Ironclads AAR

Ryan hosted two Ironclads games with eight players today. The original scenario had two Confederate ironclad rams coming downriver two engage two Union monitors; in these games we used four of each. The Yankee ships are somewhat more maneuverable, have better gunners and better fields of fire; the Rebels are a bit faster and their guns are quicker to reload. Each Rebel ship also has a ram bow and a spar torpedo, which is basically a bomb on a pole attached to the bow; usually it's difficult to catch an enemy ship with a ramming attack, but when you do, it can be devastating.

And that's what happened. With twice as many ships as usual and a constricted map, the Union ships couldn't stay spread out enough. In both games, a Rebel caught a Yankee with a ram, leaving both ships immobilized; a nearby Confederate then lowered its spar torpedo and speared the hapless Yankee, sinking it in one blow. In the first game, I intended to put a spar into one Yankee but another one turned the wrong way and we met in a bow to bow mutual ram; the fact that I hadn't expected to hit him didn't keep my torpedo from blowing a fatal hole in his waterline.

A fun scenario and tense for both sides, although with eight ships, it seems to favor the boys in gray. I gather with two ships on each side, the Union tends to win, so perhaps next time we'll try it with six ships.