The first scenario we played was "It's awfully quiet out there...." which saw the Allies ambushed by the dastardly Boxers while marching peacefully through the Chinese countryside:
The allies take up a defensive position as the Boxers rush forwards. The US Marines don't seem to understand what is happening and fail to move:
The Marines finally decipher the Austrian plan and fall into line:
Tiger men (on the right) and irate university students (on the left) rush through the village to attack the foreigners:
Allied fire slows the rush of the Boxers somewhat though return fire from Chinese Imperial rifles has pinned the Austrian MG:
The Tiger men charge home!
Many Austrians are cut down by the mad Tiger rush, the survivors fall back:
The Tiger men follow up into the second Austrian sailors unit!:
This time the Austrians hold steady and throw the Tiger men back:
The university students join the attack. The remainder of the Boxers have been held back by American and Austrian fire:
Boxers charge the US Marines:
The Marines fall back. The situation is looking desperate for the Allies as the MG crew has been shot down as well:
The next scenario we played was 'To the last bullet' where the Allies have to withdraw to a fortified farmhouse and hold until relieved:
The US Marines and the first Austrian sailors unit withdraw, the second unit of Austrian sailors however fails to move and faces the Boxer horde alone:
The second unit of sailors flees ignominiously leaving just the first unit defending the farm and the US Marines in close order defending the right:
Boxers dash forward to drive the foregin devils out:
Boxers nattily attired in red outfits:
The Boxer attack is rather piecemeal allowing the allies to pick on a couple of Boxer units:
The red Boxers approach the farm but have taken heavy losses. The hard cover provided by the farm is keeping Austrian casualties to a minimum:
The yellow Boxers move up past their red comrades while the Tiger men attack the US Marines:
Despite scoring eight hits out of twelve in the melee the Marines lose the fight and are almost wiped out!:
All that is left of the allied force is the one unit of Austrian sailors holding the farm. Much reduced in numbers they hang on beating back all attacks and surviving considerable Chinese fire until the relief force arrives:
The final scenario we played was 'Seek and Destroy' where the allies have to destroy a Chinese village:
The Austrian artillery opens up on a building while the Austrian sailors advance to demolish a second building:
The sailors start attempting to pull the building down. In the distance the Boxers race forwards to save the village:
The first building is destroyed by shellfire:
The sailors pull down the second building but are about to be engulfed by the Boxer horde:
The red Boxers push the sailors back killing several of them:
The yellow Boxers finish off the survivors! The US Marines have also fled leaving just the Austrian gun and the second unit of sailors still in action:
The surviving Austrians fire as fast as they can and cut down many of the Boxer horde:
Tiger men charge the sailors cutting them down:
All that remains is a single Austrian gunner! The Boxers have the day this time:
Three really enjoyable games and it was great to see Gordon's fantastic looking Boxer army on the table. The Tiger men were even more cute in reality than their pictures and in general lived up to their name getting into action in every scenario and generally doing well.
The rules work well enough, though the effect of having a poor officer (and many of them are poor) can be quite disastrous especially for the regular armies which have few units. All the games were fairly close and casualties on both sides were considerable. It's the sort of game I wouldn't want to play every week but is great fun now and then so I'm sure the Austrians and Boxers will meet again.
No comments:
Post a Comment