[Argad AAR] Choo choo, I hear the train of the Manchus

[Patrice]

This game was played last Saturday at Ferrer en Jeux, a games festival in Rennes (Brittany). The rules are a Pulp - early 20th C. extension of Argad.

We are in Manchuria, northeastern China, C. 1920.

At first it had been planned as a small scenario, but curiosity about this period brought seven players.

In the spirit of the period, the scenario (written in French) follows the French spellings of the time for foreign names. For example, Tchang Tso-lin was the French spelling for (in English) Chang Tso-lin, now written Zhang Zuolin.

– Chinese general Tchang Tso-lin ruler of Manchuria (Jean-Jacques)
– Chinese general Hsu Chou-tcheng, member of an opposite clique (Jacques)
– Wou Yi-tcheng, a Chinese bandit (Sandro)
– Wang Teh-ling, a Chinese bandit (Frédéric)
– Léonid Alexandrovitch Oustrougoff, Russian railway engineer, civilian minister commanding the White Russian garrison (Éric)
– Martemyan Nikititch Rioutine, a Russian Bolchevik, former leader of the Harbin soviet (Denis)
–   A red-haired Breton nicknamed Brittany Yann (a sort of mix of Indiana Jones and Corto Maltese...) leading a small group of adventurers, scientists, archeologists (Ehouarn)
– and a GM (game master / referee) myself.

...Somewhere on the Chinese Eastern Railway, also called Trans-Manchurian, near Tsitsikhar (Qiqihar). This railway, built and guarded by the Russians (tsarists) is a branch of the Trans-Siberian and relies directly central Siberia to Vladivostok (and also to Peking).



A landscape of snow...



Just before the game begins, the most attentive players notice something strange on the gaming table, and ask why it's there?



The GM answers: Well, it's obvious! It's a Mongolian camp. Don't you know anything?! You need culture! Everyone knows that Mongols live in yoghurts!



The players protest. The GM pretends to verify on his cellphone... and slowly says: Ah, yes, yes, OK... Yes, that's exactly what I said! The Mongols live in YURTS! Why must I always explain everything? ...and quickly replaces the yoghurt by a small scratch-built yurt.



A very small yurt, for one or two hunters probably.
Farther behind, a Manchu house with typical outside chimney.



General Tchang Tso-lin, who rules Manchuria, comes back from an inspection in the north-west of the area., with only a few guards.



He fears treason and assassination. Two of his soldiers look in the yurt and find a Mongol, well armed for a hunter (rifle and pistol) obviously a Chahar (perhaps in Chinese service?) The Mongol is disarmed and trussed, and the escort of the general takes his horse and his camel.
Suddenly a shot is fired from a nearby wood and a soldier is killed. Furious, general Tchang orders to fire the LMG of his escort car at the woods; then he continues on the road to Tsitsikhar.

Foreigners in three vehicles arrive near the town and must stop to let a train pass. The train is loaded with modern weapons from abroad, bought by general Tchang.



Two Chinese soldiers are on guard on the road, but don't seem interested by foreigners so close of the Russian garrison.



The train continues to the north-west, without stopping. In the little village farther on the line live some Russian workers, this place is guarded by an officer and two White soldiers. Some cossacks patrol along the railway line, and on the right is a Chinese police station. Nobody knows that Martemyan Rioutine is already in this village, preparing a Bolshevik revolt.

[Patrice]

The train passes near the village. Martemyan Rioutine has not enough weapons for all his supporters. He cunningly decides (and even the GM is surprised by the idea) to wait for the moment when the village will be hidden from view by the passing train. He and two other Bolsheviks then menace with revolvers the three White soldiers, who hesitate to resist... and surrender. They are bound and hidden in their house, where they had a HMG.



Rioutine is waiting for a crate of rifles that a Chinese bandit has been paid to deliver.

The other Chinese bandit, Wou Yi-tcheng, approaches discreetly the police office. He wants to free two of his men who are prisoners there and who will be beheaded soon.



He manages to walk without noise and looks at the windows without raising alarm. In the cell at the right he sees his two friends ; in the other room are two Chinese military policemen who don't suspect a thing. Two bandits fire their rifles at them ...both hit! Wou Yi-tcheng enters the police station and frees his two men.

Meanwhile, Brittany Yann, after asking directions and informations in town, drove through the countryside to a small mine.



He is looking for two friends of his, two Breton women who inherited a small gold mine from their uncle who passed away, they came here, they telegraphed that, according to old papers found by their uncle, this mine had belonged to 17th century emperor Nouratchi; after what they totally disappeared.
Oustrougoff is also interested in this mine, he follows in his Rolls-Royce. Brittany Yann would have preferred to go without him but cannot object.



The crate of rifles is delivered by bandits in the village.
(Right of picture, Rioutine talks with bandit Wang Teh-ling, who doesn't much like Russians but has accepted to deliver the crate for money ...or perhaps also to see them fight each other.
Left of picture, Oustrougoff (or one of his officers, Oustrougoff himself is now near the mine) and Tchang tso-lin try to understand what's going on.



A group of White cossacks advances north. A small column of infantry will follow.



Rioutine now shows his presence and places his group in a sunken path, a woman openly waving a red flag.



Surprised by these new moves, the Chinese bandits try to stay out of it. One of them, feeling threatened, fires a warning shot at the White cossacks.





The train is now out of sight (arrived off table). One aim of general Tchang was to send it to the north-west with its cargo to reinforce his faraway borders. He succeeded without any  difficulty... but perhaps the general will now think that he should have stopped the train to strengthen the town...
...because in the west, coming from Mongolia, a strong troop of Chinese soldiers guided by another Chahar Mongol advances in the plain. They bear armbands of another warlord faction, the faction of general Hsu Chou-tcheng who would be very happy to humiliate Tchang Tso-lin as much as possible.

[Patrice]

A HMG fires at the White cossacks (it's the HMG that Rioutine took from the three village guards). They are surprised and stop in front of the police station to have cover. Behind them a small unit of White infantry, a car with a LMG, and a truck with a field gun, come out of the town.



A second Bolshevik group, arrived from the border, appears behind the pine trees on the right.





The machine-gunner and the driver of the tsarist car are killed, the car continues till stopped by the railway ballast. Most of the White infantrymen, who stubbornly were advancing in column, are also killed or routed.



General Hsu Chou-tcheng, who also has a field gun, wonders where to place it.



He also sends messengers, discreetly...
...A Chahar Mongol goes to talk to the Bolsheviks, probably to say they should avoid to fight each other, each one of them knowing who his main enemy is.
...A civilian Chinese bearer walks to the town and casually says something(?) to a Chinese lady in blue dress.

Bolshevik cavalry comes to the mine to see what's going on there. They accept the explanations of Brittany Yann that it has nothing to do with politics, and do not insist, they have no time to lose ...They don't recognise engineer Oustrougoff who is in civilian clothes.
The Bolsheviks are quite happy with their results. They don't want to attack the town (it was not in their orders as it would trigger a too strong Chinese answer) but their approach created some panic. A man in a black suit runs to the telegraph office, shouting “sell my shares!“



A car and soldiers of Hsu Chou-tcheng can be seen on the road, they don't take the risk to attack the town where Tchang's soldiers are ready for them, instead they will go to the nearby mines to destroy them to humiliate general Tchang. The bandits of Wou Yi-tcheng go away with their two friends.



The other bandit, Wang Teh-ling, hesitates. It's him who had captured the two Breton women to ask for a ransom, but he was not able to meet Oustrougoff nor Brittany Yann to conclude a deal. Brittany Yann finds the place where they are kept under guard by a lone bandit; he forces the bandit to free the women in exchange of a bottle of cognac.



The two women tell Brittany Yann, avoiding to be heard by Oustrougoff, that their uncle had found a treasure which is still hidden in the mine. Oustrougoff wants to buy the mine, they accept the sale; but two of Yann's friends go inside the mine (Hsu's soldiers are not arrived yet) and, after a while, come back with a chest. They discreetly climb in one of Yann's cars that was waiting on a nearby road.
Some months later, the newspapers will say that a small treasure of jewels and coins of emperor Nouratchi (17th century) has appeared in museums and auction sales.

The soldiers of general Tchang are ready to defend the town, but it will not be necessary, general Hsu will not come close.



A Chinese lady in blue dress comes to the house when general Tchang is resting. Having met her a few times previously, he allows her to enter (and there's a guard nearby). He makes sure that she has no concealed knife or dagger under her clothes, she has none, but ...she strikes him by surprise with her fan, there's a thin steel blade on the side! The general is wounded but she cannot strike again, the guard interferes. The woman runs out of the house. Hearing the shouts, the driver of the general's car which was parked outside fires his Bergmann SMG and kills her.

[marianas_gamer]

Love it! A proper convuluted BOB game. 

[Wagstaff]

Looks great fun, Adventure galore!

Interesting to have a Chinese winter terrain.

Thanks for sharing!

[Patrice]

Thanks.

Interesting to have a Chinese winter terrain.

It was polyester “polar fleece“, with polystyrene boards underneath to be able to pin trees (but the pins must be strong to get through the polyester fleece). The roads were hastily marked with barbecue charcoal, it was an experiment but we thought it looked quite good.

[Kourtchatovium104]

Great report under the snow! And what a table!

[Wagstaff]

It was polyester “polar fleece“, with polystyrene boards underneath.

Looks great. LittleWarsTV would be proud too.

The roads were hastily marked with barbecue charcoal, it was an experiment but we thought it looked quite good.

Agreed!

[Vagabond]

Another great story Patrice, I was sure the Mongols lived in yoghurt pots, I'm very sad to find I was wrong. 

[fred]

What a great game and table!

So many factions - it seems that it didn’t end up as a giant fire-fight? Where there victory conditions that made players not just want to shoot any enemies?

[LouieN]

Thank you for the report.  A amazing layout

[Patrice]

Thanks again.

So many factions - it seems that it didn’t end up as a giant fire-fight? Where there victory conditions that made players not just want to shoot any enemies?

At first it was planned for less players; then there were more booking... but we've done some other games in other historical contexts with more people.

Most of our games (not all) have a strong RPG dimension that doesn't need victory conditions. Each player receives a character sheet that explains what the character wants to do, known informations, diplomatic situation from their point of view, etc. Then the players the characters do what seems better for them.

Also their objectives in the scenario were not fully agressive.
It will perhaps be the case in a next BoB game (?) but this time, although most players were well accustomed to this ruleset for other, earlier periods (medieval, Renaissance, samurai, 18th century...) with shorter shooting ranges, the 20th century weapons were quite a new thing (and not fully tested for some advanced details) so everyone (including the GM!) was a bit scared and very cautious of their moves!    They preferred to try small nuisances against their main opponents instead of full attacks (except the “tsarist“ player but he was not expecting MG fire).

The players the characters are encouraged to take initiatives in the logic of their main aims. For example, the idea of “general Hsu“ to destroy the mines in the countryside was a complete surprise to everyone else (including the GM) and yes it was an humiliation for general Tchang who was not able to prevent it, and less risky than an attack on the town.

[fred]

Sounds cool - the players having healthy respect for modern weapons sounds very realistic. In many games the time pressure to get things done does lead to some very unrealistic movement across open spaces.

[madman]

Thanks again.

Most of our games (not all) have a strong RPG dimension that doesn't need victory conditions. Each player receives a character sheet that explains what the character wants to do, known informations, diplomatic situation from their point of view, etc. Then the players the characters do what seems better for them.

They do something very similar each year at Hot Lead, a miniatures convention in Stratford, Ontario. Also set in warlord China for up to a dozen characters each receives a mission objective and often these are conflicting, complementary, totally at odds or completely irrelevant to each other. Again some element of role playing is encouraged amongst the players, especially as the organizer has suitable hats for the participants to wear which complement their character. Usually the loudest table but almost always with laughter as the participants get into the fun of the event, and do not take anything seriously. I get the feel your game goes the same. Fun for all.

[carlos marighela]

I'm sure it's not the first time players have been confounded by predictive text.