← all games

The Ironclads: A Tactical Level Game of Naval Combat in the American Civil War 1861-1865

#2800BGG ↗

1979 · 1-8 players · 120min · weight 3.51 · 294 ratings

v2 v3 v4 wide v4 deep

BGG raw

ID
2800
Name
The Ironclads: A Tactical Level Game of Naval Combat in the American Civil War 1861-1865
Year
1979
Rank
6631
Min players
1
Max players
8
Playing time
120
Min playtime
120
Max playtime
120
Avg weight
3.5135
Num weights
37
Bayes avg
5.68435
Average
7.35847
Users rated
294
Num owned
855
Wanting
28
Wishing
97
Num comments
174
Fetched at
Wed Apr 29 2026 05:34:55 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Mechanisms (6)
Dice RollingGrid MovementHexagon GridLine of SightMovement TemplateSimulation
Categories (5)
American Civil WarCivil WarNauticalPost-NapoleonicWargame
Description (1773 chars)

(from a Yaquinto ad:) The IRONCLADS is a tactical level, simultaneous movement, game of ship-to-ship combat in the American Civil War. Players move one or more of over 130 counters that represent individual ships over a large (42" x 27-1/2") four pieceqeomorphlc mapboard as they attempt to outmaneuver and out-shoot their opponents. 45 ship specification cards give such vital information as the number, size, location and play of individual guns that are fired separately using specific range and penetration tables for each weapon. The ship specification card also contains target information for such areas as; armor, siding, decking, smoke stack, hull, pilot house, waterline, crew and gun hits. Other unit counters include five individual forts, floating batteries, mines, torpedos, booms, piles, heavy obstructions, fires, damaged ships, sunk ships, mortar rafts and much more. 'The IRONCLADS comes boxed and complete with over 300 extra­ thick, die cut unit counters, the large mapboard, a well organized log pad, a set of charts and tables, range and play indicators for firing, two game dice, a plastic tray for unit separation and storage, 45 ship specification cards that represent 90 classes of ships and a rule book that covers such items as river currents, tides, forts, mines, armor penetra tion, crew quality and morale, smoke and sighting, sand bars, shoals and river banks, burning ships and fire fighting, different types of shot, cumulative damage in specific areas, critical hits and much, much more. Scenarios included in the game range from excellent "running the forts" situations for solitaire play, to famous ship-to-ship engage ments like the Monitor and the Merrimac, to blockade running, to multi-player campaign games like Mobile Bay.

LLM v2 (wide)

Not yet enriched at v2 (wide pass).

LLM v3 (deep)

Not yet enriched at v3 (deep pass).

LLM v4 wide (controlled-vocab primitives)

Not yet enriched at v4 (wide pass).

LLM v4 deep (archetype fit)

Not in the v4 deep-pass top-20% slice.