New Ancient Chinese Figures & Vacation Reading

    Shortly before leaving on vacation, while doing a Google search, I came across some nice looking  plastic ancient Chinese  toy soldiers. They are listed as being 1:120 scale.  To me they look like game pieces.  They also had to be ordered through a company in China. I was leery of ordering them. They were also quite expensive; $19.00 for one set. I could only order one set of them (  I wanted to order two). In the end I decided to take the chance and order them.

   When my wife and I went camping we took the dog along. However, being so hot out, and the campsite we stayed at limited what we could do with Jerry, we asked my stepson if he would watch Jerry, to which he said yes. We brought Jerry home, and while there I checked the mail. Way back in the mailbox was a small box from China. I took the box back to the campground to examine the contents that night. I will say that I am happy with the purchase. I received 40 infantry, 10 cavalry and two general figures. I also thought they might be a good match for the Risk plastic Napoleonic figures, which is illustrated below.

    Among the reading materials I brought with me was Bryon Farwells' "Armies of the Raj". I am a big fan of his books, but in the past I couldn't get into this book. I finally got through it and, as always, enjoyed the book. I really can't understand why I waited so long to read it.

My new Chinese ancient figures. I did a quick black wash on the figures to highlight the details.

The back of the figures.

The new Chinese compared to Risk Napoleonic playing pieces.

Zulu Wargame

   After getting my new British Camel Corps figures I started thinking of doing some Colonial gaming.  Ross MacFarlane at Battle Game of the Month came up with his own Battle Cry rules for the Colonial period. I have wanted to try them out so I played a quick game on my Heroscape board. 

  The game was to be a column of British soldiers guarding a group of porters moving supplies. There is known to be a large force of Zulus in the area. Instead of using the Battle Cry cards, I was going to use my average dice. As I set up the game, I started thinking there might be a problem with my scenario, as will be seen in the photos.

The British force. A squadron of regular cavalry, a squadron of irregular cavalry, two companies of regulars and two companies of highlanders. The commander of the column is with one of the regular companies. The porters can be seen behind the soldiers. To win, the porters must cross the board.  Here is where I think the scenario fell apart. The Zulus had to get to the porters before crossing the board. Half of the Zulus had no real chance to get at the porters.

The board as set up. After looking at the rules, I realized I shorted the Zulus 1 man per unit (melee armed units have 5 figures, not 4).

I added the extra figures to the Zulus.

The Zulu right advances to try to cut off the column.

The Regular cavalry charge the Zulu left.

They force back one Zulu unit and in their followup attack kill three more Zulus.

The Zulus on their turn wipes out the regular cavalry.

The British throw forward one company to try to hold the Zulu right off.

At this point the Zulus try to get their entire right wing in motion.

The British form a line on the hill.

The British fire drives back the Zulus. At the extreme left can be seen the irregular horse engaging one Zulu unit which is trying to get behind the line.

The irregular cavalry has killed 4 Zulus and driven the last back.

The Zulus charge the British line with three units.

The British suffer heavy losses. The company that the commander is with is wiped out, and the highlanders lose 3 men. Meanwhile the lone zulu on the right kills one irregular cavalryman and drives the other two back.

The British commander falls back on the other regular company and one highland unit retreats to the hill.

Heavy fire from the British line kills 5 Zulus and drives them back.

The irregular cavalry drives back the lone Zulu.

The Zulus kill two more highlanders.

The Zulus wipe out one highlander companies. The Zulus push forward another unit to make for the porters.

Between the infantry and irregular horse, the Zulu unit is destroyed. Meanwhile, fire from the highlander eliminates the Zulus on their right. At this point in the game the Zulus stood no chance of getting to the porters, and so conceded the game. The last couple of Zulu rolls they only rolled two's. I should have allowed the Zulus to double their rolls, which  would have given them a better chance against the long range fire of the British.

One more "No Brain Wargame"

      I am preparing for a week vacation camping, the first week vacation I've had in ten months. I have several books that I hope to start reading. I'm also going to put some thought  into which direction my gaming is going this winter. Of course there's no sense trying to plan too much.

     I did get two more No Brain Wargames in. The first I used my Peter Laing Zulus. The second I used my Airfix indians. However, in this game one tribe was trying to raid the other tribes camp, instead of just a battle for fighting sake.  Also, instead of both tribes having the same number of archers and spearmen, I randomly reached into the piles of figures for each tribe and whatever figure was picked was placed on the board. Both sides had more archers than the last game, although I still haven't counted how many archers each side had. This is how I picked the tribes when I first played this game 20 years ago.

The white feather tribe, on the left, vs the red feather tribe, on the right. The red feathers have decided to raid the white feather camp (represented by the chief and female figures on the back line). In most of these games, the white feathers have been defeated. However, there is more at stake in this battle.

The red feathers push the white feathers back. The white feathers move some more warriors towards the front of the camp.

The white feather camp.

The red feathers lose 6 men in one turn. Still, the red feather's contempt for the white feather tribe leads them to continue their attack.

The red's contempt seems justified as they punch though the white's line.

One band of red feathers, led by their chief, is confident in their victory.

The white feathers now move to surround the war band under the red chief.

At this point I almost made a big mistake. I was going to have the 4 white feather archers at the bottom of the picture fight the four braves in front of them. However, it dawned on me that the goal was to wipe out the chief's band. With the loss of their chief, the red feathers would lose the fight.

It was the right move. The archers threw one 6, and three 5's. The 5's count as retreats, but as their retreat is cut off by the two warriors behind them, they count as kills. The entire chief war band is killed. The red warriors lose their morale, and retreat from the field. Right as I took this picture, the batteries died in the camera.

New Peter Laing Purchase and a "No Brain Wargame"

      Last week on Ebay there were two lots of Peter Laing Colonials that I wanted. One had tribal figures, such as Mahdi infantry and some North-West frontier figures. This lot had several figures that I do not have yet. The other lot was Egyptian infantry and camel Corps figures, including 5 British Camel Corps figures, which I did not have any of. The first lot was won by someone else; however, I really wanted the second lot, which I won (no one bid against me). And so I now have more camel figures to take up more room.

    I also have been working on some simple rules for a simple game. My plan was to add on to my No Brain Wargame. I wrote down the rules, picked two armies, and played a game. The game was OK; however, I just realized that it went from a No Brains game to an Ancients or Medieval game. What I have in mind is two tribes battling it out, not a set piece battle.
      I started going through my Peter Laing figures to come up with two tribes. In the game I want two different figures; one capable of missile fire, the other for close combat. After thinking about it, I went back to my first No Brain Wargame that I originally played close to 20 years ago. I used Airfix Indians, one group painted flesh colored, the others brown. Both sides had the same number of archers and spearmen. They were randomly placed on the back squares of the board, 4 to a square.  Then as before, I rolled two average dice and 2 6D dice to determine who moved first and how many squares of figures could move. I do believe this will stay as my No Brain Game. Nothing original that hasn't been done before.

Some shots of my "improved" No Brain Wargame. It wasn't an improvement.

At the end of a confusing game, both sides ended with equal figures.

How my original No Brain Wargame from 20 years ago looked like. This is before I  started getting a hold of Donald Featherstone and Charles Grant books.

Looking down the line of the "red feather" tribe. So named because their chief has a red feather to mark him.

The "white feather" tribe. The chief can be seen in the from row. I didn't realize that both chiefs were archers. They became chiefs in my earliest games for their bravery.

The tribes close in on each other.

The red feathers fire first, kills one brave and makes another run away.

The white feathers rolls a "3", and closes in for melee.

They kill one brave and drives back two archers.

The red feathers start pushing through the center.

At the top, the red feathers kill one brave and two retreat. Another white feather is killed in the foreground.

One of the white feather chiefs group is killed. The two chiefs are side by side: the red feather chief also has his face painted red, the white feather chief with his white feather. The red feather chief face was painted red, if my memory serves me right, because in one game he went on a killing spree where he killed several enemies single handedly.

Another shot of the two chiefs.

The white feathers starts working around the forward bands of red feathers.

They manage to make several retreat, but only one is killed.

The white feathers continue their attack.

Once again, they drive some red feathers back, but only kills two.

The red feather charge forward...

..and kills five white feathers; another runs from the battlefield!

The red feathers continue their attack.

On their left flank, they surround one band of white feathers.

In the center 2 more white feathers are killed.

The surrounded band of white feathers are wiped out.

The white feather tribe lost 16 warriors, the red feathers only 4. The white feather tribe always had bad luck in these games, almost always losing. Perhaps they need a new chief!

Some of my new Peter Laing Egyptians. I am thinking of using these figures as King's African Rifles for a German East Africa WW1 game.

More Egyptian camel corps figures.

My new British Camel Corps figures.