"Setting East Ablaze" playtest #2

[coggon]

After a successful first outing with Ignatieff's rules, I had the opportunity to run them again last week, this time with 4 players, and about 200 figures.  As expected they worked well, and all players had a great time.  The plot revolved around a Chinese warlord and his ammo factory, just over the border from Russia.   Times were good and he was able to supply the Reds with ammo on credit.  All that remained was for the Reds to come pick it up.  Heck, the warlord had even packed the camels as he didn't want the Reds around any longer than necessary


The short version of the players briefings were as follows:

Chinese-supply Reds, maintain control of the town.  The Reds are your friends till they prove differently.
Reds-obtain ammo, destroy any Whites in the area, blow up ammo factory. Assist Chinese in defense of town.
Whites-capture town with help of British, secure ammo factory intact, wipe out Reds.
British-Capture town, stop illegal arms flow, destroy ammo factory. Test drive experimental tank.  As guns for the tank do not work yet, you have been issued no ammo.  But nobody else needs to know that  

So the Reds entered the town cautiously, uncertain of where the factory or the the ammo was located.

They asked the Chinese student contingent, and were referrred back to the camel train and the wooden building that they had already gone by.

They quickly got themsleves sorted out and obtained control of the camel train

Wang Chung,warlord executioner assured them that the road was clear
And away down the road they went

What no one told the Red leader was  that Wang Chung was notoriously nearsighted and that he had totally misssed this

And couldn't see this either

[coggon]

At this point, the cards started turning up for the British in quick succession and they decided, ammo or not, the tank was still a fearsome weapon and charged the Red cavalry


This went on for several turns as the Red cavalry had become pinned on the first assault


Until they got to the camels.  At that point the British player had used the tank more than the GM had intended, and had also rolled a "1", giving the GM the opportunity to literally stop the tank in its tracks  Here we see the GM indicating "That camel blows up and disables the tank"


Meanwhile, the Baron's attack on the west side was slow to get going as he ran into a large force of Dare-To-Die fanatics-here we see his Mongol cavalry and cadets from "Von Ungern's School of the Asias" sorting themselves out after wiping out the Chinese DTD troops


And for some reason, the Baron deployed his Tibetans on top of a building in an effort to take out the Chinese HMG.  Mutually ineffective gunplay followed


So much so that the Baron sent his cadets in to root out the HMG



Oh, and those Cossacks from the from the first post?  They got too close to these guys and died in a hail of fire from Bergmans


At this point it would seem that it was up to the British............

[coggon]

On the British side, the Ghurkas moved up to support the tank and assualt the walled farmhouse.  Showing more courage than brains, the student militia came over the wall to meet them



As evidenced by the picture, the students did better than anticipated in the first two rounds of melee.  A further reading of the rules the next day seemed to indicate that the Ghurkas should have surrendered as they were outnumbered and nearly surrounded. 

But really?  Ghurkas surrendering to STUDENTS?

In the meantime, the Reds moved their Cheka up with the declared intent of firing into the melee

Only to have a truckload of British Regulars arrive.  Assured by the Ghurkas that the flank was secure, the Tommies made short work of the Cheka

[coggon]

The Tommies, spurred on by Lt Binky (the guy with glasses and shotgun on top of the building, who was in sole command by this time) manage to make it past the Red partisans and into the walled farm



They promptly went low ammo and then out of ammo.  They tried to lure a camel that was on the road outside the other end of the farmhouse, but they preceded their "camel whispering" with a hail of grenades on the Red cavalry and were unsuccessful.

In the meantime, the Baron, disgusted with the performance of his troops, decided to take matters into his own hands



He received one fetching scar, and one grievous wound for his troubles.

But he did succeed in distracting the Chinese enough to allow the remaining Mongol cavalry to find identify the ammo factory




Sadly for  the Whites, the Red Sailors figured it out too

[aggro84]

Quite a day you had there! 

Looks like everyone had a great time. 

[coggon]

As did the rest of the Red Army



In the end, there were more than enough Reds to succeed in blowing up the factory, and the Reds made away with some of the desperately need ammunition.



Despite one last mad dash by the British



In the end, their was nothing left for the Chinese but to sound the retreat



Thanks to Ignatieff for the inspration, thanks to Ron, Ben, Other Brian, and Mike for playing.

And very special thanks to Brian for taking suc good pictures.

THANKS FOR READING!

[H.M.Stanley]

Very nice game chap

[Marine0846]

Lots of good toys you have there.
Enjoyed reading the AAR.

[cstoesen]

Looks like it was a fun game.  Love the Baron.

[Ignatieff]

Splendid!

[Furt]

Cool looking game. Gotta love an exploding camel!! 

The sandbags are very nice - mind asking where they are from?

Also concerning Setting the East Ablaze, are the rules unit based or individual figures?

[coggon]

Splendid!

I will consider that high praise from the master himself

Furt-the sandbags are from Pegasus Hobby.

http://pegasushobbies.net/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=sand&osCsid=4ir88bh9d4gtkdovu1h1ma22b6&search.x=8&search.y=5

Reasonably priced, easy to store-nice to just have around and throw on the table when needed.  Really wish I would have bought more when the FLGS had them in stock.

[Hu Rhu]

Great battle report and super pics.  Love it!!  Where did you get the Chinese style houses with the sloping roofs?

[Stavros]

Great scenario!....looks like you guys had a fantastic time.....loved the experimental tank. Old Fooey in my Chinese warlord/bandit force has one, although his is a homemade affair which runs on rice wine which is consumed in variable quantities by the crew as well

[Ignatieff]

Great scenario!....looks like you guys had a fantastic time.....loved the experimental tank. Old Fooey in my Chinese warlord/bandit force has one, although his is a homemade affair which runs on rice wine which is consumed in variable quantities by the crew as well

excellent!