BoB Warlord China Game - How It's Done in Westralia

[ipushleadaround]

A post follows on a BoB game played on Saturday 25, February at the NWS (Napoleonic Wargaming Society) in Perth, Western Australia. It was the vehicle by which seven old wargaming chums, some of whom hadn't rolled dice against one another for years, somehow succeeded in putting aside the demands of their modern existence to reunite over a game set in Warlord China involving 450+ figures on an 9' x 4' table with some rather fetching terrain.

The game was played under local conditions. The mercury was nudging 40 in Perth, which is just over 100 on the Fahrenheit scale, and the air conditioning at the venue had been on the blink. A trusty handyman employed by the venue worked manfully to get it running, and mercifully managed to do so just in time for the first turn. Had he not been able to do so; the title of this post might have been "Setting the West Ablaze". One of our mates had recently relocated for business; and he flew back from Sydney to attend (which to put it in perspective - is a longer flight than it is from London to Moscow or from New York to Salt Lake City). This type of enthusiastic commitment was mirrored by all of the participants who variously and willingly either provided figures, food and drink, rules knowledge, expertise of the period or stayed up well in to the wee hours over successive nights to finish off figures and terrain.

Apropos of terrain - the brief was literally, "three simple, rustic buildings" and you can see that we ended up with something resembling a scaled down version of the Foreign Legation at Peking. Huge props must go out to "The Gatling's Jammed" for this; and I suspect that, after he's addressed the sleep deficit and his wife lifts the temporary ban on wargaming pursuits, a tutorial will be forthcoming on LaF on how the buildings came to fruition.

At the outset of the game there were two opposing warlord cliques, each made up of two nominally allied factions. One of these factions controlled the central compound in which they held some aristocratic Russian personages of great import and therefore potentially great value. Both factions of the opposing clique were besieging them and another; the fourth and allied faction, was marching to their relief. There were also two separate and unaligned commands - one each of Bolsheviks and Whites - both of whom were also intent on controlling the hostages. Each command deployed either inside or in the general proximity of the compound. The players were then asked to take the overall dispositions in to consideration and were given the opportunity to reshape their alliances. The only restriction being that the Reds and Whites couldn't ally with one another which put the onus on the Warlords to shape an outcome. Diplomatic mayhem ensued and promises were made and considered before the two original cliques coalesced once again with the besiegers assimilating the White forces and the besieged, those of the Reds. This was too much for a White Russian rifle unit defending the eastern perimeter of the compound and they promptly leapt the wall and went over to the attackers.

The game opened with a three-pronged assault on the compound; two from the west over the river and, the other on the eastern wall which drew the attention of both relieving columns and their combined weight of numbers soon began to tell. A heroic succession of charges lead by a Big Sword unit against the Bolsheviks were seen off in detail by a combination of iron discipline and superior ideology. The advance of the relieving warlord forces and their Red allies continued, gradually crushing the outnumbered faction in a pincer movement from which none escaped. On the western side of the table the progress of the combined attack over the river was slowed by withering machine gun fire which succesfully pinned several units. The defenders moved the hostages about within the compound to act as human shields for any threatened defending units. Such callous and reckless mistreatment of the hostages drew the condemnation of the other players but their protestations were to no avail and the attackers return fire was of necessity restricted, desultory and ineffective. Having crushed their opponent in the east; the combined forces of the relievers now linked up with the besieged and the weight of numbers began to tell on the Whites and the remaining attacking Warlord - both of whom had been badly mauled and saw no hope of a victory and so, withdrew back across the river.

A quick word on the rules. My strong personal preference would normally be CLA or StEA but for the sake of the BoB neophytes; we opted for lightly modified Warhammer Great War. All units has a strating strength of a minimum of 16 figures. Native Chinese troops were counted as French Reservists from 1918. The White Russian and Bolshevik rifles were played as BEF Highlanders to mirror their qualitative differences. The Big Sword units were armed only with pistols but were given two attacks in close combat. Along with the Cossacks, they were given élan to represent their dash and vigour. Commissars and Executioners within Leadership range of a unit had the option to reroll a failed morale check at the cost of a further casualty on the unit.

[marianas_gamer]

Great looking game I really like the central compound and the water effects. Diplomacy, desertion, human shields, mass charges, this is the BOB to me! I hope that there was plenty cold beer to help with the heat.
LB

[Poiter50]

Marvellous to see yet another of Lev's brilliant creations. TGW is not one I would have ventured to use but it has some simplistic mechanisms that would suit the multi player conflict.

[juergen c. olk]

Love it ..great look to the game.

[Johnno]

Sounds like great fun had by all!

Lovely figures and terrain...perhaps you could entice us with some more pictures...

I really like those Russians in red field caps

[carlos marighela]

Lovely layout and figures. Looks like a fun game.

My sincerest commiserations about the West Australian part.

[Poiter50]

Shh, don't tell him how good it is here. 

Lovely layout and figures. Looks like a fun game.

My sincerest commiserations about the West Australian part.

[carlos marighela]

Don't get me wrong, Perth has a natural and potentially useful function in that it reminds people in Adelaide that things could be worse.

[thejammedgatling]

Thanks for a great game!
It's been a while since we've pushed that much BoB lead around and it was a pleasure making the terrain. The compound was only painted the day before and was only under coated by the way! Still, the resin curved roofs seemed to work well. I'll post some more piccies when I get them finished. Obviously when the terrain making ban is lifted ( or I find the workshop sentry sleeping).
 

TJG

[Poiter50]

. has she recruited the kids?

Thanks for a great game!
It's been a while since we've pushed that much BoB lead around and it was a pleasure making the terrain. The compound was only painted the day before and was only under coated by the way! Still, the resin curved roofs seemed to work well. I'll post some more piccies when I get them finished. Obviously when the terrain making ban is lifted ( or I find the workshop sentry sleeping).
 

TJG

[thejammedgatling]

. has she recruited the kids?

She has spies everywhere!

Some more piccies with some whole game table shots:

[Johnno]

Truly impressive!
Love the third shot showing the entire table with all the figures.
Just inspiring!

[ipushleadaround]

Sounds like great fun had by all!

Lovely figures and terrain...perhaps you could entice us with some more pictures...

I really like those Russians in red field caps

Hi Johnno - these miniatures represent the Drozdovsky Regiment. If I have the story straight - it was originally an officers regiment, which after the collapse marched from Romania to join Wrangel, where it would have been formalised as such. It was later expanded to a Division (I would suggest only nominally) in the Volunteer Army. There's a Drozdovsky March out there on the web that can be tracked down rather easily from a number of sites - assuming that you might like or even be curious about that type of thing, of course?

[ipushleadaround]

Marvellous to see yet another of Lev's brilliant creations. TGW is not one I would have ventured to use but it has some simplistic mechanisms that would suit the multi player conflict.

Hey Pete, This might be rather heretical but, with the addition of those few simple mods; Great War played surprisingly well. I wouldn't say that it's any more simplex or complex than any of the period-specific offerings out there. I shock myself when I say that, I'd use them again!

[Poiter50]

Ta, that is handy to know, might have to talk to Svend.

Hey Pete, This might be rather heretical but, with the addition of those few simple mods; Great War played surprisingly well. I wouldn't say that it's any more simplex or complex than any of the period-specific offerings out there. I shock myself when I say that, I'd use them again!