Taiping Rebellion - A River Defense

Welcome the Taiping Rebellion in China in the 1850s and 60s!

Background

It has been years since I have put this collection on the table. I'm going to change that going forward and run at least two Taiping Rebellion games a year. This is a 25mm collection mainly comprised of Foundry figures with some Old Glory figures included for variety. 

About half the figures were purchased painted from a good friend, and the rest were bought and painted over the years. I recently added the flags to the Imperial forces (nobody produces them) and they turned out great. I had to design the flags myself or from images on the internet. Then I printed them on my ink-jet printer. A photo below shows the variety of flags and banners. As usual, click on image for bigger views.

River is made of window tinting cut to size. Town buildings are scratch made by Mal Wright for my Boxer collection. Crops are cut out from a door mat and spray painted green. Bridges and Pogoda are aquarium pieces. Normally each unit is 4 stands, but I had to make units 3 stands to allow for maneuvering as I only have an 8' x 5' table. Sigh. I used to have 14' x 5' in my old basement. 

Scenario

This is an early war scenario, around 1854 when the Taiping Rebellion was surging like an unstoppable wave across southern China. The Imperial forces are guarding two bridges and a town that the Taiping need to continue their advance. Although the river is fordable to infantry and cavalry it wouldn't work very well for the supply columns that are following the Taiping.

The battle pits the Imperial Green Banner Army vs Shield Army of the Heavenly Kingdon (Taiping). Taiping are mostly on the left side of the photos prepared to assault the Imperials dug in behind the river. The Taiping mostly have yellow flags trimmed in red. Imperials are to the right in most photos behind the river line. Flags vary for the Imperials.

Victory Points

• 1 for bridge closest to the pagoda. 
• 3 for bridge near the town.
• 5 for town itself. 

Taiping House Rules

We played a Hybrid set of rules I created based on standard Piquet (Hallowed Ground supplement) and Field of Battle impetus. So, most of the game mechanics are Piquet, with impetus usage based on Field of Battle. If you are truly interested in the Taiping rules (Jingals, Tigermen, and Stink Pots, oh my) and Hybrid concept send me an email and I'll send you PDFs. ericbu2025@gmail.com

Here are the Buddhist Monks hoping their pagoda isn't burned down by the Taiping. 

Rosters

Here are the two rosters for today's game. You will notice that most Imperial troops are very poor compared to normal Western Drilled troops. 

The Taiping "Guard" are the Veterans of the army and have very high stats compared to the enemy. A Ying is like a Brigade in western terminology.

If you would like copies of the Quick Reference Sheet email me and I'll send you a PDF.

Setup

Here are some photos of the game's setup. Mostly taken from the short end of the table to get the natural light. Taiping on the left and Imperials on the right. This photo was taken when I had each unit at 4 stands instead of 3 I used for the game.

Here you can see the Taiping cavalry Ying at the close edge of the table, supporting the Guard Ying.

Close-up of the Guard Ying near the pagoda. Commanded by Rich.

Two Yings (Left and Center) commanded by Michael.

Imperial positions (dug in) around the Pagoda bridge

This is a great photo showing the main Taiping attack across and around the main town bridge

The battle plan for the Taiping was to force the crossing of the Pagoda Bridge and then wheel down the flank of the Imperial forces, while pinning their forces down at the river edge.

The Battle

The battle started with lots of skirmish action between Jingals (Light and Heavy) and Imperial Tigermen. These are special skirmishers and I have house rules for them. The Jingals can either fight the enemy jingals\tigermen or fire on units to try to disorder them.

Meanwhile the Taiping forces surged forward! Left Ying charges towards the river. Imperial peasants are attempting to hold the far right of the Imperial line. 

The Center Ying now advances to the River. In Piquet, this is a CLASS II river so halt on contact then can move normally after that.

Near my side of the table the Guard Ying advances and throw out their Jingals to take out the enemy skirmishers. Jingals are individual stands.

The situation near the Pagoda Bridge.

Taiping and Imperial Manchu cavalry race to the river to try to get an advantage on the flanks. This upcoming cavalry battle swirled for four Melee Resolution cards. Fighting can be seen in the distsance.

Imperial defenders, with the help of attached Jingals, cause heavy casualties among the Taiping Veterans and disordered a couple units too. The river line appears to be holding. Lone Taiping unit in the middle of the photo has formed in "circle" to fend off the Bannerman cavalry about to cross the river!

Because of my location on the table it was hard for me to get photos of the raging melees at the far end of the table near the town. Many Taiping units were routed, but rallied and came on again against the Imperials. The attack to the right of the bridge (from Imperial view). Mongolian cavalry swinging around to bolster the morale of the Imperials and Peasants. 

Action to the left of the Bridge. One routing Taiping unit heading towards the table edge. The river line is holding so far!

Meanwhile the Taiping Veterans have charged towards the Imperials at the bridge and have used their attached stink pot (single figure stand in the water) to drive the imperials back disordered! This was a huge event as the stink pots are one shot weapon and can only disorder the enemy. A very fortuitus roll and the Imperials are disordered and driven back in disorder. (Green tag on unit)

Here are some photos I was able to take during our lunch break of the battle along the river's edge near the town. Many Taiping units are disordered though. The "heart" on the command stand means they have to check for survival on the next Officer Check card.

At the Pagoda Bridge the Taiping have taken control of the bridge and drive off the Imperials. The situation before the melee.

And after

In the middle the Bannerman cavalry breaks the Taiping Brethren's circle and rout them. The Imperials pull more cavalry across into the center!

Taiping units have driven back the peasants and have made several breaches in the Imperial defense. 

Last photo showing the cavalry across the river for the Imperials which could really ruin the current Taiping advantage. The Pagoda bridge is completely overrun by the Taiping effectively turning their flank, but much further away (and on foot). The Manchu cavalry was eventually routed by the Taiping cavalry near the bridge (somehow missed taking any photos of that melee!).

We had a great time, but as folks were all new to the rules it took longer than I wanted. We stopped and it was still anybody's battle, which surprised me. We will play again soon! 

The Dragon and the Cross

I bought the original MANCHU version of this game with garish map, which you can go look at on BGG.

Here is the revised version with gorgeous map and better-looking counters. I hope to get this on the table in the near future. I clipped all the corners of the counters too. Link to BGG.

 

Taiping To Do List

If you made it this far thank you! Here is what I have left in order to finish the collection. After all are painted, I'll flock all the bases. Players didn't see it as a problem to not have the bases terrain-ed.

Paint the following, but some are optional. The cavalry is on the table right now.

• 1 x Manchu Cavalry (8 figures)
• 1 x Manchu Cavalry (8)
• 1 x Manchu Cavalry (8)
• 1 x Manchu Infantry (12)
• 1 x Manchu Infantry (12)
• 1 x Manchu Infantry (12)
• 1 x Manchu Infantry (12)
• 1 x Manchu Infantry (12)
• 1 x Bannerman Infantry (12)
• 4 x Imperial Mounted Command
• 9 x Imperial Foot Command
• 6 x Imperial Light Jingals 
• 4 x Heavy Jingals
• 1 x Beheading scene
• 1 x French Landing Party (12) Optional
• 1 x European Civilians (24) Optional 
• 1 x Chinese Civilians
• 2 x Hand carts
• 1 x Veteran Taiping or Brethren Muskets\Matchlocks.
• 2 x 8lb Smoothbores
• 6 x EVA Crew
• 1 x EVA Gun
• 10 x Artillery Crew
• 2 x Howitzers

Thanks for taking a look here today! Have a wonderful day.

Eric

Sunrise on Oak Island

Phil Comes for a Visit - Wargaming in the Holidays

My friend Phil from Charlotte dropped by just after Christmas to drop off a homemade cheesecake (out of this world flavor!) and to do some gaming! This time we did a modest schedule so we wouldn't be exhausted and would have time to complete the games we wanted to play.

As usual, click for larger image and open them in a new tab for the largest version.

Kaiser's High Seas Fleet

Monday morning, we played this game. It was thoroughly enjoyable and moved rather quickly which I thought was great. Game mechanics were fluid and made sense. I played the British (and allies) while Phil was the Germans. It was a British Victory.

BGG Link

Map and counters are gorgeous. Love the 1" counters.

My British fleet was fairly battered after this battle

Germans took some damage too!

Had to sneak a photo of this Italian vs Austro-Hungarian fleet battle! I like how the minor powers are involved in the game

Now to sail on to Spain!

King in the North

Monday Afternoon

I have always wanted to get some miniatures for this period, but just can't justify another collection to paint and acquire. 

BGG Link

I have had this game on the shelf for two years and Phil wanted to give it a go. 

The rules have some translation issues and we made several mistakes in the game play that made the game unsuccessful. We will have to try it again and play the rules correctly. I need to send the feedback to BGG with the rules questions and corrections in the near future.

Once again, this is a different and beautiful game. I played the Carlists and captured a reinforcement location and that effectively knocked out the Isebella forces. 

I really love the graphic quality of this game. Because the forces are intermixed throughout the map you truly don't know what strategy to employ. More experience will help with this. I'll see if my local gamers will play this game with me.

Six Sojourns

Monday Evening

BGG Link - I have the Deluxe Edition from the Kickstarter.

What a very pleasant surprise this game was! We loved it. Even my wife enjoyed this! Beautiful graphics and gameplay sucked us in. Another nice feature is that you can finish a game in less than 90 minutes, so why not play twice! Phil won one game and Paige one the second game. Both were VERY close games.

Sea Serpents Expansion

Phil after winning his game!

We enjoyed this so much we played the next evening!

Vikings vs Saxons (Command and Colors) - Battle of Reading

Tuesday morning\early afternoon

C&C Medieval Scenario Link

I just bought some 18mm WoFun Vikings and Anglo-Saxons and wanted to get them on the table. Phil and I have played a LOT of Command & Colors so we thought we would play this Fan-made scenario. We had a blast with my mighty Vikings eking out a narrow victory 8-6!

Battle Background

On about 4 January 871, Æthelred and Alfred brought up the main West Saxon (Wessex) army and joined Æthelwulf's forces for an attack on the Danes. The West Saxons fought their way to the town, slaughtering all the Danes they found outside, but when they reached the town gate the Vikings burst out and defeated the West Saxons with a successful counter-attack.
Among the dead was Æthelwulf, whose body was secretly carried off to be buried in his native Derby. According to a late source, Æthelred and Alfred only escaped due their better knowledge of the local terrain, which allowed them to lose their pursuers by fording the River Loddon

Map setup

I then used my 4" hex map with my 18mm WoFun minis to recreate the battle. Movement trays are 3D printed to allow for me to add a label to each one. I also use these for my To the Strongest games. I think WoFun figures are really perfect for Ancient and Medieval warfare games due to the linear nature of that warfare. A view from the Anglo-Saxon lines.

Simple, but very effective look. Now from my Viking perspective.

Here are several close ups of the figures, movement sabots, and labels.

Viking medium infantry.

Aethelwulf's command:

King Aethelred's command of warriors and medium infantry

Saxons (men of Wessex) quickly advance and disperse the Viking light infantry in front of the camps (tents). The mass of Vikings is stuck behind the walls.

The Vikings use a quick march (twice) to get their main forces from behind the walls. Red cubes indicate hits.

Hits are piling up. As the Vikings I nearly lost my Jarl twice! I was very aggressive with him.

Vikings final push before victory!

The WoFun figures (18mm) look outstanding to me when used in this way. It was a fantastic battle and a very near run thing as if I didn't seal the last Victory Banner, the Saxon dogs would have surely won.

Six Sojourns Again

Tuesday evening

This game comes with 8 different maps and about 10 expansions, and we tried out two more maps this evening.

I really like this snow map.

Phil liked this game so much he purchased it before he drove back to Charlotte!

Fighters of Europe 

Wednesday morning

BGG Link - Eric's House Rules Link on BGG

I've been working on some house rules to add more non-deterministic outcomes to the Fighters of Europe and Pacific game rules. I asked Phil to run through a playtest with me. I was the American bomber force, while Phil was the Germans. The Americans won this game. No blow-by-blow battle report just some photos of the game. Once again great components. I'm actually getting a larger map with 2" hexes that will better fit the planes that come with the game.

We thoroughly enjoyed the game with my new house rules. I'll play all future game with the house rules.

Bonus Coverage! SYW Game!

Shortly after Phil left I was able to play in a Seven Years War game pitting Prussians vs Austrians. This is Michael's fine collection of 15mm Old Glory figures and his home rules. Austrians were surprised by a Prussian attack on their camp. Still, the Austrians managed to pull out a victory!

I was the Austrians in this battle and struggled to get my cavalry to do anything but rout! Below the  steady Austrian has formed up!

My Hussars plowing into the Prussian Grenadiers. 

Hammer and tongs! 

I really liked how Michael made casualty stands with a die indicating how many hits the unit has taken and a 10mm casualty figure on it. Clever! I ordered some dice so I can do the same.

Happy New Year!!

Good night from Oak Island, NC!

Eric