Carry on Up the Yangtse

Last week I had a first go at trying to game the assault on Chin-Keang-Foo (modern Zhenjiang) at the end of the first Opium War. One of my takeaways from that was I needed to enlarge the city so I have been building more walls and I have also acquired a load of small Chinese buildings from Temu. 

Compared with last week the city now looks like this:

The lighting isn't great in this picture as the early evening summer sunshine streams through the windows of Shedquarters. The city size has more than doubled, all laid out on my new Deepcut gaming mat, custom printed with 6" squares. Hey! I treated myself for Father's Day.

Increasing the size of the city means cutting out the presence of the Manchu fortified camp outside the city. As this played no part in the battle other than occupying a brigade whilst the fighting for the city went on, it was just as easy to ignore both the camp and one of the brigades.

I had Chris & Phil for this trial game. Phil got the attack on the main gate, whilst Chris had to escalade the bastion.

First learning point is I have to indicate on the table which bits of the wall can't be escaladed as they're too high. Any how, Chris soon had the ladders in place and was ready to storm the city.

I probably need to increase the number of defenders and also split units into matchlock and spear units. 

Phil started his march up the road through the suburbs to the main gate. His field artillery support had been loaded onto boats by the Royal Navy, and was being escorted up the Grand Canal by a unit of Royal Marines.

After a hard fought struggle the 55th Foot were over the walls. The accompanying Sepoy battalion were reluctant to climb the ladders. Sensible fellows.

Phil was soon on the main bridge into the city, and was unloading his artillery. Unfortunately he'd left his sappers at the back, and it would take time to bring up the men who could blow in the gates. The defenders were harassing the attackers with both matchlock and jingal fire. 

Major-General Schoedde inspired the Sepoys to climb the walls, and under his direction the 55th drove the Chinese out of the bastion. Alas, in a replay of the previous game (where I got the commanders mixed up) he was shot in the head and died, a true Victorian Hero.

The sappers do their work, and the gate explodes spectacularly. Phil's leading regiment pours through the subsequent gaping hole and engages the defenders. 

Chris is widening his "bridgehead". He now spots a gate that he could have opened to let more of his men in. Not withstanding that, he has all his infantry inside the city and is driving the defenders before him. You can see a few of my new buildings in this shot. I spray undercoated them with car paint grey and then gave them glossy coloured tiled roofs.

The fight for the inner gate intensified, with Phil sending more troops in across the rubble. I moved up a couple of yings to defend the gates, should they become breached.

One of Chris' Sepoy battalions, supported by the Madras rifles, were making good progress clearing the poorer areas of the city. Surely it was time to turn his attention to capturing the palace and Manchu district?

Chris has broken the last formed unit between him and the main gate defenders. Can he get there in time to let Phil's troops in? They have been stalled by a lack of blasting powder for the inner gate, and his inability to hit the proverbial large door with a cannon.

Phil got more and more frustrated with his inability to get through the secondary gate*. Chris was doing his best, and was storming down the main city street to open it for him. The Chinese unit in front of them put up a stiff fight. They had already driven off the 55th, and were now engaged in a hot fight with the 6th Madras Native Infantry.

So as the defenders were fully occupied, I let Phil scale the walls without ladders. 

One of Phil's units was over the wall in a trice, but the other was held up by a particularly resistant gun crew. In the centre the 6th MNI were showing the Europeans how things were done and had broken their opponents, before piling into the supporting defending unit.

The artillery finally managed to hit the door., but it was of little import as Phil's men were into the city anyway.

With General Gough now on the scene to oversee things, it was nearly all over.

All that remained was to take the Palace. Chris moved up a Sepoy battalion, and started to soften them up with his artillery.

He couldn't hit anything either. But that was enough for the evening.

There were a number of issues with the game which I have mused on overnight, and I will be changing a thing or two. I may well shrink the size of the city by a wall length or two, and make some slight adjustments to the unit values. 

And the blast radius from when the gates are blown in. That really does need looking at too.

* Phil suffered/was blessed by an inability to roll 12 on a d12 for most of the evening. For units being shot as it's an advantage as 12 is a morale failure. When the tables are turned and you're shooting at walls and doors it's a hit to the defensive value.