"I'd sooner surrender Berlin" Topic

For a while now I've been looking for something to work on that was different from my 7YW project and from any of the other periods I have. It would be something that would not require large forces and would provide for quick fun games. Then recently I was doing some reading about WW1 (which has alway been a strong interest of mine) and discovered an article about the siege of Tsingtao. In 1914 the Japanese sent a force of 60,000 along with some British and Indian troops to take on a German force of around 6,000. Well at 10:1 odds you may think it didn't amount to much, but there were some interesting little fights.This campaign began in September and ended with the city's surrender in November of 1914. The siege was conducted almost as a classical 18th century siege. First the Japanese had to take the out laying German outposts and cut all their supply lines, then dig parallels, saps, and then set up their guns and pound the enemy into surrender.
The Japanese commander husbanded his forces and never sent more troops against the Germans outpost the he felt needed. The Germans would from time to time sally out to attack the Japanese, in an attempt to disrupt their work. These attacks make for some interesting games with forces of a company or two in size. There was also nearly a larger engagement when the Japanese went to cut the major railroad line (German commander pulled his troops back before it happened).
This sounded like what I looking for, small units and completely different from anything else I've done. But where to get the figures? Well, Brigade Games carried the Copplestone Miniatures  German Marines in the Darkest Africa range. Then lookin though some of the other ranges I came across their  Warlord Chinese and Brigade Game's Gallipoli – Palestine figures. The Gallipoli – Palestine prove useful for the German Marine gun crews and some command (with a little work), while the Warlord Chinese would work for the Japanese troops and the German machine gun teams. Japanese command and heavy machine guns, as well as, the German horse marines are still to determined.
Here are a couple of photos of troops so far completes; Japanese Infantry and German MG team.

The title of this post was reportedly part of the Kaiser's order to Tsingtao's commander. BTW is anyone else out there doing anything like this?

Very neat idea, but how many scenarios can you get out of it before you tire of the figures?

There were over a dozen actual actions that can be played out and then there' the what ifs. The Germans can also be employed for the fictitious 1902 war between the US and Germany and fight in Cuba. There are a lot of guys out there doing Spam_Am which didn't last as long and had fewer actions. The total number of figures will only equal about 3 or 4 of my 7YW battalions.

At some stage I will be doing figures for this as part of my Back of Beyond project but nothing much has been painted at this stage.

I've done some research on the uniforms and equipment of the troops, if I can help you let me know.

Well in that case, it sounds like you've hit on a good episode to game.