"Getting a few 10mm ships - which ones?" Topic

Gentlemen,

I have scoured the TMP backpages for details on the best way to go to give me suitable ships to support my 15mm ACW gaming on the same game table ala regimental or brigade based game systems. The figures I have are Battle Honours 15mm (18mm).

I want to include a few 'typical' or 'most used' types of vessels to give support to my CSA and USA forces.

The line I think that is best suited to this job will be the 10mm Brokaw ships from Old Glory.

What ships (let's say 3 USA and 3 CSA) would anyone recommend as the typical ironclad support ships that would give likely fire support in a land battle that I can incorporate with my 15mm troops. Ideally support for Western and possibly Eastern operations.

Any suggestions from the ACW naval brains trust here at TMP would be much appreciated.

Kind Regards

Happy Wanderer

With the restriction for West and east, best bets would be, for the Union, something along the lines of 124A or B timberclad gunboats Lexington and Tyler (at Shiloh and other locations), 123 Hartford (was pretty much everywhere), and a 122 90 Day gunboat (this class was everywhere).

Confederate is harder. James river campaigns saw the Richmond, Virginia II, and Fredericksburg provide some help, but in the west you might as well go with a Maury gunboat and some tugs. Best bet would be one of the ironclads and a couple of tugs, with the tugs useful everywere.

In the West, the City class ironclads, the Benton, and the Lexington and Tyler timberclads saw a lot of service. The 2 timberclads were not just at Shiloh. They were at Belmont, Ft. Henry and Donelson, plus the Vickesburg and Red River campaigns.

For the East, The CSS Albermarle fought 3 of the 90 day gunboats and 4 other gunboats, en-route to help Confederate ground troops try to take a small Union fort. I have the complete scenario somewhere and will look for it.

eastern operations:

USN: New Ironsides (SC coast, NC coast, James river) double ender, 90 day gun boat, tug, Passiac monitor, schooner, rowboats. The wooden ships give you allot of bang for the buck as they can bring allot of "wow" affect with a bit of detailing like rat lines and lifeboats.

Reb: tug, small IC, Gaines (can also be a blockade runner). The reality is that most of the mid to smaller size reb ICs except for Arkansas are generically similar enough in appearance that most people would not know if you substituted one for another in a pinch.

The tug, rowboat, Gaines, and schooner are nice as they can easily be either side depending on your scenario.

I plan to do a scenario like you envision at Fall-in. I'm doing the assault on Ft Wagner. New Ironsides, some gunboats, and rowboats are going to provide fire support for the 54th Mass.

Wonderful stuff.

Thanks guys, that has given me much food for thought in preparing my order.

Very kind regards

Happy W :-)