regains control of it
accumulated.

21
with a basic Mastery level of 4+ from then on.
• If the test is passed, the ship discards 1 Blaze
If the ship is resupplied with enemy crew, the ship
token ( ).
is captured, and the enemy player takes control of it,
activating the ship during the following operations phase • If the test fails, the Blaze token/s ( ) remain, and
with a basic Mastery level of 6+. effects are now resolved.
A captured ship must remove any engines of war left, • If the Mastery test fails with a natural 1, the ship
except any built-in towers. receives 1 additional Blaze token ( ) as the
fire spreads.
If a captured ship fails its Mastery test, it must complete
a Drift immediately and misses its operations phase. The The penalty for being Disadvantaged does not affect the
ship can still defend during boarding actions if attacked, Mastery test for putting out the fire.
including the repelling of boarders if applicable. A ship with any Blaze tokens ( ) remaining at the
During a campaign: if at the end of the game a player completion of the end phase will lose 1 structure point
holds any captured ships, they receive a reward in coin as that cannot be cancelled with an armour save. This can, of
shown on the captured ship’s profile. course, cause the ship to sink normally.
Blaze tokens ( ) also count as Chaos tokens ( ) and
must be considered for the effects of ship morale and
rallying (see page 20).
 ASSEMBLING A FLEET
Before assembling a fleet, players must decide on its size. Games of Thalassa are played in increments of recruitment
points; these reflect the worth of ships of different classes - generally war galleys.
When recruiting the fleet, players must use the Fleet One of a Kind
of Hellas list in this rulebook and chose their core
The Navarch has received their rank through being a
nation’s ‘Ship Nationality Rule’ from Athens, Sparta,
great strategist, a great warrior, or a great leader. At the
Corinth, or Crete.
beginning of the game, players must declare the type of
Each player must spend at least 75% of their total Navarch they have selected, and that choice will determine
recruitment points on ships and upgrades from that certain advantages for the flagship or even the fleet.
state’s fleet list.
It is very common for other states to offer support in Strategist
the form of ships and patronage, sometimes creating With a perfect grasp of strategy and understanding of
truly eclectic fleets made up of ships and resources the strengths and weaknesses of the forces under their
from many states. command, the Navarch always knows what the best
Players can spend up to 25% of their recruitment course of action is to follow. The controlling player can
points on ships of different city states. When doing change one of the command dice results rolled in the
this, those ships will benefit from their own Ship Command phase to the result of their choice. Where
Nationality Rule. both players have a strategist Navarch, the player that
scored less Manoeuvring results ( ) must change their
Every ship selected already includes a crew of sailors at dice first.
no cost to sail and fight with it.
Legendary Warrior
This is no ordinary mortal, possessing almost godlike
THE FLAGSHIP martial skills. Easily able to defeat even the most talented
22

warriors of the enemy, the Navarch has fought in many

One of the ships in the fleet must carry the Navarch, bloody battles, both at sea and on land. The flagship can
the commander of the fleet. The selected ship becomes roll two additional D10s on every boarding action per
the flagship of the fleet and must be clearly identified turn. In addition, all attacks receive +1 to hit during a
during the game. boarding action.
A ship receives the following benefits while it is acting Inspiring Leader
as the flagship: A charismatic leader and speaker, the mere presence of
this Navarch is enough to inspire the best performance
Sea Dog from the crews of the fleet. Any friendly ship within
The ship counts as having Mastery level 2+ regardless 10” of the flagship receives +1 to any Mastery tests they
of its original Mastery level. must take. In addition, they can benefit from the High
Command Blessing ( ) token received by the flagship
High Command once per turn.
The flagship receives one Blessing token ( ) at the
beginning of each command phase. This Blessing token
( ) can only affect the flagship but can turn into a
VP normally at the end of the turn if unused.
SHIP MASTERY LEVELS
After selecting the ships that will make up the fleet, For example, an Athenian Trireme, the Alysodeménos, has
players must decide if they want to invest recruitment three crew slots. The ship comes manned with three stands
points in increasing the default 4+ Mastery level of the of armed oarsmen (included in the cost of the ship), but the
ships. Any ship in the fleet can have their Mastery level controlling player decides to reinforce the ship’s combat element
upgraded by spending the recruitment points as follows: by recruiting one stand of hoplites at a cost of +4 points to
the ship’s total. The fighting capabilities of the ship are now
represented by two stands of armed oarsmen and one stand of
hoplite warriors.
ENGINES OF WAR UPGRADES
Engines of war are represented by specific stands that
can be fitted into a ship model’s crew slots. A ship can
recruit as many engines of war stands as it has crew slots
available in the ship unless the fleet list says otherwise.
Also, unless otherwise described, an engine of war cannot
receive upgrades.
Following the example above, the player controlling the
CREW-STANDS Alysodeménos decides to incorporate a command tower to
Each crew-stand represents the brave souls who sail and receive certain strategic advantages. The player substitutes one
crew these ships in battle. of the armed oarsmen crew-stands for the tower adding the
cost of +7 points to the total value of the ship.
A crew-stand can represent many different types of crew,
from sailors (the basic lightly armed element of the ship, During a boarding action, a ship with no crew stands left
tasked to defend it from an attack) to more specialised must allocate unsaved hits to engines of war to represent
fighting men such as archers, hoplites, and marines. the attacker decimating the crew or destroying the actual

23
Basic crew is included in the ship’s base recruitment cost. construction. This is the only way a regular crew-stand
More combat capable crew-stands will cost additional can target an engine of war.
recruitment points. All engines of war are considered to have the same
CREW-STAND UPGRADES Resilience as Structure value when involved in a
boarding action.
Unless special restrictions apply, a player can acquire as
many crew-stands as there are crew slots to fill in the HERO UPGRADES
fleet’s ships. The types recruited and assigned to a ship Heroes of the classical period are often described as
should be clearly identified on the ship’s deck by using playing pivotal roles in battles and deciding the fate of
different crew-stand models, tokens, or some other nation states. The stories of their actions and gallant deeds
convenient method to identify them. often became the root of myths and legends through
Some crew-stands can receive upgrades in the form of continued retelling.
special equipment (for example, incendiary projectiles or When a named hero is available to be included as part of
siege equipment) or the addition of champions, heroes, their fleet, players should represent them with their own
and leaders. impressive crew-stand, taking up one of the crew slots
While a generic crew upgrade can be applied to either available to the ship.
melee or ranged weapon crew-stands, some upgrades are The restriction on heroes present in a fleet will be
specific to melee or ranged weapon crew types, and they indicated by the hero himself, but only one hero can be
cannot be mixed. All crew special abilities apply so long recruited on a ship.
as that upgraded stand is present on the ship. A crew-
stand can only ever receive one upgrade.
 For example, a player choosing their fleet to be Corinthian
could recruit ships from Crete to add their excellent archery
skills. However, the Corinthian ships cannot have Cretan
Designer’s Notes archers aboard and nor can the Cretan ship host Corinthian
Legendary heroes are unique, and only one of the Epibatai (marines).
same named characters can be on the same side in
If a ship’s crew slots are refilled with crew from an allied
a battle. If, however, two fleets fighting against each
ship of a different nation, it is treated as a captured ship.
other include the same heroic crew-stand, you can
For the game effects of captured ships, see page 21.
interpret that perhaps none of them are the actual
hero but an equally heroic warrior that was often When a special rule, upgrade, or character refers to a
mistaken for the named hero. particular state or nation, only the ships from that state
are affected by them.

CLASH OF ALLIES
MELTING POT OF ALLIANCES Due to the idiosyncrasies of shifting alliances when
assembling the fleet, a player might face an enemy fleet
One of the most interesting and eccentric characteristics with allied ships that come from the first player’s nation
of the Hellenistic period is that of its alliances. The state. For example, a player fields a Corinthian fleet with
Mediterranean and Aegean Sea region, known in Athenian allies, and the opposing player fields a Spartan
this period collectively as the Hellas, was made up of fleet with Corinthian allies. To handle this players must
myriad independent Greek nation states of all sizes and follow Nations & Pirates, Allies & Pirates, and Civil War
power called poleis. These and other local powers, such rules (see below).
as the Macedonian, Egyptian, Carthaginian, Sicilian,
and Achaemenid Persian empires, continually formed Nations & Pirates
and broke alliances among themselves with the goal of
The core nation of a fleet always takes precedence over
24

achieving local dominion or influencing the balance of

power to preserve their own independence and trade the allied nations. The matching allied ships become
routes. pirates. A pirate ship loses their Ship Nationality Rule
and is classed as pirate ship.
The Greek city-states occasionally formed leagues of
For example, if a player fields a Corinthian fleet with
allied member states when faced by large threats, such as
Athenian allies, and the opposing player fields a Spartan
during the fight for survival in the Persian wars, or the
fleet with Corinthian allies, the first player maintains the
quest for local dominance in the Peloponnesian Wars
Corinthian nationality of their fleet, whereas the opponent’s
during the 5th Century BC. These leagues, however, were
Corinthian ships become pirates.
often short lived and unstable, with the concept of loyalty
and commitment only lasting until the interests and A llies & Pirates
fortunes of member nation states overcame the interests
of the alliance. If both players have allies from the same nation-state,
both players must roll-off on 1D10 for each nationality
The first thing a player must decide when recruiting their
they share, adding +1 to the result for each ship of that
fleet is the state or nation they want to play as. A list of
nationality they possess.
different nations is supplied in this rulebook, all of them
manifesting nuances and special traits that make them The player with the highest result maintains the
interesting to play. nationality chosen at the time of recruiting the fleet,
whilst the loser treats their allied ships as pirate ships.
It is important to note that when forming a fleet that
For example, an Athenian fleet with a Corinthian ship and
includes allied states or nations, all crew and engines of
two Cretan ships faces a Spartan fleet with three Corinthian
war must be selected from the appropriate nation’s fleet
ships as allies. Both players roll 1D10 for the Corinthian clash
list independently; they cannot be mixed with stands
with the first player adding +1 to their result (one Corinthian
from other nations.
ship in the fleet) and the second player +3 (three Corinthian
allied ships in the fleet). The second player wins the roll-off VICTORY POINTS
and keeps the Corinthian nationality of their ships, whereas
Victory Points (VP) are accumulated during a game
the first player turns their Corinthian ship into a pirate vessel.
through three main sources: the victory conditions of the
scenario being played, the accumulation of the unused
Blessing tokens that turn into Victory Points in the end
PIRATES phase of each round, and the VP earned when destroying
enemy ships and other prized targets.
Pirate Ship Rule Each ship has two Victory Points values on their
profile. The one in the small circle is the VP awarded
The crew of a pirate ship is usually made up of veteran to the opponent every time the ship is crippled during
sailors and experienced mercenaries selling their a hostile action. The value in the large circle is the VP
services to the highest bidder and only loyal to their awarded to the opponent when the ship is sunk.
captain and their pay.
Value of Resources
Pirate ships do not benefit from any Ship Nationality
Rule. Instead, pirate ships receive a +1 to the result of Most ships also have a number in coin that represents
any Mastery test. the value of the resources the ship is made of. This is a
precious asset for a fleet that captures an enemy ship. This
The Admiral cannot start the game on a pirate ship or value is mainly relevant to continuous games during a
be transferred to or be rescued by a pirate ship. campaign, but is also used during one-off games to decide
the outcome of the game in the case of a draw. The side
with more coin will be the winner.
Civil War In this example, a typical Trireme
When two players face each other with the core of their generates 2VP for the attacker
fleets chosen from the same nation, we assume they are every time it is crippled after
fighting a conflict between influential families or the resolving an attack. If a Trireme

25
state has simply broken into bloody civil war. When this sinks, the player sinking it will
happens, both players keep the nationality of their ships receive +3 VP.
as normal. Of course, the rules for pirates when allied Additionally, the Trireme
nations clash still apply. generates 50 coins if captured at the end of the game.
 SHIPS
Perhaps the key achievement of the war galley evolution
Without doubt the most important element in Thalassa was their clever design that allowed a progressive increase
is the ships and their crews. Thalassa is designed to be in size, which allowed more soldiers, marines, and
played with 6mm miniatures (1:285 scale). engines of war to be carried along with increased cargo
During the naval wars of the classical period, between capacity for an invading force. All this without losing
the 5th and 2nd Centuries BC, battles were resolved the flexibility and speed that made the war galleys the
using war vessels with relatively low profiles propelled ultimate weapon at sea.
by lines of oarsmen. In smaller ship classes like the In this first release of Thalassa, we concentrate on two
triēris (or triaconteres) and the pentēris (or penteconters), very distinctive war galleys: the Penteconter (or pentēre)
the oarsmen also doubled as the combat force aboard and the Trireme (or triēre).
the ship. Contrary to popular belief, and with some
exceptions, oarsmen were citizens who served the ship for
a salary. Some nations, such as Sparta, employed Helots
or other subjugated or lower-caste citizens in exchange
for privileges or citizenship.
RESTRICTIONS
As warships became larger and more specialised, rows of When a type of crew-stand, an engine of war, or an
dedicated oarsmen would serve as the engine of the ship upgrade is limited to a certain amount per ship, this
while the Epibatai - armed marines - and other soldier is indicated with a 0-X ,where X is the maximum
types like Toxotai - archers - and hoplites - regular army amount of that crew-stand, engine of war, or upgrade
soldiers - would defend the ship, and if the chance arose, allowed to a ship.
board the enemy ships after impact.
Following the same principle, sometimes a type of
The main role of all war galleys changed very little troop, especially characters, may be a compulsory
throughout the period; to cripple or sink the enemy ships requirement. In this case, the entry will be indicated
with their heavy bow mounted and extremely expensive with a 1-X, where 1 is the minimum of that troop
26

bronze rams (embolon). Row after row of oarsmen turned type allowed and X the maximum allowed.
the ship into a projectile to smash its ram into the enemy
ship, often with catastrophic results. It was not until the In both cases, X might be replaced by ANY, in
clash for dominance in the Mediterranean between Rome which case there is no limit to the number of units
and Carthage that the war galley evolved from a simple of that type.
ramming vessel to a fighting platform where hoplites and
legionnaires would clash en-masse after impact.
 MAIN SHIPS
Most of the fleets from the different states described in this book charter ships of similar characteristics, seamanship,
and performance. Although the presence of these varies in ratio according to the state, the conflict, or the historical
moment, for the purposes of the game, the fleets presented in this rulebook are composed of two main types of war
galleys: the Trireme and the Penteconter.

THE TRIREME
The greatest naval revolution during the ancient era was the development of a new war galley design, the Trireme
(or triēre). It incorporated a larger deck, deeper draft, and heavier ram whilst still maintaining the speed and
manoeuvrability of its predecessors. With around 150 oarsmen arranged three to an oar, the trireme was fast enough
and heavy enough to perform its role as a ramming vessel. Being a larger ship, it also had a greater capacity to carry
troops and war supplies to support a seaborne invasion.
At its height, the Trireme was the battleship of the ancient world.

HULL
ARMOUR
DENOMINATION MOVEMENT MASS STRUCTURE GOV
SAVE
Front Side Back

Hellenic Trireme 3" 6 (7) 3 6 6 6 6+ 3

Ram - Add +1 to the Mass when ramming (already included on the profile). Benefit from +1 Armour saves against impacts received on the Front Hull.

27
Crew Slots (3) - The Hellenic Trireme is manned by 3 armed Oarsmen crew stands that can be upgraded with any of the options available on the
fleet selector list of their corresponding city state.

Foredeck Slots (1) - Can select up to one foredeck upgrade from those available on the Ship Upgrades list.

CREW* RESILIENCE
ARMOUR
SAVE
AD/MOD SD/MOD RANGE
2VP
3VP
Armed
Oarsmen
3 8+ 3/- -/- -

NOTES
50
Mastery Level (Novice)
The starting Mastery level of the crew of a Hellenic Trireme is Novice (4+). This can be
upgraded when assembling the fleet at the cost in points indicated in the rules.
COST 75
 AUXILIARY SHIPS
As the larger war galleys became more effective, smaller ships of the line were relegated to auxiliary and support duties.
Also, in times of total war, even merchant ships were taken up and repurposed as troop transport, artillery, and siege
platforms, and even incendiary battle rams!
All auxiliary ships follow the combined tasks rule below. An auxiliary ship cannot start the game carrying the Navarch.
However, this character can normally be transferred to an auxiliary ship during gameplay as usual.

COMBINED TASKS
Most auxiliary ships are manned by a crew that conducts the duties of controlling and handling the ship as well
as defending it during combat. To represent this multi-tasking role, the ships have their own integral crew and
war machine stats instead of crew slots.
Auxiliary ships cannot capture other vessels as they have no men to act as prize crew. If captured by the enemy,
these auxiliary vessels continue to use their basic crew stat line, and the capturing ship simply discards one of
their crew-stands instead of transferring it to the captured ship.

THE PENTECONTER
Before the Persian wars, the Penteconter was the warhorse of the Hellenic fleets. It was a fast and agile war galley
propelled by two rows of 25 oarsmen. However, the development and introduction of the powerful Trireme during the
Persian invasion displaced the Penteconter and other similar smaller ships from the front line to the role of skirmishing
and outflanking as part of a larger fleet.
28

HULL
ARMOUR
DENOMINATION MOVEMENT MASS STRUCTURE GOV
SAVE
Front Side Back

Hellenic
Penteconter 3" 4 (5) 2 5 5 5 7+ 2

Ram - Add +1 to the Mass when ramming (already included on the profile). Benefit from +1 Armour saves against impacts received on the Front Hull.

Swift - Instead of a captain’s order, a Penteconter can resolve an additional manoeuvre action during the operations phase.

Small - When a Penteconter sinks, it only produces one of the two halves of the sink token to represent its smaller size.

Ship Upgrades - A Penteconter cannot receive ship upgrades with the ‘Trireme’ keyword in their description title.

CREW* RESILIENCE
ARMOUR
SAVE
AD/MOD SD/MOD RANGE
1VP
2VP
Oarsmen 3 8+ 3/- -/- -

Marines 3 7+ 3/- 2/- 12"

20
NOTES

Mastery Level (Novice)

The starting Mastery level of the crew of a Hellenic Penteconter is Novice (4+). This can
be upgraded following the rules for assembling a fleet.
Marines (+10 pts)
A Penteconter can be manned by a hand of well trained Marines instead of its basic crew
COST 40
of Oarsmen for an additional cost of 10 points.
 FLEET LIST: THE FLEETS OF HELLAS
The domain of the Greek culture throughout the Mediterranean, the Aegean Sea, and the Black
Sea is known as the Hellas.
The concept of a Greek nation or empire does not exist yet, as all states (also known as poleis) and
their corresponding colonies maintain a general independence and autonomy, while benefiting
from a common and secured trading and cultural area.
This strong cultural and socioeconomic relationship often leads to Hellenic states joining forces,
creating leagues to face common enemies like the constant Persian menace or the growing
Carthaginian presence in the west Mediterranean and the north coasts of Alkebulan (Africa).
Conversely, their strong pledge for their own sovereignty sees the different poleis fighting against each other when a
surge of imperialism within the Hellas itself threatens their independence. This melting pot of independent states, and
the threats they are subject to, generates continuous alliances and confrontations with little long-term commitment;
each polis’ interests are always prevalent.
Only the state of Athens has a permanent fleet, which is well-paid and maintained by the many tributes they receive
from smaller states in exchange for protection. The rest of the states commission their fleet only in times of conflict,
recruiting their well-paid and trained oarsmen from their citizens as conscripts.
The most common ship of a Hellenic fleet is the mighty trireme, a war galley powered by 170 armed oarsmen that will
defend the ship against any aggression. Most triremes also carry a contingent of well-armoured and disciplined hoplites
and other types of troops the state can provide. The ships are commanded by a trierarch to ensure that all operations
and manoeuvrings are executed precisely, no small task considering the amount of hands that need to be coordinated
for the warship to work.
It is quite common that a fleet from a state recieves the support of other states as allies, who contribute with their own

29
ships. These, although under the command of the Navarchs (the admiral of the fleet), operate in slightly different ways
according to their traditions, abilities, and resources.

INDEPENDENT STATES
Ship Nationality Rule
To represent the particularities of each Polis when assembling their fleets, the players must decide to which nation
they belong. Ships from that polis benefit accordingly from the following Ship Nationality Rule:
Athens -Profesional Fleet: All Athenian ships in the fleet can re-roll any roll of 1 when making their
Mastery tests.
Sparta - Death before Defeat: All Spartan ships in the fleet may re-roll any roll to hit result of 1 during
the first round of combat after declaring a boarding action.
Crete - The Honour of Artemis: All Cretan ships in the fleet can re-roll any result of 1 when rolling to
hit with range weapons during a Shooting action.
Corinth - No Coin without Corinth: All Corinthian ships, crew, and ship upgrades in the fleet cost 10% less
recruitment points, rounding all fractions up. For example, a Trireme costs 68 recruitment points instead of 75.
Corinthian Hoplites will still cost 4 points (4 - 0.4 = 3.6, rounding up = 4).
Note that, as usual, up to 25% of the recruitment cost can be spent on ships of a different nationality from that of
the main body of the fleet (as explained on page 24 - Melting Pot of Alliances).
 A PANTHEON OF GODS
Fleet Command Dice Rule
While each polis of Hellas prides itself on being an independent nation, they all share the worship of
their pantheon of Olympian gods to whom they pay obeisance and trust to bring them luck in battle.
Any ship belonging to a Hellas fleet can change the result on the command dice to any other result.

STANDS COST TYPE RES AS AD/MOD SD/MOD RANGE SPECIAL

Armed Oarsmen 0 melee crew 3 8+ 3/- N/A -

Hoplites 4 melee crew 3 6+ 3/- N/A -

Epibatai
(marines)
6 melee crew 3 7+ 3/- N/A - Repel Boarders (2)

Toxotai Reperl Boarders (2)

(archers)
0 range crew 3 8+ 1/- 3/- 12” Incendiary (+6 pts)
30

Peltast
(mercenaries)
2 range crew 3 7+ 2/- 2/- 6” Mercenary

Oxibeles Structure
(ballista)
6 engine of war
(1)
8+ 1/- 3/-1 18” Incendiary (+6 pts)

Monagon Structure Barrage

(light catapult)
10 engine of war
(1)
8+ 1/- 3/-1 6-24” Incendiary (+10 pts)

THE HELLENIC FLEETS SPECIAL RULES

The Age of the Trireme: A Hellenic fleet must include at least the same number of Triremes as of any other ships,
including any type of auxiliary ships.
Repel Boarders (X): When being targeted by a boarding action, roll 1D10 for every Repel Boarders value the crew on
the ship have. For every 6+ obtained, the attacking player loses 1D10 from their attack pool.
Incendiary (X pts): This upgrade has a cost in points indicated by X for all the crew or engines of war of the same type
on board the ship. If during a shooting action a hit is scored, the target ship receives 1 Blaze token ( ) instead of
1 Chaos token ( ).
Barrage: After resolving any damage to the crew, if at least one impact was scored, roll 1D10 to check if the heavy
projectile affects the structure of the ship. On a result of 6+, the ship loses 1 structure point. This cannot be saved with a
normal armour save but can otherwise be allocated to an engine of war as normal.
 PLAYING A SCENARIO: OPEN ENGAGEMENT
Each game of Thalassa is defined by a scenario that describes the situation, presents both sides with deployment
conditions, and lists any special conditions, including prevailing currents, presence of islands, shallow waters, etc. The
scenario will also list the victory conditions needed to win the game.

ATTACKER AND DEFENDER

The first thing to determine in a scenario is the role that In this introductory scenario, both fleets fight during 4
each side will play. One will be the attacker, the other the complete rounds. At the end of the final round, victory
defender. The victory conditions will often differ based on points are calculated to determine the victor.
which role the players take.

In this scenario, patrolling squadrons of two enemy fleets PREDOMINANT CURRENTS

face each other in neutral coastal waters. There isn’t a
Each scenario indicates the initial direction of the
defined defender or attacker.
predominant currents via an icon on the corresponding
VICTORY CONDITIONS board edge ( ). The direction of the arrows on the icon
indicates the direction of the predominant currents at the
The victory conditions describe the objectives that the start of the game.
attacker and the defender must meet in order to score
Victory Points. The scenario will also describe any special meteorological
conditions that might affect the game, or list any
Generally, the player with the most Victory Points is the modifiers that must be applied to rolls on the weather
winner of the game. However, some scenarios award the table during the End Phase of each round.
victory to the side that manages to accomplish a certain
objective, regardless of the casualties or the enemy ships

31
destroyed. TABLE SET UP
PRIZE SHIPS Create a coastline along the short edge as shown on the
map. The coastline shouldn’t be wider than 8”.
At the end of the game, any captured ship counts as
sunk, scoring their relevant VP for being sunk outright You may keep your tokens, dice, and other gaming
in addition to any Coin rewarded on a campaign game. elements on the coastline to keep the gaming area neat
If any side has captured the enemy flagship, they score an and tidy.
additional 5VP.
DEPLOYMENT ZONES
BREAKING THE ENEMY BATTLELINE
The deployment zones for both sides are defined by
At the end of the game, any friendly ship that is not an area on each opposing table edge up to 12" deep, as
Broken or immobilised, and is occupying the enemy’s marked on the scenario map.
deployment zone, scores a number of Victory Points Players roll off on 1D10 for each board quarter (sector);
equal to its listed Victory Point value. This also applies to the winner can choose to place an element of terrain in it:
any captured enemy ships.
• In scenarios where there is a defender and an attacker,
the defender may add +1 to their D10 score.
GAME LENGTH
• If the dice roll of a player is double that of their
The duration of the game is determined by either opponent, two elements can be placed in that sector
the completion of a number of rounds or by fulfilling instead of one.
certain conditions that can grant a sudden death victory
regardless of the number of rounds played.
6' x 4' AND 5' x 4' TABLETOP

This size of table is recommended for fleets of 300 to 500 recruitment points.
If required, you can omit the coastlines to increase playing area.

DEFENDER DEPLOYMENT ZONE

ATTACKER DEPLOYMENT ZONE

DEFENDER DEPLOYMENT ZONE

4' x 4' TABLETOP

This size of table is recommended for

games featuring fleets of less than 300
recruitment points.
If required, you can omit the coastlines
to increase playing area.
All rules for deployment and victory
conditions apply normally.

ATTACKER DEPLOYMENT ZONE