Battle of Flat Bottom Sound

 

 At game night I played in George's pre dreadnaught game set during the Spanish American war.  It was a great looking game with beautiful ships and good friends.  The rules were very fun and simple and we played the game twice that evening.  In the past were have used these rules for American Civil war so they are very flexible.

  We used the rules for naval games by Bob Cordery.  These are a fun and very fast set of rules.  They are played on a hex type mat and simplify a lot of the aspects of naval warfare.  Ships move two or three hexes.  First move you have to go forward Into tbe next hex then you can turn or go forward again.   

  Guns are divided into either primary (can fire forward or to each side)  or secondary (fire to each side) types.  You get a certain number of dice per gun type.  When you fire you subtract the number of hexes to the target from your dice and throw the remainder looking for 6's which cause two hits on the target or 4's or 5's which cause one hit on the target.  So a modern first class battleship has nine dice for its primary guns and five dice for its secondary guns. Other ships with smaller guns get less dice.   In the picture above the Spanish ship can fire its primary gun at the American ship.  Since its six hexes away you subtract suffice from the nine and you get three dice to see if you hit anything.  Each ship gets so many hit points then it sinks.  Easy and simple and it works.

   The game had two Spanish ships attempting to escape Santiago harbour.  One ship had a shipment of gold which had to make it back to Spain.  Off shore was a new Spanish battleship waiting to help.  Once the treasure ship made it off the table both remaining Spanish ships had to return to Santiago Harbour.   The American navy had two older battleships and a protected cruiser.  They had to sink the enemy.

  In the first game we were learning the rules.  The Spanish ships raced towards the edge of the table and the American ships chased them.  unfortunately the Spanish got a serious head start so they could not get caught.  The Americans put their weakest but fastest ship in the lead and it got itself pummeled.  

  In the second game we set up the Americans closer.  As the two Spanish ships left the harbour one ship turned to engage the Americans While the other tried to make its escape.   The Americans turned in the first ship and after a gallant fight sent it to the bottom.  The treasure ship made its way towards to the edge of the table as quickly as it could.  It took a number if hits from long range fire.

  At this point the Spanish battleship arrived.  In a gunnery duel it sent the USS Texas to the bottom.  The remaining American ships which had been damaged earlier sailed away to fight another day.

All in all a very happy evening with a fun game and very good friends.