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.