The Inmost Sea: The Battle of Lepanto 1571 (2010)

“…for the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.
They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,
They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,
And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross…”
from Lepanto
by G.K. Chesterton

1571. Suleiman the Magnificent, the law-giver, is dead.

With Cyprus falling to the Turks, Pope Pius V calls the squadrons of Europe together to stop the Ottoman advance. Given the command is the 24-year old Don Juan d'Austria, bastard son of the Holy Roman Emperor. By the end of a fateful October afternoon, the Catholics will have won an inestimable moral victory and Suleiman's son Selim would have to drain his empire’s coffers to rebuild his shattered fleet from scratch.

Thanks to remarkable surviving records of the order of battle, The Inmost Sea simulates this epic clash at the individual ship level. Ostensibly a two-player game, also playable with fog-of-war solitaire rules, or as multiple independent wing commands with three players to a side. Play any of the three wings in separate scenarios, or the entire grand battle. Also includes several alternate history setups.

Coming in 2010
Game & graphic design by Mark Mahaffey
Cover painting by Radoslav Javor
Leader portraits by Leona Preston

Time scale: Ten minutes/turn
Unit scale: Individual ships
Complexity: Medium