Colonials

Taiping Rebellion Game

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Here are a few photos from our group’s Taiping Rebellion game. We used a modified Bolt Action for the rules. It worked ok, but I think that there are better choices than Bolt Action for multi player games. All figures and terrain painted by Brad N.

Click on the photos to embiggen.

The Taiping Rebellion was a Chinese civil war that lasted from 1850 to 1864, and that likely lead to more than 30 million dead. Some estimates place the casualties as high as 100 million, which would make it the deadliest war in human history. The Taiping Rebellion began when the Qing dynasty decided to suppress a cult led by an obscure bureaucrat who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ. The “God Worshipping Society” fought back and the local uprising spread became a war to not only overthrow the Qing, but also to overturn the existing social, economic and political order in China. Eventually, western forces become involved, including those lead by Frederick Townshend Ward and Charles “Chinese” Gordon.

A great read on the Taiping Rebellion is Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom. My own take after reading the book was that if it wasn’t true, no one would believe it.

Maps From The First Afghan War

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The University of Texas library has a nice set of historical maps from the First Afghan War:

Kabul: The Cantonment, 1892

A plan of action for Ahmed Khel

Actions at Kabul

The Battle At Kandahar (Candahar)

Maiwand

Boxer Rebellion Battle of Yangtsun Scenario and AAR

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The Din of Battle Blog has a nice scenario for a Boxer Rebellion Battle of Yangtsun, as well as an after-action report.

Bundok and Bayonet Colonial Rules

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Bob Cordery’s Bundok and Bayonet free colonial wargames rules are available here. They are a clean, well-written set that use a card activation system. Two things I really like about these rules: 1) that you check morale before moving 2) a bucketsful of dice mechanism for combat.

Resistance In The Desert Site

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Ian Croxall has created an amazingly comprehensive site on France’s colonial adventures in North Africa (Morocco) at the turn of the century. There are maps, period illustrations, descriptions of actions, overviews of the native tribes, orders of battle and painting guides.

Ian writes:

At the dawn of the 20th century, an influential party of colonialists was obsessed with carving a colonial empire out of the barren wastes of the North African desert for their personal glory in the name of France. This was achieved through political manipulation and subtle subterfuge on the part of a handful of ambitious army officers. This activity led to a series of small unit actions in North Africa culminating in a full-scale invasion of Morocco in 1907. These actions are eminently suitable for colonial skirmishing on the wargames table.