Thursday 29 October 2020

Final Thoughts for the Time Being


A three turret monitor? It would be rude not to - so I will!

After some fairly intense work on drafting my tweaked version of Bob Cordery’s Gridded Naval Wargames ACW rules I reckon I have now got the main donkey taken care of. Following my post of yesterday I ran a further play test incorporating the changes proposed and it worked like a charm!

The main effect I was trying to achieve was the ‘two ironclads battering away at each other, Hampton Roads style’ which meant the odd hit being scored and a gradual wearing down of the ships in question. The rules reflected this really well with long range shooting being for the most part ineffective but with the odd hit going in. The two ships cancelled each other out to a great extent but the overall flavour of the action felt as though the pace was right. I actually fought for 8 turns and when I eventually packed up both ships were still full of fight, battered but hanging in there.

There is still work to do and I need to consider the following:

Firing modifiers
Provision of Critical Hits
Musketry
Shore Batteries
Mines and other obstacles

This is all to come but for now I am drawing a line under things whilst I get some more ships built. I am keen to do this if only so that I can increase the variety of types I can use. Mind you, of the two models I currently have under construction Only one of them constitutes being a different model to the selection I already have!

4 comments:

Maudlin Jack Tar said...

You definitely NEED a 3 turret version, that goes without saying..

David Crook said...

Hello there Maudlin Jack Tar,

You make think that....I couldn’t possibly comment....:-)

All the best,

DC

Steve J. said...

Oh and three turreted monitor does look and sound too cool not to have! Also glad to hear that your latest playtest worked well.

David Crook said...

Hello there Steve J,

I think that the balance of the rules with my tweaks now feels about right but only more play testing will confirm if I am right. I am feeling pretty confident though. There is a lot of other stuff I want to add but it is all chrome that can be dropped in as needed.

Three turreted monitor? Me? Whatever gave you that idea....:-)

All the best,

DC