Lords of the Middle Sea (1978)

[tfm]

Title: Lords of the Middle Sea
Item Code: 2401?
Type: Fantasy wargame
Copyright: 1978 by Lynn Willis/1978 by The Chaosium
Author(s): Lynn Willis
Artwork: Gene Day
Place of Publication: Albany, California, United States
Printer: n/a
Format: bagged game containing 12 page softcover rulebook, stapled; 252 die-cut counters, full-color map, five table sheets, and products list
ISBN: n/a
Cover Price: n/a
Mass: 190g
Dimensions: rulebook: length 28cm, width 21.4cm, thickness .1cm

Additional image(s):




__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The rulesbook records "Copyright 1978 by Lynn Willis" while the map records "Copyright 1978 by The Chaosium."

[GreyM]

I recently received a copy of this, but I believe its a later printing. The cover page, map and counters look the same, but it did not have a products list sheet and only has 4 table sheets (1 for each color of the players - orange, red, purple and yellow). I believe its a later printing because it included an ERRATA sheet dated 15 July 1979. Attached is a copy of the ERRATA sheet:



Can anyone tell me what the 5th table sheet was for in the original printing? Thanks in advance

[GreyM]

Guess it helps if I read the book

It (2nd page in the rule book) lists the components included which includes:

4 DATA SHEETS
4 BATTALIA SHEETS(in colors)

as shown in the following picture




In the set I have, the DATA SHEETS are on the reverse of the BATTALIA SHEETS. If needed, I can provide pictures of this..unfortunately, I don't have access to a good scanner.

I would still like to know what the 5th table sheet is in the above listing.

[tfm]

Hello and welcome to the Tome! In the set I have there are five table sheets that seem to loosely correspond with the army colors:



yellow (more of a goldenrod)
red (bright red)
orange (bright orange)
purple (more of a fuchsia)
light yellow

The yellow, red, orange, and purple are two-sided with table and combat information. The light yellow sheet is single-sided, suggesting that it was meant as more of a reference than a play sheet. Since the game was distributed in a zip bag, it's possible that the light yellow table sheet was meant to be a rear cover sheet, introducing the map contents.

As a point of interest, the introductory chronology in the rulesbook mentions "The Great Nebraska Sea" by Allan Danzig appearing in Galaxy magazine. I tracked one down:

[GreyM]

Can you dig out your copy of the rulebook and see if it references 4 or 5 of the data sheets? I wonder if my set didn't include a copy since they added the ERRATA sheet, just stopped adding it since its redundant, or if it was lost throughout the years. The latter wouldn't be likely as the game has never been played and it was still in the ziplock bag with unpunched counters but who knows. I haven't had much luck finding information on this game and I've already bene surprised by having the ERRATA sheet which usually means a later print.

Thanks for the welcome...I've lurked around here for awhile now but never really had anything to add to the site. Good catch on that Great Nebraska Sea. My mind would've never remembered that

[tfm]

The content checks with yours, both on page two and page 13. It just mentions the four sheets. The counter sheet says 'Copyright 1978 by The Chaosium'.

I imagine that the only difference we'll find is the light yellow sheet/product list versus the errata sheet. It's not much to go on. Are your die-cut counters square?

Artwork by Gene Day, 1978:

Cover, air ships and sailing ship
Page 4, bottom, canon with launcher in background
Page 8, unnumbered, sailing ship
Page 12, top, city floating on the sea
Page 13, inside rear cover, bottom, Native-American on horseback
Rear cover, right side, grumpy looking flag bearer
_________________
"This is cool."

[GreyM]

Mine are square....



I'll check the other details tomorrow. Thanks again