Thoughts on the Revised and Expanded Edition

With apologies for the poor picture quality, the newly commissioned C.S.S. Tennessee steams gallantly towards the Union blockading ships.

As mentioned in my recent post I am planning to fight a small test action this weekend, pitting the newly commissioned C.S.S. Tennessee trying her luck against a Union sloop and a monitor. In many ways this will be similar to Hampton Roads with the exception that the old navy sloop will not be aground! I also mentioned that there are a couple of optional rules I am trying out that, assuming they are successful, will appear in the Portable Ironclads Wargame Revised and Expanded edition later in the year.

The two rules cover the turn sequence and firing and  remember, these are optional.

Alternate Movement.

In the original version of the rules players rolled for initiative with the winner having the choice of moving first or second with all their ships. As an option I am allowing players to alternate movement based on the initiative roll. My rationale for this is that I believe it will better reflect the organised chaos of most ACW naval actions as ships jockey for position whilst being mindful of the opposition. If using this method then some means of marking a ship that has moved is required and for this I shall be using sort lengths of white pipe cleaner folded into a ‘V’ shape and placed on the ship’s bow. This represents a bow wave and so as each ships moves it will become clear who has and it is an easy way to keep track. When all the ships are thus adorned the turn is over and these markers are then removed during the first phase of the next game turn.

Move and Fire, Fire and Move.

This option changes the sequence of play in that the firing phase is dispensed with as it now fits in with movement. The plan is for ships to be able to fire at the start of their move or at the end. Ships that opt to do the latter should have a marker representing gun smoke placed by them which then stays in place until the end of the ships next move (these are not removed at the start of the next turn. In effect a ship that fires at the end of a turn will not be able to fire again until the end of the next turn, assuming it wants to. If it does not then the smoke marker is removed and the ship is then free to fire either at the start or the end of the following move.

Both of these rules will force extra decision making on the respective commanders as timing suddenly becomes critical. In truth I was a little wary of these ideas as I figured that it may slow things down a little but but careful ‘marker management’ all will be later and besides, seeing bow waves and gun smoke adds to the visual appeal which is no bad thing.