Battle of Plum Bend

After several months away from the front, our tame reporter reported for duty on the Mississippi river in May 1862. It had been suggested that I dust off my ACW naval collection and run a game of Peter Pig’s “Hammerin’ Iron”. Rather than use the Peter Pig game set-up system, I opted to write my own scenario and found an interesting historical setting of the battle of Plum Bend. The Federal Western Flotilla was pushing up the Mississippi as part of the so-called “Anaconda Strategy”, facing both shore forts and the Confederate River Defense Fleet (note American spelling of defence!). Early morning of May 10th saw the Federal flotilla in position to trying and bombard Fort Pillow into submission. Mortar rafts were in position together with the ironclad USS Cairo as guard-ship,

with the three other Federal ships at anchor upriver. The Confederate flotilla attacked out of the early morning mist. It was a fairly asymmetric game, with the Federals having more heavily armed and armoured ironclads, and the Confederates tin-clad rams but the benefit of surprise. The main problem for the Confederates was that their strategy relied on Chris and Tony’s close co-ordination. They were doomed from the outset.

The game initially proved pretty even. The Rebels managed to sink the USS Cairo through a combination of shore battery fire and a well-judged ram attack, and then Tony ran through the defenceless mortar rafts. The Union managed to sink the weakest Rebel vessel the General Sumter, and also immobilise Chris’ flagship the CSS General Bragg which continued to drift downriver gamely firing away whilst sinking lower and lower in the water.

However, by the end of the game Tony’s CSS General Sterling Price was high-tailing it back up-river leaving the burning CSS Little Rebel to face three large, powerful Union Ironclads.

Tony of course claimed victory for his massacre of the Union mortar rafts, but as with much of the Union juggernaut there were many more rafts to replace them, whilst the Rebels had effectively lost two precious ships and another was highly likely to succumb to overwhelming force.

I hope everyone enjoyed it. As we were re-learning the rules no doubt mistakes were made, and I’m still not sure about the “direction of ram” situation. Phil suggested a “house-rule” which I might adopt. Next up I need to add some sandbars plus I have found some unpainted packs of torpedo boats and strings of mines which will add some more tactical complexity to the game. I also see that Mr Pig has added some more ships to his collection. Could be expensive!

Simon

Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes (or another game of ACW naval)

Having spent a week enjoying the delights of “Dixie”, our hard-working reporter once again joined the fray to witness some more action on the rivers of the Deep South during the American Civil War. Greg took the Unionists and Tony the Confederates to play one of Peter Pig’s ready-made scenarios. This would see the introduction to battle of the innovative Unionist turreted monitors against a pair of Confederate Ironclads supported by two converted riverboats.

Soon hot iron was flying across the waters as ships manoeuvred into optimum firing positions. Once again, the CSS Planter which was sunk and resurrected last week, was soon a burning hulk but the other Confederate ships proved tougher nuts to crack.

The CSS Arkansas (or as Tony repeatedly pronounced is Ar-Kansas) was quickly proving its worth both as a gun-ship and a ram. The USS Monitor took damage. The mighty CSS Nashville had part of its rudder shot away and at some point appeared in danger of colliding with its own ship the General Sumter. However, the crew repaired the damage and managed to regain control.

The Sumter then rammed the Monitor again, bringing the plaintive dry from Greg “who gave the lunatic two rams”! The Monitor limped off to lick its wounds but could still fire its two heavy guns battering away at all and sundry. The CSS Arkansas seemed to exit the battle with a damaged smoke stack and only one damage point remaining.

However, the Nashville fought on finally forcing the Monitor to strike its colours, and Greg suffered a sense-of-humour failure when the USS Canonicus’ 18 dice only inflicted one point of damage?

Was the tide literally turning in favour of the Confederates. The answer was “no” as the General Sumter sank to the bottom courtesy of the USS Canonicus’ big guns. With both Confederate ships down to 10 damage points between them, and the Arkansas effectively out of the fight the game was decided in favour of the Union. The Confederates had failed to break the blockade and the Anaconda plan would continue.

Simon

A Game from the Depths of Simon's Shed

Last night our travel-stained reporter journeyed to the Southern States of the USA to witness some American Civil War riverine action. There had been gasps of amazement when Simon unveiled his 47 strong fleet of 1/600 gunboats, plus wrecks and shore forts including a wildly impractical Fort Sumter. All unused for nearly twenty years, and now including a pristine Peter Pig hex mat specifically for the period.

The game was a simple ship vs ship duel to test the rules and used a scenario from the Peter Pig website. Tony commanded the small CSS Planter

whilst Dave took the mighty and rather menacing CSS Virginia. Chris and Greg commanded Yankee ironclads, with Phil taking the more unconventional USS Tyler, a converted commercial steamer. The scenario set-up meant that the ships were positioned on the board in random hexes. This saw Tony’s Planter virtually prow-to-prow with the Tyler. Phil’s initial move saw the Tyler move alongside Planter which was soon sinking.

It was decided that rather than let Tony sit idle all night the Planter would be resurrected and enter from the Rebel table edge. His problem was that the Virginia was at the other end of the table, and he was facing the whole Federal fleet alone. A second Planter wreck model was soon gracing the table.

The rest of the game saw the three Federal ships trying to hunt down the Virginia. Greg found the designs of his Ironclad baffling, with only front and rear-firing guns. The Federals managed to land multiple hits on the Virginia and even jammed the rudder for a few moves, but with 50 hit points it had only ten less than the whole Federal flotilla. Phil’s Tyler sank first, and then the Yanks made tactical blunder in manoeuvring the Tuscumbia down the Arkansas’ port side to allow Chris’ side battery to join the fray. Both Greg and Chris had forgotten the rules that didn’t permit such an engagement. Soon Greg’s Tuscumbia was blown to pieces.

With only the Cairo and its remaining 13 hit points facing the Arkansas with double that remaining it was decided to call it a night, and a Rebel victory.

Post-game feedback indicated a positive view of the rules. As with most Peter Pig games enough historical accuracy blended with some fun and novel systems. I sense we will be playing again.

Interestingly post game research has revealed that the USS Tyler did face the Arkansas on the Yazoo River during the 1862 Vicksburg campaign. It was actually patrolling with two other ships. The Arkansas simply charged past them and then through the whole Federal River fleet to the safety of Vicksburg. A mighty ship indeed. It was rather ignominiously scuttled a few months later suffering from engine trouble and a lack of engineering support!

Simon