I had an excellent game of Dahlgren and Columbiad this afternoon, although it was a solo set up as my daughter chickened out, or just decided she had to go out with her friends rather than play toy soldiers. Anyway, I set up the scenario for the Battle of Angamos, with the Peruvian turret ram Huascar attempting to evade the two Chilean casemate ironclads, Almirante Cochrane and Blanco Encalada. I won't go into all the details but the game was action packed, with the Huascar literally running rings around the two Chilean warships, using her turret armament to blast away at her opponents who struggled to bring their broadside guns to bear. At one point, the Almirante Cochrane almost managed to ram and board her but the turn of the cards was against the Chilean and Huascar got away just in time.
The Peruvians also rolled well, while the Chileans had some pretty poor dice results, which meant that they suffered from critical hits three times during the game. These included damaged steering for the Blanco Encalada and a serious fire on board the Almirante Cochrane, with both ships also receiving heavy hull damage by the end of the action. In contrast, the Huascar got off scot free with only light hull damage, which had no effect upon either her gunnery or her mobility. I ended the game at Turn Eight, as the Huascar had achieved her victory conditions by inflicting heavy damage on both Chilean ironclads, while also escaping from their effective range in a full steam ahead out to sea. I really enjoyed this fast paced, tactical game and will no doubt play some more Dahlgren and Columbiad later in the holidays.
Looks like a good game Jim. The Peruvians did well, in our game the Chilean admiral managed to manoeuvre so as to shoot from multiple arcs over the three fire phases.
ReplyDeleteThey did manage something like that once in the game but otherwise they were really unlucky.
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