"Does anyone game Colonial sieges?" Topic

Other than the well-known Boxer Rebellion, I don't know if these games figure regularly in your gaming but judging from the replies on TMP five years ago

TMP link

it's more of an "I'd like to" or "My club is fascinated by" type of situation. There are many sieges for the Colonial gamer to choose from. Thirty years ago in Jackson MS, we played the Boxer Rebellion for months on a kitty litter table in Dad's wargame room/converted garage. He had scratch-built the legation walls and the Boxer tower from 55 Days at Peking (IIRC it only moved 1-die per turn). It's still one of the pinnacles in my wargaming experience, perhaps even THE outstanding game.

So what are your experiences either playing in or observing siege games?

Most colonial miniatures rules only cover the final assault for a siege, so that is what usually gets played, such as Khartoum. Doing something like the relief o the Chitral Forts in the NWF would require some sort of campaign rules as well, which are in short supply for the colonial period.

As above. We have the forts, but it's usually "Up and over the walls!"

We've done some of the sieges of the First Boer (Transvaal) War. Small scale actions and well suited to TSATF.

There is, of course, Rorke's Drift; a short but intense siege.

I can not recall the names:

But siege of a fort was a common theme of French Foreign Legion games. This would have been around 1980. Infiltration was a big part of it. Also, I would think Northwest Frontier games would cover siege actions.

I will have to flip through the archive of old rules.

As above, it's usually the major assaults that get played. I have games on Khartoum using both the Hollywood style walled defenses and the more historical sand/earthen berm with rampart and gates, the Legation Quarter and Tatar Wall in Peking, Fort Zinderneuf, Rorke's Drift (not really a siege), as well as other nameless Colonial forts, large and small, for Afghanistan, the Sudan and North Africa. I still get a kick out of playing your Dad's French Foreign Legion Fort game published by Yaquinto. That's a lot of fun.

My French Foreign Legion Fort has besieged numerous times over the years. One game had the natives capture the fort and then the relief force which arrived too late to save the garrison. But they manage to recapture the fort.

I set up siege rules for a fantasy game once. Basically every day both sides decide privately if it is a siege day or assault/sortee day. If both choose a siege day everyone manning the walls/trenches gets one round of fire casualties and artillery damage; everyone else digs, with specific costs for trenches, saps, siege engines, etc. If one or both sides chooses assault/sortee then you go at it. Barracks and camps would be located on the board. For cities you'd put a portion of the city on the edge of the board and both sides would get a portion of their troops, assuming the same thing is happening to the rest of the town.I don't remember play testing them…

If you can find them, Richard Brooks' rules for Khartoum from Miniature Wargames in 198blahsomething can be adapted to all manner of colonial sieges. The simple tactical rules are good too.