Ironclads in the Adriatic

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to have a game of  "Ironclads in Action" with Alan and some of the guys at Central London Wargames Club.
We played a fictitious scenario of an engagement between a British Fleet coming up against an Austro-Hungarian fleet in the Adriatic Sea during the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Alan has devised a cleaver way of depicting the ocean. He lays out a 6x10 foot wide length of blue light weight fabric. Over the top of which he places a sheet of clear cellophane  which can cover the entire surface area of the 6x8 game table with on overlap of a  foot or so on either end.  Finally a 2nd clear sheet is placed over the table on the opposite orientation with the overhang cellophane length ways rather than long ways.

With ironclads the action tends to gravitate to the edge of the playing area. However because of Alan's cleaver system if the action heads for the edge of the world  all that is necessary to do is to pull the cellophane one direction or another to centre the action. This allow the scale distances  to be maintained easily in a what is a true scale game.

Our game consisted of three players on each side. For the Austro-Hungarian Howard, Jesse and I for some reason beyond my comprehension selected me to fulfil the role of admiral

In any case we started off very well, sailing our ironclads and line abreast at the Royal Navy fleet sailing up the middle of the table. Howard's Squadron was the first to encounter the British fleet and got embroiled in a slugging match at closing distances. This caused the British line to concertina and slow allowing my squadron to interpenetrate the line and offered the opportunity for me to ram one of the British ships. Unfortunately I missed but managed to get ships entangled.

This is where things started to go wrong for me.  The next round second ship in my battle line had the ingenious idea of firing at the British vessel which was entangled with my flagship. Predictably enough I missed the target and there was a thirty per cent chance of the shot hitting my own ship. Predictably enough I rolled a 30.  To add insult to injury Howard who was firing on the same target also missed his mark but was successful in causing another hit to the Austro-Hungarian flagship.

At this point we ran out of time and we all agreed that the game should be called a draw before I sank one of my own vessels!

Photo credits: Alan