River Wars

The latest rulebook I've been reading is River Wars, written by Bob Johnson and published by Scott L. Mingus sr.

These rules aim for games of 1/600 ACW ships on the Western Rivers in 1861-63.

Covering the fall of New Orleans as part of Operation Anaconda, and the fight for survival by the Confederates against the Union blockade.

It starts out with a brief outline of the naval warfare of the era, as it tells in short the strenghts of the fleets and the flow of battle between the North and the South as they fought on the rivers, and which where the major battles.

This translates in relatively easy to learn rules that include most of the ship types of the era, and scenarios for the leading actions on the western rivers, excluding the infantry support ones like at Shiloh.  Written for 1/600 scale, they are easily adaptable for other ones (I for one aim at 1/300 to go with my 6mm Union army).

The game sequence consists of 9 phases: Determine Initiative, Crew Assignments, Unfouling Attempts, Repairs and Fire Fighting, Moving, Ramming, Firing, Spar Torpedoes and finally Boarding Actions.  As you can see here, there is some things to do before you actually move a vessel as is normally happening in "land based" games.

Crew quality is random, and you need a certain amount of them to remain operational, the rest serving for example as firemen.  Initiative is a double edged sword, the attacker always has it, but this gives the option to move half, then the defender moves, and then the attacker moves his second half.  But as guns can fire in either half, do you wait until after the defender to try and get a better position, or do you fire from perhaps a less optimal range...

Weapons are classed by a table, and this allows you to add your own ships to the game.  One can research a vessel and his armament and construct it as such, allowing you with a bit of tinkering to make your own scenarios and games.

The scenarios itself are fom a wide range, including a shelling of a fort, to troop landings, to a game of ramming...

The fleet lists not only give the name and classes of all the vessels, but also their commission dates and final fates (and no, USS Monitor and CSS Virginia are not on there; those where "ocean fairing" types by planning, not river boats).

There is then a large section with all the data for the ships, like hit charts, their speed, etc... as well as some art to identify the ships.

The final part of the book is the reference sheet, as well as manufacturers and resources for use zith the rules, and an appendice of more historical data.

A great looking set of rules, and if anyone is ever up for those at the club, count me in!