ACW Naval update - week 10

Good day and welcome to week 10!

As predicted in the week 9 update, very little was accomplished this week due to the demands of preparing for Cincycon 2016. However,  very little means something was accomplished. To wit - rigging on several ships is completed or nearly so.

Completed
Two ships have their rigging completed - CSS Patrick Henry and the USS Sassacus double ender.

CSS Patrick Henry with the standing rigging installed. A quick coat of black paint and this model is complete!

Slightly different angle of the Patrick Henry

Sassacus class double ender. The masts are from Bay Area Yards, so the rigging does help keep things in place.

In progress

CSS Jamestown / Thomas Jefferson. Need to finish up the rigging. Maybe four more wires and it's done!

Back to the yards
 Following the convention, USS Minnesota took a little damage to the forward standing rigging. It may be an opportunity to redo some of the standing rigging. The model was completed several years ago when the author's skills were not as developed.

USS Minnesota from Bay Area Yards.  The masts and rigging were one of the author's earliest attempts.

Starship Troopers: Waiting for the Cavalry

Things will go your way if you hold on for one more day.

The landing boat from the TFN John Chard had set down hard in the clearing. AA fire from a Plasma Bug had crippled the vehicle. It had to be more than bad luck thought, Lt. Shepperd. Did the bugs know that the SICON Intelligence officer was aboard? No matter, after calling Fleet, Shepperd's orders were to hold the landing boat until relived by a combat repair unit from the 7th Cavalry.   Shepperd ordered his platoon Sargeants - Barry and Snyder to unload the troops and set up a preimeter. The extensive stocks of supplies aboard ship meant that at least ammo should not be a problem. The squad leaders were all first rate, and there was a relatively clear fire zone in all directions.

The initial waves of bugs were easily handled. 1st Squad lost their war correspondent and a trooper, but continued to hold the line.

Warrior losses were high, but with "Endless Tide" in effect, the dead returned the next turn.

Lurking behind the woods was the Arachnid Overseer, a sort of 'Battle Brain'.

The skirmishing Warriors masked the approach of the tanker bugs, which tunnel up right at the MI line. The MI are in trouble.

That tanker is about to spit out some nasty acid stuff. The MI are mostly reduced to using grenade launchers to have any hope of injuring the monster.

But hold on - help is on the way!

The elements of the 7th Cavalry have arrived! They start pouring rocket and missile fire into the Overseer bug...

...taking it out! This throws the bugs into disarray for the next turn.

Getting a quick shot in for the newscasts!

While the MI finished off the first tanker, a second emerged from the group and laid down a devastating stream of acid on the MI. But the repair party did their work - the landing boat was repaired! All the survivors piled back into the boat.

Not a moment too soon as a Plasma bug appears in the distance and two swarms of hopper bugs sweep in toward the landing boat.

Firing up the engines, the survivors breath easier knowing they escaped a horrible death.  Back the ship!

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.

Cincycon 2016 is in the books

I'm home and unpacked from Cincycon. okay in fairness, I was home every day as it's just the other side of town. But the con is over for me, which is kinda sad. I could not let fighting a cold all weekend slow down my commitment to hosting the two games I'd submitted. Plus, I got to shop, catch up with friends and squeeze in some game time for me.

General observations
Cincycon runs as a three day convetion over Friday-Saturday and Sunday. I showed up late Friday afternoon to light crowds. I get this - a lot of kids are getting out of school and we adults are wrapping up the work week.  Walking in the door, you were hit with a boisterous fun game of modern skirmish combat hosted by the folks from Miniature Building Authority.

The Falafel house has been car bombed! A block over protesters mug for the CNN camera crew.

A most gorgeous table with lots of great details.

The airfield in the foreground. The ocean is in the background at the far end of the table.

Sadly, I had no time to play this game as I had to get my own game on the table - ACW Naval!



Round out the night, my friend Bob and I ended up playing the Atermis starship combat simulator. A series of linked PC, it creates the environment of the bridge crew working through encounters with hostile ships. What a hoot! It's a great blend of wargame with as much role playing as you want to bring to the table. Felt very much like being on the bridge of a ship in your favorite sci-fi series.

Our captain manages (from L to R) sensors, weapons and helm. I'm sitting at comms with Engineering at right. Main viewer in the right background.

I did get in some time to shop in Sunday. Purchases from three vendors. First up a 'vintage' copy of Wings of War Famous Aces. It was missing one card and I got a great price on the incomplete game. Three more maneuver decks and a forth for which I'll have to make a replacement card. Not bad for $10 bucks!

Miniatures Building Authority got some of my money. This time for restaurant tables and a register counter. If you worked in many restaurants in the 80's these look really familiar.

The three pieces. Another set has two tables and no counter.

The napkin holder and condiments are a nice touch.

Last was a few 28mm modern Afghans. Though to be honest, they look like they could be used from the 1980 invasion through today.

Two RPG's and a LMG on a bipod

REally like the prone sniper figure.

This guy is sure in a hurry to meet Allah!

At left, a Mongoose US Army SAW gunner. At right the Sangin Skirmish MG gunner.

At left a figure from Stan Johansen. On right, Sangin Skirmish figure.

A demo game table shows off the figures. Really well done work here!

Amazing work both on the figures and the terrain.

I ran a Starship Troopers game on Saturday night that was well received. On the table next door was an excellent Robotech RPG Tactics game which was beautifully excecuted.

The odd bits of green are the debris of a destroyed Zentradi warship floating in space.

This really brings back some memories.

Overall, a great show. Already looking forward to next year's event!