Rebel Raiders Replay  (Turn 7)

Designer Mark McLaughlin as CSA; Naval Historian Brandon Musler as USA

When we left off, the South was suffering from an increasingly effective Union blockade, and girding itself for the terrible swift sword the North is preparing to wield at the dawn of the new and fateful year - 1863

Turn 7 – April 1863   “The Yankees Are Coming!”  - The First Battle of Nashville

The Confederate submarine David  (Card 65) tried to open a path on one Blockade Station, but failed. Three more Blockade Runners are caught.  The Raiding fleet, now being hunted and shadowed, manage to snag only 3 VP – and what Blockade Runners made it home brought in a mere 2 VP.     The South is now done to single digit VPs, which means no more heady bonus buys of batteries and ironclads!

Fortunately, the Tredegar Iron Works (Card 95) is once again drawn after having been reshuffled into the deck, and that again means a third battery – so Norfolk, Wilmington and Mobile get strengthened, and 4 Blockade Runners and a Raider are built.

“The Yankees Are Coming! The Yankees Are Coming!”

With the number of dice thrown in land combat now finally to the Union’s advantage (it increases in 1863 and again in 1864) and his wall of ships on blockade firmly in place, Brandon begins the great push – and last turn he paid build points to allow him to make a third attack.   The first target is Nashville:

Battle of Nashville – Ironclads vs. Batteries; Five Card Stud or "You Shall Not Pass!"

Brandon now has FOUR Ironclads on the river, and with a pair of gunboats they sail into Nashville – which has three batteries.

Proclaiming loudly "You shall not pass!" Mark empties half of his hand to defend the city – playing Infernal Machines (56), The Mosquito Fleet (81) (which adds a Gunboat on a die roll) and the Hulks, Rafts and Chains  (110) Cards.  Brandon makes one of his Ironclads The Carondelet (Card 15) and plays Queen of the West (38) to turn a gunboat into a ram.   This makes FIVE cards being played out of the 12 held by the two players.

 The Infernal Machines force one Ironclad and one Gunboat to retreat.  The Queen of the West misses ramming the Rebel Gunboat.   In the exchange of fire the Union loses an Ironclad and a Gunboat, the South loses its sole Gunboat and one of the three batteries.

Brandon decides that his two surviving Ironclads are not enough to take on the remaining two batteries --- as the Union would have but one die each vs. two die per Battery.  He retreats, but only so he can unleash a second, fresh force…as we will see next time in Turn 7 (Part II) – The Second Battle of Nashville.

  

To be continued…