Wargames Illustrated has, in their latest issue, shown off a brand new Ancient Naval Wargame called Thalassa! Take on the role of Ancient Greek commanders taking to the Aegean Sea with their Triremes and Penteconters as part of a fun new 6mm wargame.

Thalassa Artwork

Thalassa is a wargame that came to life during the lockdown and is now out there in the world thanks to a bunch of different creators and companies. A bunch of downloads are available for you to check out on the Wargames Illustrated Website but the rules are included as part of Issue 421 and you are going to be able to download them from the Wi Vault.

The game itself has been designed to be fast-paced and easy to play. As mentioned above, you will build fleets using ships like the iconic Triremes and Penteconter but you will also call on your crews for deadly boarding actions and the like.

Thalassa Gameplay // Wargames Illustrated

As with your traditional naval wargames, you'll have to govern the currents of the sea and manoeuvre into the right positions to attack your foes. Fight as the likes of the Athenians and the Spartans as they look to struggle for control of the seas around Ancient Greece.

This is all very cool of course but how do you actually get involved with the game? Well, after you've checked out the rules you are going to need some miniatures and a few companies have helped out on that front.

Grab Miniatures & Starter Bundles!

If you're interested in giving Thalassa a go, you can check out the folks over at NG Castings who have put together two bundles. These aren't 3D Printable Files (although those are available on Wi Digital) but they are proper awesome resin miniatures that you can get to the tabletop either by yourself...

Thalassa Fleet Bundle // NG Castings

...or as part of a Two Player Bundle which comes with enough ships for two people to get stuck in and have some fun.

Thalassa Two Player Starter Bundle // NG Castings

The Two Player Starter Bundle doubles up on what you need for the game (obviously) and that means six Trireme Ships with two different hull variants. You also get four Penteconter Ships alongside sixteen Prows and Sterns for customising your fleet. You will also get twenty-eight Crew Tokens and ten Sail Mastery Flags which can be used to mark your grizzled veterans.

If you want to go ALL IN when it comes to Thalassa then you can also look at what Sarissa Precision have been working on! You could go for a Single Player Set which features the NG Castings ships plus much more.

Thalassa Single Fleet // Sarissa Precision

You also get a bunch of templates, tokens and dice for use with Thalassa. Similar to the NG Castings sets, you can also go all in and get yourself a Two Player Set.

Thalassa Two Player Fleet // Sarissa Precision

This offers you another fun option for getting going with Thalassa and comes with double the amount of dice so you aren't going to be sharing! If you already have some miniatures lying around then you could well be tempted by the Fleet Command Dice and the Official Game Tokens & Templates from Sarissa which are available separately.

It seems like naval wargaming is quite the hot topic for the start of 2023 and it's fun to see one that is focused on Ancient Greece. If you're interested in more on Thalassa, have a peek at the game's Facebook Page where they are updating folks on what's happening with the game.

Could you be tempted by Thalassa?