Ironclads was the day long game of choice this year and opened Saturday’s gaming. The rebels (CJ and Stephen) were trying to break the CSS Stag blockage runner out of Charleston harbor on a dark night in 1863, with a pair of ironclads as escorts.

The Union forces (Jeff, Paul, Mike, Scott, little CJ, and Felix) had an array of wooden vessel blockaders to keep the rebels hemmed in.

The fireworks opened on turn 2 when the Quaker City (Jeff) pulled aside the Palmetto State (Stephen). Only minimal damage was done by the quick passing shot. On turn 3, the Stag (CJ) grounded on the littlest bit of sand bar despite having a very shallow draft.

Turn 4 found the Mercedita (Mike) being bow raked by the Palmetto State (Stephen) but only suffered some armor damage. The Augusta (Felix) let loose a bow rake on the Chicora (CJ) as it was rammed and entered into an unequal dual that would last for turns. The Chicora’s spar torpedo proved to be a dud and the ram did only minimal damage in a lucky stroke for the Union.

The Chicora (CJ) rammed the Augusta (Felix) again on turn 5, this time much more effectively, knocking out the Augusta’s engines and causing enough leakage to sink it. The Augusta wasn’t going down without a fight, though, continuing to blast away at the Chicora as it settled onto a sand bar. This caused enough damage on the Chicora to cause it to limp back to Charleston and withdraw.

There was still fight left in the Chicora, though, starting a level II fire on the Keystone State (Scott). The remaining ships of the Union fleet swarmed towards the rebel ironclads, getting a little too close to each other as the Memphis (Paul) and Quaker City (Jeff) collided.

The Keystone State (Scott) extinguished the fire and dinked the Stag (CJ) as it tried to get around the swirling combat. The opposing ships separated a bit but the gunfire didn’t slacken much.

On turn 10, the Palmetto State (Stephen), Chicora (CJ), Quaker City (Jeff) and Keystone State (Scott) all ended up in a scrum adjacent to each other. Coming out of the scrum, the Quaker City rammed the Chicora from behind and sank him.

Just as it looked like the rebels might succeed, the Housatanic (little CJ and Felix) managed to ram the Stag (CJ) using emergency speed causing enough float that the Stag couldn’t reach the safety of open water. The Palmetto State also had finally accumulated enough damage to force its withdrawal and the Union blockade held firm.

Sue Michel, her sister Barb and niece Amanda stopped by around lunch time to visit, and Michele Marchiolli, her dad Nick, and friend Joe came by for dinner.

Giant Monster Rampage began after dinner, where monsters romped and stomped through a hapless city. Buildings were demolished, tanks were used as throwing weapons, and monsters bashed at each other in a furious rage of silliness. Chaos was rampant but Stephen was the last monster standing amongst the ruins that remained. Felix was declared the winner, though, as he managed to cause the most destruction during his rampaging.

The silliness extended post game as Jeff tried to apply mathematics to determine that Scott’s 42,000 ton monster frog was actually 109’ tall and would have fit within his front yard. That would most certainly scare Scott’s neighbors, though, so it wasn’t actually attempted.