I have collected and painted figures for most of the
colonial conflicts but I think my favourite is possibly the boxer rebellion.
The Chinese figures are really good fun to paint due to the
variety in their appearance, a characteristic which is shared by the
multinational western forces opposed to them which means you can field all
sorts of different nationalities and uniforms.
Armies in Plastic of course produce a terrific range of
boxer rebellion figures, sadly these are pretty much unavailable in the UK, but
I was able to build up my collection before this became the case.
I decided that I thought it was time for another boxer
rebellion game, inspiration of this came from the excellent Mark Fastoso
supplement to the Sword and the Flame called Admiral Seymour 's relief
expedition. The scenario is quite a simple one, the western forces are on the
offensive and must capture two Chinese villages.
The western forces are comprised of British infantry, U.S.
Marines, irregulars. The Chinese had oodles of boxers plus some Chinese
regulars and a couple of cavalry. I thought this would be an interesting
scenario because in a lot of colonial games the western forces form a firing
line and the natives obligingly charge and are shot down in droves. This one is
a bit different because it's the western forces who are on the offensive.
The Chinese forces outnumbered the westerners by over 2 to 1
but I thought this was reasonable given the huge disparity in troop quality.
The initial setup meant that while the western forces were
concentrated at one end of the board, the Chinese forces were spread across the
board and the there was potential for the westerners to defeat them in detail. The
Chinese also had the disadvantage of having a poor command structure.
The game started with the western forces moving forward
towards the village covering either flank bringing down fire on whatever
Chinese units they could see.
Chinese cautiously reinforced the village and started
setting up a second line of defence presumably with the idea of defending in
depth.
Westerners now attacked the village in force supporting the
attack on both sides. The Chinese forces had a turn when most of them refused
to do anything which led to much cursing and swearing on the part of the
Chinese player and presumably a few summary executions of the leaders of the
boxer units. The Chinese regulars also seemed very unwilling to go forward.
The westerners now pretty much had control of the village it
and started to move into the woods on their left flank, it was clear that their
plan was to roll up the Chinese flank and try to avoid the two pieces of
Chinese artillery.
Seeing that he was being outmanoeuvred the Chinese player
now started to throw forward boxers in large numbers. Some of these make
contact with the Europeans and desperate combat ensued. The westerners generally
won these combats due to their better training and morale however they were
building up a steady number of casualties.
The fight for the village now became increasingly desperate
with the two units of western irregulars bearing the brunt of it.
The Chinese player decided to change tactics and instead of
playing defensively to go for an all out offensive, throwing forward the boxers
ruthlessly and spending their lives like water while the Chinese regulars came
up to reinforce.
This tactic was beginning to work although the boxers were
dying in droves, they were gradually wearing down the westerners who decided to
consolidate and pull back to form a defensive line.
The battleground was strewn with boxer bodies now, but the
Chinese Mandarin player was indifferent to their losses and threw forward the
Chinese regulars and the cavalry who are all armed with modern repeating rifles
who started to bring the westerners under concentrated fire.
Both sides had taken significant casualties now and we
decided to do a count as our usual practice is to play until one side has lost
over 50% of its force at which point the other side is declared the winner.
We found that the western forces were a couple of bases over
the 50%, while the Chinese were just below the 50% mark. So the westerners had
lost but the Chinese casualties, given that they had started the game with
twice as many units as the westerners, had been pretty horrific.
However the westerners were no clearly on the defensive and
there was no chance of them capturing both villages therefore the game was
declared a Chinese victory.
It had been a very exciting game for both players and
particularly challenging for the Chinese player, who by either luck or
judgement used exactly the right tactics to wear down the western forces with
the regulars before bringing up his better troops. These tactics are also very
historical as one could imagine the Chinese Mandarin ruthlessly ordering the
luckless boxer peasants forward and keeping his better troops in reserve. However
the Chinese commander failed to make any use at all of his artillery.
On the western side the western commander was probably a bit
too gung ho and moved units forward into positions where they could be charged
by Chinese quite early on in the game. The westerners almost inevitably won
these combats due to their superior training and morale they could not afford
the small but steady stream of casualties that they incurred.
Overall it was a great game, the Armies in Plastic figures
look superb on the table top and the adapted rules worked well. I have adapted
the Neil Thomas rules for the game and this was the first time that we had
tried them. I've made a couple of
amendments but the amended version is pasted in below below the photos if anyone wants to give
them a try.
Neil
Thomas Ancient and Medieval rules adapted for Boxer Rebellion
Sequence
A player
chooses a unit and chooses to activate it – choices are
Move and
fire
Fire and
move
Charge/march
move
Artillery
may half move and fire or full move and not fire
Command
Friction
Western
forces – D8
Boxer
forces – D6
On a roll
of 1 the unit may not activate
Infantry 12, cavalry 24, artillery, 6 and fire,
12 and not fire.
March/charge infantry only - +D8
Friendly units may interpenetrate.
Boxers are not slowed by terrain.
Firing
Western troops and chinese regular – 1 dice per
base, range 24, hit on 4+
Western trained troops at close range (less
than 6 inches) hit on 3+
Carbines – 18. Cavalry hit on 5+
Boxers – 1 dice per 2 bases rounding down
Western Artillery – fires each turn – average
die, no saves. Close range less than 12 inches average die plus D3.
Chinese artillery – fires alternate turns,
range 48.
Machine guns – fires each turn, range of 24
fires each turn – average die, no saves. Close range less than 12 inches
average die plus D3.
When a unit loses a base as a result of firing,
take a morale check as normal. If it fails, roll a D4, that is the number of
extra casualties it receives.
Save throws
Western regulars, Chinese regulars and Tigermen
– 4+
Western Artillery crew – 3 plus
Chinese artillery crew – 4 plus
Boxers – 5 plus
Cavalry – 5+
Melee
1 dice per base hitting on 4+
Tigermen and cavalry roll an extra die per base
in the first round of combat, and an extra die per 2 bases remaining rounding
down in subsequent rounds.
Cavalry may only charge units they outnumber.
C in C adds an extra dice to a unit in melee.
Count up
casualties after combat – the losing side must take a morale check.
If it
fails, proceed as follows –
Chinese
regulars, Boxers, European irregulars – fall back 2 moves. May not activate
next turn.
European
regulars – fall back 1 move may not activate next turn.
Winning
units do not pursue.
If cavalry
beat infantry, the infantry do not fall back. The combat continues until 1 side
is eliminated.
Only losers
take a morale check.
Base
removal
A base is
removed on the accumulation of 4 hits as usual.
Artillery
may be shot at, and can take 8 hits
Morale
Boxers,
Western irregulars – levy
Western and
chinese regulars – average
Tigermen, US
Marines and British Naval Brigade – elite
Morale does
not apply to artillery
