This set of rules are intended to cover the engagements that took place between 1861 and 1865 during the American Civil War. The location of the actions would be on the great rivers of the eastern seaboard of North America. Such rivers would be the James, Mississippi and Yazoo. The rules have been designed with the specific objective of providing a playable game that gives the flavour of the period by imparting the major features and generalising on lesser matters. A brief outline of the conflict would go as follows. The two sides were known as the confederates(CSA) and the Union(USA). The union tended to have a much larger fleet. At the outset the union fleet consisted of mainly wooden vessels. The confederates quickly built ironclads(armoured vessels with extremely thick armour). These ironclads quickly proved wooden ships to be greatly inferior. This was illustrated several times when a single confederate ironclad would scatter four or five wooden ships. The CSA ships tended to be conversions . The quality of engines, materials and armaments varied wildly often toward the poorer end. The USA soon fielded some excellent ironclads along the famous monitor design which overall were better ships than the long CSA Ram/Ironclads.

As far as guns were concerned there are a few generalities that may give the player more feel for the period. The principles of fire and effect fell into two ideals. The first ideal was that of “punching”. Punching was the concept of the round going through the armour and causing great damage inside. Battering was the concept of smashing against the armour so hard that the plates would break off or the force would be transmitted to the area beyond the armour. Both methods have merit but it is punching that rules modern day thinking now that such items as fused shells and very high velocity guns are available.

To play this game there is an amount of equipment to be assembled.
1. Ships to 1/600th scale.
2. Enough 15mm scale figures and guns to represent the gun deck of the ship.
3. A piece of card or model to 13mm scale upon which to put the figures, thus showing the exact position.
4. Hexagons inscribed in 5.5” circles for movement purposes. (2 for each ship)
6. Some ordinary 1-6 sided dice.
7. Some scenery for sandbars and shore batteries.
8. Paper to note down damage.
9. A blue cloth or similar.
10. Some friends with whom to play.

Hammerin' Iron

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