ACW Naval Campaign

Started a ACW naval campaign at our last club meeting.  Using a couple of set of rules from Wargame Vault.   Anaconda Capital Navies for the strategic side and Sail and Steam for the tactical battles.  Ran the first two turns in a 5 turn campaign.   The scenario starts with the Spring 1861 turn and turns are 3 months each.  Each turn has a random event which could be good or bad for either side, reinforcements in the shape of new ships, shore batteries and troops also later in the war obstacles and mines.   Then you determine the mission assigned to each navy in which they are trying to earn victory points and who moves first and second on the turn.  As each side takes it's moves if fleets of both side end in the same square you switch to a tactical game to fight it out.  The rules provide tactical maps the areas to set up the battle.  On the first turn there was no random event (the event rolled didn't apply).  Both sides rolled for reinforcements with the Confederate getting one ship and a 3 gun heavy shore battery. The Confederacy gets to roll for ship building once at each port it owns and builds the ship there.  The Union rolls 6 times per turn for ship reinforcements and they get placed in the Atlantic Ocean box to begin with.   The Union was very unlucky on the first turn and received no ship reinforcements but did get a cavalry regiment and a 5 gun light shore battery.  The land reinforcements and shore batteries can be deployed to any area the side controls during the movement phase.

The imap setup after the first turn moves.  I took the map from the rules converted it to one sheet and then enlarged it to fit on a 2 x 3 poster board and created 3/d4 inch counters to display the unit status.

This shows the first battle a lopsided affair of 1 Confederate ship vs 7 Union ships.  We set up the battle using Sail and Steam rules who also sell top down ship counters which I doubled in size and mounted on foam board.  We changed the naval rules slightly in that the rules call for two movement phases and we substituted just one.

This was at the end of the first turn of the action.  With the union entering from the North and the South set up on the table as they moved there first.

Here were the ships involved the Confederate had the CSS George Paige and the Union consisted of the USS Pawnee, Thomas Freeborn, Pocahontas, Anacostia, Mount Vernon, Reliance and Resolute.

The initial firing by both sides was ineffective causes only suppression hits with no real damage.   But the range is closing quick.

The range closed to close range and the damage started to build up with the Union getting a critical hit on the George Paige and her rear gun was dismounted.

With the rear gun gone the George Paige decided to ram the Mount Vernon bad decision) and did more damage to herself then the Union ship and with the gunfire the George Paige was quickly sent to the bottom thus ending the battle.  But the Pocahontas' Captain was relieved of command for grounding is ship.  A fun battle with mistakes made by both side.

The second turn was mainly a reorganization phase for both sides as the Union lost 5 ships to blockade duty (random event) which depleted his fleet and the Confederate had a catastrophic loss on the first turn and was able to do a massive build program but it takes forever to get ships from Richmond and Petersburg to the front.  We will run turn 3 at least at the next club meeting.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the final map but after the moves the Confederate were able to capture Annapolis getting a 4th port and a large battle appears to be building there for next turn.  More to come next month.

Gary