Tales from the Anaconda: The Battle of Hampton Roads. March 1862

Cincycon 2016 featured an American Civil War naval game loosely based on Hampton Roads. This battle of Hampton Roads had some odds and ends. In addition to USS Monitor, the steam frigate USS Minnesota was off the shoal and joined by USS St. Lawrence being pushed around with the aid of a tugboat. The casemate ironclad CSS Virginia was joined by the gunboats Patrick Henry and Jamestown.

Rules: Smoke on the Water, from Canis Publishing.

Scale: 1/600


Models:

USS Monitor - Peter Pig
USS Minnesota - Bay Area Yards
USS St. Lawrence -  Bay Area Yards
Union tugboat - Thoroughbred Figures

CSS Virginia - Thoroughbred Figures
CSS Patrick Henry - Bay Area Yards
CSS Jamestown - Bay Area Yards

The Confederates enter the roads from the southwest, the Union steam in from the northeast leaving the protection of Fortress Monroe behind them. St. Lawrence, realizing it cannot keep up, rapidly falls behind and out of the game.

Minnesota maneuvers to deliver the broadside.

Though starting cautiously, USS Minnesota soon accelerated into the center of the battle and drew fire from all sides. Three of the first four heavy rifle shots from CSS Virginia were DUDS, sparing Minnesota 30 points of damage. There was much grumbling about the quality of the Richmond primers and fuzes. In return, a broadside of the Minnesota (20 guns!) resulted in 1 pentration of the casemate by the 10" smoothbore, 18 bounced rounds of 8" and IX" gunfire...and a critical hit to the boiler! Steam filled the ship, scalding many crew men working the lower deck. The survivors abandoned ship. Leaving Patrick Henry and Jamestown to fight on or run away.

Fire burns on Minnesota while steam pours out of Virginia.

Well that's one way for it to play out, but not much fun at a convention, so ceding the Union a victory, play proceeded as if the boiler survived.

Minnesota took fire, caught on fire and deciding that today was NOT a good day to die, broke off and retreated to the relative safety of Fortress Monroe.



The action then shifted to USS Monitor. Monitor had a lot of trouble hitting the approaching gunboats. Their fast speed let them close in rapidly and with some good ship handling, both gunboats rammed the Monitor...

Minnesota sent the port broadside into CSS Patrick Henry causing moderate damage and a fire.

Sound collision!

Great ship handling - the CSS ships did the best possible job maneuvering to contact.

With little effect. Monitor suffered a machinery hit reducing her speed to slow. Didn't even lock together. Both Confederate ships attempted to board Monitor, but the attempt was repulsed with losses to both boarding vessels.



Monitor slowly backed off and unloaded the 11" guns into Patrick Henry.  Between the heavy guns and the fire, Patrick Henry was crippled and sank.

Monitor did not escape unscathed. Accurate fire from the heavy guns on all three Confederate warships reduced the turret to scrap. Monitor limped away, taking fire from the Virigina, which could not catch up. Jamestown, seeing what fate had befallen Patrick Henry steered clear and went to the assistance of Virgina.

A fun little game with lots of action. The dice were hot as armor was repeatedly penetrated with generally low probability opportunities. Very far from the grinding slugfest that was the original battle, but perhaps an idea of what would have happened with guns firing shot at full powder charges.

ACW Naval update week six

Another quick photo log update documenting activity on the blog. Lots of little tasks have been completed. This means a couple of items are 'done' with many more limping on towards completion. It is starting to feel like progress is being made. So, more coal for the boiler fire and keep on steamin' for the goal!

What's done!

The 6 gun earthen battery from Bay Area Yards is a great model of a water battery or other suitable fortification for your naval games. The battery floor and interior walls have a brick surface with capstone on top of the wall. I've equipped the model with models of 32 pounders (which could double for guns up to say 8") on garrison carriages from Thoroughbred Figures.

Battery Buchanan is completed! This is a large four gun battery that was an element of Fort Fisher in North Carolina. The left hand guns looks out of position. Have to check on that...

To convey the size of this model, that's a Thoroughbred Figures USS Sassacus behind the battery model.

...and with the 6 gun battery immediately in front of it.

What's coming along...

Rigging continues on CSS Florida. Moved on to bracing the main mast. Hope to have that done this week and then finish the mizzen mast next week.

 

Closeup of the foremast. Just realized - I still need to paint the sails. So...a little moire work, but not too much. And really thinking about repainting those twin stacks a dark gray or black.

USS Varuna. The rigging is installed. Now to paint the riggning, tough up the rest of the paint job and install the guns.

Three new projects past the assembly stage  USS Lackawanna and CSS McRae and USS Kearsarge.

Another new model almost assembled - CSS/USS Calhoun from Bay Area Yards.

There are eight parts that make up the pictured model. Still need to add the walking beam and guns.

USS Lackawanna, assembled and ready for priming.

Close up of the forward end of USS Lackawanna's spar deck.

Aft end of USS Lackawanna. The rigging is minimal as would reflect a ship in combat.

USS Lackawanna after application of the primer coat. Should be able to get started on the paint job this week!

USS Kearsarge - ready for priming.

CSS McRae. This was a quick asssembly job. The most trying thing was getting the yards attached to the masts. I used JB Weld and a small clamp to affix the yards to the mast.

McRae after a coat of primer has covered most of the model.

ACW Naval 2016 Week 1 status report

A short update of what I've accomplished this week. It feels like slow going, but much of the challenge is tied to the holidays and the marginal weather we've had. I've been focused on assembly and priming to move some of these projects forward.  To help stay motivated, I want to do at least a weekly post this year showing the progress and process of getting the ACW ship models ready for the game table.

CSS Selma after a coat of primer.

CSS Selma acquired her first coat of primer. This is a model from Bay Area Yards. Given that I missed a spot she may require a second coat to hit those hard to reach places.

CSS Selma - the pronounced overhang of the deck made getting the spray paint onto the hull a challenge. This will likely need a second coat of primer before painting begins.

 
 The real progress was in the assembly of  the CSS Patrick Henry and her near sister CSS Thomas Jefferson (Yorktown). Both models are from Bay Area Yards.These two gunboats saw service with the Confederate James River squadron. Both participated in the Battle of Hampton Roads, and Patrick Henry served to the end of the war.

Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. Or is that vice versa?

These two kits have been awaiting assembly for a number of years now. There are impressive number of parts. This is one reason why the models have been sitting so long. I just didn't want to tackle all the fiddly bits. But that's over. Using JB Weld, the paddlewheel houses, superstructure and masts have been attached.

Port broadside

Patrick Henry and Selma together.

I'm glad I assembled these models - they really make for a pair of pretty ships. Now to get them painted and rigged so they can be used on the tabletop!

Smoke on the Water at Advance the Colors September 19th, 2014

I'll be providing an ACW naval game at HMGS-Great Lakes 'flagship' convention Advance the Colors. The game is 7:00pm on September 19th. Given the short slot available for the game, I'm forced to keep it relatively small. For simplicity, I'm going to use mostly tinclads and gunboats, maybe an ironclad or two per side. Possibly a battery of guns and the ubiquitous torpedoes and obstacles like "snags".

I'm going to loosely model this on the Red River campaign with some of the 'what if' elements that the Anaconda campaign game allowed to happen. What I'm thinking is...

Union Squadron with;

USS Chiilicothe
USS Lafayette
USS Choctaw
USS Argosy
USS Forest Rose

Confederate Squadron with;

CSS Missouri............casemate ironclad
CSS William H.Webb.......paddlewheel ram
CSS Indianola (Captured earlier in the war)
CSS General Sumter....gunboat ram

Battery Van Foose
2 Medium Smoothbore guns

 The problem with convention games is that you never know how many players you will get or what their skill and experience levels will be.

So...this is a relatively low end game. Mostly light and medium guns with some heavies opposing heavily armored counterparts.

The alternative is to do Hampton Roads with Congress, Cumberland and Minnesota against Virginia. This has the benefit of being a short game with lots of opportunity to fire guns. 

Too much? Too little? Too weird?