Friday 3 June 2016

British and Chinese river naval action

Some time ago Jack made me 3 Dapper Class Gunboats and some Junks.  Bob and I decided to try a game using them.  It was a bit of an experiment in terms of what each side should have by way of forces.

The scenario was a British punitive raid up river to take out a rebellious Chinese fort and supporting naval force.  The British figures were made up of Jacklex sailors and a unit of Rose Miniatures redcoats.  The Chinese are Orion Boxer Rebellion figures and some metal figures which I think were B&B Miniatures.

The British flotilla approaches and the Chinese Junks emerge from the tributary river.




One Junk was moored to the jetty and immediately tried to move off.


We discovered that we had under powered the British guns as they failed to blast the Chinese out of the water as expected.









Bob watches on as the Junk with fled the jetty at the start of the game ran aground.


British sailors and infantry are launched to tackle the Chinese forces.




Boxer Infantry prepare to repel the British. Their musketry was poor and the better armed British sailors and drove them off with a well aimed volley.





The Chinese Imperial forces in the fort came under bombardment from the British ships taking regular hits without being able to respond.


The naval fight with the Junks continued with one Junk being demasted and others turning tail as their morale faltered.


The game looked good and the models Jack made excellent but the rules we used and tried to adept didn't work. They were meant for early/mid 19th century ships but not for steam or the types of guns the British ships carried.

6 comments:

  1. Nicely done! Fine photos and a good story even if tbe rules let you down.

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  2. Nicely done! Fine photos and a good story even if tbe rules let you down.

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  3. Hi Chaps

    Glad you like the pictures, thought they were worth it even if the game didn't quite work out.

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  4. Great looking battle! Sounds like big fun. My buddy had designed a set of gunboat rules to be used with The Sword And The Flame. They are fun and easy with enough detail to make it interesting without bogging things down. I'm sure you can use them for actions like this battle as well. I know I plan to. He's going to make a specific set for the Boxer Rebellion but I don't know when.

    Here's the link to his blog to check it out. You can ask him questions about the system.
    Laststanddan@blogspot

    Cheers,
    JB
    sgtguinness@blogspot.com

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  5. Chees JB
    I'll check it out.Bob and I use TSATF so it will be interesting to see a variant for the Boxer Rebellion. It will save learning another set of rules from scratch.

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