Club Night 18th April - Hammerin' Iron

(Bugger! I just accidentally deleted the photos from last nights game... Sean's ships are lovely too!)

Sean acted as a non-playing game master for a session of Peter Pig's Hammerin' Iron leaving Dave to play the Confederates against Keith and myself as the emancipators. Dave had the mighty CSS Virginia and the tiny ram CSS Planter. Keith had the CSS Chillicothe and the monitor Keokuk at his disposal while I just had the CSS Tuscumbia to look after.

Both fleets went straight at each other, though the Keokuk was in a bad position and spent most of the game going around an island to come up behind the 'feds. Planter managed an early ram on Chillicothe but damaged herself almost as badly. She then went on to disable one of Keokuk's turrets but shortly after her guns were all shot away, she started to burn and finally Tuscumbia sent her to the bottom.

The star of the show was the Virginia who focussed fire on the Chillicothe whenever possible in an attempt to even the numbers. Once the Planter had been turned into the latest Confederate submarine all the Union ships concentrated on the Virginia and the battle become one of firepower and attrition with very little movement.

The Chillicothe was soon very battered and in danger of sinking. Keith commented on how none of the light guns on either side had managed to do any damage in the entire battle; shortly before just such a gun sank the brave Chillicothe.

It was too little, too late for the Virginia which was in a terrible state by this point. She switched fire to the other two Union ships finally causing damage to the still fresh Tuscumbia but under a withering fire that would have soon sunk her she was forced to strike and was captured.

Goodbye USS Chillicothe and hello to the new USS Merrimack!

Thanks Sean, great game. Can't believe I deleted the photo's...

Another Club Night

While I was transferring photos from my phone to my laptop I found these shots of a Napoleonic naval game we played during my blogging hiatus. Recollection of events is hazy at best so these are presented merely as eye candy rather than a batrep.

All the ships are 1/2400 from Hallmark and the rules used were Grand Fleet Actions in the Age of Sail which have taken over from FLoB II as my go to rules. Keith and Barry played the Royal Navy and I think John and Tom looked after the French (?)

 The French windward squadron...

... and the leeward squadron.

The Royal Navy advance in fine style, Keith leading.

First fire...

Keith brings his squadron alongside the crapauds...

... achieving remarkably little!

Here comes Barry...

He ignores the unengaged French squadron and crosses the T of Keith's squadron, totally blocking him!

Emergency turns and collisions ensue!

The general melee.

At the end of the session things were pretty balanced. The melee was breaking up as squadrons broke out and reformed in preparation for a second pass at the enemy. Unfortunately I was ill the following week and in my absence the table had to be cleared for another game so we never finished.

I believe Vice Admiral Barry was court martialled and executed...

Club Night 26th April / 3rd May - Man O' War

The 26th was the night of the AGM for Stoke Wargames Group so we knew we weren't going to get much game time in and needed something quick to set up. Off to sea!

Keith agreed to put a game of Man O' War together for us and turned up with his lovely Bretonnian and Empire fleets as well as a gazillion boxes of accessories. Matt and I took the Brets., Tom and Ryan the Empire. The Brets. had a Galleon, 3 Corsairs and 6 Buccaneers and the Empire had a Greatship, 3 Wolfships and 6 Wargalleys. Our MoW was 'heavy timbered' and theirs had a 'crows nest'. We both had a wizard.

We only managed a handful of turns on the first night but it wasn't a good start for us Brets. One of us (I'm not naming names, but it wasn't me (I made all the other mistakes)) turned our Corsairs into the wind and they took a pasting while they struggled to turn back out again. Bizarrely, MoW has no tacking rules...

I hadn't got my camera so a few phone shots will have to show how things were at home time.

In the South things looked OK. A plunging Buccaneer catapult shot sent a Wargalley down to the bottom of the sea and our Galleon was moving up in support.

Things were 'grim up North' however. You can see our paralysed Corsairs and in the distance our mostly dismasted Buccaneers. Oh dear...

Seven days later. Ryan couldn't make it so Tom took sole responsibility for slaughtering the remaining Brets.. In the close quarter fighting the Empire ship's oars and forward firing guns gave them a huge advantage. We took a few with us and had the satisfaction of sinking their Greatship but by the end of play all we had left was our Galleon; crippled, toothless and on fire. (Oh... and one Buccaneer heading for home!)

 

Good game. Thanks, Keith.