Hello all, welcome back to the Imagi-nations, the blog that brings you fantasy combat in fantastical worlds! So what do we have for the first actual wargame battle on the blog?….The fantastical world of 1898 Spanish-American war(!?). Yes yes I know its not in the Imagi-Nations category, but the other reason for this blog was to help me play my (many) games that I’ve collected. This was more so my entry into tabletop Hex and Counter games, as well as the first time playing the Great War at Sea rules by Avalanche Press (not sponsored!). As such I probably have made a lot of mistakes but there’s no better way than to dive in! That being said…onto the intro
I’ll start by giving a brief overview of the game, then I’ll go into details about the mission I played. This is not going to be anything too in-depth but essentially the Great War at Sea series allows players to re-create various naval conflicts from early 19-20th century. They come as boxed sets with different battles in mind, and the one I’ve chosen is the Remember The Main set, detailing the Spanish-American War. There’s others like the battle of Jutland, Midway, and others. Again I’m not sponsored but there’s lots of different ways to get into the series. There’s generally two parts the the game, the wider strategic portion (moving fleets into position, managing fuel, blockading ports ect.) and the tactical battle, which is what I played this round. This specific mission was the first battle scenario titled “Off Havana” in May of 1989. the excerpt from the book below
“Cervera ( Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete, commander of Spanish squadron by Cuba) successfully eluded the Americans on his cruiser from Martinique to Santiago; the enemy had no idea where he had gone. That would provide an opportunity to snap up any of the small American forces imposing a blockade of Cuban ports. While the Spanish ships badly needed training and overhaul, the Americans had fielded some museum pieces that had no place on the modern naval battlefield.” Remember the Main Battle Scenario 1
An interesting set up, lets get into it!
The humble setup, played on the kitchen counter, including the game rules on the left, the campaign book in the middle, a notebook for notes to help me remember how things go for the blog, my dice and a tray, and finally, the tactical map! now for the forces…
On the left you have the American forces, consisting of the Miantonomoh (CD05), the , Bancroft (GB00) Helena (GB09), two Armored Merchantmen (AMC02) and two Armed Yachts (AY01). Mean while the Spanish consists of the Inf. Maria Theresa (AC01), Cristobal Colon (AC08), Vizcaya (AC02), Alm. Oquendo (AC03), and two Furor destroyers. Those of you keeping score, that’s four Spanish Capitol Ships to the Americans one!
This is the opening setup, the American forces are in the center, and the Spanish start in the south east. Nothing much happens turn 1, the Spanish forces advance towards the center in range of their primary guns. In order to score a hit, you have to roll a 6, getting different bonuses base on if the target is a capital ship (+1) or if the target is the adjacent or same hex (+1) (and they stack!). The numbers on the upper right denote the number of guns each ships has, represent Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary guns, the smaller square counters only have Tertiary guns. The Alm. Oquendo (ACO3) begins the engagement by firing on the Miantonomoh (CD05) but misses.
Turn 2 (I didn’t capture a picture I’m still figuring this out) highlights an interesting twist to this mission. This is the first turn the Spanish landed a hit, the Alm. Oquendo (ACO3) again fired on the Miantonomoh (CD05), and landed a hit. However, due to poor Spanish maintenance and gunpowder quality, they are forced to confirm any successful hits on a 5 or 6. This first successful…resulted in a dud shell. overall, it was mostly misses as both sides couldn’t quite get the firing solutions right…until Miantonomoh (CD05) lands a hit on Alm. Oquendo (ACO3) and knocks out her Tertiary gun.
Onto turn 3, the fleets closed in, and this is where I expected things to go badly for me. A reminder, most of my fleet was improvised combatants or smaller destroyers, and I placed them squarely in the middle of 4 Spanish Capitol ships. But surprisingly it went okay, starting of very strong with Miantonomoh (CD05) landing a hit on Alm. Oquendo (ACO3) and dealing 2 points of damage to the hull, and knocking its speed down a point. I’ll go into it later but each ship as a number of components to track including weapon mounts, hull integrity, and others. Essentially, things were not looking up for Alm. Oquendo, and while not in danger of sinking, she wasn’t fair *too* well either. The other highlights include the Armed Yachts (AY01) and the Armed Merchantmen (AMC02) both landing hits on Cristobal Colon (AC08) damaging the secondary guns.
Moving into turn 4 (the last turn) see’s more mostly ineffective shooting. Starting with the first to hit for the round, Helena (GB09) fired on Alm. Oquendo (ACO3) resulting in 2 hits, 1 on the hull (no damage) and the Primary gun (also no damage). The second hit of the round saw the Armed Merchantmen (AMC02) hitting the Alm. Oquendo (ACO3) and knocking out its secondary gun. Moving to Spanish, the Alm. Oquendo (ACO3) fires on Miantonomoh (CD05) hitting but the round being a dud. The first *actual* (and only) Spanish hit for the game came when the Cristobal Colon (AC08) fired on, and destroyed the Tertiary gun on Bancroft (GB00).
Overall…This was an American victory. The win conditions for the Spanish were to destroy more points than the Americans, and the American’s just have to have forces on the battlefield by the end. Historically…this battle never happened, and its very clear why. The Spanish forces suffered poor maintenance and powder stores, and the Americans had essentially museum pieces. Speaking of, I wanted to see what some of these ships looked like. This is the first time I have heard of Armored Yachts and the Miantonomoh (CD05) so I looked it up…
That’s the USS Miantonomoh (CD05), an Amphitrite-class monitor. She has an interesting history so if she interests you check out her history. I’ll probably do an easy follow up post showing pictures of the other ships later but that about does it for today.
One thing to note. I initially had some reservations about breaking out this game. I’ve never played a Hex and Counter table top game and I felt like I had to have a ton of little bags or a storage box for the tokens. I had to remind myself that this is my game, and its supposed to be played. This isn’t and inspiration blog by any means but I’m glad I made the leap and played it. It was very enjoyable and I do plan on having it on the blog more, and even doing the campaign.
That being said. thank you all for your time, and I hope you enjoyed! Until next time! – Christopher