The allied forces close on a Chinese town defended by Imperial soldiers and boxers. To be honest I thought this game would be a cake walk, I didn't thing the boxers stood a chance but you can never be sure of anything.
The boxer army consisted of 2 bands of boxers and 2 battalions of Chinese imperial troops.
The allied army consisted of 2 battalions of Russians, 1 battalion of Russian marines and 3 British battalions (1 Indian, 1 marine, 1 Infantry) supported by 1 American company.
Chinese troops defended the town from behind barbed wire defences, imperials in the centre and boxers on the flanks.
The british opened the action moving across the wire
with the 1st battalion disordered in the baddy fields after crossing the wire the boxers hit them on the run. This sort of terrain did not help the British who were badly mauled.
the fighting in the fields with only half the battalion making it through the wire proved too much for the british, half the battalion was lost in the mud.
The british marines attack went in late, the commander deciding that after crossing the wire they would re-form before aiding the british line battalion, this proved fatal for the british battalion, but did mean the marines were able to attack in formation not disordered.
The Russians advanced firing into the Chinese, but for a whole battalions fire the Russians only killed 1 base and lost 3 of their own to very good dice roll's from the Chinese. The Russians decided that this wasn't a shooting fight and went in over the wire bayonets fixed.
More fire onto the disordered Russians resulted in more casualties from Chinese fire, and the attacking Russians failed their moral tests and could not get to the Chinese. Their second battalion advanced but the lay of the land prevented any help but for rather ineffectual flanking fire, which the dug in Chinese ignored.
To make matters worse for the Russians while disordered in the wire and under fire the second Chinese regiment hit them in the flank, the Chinese halberds proved more than a match for the Russian bayonet's.
On the left flank the second Indian battalion crossed the wire the British had cleared and with the boxes fallen back to the town they joined with the intact marines to take on the boxers.
On the right flank the Russian marines came in to aid the mauled Russian line troops, however the Chinese attacked the Russian line first.
supporting the Russian marines the American marines were caught in the fields by the second boxer battalion, the marines stood no chance in such bad ground with no support and were wiped out in 1 turn. Leaving the Russian marines flank exposed to angry boxers.
Hit in the flank the boxers rolled up the Russian marines with ease.
with the Russians backing off the Chinese turned to faced the Indians and boxers engaged the British marines, the british forces would regret waiting to re-form. the marines were flanked by weight of numbers and despatched by the boxers.
the indain troops did little better against the Chinese, both losing heavily to rifle fire and the Indians unwilling to charge across the fields. the Boxers after making short work of the marines hit the Indians too, swamping them, The Indian troops fled.
Russian troops were pushed back from the town and attempted to rally on the large hill to their rear but were unable to disengage.
The Chinese forces now with the remaining troops from the left flank horse shoed the Russians who never really regained any cohesion since the battle started. Russians are a large army but not very good at command and control if anything goes wrong.
The last few Russian troops fought it out on the hill as the sun went down. Not only had the Allied been defeated and the town not taken, but the entire Russian contingent was wiped out. Although the British did extract some forces, in a campaign it would have still been a disaster.
Lone live the rebellion!
