Jackson Gamers' 15mm ACW Naval Battle

July 31, 2004

Photo by Ed Sansing

Part of the Union fleet at anchor. The gamemaster (to right, in purple shirt) seems to have dropped something on the floor. Robert Whitfield - Union Flag Officer - sits to left.

Photo by Ed Sansing

The leading Confederate vessel, the wooden gunboat Vicksburg and 2 steam torpedo launches move toward the bay. Plainly visible is the shallow water line. This was the "bar" at the mouth of the river.

Photo by Ed Sansing

The first Union vessel gets up steam. The game master looks shocked. The Union vessels were all at anchor with no steam up, except for the small launch. Each Federal ship had to roll a "6" on a D6 to have gotten up enough steam to move. They all made it, but one vessel took 8 turns!

THE UNION FLEET'S MISSION: Sink any of the misguided Rebel ships that come downriver and enter the bay!

Photo by Ed Sansing

The rest of the Confederate squadron as it heads toward the gap. Just over the battery on the point you can see the advanced Confederate wooden gun boat. The one ship (the blue ironclad) is steaming around some foul water and seems to be headed back up river (there was not enough table room to put her where she belonged, which was to the rear of the rusty ironclad).

Photo by Ed Sansing

The lone Rebel wooden gunboat, Vicksburg and the 2 torpedo-carrying steam launches try and close on the only Union vessels under steam, a monitor and a "tin clad."

Photo by Ed Sansing

Not much later, after a few well placed union shells, the wooden gunboat is just a hazard to navigation and the launches so much flotsam.

Photo by Ed Sansing

The rest of the Confederate squadron tries to join the fray and two vessels end up aground and others have to go all aback to avoid the stuck ships.

THE CONFEDERATE FLOTILLA'S MISSION: You are to procede down this river and into the bay. You have three ironclads to the Federal Navy's two. You will destroy or drive off the blockading force.

Photo by Ed Sansing

By the time the Rebel iron clad gets into the bay all but 1 Union vessel has raised steam and the southern vessel is set upon by both monitors

You may see some pennies placed on the ships' decks to represent an inroad of water in the ships. When the number of pennies equalls the flotation value - glub, glub, GLUB.

Photo by Ed Sansing

A Union gunboat explodes. This was the only catastrophic failure on a "critical hit" die roll. Wooden gunboats are vulnerable to this, but the Ironclads are not.

Photo by Ed Sansing

Two Union monitors work over a Rebel ironclad. This ship soon struck after all guns were inoperative, and two stack hits (note yellow bands on funnel showing stack hit) and an engine hit immobilized her.

THE OUTCOME - Game 1: Throughout the game, the Union monitors rained 11" and 15" Dahlgren shells upon the Confederate ironclads. Smashing gunport shutters, removing stacks and destroying guns. In both our games the lighter ships played with their opponents, but the Monitors ground down the Confederate Casemate Ironclads.

Photo by Ed Sansing

Another Confederate ironclad finally get unstuck from the bottom and gets into the fight. Too little and too late - as were all the Confederate ships in game 1.

Photo by Ed Sansing

In the second battle, the Confederates did not have to worry about the river and shallow water. We just lined up the Federal ships on one side, the Rebels on the other, and we had at it! Here two Union boats gang up on a Rebel ironclad. The Federal smoothbore guns proved awesomely effective.

Photo by Ed Sansing

These were our fellow gamers, visiting from south Mississippi. From left to right Les Jerome, Bill Majure, Lon Jerome, and Dwayne Balius. The two Jeromes are brothers.

Naval games cast up all manner of flotsom and jetsum, and the Jackson gamers were glad to see these gentlemen again. Several of these guys have known the editor of this fine web page for 20+ years. It is amazing that we all still game.

Photo by Ed Sansing

A union steam launch chases a Rebel Casemate ironclad, waving it's spar torpedo. Alas, every single torpedo ram attempt failed. Even the clumsy Casemated vessels were able to avoid the launches, which were quickly sunk for their troubles.

Photo by Ed Sansing

This is an overview of the second battle. All the ships are intermingled. The commanders had seen the ineffectuality of long ranged fire. The second game was fought, as Shelby Foote once said: "with 8-inch guns at 8 feet range..." Didn't help those rebel sailors though!

THE OUTCOME - Game 2: "Second verse, same as the first!" Tne Union monitors smashed all that they saw. In previous games, the Rebels had sometimes been able to torpedo a monitor or two. That made the difference. On this day, the steam torpedo launches were totally ineffective.

We played this TWICE on the same day, because the Confederate ships seemed to leak and so sank too quickly. These are only the first of the photos.

We were pleasantly surprised to be visited by several nice guys and good gamers from the Mississippi Gulf Coast area on this Saturday. Among them were Bill Majure and Dwayne Balius - whom we have known from CoastCon for many MANY years. They took part in the second game, but as Confederates, they fared no better than the Jackson Gamers!

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