films
music
health
fiction
games
science
relating
websites
postcards
wargames
Game 1: The scenario selected pits the USS Monitor against the CSS Virginia with a couple of other wooden vessels on each side. The Union must keep the Confederates from sinking the Minnesota, which is aground and cannot move throughout the game. The Confederates win by sinking her within a set number of turns.
Initial hostilities were largely confined to long-range sniping between two lightly armoured tugs fitted with 32-pounders, the CSS higher crew quality giving them an edge. The USS Zouave (the Union tug) lost most of the armour on its starboard side and had to manoeuvre frantically to present its port side to the enemy. Meanwhile the almost invulnerable (or so the hope…) Monitor lumbered towards the upstart Virginia, but was slow to reach effective range.
The USS Zouave soon succumbed to catastrophic damage to its port side and sank rapidly. Union cannon fire remained grossly inaccurate and inflicted only superficial damage on the Confederate ships.
The USS Monitor by this time had built up a considerable head of steam (at least 6 knots into an adverse current) and was making a beeline for the CSS Virginia, hoping to head it off before it got into range of the beached USS Minnesota. Unfortunately, it had to get through the rest of the Confederate fleet first and, although most of their fire bounced off the Monitor’s thick armour, a lucky shot damaged the Monitor’s cannon, already hampered by a slow rate of fire and reduced gunpowder charges.
At this stage, Lt. Comm. J Alexander, the captain of the CSS Raleigh (a lightly armoured but heavily armed tug), decided to reserve his place in the history books by entering into a collision course with the Monitor. This was not a deliberate decision, but one of the drawbacks of simultaneous plotting systems, though personally I found it added to the excitement. The two vessels rushed towards each other at a closing speed of at least 12 knots, each waiting for the other to flinch. Neither did and, with a resounding crash, the Monitor ploughed through the Raleigh, almost as if it hadn’t been there—sending it instantly to the bottom. Unfortunately, the force of the impact brought the Monitor to a halt and allowed the two surviving CSA vessels to move into the unfortunate Minnesota’s blind spot and pour broadside after broadside into it.
The game was conceded as a Confederate victory.
Now for Game 2: I had enjoyed the two-player game so much that I set up one of the solitaire scenarios. This has four Union Ironclads attempting to get past a fort of three batteries, with a total of 10 guns. The fort enjoys good column shift modifiers on the damage table.
The game confirmed that firepower in Ironclads is more powerful than in reality, as the Union failed miserably, although luck no doubt played a part.
One of the ships was hit at long range by plunging fire on turn 1, and lost all deck armour in one section. The Union proceeded to shuffle her to the rear. In hindsight, this was probably a bad move as the manoeuvring it required meant that two of the ships ended up well ahead of the other two, thereby reducing the firepower they could bring to bear on the fort and allowing the Confederates to concentrate their fire on one vessel at a time.
By turn 3 the lead ship (St Louis) had two guns jammed and had lost all bow casemate armour, and had knocked out only one of the weakest shore guns. However on turn 4, she and the Louisville turned into line astern to pass the fort, thereby presenting their broadsides and hoping to inflict serious damage.
But on turn 5, the St Louis, after more damage, finally exploded owing to a direct hit on the magazine; and the return fire was very inaccurate, knocking out only one more weak gun.
At this point, things were still reasonably hopeful for the Union, since the other three ships were practically unscathed (the scenario victory conditions require the Union to exit three ships with at least 50% hull and flotation remaining).
The Louisville proceeded to run the gauntlet of the batteries, while the Pittsburgh arrived in easy range to give support, though only from the three bow guns. The Carondelet was still in the rear, with her line of fire blocked by the other ships.
On turn 6 it was all over though, since an extremely lucky shot from the batteries caused the Louisville’s magazine to explode too. With half their force destroyed, and the enemy still at close to full strength, the Union had no choice but to fall back downstream and concede.
This was good fun, and the entire thing took about 45 minutes—not counting the set-up time, which is mostly the time required to locate the appropriate data cards and counters and to complete the ships’ logs.
We receive a commission—at no extra cost to you—from the businesses we refer you to. If you decide to purchase something that we have recommended, please do so by following the links from our website. Thank you!
back to index