Author Topic: Adventures in China (in the time of the Boxer rising) 1.3 (Read 10815 times)

Alchemy · « **on:** February 25, 2008, 11:13:09 AM »

Hallo to all.

This is my first post and my first incursion as "designer" of an adventure for miniatures (although I have played several times "pulp" scenarios prepared by friends). Any suggestion will be more than wellcome.

This is the baseline of the "project":

Use "Triumph and tragedy" rulebook.
Miniatures:
German seaman (Brigade)
German "Seebattalion" (Pulp figures).
German artillery 1887 Krupp 84 mm (Redoubt).
Chinese regular infantry (Old Glory).
"Boxers" (Old Glory).
Chinese regular artillery (Old Glory).
Chinese (Boxer) smoothbore gun (Redoubt).
European Civilians (Foundry).

Classiffication of the (available in this moment) troops:
Boxer: Raw.
Chinese regular infantry: Trained.
Chinese artillery: Trained.
German seaman: Trained (or Veteran?)
German "Seebattallion": Veteran
German artillery: Veteran.

Sequence of the adventure:
1- December 1899 - Save the Mission personel: the Mission of Shan-Tung (fictitious). A Boxer riot wants to kill all christian chinese civilians that works in the mission... but gunboat SMS Möwe (fictitious) were patrolling the river.
2- June 1900 - Save the guns. Boxer attack Tiensin arsenal. Artillery must be saved at all cost.
3- June 1900 - Storm Taku forts (1). A hand-blow to Taku heavy guns should be done prior to the assault of the allied troops.
4- June 1900 - Storm Taku forts (2). SMS Möwe atack chinese vessels.
5- June 1900 - Storm Taku forts (3). The assault.

(It will continue...)

Any suggestion that may help in the way that "heroes" can "learn" along the adventure?
From which manufacturer I can get Chinese civilians?

Changes 1.1: Chinese artillery as Trained and German Artillery as Veteran.
Changes 1.2: German artillery Fk16 77 mm gun (Brigade) change to 1887 Krupp 84 mm (Redoubt).
Changes 1.3: Chinese smoothbore gun for Boxer artillery.

Shikari Sahib · « **Reply #1 on:** February 25, 2008, 11:19:27 AM »

Any suggestion that may help in the way that "heroes" can "learn" along the adventure?
From which manufacturer I can get Chinese civilians?[/quote][/quote]

Pulp Miniatures has nice Chinese Civilians

Piero

Westfalia Chris · « **Reply #2 on:** February 25, 2008, 11:30:00 AM »

Quote from: "Alchemy"

(...)
This is the baseline of the "project":

Use "Triumph and tragedy" rulebook.

Very good start. :mrgreen: :

:

Quote

Miniatures:
German seaman (Brigade)
German "Seebattalion" (Pulp figures).
German artillery Fk16 77 mm gun (Brigade)
Chinese regular infantry (Old Glory)
"Boxers" (Old Glory).
Chinese regular artillery (Old Glory)
European Civilians (Foundry)

Nice lineup. It seems like a good idea to focus on the Germans so to avoid having too many different troops.

Quote

Classiffication of the (available in this moment) troops:
Boxer: Raw.
Chinese regular infantry: Trained.
Chinese artillery: Trained (or Veteran?)
German seaman: Trained (or Veteran?)
German "Seebattallion": Veteran
German artillery: Veteran?

Sounds good, but without being too eurocentric, I´d think treating Chinese Artillery of the time as "Veteran" is a bit of a stretch. Trained is alright, but since you only have small numbers of Europeans, Veteran artillery will wreak havoc on them.

Seebataillon and German Artillery should indeed be veteran, especially the German artillerists of the period where held in high regard. Not too innovative for land-based arty, but effective and precise.

Quote

Sequence of the adventure:
1- December 1899 - Save the Mission personel: the Mission of Shan-Tung (fictitious). A Boxer riot wants to kill all christian chinese civilians that works in the mission... but gunboat SMS Möwe (fictitious) were patrolling the river.
2- June 1900 - Save the guns. Boxer attack Tiensin arsenal. Artillery must be saved at all cost.
3- June 1900 - Storm Taku forts (1). A hand-blow to Taku heavy guns should be done prior to the assault of the allied troops.
4- June 1900 - Storm Taku forts (2). SMS Möwe atack chinese vessels.
5- June 1900 - Storm Taku forts (3). The assault.

(It will continue...)

Sounds very good, and I cannot wait to see the game photos...

Quote

Any suggestion that may help in the way that "heroes" can "learn" along the adventure?

If I understand correctly, heroes may gain "experience" between scenarios? If you have an umpire or referee, he could keep track of events during the game. If a hero scores a victory point himself, he might be entitled to a roll on the skills tables (and maybe a drawback, too, if he was wounded or cowardly). Or if the players use Heroic Actions in a very appropriate way (for example, the Hero leaps through a window with two chinese orphaned kids under his arms to land safely on a bunch of rice bales), that could be rewarded as well.

Of course, you should have a maximum of heroic skills that a hero may have. Maybe two or three for every drawback, but that *might* spiral out of control.

Quote

From which manufacturer I can get Chinese civilians?

I´m not sure about that, but I seem to recall Baker Company and Eureka do some Vietnam civvies which might work at a pinch. Or maybe Old Glory? If they haven´t got chinese civvies, I wouldn´t know who has.

Alchemy · « **Reply #3 on:** February 25, 2008, 11:56:09 AM »

OK, I will change inmediately the rating of german artillery to veteran and the chinese artillery to trained (for me was also too hard rating them as veteran...).

Helen · « **Reply #4 on:** February 25, 2008, 12:06:37 PM »

Hi Alchemy,

You have a great list and a great period to game as well.

The German FK 16 is a little later in development. It was used in the latter part of the Great War.

My suggestion would be to look at a gun that were used during naval landings like this pic below. This is a 6cm landing gun. For something close for a model I'd look at the Askaris Krupp mountain Gun:
http://www.askari-minis.com/oscommerce/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=90

Good luck with your collection.[/img]

Alchemy · « **Reply #5 on:** February 25, 2008, 12:31:45 PM »

You are right Helen. I though that the 77 mm were old enough... but not. The gun that you suggest is more close to Prussian artillery and is what I must field...

I must choose between Askari gun or maybe Redoub...

Driscoles · « **Reply #6 on:** February 25, 2008, 12:39:40 PM »

Hello Alchemy,

this sounds like a very good scenario. If you have ideas for new rules please dont hesitate and send them to our website.

If you dont mind I like to give you a short overview what I had in mind when I wrote the rules about troop quality. This may help you to create further units for T+T.

Raw Units :
- Militia
- civilian mob
- war tired soldiers on retreat
- volkssturmunits in world war 2
-native warriors with unfamiliar weapons ( like tribal musketmen )

Trained Units:
-Soldiers with a basic army training and no or minimal combat experience. - Former veteran units which are replaced with new recruits.
-The average tribal warrior etc.

Veteran Units :
-All confident soldiers with combat experience like the German Wehrmacht invading France in 1940.
-Some special units like parachute troops, pioneers, Stormtroopers

Elite :
- Fanatic Swordsmen
- Bodyguards
- Special Forces / Commandos
- Trench Raider

I would also try a good mix of units. The games become more excited when the players have different troop qualities.

I would also not make a machine gun unit elite.

What about a command unit containing of :
1 Leader
1 Buggler
1 Flag
2 or three models that keep the unit special.
Make this unit Veteran or Elite if you like

1 Veteran Unit of 8 to 10 Soldiers.
Riflemen for example.

2 trained or 2 raw units ( or one each ) of 8 to 10 men one of those contains another leader

One support unit. Maybe a cannon or a machine gun that is either trained or veteran.

And finally a hero.

I dont know much about the Boxer Rebellion. My great grandfather was sent to China on the SMS Brandenburg but as far as I know the Brandenburg or the crew was not involved in fighting.

If I had to prepare a Chinese Boxer force I would make mostly raw and trained units with a special skill maybe with a + 1 save on the damage table for being fanatic.

My force must have a captured gun. And one Unit of Veterans or Elite that represent the heroes Bodyguards.

Anyway...I wish you lots of fun with your project and Iam curious on the result and maybe you can support us with new ideas.

Cheers
Björn

Gluteus Maximus · « **Reply #7 on:** February 25, 2008, 12:52:35 PM »

Quote from: "Helen Bachaus"

Hi Alchemy,

You have a great list and a great period to game as well.

The German FK 16 is a little later in development. It was used in the latter part of the Great War.

My suggestion would be to look at a gun that were used during naval landings like this pic below. This is a 6cm landing gun. For something close for a model I'd look at the Askaris Krupp mountain Gun:
http://www.askari-minis.com/oscommerce/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=90

Good luck with your collection.[/img]

Hi Helen,

would the colour scheme of the gun be accurate for late 19thc German colonial forces? I'm thinking 1870s onwards. Its a lovely photo & I like the grey body & natural wood wheels effect

Thanks,
Ian

matakishi · « **Reply #8 on:** February 25, 2008, 04:01:37 PM »

Westwind do a pack of Vietnam civilians which I use for Chinese also.

Alchemy · « **Reply #9 on:** February 25, 2008, 04:24:25 PM »

Nice pic!!!

Yes, something like this is what I'm looking for...

matakishi · « **Reply #10 on:** February 25, 2008, 04:53:20 PM »

The rest of my Boxer Rebellion material is here:
http://www.matakishi.com/boxerrebellion1900.htm

Helen · « **Reply #11 on:** February 25, 2008, 09:49:19 PM »

[/quote]

Hi Helen,

would the colour scheme of the gun be accurate for late 19thc German colonial forces? I'm thinking 1870s onwards. Its a lovely photo & I like the grey body & natural wood wheels effect

Thanks,
Ian

[/quote]

Hi Ian, AFAIK this would be a good colour. I was reading 'Military Operations in China 1900-1901' by Major EWM Norie (ISBN 0-89839-215-2)the official history of the campaign set in the Boxer rebellion and notating that you were looking at the Taku forts. The Germans sent the gunboat "Iltis" to provide naval gunfire support during the storming of the forts.

To quote from the book"The German "Iltis," which was fought throughout the action with conspicious gallantry, lost her gunner and 7 men killed, while her captain and about 30 men were wounded."

Best Wishes on your project.

Helen

dusser · « **Reply #12 on:** February 26, 2008, 04:26:56 AM »

Great ideas! I'm eager to hear more about the project as it progresses.

Alchemy · « **Reply #13 on:** February 26, 2008, 06:39:06 AM »

SMS Möwe (scratch build-up on-going). Not yet like Helen's Hochseeflotte...

http://comunidad.terra.es/photos/el_mar_y_yo/images/5821470/500x375.aspx

MMM... How can I paste pictures?

Helen · « **Reply #14 on:** February 26, 2008, 07:08:17 AM »

Quote from: "Alchemy"

SMS Möwe (scratch build-up on-going). Not yet like Helen's Hochseeflotte...

http://comunidad.terra.es/photos/el_mar_y_yo/images/5821470/500x375.aspx

MMM... How can I paste pictures?

Looks great your ship thats coming along.

http://www.german-navy.de/hochseeflotte/ships/gunboats/iltis/index.html

http://www.christian-schmidt-fachbuchhandlung.de/product_info.php?cPath=90_234&products_id=2641&osCsid=74d2661d21594e1b01f471faed01ee40

Have you got photobucket? Thats a great place to place your photos and then use the IMG code to paste here.

God Bless

Helen

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Author Topic: Adventures in China (in the time of the Boxer rising) 1.3 (Read 10815 times)

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