I finally played a game using part of Peking yesterday. I thought it would be good to start out with a scenario of the initial Boxer attack on the legation. So, I brought in a section along the Tartar Wall that would fit on the small gaming table I have in the house. The area covered was from the Tartar Wall to the legations on the north side of Legation street. East to west it covered from the French legation to a block west of the Russian legation. I used 15mm scale figures, of my own design, for all of the combatants. There were 7, 20 figure units of Boxers against 9 Russians, 5 Frenchmen, 5 Germans, 7 Americans, and 7 civilian volunteers, for a total of 34 Europeans.
Here is a shot looking from west to east. 3 Americans and 3 Russians man the barricade on top of the wall. 4 Americans man the barricade on Wall Street and 6 Russians man the wall across Legation Street.
On the East side, the 5 Germans man the top of the wall. The French and civilians cover the barricades from the French Legation, through the ruins, then to the wall. All in all, the Europeans were stretched pretty thin.
I roll dice to determine where, when, and how many Boxers would attack on each turn. On the turn a Boxer unit entered the board, it was set on the table at the edge and the setting on counted as the unit's move for that turn.
In the first turn, two units of Boxers entered the board. One at each end of Wall Street. Rifle fire from the Europeans was nothing terrific, inflicting only a couple of casualties.
On turn 2, the West End Boxers charged the barricades on each end of Wall Street and three more units entered; one at each end of the wall and the third facing the Russians on Legation Street.
On turn 3 the last two Boxer units entered the board, on the wall and against the Russians on Legation Street. The unit on the wall was led by the "Red Lantern" herself, Hóng Dēnglóng, the Boxer Queen.
The Boxers hit a stretch of bad luck here, as the first unit on the wall and the one against the Yanks on Wall Street both failed their Close Into Contact rolls. So, they fell back pinned.
The group against the Germans did close, but were defeated in a sharp hand to hand combat.
In turn 4, the East End Boxers made it to the French barricades, but their leader was killed, so they milled about getting shot at. The unit against the Americans on Wall Street rallied and charge again. On the wall, Hóng Dēnglóng led her Boxers over the pinned unit to press the attack.
On Legation Street, the Russians repulsed the Boxers, with the loss of two men killed. The Germans moved over to the parapet to add their fire to the French and civilians on the meandering Boxers, while the Americans (with Russian help) sent Hóng Dēnglóng packing.
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Finally, the Dawdlers at the French barricade got moving, but were defeated by the French and volunteers (including Annie Elizabeth Chamot - far right in the top picture). On the American front, Hand to hand battles occurred on Wall Street and the Wall. Both assaults were beaten back at the cost of one American wounded and another along with a Russian killed.
The game was played using "The Sword And The Flame" 20th anniversary edition and a modified version of a Boxer supplement that was published in one of the wargame magazines in the mid to late 80s.
I hope you enjoyed this little AAR.
Good luck and happy gaming!
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