The transitional period (1865-90) offers fascinating possibilities for naval wargaming. The rapid changes in warship design allow the gamer to use a wide variety of ships in his fleet or squadron. You can combine sidewheel sloops, wooden ships, monitors, broadside ironclads and armored turret ships in the same force. It's interesting and challenging to use such a combination effectively. Richard Houston produces an extensive line of inexpensive ships in 1:1100 scale which can be used for gaming this period. You can write him for a listing: HOUSTON'S SHIPS, PO Box 14522, Oklahoma City, OK 73113-0522. His ships are quite easy to paint and look very good when properly done. The investment is minimal when you consider that for three to five ships on a side, costing an average of $4 or $5 each, is enough for a battle. If you get involved in gaming this period, you will probably want more types of ships that are currently available. Houston's line of ships is expanding and many conversions of existing ships are possible. Conversions that we have done, or planned, are listed below. Some require nothing more than the proper national flag. Others require filing, fabrication of some parts, etc. The ships are listed with Houston's catalog numbers: IS-05 Onondaga - sold to France in 1867, not stricken until 1904. IS-16 Passaic - RU Bronenosetz (10 in class). IS-21 Kearsarge - FR Bisson (6 in class). IS-26 Scorpion/Wyvern - GE Arminius, TU Lufti Djelil or Hifzi Rahman. IS-37 Stonewall - sold to Japan and renamed Adzuma, also can be used as GE Prinz Adalbert, RU Smerch, DA Rolf Krake. IS-38 Colorado - wooden screw frigates of many nationalities like the British Immortalite. 1S-39 New Ironsides - GE Bismark IS-53 Pensacola - wooden screw corvettes of many nationalities like the British Jason. IS-99 or FS-99 Almirante Cochrane - BR Favorite, JA Fuso, BR Calypso. FS-51 Terrible - BR Research. FS-53 Re D'Italia - BR Hector, Valiant, Prince Consort, Royal Oak, Lord Clyde, Audacious (class), Swiftsure (class), RU Kniaz Pojarski. FS-61 Erzherzog Fredinand Max - FR Couronne, BR Penelope, BR Shannon, RU Vito. (Note that "IS" refers to Houston's ACW line which has since been sold to STONE MOUNTAIN and is now listed by different catalog numbers. Houston still provides listings for this line.) Most European fleets also had sidewheel corvettes and frigates which are also available in the ACW line. If you get deeply enough involved in this period to want to do such conversions, a copy of CONWAY'S ALL THE WORLD FIGHTING SHIPS 1860-1905 is indispensable. For rules we use AGE OF IRON EXPANSION RULES by Leo Walsh and Charles Pugsley. Although they require much dice rolling, they are easily understood and play very quickly. There is now a second edition being distributed, but we prefer the first edition. Although it has a more Complex system of charts, it allows a weak ship to achieve an occasional critical hit against an armored behemoth. Both versions welcome modification and we have experimented with a variety of changes. We sponsor games at a local hobby shop and prefer to move our ships for the gamers. We do this to speed play and increase consistency in the movement of ships. We have also experienced occasional accidents which don't occur as frequently if we move the ships. This does, however, require players to plot moves instead of moving the move/countermove system in the rules. We use a very easy system. A plot of 3L 2S 3R means: 3 increments left on the appropriate turn radius, two inches straight and 3 increments right. The purist will want to use (P)ort, (A)head, and (S)tarboard. When enemy ships are far away, we have players plot a full move, we move all ships, have players declare all firing and we resolve hits. When ships are closer, we have players plot half a move, move ships, observe, plot the other half move, move ships and fire. The system and rules are easy enough to allow a novice to play after a quick briefing. If you have never played this system and have an opportunity, give it a try. If you play AGE OF IRON and are tired of preparing the ship's charts by hand, we have full page charts for every major fleet in Conway's. Send SASE for price list and samples to: E.M. Weihrauch, 1319 Stockett Sq., Belcamp, MD 21017.  Back to MWAN # 54 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1991 Legio X This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com