Action on the Mississippi...Hammerin' Iron

Its always great when you get to see a project through the painting stage and actually onto the table so this week my ACW ironclads that I've been working on (see previous post) got an outing in a game of Hammerin' Iron.

These rules from Peter Pig are fairly light but it means you don't get bogged down in the minutiae of armour thickness and gun calibre.  As usual in PP games, there is a pre-game sequence which determines who is attacking and defending, and how many ships turn up and when.  The defenders (me in this game, playing the Confederates) only start with 1 ship versus 3...the argument being that the attackers wouldn't launch an attack unless they have an advantage. Reinforcements do eventually arrive but more quickly for the attackers. The defenders do get the benefit of a Fort however although it played no part in our game.

The attackers get points for sinking ships but the real objective is to destroy the enemy supply depot and ships.

Actions are determined by a hand of 5 cards per ship but you have to commit to cards from either a deck focusing more on movement or firing for a few turns at a time which forces some tactical choices.

The lone Confederate ship CSS Arkansas faces off against the advancing Union ships

The Fort guards the supply depot

Fleets are selected to a points value... both sides have to pay for a Fort in advance but only the defender gets to actually use it

The 2 starting fleets

My initial sole ship quickly found itself the target of lots of fire from the Northern ships

Arkansas turns and tries to escape from the advancing Union ships...

...but, too late...a lucky shot from USS Miami causes a fire in the magazine and the ship explodes!

The Union ship Switzerland raced ahead to try and sink the supply ships but also came under fire.. there's a lesson there for both sides to not get too far ahead of the rest of the fleet.

USS Switzerland steams towards the supply ships but is repeatedly set on fire by the Southern ships.

As my ships began to slowly arrive I realised I was still outgunned and tried to sink the USS Miami by ramming it with Albemarle but csme under such heavy fire as the ship steamed in that the ram attempt wasn't very decisive.  In fact Albemarle was so beat up by the closing fire that she sank shortly afterwards!

Miami is rammed by CSS Albemarle

It only causes minor damage (but does start a fire) but Albemarle is sunk by gunfire in the process.

Because of the combined damage from the ram and further gunfire and fires, the crew of Miami decided enough is enough and abandoned the ship, heading for the safety of the shore.

The game has a variable time limit and as the clock ticked down the North had lost 2 ships and the Confederates 3 but more crucially, Andrew had managed to sink 3 of the 4 supply ships giving the North a major victory.

It's been several years since I've played these but we picked them up pretty quickly.  They're not overly technical and the hex system can lead to some oddities with firing arcs, but I think this is a good trade off for a game that is fast moving and gets a result in an evening.