Imperial Drug Running in the 1840s

It was about time I put my recently painted 1840s British to use in China for the Opium War. When I wrote "Taiping Era" I confidently stated it could be used for the earlier period, but this was based on theory, not practice. The British were using muskets and smoothbore artillery, compared to the rifles and Armstrong Guns of the 1860s, which might blunt their attacking edge. They also relied more heavily on attack columns, and potentially crucially, didn't have any cavalry. They did have a lot of big ships with lots of guns, however.

The Chinese learned really quickly that if they deployed anywhere to oppose a landing, whether from sea or river, the Royal Navy would sail up and deliver a prolonged bombardment with a series of ships of the line that would destroy anything in range. They developed a method of building stone gun emplacements faced with hard packed earth banks that rendered the defenders pretty much invulnerable. This presented the British commander, Hugh Gough, with the need to launch amphibious landings that could theoretically be opposed by an unsuppressed enemy.

For this game I took my inspiration from an actual action, but increased the numbers a bit to accommodate more players. For the game we had Phil & Chris as the British, whilst Tim & I shared the Chinese.

The British forces were split for a pincer attack on the main gun emplacement. The Chinese were defending outside the city, to save it from damage.

I think you'll agree that the Chinese position was impressive. Lots if guns.

General Gough led by example, and his brigade was on the river bank first. A strong mixed group, including some Native Infantry on their first outing, as were the Congreves. We had an occasional game play issue with the Native troops, as they're almost indistinguishable from the Europeans from a distance. These troops were being managed by Phil

Chris K could barely contain his excitement as he actually got to push the boats about for the assault landing on the quay side.

Tim sent his Tiger Men out to oppose the landing. The Madras Native Infantry gave them short shrift in their first outing, with some devastatingly accurate musket and rifle fire (the guys in rifle green are, unsurprisingly, a rifle company).

Chris headed for the defended Joss House, covered by his artillery.

Phil then opened up on the defences with rockets and field guns, and set himself up for a frontal assault. If/when I rerun this scenario I shall have to give thought to the effectiveness of the defences, as it was a bit too easy to inflict damage. I was treating them as "cover" not as a fortification.

Phil's infantry were soon over the embrasures, with the Chinese gunners stumbling to the rear. "Taiping Era" has a shock mechanism where if you lose half your "Moral Vigour" rating in a single incident you retire a square. This happened a couple of times here. On the left you'll see Phil closing with the Tiger Men in open order to see them off. I did check that's what he wanted to do. It didn't seem entirely wise.

Chris' guns quickly started to reduce the wall surrounding the Joss House. The "3" denotes it is already at half strength.

Then someone rolled a double six.

Another round of firing and the Joss House wall was in ruins. The defenders were undaunted, however.

A fire fight broke out in the left hand emplacement. Tim inflicted some damage, but was still getting the worst of it. HOWEVER, now the Tiger Men had run away, Tim had a clear run with his Manchu cavalry at the MNI, who were still in open order. What could possibly go wrong?

Meanwhile the Royal Marines launched a bayonet charge at the defenders. It was a bit touch and go for both sides, with the defenders initially holding their ground.

As Phil's infantry poured over the entrenchments, bayoneting as they went, Tim held on grimly, and had some luck. The Manchu cavalry succeeded in charging, and - horror of horrors - the MNI failed their MV roll and stood rooted to the spot. Caught in the open in skirmish order they broke and fled.

However, Phil's other infantry were still pressing forwards.

The rockets and guns have cleared half of my defenders from my gun positions on the right, as I bring up infantry to stop Phil's breakthrough.

Any how, another turn and that was it. The Joss House had fallen and the gun emplacements had been mostly cleared out. A win for the British, who could then occupy the city. However, there had been some cost. A couple of Native Infantry battalions had found the going very tough, and there had been casualties storming the guns. There will be questions in the House about Gough's Butchers Bill and his Tipperary Tactics.

The game went well enough and gave us an evening's entertainment. I might modify the commander abilities a bit, and reconsider some of the unit MVs. Also, as noted I don't think I played the main defences right.

The British losses were considerable. I'd given Phil enough room to flank the position - which is what Gough actually did - but he chose to do a frontal assault as that's what he thought I'd wanted. It came as a surprise to me that any player would actually do what they thought I'd wanted to happen. We're all a little out of practice with the rules and period, and there was some carelessness with formations and positioning, exemplified by the destruction of the Madres Native Infantry. Luckily the regular British infantry will get you out of trouble 9 times out of 10, as proved to be the case in the game.