Rebel Raiders Replay  (Turn 3)

Designer Mark McLaughlin as CSA; Naval Historian Brandon Musler as USA

When we last left our intrepid gamers, the Union had been rebuffed twice at Louisville, and the Confederacy was enjoying the first “happy time” running the blockade…

Turn 3 – December 1861

The “happy time” is no more.  The Thin Blue Line rounds up THREE Blockade Runners in the Caribbean (one fewer than the South built last turn), and all of those were stacked with cargo, so it is a double loss!  The remainder manage to unload a mere 7 VP – most of which is eaten up by the attrition roll in the Supply Phase – and the two Raiders contribute nothing, finding no targets to sink or ransom.

 (NB: The South wants VP to build extra ships and defenses, buy extra cards and counterattacks – but also needs VP to keep getting three cards a turn).

Fortunately the Tredegar Iron Works  (Card 95) gives the South an extra battery, one of which goes to setting down an Ironclad.  (The others are placed in Savannah and, as seems fitting, Richmond, where those Iron Works were situated).    The South also builds a Raider and 3 Blockade Runners (to replace the 3 it lost), and spends 20 VP to build an Ironclad.

Brandon, despite not liking the odds, decides to go for Louisville again.  The South wins but Brandon plays “Lack of Brains” (Card 7) forcing a re-roll.  This turns the battle around and the Union takes Louisville!

Heady with victory, Brandon decides to rush for Nashville, which has no Battery, so it is two Rebel to one Yankee die.  The Union rolls a “1” and the South a “6”, which instead of a loss of merely 5 VP is doubled to 10 by play of Card 102 - Matthew Brady. To add insult to injury, this card also requires the Union to discard a card at random from its hand as further penance for its battlefield loss.   

At the start of the Union Build Phase the Confederacy plays Corruption (Card 58) – increasing the cost to build Union ships this turn and forcing the discard of Yankee Guns (Card 3) – which gives the Union Screw Sloops and Ironclads some re-rolls.

The North builds 3 Screw Sloops….which cost 2 each not just 1 due to Corruption.