Day two and battle two and this one is a Blood Sweat & Iron game using two big ironclads…
This was meant to be a battle between two famous ships that fought at Hampton Roads, but I realised too late that I hadn’t yet printed out the CSS Virginia, so I had to use a stand in ship!
The ship that will be used as the Virginia is the CSS Tennessee as it is the biggest Confederate Ironclad that I have at the moment.
So this battle will be between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia, now there is a difference in points between these two ships so I am not 100% sure how things will play out, I am hoping that it will still be a fun game whatever happens.
Set-up was again simple for this battle, both ships faced each other on the river and both are moving at full speed.
The only scenery on the table are some burning ships which will make a few LOS blocking objects and also hazards which the ships will have to avoid while fighting ( I don’t have any terrain at the moment that I can use for river edges but these are on my to-do list )
Turn one and the Virginia moved to get a little cover from one of the burning ships while the Monitor just steamed straight forward.
Turn two saw the Virginia fire off a broadside at long range and the Monitor was pleased to see all the shots fall short and splash in the river.
The Monitor powered forward and turned its turret with its big guns towards the Virginia and fired, but both shots missed and hit the water harmlessly behind the Virginia.
( I will have to try and make some water splashes similar to those I have seen on other river / sea battle pictures as I think they would look good in my battle reports )
Turn three and the Monitor turned to miss one of the burning wrecks and fired at the Virginia but again couldn’t hit the big ship.
The Virginia turned and moved behind the Monitor and fired its forward large gun, but again saw the big water splash as the shot missed… I have no idea what the ships gunners are doing, they can’t seem to hit anything at the moment!!
Turn four and I think the gunnery crews must have been listening as the Monitor hit the Virginia with a shot from its heavy guns and found a way through its thick armour causing damage and a fire on board.
In reply the Virginia moved to get in a close-range broadside into the Monitor and managed to find a small chink in the heavy ships armour doing a small amount of damage.
Turn five saw the Virginia’s crew put out the fires on board but not before they did more damage to her hull, but the gun crews were starting to get into this fight now and managed to hit the Monitor with a spectacular broadside and this saw three shots go through the tough armour and even cause a fire on board!!
The Monitor in reply moved close to one of the burning wrecks trying to get a little distance from the Virginia and fired off its big guns this time they both hit but just couldn’t find a way through the Virginia’s thick armour.
Turn six and the fire continued to burn on board the Monitor the crews could not put it out, it tried to increase the distance between the two ships and fired at really long range but the smoke from the fire on board was starting to effect the gunners aim!
The Virginia turned to try and close the gap between the two ships and managed to do some more light damage to the Monitor.
Turn seven and the Monitors crew finally put out the fire on board and then turned in towards the Virginia and firing at close range into the big ship, both shots hit and smashed through the thick armour causing chaos for the crew inside.
The Virginia turned sharply around the Monitor to try and bring as many guns to bear as possible and only just missed one of the burning wrecks, that could have been a costly mistake if the big ship had collided with the wreck.
But luck was not with the gunnery crews as all their shots missed or bounced harmlessly off the Monitor’s thick armour.
Turn eight and the Monitor seeing the chance of getting in close and behind the Virginia moves into position, the big guns fire and again smash through the armour plating on the Virginia causing huge amounts of damage, and again she was on fire.
All the Virginia can do is put one of the burning wrecks in between her and the Monitor while her crew fought those fires on board.
Turn nine the Virginia’s crew managed to put the last fire out below deck and the officers got everyone back to their stations ready to take this fight to the enemy…
( The Virginia had taken enough damage at this point to require a morale check which they passed )
The Monitor was on form at the moment and turned in towards the Virginia and fired its big guns and again managed to penetrate the thick armour causing some damage.
The Virginia turned in close to the Monitor hoping to cause some damage as well, but somehow the big gun missed from point blank range!! And then most of the broadside missed as well, it looks like today was not a good day to pick a fight with the Monitor…
Turn ten and the Virginia steamed on behind the Monitor hit it again with another broadside, but again causing no damage!
The Monitor just moved around the burning wreck biding her time, waiting for the right moment to move in and hit the Virginia.
Turn eleven and the Virginia steamed back around the wreck and brought her guns to bear on the Monitor again but this time they all hit and two penetrated the Monitors armour causing fires below deck.
The Monitor came up almost along side the Virginia and fired at point blank range and one of the shots smashed through the thick armour again causing some more damage.
Turn twelve and the fires on board the Monitor were still burning causing confusing and panic amongst its crew, they decided the best thing to do was to turn around and head for safety and gave the Virginia the victory.
Well that was great fun and really exciting!! Both ships had taken a real pounding by the last turn with the Monitor taking just slightly more and enough to force a morale check to see if it would stay in the fight or not, having failed this roll it moved from the river to fight another day.
The points difference didn’t seem to make any difference as the turret with its two heavy guns and the low profile of the Monitor made up for the extra hull points and the extra guns the Virginia had.
These two ironclads are really tough ships and once I have printed out the correct CSS Virginia, I am sure I will be using them more often in my games in the future.
