"Pivot Guns" Topic

Many ACW ships, like the Alabama and the Kearsarge, had large central pivot guns that could be fired to either side of the ship. Moving these guns to one side or the other was actually an involved process. Angus Konstam mentions in the Osprey book on the Confederate raiders that once a gun was placed on one side or the other it would remain on that side for the duration of a battle. It wouldn't be pivoted from side to side in the middle of an engagement.

For the various rule systems that people use, I'm curious how many of them allow for pivot guns to be switched from side to side during a game and how may require the players to specify at the outside which side their pivot guns will be brought to.

We always allow them to pivot, since that was what they were designed to do. It seems odd that it would take too long to do during combat. Some vessels were designed with only two large pivots, Albamarle, Neuse, Keokuk and some with a pivot that covered the entire front or rear of a ship, Virginia.

We always allow them to pivot as needed.

I've never considered not allowing a pivot gun to pivot (I am willing to concede that I may be wrong however, I need something more than an Osprey to convince me that I am incorrect).

We play SOTW and pivot guns can pivot as often as you want.

There's a good illustration here;

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The reference mentioned in the above link is very interesting, I had not seen it before;

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Footnote 13 to the section on the "Exercise of pivot-guns" reads;

"The pivoting of so heavy a Gun is the most complicated of all the operations with it, and demands special drill. When done to windward, the hearty effort of the whole Gun's crew is required, particularly if there be much crown to the deck and no deck circles; to leeward there is no difficulty, and the time at sea to pivot from side to side may vary from four to seven minutes. … "

So, if you would want to model it in a game, it seems the gun starts at a given position. During your turn you can either pivot or fire. The player, by logic will pick the side he will most likely use, park it to blaze away. Then, he might change it in an emergency or when he is in a safer position.

I used to play Iron and Steam, and in that system you had to account for the position of the turret or pivot guns. It could be moved to cover a different side of the ship each turn, but you plotted their position when you plotted your move.