The Laishui Boxing Grounds - Colonial Campaigns #2 Part 2

Sunday night saw the Chinese Army attempt to put down the Boxer Rebellion before it took hold.

Extracting the forces for the Scenario as laid out in the book and converting to TMWWBK  equated to 30 points apiece, we had a lengthy discussion around the number of turns and decided that given the potential for units to fail their activation role we would push the turns out to 20, assuming a 50% activation rate.

 

I played the part of the Boxers. To secure victory I must ensure I retained at least one Boxer unit within 6" of the temple (Boxing Grounds) situated at the top right on the table.

 

With 10 units I opted to hide 9 and leave one in front of the Temple to draw in my opponent, sneaky Boxers....

The Chinese deploy on a broad front, as trained regulars they would get to Fire for free which would make breaking them difficult, but I only had to hold out and stay out of trouble and their firing line.

I had placed one unit well in advance of my main body of troops and this advance party rose up from behind the hill and charged into the westernised Infantry on the left flank. First blood to me....

Despite knowing I simply at to hold the temple I could not help myself and threw a couple more units into the fray hoping to turn the flank of the Chinese. Fire poured into the advancing Boxers, first they became pinned and then they were shot down to a man. Revenge for the government forces.

Meanwhile on the right flank I rushed out of the woods looking to take down the Artillery. I had now comitted over 50% of my forces so much for holding back.

I managed to over run the gun but the Boxers were spent and the reorganised firing line  destroyed what was left of the attack force. The remaining Boxer moved back into the safety of the woods to await the government advance.

The government forces advance towards the temple and sighted a number of my remaining units defending the village the stockade was no defence to round after round of rifle fire. I urged my troops forward but they stopped short of the firing line and are ravaged by fire.   

The clock ticks down and as the Kansu Braves near the temple I trigger my remaining units and rush forwards in a pincher movement on the advancing Braves. I have a chance to still pull this out of the bag, do you think I could activate a charge or Double far enough to contact...

The Kansu Braves and other Infantry elements fired at will. Pinning unit after unit slowly reducing their numbers to make any hand to hand combat a less than even affair.

A small number of the Boxers made it into combat but failed to win a single round of combat.

 

With plenty of time to spare the Government forces marched on to the Boxing grounds and the remaining Boxers fled back into the woods and countryside.

A fine victory for George and the Chinese regulars as with most TMWWBK games it went down to the wire with both of us feeling at one stage or another under serious pressure.

The result mirrored the historical outcome and the casualty count felt about right. Increasing the number of turns to 2x the book seemed to do the trick and keep the scenario balance right.

I could have been a little luckier on the dice front but I was out fought in hand to hand and shot to bits once pinned. I perhaps should have held back longer but Boxers do like a good charge...