IRONCLADS VOTING RESULTS:
Rules Regularly Played - Smoke on the Water

Put on as a participation game at convention. Set on the Mississippi at Vicksburg, with Union ships having to run past batteries and confederate ships [2 Apr 99]

Used SMOKE. Did DuPont's attack on Charleston, had about a dozen players, almost one per ship. More-aggressive-than-historically Union was able to get NEW IRONSIDES and two PASSAICs across the rope obstruction and destroy PALMETTO STATE and CHICORA, so US won. Next time I'll either make it harder to get across the rope, or give Rebs a couple of torpedo launches to supplement their ironclads. [2 Apr 99]

They are quite fun to play. The two times I have played we have only had one ship each to control. So we had time to learn moving and shooting. The next step will be to play the ship battles during the Danish-Preussian war of 1864. [29 Mar 99]

Our last game was a freelance ocean going ironclad experimental skirmish. We have been working on an improved set of house rules for the big European type ironclads because we are not happy with any of the off the shelf rules. Smoke on the Water is the set we are using as a starting point, but it might not be recognizable when we are done. The fight was 6 ships to a side, all pre-1880 masted ironclads. One ship (Gloire) was lost outright to ramming. The rammer (Temeraire) got rammed in turn (by Affondatore), then struck on a morale role triggered by the Capt. being killed. One ship was lost to a fire that started from an exploding gun, SotW allows mishap to quickly grow to catastrophe with fires. Three other ships were sunk from being hammered by gunfire. Another ship was lost from a combination of being hammered and a catastrophic misfire that immolated it. And one ship blew up from a magazine hit. The game lasted 18 turns. A lot of time was wasted firing the smaller guns, mostly at funnels since the smaller guns could not hurt other parts of the ships.

We try to play as close to history as possible, but there are all those grand ships that were never used in action, so we have to do freelance games. The Ironclad Period focuses on the ACW, which is not fully applicable to the large European type ironclads. While it is fun to tinker with rules, we would rather be able to work with rules that started out closer to what we wish to game with. [27 Mar 99]

A hypothetical battle with several Union ships attempting to run up "the river" past obstrucions and assorted Confederate ships to destroy naval bases. Two Union vessels needed to exit the far side of the table - one monitor made it while another almost did when a lucky shot exploded her magazine.

I want to get a copy of Smoke on the Water when I can find one, as they are the first rules that have made the period really worth gaming in. [27 Mar 99]

The last ironclads game I ran was a "demo derby" at the local hobby store featuring six of the best Confederate Ironclads against six Union Ironclads. The rules used were "Smoke on the Water" and the ships were 1/600th scale Thoroughbred miniatures. I had 6 players a side and more clamoring to get in the game. The Union side included the USS Atlanta, the USS Roanoke (in three turret monitor guise), the USS Nahant, the USS Canonicus, the USS Onondaga, and the USS Winnebago. The Confederate side included CSS Texas, CSS Tennessee II, CSS Richmond, CSS Atlanta, CSS Arkansas, and CSS Virginia. The game was a chaotic slugfest greatly enjoyed by all. Some of the highlights included the USS Atlanta ramming and capturing the CSS Virginia, the CSS Richmond passing completely through the Union fleet and returning unharmed, and the CSS Tennessee being forced to surrender by the combined gunfire of the USS Roanoke and USS Onondaga. The Union won the game, having sunk one Confederate ironclad and captured two, while suffering no losses. [26 Mar 99]

US forced performing blockage duties of S Carolina coast, are surprised by CSS High Seas fleet IE ship built by European powers and never delivered. Using Smoke on the Water. [26 Mar 99]