The Kingdom of Corinthia

[christof139]

Sure, if Corinthia or another landlocked country conquers a country with a Sally on a seashore, then the conquering country gets the conquered country's ship types, easiest and a realistic way to handle it.

A Hemiola is this: It's basically a Bireme, but the upper bank of oars is only about half the number of oars in the lower bank. A Trihemiola might have 2 rowers at each oar at the upper bank of oars and 1 rower at each lower oar, or more improbably a Trihemiola might have 2 upper banks of oars each with 1 rower with each upper bank having half the number of oars as the lowest bank. Seems they were Biremes though, so the first description is probably true. Evidence and desciption lack from primary (original) sources.

I have info. on this and Hellenistic naval warfare, and there is a lot on the inet. Hemiolas were invented to save wood, manpower, and $$$, being smaller than Triremes and even having less crew than Biremes. They first appeared in the hellenistic after Alexander the Great it seems. They could be used in place of Triremes, or as flankers and a reserve in a battle, as raiders and pirates, scouts, couriers etc. They were very manueverable and became a very popular ship. The Illyrians and Macedonians had whole fleets composed solely of Hemiola types and it seems this is the main ship type Med. Pirates used. Seems the Roman Bireme the Liburnian was developed from the Hemiola, and Liburnian types and smaller ships basically became the main Roman warship of the Empire.

Also, it seems the Rhodians at the height of their fame mainly used Hemiolas and perhaps Triremes, but I may be confusing this with another Greek state, but I think it is correct.

'Pentkonter' is a neat sounding word but extra typing is required for it. 'Lazy' is a shorter word and is my substitute for 'Pentekonter'.

***Just substitute 'Pentekonter' for any Quinquereme types and you're all set. Pentekonters had one bank of oars per side, with 1 rower per each of 25-oars. Make the ship bigger and you could have 2-rowers per oar. Add another bank, an upper bank of oars, of 12 or 13 oars with 1 or 2-rowers per oar and you have a Hemiola type ship. ***Add a full upper bank of 25-oars per side with 2 or 3-rowers per oar and have the lower bank with 1 or 2-rowers per oar and you have a Large Trireme with 2-banks of oars with 2-rowers per oar on the upper bank and 1-rower per oar on the lower bank, a Quadrireme with either 3 or 2 rowers per oar on the upper bank and 1 or 2-rowers per oar on the lower bank extra. 2-banks per side with 25-oars in each bank would give you 50 oars per side and an explanation and reason for using the word 'Pentekonter', which would then be a large warship like a Quinquireme.

Quins., Quads., and even later Triremes could have had only 2-banks of oars with more rowers on the upper bank and 1 or 2 rowers on the lower bank, or they may have had 3-banks of oars which is more probable, although Quadrireme may have very well had 2-banks of oars with 2-rowers per oar. The first Triremes had 3-banks of oars with 1-rower per oar. All this is not positively known, but 3-banks of oars seem to be the highest number of banks used for any ships, and modern tests have revealed this to be about 100% true. You may have read of this already, but I just got carried away and it is rather interesting.

Yeah, its too bad someone doesn't incorporate naval combat in a game like MTW-RTW. I guess Empire-TW has this aspect, but is is a gunpowder ers game in the time period 1700-1820, but perhaps someone will mod this ETW for Ancient and Medieval and Ren Era naval actions and land actions too, since ETW will have land warfare.

I'll stick with the MTW-RTW series etc. until a new game or a mod of ETW comes out, and that will be a couple of years.

Naval aspects are secondary in MTW-RTW series, but it's nice to have something in place.

Good luck, Chris

PS: Carthage invented the Quadrireme, which I believe was a Bireme with 2-rowers per oar and it was vary, very fast. however, it did not catch on in a big way within the Hellenistic world because the greeks were happy with their fast Triremes, and the Quinquireme became the main ship of Rome, carthage, and much of the Hellenistic world. Some Greek states did use Quads. though, and I think the Romans had a few either made and/or captured during the 2nd Punic War.