ACW Ironclads

[Phil Portway]

Not Big Battalions, but big iron cladded ships

American Civil War river warfare. Ironclads. A few pics of a game trying out Mac's new rules what he wrote (for Morecambe & Wise fans). got about 10 or 12 moves in, played very well, enjoyed it alot. These are still a WIP atm, but easy to learn the one sided play sheet. Thanks again Mac

Confederate Navy move up the river, towards their objective. 2 moored vessels.


Union Patrol, and our targets


Turn 2. lots of firing, lots of misses


Very close range for both ships


about turn 6. Another Union ship turns up


Virginia pounding the Union moorings. The CSS Nashville Paddle steamer keeps the USS Cairo busy. CSS planter Wood Clad on the right of pic


The Reb Ironclad getting boxed in.


Another Union ship enters from up river






The rebs almost achieved thier objective of sinking the 2 ships, one sank and the othe was very close. The rebs lost 1 ship , and the Union lost 2.

[vtsaogames]

Looks good. What make/scale ships are those? How long did your game take?

[warlord frod]

Very nice Battle report 

[Terry37]

Great report and great looking models. Have always been a fan of the ACW on the water. When I was playing it back in the 80's we used the board game Ironclad rules which gave very fun game, and we used Houston's ship models. I might be wrong but your models look like either Houston's or Thoroughbred.

Terry

[Phil Portway]

Looks good. What make/scale ships are those? How long did your game take?

1/600th from Peter Pig - Large range of ships/ forts, etc.  This was a trial game with rules written by a Club member, but still we had about 12- 13 turns and took a very casual 3-ish hours.

We have played Hammering Iron from Peter Pig, and although they work Ok, the rule cards are messy on the table and you only get one set with the rules, and are geared round a two player game. We like multi player games.

[DintheDin]

A great spectacle!
I always get excited looking at ironclads pounding each other!
Eager to see your next game! Thanks for posting! Cheers!

[Utgaard]

That´s a really great looking game, thanks for sharing the report!

[Phil Portway]

Thanks for the kind comments chaps

[FierceKitty]

Merrimac WAS a Union ship. Has the captain turned traitor (like the dam' Yankee he is)?

[Terry37]

The Merrimack was originally a ship in the US Navy, but was burned and sunk at one of the navy yards as it fell to the Confederacy (don't have my books handy so can't say which one for sure, but am thinking it was Norfolk, VA). The Confederacy raised it and using the remaining hull built the Merrimack armored structure upon it. The biggest problem it had was it's very slow turning rate - something like 30 minutes to do a 180. Please excuse any errors as this is all from memory of my research into the civil war ironclads I did back in the 80's.

Terry

[FierceKitty]

To continue the history lesson, the Dixies also changed the name to Virginia.

[Phil Portway]

Merrimac WAS a Union ship. Has the captain turned traitor (like the dam' Yankee he is)?

I have now changed. Could not remember the CSS name for it.

[has.been]

I have just introduced the school's wargames club to Ironclads.
Using my 1/600th Peter Pig ships.
So far we have played two games. The first under a very simple set
published years ago in (I think) Miniature Wargames. It divided ship's guns into
baby, mummy or daddy guns, yes that level of detail. It did give a fun game.
Last week they tried Hammering Iron, again a fun game. One student has
shown the spirit of Farragut (Full speed ahead & damn the torpedoes!) In both
games he went hell for leather for the opposition & rammed them! What damage
he might do if he was ever in charge of a ship that had a ram.

[vtsaogames]

Note that the CSS Virginia was called the Merrimac even by Southern newspapers, hence the battle being called Monitor vs. Merrimac. Like almost all early ironclads, they were proof against most shot but could barely float. Any sort of heavy seas threatened them. The USS Monitor went down in a bad squall off Cape Hatteras while under tow. She was being towed because her under-powered engines could make little or no headway against the storm. The Monitor almost sank on her maiden run down to Hampton Roads to fight the Merrimac/Virginia. The crew had been working the pumps for over 30 hours. That voyage was her alpha test, the battle was her beta test. Beware the open sea in an ACW ironclad.

[Andrew_McGuire]

I wasn't sure whether to start a new thread, as I'd like to widen the discussion to rule sets that are currently available. I have played the board game Ironclads in the distant past, and it is still an option for miniatures - I intend to use Thoroughbred 1/600 scale, though have yet to buy any - but have little knowledge of other sets.

I know there is a more recent board game by GMT,  Iron and Oak, but know little of it, other than that it is considered a light game, and quite luck-dependent. The only commercial miniatures rules I am aware of is the above-mentioned Hammerin' Iron. Are there any others, and, if so, how do they match up?.