Greg Dieckhaus treated us to a challenging and very balanced game in an unnamed sound “somewhere during the American Civil War.”
Steve T commanded two Union Ironclads the Passaic and the Winnebago while Kevin F skippered the USS Southfield an unarmored paddlewheeler. The CSN saw Steve L, Mark W and Pat L. at the helms of two casemate ironclads and a tinclad paddlewheel boat. Greg added in “Orders” markers for this game and it presented some new options for the players. Boats with better command characteristics could make their order for the coming turn while those with lower abilities would have to plan out farther to take advantage of the “Orders” benefits.
Ex: A Hard to Starboard order would allow a player to make a right turn at the start of their move and a turn in any direction at the end as well. Some of the orders helped with damage control, some with firing and alike.
Above the forces make their initial moves towards one another.
Things start to get closer and shots are traded between the sides. At this point in the game it seemed we did a lot of missing.
It was with a bit of luck and great panache that the unarmored USS Southfield made all possible steam and was able to score a side ram on the CSS Virginia much to Mark W’s dismay. Some serious damage to the Virginia came about, but not enough to sink her. The Southfield soon drew the attention of the Rebel Navy and was shortly thereafter slipping beneath the waves.
A bit later in the game we see the wreck marker of the Southfield in the middle of the table while the damaged Virginia makes all possible speed (and it wasn’t much) away from the event putting distance between it and the Union Turret Monitors.
Pat L’s casemate ironclad that had taken steering damage early in the game and was forced to move first every turn. This situation caused some tactical disadvantages to the Confederates as the game progressed.
Overall a tightly balanced game and a good time. That ended with 1 Union Ironclad Twin Turreted Monitor (the Passaic) in great shape, the Southfield sunk, the Winnebago heavily damaged and likely to sink. The CSA had lost their Tinclad after being rammed by the Winnebago and their other two Casemate ships were seriously worse for wear.
A Big Thank You to Greg for putting this one on for us and to the staff at Miniature Market Cave Springs for their support.