Grant's siege of Petersburg marks a new low in the war for the Confederates. Still, they are resisting stubbornly and the war is by no means over. It is crucial for the Union navy to guard Grant's communications with his depots at City Point. The biggest threat to them is the squadron of three powerful ironclads based near Richmond. Several times they have sortied from the safety of Drewry's Bluff to shell Union artillery positions along the north bank of the James River. But reports over the last several days have placed the Confederates closer and closer to Trent's Reach, a bottleneck on the river some ten miles from City Point. Could the ironclads be attempting to break out and destroy Grant's supply line?
As dawn breaks, the Union artillery positions overlooking Trent's Reach see an almost comical site: several Confederate ships appear to have grounded near the Federal obstructions in the river.
It's now up to the batteries and the local naval squadron to overwhelm the Confederates and remove the threat posed by their ironclads.
Unfortunately, the Union squadron has been weakened by the transferal of many ships for the attack on Fort Fisher. Also, Commander William Parker (in command of the Union flotilla) is not known as an aggressive commander.
Still, Admiral Porter has every confidence that the ships remaining to you will be sufficient to the task at hand.
No ships are deployed on map.
Ironclad Onondaga rolls a d10 for entry at the beginning of each turn (including turn 1), and enters the east map edge on a roll of 8, 9, or 10. (You must announce that you're rolling for ship entry and make the roll publicly, but you don't have to reveal what numbers you're trying for until you roll them.)
Sidewheel steamers Massasoit and Hunchback roll a d10 for entry as above, but enter on a 6-10.
Only one ship can enter per turn. If multiple ships succeed on the same turn, decide mutually who will enter this turn, and the other automatically enters next turn (and so on if three or more ships are simultaneously successful.) Ships enter at Medium speed.
Intelligence (1): Friendly locals inform you of the ships and artillery available to the Confederates. This is not necessarily perfect intelligence - the referee will confer with the Confederate player and tell you what you've learned.
Saugus and Canonicus (3): Substitute these two monitors for Onondaga. Entry dr range is as per Onondaga.
Torpedo Boats (2 each): Add Torpedo Boat #1 and/or Torpedo Boat #2 to your OOB. The former enters with Massasoit, the latter with Hunchback. (This doesn't violate the "1-ship-enters-per-turn" rule because these are boats, not ships. :^))
Battery Wilcox (3): Union can fire on the map from Battery Wilcox, which has one MR and one LR (40 FDPs). Measure range and LOS from southwest corner of southeast map tile.
Battery Parsons (3): Union can fire on the map from Battery Parsons, which has one MR and one LR (40 FDPs). Measure range and LOS from southeast corner of map.
Battery Spofford (2): Union can fire on the map from Battery Spofford, which has one MR and one LR (40 FDPs). Measure range and LOS from northeast corner of southeast map tile, and add 50 cm to all range measurements.
Psychological Warfare (2): Take four spare coins and put them anywhere on the eastern half of the waterway. They don't mean anything, but they'll sure make the Confederates wonder….
Sunken Hulk (2 + Psychological Warfare cost): One of the spare coins marks the location of a sunken hulk. Write down the exact location, within 10cm of the marker in any direction and give it to the referee. The water in that spot counts as a "Wreck in Shallow Water" for purposes of the Grounding Table. Careful - it affects both sides!
Torpedo Warfare (2 each + Psychological Warfare cost): A Fixed Contact Medium Torpedo (max 4, one per coin) is floating in the vicinity of a coin marker (max one torpedo per coin). Write down the exact location, within 10cm of the marker in any direction and give it to the referee. (A coin cannot have a torpedo and a sunken wreck.)
Torpedo Outriggers (2/each): Ironclads can be equipped with anti-torpedo rigging (note in log) which allows the vessel to use the "Mine Catcher" modifier (-4) on the Torpedo Damage table. Any collisions with ships (enemy or friendly) other than torpedo boats will strip the rigging on the side on which the collision occurred.
Players' choice(?): can you think of something that I didn't? The referee is open to negotiations.
The historical options: Batteries Wilcox, Parsons, and Spofford, total 8 points.