"Steam ships of the line" Topic

I'm gearing up to pit the US and French navies against each other in the 1860s. The French navy of the period included a lot of wooden ships with massive broadsides teeming with big guns. The US Navy on foreign station would probably include frigates, too.

I've been looking at using either "Iron and Fire" or "Sail and Steam Navies" to do this, but both have mechanically heavy systems for resolving shooting (roll to hit, roll for location, resolve armor penetration, roll for damage, roll for special damage, etc.), and I'm worried either will bog down horribly when firing a broadside of 1-5 dozen guns.

I'm curious if anyone else has run games for "transitional steam" navies of frigates and ships of the line armed with numerous guns, and invented streamlined ways to get through all the shooting in a reasonable time.

- Ix

I faced the same issue when I wrote "Iron and Fire" and applied it to the Crimean war, Lissa etc. I included a set of massed gunnery tables wher the number of guns firing and the required score to hit was combined wil a d100 roll to give total number of hits. Very quick and simple once the tables had been generated, and I included them in the published rules. Recently I automated the process in a spreadsheet tool that also gave hit location and criticals, so even quicker.

That sounds promising. Where should I be looking for that? I have the latest copy of the rules from wargamevault and the all the supplements from A&A. I don't see anything about d100 massed shooting…

- Ix

TI think I'm right in remembering that A+A had / have plans for a set of fast play fleet action rules for this? Might be worth an email?

I have a nasty feeling they deleted them from later editions. PM me an email addie and I'll dig them out and send to you

Can't PM, so email sent instead. You write nearly all the rules for unusual niche naval genres, so you're already in my address book. :-)

Thanks in advance!

I have an older print-only version (maybe v2.X?). I'll check that one too.

- Ix

I have played a number of ironclad games from the Austro-Italian War of 1866 that involved a number of wooden ships see link If the wooden ships can get in close, their broadsides can do some serious damage. But the problem that wooden ships have to balance is that all the European ironclads (including the French vessels) are fast with significant rams and can easily consign them to the bottom.

My copy of Iron & Fire v2.2 has the salvo tables at the back.

I've used I & F for a US vs French Battle of Nantucket based off the scenario descriptions from the Yaquinto Ironclads game.

Here's the OOB I used. The TD ASV# are the Tumbling Dice 1/2400 ships that I used.

Battle of Nantucket (October 31, 1865)
A French diversionary squadron meets a force of U.S. steam frigates off the coast of New England near
Nantucket shoal.
American Fleet (142 guns)
USS Wabash (Large Screw Frigate 44 gun) (TD ASV5)
USS Minnesota (Large Screw Frigate 44 gun) (TD ASV5)
USS Brooklyn (Screw Corvette 24 gun) (TD ASV8)
USS Powahatan (Side-wheel Frigate 16 gun) (TD ASV17)
USS Kansas (Screw Gunboat 10 gun) (TD ASV15)
USS Delaware (Screw Gunboat 4 gun) (TD ASV13 Generic Gunboat)

French Fleet (140 guns)
Fontenoy (Screw SOL 80 gun) (TD ASV3)
Descartes (Side-wheel Frigate 20 gun) (TD ASV12)
Clorinde (Screw Frigate 18 gun) (TD ASV15)
Catinat (Side-wheel Corvette 8 guns) (TD ASV16)
Berthollet (Side-wheel Corvette 8 guns) (TD ASV16)
Caton (Screw Corvette 6 guns) (TD ASV15)

Is there a write up of that scenario? I'd like to know how it went.

The OOB is totally set up to encourage the two 44s to try and hold off the 80 while everything else mills around in a melee with an advantage in numbers and firepower to the US. Interesting balance problem there.

- Ix

I don't really have a write up. I played it solo so I gave each side orders at the start then played it out.

The US were in 2 columns with orders to close to medium range and turn to starboard and form line ahead.
The French were in 3 columns with orders to wait for the US to commit and then turn parallel to the US line.

The French plan went out the window when the opening US broadside killed the helmsman on the Fontenoy. The left French column turned but the center and right continued straight. After that it was a melee and the heavier US guns pounded the French to kindling.

If I recall, the Descartes & Catinat on the right were able to gang up on the Kansas and sink her then escape.
The French lost everything else.

Besides the two 44s vs the 80, there is also the slow firing heavy US guns (9" smoothbores) vs lighter faster firing French guns (30-36 pounders) affecting balance. My guess is that the US has the advantage overall.

Thanks for the synopsis. This gives me some things to think about in upcoming Franco-American War scenarios.

- Ix