Goin' Old School

I had a chance over the last few weekends to get back to my roots and do some old-school gaming. I generally enjoy some of the rules that have come out in the last decade or so, but there's a feel to the old-school games that stirs something within me that a lot of the current crop just doesn't. Although, to be fair, some of the more recent rules rely heavily on mechanisms from the venerable days of wargaming's infancy. Pioneers like Don Featherstone laid a foundation that keeps being built upon.

The memorable aspect of wargaming from my early years in the hobby, an aspect I still admire, is that there was a subtlety that came from complexity. No one who's lived through doing a reaction test in WRG ancients will forget the painstaking list of modifiers. Some recall them with dread and horror, but I always liked that the rules tried to take into account all the circumstances that might affect a reaction. In current rules, checking reaction (or morale) is often a fairly straight-up die roll. It's a sad event to have a unit rout off the board because you happened to roll a "6" and your morale is a 7+ even though you appear to be on the cusp of victory, are surrounded by friendly units in good order, and the enemy is routing before you.

So, here's to a couple old-school games that still have the magic.

Game 1: Ironclads

The first old-school game was Yaquinto's The Ironclads, which we've adapted for 1/600th scale miniatures. Back in the day, we used to play a lot of Ironclads. Kevin Smyth got me into it nearly 25 years ago, which even back then was almost 20 years after the boardgame was published.

We started back then with an adaptation to the 1/1200th scale Lyzard's Grin ships and briefly tried to keep things on a hex grid. When Toby Barrett's 1/600th line of Thoroughbred Figures ships came out in the early 90s, we went after them with abandon and forsook (eventually selling off) our 1/1200th ships.

Ironclads was still the rules we used, we just converted movement and range from hexes to inches and I made up some turning circles using dear, old Aldus FreeHand (R.I.P.). We played Ironclads in 1/600th for years. It was a popular event at conventions and there was a point where Kevin and I probably knew the whole complex chart of hit determination, allocation, and effect by heart (not surprising, since we ran the charts for all the players).

A few other temptations came along, like Smoke on the Water and Iron and Fire, but we always came back to Ironclads. More recently, we got all excited about Sail & Steam Navies from Bay Area Yards. Sail & Steam Navies has a lot going for it, with a few glitches. I printed and laminated many, many full color ship cards at great expense and we played several games, but after a while the itch for Ironclads comes back.

Kevin had the great idea to host an Ironclads game at our upcoming Enfilade! convention in May. The scenario Kevin came up with is a hypothetical Confederate attack on Pensacola, a kind of reverse Mobile Bay. The Confederates have a handful of later ironclads, including the British- and French-built ships that never made it into Confederate hands, as well as some wooden gunboats.

Kevin worked out an ingenious method for handling all the many, many guns of the fort. Using Ironclads' standard shooting, the time spent working out the fire of each single gun would be an enormous time-suck. Instead, with a few die rolls, we got a reasonable result that well simulated the effect of "racking," the slow, steady loosening of armor due to repeated hits with large-bore solid shot.

We played a trial game at The Panzer Depot in Kirkland, WA to test Kevin's theories. The game had Dave Schueler and I running the Confederates and Kevin running the fort. Because it was a trial of the fort rules, we left out the possible Union naval units that would help the fort. I ran the CSS North Carolina, the CSS Nashville, and the CSS Stonewall, all ironclads. Dave ran the ironclads CSS Tuscaloosa and CSS Tennessee II along with three wooden gunboats.

We managed to tear great chunks out of the fort and even took out several guns (with only left them with lots and lots more). Our ironclads fared well getting a lot of armor damage ("racking") from the fort, and occasionally a critical hit, but nothing serious. The wooden boats got knocked silly and Dave withdrew them from the fight before they became flotsam.

In addition to streamlining the fort's gunfire, we did away with pre-plotting movement. There always seems to be players piling their ships into each other (unintentionally). It's always fun, of course, but a bit awkward and slows down play as you have to adjudicate the mayhem.

For a better description and a few pics, go to Kevin's write-up on his blog: A good Day to Travel to Pensacola.

Game 2: WRG Renaissance

There was a time when these were the hot, cool rules on the block. I had a copy, circa 1976, of George Gush's first edition Renaissance rules (the "yellow" rules, if you recall them, though they were also published in a green cover similar to the 2nd edition), which I quite liked at a time when I was very invested in wargaming the Renaissance. In 1979, I went to the UK and managed to snag a copy of the just-released 2nd edition "green book," formally know as War Games Rules For Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries (1420-1700). I also got a copy of the newly reprinted edition of C.W. Oman's A History of the Art of War in the Sixteen Century. I had an imperialist army made up of Ral Partha figures and played as often as I could, until I went off to school in Canada...

After that, there was a brief revival when I was back in San Jose before more school in Chicago. Rick Martinez and I were involved in playing late 17th. c. with these rules, though I think that they sort of fell flat with regard to pike and shot combos, especially for that period when the pikes were just 20% of the unit. Since then, I managed to get in one game with Kevin Smyth, Wes Rogers, and Chris Craft, using Kevin's 100 Years War figures and my dining table.

Playing a game of Deus Vult with Mike Lombardi, Troy Wold, and Wes a few weeks back, Wes and I reminisced about WRG Renaissance rules and we decided to try a game. So this last Saturday, we met at The Panzer Depot and had a small, simple game using Wes' English Civil War figures.

I played the Parlimentary foote with another player (visiting from Austin, TX) playing the Parlimentary horse. Wes played a combined force of Royalist foote and horse, while Rick Ferens played another command of Royalist horse.

We deployed all our horse, three units, against Rick while I took on the Royalist center with my foote and held another foote regiment back to hold against Wes' horse.

Our horse wound up victorious against Rick and started the process of rolling up the Royalist foote from the flank. My foote in the center was pressing hard and with Wes' foote starting to get rolled up, would soon take the center. My lone foote unit managed to hold off Wes' cavalry after bouncing a determined attack lead by Prince Rupert himself. By then, the Royalists threw in the towel.

It felt pretty good to get back into the rhythms of WRG Renaissance. I have a lot of Old Glory Wars of Religion figures that I've been wondering what to do with. I may have an answer...

Other goings on
After our Ironclads game, Kevin, Dave, and I went to visit Mox Boarding House in Bellevue. This is an expansion of Cafe Mox in Ballard (i.e., Seattle, but Ballardites still resist the incorporation that happened 100 years ago). It's much, much bigger space for gaming and dining.

We looked around a bit, every chair and table seemed to be occupied. Parking was tricky; we had to park in the "customers only" spaces at an auto repair business that was fortunately closed for the day. We had lunch, which was nice, but a different menu and beer list than Cafe Mox. Between the two, I like the menu and beer at Cafe Mox better. (You can compare menus at the Mox link above.) We played Timeline: Historical Events, which Kevin picked up at the store, while we played. Fun game, but among the three of us, history geeks par excellence, the events were too easy to line up in chronological order.

While still at The Panzer Depot, Kevin and I rumaged through the discounted remains of John's Aztecs and Tlaxcalans from The Assault Group. Kevin put the idea in my head last year about adopting the Lion Rampant skirmish rules for Mexico ca. 1520. I started a blog post with some proposed unit profiles and a few special rules, which I will post eventually. In the meantime, I've been painting Spanish conquistadors, some Tlaxcalan allies of the Spanish, and just starting some Aztecs. I've also put in an order to The Assault Group for more Spanish; I need some caballeros, war-dogs, gunners, and more rodeleros.

We're also looking at doing Aztecs and conquistadors for the recently released En Garde rules from Osprey. These rules are an adaptation of the earlier Ronin rules that sets the games in Europe ca. 16th-18th centuries, with some expansion in non-Europeans like Aztecs.

Currently we're set for a go at them in late April at Meeples Games in West Seattle. We'll try out En Garde using whatever figures I manage to paint as well as having a go with Kevin's 40mm scale Three Musketeers figures.

Enfilade! 2012 Up Down and Sideways

NHMGS just completed our 21st running of the Enfilade! historical miniature gaming convention this weekend. I wasn't around for Enfilade! I, but I've been to the last 20, although with diminished enthusiasm these last few years.

For a number of years, I hosted several games each convention, ran the painting competition, and for several years straight, I was the convention director. I think I'm just tired, but all my experience has taught me a few things about gaming that affect my outlook on conventions—which I'll return to below.

I managed to psych myself into hosting one game together with Kevin Smyth for Sunday morning. Otherwise, I wasn't sure if I would come at all on Friday and Saturday, or maybe just one of those days plus Sunday. As it turns out, I went all three but drove about 85 miles each way every day to do it.

Friday - reconnaissance

I took the week prior to Enfilade! off, as I have often done in the past in order to focus on all the last-minute tasks needed for running games, organizing things, etc. None of which I did this year. I just relaxed at home enjoying a staycation away from work for the first time in more than a year. So when Friday came around I was raring to go. It was great to see a lot of gamers from all around the Pacific Northwest whom I either rarely or never see during the rest of the year.

As each year passes we are older, fatter, balder, and-—sadly—fewer. Attendance has hovered at about 220 for several years now, but a lot of the grognards are scarcer every year. The reason for that varies from moved away, other family plans for Memorial Day weekend, loss of interest, or sickness and death (we're all getting older). There's also the legendary "lost tribes" of the Seattle area who eschew Enfilade! out of some principle or another.

Friday gave me a good chance to scope out who was there, who was doing what, and what neat new things I could buy.

Saturday - no pancakes for me!

I wanted to come on Saturday because Sven Luger was running a 28mm game using the new Pike & Shotte rules to game one the the battles (Lystra Mouth) from the excellent sci-fi novel Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. I had missed out on pre-registering for the game. The website to do that was not working... not working... not working...  CLOSED! I blinked during the brief window when I could pre-register and was unsure if I'd make it into the game.

I got up as early as I normally do, i.e., as soon as the cats become too obstreperous to ignore. I thought I'd get on the road and stop for breakfast at Elmer's in Tacoma on the way down. We used to have an Elmer's here in Lynnwood. They had the BEST Swedish pancakes ever. I missed them for a long time and looked forward to having them again. However, when I got to the restaurant, I discovered to my great dismay that they no longer had the Swedish pancakes on the menu. Apparently, lingonberry is hard to come by. I made do with French toast and bacon—but the magic had been lost.

I arrived at the convention at about 8:15, just in time to miss signing up for the last available slot in the Lord Kalvan game. Ironically, if I hadn't stopped to not eat Swedish pancakes, I would have made it in. While disappointing, not getting into the game allowed me to maintain my perfect record of never managing to get into a game I wanted to play at Enfilade! that I wasn't running myself.

I stayed around for a while chatting and shopping, but decided to head home and putter around on various projects for the day instead. On the way home, I stopped by The Panzer Depot (the "lost tribe" HQ) in Kirkland only to find "lost tribesmen" Bill Stewart and Dick Larsen unloading boxes of English Civil War figures for an impromptu game of Pike & Shotte. All the usual suspects were there including Phil Bardsley who games once every blue moon.

Between them, Bill and Dick have a lot of ECW and our first taste of the rules wound up being a fairly big game. Bill, Phil, Mike Lombardy, and I were the Royalists. John Kennedy, Pat Clifford, Steve Puffenberger, and Dick were the Roundheads.

The game went well for a first play. It's enough like Black Powder to pick up the differences easily (plus we had a "these are the differences" cheat-sheet). Nevertheless, we still managed to fumble at several points and muddle through by recalling "rules" from other games or just making things up (until someone said, "No you can't do that; you're just making it up.")

Phil left early, but managed to win in absentia. His battalia of foote had been heavily engaged in a grand clusterf*** with Steve's battalia. Phil kept winning the melee, but Steve's troops refused to break. By this time the fight was on autopilot and shortly after Phil left, Steve's battalia broke and we called the game a Royalist win.

It was a nice kind of serendipity to go from missing out on the Lord Kalvan game (and Swedish pancakes) to gaming Pike & Shotte with the grumbliest of the grognards—which is what I had wanted to do anyway, I just didn't know they were playing until I showed up.

After that I went home to feed the ravenous cats and prepare for my game Sunday.

Sunday - pancakes and iron

After being roused out of bed by the cats, I got going Sunday morning by heading to Kinko's to print and laminate a few more ship charts for the Sail and Steam Navies game I was hosting that morning. That being done, I stopped off at the Family Pancake House in Shoreline for some Swedish pancakes. While quite good, they're not to scratch with the former Elmer's version, but I had to get my fix in any case.

I got to Enfilade! just after 9:00 AM and got everything set up. Naval games are easy that way. Kevin already had a big blue felt mat out. All I needed to do was position some shoals and set out the ships and ship cards.

The game pitted a Confederate force of three ironclad rams against a Union force of mostly wooden ships with a stiffening of a couple river monitors. The Confederate force included the CSS Tennessee, which is a nasty, brutal kind of ship. Good armor, good guns, and a deadly ram. However, like all Confederate ironclads, its motive power was weak and so the ship's best speed was much slower than the slowest Union ship.

I thought the Confederates would tear up the Union, but they succumbed to the dreaded stack hits, which left them dead in the water. I begin to think that it's a bit of a glitch in the rules. Hit locations are determined by a random D10 roll, so there is a 1:10 chance of hitting the stack. Stacks are unarmored, so even pop-guns can score big against them. When the really big guns come into play, they can blow away the stack in a single roll. I'd rather see the stack being a critical hit, rather than a main target location. That way there would be fewer stack hits in the game and ships wouldn't be immobilized so easily. The last S&SN game we played also saw the Confederates done in by getting their stacks shot away.

The Tennessee did manage to sink one river monitor by ramming and disable a 90-day gunboat by blowing up its steam drum. However, it wasn't enough. CSS Baltic had surrendered, CSS Nashville had its stack and paddle wheels shot away, and when the Tennessee's stack went away it was all over but for swimming to shore.

After the game, a bit more chatting and shopping then off to home. The drive up and back each day was a bit much. 170-mile round trips three days in a row will take it out of you in a hurry. I'm happy to have one more day off to recover before I'm back to the grind.

Swag - the goal of every convention

I managed to pick up a lot of neat new things at the convention. There are a few sellers that I only see once a year, so I maximize my purchases, and there's always a few surprises elsewhere—especially at the bring and buy.

Books - I picked up several books from the bring and buy. One two-volume set was a memoir of a French officer who had served from 1672 to 1710, just the exact period for my Pike & Periwig project. I've read through a bit already and it's fascinating stuff. I also found a copy of GDW's out-of-print Combined Arms "modern" rules (i.e., circa 1980s). These are mostly valuable for the TO&Es that cover all the NATO and WARPAC forces. It's good to have as I plan to expand my "modern" micro armor collection to include more Soviets. I also got Kevin Smyth's copy of FGU's Blue Light Manual from the 70s. I'll probably never play them, but I had a copy way back in the day and you never know what insights you may glean from a rule set.

Terrain - Both Monday Knight Productions and Wizard Kraft were at Enfilade! again. MKP has a line of 6mm buildings that I thought about when we started our modern micro armor project last summer. I was determined to get enough for a several town blocks and did. I hope by our next game to have them all done. I'll opt for a quicker and dirtier paint job than usual, which I can get away with because it's 6mm scale. I figure If I can't see anything that small to pick out the flaws nobody else can.

MKP also had some 40mm scale stone walls at 50¢ for an 8" section or corner piece. End pieces were 25¢. I came away with $15.00 worth, but now think I should have gone the full Jackson's worth. Still it's plenty of stone protection for the ACW figures I'm working on.

I got several fields from Wizard Kraft. William is using a new style for his fields and he only had partially finished versions with him. I got these at $8.00 per square foot rather than $14.00 and all I need to do is finished off the rows of crops on them with some Tacky glue and Woodland Scenics flocking.

Ships 'n' stuff - MKP also had on hand a bunch of items from Bay Area Yards. I had tried getting some of these from the BAY website, but several of what I wanted were unavailable. I picked up several models of smaller river gunboats as well as the initial armored version of the USS Galena. Unable to help myself, I also bought their Fort St. Philip model (Kevin snagged the Fort Jackson). It's very nicely cast in resin with metal guns. I can use it as a generic fort. We don't do a lot of ship vs. shore actions because they're mostly just about shooting.

Thoughts on convention gaming

As promised, here are my few coherent thoughts on convention gaming, which generally run from negative to ambivalent:

A crowd's a crowd - I prefer gaming between friends because the camaraderie is always better and there is some communal commitment to the game we're playing. The atmosphere is also less hectic. Conventions draw a lot of gamers who want to participate in a lot of games. While the gamers truly appreciate the work that game hosts do to put on a game, as a game host, I find it frustrating to try to teach people a game they will likely never play again in a single gaming period so that they (or I) can find something enjoyable or meaningful in the experience. All the while the convention hall is teeming with humanity making a dull, yet sustained, hubbub that renders actual communication to an audience of more than one other gamer impossible.

It's the simplicity, stupid - I like games that provide more complexity and depth in the rules. Whenever someone gushes to me about the sheer genius of a two-page rules set, I have to smile politely and back away slowly. However, that's what a convention game really calls for. To me, the idea of developing a set of rules that can be learned in minutes and then working for months on a project to host a game for other people that I wouldn't want to play myself is crazy. The alternative is to host a game of what I'm currently playing and hope people pick it up; but having done that on more than one occasion, I'm no longer sanguine about the success of that endeavor. I've hosted too many games where I ran the charts for every combat action for every player. It's easy enough to do for small games, but games with more people are exhausting. Simple is better, but I just don't like simple.

Schlepp you much - Ever since I got my 350z, my ability to host an away game (and they're all away games) has been limited. My previous cars weren't big, but had much more storage room. The Z is an engine with two seats. The very limited storage space is rendered even more limited by the stabilizer bar that runs across it. I used to be able to load a lot of stuff into tote boxes, but I can't fit the tote boxes in the car. This means that until I get a new (practical) car, which I don't see happening soon, I'm limited to hosting one game that doesn't require too much in the way of terrain, figures, etc. The only alternative would be to rent an SUV for the weekend.

Doctors are the worst patients - Having hosted so many games at conventions, I find that I don't actually like playing them when I'm not hosting. Being one of the crowd of gamers I don't know being taught a set of rules I don't know by someone I don't know just doesn't make for the best experience. I either pick up a set of rules instantly or get dazed and confused immediately. An hour into a three-hour game and I want to be anywhere else. (Sometimes I feel that way when I'm hosting.)

All that aside, I will surely continue to host games at Enfilade! and may even rent the SUV to schlepp more stuff for multiple games.

Stackless in Seattle

Kevin Smyth and I hosted a Sail & Steam Navies game for out annual Drumbeat game day. I came up with a scenario that involved the Confederate squadron in Charleston coming out to challenge the blockade. It was the first time in our S&SN games that we had first-line Confederate ironclads in action and I was eager to see how they would do. I thought they would power through the blockading ships and power back. They were well armored, well-armed, excellent rammers, and all mounted Spar torpedoes as well. However, things didn't turn out so well...

The Confederate forces were the following:

CSS Charleston (ironclad ram)
CSS Palmetto State (ironclad ram)
CSS Chicora (ironclad ram)
CSS David (torpedo boat)
CSS St. Patrick (torpedo boat)

The Union ships at start were the following:

USS Commodore Barney (converted wooden ferry boat)
USS Kansas (wooden gunboat)
USS Octorara (double-ended wooden gunboat)
USS Keokuk (bad ironclad gunboat)
USS New Ironsides (bad-ass ironclad frigate)

The game also saw the first use of shoals as a "terrain" feature. We didn't get a chance to see how well ships navigated over them because the players just avoided the shoals entirely.

The Union started with their forces either anchored or moving very slowly. New Ironsides was anchored farthest back, with Commodore Barney as the sacrificial lamb closest in. The Confederates started on at full speed in a line ahead formation with ships ordered as follows: (L to R) Palmetto State, St. Patrick, David, Chicora, Charleston.

The Confederate squadron in line ahead

I figured Commodore Barney would be matchsticks in no time, but she put a lot of hurt on Palmetto State with minimal damage in return. In one cannonade phase, she completely destroyed Palmetto State's smokestack, which reduced her speed to a mere 4" per move phase for the rest of the game. This cause the Confederates to start to lose formation and the ships came on higgled-piggeldy rather than in a solid line. Palmetto State also had one whole section or armor shot away by Commodore Barney's pop-guns. Scott Abbot, who ran Barney, just couldn't miss or roll lower than a 10 for damage.

Commodore Barney packs a lot of hurt in her small frame

Palmetto State's fate with her stack was a portent of what was to befall the rest of the squadron. All of the surviving Confederate ships had their stacks shot away and the reduction in motive power that caused was a principle factor in  the eventual Confederate loss.

Chicora takes the lead as the other ships lose speed

St. Patrick also suffered from Commodore Barney's fire and was quickly sunk. This was another first for our games. Torpedo boats have been hard to hit and the few that were sunk were done in by failed torpedo attacks that became collisions with much bigger ships or, in one case, a torpedo boat blowing itself up while attacking.

New Ironsides and Keokuk out beyond the shoal water

At first, New Ironsides was only able to participate with a single 150-pdr Parrott rifle. Its massive broadside of seven XI-inch Dahlgrens had insufficient range to affect the oncoming Confederates. Kevin, who ran the ship on its maiden voyage, slowly got it up to speed, but lingered a while with its broadside facing the oncoming Confederates. Eventually as the range decreased, New Ironsides got in a few shots at long range using battery fire, which increased her effect and chance to hit. However, the initial results were poor except for pulverizing poor David with an XI-inch broadside (over 1100 pounds of metal against one little steamboat) when she got too close in an attempt to make a torpedo attack.

David (far left) attempts an attack on New Ironsides

After David was lost, Chicora took the lead and headed at full steam for New Ironsides. She took a pounding getting there: she lost her stack and had several sections of her armor beaten up. Eventually, her lack of speed made it impossible to actually make a ram attack on any Union ship. Her erstwhile quarry, New Ironsides, simply put water between them and headed round the shoal to get between the Confederate rams and Charleston harbor while Chicora limped along behind sending a desultory shot now and then at New Ironsides' stern.

Chicora steams toward New Ironsides in a vain attempt to ram

By this time, the other rams were also slow and beaten up. Charleston lost her stack and had a lot of scattered armor damage. She also had her steering shot up. They'd had enough and were heading back to cover under the guns of Fort Sumter and the other batteries protecting Charleston harbor.

At this time, fate intervened. I hadn't expected the Confederates to take such a pounding and I had a couple aces up my sleeve with more Union ships that could come in as needed. While certainly NOT needed, I couldn't help but bring on USS Sangamon from the north to interpose herself on the Confederates' line of retreat. It was kind of cruel, but I really wanted to see how a XV-inch Dahlgren worked in the game and the XV-incher's main target—Confederate ironclads—was conveniently at hand.

I ran Sangamon and took her in holding my fire until I got close. When I finally fired, just outside of close range, my XI-inch hit, but the mauling XV-inch missed. Kevin said it served me right for attempting overkill. So, we'll have to wait for another game before we see the effect of XV-inch guns on rebel ironclads.

Post mortem

I think the tweaks I did for the rules worked out well in the game, although I may go back to making 10s a hull hit. I was a bit surprised at the amount of destruction dealt out by New Ironsides. Kevin and I both had misgivings that the Confederate rams, which also mounted torpedoes, would get in, sink New Ironsides and be back quickly. The loss of speed due to stack hits early on meant that the Union had a lot of time to shoot away before the Confederates were anywhere near striking distance.

Confederate ships had decent rifles, but nothing to compare to a XI-inch Dahlgren. Their best guns had a GR of 6, while New Ironsides had armor of 5-7. There was no chance they could do a lot of damage by gunfire; they had to get in with a ram or torpedo attack. The Confederates also didn't seem to attempt to much against the wooden ships. Octorara was untouched and Barney was only slightly damaged—despite spending the first turns of the game in a shoot-out with Palmetto State. Kansas held back at long range and took pot shots with its 150-pdr Parrott, taking only a few minor hits in reply. Kekokuk was less well armored than New Ironsides, but was never seriously targeted.

The design of the Confederate rams didn't help them too much in a gun fight. The guns only bear at limited angles and there is a big dead zone where none of the ship's guns can bear. There were several time when the Confederates just got shot without being able to reply.

The scenario needs more tweaks. The points values of the ships favored the Confederates by 107 to 73. I had originally planned it to be a night game using blinds for the ships until they were identified. The limited visibility and -2 to shooting "to hit" rolls would have favored the Confederate's chances to get in close and ram without taking a lot of damage. When I play this scenario again, I'll try that approach.

I may also retire New Ironsides. It's too powerful a ship, which is historically correct, but all play balance is lost. She took a lot of punishment while on station at Charleston, including a torpedo attack by David, but stayed put through it all. It's no wonder the Confederates never seriously tried to use their ironclad rams to break the blockade, but limited them to harbor defense instead. A determined sortie would undoubtedly run into New Ironsides and various Passaic-class monitors, which would have shot the rebel rams to bits.

More Ironclads

After the DANG game on Tuesday and before we play again at Drumbeat on Jan 7, I wanted to play a game to try out some of the Sail & Steam Navies (S&SN) modifications we discussed after DANG. The mods are an attempt to restore some balance between shooting and ramming, which we felt was out of whack. In S&SN, shooting is one phase followed by a two-round movement phase in which ram attacks may take place. Ships that have no viable shot in the cannonade (shooting) phase are often rammed and sunk by ships they could see and easily target during movement. Add to that that shooting has proven to be largely ineffective at damaging enemy ships, except for the odd lucky shot.

My modifications changed the sequence so that in between the two rounds of movement was another cannonade phase (thus Shoot - Move1 - Shoot - Move 2). Guns could only shoot in one cannonade phase or, if they had not already shot, as a defensive fire against a ramming ship before resolving the ram attack. I also increased the chance of doing damage on the damage die rolls. There was now a 30% chance of damaging the ship and a 10% chance of causing crew suppression.

The game was a straight-up affair with two squadrons fighting it out on a river.

• The Confederates had CSS Missouri (ironclad), CSS General Beauregard (cottonclad ram), CSS Governor Moore (wooden ram), and CSS Hornet (torpedo boat).
• The Union had USS Choctaw (ironclad gunboat), USS Chillicothe (ironclad gunboat), USS Tyler (timberclad gunboat), and USS Monarch (unarmed wooden ram)

The Union squadron attempting some kind of formation

The rules mods started showing their worth on the first turn when no one shot at long range during the first cannonade phase; better to save shot until you get closer.

The squadrons soon passed each other like two lines of jousting knights. The only casualty was Tyler, which got rammed and sunk. Poor Tyler has been in three games so far and has been ram's-meat in all three: sunk twice and critically damaged once.

Squadrons engage en passant

While shots were traded, with only minimal increase in effect, the Monarch and Hornet were relatively ignored. It's a universal truth that gamers only like to shoot at ships that can shoot them. (Which is counterintuitive because the ones that ram will more surely sink you.)

As the ships circled back for another pass at each other, more shots were exchanged with better success. I ran the scow-of-the-line Chillicothe, which mounts two XI-inch Dahlgrens in a forward battery. The guns have a very limited field of fire and there is no rear battery. Even with the modified action sequences, I had no target in several cannonade phases. When I did get Governor Moore in my sights at close range, I rolled "1" for both shots: misses! XI-inch Dahlgrens are a fearsome gun—but only when they hit something.

Meanwhile, the Brooke rifles on the Governor Moore were having an effect on Chillicothe. When we call Chillicothe an ironclad, we're really just being polite. The forward casemate is OK, but otherwise the ship is about as well armored as a teapot. There's metal, to be sure, just not much. Moore shot away Chillicothe's armor in a few places and starting inflicting hull hits. Too many hull hits and you sink.

I did get back a bit of my own later, when I got Moore again in my sights, set her on fire, and blew up her steam power (but only enough to reduce her max speed to six inches). 

As Missouri came about for another go at the Union ships, Chillicothe was able to target her and start pounding. However, Missouri mounts a XI-inch Dahlgren herself in a central pivot that can fire from either broadside. As she was in close range of Chillicothe, Chillicothe was in close range of her. A shot from Missouri's Dahlgren made a critical hit that inflicted a lot of crew suppression and took away all my steam power. 

Chillicothe and Missouri trade big shots

Missouri, however, was on a rendezvous with terra firma. Coming at the shore at too great and angle, she became grounded under my guns—which weren't going anywhere since I had no speed.

The wily little Hornet was skulking around in Missouri's shadow most of the game waiting for a shot with its spar torpedo. With Chillicothe in straights, she had a perfect target. The attack came in perfectly, but failed. The attempt became a collision, which sunk the Hornet. This is the second time I've run ships that escaped a torpedo attack. It's such a good feeling.

The attack that failed

General Beauregard became the brunt of Union gunfire for a few turns until it lost all lower hull boxes from fire, which I think is the first time in our games that a ship has been lost solely by gunfire. Governor Moore, however, continued to hunt for ships to ram and found an opportunity against Choctaw. Despite being on fire, Moore bore down on Choctaw and got a ram attack in on the stern quarter. The attack was successful and Choctaw, heretofore undamaged, started to sink.

Choctaw sinking, Governor Moore ablaze

Governor Moore had further troubles in that her attempts to put out the fire started by Chillicothe resulted in the fire spreading and a loss of hull boxes burned away.

At this point we called the game, but it's unclear who won. For the Union, Tyler and Choctaw were sunk, Chillicothe was stopped, only Monarch (which never got in a single ram attack) was unhurt. For the Confederates, Beauregard was sunk, Moore was burning and lost more than half its hull, Hornet was sunk, and Missouri had freed herself from grounding and was mostly unhurt. If we score the game by victory point values, it was a Confederate win.

Rules mods post-mortem

I think the rules modifications gave better balance to shooting/ramming. The players did complain that it's still to easy to ram. The movement system is I-Go/You-go, so the opponent is stationary when you move. This means that even though the ships are supposed to be moving simultaneously, a ramming target is really a sitting duck. This can be especially galling if the target ship is actually moving faster than the attacking ship. We discussed a modification that will take in the target vessel speed as part of the calculation for a successful attack.

We also discussed simplifying the musket fire by sharpshooters. It seemed like a lot of work for an effect that rarely succeeded and only causes a single suppression when it does.

With the modifications, I think that S&SN is shaping up into a more balanced game.

DANG X: Up the Carnot river without a paddle wheel

Tuesday we played the tenth Dave's Annual Naval Game (D.A.N.G.) hosted by Dave Schueler. This year's theme was the American Civil War. Dave provided a simple campaign system that had a Union flotilla hunting for an ironclad that is rumored to be nearing completion somewhere up the (fictional) Carnot river in (non-fictional) Mississippi. Several others of us provided 1/600th scale ships (since we've been playing ACW naval since the early 90s).

We divided into sides and each had a set number of points available to buy ships. The campaign was set circa 1863 (before the fall of Vicksburg) and the available ships weren't necessarily limited to ships that operated on the inland waters at that time. The selection was large, so limiting ourselves to just a few was a tough choice. The only constraint was that the Confederates had to chose at least one ironclad.

The Union players were:
Me (USS Essex)
Kevin Smyth (USS Monarch)
Dale Mickel (USS Tyler)
Scott Murphy (USS Tuscumbia)
George Kettler (USS Naumkeag, USS Rattler)

The Secessionists were:
Arthur Brooking (torpedo boats, flotilla commander)
Dave Creager (CSS General Beauregard, CSS General Bragg)
Mark Waddington (CSS Missouri)

In addition to the ships we paid points for, the Union had two transports with troops that could be landed and some barges that contained fuel and ammunition. The Confederates had a series of batteries at points along the river. We could run by these batteries (at a loss of victory points) or attempt to silence or take them (earning victory points).

Like a chump, I didn't bring my camera. As luck would have it, others did. Dave Schueler's blog has his recount of the game with lots and lots of photos.

Day 1: Action at Sullivan's Ferry

On the first day of the campaign, the intrepid Union flotilla went into action against a battery at Sullivan's Ferry, just above the confluence of the Carnot and the Mississippi rivers. Only slight damage was incurred in capturing the batteries, which was quickly repaired at night.

While anchored at night, a marauding force of Rebel cavalry—clearly lead by someone much less illustrious than Nathan Bedford Forrest—was surprised by the troops accompanying the flotilla. Prisoners quickly and effusively gabbed and provided us with the location of all the remaining Rebel batteries on the river.

Confederate progress on completing their ironclad was a bit delayed due to faulty workmanship and lack of a suitable work ethic—defects quite foreign to Yankees and their can-do spirit.

Day 2: Burning out secession one town at a time

At dawn on the second day of the campaign, Honest Abe's able seamen proceeded upriver to Hannahsville, a secessionist hamlet nestled on the river's brim. En route, another battery was subdued, again with little damage to the squadron.

Upon reaching Hannahsville, the tars made a merry bonfire of the nest of rebellion. The town burned spectacularly, with the exception of the few buildings deemed necessary to the war effort, such as Madame Crotchfyre's social club and the "Last Gulp" saloon, which entertained the flotilla's officers while the tars aboard ship tucked into a nourishing meal of rancid hardtack and brackish water.

However, while teaching this practical lesson in civics to Hannahsville, the Union ships were set upon at night by a squadron of steam launches armed with infernal machines on spars. The Rebels lacked the requisite mechanical skill to work their machines and the first few attacks were foiled by secessionist incompetence. However, they figured it out a bit by trial and error and the USS Naumkeag was lost due to a successful explosion beneath her waterline. The USS Tyler, was also struck, but suffered only the loss of her port paddle wheel and no loss of floatation.

Gunfire at night against the tiny, fast-moving craft was disappointing. However, one torpedo boat was hoist with its own petard while attacking Tyler, leaving just two. Also, having expended all but one of their infernal machines, the rebels were less likely to accomplish further success by these means.

Day 3: Pressing on

Despite the losses of the night, the Union flotilla was ever more eager to continue upriver. The Tyler's damaged paddle wheel (unrepairable on campaign) rendered it unable to keep up with the other ships. A brief captain's meeting determined that rather than abandon Tyler and her powerful broadsides of VIII-inch Columbiads, we would tow her using one of the transports.

Just above Hannahsville, the Union flotilla encountered Battery Mickel, which was taken with minimal damage to the ships.

Further on, the flotilla reached Dave's Mill, which we quickly burned down, which was unfortunate in that we later learned that we might have used the millwheel to repair Tyler. Still, it made a good fire and taught the deluded rebels the price of treason.

Rumors came to the Union flotilla that completion of the rebel ironclad upriver had been further delayed due to mechanical incompetence complications.

Day 4: Smyth's Ferry

The Union flotilla fought batteries at Smyth's Ferry. The batteries repulsed our initial attack, but fire from Tuscumbia's XI-inch Dahlgren's quickly silenced the battery and drove off its crews.

The flotilla also captured a steam ferry and pressed it into service. As we proceeded upriver, the new ferry provided tow service to the still-disabled Tyler.

Day 5: Setback at Battery Murphy

The Union flotilla proceeded upriver passing Kettler's Ferry until we came upon Battery Murphy. In the action against these guns, the flotilla prevailed. However, a shot from the batteries disabled Essex' engines leaving her without motive power.

A consultation of ship captains determined that repair of Essex was essential. There were reports of rebel ships nearby upriver and it was decided to width raw to Kettler's Ferry to make repairs to Essex and continue next day.

During the night, an attack by secessionist cavalry was decicively repulsed, thus gaining more renown for the expedition.

Day 6: End of the rebel monster

The damaged to Essex' engines being repaired, the flotilla set out to run down the rebel ships upriver and bring them to a decisive battle. The enemy withdrew  from our advance through the day. Even after joining with the ironclad, which had finally come down river, the rebels kept moving upstream until we thought they would mire themselves in the swamp at the head of navigation.

However, this withdrawal was merely a ploy to allow them to strike the Union flotilla at night when our superior gunfire would be minimized. What ensued was a fateful and sanguinary affair that ended the rebel threat.

The Union squadron deployed with the Rattler out front as a picket. Further down the river were the Monarch, Essex, Tuscumbia, and Tyler (initially towed by the captured ferry).

The Confederate squadron came on with CSS Missouri in the center. Persistent mechanical failures had reduced Missouri's speed to an almost negligible rate. Rather than let her be destroyed on the stocks without a fight, the rebels towed her downstream into battle. This masked her forward battery, so she need to turn broadside to the Union ships in order to fire.

Accompanying Missouri on her port side were the CSS General Bragg and CSS General Beauregard. Also, the lone armed, surviving torpedo boat was at the extreme left of the line.

As Missouri advanced and turned broadside to the Union ships, Lt. Cmdr Smyth in Monarch saw his change for a ram. Getting steam up as aggressively as possible, he braved Missouri's fire and pressed in.

The rebel rams came downriver quickly aiming to smash into a Union ironclad or two. However, the Union ships were diligent not to present a target for the rams. As things transpired, the tin clad Rattler (to which Lt. Cmdr Kettler had transferred command after the sinking of Naumkeag) was struck by the Beauregard and sunk. Splashing throughout the water, Kettler was able to make it to the ferry (now cut lose from towing Tyler) only to be struck by Bragg and lost. Lt. Cmdr Kettler has the brave distinction of commanding every Union ship lost in the campaign.

Essex, a slow ship—especially against a current—made its way bows-on to the rebel ships. Beauregard passed provocatively close by without getting shot (a rules anomaly), but Missouri hove into range soon enough and I got a few ineffective shots off.

Soon Commodore Arthur and his one remaining toped boat came towards Essex. I turned bows-on to him but didn't have enough movement left to run him down. The torpedo boat obliged me by smacking itself into my bow and getting crushed.


The Bragg and the Beauregard continued into the Union main line, but found little else to ram besides the Rattler and ferry. By now, too, the Union ships had found the range. In one explosive turn, Essex found itself in a target-rich position and got shots off with all its guns at once. Coupled with the fire of the Tyler, the hits were starting to count and Cmdr Creager took his ships upriver.


Finally, a lucky win of the initiative roll, let Lt. Cmdr Smyth ram Monarch into Missouri. With a resounding crash, Monarch stove in the side of the rebel monster. In doing so, however, Monarch found itself fouled with Missouri and was threatened with the prospect of being dragged under. A timely roll (generously modified by the GM) enable Monarch to escape a watery grave and Missouri settled to the bottom alone.

Cmdr Creager continued upriver with his damaged rams to eventually perform the Confederate naval tradition of scuttling them and the campaign was won by the Union.

Thoughts on Sail & Steam Navies

The rules we used for the game is our latest enthusiasm, Sail & Steam Navies by Bay Area Yards. There is a lot to like about these rules. They are streamlined for easy play without genericizing too much. The main thing we notice are that the rules heavily favor ram attacks and minimize the effect of gunfire.

The reason for this is twofold:

1) The game sequence of Shoot - Move - Move makes it difficult to target ships coming at you. A ramming ship can be out of range or out of arc in the shooting phase, and then make two moves to make a ram attack without ever being shot at, even if most or all of their move is within range and arc of enemy guns.

2) The effect of shot is not terribly destructive. Once you actually hit, you roll a number of D10s equal to the difference between the gun rating (GR) and the armor value of the section hit. Each D10 has only a 20% chance of causing actual damage (armor or hull hits) and a 10% chance of causing suppression, which is easily removed in the repair phase. Triples can cause critical hits or damage guns, but only of the section hit allows that. I've had several occasions to roll a lot of D10s and get triples for a hit on a ships smokestack that did nothing because there is no critical hit for a stack and no guns in the location.

What's needed are some house rules to address the issue. What will work would be changing the sequence to allow shooting at any time before or between moves or allowing only a single move per turn. Another change is to increase the effect of hits so that there is a greater chance of doing damage. As written, the rules give a suppression on a roll of 8, an armor hit on a 9, and a hull hit on a 10. Changing this to suppression on a 6, armor hit on a 7 or 8, and a hull hit on a 9 or 10 may work. (Or possibly suppression on 6 and 7, armor on 8 and 9, and hull on 10 because armor hits on section that have no armor or have lost all armor become hull hits.)

Theoretically, the bigger the gun (higher GR) means that you'll roll more D10s and therefore have an increased chance of inflicting damage. I'm no statistician, but I think that it's a lot like playing the lottery: the number of tickets you buy doesn't really increase your chance of winning. Rolling multiple D10s doesn't change the fact that each die has a 70% chance of doing nothing and I've rolled a fistful of dice too many times with no effect to be mollified by theoretical mathematics.

Other than that, the rules are a lot of fun to play.

Smokey Waters:Gaming ACW Ironclads

Earlier this year I played in a ACW naval game run by Kevin Smyth at the Fix Bayonets game day held at Fort Steilacoom in Steilacoom, WA. It was the first time I played ACW naval in a long time and the first time I played the Sail and Steam Navies rules from Bay Area Yards.

I got pulled into ACW naval gaming by Kevin about 18 years ago now. Back then, we had 1/1200th scale ships produced by Houston's Ships (a.k.a. Lyzard's Grin). The first ship I even painted was Houston's USS Chillicothe—an ugly little model of an ugly little ship. The rules we used were a miniatures adaptation of the old Yaquinto Ironclads board game.

Over the many years we played ACW naval, we tried a number of different rules, but none ever held us like Ironclads. The rules were detailed without being too difficult—although every game I ever ran seemed to require me to run the charts for every shot fired from every ship by every player. What Ironclads had going for it—and still has—is the nice bits of chrome that make the game interesting. Every gun was called out by type and the stats for each gun type was unique. The ACW on the water being an ersatz affair, there were a lot of different gun types. Even Union forces, which attempted some kind of standardization, had numerous ships with a hodgepodge armament. You could double-shot your guns for greater penetration (at the risk of bursting the gun).

We later expanded to 1/600th scale using Toby Barrett's excellent Thoroughbred Figures range. That range has expanded considerably—as has my collection of them. Despite selling off a number of unbuilt models to Bill Stewart, I still have several awaiting some attention from me and I've recently added more to the crowd. The new rules have filled me with some enthusiasm and I'm in an ironclad frenzy right now.

Since the Sail and Steam Navies (S&SN) game at Ft. Steilicoom, I've played two more games: one last Saturday and one today. I'm starting to get enough experience with the rules to be able to compare it to Ironclads and to the other games that came and went for us. On the whole, I like S&SN and I've invested a lot into it (more on that later).

Today's game pitted a small Union force of two ironclads and one timberclad against a Confederate fort supported by one ironclad and two wooden rams. The action took place on a nameless river. The record of it in the CSN archives has been lost and the USN decided not to record it.

The Union, consisting of the USS Essex, USS Indianola, and the USS Tyler came on to fight a Rebel battery, but were intercepted by a force comprising the CSS Arkansas, CSS General Beauregard, and CSS Governor Moore. All the Confederate ships were rams.

I rage the Union forces and Ken Kissling and Steve Puffenberger shared the Confederate command. Ken ran the Arkansas and the battery while Steve ran the two cottonclad rams.

The river was against me, which reduced my already pathetic speed. I chugged upstream with the Essex in the lead, followed by Indianola and Tyler.

Essex and Indianola chug ahead

The action started pretty soon. The Rebel battery mounted two 6.4-inch Brooke rifles and I was in range by turn 2. The results of Ken's first fire were less than desultory and that remained the hallmark of the battery's performance for the entire game.

The Johnnies came down at speed made even more rapid by the benefit of having the river flow in their favor. I soon began to worry that I would be easily outmanouvered, which is even more worrisome when facing rams.

Governor Moore and General Beauregard

As soon as the ships were in range of each other, we started trading shots. I had a definite advantage in firepower. The Essex fairly bristles with guns as does the Tyler. Indianola has fewer, but the forward battery are XI-inch Dahlgren smoothbores with a wicked punch. However, this gets into some of the interesting differences between S&SN and Ironclads.

Ironclads has a separate chart for every gun. That makes every shot unique at the cost of reduced speed of play and a great deal more fuss in play aids. Guns have a penetration factor that doubles or triples as the range gets closer. Wooden ships hit by shells that penetrate have increased damage. The result is that shooting—especially against wooden ships—can be devastating.

S&SN rates guns somewhat generically by type (rifle, smoothbore) and size (small, medium, large). If a gun shot hits the target, you compare the Gun Round (GR) value, that can be modified by range and other things, to the armor value of the target area hit. If the difference is greater for the GR value, the shooter rolls D10s equal to the difference to get damage results. (If the values are the same or if the armor value is greater, only on D10 is rolled.) Actual damage on the target occurs on 9s (armor hits) and 10s (hull hits) or on triples that can be gun hits or critical hits. 8s are suppression hits, which can accumulate causing crew morale issues. The result is that, generally, it's tough to do a lot of damage by gunfire.

Tyler struck amidships and soon to go down

My idea for the scenario was that the Rebel flotilla would be little more than an annoyance to the bombardment group. I figured that the wooden rams would be shot to pieces in a few turns. However, events transpired otherwise. The reverse side of meagre shooting results is the power of ramming attacks. Ramming is fairly effective in S&SN. It's even more effective when the rammers move quickly and the rammed don't. The Rebels' wooden rams move at a rate of 12" per movement phase. There are two movement phases in a turn, so they can cover 24" of surface every turn. That closes the distance rapidly. It's not too difficult to hit a target because the movement is I go, you go. When it;s the rammer's turn to move, the target is sitting still. (In Ironclads, ramming is more difficult because the moves a pre-plotted and done simultaneously.)

Arkansas and Essex trade shots—ineffectively—at close range

The result was that after a few disappointing shots, Steve's rams were upon me. I gave it my best, but the ineffectiveness of the shots and the effectiveness of the ramming meant that my ships were doomed. It turns out we were playing it wrong in the one sense that bow-to-bow and bow-to-stern rams are not allowed; those situations are treated as a collision instead. Playing it right might have made some difference because I may have been able to maneuver in such a way that it was difficult for ram attacks. However, the legal rams were tough enough.

The Essex was the first ship to go down. Steve rammed it earlier in the game and it limped along within one lower hull box of sinking until another ram (a stern ram) inflicted the remaining damage.

The Tyler, whose 8" Columbiads made the most effect on the Arkansas, was hit next (again in the stern). While not sunk outright, it, like the Essex, was badly hurt and succumbed later to another hit.

The Indianola kept at it. The best armored and heaviest armed of the flotilla, it got a few good shots with its big Dahlgrens, but the results were never stellar. I wiped out a few smokestacks, but never brought an enemy to a sinking or near-sinking condition. Once all three Rebel ships were concentrated on it, the Indianola was doomed.

Indianola rammed from every angle

I'm now working on ship cards and more models for Dave's Annual Naval Game. It's the most productive I've been in years. Models I've had sitting unbuilt are now in play and I'm looking forward to a lot more ACW naval gaming in the coming year.

The following is a rogues' gallery of some of my favorite ships built recently or in the past:

CSS Baltic

Tubby, but irresistible

The Baltic is a tub: poorly armed, poorly armored, and underpowered. It looks like a floating cow-barn. However, it is compelling in how it epitomizes the nature of the American Civil War on water. An ersatz ship built to protect Mobile Bay. it was eventually disarmed and its armor used to protect the CSS Nashville. I especially enjoy playing games with this king of ship. I ran it in a game earlier where it held its own for most of the game until a lucky shot by the XI-inch Dahlgren on Kevin's 90-day gunboat blew out its steam locker and left it floating with no power and a scalded crew.

CSS Charleston

Sleek and deadly

The Charleston is one of the first rate ironclads purpose-built by the Confederacy to protect its harbors. Its heavy armor and heavy rifles make it a deadly opponent to Union warships. Its bête noir is the Passaic class monitor whose XI- and XV-inch Dahlgrens can smash it up. I haven't played it in S&SN yet, but it's a tough fight in Ironclads.

CSS Virginia II

Capital ship of the Capital Navy

The Virginia II was named after the first Virginia (a.k.a. Merrimac) which made such an impression in its foray into Hampton Roads and subsequently fought what is probably the most famous ship-to-ship duel in history against USS Monitor. This Virginia was likely the most powerful ship in the Confederate navy. However, stuck on an obstruction at Trent's Reach in 1865, it had great bloody chunks torn out of its armor by the XV-inch Dahlgren's of the twin-turreted monitor USS Onondaga.

Postscript: The cost of S&SN

As I intimated earlier, even though Sail & Steam Navies is a $20.00 PDF that comes on a CD. Actually printing it out into hard-copy rules, game aids, and ship cards is expensive. I admit that I've gone deluxe on these items because I want them to last. I don't have a color printer or laminating machine, so I do it all at Kinko's for big bucks. I hope it's all worth it and that I'll get a lot of bang out of my bucks playing S&SN for the near future (until something else shiny captures my gaming attention).

So far, I have to say that S&SN is the best rules for this period since Ironclads, which remains my favorite (with a few reservations).