Fix Bayonets: My first game of Sail and Steam Navies

Today was the second installment of Fix Bayonets.  Held at historic Fort Steilacoom, it's a nice little gathering at a great location.

I hosted a small ACW naval game using the Sail and Steam Navies rules I bought last month.  While I'd read the rules pretty thoroughly it was the first game I'd actually played.  I chose a scenario I'd run before with Ironclads featuring the large Union wooden vessels Niagara and Vanderbilt intercepting the Stonewall with wooden consorts in stormy conditions headed for Havana.

Confederate fleet enters the board, looking something like a hydroplane race.  From top:  Texas (Thoroughbred Alabama), Bat (Peter Pig blockade runner), Thoroughbred Stonewall, scratchbuilt blockade runner masquerading as Tuscaloosa after I left my actual miniature at home! Dopey me.

The Union squadron.  From top: scratchbuilt Niagara, Thoroughbred Kearsarge, and scratchbuilt Vanderbilt.  All scratchbuilt ships by Larry Enoch.

I hadn't counted on the small table (6' X 5'), which was kind of cozy for 1/600 scale, but due to the scenario conditions it worked out-visibility and movement were both reduced to 42"

There are some real advantages to S&SN.  The rules can be played off the ship cards and a one page quick sheet.  At least in theory.  The ship cards are color coded and are provided as part of the rules package that come in a 535 page .pdf on a CD-ROM.  The ships are rated throughout the war, so many have more than one card.  Because the game is basically played on the ship cards, it's important to have the capacity to print them out in color, which can be an expensive proposition.  I printed out the cards I needed and then laminated them with my handy home laminator.

This single exchange of broadsides between Tuscaloosa and Vanderbilt resulted in a magazine explosion and plunge to the bottom for the tiny Confederate ship.

Far in the background, the sloop Niagara is pounding the Texas to splinters, while the Kearsarge and Stonewall prepare for a one sided exchange.

Stonewall has sailed through her Union adversaries and isn't looking back.  On to Havana and victory.

The game itself is somewhat less important as I was trying to to get a handle on the rules and especially to see if the players liked them.   Nevertheless, a quick blow by blow is in order.  The Confederates entered the table somewhat the worse for wear due to storm damage.  The Stonewall, accompanied by the steamers Texas (freshly escaped from a French shipyard and fitted out in the Azores), the Tuscaloosa, and the blockade runner ran headlong into the open arms of the an American squadron searching for the French-built vessels.  The super-sloop Niagara, Cornelius Vanderbilt's armed steamship Vanderbilt, and the Kearsarge.

USS Kearsarge ignominiously ramming USS Vanderbilt.  Kearsarge, with her steering destroyed, had little choice in the matter.

 The game opened outside of the limited visibility, due to rain and fog.  Speed was reduced by 1/3, and gunnery suffered a minus due to high seas.  On turn two that changed as Niagara devastated Texas with her massive broadside.  Kearsarge and Niagara continued pounding Texas, while the diminutive Tuscaloosa tangled with the massive Vanderbilt.  Meanwhile Bat and Stonewall seemed to slip through the Union net.  Stonewall connected once with her massive 12 inch Armstrong rifle, tearing through Kearsarge, causing a boiler explosion, damaging steering and killing crew.  This bit of good fortune did not prevent Tuscaloosa from suffering a mortal magazine explosion after a one sided exchange with Vanderbilt.  Kearsarge, out of control, eventually collided with Vanderbilt, nearly sinking in the process, while Bat and Stonewall steamed for Havana--only to be interned and sold by the U.S. Navy.  Based on the scenario rules, the Confederates won.

I found the rules to be more playable than Ironclads without much loss of authenticity.  There are a couple of clarifications needed to some language-as with all rules. Everyone liked the simple order writing requirements.  Some differences in the game really did unbalance the game.  In Ironclads, Niagara's 150 pdr. Parrotts and 11 inch smoothbores would fire every other turn, as would Stonewall's Armstrong rifle.  In this game only monitor guns fire every other turn.  I truly don't have a problem with this but it made Niagara the grim reaper against wooden ships.  However, against armored Stonewall, hits pretty much pinged off with little opportunity to do serious damage. 

I'm anxious to try a bit more evenly balanced game in the near future.  I think Sail and Steam Navies is a winner.

The Reduction of Fort Powell

Today the Truants met in Tacoma for an Ironclads game.  I decided to build a scenario around the aftermath of Mobile Bay.  It's a semi-historical scenario centered on the reduction of Fort Powell near the southern entrance to the massive bay.

Rhode Island trading shots with Fort Powell.  Rhode Island suffered considerable damage including a level 5 fire, which Dean extinguished just before the ship exploded.

I designed the scenario for five players, and as luck would have it we had six, but that worked out fine.  The Union players, Mark, Dean and Chris had a difficult job.  They had two missions to pull of successfully.  They had three wooden vessels, a sloop and two small 90 day gunboats returning from a mine clearing operation who needed to make it off the south edge of the board, some 64" away.  They also had the monitor Chickasaw, the captured Confederate ram, and wooden vessel Rhode Island that were pounding away on Fort Powell, a brick fort with eight guns.

Confederate forces consisting of the ironclad ram Nashville, the semi-engined Tuscaloosa, and the gunboat Morgan appeared on the north board edge at daybreak, not far behind the retreating minesweepers.  These were run by Scott, Bruce, and Tom respectively. Tuscaloosa immediately began firing on the trailing 90 day gunboat, Huron, and set her afire.  Chris was able to do little as the other two vessels also began effectively shelling her.  Huron caught fire and on turn three sank. The other two wooden vessels also struggled.  Towing small boats that served as minesweepers, Dean and Chris had to decide whether or not to cast them adrift to increase their speed, and hence sacrificing victory points.

Chippewa is madly burning, while the ram Nashville races toward Kearsarge

The same view from a different angle.

With the wooden vessels in danger of being rapidly overrun, Mark, commanding the Union ironclads, chose to pound the fort circling it in a clockwise fashion and effectively silencing Powell's guns as he traveled.  The scenario rules indicated the fort would surrender when six guns were knocked out or their crews killed. Unfortunately his direction of travel took him away from the minesweepers.

Union ironclads are beginning to peek around the corner of Fort Powell.  Nashville is visible in the background

Nashville is headed toward a ram with Kearsarge.  Kearsarge avoided the ram, but the two ships collided with both suffering damage.

 Chris's second 90 day gunboat, Chippewa suffered a fate very like Huron's.  Starting with a small fire, the little vessel quickly absorbed all the Confederates' attention and it sank in a few turns.  Chris had a generally bad day with lousy luck shooting and absorbing fire. Kearsarge, the larger sloop, began to lose guns,  suffered critical steering hits, and just missed being rammed by the massive Nashville. Things looked very bad for the Union minesweepers.

 At about this time, with the fort looking largely subdued, the the monitor Chickasaw emerged from the shelter of the fort and began lobbing 11 inch shells at Morgan.  With the wooden gunboat beginning to take serious damage we agreed to end the game and tally up the losses.

 The Union agreed the wooden minesweepers were likely lost.  The Confederates conceded the fort would surrender and the Morgan probably lost as well.  The ironclads could safely retire.  The fort also did significant damage to Rhode Island, setting her seriously ablaze and doing considerable damage before forcing her to withdraw.  With that, all recognized a minor Confederate victory.

 Though all struggled with the rules at first, everyone eventually seemed to get the hang of it.  However, this may be my last Ironclads game.  I'm looking forward to Sail and Steam Navies and determining whether it is a useful substitute.

I'll be away most of this week in Ellensburg for journalism camp.  Hope to reconnect when I get back.

Bay Area Yards re-issues USS Mississippi

The USS Mississippi was a lot like Neanderthal man::  a branch of evolution that represented progress, but a dead end in the development of the steam warship.  It was the smallest of the three sidewheel frigates built by the U.S. Navy, but probably had the most glorious history as it was Commodore Matthew Perry's flagship when he opened up trade with Japan in 1852.  The Mississippi grounded on the shoals under the guns of Port Hudson in 1863 and was burned to prevent capture.  It was a beautiful ship with leaner, more elegant lines than its larger, boxier sisters Susquehanna and Powhatan. 

 Bay Area Yards, in its early days, began by providing resin hulls to interested modelers.  The modelers supplied everything else-guns, masts, ships boats, rigging, etc. As Bay has developed, however, they've manufactured their own bits, and have a superb range of cannon, masts and accessories to go with their hulls.  The past couple of years they've begun casting in ships in white metal.

 They've also begun supplying entire ships in kit form.  That's great, I love to see that because I'm such a dope about such things.  While I haven't exactly been knocking down the door to do this, if more kits were available I could go there.  This morning on TMP they announced that USS Mississippi, which they'd removed from production, was available as a kit.  I've been dithering about ordering the masts to complete my model for some time, but the new hull looks fabulous, and with masts, hull, guns and boats included for twelve bucks, all that's needed is some elbow grease.  It looks to be my first first New Year's purchase.

Truants 3: Closing Wilmington-ACW combined arms

In June I read Under the Blue Pennant by Grattan Schneller.  It' a memoir by a young man who served with the Atlantic Blockading Squadron during the Civil War.  He was a lieutenant in volunteer service with the Union navy and served on the USS Malvern, a converted blockade runner that also happened to be the Union flagship for the actions against Fort Fisher in 1864-65.  After the fall of that fort, the Malvern was also involved in actions to clear Confederate batteries and minefields on the Cape Fear River and ultimately capture the city of Wilmington. Grattan's account inspired me to try my own game on the topic and that was our third Truants activity.

The Union fleet had eight ships-the monitor Montauk, two double-end gunboats, three 90-day gunboats, the gunboat Pequot, and the flagship Malvern. They had many tasks they could undertake, from clearing minefields to salvaging a wrecked blockade runner.  But chief among their goals was capturing or silencing the forts that controlled the river.  In addition to the ships, the Yankees had a division of infantry marching west toward the city. The Confederates had less to work with.  Nine guns in fortifications, half of them Brooke rifles, were the chief defense.  They also had fewer and less effective infantry.  Later arrivals were the Cape Fear Defense Force, including, a Richmond class ironclad, two Maury gunboats, and a torpedo armed steam launch. The Confederate mission was simply to inflict as much damage as possible on the Union fleet and hold as many of the forts as possible.

Most of the ships were  Toby Barrett's excellent 1/600 Thoroughbred models.  I've had them for years and still love to drag them out. One of the 90-day gunboats came in a scratch-built haul I made from Larry Enoch some time ago and had never seen battle, so I was glad to pull it out of the box.  I run all my ACW naval games with the old Yaquinto Ironclad rules.  David Sullivan and I adapted these for tabletop years ago and I still like them compared to other rules sets that are out there.  Only David Manley's Iron and Fire has made a positive impression on me, but only for large fleet actions.  Toby Barrett owns the copyright to Ironclads and I sent him my annual bitch note (as he calls it) to beg for something new and updated.  He hedged as usual. Still a nice guy.

There are no rules for infantry in Ironclads.  Of course not, it was a board game.  However the Civil War is replete with examples of combined arms actions, from Fort Donelson to Wilmington.  I painted up some of my 20 year old passle of 6mm ROS figures and wrote up some simple DBAish rules.  I didn't have a copy of the Humberside extensions to DBA so I sort of made it up myself.  Kept it as simple as possible. 

Anyway, the Union entered the board sneakily to avoid the first Confederate battery.  This would be their strategy for most of the game.  Five of the Confederates nine guns were large smoothbores, so the Yankees would obligingly stay out of their range.  The other guns, however were three 6.4" and one 7" Brooke rifles designed to reach out and touch the Union vessels wherever they could. However, while the big rifles hit, none did any catastrophic damage to force Union vessels to drop out of the game-a chief factor in the scenario rules.  No telling hits from the first battery, and the fleet trashed Battery Johnston pretty rapidly, while the Union land forces quickly advanced up the road toward Fort Smith.

The Confederates didn't have much luck with their naval arm either.  On turn four the ironclad Wilmington entered the game with its tiny consorts.  The ram quickly duelled with the Montauk only to take a crushing blast to its front casemate that cost its forward firing Brooke rifle.  Things went even less well for the tiny Maury gunboats that received loving attention from Sassacus, Maratanza, and Pequot. It did not turn out well.  The end came quickly for the Confederates.  The forts were clearly outclassed by the Union vessels, and could not offer sufficient support to the tiny flotilla.  Though Wilmington did provide a bit of redemption when it inflicted a nasty critical flotation hit to Montauk and forced the monitor from the game, it was the only bright spot.  Even on the land side the Confederates were clearly thumped.

I enjoyed the game.  With the addition of land forces, it was clear, to me at least that it was possible to do a combined arms game.  I am looking forward to running the game again on August 20th with some additions to the Confederate side to balance things out.  Can you say Martello tower?

Photos once again by Adrian Nelson.  The first picture is a Richmond class ironclad by Thoroughbred miniatures.  Wilmington is a fictional vessel based on the Richmond.  The port of Wilmington was defended by two Richmond class ironclads, North Carolina and Raleigh.  Both met untimely ends: North Carolina sank at her berth, her hull eaten by worms, Raleigh ran aground and broke her back. The second photo shows the Yankee infantry preparing to engage the Confederates.  The Union had thousands of infantry available at Fort Fisher after its fall in January 1865.  Their advance was delayed more by the swampy conditions than Confederate resistance. The next photo shows Scott Murphy's 90-day gunboat observing the earthworks of Fort Smith.  This is my only large piece of terrain that I seem to drag out every five or six years.  Battery Johnson is burning in the foreground.  Finally, a view of most of the Union fleet maneuvering in the river.  A beached blockade runner is on the left, and two Confederate minefields are on the right.

Ironclads on the Meyerhootchie

Let me just state right up front that, once again, I forgot my camera so I have no pictures. Doh! Michael Koznarsky, in the last issue of Historical Miniature Gamer, reviewed some newish Thoroughbred Miniatures, as well as discussing 1/600 ACW ironclad games using Ironclads. Being an Ironclads enthusiast for many years, and possessing about 60 painted ships as well as a few unpainted, I broached the idea of a game at our August game day. Michael was interested, and yesterday we played it out.

The scenario required a flotilla of Yankees to escort a trio of transports up river to invade Fort Shein. No problem, right? Ahhh! The Johnnies had two nasty ironclads and a few river rams to keep us from exiting our transports from the board. I commanded a double end gunboat, one of my favorite ship types. Though I was pretty much on the periphery of the action, the two 100 lb. Parrotts on swivels allowed me to reach out and touch the wooden rams from quite a distance. On turn three at medium range, I inflicted a boiler explosion on Dale Mickel's Gen. Bragg, which soon burned and became a non factor. Two of the Yankee gunboats ran interference for the transports, commanded by Gene Anderson and Michael and were shot up and rammed by the combined fire of the Confederate ram Richmond and the river rams. The Confederates made their job much more difficult through a couple of self inflicted collisions. The Richmond sailed through the Union squadron, only to find itself unable to chug back into the action, though it continued to shoot up the Mark Waddington's Keystone State. Picture below is of the USS Octorora, the gunboat I ran in the game. The ironclad ram, Richmond, commanded by Gary Griess in our game is below it. Illustrations from the Naval Historical Center, U.S. Department of the Navy.

After my initial moment of glory, I found myself in the difficult position of trying to steer my ship back into the action. Scott Murphy's Chickasaw and Keystone State seemed to be traveling in the same arc I was, and a sudden right turn would have resulted in a collision. I kept finding my gunfire masked, as well as my ship protected from enemy fire. I took one shot from the ram Fredricksburg, which did minor damage. I finally hit the Queen of the West, which did some good flotation damage and was able to run interference on the last turn protecting the transports hotfooting up the river, and the game ended.

I love Ironclads. It was a crowded game, and it did take some time to get through the turns, but it was still a lot of fun.