Gone fishin'

Bruce hosted another game of Hammerin' Iron, ACW ironclads by Peter Pig at his house. This time Bruce played the attacker and we had a game where randomness featured large.

I began by re-rolling a die that eliminated 20% of my fleet only to eliminate more than 33% (queue good-natured swearing, stupid 1 in 6 chance). Deployment was okay for me, with islands channeling Bruce up the far side of the board while my one ship and fort blocked the other.

I managed to get enough cards that I could bombard his bottled up fleet. And he rolled a magazine explosion for his first reinforcement (boom!). But I could get no reinforcements for the longest time so Bruce steamed slowly up the far side and pulverized the town.

At this point, I got some lucky hits and blew up his big ship and also damaged his biggest ship. I lost a steamer (below) but positioned myself for a ram (which led to him striking his colours). In the end, a victory for the defender--lots of freaky dice rolling and a good time. The game really shows off the rag-tag nature of naval action during the ACW.

Up next: Well, nothing, actually. I've decided to take the summer off from gaming blogging. This will let me re-organize the gaming room, get a few pieces painted for the autumn and generally concentrate on gardening and cycling while the weather is good. I'll still be gaming and blogging but you'll have to wait until September to see any results. Have a good summer! -- Bob