"Trents Reach mini AAR" Topic

Played a good naval battle on Sat. We fought a Victiory on the Riuver game "based" on the Jan 1865 battle of Trent's Reach on the James River.

A CSS flotilla of 3 Ironclads and two gun boats sailed down the James River to attack the Union supply depot at City Point VA. The Union countered with the USS Onodaga monitor and two gun boats. Historically this was a two day naval fight that we played in 20 turns using Victory on the River rules.

James and Joe commanded the Federal fleet and fought well vs JD and Rogers Confederate flotilla.

The Confederates had no problem with the Union Shore batteries. With help from the Rebel land artillery they knocked out 90%t of the Yankees shore guns. Then came the sunken barges and low tide….

If memory is correct every Rebel ship ether got stuck in the barge line and or grounded on a sand bar when the tide went out. Only one Union ship grounded due to low tide. This slowed the Confederate fleets attack!

The outnumbered Union in the end sunk two of the Confederates wooden gun boats and tied up the CCS Virginia II when it rammed the one of the BIG Yankee gun boats which eventually sank! The CSS Virginia II was unable to pull herself free from the sinking ship and soon found herself at the mercy of the monitor USS Onodaga. The Virginia II did cripple the monitor and caused a minor fire to start which was still buning when the battle ended

While the CSS Virginia was "tied up" The CSS Richmond and Fredericksburg managed to pass the rest of the Union fleet. They would d make their way to City Point and wreck havoc on the Federal supply fleet.

Confederate Victory!!!!.

It was a fun scenario and pretty balanced … after talking with the "‘sailors" for the next time we will add a line of Union torpedoes (mines) along with the sunken barges and up gun some of the shore batteries. I thought the torpedoes would be too harsh for the rebels with the rules we used? The shore batteries for both sides were mostly 32pds and once the fight started we discovered they could only damage the ironclads at close range (10 inches) so they turned their fire on the wooden gun boats and enemy batteries…but then the BAD DIE-ROLL gods struck the Union! Amazingly the Rebel shore guns did as much damage to the Yankees batteries as the flotilla did and they were firing a long range!

The low tide rule worked real well and was very historical. Low tide came on turn 7. After each move a ship rolled 1D6 on a 5+ it grounded. To un-ground the ship had to pass a command check, and the fist turn of movement would be only 3 inches. Staring on turn 11 the GM rolls 1D6 and on a 5+ high tide arrived. Ships that remained grounded still had to pass a Command check to recover even with the high tide. If only the Union reacted faster when 2/3 of the rebels fleet was grounded…but then that was historical too.

I really enjoyed GM'ing the scenario and will ponder about taking it to a HMGS convention.

Reminder the Battle Barn will be GM'ing a ironclad game "based" on Hampton Roads this Saturday, FEB 4th at the MUSTER in Williamsburg VA.

Ron

Along with some sunken ships there was a boom. It did not cross the entire river. I would not add Union torpedoes. Also I would say the Union shore batteries could not be knocked out due to the height of the batteries on the shore and I doubt most onboard guns could elevate to fire at them (Wilcox, Parsons, Spofford, Sawyer).

I have done this scenario as well. Sounds like you had a fun game. I was wondering if any of the ships could purposely ground themselves to avoid sinking and continue to fire.

Hello Schlesion,

One reason my sceanrios are always "based on"…is to make some histroical battles playable.

I wanted the shore batteries to be involved in the game… I thought up the sceanrio on my 30min drive to the batle barn and used charts from a previous game is the main reason I discovered the shore batteries were to "light" to damage the ironclads.

We did not have a "self" grounding rule but we discoverd the +1 to hit a stationary target rule and it helped with counter battery fire at the shore guns and later to hit the grounded ships.

It was a fun game and will be a great convention game.

Ron

Do you find VotR to be relatively balanced? I only ask because there are two ACTA based ironclad games out there (one was published in S&P), and they seem to take very different approaches.

I haven't had the chance to play either, and would lean towards VotR due to its pedigree, but since I'm a "noob" in this field, I'm always looking for advice.

"It was a fun game and will be a great convention game"

It definitely is. I ran the scenario it a few times at Fall-in.

"The shore batteries for both sides were mostly 32pds and once the fight started we discovered they could only damage the ironclads at close range (10 inches)" Remember the shore batteries do have plunging fire so they can hit the unarmored tops of the ironclads. I played it once where the battle was at the rebel batteries (Iron and Fire rules). A kid was commanding the batteries and like kids do he rolled perfectly. Dropped a shell in the top of a turret and blew up the monitor pretty dramatically.

Some ideas to mix it up. CSS Texas was on the stocks in Richmond. She didn't actually get completed in time. However, If you add her to the mix it definitely enhances the rebel odds.

The Battle Barn is new at playing ironclads….we haave been playong WWII naval and enjoy using Victory at Sea so the free (WEB) VotR seems to fit in as it uses V@S for basic rules…and it is free. Some of our naval guys have found a few things wrong such as gun types etc…but the system works and is quick to play.

The Union land batteries had 2 mortart batteries but hit nothing!

Ron