Ironclads R Us

The base game

The rather useful expansion set

After a minor delay (and following on from my post of 2/9/12) I collected the copies of the above game whilst en route to the club last night. Aside from being a little musty (and with some 'sunning' in odd places) after having stored in a garage the two games are in remarkably good condition and in fact the base game has only partially had the counters punched - the expansion not at all. The game covers tactical naval combat on a ship to ship level during the ACW and with the ships in the expansion set, the Austro-Italian war in 1866 (the Lissa campaign) as well as the Pacific war. There is also a selection of British and French ironclads included as well so the potential for some cross channel activity is also covered.

The game is very detailed - almost skirmish-like in its complexity - and to be honest I doubt very much if I will play it as written, simply because I no longer have the inclination to undertake such exercises in head scratching. However, for me that is not the point of the exercise. The material contained therein in respect of ship and weapon details is an absolute goldmine of detail that will prove to be invaluable for any of my planned naval adventures during the period. The counters are a great source of material to use for testing purposes in the absence of models and for that reason (among many) this is a great acquisition for me.

The first thing I will need to do though is to have a little tidy up of the base game and punch out the remaining counters and then take stock of the potential - especially of the ship and weapon data - for turning this into something a little more in tune with my current requirements.