Thursday, 27 February 2025

Action along the Winnebago River

The Prologue….And it came to pass….

Yesterday evening saw the Portable Ironclads Wargame getting a run out at the club. The main purpose of the action was to try out the square grid but more importantly, to prepare Messrs Fox and Huband for more challenging games ahead. 

The scenario was deliberately simple and with but two ships a side. For the Union, under the command of  Mr Huband, the river monitor USS Ozark and the double ended gunboat the USS Agawam whilst that ‘Will ‘O the Wisp of the bounding main’, Mr Fox took command of the ironclad the CSS Missouri and the CSS Gaines. The action was short and sharp as the pictures will show.


Opening moves - the Union opted to head in two directions whilst the Confederates maintained a line ahead with the CSS Gaines leading the CSS Missouri


The two Rebel ships caught between the USS Ozark (bottom left) and the USS Agawam (top centre). The CSS Gaines was able to deliver a hefty blow against the Union river monitor.


Retribution was swift though, as the CSS Gaines was subjected to a withering fire from the Union ship


In fairly short order, the gallant Confederate ship was subjected to a withering fire, battering her into a sinking wreck


With the Rebel fleet down to the ironclad the CSS Missouri - now with the two Union vessels across her line of retreat - the action came to an end. 

The game was brief but enjoyable although a couple of areas of confusion arose. To begin with the use of squares and positioning of ships within got a little scrambled. When moving orthogonally a ship sits squarely across the two squares - on the centreline if you prefer. When operating diagonally a ship would sit on the central spot formed by the two squares touching at a single corner.  In the heat of the action this got a little muddled but to be honest it made little difference to the overall outcome. 

Squares and dots aside the general consensus was that the rules would benefit immeasurably from a quick reference sheet. Guilty as charged with that omission - it is something that I always intended doing but never quite got around to doing so. I have started work on one and it will be uploaded on the Gridded Naval Wargame facebook group file section.

All in all though, I was pleased at how it went and it was a good work out to exorcise any gremlins before we move up to more challenging and complex actions.

Once again my sincere thanks to Messrs Fox and Huband for their time and carefully considered input.

Cheers chaps!


 

6 comments:

Archduke Piccolo said...

David -
That looks like the kind of scenario that leads to experimenting with the best way to handle a fleet action. With the Union ships splitting apart, I wonder how the Confederates would have gone by 'crowding' one of them?
Cheers,
Ion

Jim said...

That sounds like a lot of fun on a very small footprint. I do like your DIY ships too. Very nifty

Steve J. said...

A fine game there David and always good to test the rules out with other players, to iron out the odd kinks here and there, as well as being asked those questions you never thought of!

David Crook said...

Hi Ion,

I think that might have been the Confederate plan but it quickly unravelled withe the sinking of the CSS Gaines. The two Union vessels were faster than the CSS Missouri but being faster is one thing, catching and sinking her would have been quite another!

I have not thought about fleet sized stuff just yet but will have to at some point!

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Jim,

Many thanks old chap! It was a lot of fun and indeed, I have fought a number of actions using a board of this size. Next time however, I will be using my normal gridded cloth.

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Steve J,

I learned some valuable lessons from the experience and it has given me much to think about going forwards. The first order of business being a Quick Reference Sheet - and trust me, that is proving to be quite a challenge in itself!

All the best,

DC