Dawn of Iron Rules - First Game

[ShadowDragon]

Obviously this isn't a Napoleonic game - unless one uses the "fantasy" description for the forum and assumes that the Napoleonic wars extend to the 1860's and involve the Northern and Southern American states. Otherwise, it's a replay of the historic action of the CSS Arkansas as it breaks out of the Yazoo River (that's a fantasy type name, isn't?). The Union had send the light ironclad, USS Carondelet up the Old River, a former bend of the Mississippi that connected with the Yazoo. ThE Carondelet was accompanied by the timberclad, USS Tyler and the cottonclad ram, the USS Queen of the West.

This is a play test of the rules, Dawn of Iron, by ScaryBiscuitStudios, for the breakout of the CSS Arkansas, aka "That Devil" on 15 July 1862.

The Union ships:



The ratings are:

Command: How long before orders are executed. So, if the Command rating is 3, an order assigned on turn 1 would be acted on in turn 4. Essentially you create an orders queue.
Speed / Acceleration: Speed for 1:600 scale would be 2" per point; for 1:1200 scale it's 2cm per point. A point seems to be about 1.5 knots. Turning is up to 45 degrees at the end of the move, but if you've assigned a "hard to port / starboard" you can have an extra 45 degrees at the start of the move as well (so 90 degrees total). Acceleration is how much speed can be changed per turn.
Size / Draft: Size is small/medium/large. The larger the draft number the deeper the ship sits in the water which is important for scenarios like this one set on a river.
Hull: Damage points a ship can take before it sinks.

Batteries can fire once in any arc listed. So the Carondelet's 8" Dahlgren battery can fire to the front or to either side. The points listed are the number of dice rolled for hits. Size indicates the weight of shot and the potential amount of damage done to a target.

Armour classes are unarmoured, cottonclad, timberclad, tinclad, light ironclad and (heavy) ironclad.

if playing a "points" game, the ship's points are the value in the upper right.


The CSS Arkansas:



I played this as a solo game where I commanded the Arkansas and used "AI" rules for the Union ships. I assigned "personalities" for each Union ship captain. The Carondelet's captain was "steadfast", the USS Queen of the West was "cautious" and the USS Tyler was "bold". I based this on the actions of the historical commanders.


The situation:



The Arkansas is the ship on the right. It must exit the left side (the Mississippi) by turn 10 or disable 2 Union ships (i.e., sink or render a derelict). The current is from right to left. Within about 3" of the shore there is the potential of running into underwater hazards - especially for the deeper draft Arkansas, which, as shown, is keeping to the deeper centre channel. The Carondelet is the centre, left ship, the Tyler is the bottom one and the Queen of the West is the top ship.


Turn 1: Dawn of Iron uses alternate movement. Since there are two more Union ships than the Arkansas, I get to use 2 "passes" in addition to the Arkansas' one move. I didn't want to commit the Arkansas too soon, so I passed twice before moving the Arkansas. The Carondelet and Queen of the West were cautious but the Tyler boldly moved to engage. Fortunately the Tyler did not damage but suffered heavily from the Arkansas' return broadside fire:



The Brooke Rifle battery rolled 2 dice and scored 1 hit (4's are needed to hit - size, visibility, damage all affect the "to hit" score).
The Dahlgren battery missed.
The "light" 32-pdr battery scored 1 hit.

The timberclad Tyler made it's saving throw of 3+ against the 32-pdr hit but failed against the medium Brooke rifle battery's hit, which meant it drew a "Critical Damage" card which indicated heavy crew losses and 1 point of Hull damage.


Turn 2: Wanting to finish off the Tyler, I had the Arkansas seize the initiative (i.e., moved first). The Arkansas was rewarded with an explosion of the Tyler's boilers that ruptured the ship's hull causing it to start sinking. Elsewhere the Carondelet finally decided to aid the Tyler and moved in firing it's forward battery but to no effect. The Queen of the West skulked around unsure of whether to flee or engage.




Turn 3: Seeing the Carondelet was engaging the Arkansas, The Queen of the West decided to position itself for a ramming run at the Arkansas; it failed and instead the Arkansas rammed the Queen of the West causing it to sink. However, the Arkansas suffered rudder damage and was entangled with its sinking foe. The Carondelet continued to move slowly upstream and to fire ineffectually.




Turn 4: The Arkansas managed to disentangle itself from the Queen of the West. The Carondelet decided to breakoff and fired yet another ineffectual shot at the now-still-in-the-water Arkansas.




Note that the yellow, Cumulative Damage, cards are repairable. If a ship takes as many yellow cards as hull points it becomes a derelict until repairs remove enough Cumulative Damage cards.

The game took about an hour and the results somewhat similar to the historic one in that the Arkansas managed to breakout. However, both the Queen of the West and Tyler were not sunk in the actual engagement but the Carondelet was heavily damaged. The Union failure here was the lack of coordination. A coordinated attack would have presented a better challenge but I put that down to my not using enough "I" in the "AI".

[Vagabond]

Interesting, the ships look nice but quite small.

[ShadowDragon]

Interesting, the ships look nice but quite small.

They're river craft - converted paddle wheelers or specifically constructed for combat on the Mississippi and its tributaries. The Hartford, a frigate, is fairly large, but I don't have it painted and rigged yet.