German Boxer Game

More research bought up these pictures of a German boxer game from:
http://www.ths-wargames.de/index2.htm

Help From Danish Society Member

Rich Baber spoke to Alan Owen who lives in Denmark has offered to paint up some Boxers for the game and post them over to us to use. He has 50 boxers painted up and based in 2's.

This is excellent news and I thank Alan for his kind offer which we have accepted. This also means that I will be able to paint up some Chinese Imperial troops, as we now have a healthy supply of Boxers.

Alan also states

Stan Johansen Miniatures in the US he does the International gun with crew, a Colt and a Austrian Maxim as well as figures for the combatants.

Will's Boxers

Sine Pete has posted some of his figures to be used in next years game, here are my Boxers that I painted a while ago and still haven't seen action

The figures used are a mixture of Qualiticast 20mm metal and Orion plastics

For my own gaming convenience I have organised them into units with common jacket colours

The flags came from Matakishi's Tea House, which has some useful bits on the boxers

Andrews Wargaming Pages also has some information on the Boxers including some period colour pictures

Early Troop Pictures

I already have some troops from long ago painted up. However the number you see in the picture is what I currently have. I intend to paint up at 1:1 for all the Colonial Troops.

Germany


Italy


Britain


Austro Hungarian
One of the reports I read said they hastily made unifroms out of Khaki Material


USA


Japan


Russia


Boxers
Currently have approx 100 boxers, I intend to double the numbers.

A Nordenfeldt Gun

This is a Nordenfeldt gun on a naval mounting that's on display at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

Figure manufacturers

Jacklex - www.spencersmithminiatures.co.uk produce a range for Russo-Japanese War figures including Japanese infantry; they also do Yanks in Montana cap in their Pershing`s Expedition into Mexico range. They also do a Zulu War range with Brits in sun helmet and naval personel.

Newline Designs - www.newlinedesigns.co.uk do lots of nice figures in their Zulu War range

Combat Miniatures - do Russo-Japanese war figures

Boxer Resources

I have drawn up a list of essential resources:

Books
Osprey's Men at Arms no. 95 The Boxer Rebellion by Lynn E. Bodin. A great general reference and the painting guide.

Osprey Campaign Series no. 85, Peking 1900 by Peter Harrington. Good photos and illustrations, bird's eye view of Peking legation, and maps.

The Boxer Rebellion by Paul H. Clements. Addresses causes, politics, and may give some insight into motivations. No photos or illustrations.

The Siege at Peking by Peter Flemming. Offers some useful details with respect to modelling and general details of the relief expeditions and battles. Few maps, no photos.

James Ricalton's Photographs of China During the Boxer Rebellion by Christopher J. Lucas. Only a few photos were specifically of the legations.

The Colonial Wars Sourcebook by Philip J. Haythornethwaite. A small section is dedicated to the Boxer Rebellion, it offers an overview of the Rebellion. B&W photos throughout.

The Fists of Righteous Harmony by Henry Keown Boyd. Similar to Flemmings book above. Many good photos and maps.

The Boxer Rebellion by Diana Preston . A well-written account of the Boxer Rebellion but as seen through the eyes of the Western participants only.. Some b&w photos and maps.

Magazines
Miniature Wargames magazine Nos. 65,66,67,68 (Oct '88 thru Jan'89) have a four part article. It covers uniforms, history, maps, etc.

Practical Wargamer magazine Autumn '88 has an article on the British Legation with birdseye view.

Wargames Illustrated no. 27 contains an article called "55 Minutes at Peking", which inspired me for the period. Contains pictures and rules.

Forces at Peking

8 nations were represented in the legations and the following forces were involved:

Autro-Hungary: 5 officers and 30 men
France: 2 officers and 45 men
Germany: 1 officer and 51 men
Great Britain: 3 officers and 79 men
Italy: 1 officer and 28 men
Japan: 2 officer and 24 men
Russia: 2 officers and 79 men
USA: 3 officers and 53 men

There were also 75 men who had military experience.

Lastly there was second group of 50 civilians who called themselves Thornhill's Rough.

Heavy weapons included:
Austrian Maxim Gun
British Nordenfeldt gun (which incidentally jammed every 3 to 4 rounds)
Italian 1 pdr quick firing gun
US Colt Machine Gun

Later on some Chinese workers found an old Anglo-French rifled cannon. The Russians had some old 9lb artillery shells which they had thrown down the well to stop them getting in Chinese hands. The Americans got the cannon working, the Italians supplied a working gun carriage to place it on. It was called many names but the name that stuck was the International Gun.

In 20mm there are 3 manufacturers that I know:
Kennington Miniatures
Orion Plastic Boxers
Rec Box Plastics that cover a host of colonial troops and some of the relief troops too.

Legation Buildings

Old Glory used to make some legation building but these are now long out of production but I have some images of them as we are going to have to scratch build them:

Boxer Rebellion Siege

Courtesy of wikipedia:

The compound in Beijing remained under siege from Boxer forces from 20 June - 14 August. A total of 473 foreign civilians, 409 soldiers from eight countries, and about 3,000 Chinese Christians took refuge in the Legation Quarter. Under the command of the British minister to China, Claude Maxwell MacDonald, the legation staff and security personnel defended the compound with one old muzzle-loaded cannon; it was nicknamed the International Gun because the barrel was British, the carriage was Italian, the shells were Russian and the crew was American.

During the defence of the legations, a small Japanese force of one officer and 24 sailors commanded by Colonel Shiba, distinguished itself in several ways. Of particular note was that it had the almost unique distinction of suffering greater than 100 percent casualties. This was possible because a great many of the Japanese troops were wounded, entered into the casualty lists, then returned to the line of battle only to be wounded once more and again entered in the casualty lists.

Also under siege in Peking was the North Cathedral, the Beidang, of the Catholic Church. The Beidang was defended by 43 French and Italian soldiers, 33 Catholic Priests and nuns, and about 3,200 Chinese Catholics. The defenders suffered heavy casualties especially from lack of food and Chinese mines exploded in tunnels dug beneath the compound.

Foreign media described the fighting going on in Beijing, as well as the alleged torture and murder of captured foreigners. While it is true that thousands of Chinese Christians were massacred in north China, many horrible stories that appeared in world newspapers were based on the actual murder of men, women and children within the foreign legation. Nonetheless a wave of anti-Chinese[citation needed] sentiment arose in Europe, the United States and Japan. The poorly-armed Boxer rebels were unable to break into the compound, which was relieved by an international army of the Eight-Nation Alliance in August.

The map of the city looked like this:

Gauntlet 2011

Now 2010 is over its time to look forward to next years show which is: 2nd and 3rd July 2011.

This time we are going to push the Twentieth Century Wargamers to its limits. Next year will be:

55 Days at Peking

Pictures and videos of Tifaruin game

I now have photos and videos of the two day game at gauntlet.

SOTCW Game 2010 - The Rif Wars from Pete Jones on Vimeo.

You can find more photos at my flickr page:
flickr

Tifaruin/Gauntlet ready

Sorry, no pictures but the table is now set up for this weekend's game, and it looks impressive already without figures.

Will

Tifaruin - secret of Rif success revealed.

Thanks to the Journal's roving reporter, we can revel to readers the reason for the low morale in the Spanish garrison of Tifaruin.

This gentleman, Antonio Gelati, has been supplying Ice Creams and other cold delights to the Rifs surrounding the town. Often this is in plain sight of the garrison.

One unnamed soldier said he'd willingly surrender for a 99.