"The Four Eyed Dog is Dead"

Wargames Rules for Tai Ping Rebellion

by Tony Cullen (c)Copyright 2002

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Index

Basing:

All figures will be based on Trays;

 

Width

Depth

No of Figures

Infantry

60mm

20mm

4-5

Cavalry

60mm

30mm

3-4

Leaders

25mm

25mm

1-2

Artillery

30mm

50mm

1 gun 3-4 crew

 

Units:

Units are formed of a number of Trays.

Artillery will be in single Tray units,

Disciplined or Firearms armed troops will be in units of 2 Trays,

Other troops in 3 Tray units.

 

Formations:

Disciplined units may use Skirmish, Line, Column and Column of Companies.

Other units may use Skirmish or Column.

(See formation diagrams)

 

Unit Classification:

By Morale; each unit will have a morale rating of one of the following:

                1. Resolute

                2. Competent

                3. Poor

                4. Inept

 

By Training; each unit will either be Disciplined or Rabble.

 

By Weapon;  Units may be one of the following:

Artillery:            Light, medium, heavy or Howitzer; Rockets

                            Fast or Slow;

Cavalry:             Melee,Bow or Melee & Bow

Infantry:             Each tray may be:

Melee Only,

                                Mixed melee & Bow,                          

                                Mixed melee & Matchlock,

                                Bow,

                                Matchlock,

                                Musket,

                                MLR,

                                Jingal

Index

Condition: each unit will be in one of the following conditions;

0. Steady              

                1. Disordered

                2. Shaken                              No advance

                3. Broken                              Fleeing, no fire

                4. Dispersed                          Gone

 

Sequence of Action:

                Orders

                Charges

                Move

                Stationary Fire

                Moving Fire

                Melee

                Rallying

                Stink-pot dissipation

 

Orders

Each unit will have one of the following orders:

Manoeuver     The unit may move as required, it may not engage in Stationary Fire

Attack              The unit must advance on the Enemy at maximum speed and engage in Melee.

Hold                 The unit will hold position. It may turn to face approaching enemy and may engage in stationary or moving fire.

Rally                The unit may remain stationary or may retire. It may not move closer to any known enemy. It may attempt to recover its condition. It may not fire, but will fight if meleed. A unit which is Broken may be given Rally orders but it will continue to retire.

No Orders       The unit will stand or retire. It may not engage in stationary fire.

Voluntarily Retiring: The unit must move at its best speed away from the nearest enemy and towards its own base line.

 

Officers will have a number of Actions available to them each turn dependent on their ability. Poor officers will have an ability of 2 and excellent officer 6.

Each Action point may be used to either:

a. Change the orders of a unit within 6” of the Officer.

b. Move the officer (only one point may be used each turn for movement)

c. Rally a unit within 6”.

 

If an officer is involved in a melee then he loses 2 Actions from the next turn. 

Index

Charges

Units with attack orders may attempt to charge.

Charging units must take a Morale Test before charging. Charging units able to charge should then test for movement.

Cavalry or Units in Skirmish Order, charged, may elect to evade, this decision must be made before the Charger has rolled for movement.

Standing Units charged must take a Morale Test if they would be contacted.

Charged units, which pass the Morale Test, may attempt to change formation.

Roll 1d10              -1            Disordered

                                -2            Shaken

                                -1            Rabble

                                +1           Disciplined

If the resultant score is less than or equal to the distance from the Charging unit in inches the Unit may change formation. If this test is failed the Unit’s condition worsens by 1 level.

 

Evasion

A Charged Unit which is either Cavalry or In Skirmish Order may elect to Evade.

If the Unit is Rabble it must take a Morale Test but may evade whatever the outcome.

Evading units should roll for movement as normal. Movement must be directly away from the charging unit.

If the evading unit is contacted it will immediately become Broken and should take a Morale Test.

 

Movement

Each unit wishing to move should roll 1d10, modify the score by the factors and determine the distance they may move from the movement chart. Units wishing to either move and change formation or move and fire must indicate this before rolling on the chart.

Factors:

Attacking                              +2                            Disordered                             -1

Resolute                               +2                           Shaken                                  -2

Competent                            +1                           Poor                                        -1

Skirmishing                           +1                           Inept                                      -2

Column of companies       +1

Movement Chart

Dice Roll

Move and Change formation

Move and fire

Move without firing

1 or less

0 / Nfc

0

0

2 – 4

0 / Nfc

0

½

5 – 6

0

½

1

7 or more

½

1

1 ½

Nfc         No formation Change                        0, ½, 1, 1 ½           multiplier on normal move distance 

 

Normal move distances:    Foot                                                        8”

                                           Cavalry                                                  12”

                                                Fast Artillery Manhandled                 4”

                                                Fast Artillery Limbered                       8”

Slow Artillery Manhandled                1”

                                                Slow Artillery Limbered                      6”

 

Allowed movement forms are; Straight ahead; Incline up to 45 degrees; Wheeling (half speed for rabble units); Side-step at half speed.

 

Formation Changing

A unit wishing to change formation whilst remaining stationary will take a full move to do so. If the Unit wishes to move as well as change formation it must roll on the relevant column on the movement chart.

Limbering or unlimbering Artillery is a formation Change.

Turning a unit (90 or 180 degrees) is a Formation Change. 180 degree turns are achieved easily; 90 degree turns may only be attempted by Steady Units.

Roll 1d10 requiring 3 or more for a disciplined unit; 6 or more for rabble; failure on this roll will make the unit Disordered. 

 

Index

 

Fire Combat

Fire combat is conducted by Tray.

All trays have an arc of fire of 45 degrees.

In order to conduct Fire combat cross reference the weapon and the range on the weapons table to gain the fire factor; to this add or subtract any tactical factors.

Roll 1 d10 and subtract the Total Fire Factor the result is the number of Morale Tests forced upon the target unit.

Note: a 0 (10) rolled on the dice will always inflict at least 1 test up to the maximum range of the weapon.

 

WEAPONS TABLE

 

Ranges

Weapon

2”

4”

6”

8”

12”

18”

24”

36”

48”

Melee

Cavalry Bow

6

7

8

10

-

-

-

-

-

6

Cavalry Bow & Melee

7

8

9

10

-

-

-

-

-

5

Cavalry Melee

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

4

Melee & Bow

6

7

8

10

-

-

-

-

-

6

Melee & Matchlock

6

7

8

9

10

-

-

-

-

6

Bow

6

6

7

9

9

-

-

-

-

7

Matchlock

5

6

7

8

9

-

-

-

-

7

Flintlock

4

5

6

7

8

-

-

-

-

7

MLR

4

5

5

6

6

7

9

-

-

7

Jingal

4

5

5

6

7

8

10

-

-

7

Very Light Artillery

5

5

6

6

6

7

9

-

-

7

Light Artillery

4

4

6

6

6

7

7

9

-

7

Medium Artillery

3

4

5

6

6

6

7

7

9

7

Heavy Artillery

3

3

5

6

6

6

7

7

8

7

Rockets

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

6

7

Infantry Melee Weapons

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

5

Tactical Factors:

Firer Disciplined                   -1                            Target in Cover                    +1/+3                    

Firer Disordered                    +1                           Target in Column of Coys +1

Firer Shaken                         +2                           Target Skirmishing              +1

Firer Attacking                     +1                           Target is an Officer             +2

Firer Skirmishing                  +1

 

Index

 

Defences

Defences are broken up into 60mm lengths for the purposes of receiving fire.

Defences are categorised by their strength generally into strengths 1, 2 or 3. Very strong defences may be strength 4.

 

Artillery against defences

Artillery may chose to fire at Trays in cover or at the cover itself.

Howitzers firing at Trays in cover ignore 1 level of cover. Howitzers firing at cover are treated as medium pieces.

If the Target is cover carry out the firing procedure as usual. The number of tests forced on the cover are taken as destruction tests rather than morale.

 

Roll 1d10 per test on the following table:

Gun Type

N/E

Reduce Cover by 1 Level

Light or assault

1-8

9-0

Medium

1-7

8-0

Heavy

1-6

7-0

 

Rockets

Rockets work slightly differently from other artillery.

Rocket batteries may consist of 1, 2 or 3 launchers. Before rolling for effect in the normal manner a rocket battery must hit its target. Roll 1d10 for each launcher in the battery.

                9-0          Nominated target is hit

                8              The Unit nearest the target and in arc is hit

                2-7          miss

                1              The Unit nearest the launcher and in arc is hit; if the target is the nearest then the launcher itself is hit. 

Once hits have been determined roll on the weapons table as normal.

Rocket hits against units in cover always hit the cover as Light artillery.

Rockets must spend one stationary turn reloading after either firing or setting up before being able to fire.

 

Index

 

Melee

Melee combat is conducted by Tray within Units.

Broken Units will not fight.

In order to conduct combat cross reference the weapon on the Weapons table to gain the Melee factor; to this add or subtract any tactical factors.

Roll 1 d10 for each Tray in the Unit and subtract the Total Combat Factor the result is the number of Morale Tests forced upon the opposing unit.

Note: a 0 (10) rolled on the dice will always inflict at least 1 test.

 

Tactical Factors:

Resolute                                                -2                            Disordered                                             +1

Competent                            -1                            Shaken                                                  +2

Inept                                      +1                           Opponent Skirmishing                        -1

Officer with Unit                  -1                            Self Skirmishing                                   +1

Opponent in Cover              +? Lvl of cover     Self in Column of Companies          -1

Attacked in Flank/Rear      +2                           Self in Column                                     -2

Attacking Flank/Rear         -1                            Charged this move                              -1

Bayonet armed                    -2

 

In Multiple unit combats each unit calculates and rolls as normal. The outnumbered unit must allocate rolls to its attackers before rolling them.

If one side breaks or disperses the other gains one level of condition and may pursue.

If both sides break roll 1 d10 each, and modify:

                +3           Resolute

                +2           Competent

                +1           Poor

                +1           Disciplined

The Winner Stands Shaken whilst the loser breaks.

If both sides disperse then so be it.

 

Officers

Officers may be fired upon, applying the appropriate modifier.

Officers attached to Units may issue orders to that unit without using any action points.

If an Officer is with a unit which suffers Morale tests from fire then one of the tests may be moved onto the Officer from the unit.

An officer takes Morale tests in the same manner as a Unit, however if he fails the test he must roll on the Officer at Risk Table.

If an Officer is with a unit which breaks he must take an At Risk test.

If an Officer is with a Unit that disperses he is considered lost.

If an officer is lost his replacement will appear a number of moves later as determined by a dice throw.

1-3          3 moves

4-6          2 moves

7-0          1 move

A replacement officer has 1 less action point than the officer he is replacing, with a minimum of 1.

Index

 

Officer at Risk table

1

No where near him.

2

Cap removed from his head, carry on with aplomb!

3

Bullets pluck at his jacket as he stares boldly forward.

4

A nick, but not close enough.

5

A small wound to his arm but he manfully carries on.

6

Rendered unconscious a forced to leave the field.

7

Cruelly wounded he is carried from the field.

8

A limb is severed, in shock he bleeds to death.

9

Hit in the guts a bloody, messy death.

0

Shot between the eyes.

 

Rallying

Units which have Rally orders or hold orders may attempt to rally their condition.

Units with Hold orders, which have not fired this move, will rally one level if they roll a 10 on 1d10.

Units with rally orders will rally as follows:

1-6

No effect

7-10

Rally one level

11+

Rally two levels

Modifiers:

Officer with Unit                  +1                           Disciplined            +1

Under Fire                             -2

 

Voluntarily Retiring

Any Unit may change its own orders to Voluntarily Retiring without the aid of an Officer. The Unit will continue in this mode until an Officer has changed its orders.

An Officer may only change a Voluntarily Retiring Unit’s orders to Hold.

 

Barricades and walls

Barricades are broken up into 60mm lengths for the purposes of receiving fire. They are categorised by their strength generally into strengths 1, 2 or 3. Very strong walls may be strength 4.

Barricades may be bombarded by artillery to cause a breach, or assaulted intact.

Walls may only be reduced by bombardment.

Once bombardment or assault has reduced a barricade’s strength to 0 it is assumed to be breached.

 

If a unit assaults another unit still in cover of a barricade it may divert any of the Morale tests it causes into a destruction test on the barricade. 

 

Index

Breaches

Once a breach has been made in defences it may be assaulted. Both attacking and defending units fighting over a breach that is one width (60mm) wide may only fight with one Tray, that is they only get one dice roll.

Cavalry may not assault breaches caused in walls or masonry.

 

Morale

To take a morale test roll 1 d10 for each test and modify the result as follows:

Resolute                                +1                           Officer with Unit                                  +1

Poor                        -1                            In Cover                                                                +1

Inept                      -2                            Under Artillery fire                               -1

Disciplined            +1                           In Skirmish formation                        -1

                                                                in Melee                                                 -1

                                                                Fired on/meleed in flank/rear            -1

If the result is 3 or less the Units Condition worsens by one level.

A 1 always fails.

 

Stinkpots
Both armies used stink-pots/incendiary bombs to drive the enemy out of entrenchment, barricaded buildings, and to repulse them from walls. This is a one shot weapon and cannot be used again. Units should be designated as carrying stinkpot bombs (or a single figures throwing a bomb can be attached to the unit as a visual aid).

Stinkpots have a very short range (2"), but can cause considerable problems to the enemy.  Stinkpots are launched at cover sections, either walls or barricades. They effect the cover section targeted and any adjacent sections (i.e. three contiguous sections).

Any Unit, including the launching or friendly units within 2” of the effected sections either immediately after launching or after movement must take a morale test. If it fails it does not suffer a worsened condition but must move backward until 4” from any effected cover.

At the end of each turn roll for each active stinkpot, a 1-2 means the stench has dissipated.

 

Index

Formations

 


 

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