Ironclads of the American Civil War - A Solitaire Wargame

The clash of the ironclad gunships CSS Virginia and USS Monitor at the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862 heralded a new age of naval warfare. The steam-powered engines introduced earlier in the century had already revolutionized the mobility of nineteenth-century ships, freeing vessels of their reliance on the caprice of winds, or the dictates of river flows. The innovations begun by the industrial revolution yielded powerful new warships, armed with strong new guns, and plated with thick armor. A new ironclad navy threatened to revolutionize the practice of naval warfare, rendering the old wooden fleet obsolete.

This solitaire game explores the use of ironclads during the American Civil War through a series of scripted scenarios that teach the system gradually. Scenarios take 15 to 30 minutes to play. Each consists of a historical introduction, a playsheet (left), and a mapsheet (right). All you need is a pencil, a few six-sided dice, and some generic game tokens.