Hooray! Our Taiping Rebellion expert friend Jeremy is back in Oxford and should be here for a couple of years. During that time you can expect regular reports of more Taiping battles on this blog.
To celebrate his return, we tried one of his growing number of new scenarios: the 3rd Battle of the Taku Forts, during the Second Opium War. This did not directly involve Taiping rebels but did involve their imperial opponents and took place against the backdrop of the Rebellion, which lasted from 1850 to 1864.
The 67th Foot storming the Taku Fort. (By New York Public Library - http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/opiumwars/28.htmlhttp://www.royalengineers.ca/CooperHTM.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9516269.)
The background to the battle is that the British and French wanted to seize Peking to compel the Chinese government to allow them to continue selling opium in China. The Taku Forts were a complex of fortifications commanding the mouth of the White River, the route to Peking. There had been two previous allied attacks on these: a successful one in 1858, when they were briefly seized but then returned by treaty; a disastrous one in 1859 when the British lost three ships and hundreds of casualties. This third effort involved an expeditionary force of nearly 20,000 men adopting a more indirect approach. First they landed up the coast at Beitang and took a couple of small towns to establish a base. After a week's logistical pause, they then stormed the northern forts from the north.
Making frontal assaults on fortifications into an interesting game is always a challenge, as I discussed in my "Reflections on Wargaming" essay on the topic here. Jeremy adopted an approach similar to the one I used for my Düppel 1864 scenario. He made it a two-phase game, with the preliminary operations against Xinhe and Tanggu being the first phase and the actual fort assaults the second phase. Victory depended on how swiftly the Allies took the forts.
The result was a tremendously exciting game. The nineteen photos below record how it went. First, a double apology: (a) although I do have a Taiping army, actual junks and Chinese buildings, all of these are still in a state of partial construction, so we had to make do with proxies; (b) I'd been away for a week and only had a couple of hours to throw the terrain together, so please forgive us if it is a bit scruffy and imperfect. If you have limited appetite for looking at my venerable terrain, you can scroll to the end to find some reflections.
The battlefield, looking south. The White River runs from upper right edge into the sea in the top left corner. Most of the coast is tidal mudflats (the patches of felt covered with scattered foliage). The light blue/grey patches are lakes. Dark brown patches with huts are villages. Lighter brown paved areas with houses are towns: Xinhe (lower right), Tanggu (upper centre next to the lake) and Donggu (top edge). There are some entrenchments around Xinhe and Tanggu but the serious fortifications are the forts clustered around the mouth of the river. The three with white counters on them are the Objectives the Allies need to take for victory.
An Imperial Qing field force starts in and around Xinhe. The Qing army wore blue and had a lot of not very regular cavalry. My Ottoman 1877 army makes for good proxies. Figures are
Heroics & Ros 6mm (ACW zouaves and cavalry, Napoleonic Russian cossacks), painted by me last millennium and finally rebased for BBB this year. Houses made by my mate Colin when we were 12. Roads and river by Rob Owens of
Rob's Scenics.
I commanded the Allied left wing, the French division under Montauban. My mission was to race through the mudflats and take Tanggu as quickly as possible. The brigade on the left is marines with some line and African LI; on the right, line infantry, chasseurs and Algerian tirailleurs. Figures are
Baccus 6mm Franco-Prussian War painted by a company now defunct.
Anton commanded the larger British force on our right: two infantry divisions (four brigades) under Michel and Napier, a grand battery including some rockets (the red counter), and a cavalry brigade. The idea was that the British would screen our flank against the swarm of Qing cavalry, cover Xinhe and help me to take Tanggu. At least, that's what I thought our plan was.
After the planning, the execution. My French shake out to the left of the lakes and prepare to assault Tanggu (top left). Two of Anton's brigades and some guns move up on my right to cover Xinhe (top right).
Anton's other two brigades have moved off elsewhere, leaving his cavalry and horse artillery to fend off the Qing's massed cavalry charge alone. Where can the infantry be?
Oh, there they are! That's right - away on our extreme left, taking the coast road towards the easternmost fort. This took them out of action for the whole first phase as they couldn't reach the fort in time and were too weak to take it if they had. Not sure what my ally was thinking. Something must have been lost in translation.
The assault goes in on Tanggu (upper left). Our preparatory fire had seriously weakened the defenders. However, defensive fire from them, from the junks on the river (top edge) and from forts out of pic to the left will keep us out this turn. If you think the "junk" looks suspiciously like the Danish warship from 1864, the Rolf Krake, you'd be right.
Remarkably, not only do the British cavalry repel the Chinese cavalry charge, they then countercharge. This goes less well and they bounce off in turn.
Michel's 1st Division continues its futile trudge through the marshes towards the forts.
Turn 4: we finally take Tanggu. Its defenders are routed and the junks will be burned.
Just in time, as our right is in some disarray. The British cavalry is half-dead and being pursued (lower right with red casualty marker). The grand battery has had to reorient in all directions. Fortunately the heroic rocket battery on the end rolls good enough dice to deter the enemy cavalry and prevent the entire artillery line being ridden down.
Once Tanggu fell, Phase 1 was over and the Chinese field force was removed. Historically, the Allies then set up a pontoon bridge at the village south of Xinhe. Jeremy's scenario allows for the option the French advocated but which was not followed, namely to attack the forts on the south bank rather than the north. Although we didn't use that option, it seemed a good enough reason to deploy my Heroics & Ros Napoleonic pontoon bridge on the table.
After our logistical interlude (which we observed realistically by going for a good pub lunch at
The Plough), the Allies reset for Phase 2 behind a start line running NE through the marsh. By taking Tanggu so swiftly, we had earned ourselves an extra turn to take the three fort Objectives. Our plan for this phase revolved around a grand battery in our centre to suppress the fort artillery; a French attack on the western (righthand) fort; a British attack on the eastern (lefthand) one; and the smaller earthwork in the middle to be taken by whoever got there first.
Poor movement rolls meant it took me three turns to get past the lakes, through the marsh and storm the western fort. On the plus side, our artillery had blown away the enemy guns in it. We were able to drive the small 2-base garrison out into the marsh (invisible, top right) but did not eliminate it.
Our British allies' progress on the left was slower and bloodier as they faced a more heavily armed fort. At least they now had the support of a British gunboat on the river, just visible top of pic. (Forts are by Peter Pig from their
ACW riverine range. A great investment, on my tabletop they have now defended Peking, Paris, Plevna, Petersburg, and a few other places that don't even start with P.)
End of Turn 7, I think. With three turns to go, the middle redoubt is at my mercy. Unfortunately it takes all of Turn 8 just to rally and reorganise my men. The clock ticks ...
Anton assaults the eastern fort, into the teeth of Chinese cannister. It also turns out to have a strong 6-base garrison. (The Chinese get to distribute 8 bases of infantry secretly among their three forts, max 6 bases in any one fort.)
British pluck prevails! The fort is stormed, its garrison either taken prisoner or perishing in the river. Meanwhile, not being entirely confident that the British could take this one without my help and wanting to be sure of taking the middle redoubt in time to assist them, I had advanced both my brigades out of the western fort ...
... whereupon its former garrison unexpectedly rallied and sneaked back in! (Top right.) The British cavalry trotted into the middle redoubt, which proved to be unoccupied. Nevertheless, time had run out for us to retake the western one, so we had to settle for a draw. Sacré bleu!
Reflections
Successful scenario structure. Jeremy certainly achieved his aim. A simple fort assault would have been much less interesting and given the Chinese players far too little to do. As it was, in Phase 2 they were still mostly limited to rolling firing dice, but at least they had some fun with cavalry charges in Phase 1 - and of course that garrison move on the last turn that snatched victory from us, classic BBB endgame drama. And there were significant choices and options for both sides at the start and during the course of the game. Great job, Jeremy!
Rich in flavour. This was a great game with so much of the flavour that colonial gamers routinely enjoy. It had the exotic - Chinese armoured cavalry with bows, Qing infantry in forts - combined with the familiar British redcoats and French pantalons rouges. It had rockets and gunboats and a pontoon bridge. It had cavalry charges, sweeping manoeuvres, grand batteries and fortifications to be stormed. A feast.
I am spoiled! As in: I am surrounded by so many creative people, designing scenarios and running games, that it is making me lazy. I am supposed to be writing a scenario for the Battle of Atlanta (1864), but it is too easy just to sit back and let others entertain me. Ah well, there are worse problems to have.
And an ACW footnote. The same weekend, we also managed not one but two playtests of the ACW scenario for The Wilderness. These were both great contests and confirmed our final amendments so that the scenario is now fit for publication. No report on it this time as we also ran it at Colours last month.
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