Monday, June 05, 2017

The Laishui Boxing Grounds - Colonial Campaigns #2

Back in 2013 I posted an idea for several linked scenarios from Mark Fastoso Colonial Campaigns book. 


Like many projects this did not get as much air time as I would have liked and other projects came along, after a four year absence the second scenario finally lands on the table top. This time switching from Mud & Blood to using The Men Who Would be Kings - The Colonial Campaign books are written with the Sword and Flame rule set in mind but rather conveniently the point system within TMWWBK works perfectly with the units sizes and forces within the campaign book. 

With no changes The Laishui scenario works out at 30 points aside.

For last nights game I added in a couple of rule amendments in preparation for the up and coming Osprey all dayer.

A restriction on arc of fire with troops only being able to fire at 180 degree arc to their front hopefully allowing the Boxers a little more flexibility to flank the Imperial forces.
I have added a commander for both sides which if the unit is within 6" of the commader they get to re-roll on his initiative rather the doing nothing in a turn however if he fails all additional orders for the command are lost. ( I guess a mix of Black Powder and Dragon Rampant..)

Now to see how the game plays through?

The Scenario
The Boxer movement died down after the Battle of the Senluo Temple.
But members of the Imperial Court were pro-Boxer and restrained the Imperial Forces from pursuing the Boxer bands. By the begining of 1900 the Boxers were on the move again attacking and looting Christian settlements. The Boxers arrived at the village of Laishui and burned down every Christian home killing 30 families. Colonel Yang Fu-tong was quickly dispatched to supress the Boxers. 

Boxer Commander.

The Foreign Devils have for too long humiliated the greatest nation on earth. The decadent Qing dynasty rulers, Manchu devils themselves little better than foreigners, are begging dogs, asking their Foreign Devil masters for permission to live. The only way to return harmony to the Heavenly Kingdom is to destroy all the Foreign Devils, drive them and their evil technology back to their own barbarian lands, and replace the decadent Qings with real Chinese.
To secure victory you must ensure your retain at least one Boxer unit within 6" of the temple (Boxing Grounds).

Can Colonel Yang Fu-tong can follow history...?

6 comments:

  1. Caution is needed with some of these colonial campaigns when converting to TMWWBK. TS&TF assumes units activate every turn, but this may not be the case with TMWWBK. We played Sihayo's Kraal from the Zulu War book and it imploded spectacularly - http://midasintelligence.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/sihayos-kraal-1879-men-who-would-be.html

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    1. WE had te very same discussion Stuart, in the end opted for doubling up the number of turns as a compromise, which turned out the right thing to do... AAR to follow.
      Cheers
      Stu

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    2. Just read your posting and see what you mean the high activation scores certainly cause a problem, we did look at changing some of the free actions going forwards e.g. Scouting cavalry scout for free. etc, etc.
      Cheers
      Stu

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  2. Looking forward to reading about this game:)

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  3. Those are lovely sculpts and you've done a great job of painting them.
    goldenslot

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