Ironclads, Dawn of Iron, 1/600 scale

I’m sure I’m going to bore you over the next few weeks. First off, for various reasons I’ll have to skip two club nights. So, instead, I’m going to post a couple of American Civil War naval games, as I’m trying to learn this new set of rules. I’ll be running a multi-player game on 19th December, so I need to figure out the system. This week, after roping David into the game as the Confederate, we’re re-running a game we did before – with a slight difference. When we last played this just over a year ago we called it the Battle of Port Royal Sound – we tinkered with history, and had two ironclads a side. then we used Sail and Steam Navies, a set of rules which might have been a good recreation of history, but it wasn’t much fun to play, especially for the Confederates. So, when this new set came along I thought I’d run the game again, playing it at home, to see how the rules compared. Both Dawn of Iron and Sail and Steam Navies are heavy on the graphics – they produce lovely ship cards and markers. Of the two sets though, I think the first one is more of a ‘beer and pretzels’ game as the Americans put it, which means easy to play, with an emphasis on playability rather than accurate historical simulation. In other words it’s more of a ‘4,5,6 and you’re hit’ kind of game, and probably no worse for it, especially if you don’t play it every day.For this one we had a semi-historical line-up for Wassaw Sound, with the CSS Atlanta facing the Union monitors USS Nahant and USS Weekawken.  To even the odds a bit though, we added the CSS Savannah  (above) into the mix. The ship models come from all over the place;  Atlanta is Thoroughbred Miniatures, as is one of the Union monitors. The other one is from Peter Pig, while the Savannah was 3D print from Wargames Vault / Long Face Games.One of the features of Dawn of Iron is the Ship Upgrade system.  You can use it to level the sides up, a bit like the Support List bolt-ons in Chain of Command. With 9 points to spend, Davisd opted for a spar torpedo, mounted on the bow of the Atlanta (above).  It would be interesting to see how it worked. The two sides closed pretty quickly, firing with their bow guns as they came within range of the enemy.The Confederate ironclads had a slight edge here with their rifled guns, which outranged the smoothbores mounted in the monitors. Inevitably though, David wanted to try out the torpedo, and on Turn 4 the spar torpedo (essentially a mine on the end of a pole) struck the USS Nahant. As you can see the darned thing didn’t do any real damage. Both ships were dead in the water, and the Atlanta backed off, while Nahant fired her guns at point-blank range. Although this was disappointing for the Confederates, Atlanta still had her ram. A shot from the Confederate ironclad had caused ‘Cumulative Damage’ to the monitor, and damaged some steam pipes. So, Nahant was finding it hard to move. So, Atlanta backed away a little further, then her captain called for full ahead. Although only making about 6 knots, the Confederate ironclad powered into the Nahant’s port beam, and her ram struck home.Meanwhile Nahant was firing her two enormous turret guns, and these were smashing into the Atlanta, causing a fair bit of damage. The ram though, caused damage to both ships, particularly Nahant. Effectively, they were both spent, having suffered a lot of hull hits. In Dawen of Iron, you turn a card, either for ‘Cumulative Damage’ (yellow card) or ‘Critical Damage’ (red card), and apply the results. This shows just how beaten up Atlanta was! Meanwhile Savannah and Weehawken had been dueling at long range, without much effect.  A hit on Savannah’s rudder though, gave the captain of Weehawken the chance to head north, and go to the aid of the badly-damaged Nahant. Realising the danger though, the captain of Atlanta broke off the action, and withdrew, covered by the now-fixed Savannah. Weehawken though, had a rudder hit of her own, and so couldn’t give chase. The game ended with both sides moving out of range – well, limping away really. As you can see above, Nahant had lost three Hull points – another two and she’d start sinking. She also had damage to her engines and her guns. Atlanta was in even worse shape, and was technically sinking, although the chances were she could be grounded somewhere nearby, protected there by a mine field, hazardous shoals and the Savannah. So, in effect the game was a draw, with both sides retiring to lick their wounds. In the real battle, Atlanta was on her own, and was overwhelmed by the two powerful Union monitors. As for the rules, I thought they worked well. They were easy to pick up, and after a couple of turns you only really needed the playsheet. Sure, there were some things I’d like to change, like the way ships turn, and the numerous cards, but overall Dawn of Iron was a hit. 

Tags: Dawn of Iron