Saturday was August 5th, International Naval Wargaming Day is today, the 6th. Unfortunately I wasn’t available to game today so I hosted eight of my friends at my house yesterday to celebrate the notable gaming occasion.

Hosting games at my place is a little tricky because I don’t have an obvious place to play a game. My garage, where I’ve set up games before, is full of stuff for sale at our space at the local antique mall. It’s been a beautiful dry summer in the Northwest so I planned to host a the game outdoors on the lawn under the shade of our big maple tree, but with a pop-up canopy for additional shade just in case. The weather early in the week was predicted to be 86 degrees and dry, in what has been a very dry summer.

I chose a scenario from Monroe’s Legacy, a scenario book on America’s emergence as a naval power in the late 19th century by The Admiralty Trilogy Group. It was a hypothetical scenario for the Spanish American War about an early encounter between Cervera’s Spanish armored cruisers and Schely’s Flying Squadron before the former became bottled up in Santiago harbor and doomed to blockade by the entire American fleet. Perfect scenario for six players, but I had two late additions to I added a scenario within the scenario–a sortie by the tiny Santiago naval defenders to drive off the gigantic, but poorly equipped American merchant cruiser St. Louis which had been tearing up the telegraphic cables between Santiago and Cienfuegos.

I take this hosting business seriously and spent a good part of the week getting ready for the game, carefully preparing ship cards. We played David Manley’s Fire When Ready Rules, which we’ve played before but not in a couple of years, so refreshing our memories were part of the game, and mistakes were made. I supplied the 1/1200 scale ships-a few Navis metal models, but many 3D printed ships from War Times Journal and Matthew Lawson’s Brown Water Navy Shapeways shop. Lunch was ordered. Thursday night all was organized and prepared.

And then it started to rain. Not a drenching, pouring gully washer, not even persistent northwest drizzle, but an unpredicted, cool damp I definitely couldn’t plan for. I asked George to bring his canopy just in place we needed space to stay dry. The 8 X 6 table fit under my canopy, but I feared that everyone’s chairs might not. In the end it dripped off and on throughout the day, but it had the affect of cooling things down, so no big deal.

Everyone arrived as planned. John, John and Mark volunteered to be Cervera and the Spanish with their four armored cruisers and two destroyers. George, Bill and David took on the Americans. Michael agreed to take the massive St. Louis while Eric took the Reina Mercedes and tiny gunboat Alvarado trying to get away and return to Santiago.

This was a tough game for the Americans. They started at long range, and never really managed to close it much. They decided to split off the large protected cruisers Minneapolis and Columbia to perhaps cross the T of the much slower Spanish armored cruisers. Instead they drew a lot of fire which eventually led to their destruction. On top of that, the American gunners simply shot poorly. Because the range remained quite long they weren’t able to use their secondary batteries and could only hit with their few main guns. With the bad rolling that wasn’t enough to do anything catastrophic.

In the end the Spanish met their victory conditions of crippling the Americans at a 2:1 rate.

The other chunk of the game was Michael with the St. Louis chasing Eric with Reina Mercedes and Alvarado. St. Louis was a nearly 15,000 ton converted liner while Reina Mercedes was an obsolete wooden-hulled unprotected cruiser and Alvarado was barely ocean-worthy at 120 tons. St. Louis was also much faster but had a much larger turning radius. The rules of engagement were simple. The Spanish simply had to identify the St. Louis, then turn tail and get back off the east board edge. St. Louis had a more difficult task. It had to prevent the Spanish from getting away. Neither side was well armed. The gunboat only had quick firing guns. The Spanish had six ancient medium guns, but only two could fire fore and aft. The St. Louis only had four 4-inch quick firing guns, again only two firing fore and aft. The Spanish disadvantage was they had to make a 180 degree about face, and were five knots slower than St. Louis, while the big American ship only had to turn 90 degrees.

The lack of gunpower really showed in the game, but so did the speed disparity between the two sides. One Spanish salvo did cause a raging fire on the St. Louis, but the Americans were able to put it our in the repair phase. An American salvo finished the Alvarado, which had no damage points to spare. The Reina Mercedes suffered a flooding critical as it was nearing the board edge, but met its victory conditions by being the tortoise to St. Louis’ hare.

In the end, it seemed fun for all. The puppies, Owen and Ringo, made their appearances and seemed to enjoy the company. I hope to make this an annual game and I’m already thinking about possibilities for 2024.