Grant Sigsworth

Hope all is well. Now that “Darkest Africa fever” has cooled off I have become fascinated by China. I have painted a bunch of Cannon Fodder U.S. Sailors - which are really outstanding figures, and just recently ordered some Chinese from Pulp Figures (plus some Neanderthals - I couldn’t resist). Pulp Figures web site is really good. Now that Copplestone has started on the Back of Beyond, the range of figures available will be staggering. How do these things happen?

I wish I knew how these things happen in bunches but I do not, must be fate. Your letter actually mirrored my own orders recently. I ordered from Greg at Cannon Fodder enough US Sailors to help make up two units - one for shipboard and one for shore duty. I like the ship board sailor unit as it is quite mixed with fatigue and armed figures. I added US Sailors from Pulp Figures to fill out the two units and give me some depth of weapons. I also ordered one of each of their Chinese Gangs and since they come with separate weapons I also ordered Reviresco’s Chinese gangs (the fifteen figure pack), which gave me two Chinese gang units (the units are each 20 figure for use with TSATF rules). The Reviresco come with separate weapons also so this gives me a great variety of weapons with basically 40 figures with no two weapons the same. Along with this I ordered Greg’s Chinese Warlord figures enough for three units to add to my two Foundry Chinese units, I think from the Taiping line. Not to mention the various manufacturers Chinese pirates. Next I’ll add some Copplestone Chinese make some Chinese buildings and have a go at a rescue mission.

by Greg Blake

I am heading off to Melbourne this evening to take part in our wargame club's annual open day. I am putting on a participation game "Yanks up the Yangtze" which is an excuse to get my gunboat and YANGPAT figures into action. I'll take lots of photos and send you a few when I get them developed. Its not really "colonial" but you might like to use some of the photos in Heliograph. I've packed most of your order and find that I don't have any A3 in stock. I do however have A4, which is an Ansar waving a sword [one figure in turban, the others wearing a skull cap]. If you want I can send these instead - I'll even throw in a few extra, otherwise I will hunt down the mould that A3 lurks in a get some more cast. The other figure I seem to have run out of is USN2 that surprised me - they must be popular. I'll get some more USN2 cast and send them on separate. Let me know about the A3. The moment you do I can get the order in the post.

Below is a description of the Western Suburbs Wargames Association's Open Day that happened on Saturday 25 May. As I told you in the last message I ran a game called Yanks up the Yangtze, unfortunately there were no colonial era games but my Yanks game attracted a lot of attention and quite a few people revealed themselves as "closet" colonial gamers which bodes well for Colonial gaming in the future.

WSWA OPEN DAY

Open day went off very well. There were 320+ people in attendance and many games underway. There were several trade stands and quite a few participation games. There was also a painting competition, and some uniformed Napoleonic re-enactors [95th Rifles, 42 Highlanders and 21er Rgt de Ligne].

I managed to run two games of Yanks Up The Yangtze, a game loosely based on the Sand Pebbles. The game was set up lengthways along two 6' by 4' tables. A US gunboat had to rescue a missionary couple then pass down the river and make its escape. There was a protection party of USN in the mission commanded by the dashing young Ensign Jimmy Beam. The Captain of the gunboat was the crusty old veteran Lt Cmdr Jack. D. Daniels. Opposing the Yanks were the forces of the evil Warlord Fang Chu Li, The Beast of Tianamen. Half the table was river on which there were two armed Junks and the USN gunboat. Ashore there were numerous structures including the walled Mission complex, a large golden Buddha, a pagoda temple complex and a small stone walled farm. There was even a Warlord biplane bomber that made its appearance in both games and tried to bomb various points of interest on the table. In the second game the Warlord even had a Rolls Royce armoured car.

The first game took about 2hrs, the second took about 1.5hrs. I had about six people playing in each game, both kids and adults. There was a constant flow of onlookers. Both games ended about the same with the Yanks rescuing the Missionary [although in the second game the Missionaries wife was killed by an aerial bomb] but then lingering too long ashore, getting themselves caught by the Chinese hordes and having many of their landing parties massacred. In the second game the gunboat commander left his boat sitting alongside the shoreline after he had disembarked his landing parties. He ignored a lurking Chinese gang that boldly rushed the gunboat and boarded it. In the ensuing melee all but three of the crew [the Captain, the Bosun and Steve McQueen] were killed and these three survivors ended in the bow facing off about 4-1 odds. The gunboat was then re-boarded by two of the Landing parties who had rescued the missionary and in another wild melee they cleared the decks at bayonet point, the Missionary killing a gang member with a roll of 5 versus the Chinese 1 - some tough old Reverend that one.

The gunboat then pushed off but in doing so abandoned two landing parties that were overwhelmed and massacred by hordes of Chinese. This was in part caused by the most amazing dice rolling by the player in control of the USN parties. He had given the right orders which was deliberate fire into the onrushing mobs. He rolled one D6 per firing figure. He had six dice; two BARs, one Lewis Gun and two rifles, and only needed to roll 3 or better to hit. The amount of auto fire he had would have made mincemeat of the attackers. He rolled his six dice and scored five 2s and one 1!

This guy was jinxed as all through the game he rolled very low every time he had to do anything. He even got his gunboat hit by a shell from a Chinese Junk that reduced his speed by half. I was waiting for the second critical hit to occur which would have meant the gunboat was forced to run aground but thankfully he managed to avoid that misfortune. All up the games went off well and I got a lot of compliments on the game, the figures and the table. It was a great day.

I took photos and will send them your way when they are developed.

So here is Greg’s write-up and a photo, I have got to say that the gunboat looks wonderful. Greg whose figures did you use? as if we didn’t know. The report below and the letter above cover some of the same material, but I thought it worth publishing both rather than editing the two together leaving it in Greg’s words. Yes, I know I failed in my editorial duties, so now I’ll only roll twos, well it beats the snake eyes I’ve been rolling.

"Yanks up the Yangtze"

The game "Yanks up the Yangtze" depicts one possible incident in the United States Navy's Yangtze River Patrol [YANGPAT] that protected American interests along the mighty Yangtze River during the period 1866 - 1947. Heavily inspired by the wonderful movie "The Sand Pebbles" we find an American gunboat in the summer of 1928 tasked with the mission of rescuing missionaries the Reverend Thadius Goodworks and Hilda Goodworks from the "Golden Star Mission". The gunboat must break through a force of Junks stationed across the river to prevent its escape.

The game took place on a 4' x 12' table and involved a landing force of USN consisting of four five-man squads and two Lewis gun teams. The gunboat sporting four Lewis guns and one 75mm ships gun provided support. One extra USN squad acting as a protection party for the missionaries was posted in the Mission. Each USN squad consisted of four rifles and a BAR. The Chinese forces included three 20-figure bandit gangs, a 20-figure platoon of Warlord "regulars", a 20-figure platoon of "Student Militia", a 77mm field gun and two medium machineguns. The Chinese also had the use of a Biplane bomber and a Rolls Royce armored car.

The rules used were written for the game. They were simple rules using D6 dice to determine hits, melee and morale. Players choosing and playing one of four action cards determined the actions each turn of units. All action cards were revealed at the same time thus preventing second-guessing by players. Once played, an action card could not be changed and this led to players trying to tactically outfox their opponents. The rules worked well and will eventually appear on Cannon Fodder Miniatures website at www.canfodmins.com

The game was designed to last for no more than two hours and provide some fast moving fun, which it did.