Sorry for the slight delay in getting this report up on the site, but illness has been a bit of a problem this last week…
I had an excellent game / playtest of my new rules for ACW river battles, it was great fun even though I lost again!
We decided just to run a simple blockade running game, with the Union forces trying to stop the Confederate ships getting past.
We didn’t really look at the points for the game we just went with what ships I had…
The Union force was –
USS Onondaga
USS Monitor
USS Essex
USS Switzerland
USS Miami
The Confederate force was –
CSS Tennessee
CSS Arkansas
CSS Baltic
CSS Neuse
CSS Albermarle
CSS Planter
CSS Tuscaloosa
We also decided that my opponent would roll to see which Confederate ships he had on the table for the first turn, needing a 4+ on a D6, he managed to get three ships on the table, then at the beginning of each turn he would roll another dice to see if he received another ship.
The game started off well for the Union ships getting a few early hits in and the wooden ships were starting to take some damage.
The Confederate ships went at full speed towards the Union firing as they went, they managed a couple of hits against the Union wooden ships but not much else.
We had some interesting close maneuvers from both sides and lots of firing, but the Confederate firing seemed to me accurate the that of the Union.
I started to lose my wooden ships over the next couple of turns and was having real trouble penetrating the Union ironclads.
I did manage to get a few big hits on one of the Confederate wooden ships which was nice, and I managed to get a fire on the CSS Tennessee which was also nice!
But also, in the same turn I had two fires burning on the USS Essex which wasn’t as nice…
I then managed to get a fire on the CSS Neuse before my last wooden ship was sunk, the USS Miami did really well, but just could not stand up to the ponding she was taking from those Confederate ships, the Neuse and the Baltic finally sunk her.
At that point I only had the USS Onondaga who had taken a critical hit on her engines and was limping slowly around and still had fires on board, I had the USS Essex which was being somehow being held together by its crew but was burning out of control.
And the last ship I had was the USS Monitor which so far in the battle had not taken any damage and was still a big threat to the confederate force.
The CSS Baltic came on with all guns blazing doing some damage on the USS Monitor and causing a fire on board!
But the Monitor was not put off by this and still managed to get a hit into the back of the CSS Arkansas as she sped by.
The USS Essex turned as fast as she could to try and bring her guns to bear on the Tennessee but just couldn’t manage it, and the CSS Tennessee took the advantage and sank her.
At this point the captains of the remaining two Union ironclads decided that they would turn and move to safety and let the Confederate ships leave ( time had run out in the evening so we ended the battle at this stage )
It was a good victory for the Confederate force, the Union ironclads could have easily lasted a few more turns but they, in all honesty, wouldn’t have been able to stop many of the Confederate ships, they were just too fast for the slower ironclads, and the Union shooting hadn’t been that great all night either.
