I finally got round to playing the Battle of Cherbourg scenario that I wrote for Dahlgren and Columbiad over the holidays this afternoon, once again using the card counters that I printed out for playtesting. The game went to nine turns before a raking shot by the USS Kearsage smashed the CSS Alabama to matchwood, even though up to that point both ships had only suffered limited damage. The game literally revolved around both ships in a frenetic turning match, which was not unlike the actual battle with both sides fairly evenly matched.
The damage did begin to tell after a few turns, with some flooding and light damage for both ships that was swiftly repaired, only to spring up again in subsequent turns. The CSS Alabama successfully rammed the USS Kearsage twice but failed to board on both occasions, which scuppered Captain Semmes plans to overpower the Union sloop and use her as a replacement for his worn out privateer. If the game had lasted another turn, the Alabama would probably have been able to escape with heavy damage, but luck was against her and she was wrecked by gunfire in Turn Nine.
The rules worked okay but a couple of things cropped up that left me scratching my head. The first was the mechanism for ramming, which seems logical until the damage to the rammer had to be worked out. This just didn't make much sense but I think we got it right after a fashion. The second thing that I thought needed a tweak was the gunnery modifiers, with no pluses for firing at close range or for raking fire, which seemed a bit odd? I may well add these to the list and try them out, with a +1 for crossing the T and +2 for close range fore, which I think will be pegged at less than 4 inches?
And apologies for the terrible photos!
Jim, how do you keep track of damage?
ReplyDeleteJim how do you keep track of damage?
ReplyDeleteI just added notes on the ship record sheets but use shell splashes for Broadside and Ram.
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