"Why wargame the Boxer Uprising?" Topic

Why do you wargame the Boxer Uprising (a.k.a. Rebellion) of 1899-1901? Select any that apply, and/or list your any other reasons why you find this conflict intriguing for tabletop miniature gaming.

(a) Fascinated with the Chinese 'Boxers.'
(b) Interesting scenarios (e.g. siege/relief of Peking, coastal campaigns, interior missions).
(c) Classic colonial-era encounter between ancient v. modern empires.
(d) Colorful uniforms of soldiers fighting on all sides.
(e) Interested in the way military forces from eight nations fought together as allies.
(f) Sailors and marines play a big part in combat operations.
(g) Intrigue of Qing Dynasty imperial court (Empress Dowager, etc.).
(h) Railroads, gunboats, and walled forts are involved.
(i) ___________________________________

Opportunity for small scale skirmishes between just about every Colonial power.

(j) saw 55 Days at Peking back in the day.

Also, not as one-sided as the Opium Wars.

A conflict noone I know have any idea about, hence all preconceptions can be put aside.

Easy, the uniforms!

(i) lots of cool flags!

Had a great seige

Seventeen different European nations involved.
The most colorful flags EVER for John Chinaman.

(e)

Or, rather, how they did NOT fight together as allies.

All of the above. My favorite colonial period.

The number of different countries involved in fighting the Chinese! Each of the gamers in my gaming group can play a different colonial power.

The Australians went there and were upset at always being a bit late for the actions.

and tigermen

db

Tigermen and jingals.

(i) Lots of eye witness accounts and a good photographic record.

Why not wargame the Boxer Rebellion?

I've asked myself this quite a few times and after reading a few books on the subject I've come to the conclusion that it wasn't much of a war! The Chinese army really had no chance against the Western powers as they had limited command & control, no infrastructure, their troops were poorly trained, and on and on. I admit that the uniforms are great, you get to see a wide variety of forces on the tabletop, but it's perhaps best for a fantasy setting. You really need to handicap the Western forces as the Chinese/Boxers didn't do too well in stand up fights.

Or change the victory conditions drastically: count a Boxer victory if they cause serious losses to the colonial powers before getting greased.

All of the above.

I. Tigermen

I do close to that, I play the Taiping Rebellion which is Chinese against Chinese. Huge war, huge armies, weaponry ranging from bows, spears, swords, arquebuses, repeating crossbows, rifled muskets, breechloaders, all sorts of artillery, stinkpots, you name it. Sieges, big naval battles on rivers and lakes, open field battles. And more interesting leaders than you can shake a stick at.

Why not.

Opportunity for small scale skirmishes between just about every Colonial power.

That.

Also, many of the battles transfer to a sci-fi setting relatively easily.

This is an excellent question since the Tai-Ping rebellion is a VASTLY better conflict to game in roughly the same era and setting. It's only relative drawbacks are lesser figure availability and deficiency of English language sources.

CC--same era? 40-50 year time difference. Thats pretty "rough"! But I agree with you otherwise. I have some older "true" 25mm Chinese from Richard Houston for the First Opium/Arrow Wars period. He didn't do Taipings though. Foundry did some,I believe.

When Old Glory announced a line for First Afghan War, I hoped Russ might be talked into expanding into Opium War,since the Brits could be used for both. After that,another small step could bring in the Taipings. Sneaky,eh? And Russ does like periods where you need masses of figures!

Unfortunately,the Afghan line got put on hold,apparently indefinitely. I can dream,though. . .

i) Because the brief uprising (also known as the grundy uprising) made everyone wince rather than fight. Additionally, it was much too short of a conflict.

Also agreed that the ability to use small units from many countries is a big appeal.

This is a bit off topic but if anyone is interested I have hundred of unpainted miniatures from Foundry's China range including the Taipings, the Ever Victorious Army plus British troops that I would love to sell. PM me if interested

Cool figures. Different uniforms.

Because "55 Days at Peking" is one of those movies that should cause every red-blooded wargamer to at least get up and tell themselves "I should wargame this."

Same with Zulu, Sand Pebbles, A Bridge Too Far, The Wind and the Lion etc …

+1 to Patrick R's comments.

I've played in (and run) several Boxer Rebellion games over the years using different rules. Regardless of which side you play or who "wins," everyone always has a good time. There should be at least one Boxer game at every convention.

To answer the question, (b) through (f), plus (h), are the main reasons I enjoy the period.

By the way, the Sand Pebbles (1966) airs once this month. I plan to take my time watching that flick. It's been decades for me.

Dan
PS. I think it's set in the mid 20s.

Why Not ! The Boxer Uprising ! With all the different nations and units involved it would be a very good looking game !