Boxer Rebellion Train Game

 June must be wargame season! I drove from San Francisco to Los Angeles in order to spend the weekend with a good friend whose family was out of town. So, along with another friend, we played three games in two days and watched The Longest Day on DVD. We called our mini-convention Bachelor Wars 2024. My game was a 54mm Boxer Rebellion game from the Colonial Campaigns Boxer Rebellion scenario book by Mark Fastoso called Skirmish on the Rails. In the scenario, Admiral Seymour's relief force is stalled by broken rails in the track ahead. The Royal Marines must provide an escort to the repair party while the rest of the Royal Navy force stays behind to guard the train. Meanwhile the countryside is alive with Boxers who want to wipe out the repair party and possibly damage the train. We used The Sword and the Flame rules. The Boxers presented quite a threat, but the Boxer player was unable to roll to close to combat several times and so the Europeans were successful in their mission. With a different set of rules, it might have been a very different outcome!

Fictive 1813 Napoleonic battle

A French-allied force facing a Russo-Prussian force, to defend a strategic crossroad.

Steven as Prussian, Peter as Russian, Dirk with the French allies Bavarian-Württenberger force supported by french artillery and hussars, and Adrien with the French force.

Prussian and Russian forces were larger than the definding French. The French left were all veterans.

Peter attacked with his 3 regiments of dragoons while his infantry progressed towards the village and crossroad. The charge swept away a battery and 2 Bavarian infantry batalions, receiving themselves heavy losses. The French-allied right was already in big trouble from the start. Steven did, a more cautius advance as his hussars faced veterans French dragoons, but Adrian remaind on his positions.

On the far left, the third Russian dragoon unit attacked the Württenvberger jägers which turned out to be a fiasco. The unit was all but destroyed.

The clash between French Dragoons and Prussian hussars resulted in the dragoons retreating af table. 

Adrien went ofrward with his infantry near the village and was able to push bach the Prussians, but had now the problem of the hussars in his back. Moreover The Prussians were also able to drive of table  the veteran Polish troops on the extreme left. 

The French hussars on the right destroyed in their turn the remaining Russian dragoon unit. Suddenly, a whole new situation was created.  The W¨rttenberger jäger skirmish units could now deploy as skirmishes harrasing the Russian attack columns, that also had suffered heavely from the the remaining French battery.

The remaining Russian drgoons were finished off giving free hand to the French hussars that started to turn the Russian flank. The Russians had been able to eliminate the remaining batery facing them, but were by now forced to take defensive positions!

The Prussians had almost taken the village but had to fall back some distance.  And the Russian were by now desperate to keep their line, while being cut to pieces but the Württenberg-Bavarian musketry.

But for the French force of Adrian, to few troops remained on table.

With yet another batalions destroyed, his command was broken.  The Russians being saved by the bell.

It is a common mistake made by novice wargamers to start the battle with cavalry charges, while it is better to keep them in reserve to exploit weeknesses of the enemy, later i nthe battle.