The Battle of Mobile Bay, an alternative history game

       This scenario is based on a couple of counter-factual assumptions; that the Confecerates were able to get the CSS Mississippi and North Carolina (putatively built for the Khedive of Egypt under the names Al Monassir and El Tousson) out of Great Britain and combine with the Alabama to form a "Blockade Breaker" squadron. This force has moved into Mobile Bay and combined with the local units to try to force the Union squadron away and open the port to commerce.
         Confronted with this situation Farragut has decided to force the mouth of the bay, take out the Confederate naval units then besiege the forts, thus solving the problem once and for all.

 

I ended up with twelve captains instead of the eight that I had planned on

 but they were a jolly bunch of sea-dogs

 the Confederates settled on a plan to engage the Union at the narrows in an effort
to keep the Yankee boats under fire from the forts as long as possible
here we see the table from their end of the bay

 

the Union captains had a mush more complex task; they had to get into the harbor as quickly as possible with their large and disparate fleet and to coordinate the actions of  monitors, ironclads and wooden ships in the narrow confines of the deep channel

 

but they sorted things out quickly enough and deployed their fleet

 

the Southerners had sorted things through as well and their ships were arrayed

 

the Union fleet sailed majestically forward with the armored ships on either flank and the tender wooded hulls in the center, they took galling fire from Fort Gaines and the Floating Battery on the way in, Fort Morgan's dice were quite cold in the early turn

 

the Confederate ships moved to add their firepower to the guns of the forts

 as the Union ironclads battered away at the forts and floating battery,

at this point a long-range shot from a Union ship hit the CSS Selma 

causing a magazine hit which destroyed the vessel in an instant

 

during the Union approach the Tennessee plodded forward in an attempt to use it's ram against a Yankee hull but her 5-knot top speed left her far behind, while this was taking place Fort Morgan found its voice and began to score some hits on the Union ironclads passing nearby

 

without hesitation the Milwaukee lead the charge through the narrows and into the bay

flanked by the Dictator and the Roanoke, almost every Union ship with a line of fire pounded the Floating Battery, shattering its armor and sending it to the bottom 

the Tennessee tried to ram the Milwaukee but just bounced off, her guns were firing on all bearings

 

the narrows became crowded with ships blazing madly away at each other at point-blank range

the CSS Tennessee found itself surrounded by the Union fleet  taking fire from every angle and returning with every gun she had, the Alabama began a lopsided fight with the Milwaukee

 

further away the Mississippi and North Carolina circled back around to gain better firing positions

throughout all of this the forts pounded the Hartford, she nobly endured this savage fire and sailed on few, if any, ships had not suffered damage by this time and some were in a sorry state

the Dictator had lost both her guns and the Roanoke and Tennessee were rapidly nearing sinking

 

a few turns later found the Tennessee drifting with only one gun firing, the Roanoke rapidly sinking with a pair of guns operational, the Alabama with her engines shot out and adrift, even the sturdy walls of Fort Morgan had been shot through and some of her guns dismounted

 

through dint of unlucky die-rolling both the North Carolina and the Mississippi 

had grounded and were unable to free themselves

 

the situation in the narrows at the end of the game; the North Carolina grounded and under the guns of the Hartford and three Union monitors, the Tennessee adrift and firing its only gun, the Roanoke adrift and sinking, the Paul Jones helm shot away and ion an uncontrolled path into the center, the ravaged (yet still stately) Hartford continued to advance

 

a larger view; the New Ironsides, Roanoke II and the Dictator are all lining up to the ram the crippled Alabama, the Passaic trying to ram the grounded North Carolina while the one still operational Confederate ship (top corner, right) has finally found some wooden hulls to shell

       At this point the Confederacy had run out of ships and we had run out of time. The much weaker CSS force had given a good accounting of itself but the superior firepower of the Union had claimed the day. The rules, however primitive, had provided a fast and furious game and the players had all behaved as proper gentlemen. Thanks to all of my captains for the fun time!