"Blockade Runers Make it Home" Topic

Played an ACW naval game today with the Confederates trying to get a couple of blockade runners safely past the Union patrol.

whichwar.blogspot.com

Looks like a great game. When allowing mortars to shoot at ships strange things happen.
During the ACW did mortars actually shoot at ships or did they just shoot at forts and other land targets?

Sundance,

Thanks for posting, its inspiring me to post some of my 1/600 modeling efforts I've been working on over the past 2 years.

Hussar,

It was rare for mortars to be shooting at ships due to their high firing arcs and slow rate of fire but it happened occasionally. Perhaps the most well known instance was during the Battle of Plum Point on the Mississippi River, when a Union mortar scow defended itself from attack by the Confederate River Defense Fleet in 1862. US mortars fired at the CSS Arkansas as it was under repair at Vicksburg. Confederate mortars were a part of defenses which resisted Union fleet attacks at the major forts such as Jackson/St Phillips at New Orleans and Morgan/Gaines at Mobile.

OBW

In Under Both Flags, a mortar firing at a vessel has a -4 and needs to roll a 9 or 10 on a d10 at medium range, with no other modifiers, such as target size or speed. If those come into play, could become an impossible shot depending.

That looks like a great game. I like the torpedo boats, even if they didn't do much.

I played a set of home-made rules a while ago where you would designate where the mortar was firing at and then roll a "scatter" to see where it actually hit. Firing into an ongoing fleet action proved to be VERY exciting (and not in a good way)

Looks great. I'm playing the Blockade Runner scenario from Peter Pig's Hammerin Iron rules in a couple of weeks. Just finished painting up the Advance for that.

John, that sounds awesome!

Thanks for your answer.

A big difference shooting at a fixed target than a moving one with a mortar.

More specifically, did a mortar ever hit a moving ship during the ACW?

Good question Hussar,

I don't think any of the instances that I mentioned resulted in a direct hit by a mortar on a moving vessel. In that respect I think most miniature rules exaggerate the effectiveness of mortars, especially their ability to hit and damage moving vessels.

OBW