A Harold's Rangers* & Terry and the Pirates** Adventure: China 1943 *copyright James Delson **copyright Tribune Media Services, Inc. Reprint series available from Flying Buttress Classics Library This game was based on a real place I visited during my 3 week tour in China in 1987, and an actual event from 1936 Chinese history. The rules used are a unique role playing/wargaming 1: 1 system only now becoming available through the Toy Soldier Company. Each player put together an eleven man commando team based on his favorite characters from fiction or history, each with special enhanced role playing type abilities. In this scenario, each is also assigned responsibility for certain aspects of a modern WWII equipped mission including one each: fighter pilot, auto mechanic, radioman, hand grenade thrower, and diplomat. Most of these characters had been developed over a long series of campaigns of that time traveling band of heroes known as Harold's Rangers. Imagine putting your own such team together; which brave heroes would you choose? My own picks for an earlier game (not in this one since I was the Game Master) included Paul Atreides (Dune), Taras Bulba (Russian Cossack chief), Celeborn of Lothlorian (Galadriel's husband from Tolkien), Eomer of Rohan (Tolkien), Archimedes, Sir Gaheris of Orkney (King Arthur's knight), Big Barda (Jack Kirby's super strong comic book character and wife of Mr. Miracle), Bruce Wayne (Batman), John Carter (Edgar Rice Burroughs), The Man With No Name (Clint Eastwood), Terence Hill (spaghetti westerns), Jan van der Haven (my own swashbuckling 17th Century Dutch Sea Begger; an old D&D character), Hash Hassan (legendary founder of the Middle Eastern Assassins) and Pavel Checkhov (Star Trek). You never know who will show up in these games! For instance, sometimes you have to keep an eye on George with the flowing yellow hair, because he's George Armstrong Custer, and apt to be a little rash... Now three players take their own customized teams beyond the usual nineteenth century late time limit to a later period, where they've only been once before. They travel by unknown means to a secret WWII British base high in the Himalayas in 1943, where an unidentified American officer (Pat Ryan from the famous Terry and the Pirates comic strip by Milton Caniff, hereafter "T&P") briefs them on the mission. Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek, leader of the Nationalist Chinese government, is being held in "house arrest" by his own younger officers, who are trying to persuade him to greater effort against the Japanese invaders. Your diplomats will be given secret messages which are code assurances of Western aid to help persuade him. Two C-47 cargo planes will fly you over the area, near Man city in Shaanxi province. You will parachute into the jungle, meet a contact who will arrange for rare motorized transportation, and get into the Hot Springs area, which is garrisoned by the troops of at least three Chinese Nationalist generals. You will be given an unmarked international collections of weapons, clothing and equipment. Since you freelances, you cannot reveal any Allied espionage networks, which is why you were hired (for a considerable sum; time ' travelers don't come cheap). Also be careful of other factions which include Communists, Japanese, and local warlord/bandit factions. Good luck, fellows and gals! In the event of capture, here are your individual poison pills... GONG! The two C47s (piloted by lieutenants Terry Lee and Hot Shot Charlie of T&P) fly over the hump into south China to Kunming field and refuel. (Indiana Jones traveling music and aircraft silhouette please, professor). They then fly north over the drop zone with their three P-40 fighter plane escort (each piloted by one member of each player's team). There they are set upon by three far superior pilots of the Japanese navy led by Saburo Sakai (real life top fighter ace, see Zero, Ballentine Books). During the tense dogfight, the rest of the commando team members bail out over the jungle. One transport is hit and on fire! Its handsome blond pilot bails out himself, and the great silver bird crashes in the jungle! Meanwhile the other huge transport, also damaged, limps off to the horizon. Its short brash red haired pilot grimly wishing good luck to his passengers and his best friend. "Happy landings, Terry pal. Old Hot Shot will keep 'em flying until you get back." As the young daredevil flies back to base, he wonders why Japanese planes just happen to be so far inland, where few Japanese forces dare go? But that is for our players to discover, as Hot Shot Charlie (love that name) is headed back to Burma and the US First Air Commando. As the Zeros fly off triumphantly, many dice roll. Some of our commandoes are killed or wounded during the drop, others scattered far and wide. A certain time element is necessary for all to rendezvous, and the players, working together as a crack team, determine to wait long enough for all who can move to reach them. The wounded are bandaged. Meanwhile their contact (Terry's former houseboy Connie and the tall, silent Big Stoop from T&P) appear, and reveal a carefully camouflaged group of trucks which can be used to drive to the Hot Springs. But that evening during the regrouping, odd lights are seen at night at a secluded temple, supposed to be deserted. Our intrepid scouts discover a modern radio antenna on top of the temple--one suitable for calling in air cover! The players vote to investigate, and enter the temple, avoiding a number of booby traps in the main hall. There they discover a secret passage down, leading to an underground cavern. Here they surprise a unit of Japanese frogmen, who are preparing a raid on the Hot Springs through an underground river! Midget submarines are ready by the water, and supply crates hide unknown equipment. Our heroes jump out, but the frogmen run to a pile of boxes which must contain weapons. Some of our commandoes jump into hand to hand contact with the Japanese, who seem to have ninja skills, some chase the enemy who reach the crates. A few firearms should prove little problem from the three or four who may make it before they can be stopped. But oh, no! The crates are marked with German army labels, and contain automatic assault rifles of the newest design! Our heroes are soon ducking for cover, engaged in a desperate fire fight. They prevail, leave their few black wetsuit clad living prisoners in the hands of their Chinese contacts. Examining the crates reveals the poisonous germs with which the frogmen were planning to kill everyone at the Hot Springs (reference actual Japanese chemical warfare developments in a secret base in Manchuria, the infamous Unit 73 1). Each squad consolidates both personnel and equipment, having taken losses in the jump and the fight, not to mention a few individuals who never even got out of the C-47s or their flaming P-40s in the first place! Ali, fickle fate. A day and a half has passed, and certain events occurring at the Hot Springs and elsewhere are advanced to certain stages in the Game Master's mind. When our heroes roll out in their trucks, their contacts wave goodbye. "Good luck, American friends. Some day we shall drive the rest of the invaders from our land.,, Harold's Rangers drive through an empty village (four rare Airfix 1/32 scale Bamboo huts), where they do not stop to notice signs of occupation. Hidden in one hut north of the road are Communist leaflets! The countryside is being overrun by forces hostile to the Nationalist cause. To the south approach hostile forces loyal only to the legendary woman bandit known as La Choi San (The Dragon Lady from T&P). The Chinese at the Hot Springs, a number of 50 figure companies in tents, one for each of a number of generals, are starting to prepare to defend the city, not trusting even each other to some extent. The G-mo (Generalissimo Chiang) is still uncommitted to battle. Meanwhile, the exquisitely beautiful Red River Courtesan is making the rounds of the Generals houses, gaining influence over each in turn, and turning their thoughts further against each other. Who is this tall Amer-asian beauty with her elegant manners and long cigarette holder? Unknown to them, they have all in one way or another, fallen under the sway of that nefarious black widow, The Dragon Lady herself. GONG ... The commando convoy is stopped at the walls of the compound by the combined guards of two Chinese Nationalist companies who each PATROL a wall section on either side of the entrance way. Only our very charismatic diplomats might talk their way in. Luckily, they do, as machine gun crews look down upon them f rom each side of thick city wall. Inside, they drive past camps of soldiers who have invaded the tranquil and beautiful vacation spa. The Hua Qing Hot Springs prove to be one large pool quartered by ornamental walled paths. A different generals faction has taken over each quarter. The four branched path leads each to a generals house. The garrisons of the individual generals are each wearing a separate type of uniform, ones typical in the Chinese army--German, British, Russian, and American--almost as varied as the mercenaries themselves. They troops of each faction stare balefully at each other, armed to the teeth. How will the Nationalists ever unite against their foes, who are gathering outside the walls? How will our heroes talk the Generalissimo into leading the anti-Japanese effort by teaming up with his enemies, the Communists? And how will our own Rangers get out of the compound before a large scale battle begins that will block their escape route? How indeed? GONG! After many dice rolls, the commandoes are given a tent, while the diplomats among them (officers all) are led to and audience with the Generalissimo. There a silver tongued diplomat (played by James Delson) offers the Japanese mini-subs in the trucks as a gift to the G-mo, and tells his story. Then he gives the secret message he carries from the American government. Off to the side of the gaming table, tense players drink coffee, chew on big hero sandwiches, and crane their necks to see the mysterious dice, even though they cannot decipher the arcane meaning of their results. Only the impassive game master, wearing his leather jacket and facsimile WWII pilot's crush cap, knows for sure. He smiles. Will their mission succeed in persuading Chiang? Will machine gun bursts come from the uneasy troops around them. Will the beautiful woman singer they have heard on the evening breeze from one of the Generals houses appear? or will an attack begin outside the compound, sealing them in for good? Chiang sighs, and agrees to the terms of his generals. Whew! "But you must leave quickly, my friends. A large Communist force is planning to block off all roads, and it will take some time to negotiate with them. And bandit forces infest the woods as well. If you are to get out anytime soon, it must be now. Hurry!" Back into the trucks. As they drive off on the return path between the woods, they see that the village ahead is now occupied; in fact it is now swarming with soldiers. Two different forces have appeared from north and south. When our characters try to scout the woods to either side, testing the possibility of bypassing the position, the woods are discovered to be teaming with large units of men. Its through the village then, at top speed! So valuable are the trucks that hopefully they will not be fired upon. But the enemy would give anything to capture the valuable vehicles, and these odd non-Chinese foreign devils as well. The mission team members load their miscellaneous collection of internationally made weapons. Each man checks that his poison pill is ready to hand. Some pray. In the village, Communists glare across the narrow road at their temporary allies, the bandit forces. The "Reds" wear gray uniforms with blue helmets or gray caps, and have banners unfurled that one day will be the flags of the People's Republic. The bandits are in tan with British type equipment, thinking of the money their Mistress has promised. For although hating the Japanese invaders as most Chinese do, their ultimate loyalty is to their beautiful but tyrannical queen--The Dragon Lady, who even now spies on the Nationalists disguised as the Red River Courtesan. "The fools," she thinks, "with their pathetic patriotism. "Only money and power count in her diplomatic equation. But was that the handsome young Terry Lee with the foreigners? It would be a shame if he must die as well ..." The Communists send a party to try to wave the oncoming trucks to halt. Who are these round eyes who dare to interfere with their campaign? They must be captured along with their trucks. The trucks barrel on through. Boy, do the dice roll! Unwilling to be the first to fire, both blocking factions do nothing. Then a commando on the last truck torches a building with a flame thrower! Wah-hoo, there hasn't been enough fighting for him lately! As both factions open up on the trucks and each other in what would have been a deadly crossfire had it occurred only a minute ago, our heroes swing around the bend out of sight. Mission accomplished; getaway complete! And another large sum of money is deposited in the treasury of Harold's Rangers, who give a ragged cheer as they pass on to safety. On the way home, they raise a toast to their friends who were lost, and who some day may return to them in through a River World*** (Copyright Philip Jose Farmer) resurrection adventure. THREE CHEERS FOR THE RANGERS!!! More China Introduction China Game 1: Hua Quing Hot Springs (Harold's Rangers Comics Adventure 1943) China Game 2: Temple Out of Time ("Illinois Smith" Adventure 1943) China Game 3: Hsiku Arsenal (Boxer Rebellion 1900) Back to MWAN #100 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com