A few years back, my friend David sold me his beautiful Hammerin' Iron Fleets. This month, I finally got a mat for it, and David (different one) wanted a game. He had bought Confederates after seeing my box full of both sides, so we got the rules and had a bash! My Union vs his Confederate fleet - He was using his starter set, so we were a little over 6000 points a side.
I was using (all descriptions from Peter Pig site):
USS Fuschia 'Common small wooden screw boats'.
USS Miami (I) 'Well armed side wheeled wooden ship'
USS Miami (II) as above!
USS Essex 'Slab sided union ironclad'
USS Planter (If you do nothing else with these links, go and read this one, it is jaw dropping!!) 'Fairly innocuous side paddler'.
USS Sassacus 'Very big double ended steamship/sidewheeler looks powerful.'
David's ships were:
CSS Arkansas 'Powerful casemate ironclad'.
CSS Tuscaloosa 'Good Casemate ironclad'.
CSS Governor Moore 'Cotton clad side wheeler'.
CSS Manassas 'Dedicated ram ironclad'.
CSS Selma 'Long wooden sidewheeler '. Actually, Tinclad, lightly armoured.
CSS Planter 'Small side wheeler'.
(His Union are on the way too.)
David had lots of heavily armoured ships, whereas I had little protection, but lots of guns!
We started with Selma on table, and I rolled (5+) and only got Fuschia straight on. She was slightly out-gunned then as the Tuscaloosa joined the Selma.
We realised quickly that this was going to be a hard fight for Fuscia. However, as we both found out, pick the wrong order set and you are scuppered as Tuscaloosa was on action station orders and was delayed guarding David's base edge rather than chasing down and sinking the light Fuschia.
Thankfully, Fuschia was joined by the mighty cotton-clad (meaning she had cotton bales along her bulwarks to act as armour) Sassacus.
They were joined by the two Miami's and the USS Planter. They all poured the fire into the Salma, who was taking quite a beating. By now we were starting to get used to the randomness of order selection and how to cope with them.
A scary moment for the tiny and unprotected Planter as it sped past the behemoth of the Tuscaloosa, who unleashed a broadside that was mostly ineffective!
All the Union boats were on table by now, while David was threatening to send his dice to Coventry as his boats kept on failing to arrive. The first Miami and little Fuschia were hotly engaged with the Salma.
Not the place you want to park, David! Essex, Miami II and Fuschia all lay into the big Confederate paddleship.
Salma, joined by Tuscaloosa, attempts to break away, but is bracketted by Union ships.
Meanwhile, both USS Planter and Miami I manage to run themselves aground as I botched their order choices!!!
Which is, of course, the moment all four missing Confederate ships appeared over the horizon! Only Sassacus was on station and unengaged to deal with them, Two ironclads, one of which was a ram, eep!
Salma turns turtle and sinks. Her coup de grace issued by the Fuschia (the others helped). The bigger Union ships turn their attention to the ironclad Tuscaloosa.
Fuschia again shows her fury and lands a crippling blow on Tuscaloosa. She's only got three medium guns, one front, one port, one starboard, so most of the time was rolling five dice or less, needing 5+ to hit!
The heavy guns of the Essex ring out, causing more hits on the enemy ironclad.
And the furious Fuschia does it again, four unsaved hits on Tuscaloosa. 
Okay, the Miami's three heavy guns on her broadside might have helped a bit, but as Tuscaloosa goes under, Fuschia claims her second kill.
Miami I had managed to refloat herself, while Sassacus and Miami I pour the hurt into the poor little CSS Planter.
However, it was not all easy sailing at this end of the world, USS Planter was still aground (she had beached when she had a full set of 'full ahead' orders, so could not issue a halt order to put engines in reverse), she only has front and aft firing guns, and these were hardly denting the mighty Arkensas. Govoner More decided to high-tail it, and Arkensas lost her second pilot. Her first loss had been recovered, but a third was not to be found on-board, and she was stalled mid-stream! Her forward heavy guns were laying into the Planter, her broadsides tearing lumps out of Sassacus, who lost a gun and caught ablaze.
The Manassas was trying desperately to catch and ram the Essex, but the Union Ironclad has doing her best to hit the ram ship with her heavy armament in return, joined again by the Fuschia and long-range shots from Miami II. Manassas was taking a lot of damage, to the point when teh First mate suggested to the Captain that striking her colours might be an idea.
Still pilotless, the Arkensas blasts into poor USS Planter, who turns turtle on the shore. As she did, a final shot rang out from her rear gun, catching the Confederate ironclad and shaking her crew. 
Joined by shots from the Sassacus, the Arkensas strikes her colours and surrenders. The CSS Planter is down to two hull, and the Manassas is not much healthier. The Confederate flotilla breaks off, leaving the Union firmly in control of the Reach Outandtouchme. Sassacus will need a fair amount of time in dry dock after the damage she took (well under 50% and on fire), but Essex was untouched!
We are pretty sure we got a LOT of things wrong, but for a first game, the system worked well, was a lot of fun and made for some great giggles..
Learning points:
- We definitley were pushing it by having six boats each fighting at once.
- No promentaries, sandbars, shore forts or mines helped a lot.
- I fluffed my earlier movement, effectively costing USS Planter.
- Ram ships were dodged, they need a lot of prior planning to get a good hit in.
- The superior firepower of the Union and getting all my ships on early, definitely told over the armour of the Confederates.
USS Fuschia with two kills was my star ship, but they all did really well. Huge laugh, we will definitely play again soon, once we reread the rules!
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