FREDDY AND THE PIRATES
From 1845-1864 in China over 20 million people died as a wandering priest tried to establish a semi-Christian "Kingdom of Heavenly Peace" on Earth. THETAI PING REBELLION made the Amercican Civil War look like a social tea dance! Join historical American adventurer Frederick Townsend Ward as he leads the steamboat squadron of the European trained Ever Victorious Army (EVA) against a rebel pirate stronghold outside the international Western trading enclave of Shanghai. But will his Imperial Manchu allies help or hinder him? For in China, nothing is as it seems, and leaders on all sides are often willing to make a deal...
Multifaction scenario includes some role playing and diplomacy as well as amphibious military action.
My aims in preparing this adventure were several:
- Get back to playtesting my ACW naval rules
- Expand them by juxtaposing technologies from both ACW and preACW technology, mirroring the land action on the dining room table which would merge weapons from the Medieval, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries
- Use my big 54mm toy ships on the living room floor, including integrating the whimsical actual toy weapons on some of them into a game for the first time
- Play a game set in the Tai Ping rebellion, to work backwards on my Imperial Period ("Colonial") wargaming experience from the later Boxer Rebellion period (1900, see MWAN #100, and Happy I 00th Anniversary to Boxers everywhere).
- Show off my regiments made from the excellent new 54mm Boxer figures (Armies in Plastic: 20 figures in 10 poses, including pole arms, swords, and 4 musketeers). Two days before Game Day, Sunday May 28, 2000 AD, I was finishing off the fifth 60 figure regiment, for a total of 300 brand new figures.
- Do a little role playing to show the nature of warfare in China, and make my players more careful about their actions (players in a Charley Elsden Scenario learn to sniff out the territory first before plunging right in).
- HAVE FUN! (Not necessarily in that order)
ORDERS OF BATTLE
A. THE IMPERIAL FLEET
(3 Imperial Players: Frederick Townsend Ward, Manchu Imperial Prince, Manchu Imperial Governor)
1. Center Column--Ward Steamboat FIREFLY (repro tin sidewheeler purchased from Upper Deck catalogue, armed with a bow gun--from Atlantic "Lenin. Stalin and the Russian Revolution" set and a large mortar-- Pressman pirate game ) Bow pin with multi amino, shell, solid shot, cannister. Mortar with iron balls to batter down shore walls and carcasse incindiary shot. Crew: Sailors including one Boarding Defense Party (BDF) 5 figures. 2 gun crews, Captain, etc. (Marxman blue ACW Zouaves painted as sailors).
Towing: Two steam tugs SHANGHAI 1,11, and ORPHAN ANNIE (Sesame Street Big Bird paddle wheel boats) each with a five man crew and steamboat; all three each towing 1 of 3 surf boats (plastic sailboats without masts; made in China) full of Crack Morale EVA troops (1 European officer, 19 EVA troops at 1 figure:20 men representational scale). Troops painted up in 20 figures sections. 2. Starboard Column--Manchu Imperial Prince
Warjunk RED DRAGON (Japanese restaurant large suchi boat) mounting one Stone Cannon (Call To Arms ECW cannon) firing Hail Shot only-- C anni ster! Crew: 10 gray sailors.
Towing: 3 sampans (small orange plastic suchi boats) LION, TIGER, AND BEAR (Oh my!), each with 20 Manchu troops rated Average Morale.
3. Port Column--Manchu Imperial Provincial Governor
War junk GREEN CASTLE mounting one Stone Cannon, crew of 10 (as above). No wargame is complete without a bad pun (see above) and an obscure wargame reference. Translating the names of the 2 war junks into Japanese gives you two powerful aircraft carriers of WWII!
IMPERIAL FLEET TOTAL: 3 large boats, 2 steam tugs, 9 small boats, 4 artillery pieces, 180 land plus 50 naval figures.
B. FORCES OF THE REBELS; TAI PING WANG (Northeastern King)
3 Tai Ping players: 1 King (Side Commander), 1 General, 1 Pirate Admiral) (3 possible expansion positions: 1 Colonel, 2 Pirate Ship Commanders ("Fleet Division Captains").
1. Pirate Defense Fleet 1 Pirate Admiral
a) SEA SERPENT (Stone Cannon Boat--Fisher Price large Adventure Pirate Ship with hidden boulder gun and ships sinall boat hanging aft with grappling cannon) Crew: 50 pirates (Jecsan Mongols with bows and melee weapons) rated Crack Morale. This is the Pirate Admiral's flagship, holds center station, and contains 1/3 of the rebel treasury on board!
Towing: 1 barge (Barzo Mihe Fink canal boat) with 50 white ninjas (Hing Fat) as pirate melee weapon boarding parties
b) WHALE (Grappling Hook Cannon Boat with catapult small bow boat launcher--with just for fun a commando crew armed with a spar torpedo!) (Small Fischer-Price pirate ship) Crew: 20 pirates as above. Port Station.
Towing: 1 barge with 50 black ninjas
c) DOLPHIN (Little Tykes pirate ship with small cannon used as rocket projectors, and small boat from cargo hull door). Crew: 50 pirates as above. Starboard station.
Towing: 1 barge with 50 gray ninjas
FLEET TOTALS: 3 large Ships each with a small ships boat (capacity 10 figures) and 3 towed barges; 270 figures.
2. Pirate Island Tai Ping- Garrison
2 Asian fortified pavilions ("Return of the Ninja" playsets by Redbox #24158); The Red Pavilion and The Green Pavilion. The Red is the General's pavillion, armed with a Dragon Gun (Atlantic ECW type heavy cannon tiring cannister to twice the distance of the Manchu "stone guns," but with nothing like the range of FIREFLYs armament) and garrisoned by a 60 figure "Boxer" company of that color located on the Left side of the island, and the King's own green pavilion, similarly armed and garrisoned, with one special difference. While both pavillions hold 1/3 of the rebel treasury in a small unlikely looking building dwarfed by several larger ones, the King's holds below it a vast underground cavern (enter at top of large dollhouse and proceed downward, fighting room to room), secretly held by the yellow Tai Ping regiment "Treasury Guards." Not even the other rebel players know about it!
2 docks (each four Lincoln Log orange roof planks sticking out into the water, with behind them one BMC Alamo playset stockade wall). This is the Colonel's charge. He has to defend them the blue and brown Tai Ping regiments respectively, but no part of the treasury (he is discontent with his lot, but cannot get a promotion, as the King and General are cousins of the main rebel family, and he is not connected that way)! Not only that, he is the first shore line of defense. A Tai Ping Colonel's lot is not a happy one...
The Green Pavilion is on the right, on a hill. The docks are in front of it on the shoreline. The Red Pavillion is off to the left. The approaching Imperial fleet can see nothing else.
ISLAND DEFENSE FORCE TOTALS: 300 figures (five regiments in brown, blue, red, green, and yellow), 2 Dragon Guns
COMBINED REBEL TOTAL (TAI PINGS PLUS LOCAL PIRATE ALLIES): 570 figures plus heavy weapons as above.
More Fightin' 54s
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© Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum
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