Or, my scenario is more obscure than yours

When we came across a description of the 1915 Singapore Mutiny (chapter 17, p 236 in Armies of the Raj by Bryon Farwell, W.W. Norton & Co., 1989; also the article Intrigue" p 30 in Military History 12/98 issue) it had instant appeal as a colonial era skirmish wargame scenario.

History

In February 1915 a regiment of muslim Punjabi infantry garrisoning Singapore, fearful that they were to be sent to fight their Turkish co-religionists and stirred by the exhortations of expatriate, anti-British, Indian nationalists (the Ghadr movement), mutinied. There were current rumors that German troop support would be made available to the mutineers. At the time, the Empire's most important far-east port was virtually undefended. The mutiny lasted about ten days before it was suppressed by a motley collection of officers, police, sailors and armed citizens, the ringleaders executed and the troops dispersed to other theatres.

Scenario In the first instance, and rather unusual in a colonial skirmish wargame, both sides (Mutineers and Imperial) have Europeantrained troops. As a result of the surprise factor, the two sides are initially closely matched, with great "what if" potential for the Mutineers; can they overcome the hastily assembled forces trying to suppress the mutiny and inflict a humiliating defeat on the King-Emperor by taking Singapore and opening it up to rumored German naval reinforcements (in an ironic echo of what was to happen 27 years later, almost to the day, at the hands of the Japanese)?

You can be creative in designing the terrain, laying out a town and military cantonment, plus plenty of fog-of-war; Ghadr agitators, friendly fire confusion between units in the same uniform on opposite sides, looting in the town, plucky civilians to be rescued and to hold strong points against the mutineers, even the local Lunar New Year celebrations...

This is what we came up with for a game that has been run at two local conventions (HMGS West's "Western Front" and "Conquest" - there's a description of the former, including two pictures, on Trevor Brabyn's Web Page http://home.earthlink.net/cyberkiwi/soldiers/ index.html).

Order of Battle

Imperial Troops: the idea was to capture the flavor of a hastily-assembled force using what was available in the city plus commandeered civilian vehicles.

20 Singapore Volunteer Artillery (using British Ral Partha Boer War figures with Frontier WWI officers) plus 1 gun (Richard Houston), four crew.

20 armed civilians (using Boer figures from Frontier and Ral Partha).

20 Royal Navy lanhding party (Frontier figures) plus 1 MG (Richard Houston), two crew (Ral Partha).

20Malay Polica (impersonated by Ral Partha Ghurkas painted in khaki).

20 mixed civilians and military personnel for the bungalow (Frontier and Ral Partha figures) plus 1 MG, two crew.

20 unarmed civilians (mix of Frontier, Ral Partha and RAFM from "Call of Cthulu" range - men and women, somewhat anachronistic dress-styles!).

Period auto: five trucks, one Rolls Royce, one ambulance (for rescued civilians and wounded), we allowed five figures per car, ten per truck, trucks could carry 1 MG.

Mutineers: Four groups of 20 Indian Army infantry plus two guns, four crew (sources same as above) [optional reinforcements: 20 German Schutztruppen (Falcon figures)].

Terrain Layout

After looking at pictures of colonial Singapore in travel guides we decided to represent it using a mix of "generic" Asian adobe-style houses, plenty of palm trees, exotic vegetation and a European cantonment consisting of a barracks, parade ground, Anglican style church, a civilian bungalow and some encroaching jungle (see map). Buildings were scratch built or model railroad scenery.

At the start of the scenario the unarmed civilians were dispersed randomly throughout the buildings, together with a marker for a liquor store and a merchandise warehouse (locations unknown to both sides). The group of mixed civilians and military plus 1 MG are trapped in the environs of the bungalow by one unit of mutineers. All other units start off board.

The Imperial troops and vehicle column come on from the east edge of the map on a game turn decided by die roll per unit. The remaining Mutineers also enter on turns decided by die roll, but their location is randomly assigned by dividing-up the map into sectors and rolling for entry. In this way, Mutineers can suddenly pop-up behind advancing Imperial units, adding to the confusion.

Rules

We used "Sons of the Desert" (SotD) rules by Steve Lawrence (Emperor's Press/Old Glory Miniatures, 1996), because their relative simplicity lends itself to convention play and they have a "quality dice" mechanism for varying the capabilities of individual figures, giving a role-play feel to the game. We assigned quality factors such that the civilians were generally low quality, the military units of both sides competent with a sprinkling of veterans.

We added the rules from the SotD "Shore leave in Agadir" scenario for units entering a building that turned out to be a liquor store or warehouse; causing them to check morale to see if drunkeness (non-muslims only) or looting, with consequent loss of unit control, would occur. Each game-turn, a roll of one on a d20 by the umpire caused a Ghadr agitator to appear in a randomly rolled map sector and attack the nearest Imperial unit with a bomb!

To further add to the confusion, when a unit fires on a new target for the first time, it must pass a 50% chance of not firing die roll (simulates difficulty in identifying the units of the two sides).

The Mutineers were told that having mutinied against the King-Emperor they could expect little mercy, their only hope being to gather-up as many civilian hostages as possible, while keeping the relieving troops at bay so that the bungalow could be captured and then an exit made southwards towards the port and the rumored German ship coming to their assistance. The Imperial side was to suppress the mutiny and rescue all civilians as quickly as possible, restoring order to the colony - the eyes of the world are upon them.

The actual objectives were for the Mutineers to captured unarmed civilians as hostages to aid in escape, cause Imperial casualties and capture the beseiged bungalow. Once the bungalow falls (either to the Mutineers themselves or is relieved by the Imperial side) then the Mutineers may start to exit the south side of the map (ostensively heading to the port and rumors of German naval intervention - we had a unit of Schutztruppen available for play balance if necessary).

Imperial objectives were to liberate civilians throughout the town and to eliminate mutineers. Final victory would go to the side having the better civilian rescue/capture to enemy kill ratio.

A final touch was to have a Lunar New Year parade (consisting of a colorful dragon and some Chinese figures) which entered the map at a time and place determined by the umpire (to provoke maximum inconvenience) and proceeded to wander about the city, between the combatants (this was based on accounts of the initial firing of the mutiny being confused with fire crackers from the parade simultaneously occurring). We had some Boxer figures available and if either side interfered with the parade, a unit of Boxers would emerge from the dragon and attack them (low quality troops).

In convention play the scenario worked well, was reasonably balanced (we didn't have to use any reserve units to equalize play) and had a different outcome each time we ran it. Fortune seemed to favor an audacious Imperial approach in pushing the relief columns to the bungalow as fast as possible and then mopping- up in the town. For the Mutineers, a rapid overwhelming of the bungalow resistance followed by a regrouping to meet the relief columns seemed to work, especially if chance brought a unit or two into the Imperial rear to sow confusion!