 Photo by Jim Pitts |
Another of the Jackson Gamers' Adventures in 1920s China Crisis at the Crossroads A officer in one of the units of "Warlord Chinese" commanded by Phil Young in our "Crisis at the Crossroads" game, played on December 30th at Jay Stribling's home in Jackson Mississippi. The figure in the image was painted by Jim Pitts and, I believe was made by 'Copplestone Miniatures.' Per Jim Pitts the photographer, he is "Colonel Wo Fat, warlord of Pleasant Valley." |
We normally use a modified version of Larry Brom's The Sword and The Flame rules called The Sword to Adventure for these games, but if the truth be told, Jay Stribling could not find his copy of those rules. We played the "straight" TSATF rules except for the sequencing of the movement and firing. We rated the British, American and Japanese forces as "British" along with the band of adventurers and thugs raised by archeologist "Ohio Jones."
The Chinese warlord troops, the Bolsheviks and the hill bandits fired as Zulus. The hill bandits fought like Zulus in close combat. We never had to classify the Warlord units as to melee as they never got into any close combat.
There were lots of different factions here, Chinese hill bandits, Russian communists, warlord troops, a British Motor patrol, A wayword group of armed US Navymen - stiffened with ONE U.S. Marine, Japanese troops and a band of archeologists and riff-raff. Oh yes, there was a caravan of pack animals trying to get across the board and head north to Mongolia.
Photo by Jim Pitts
The hill tribes mass, preparing to recover their sacred treasures from the American archaeological team. Fred Diamond (Honorable Fred-San) commanded these fierce troops, who looked uncannily like their Boxer ancestors.
Photo by Jim Pitts
The American naval landing party and the Japanese assemble around the local temple. Sean Pitts commanded the Japanese and the American sailors. A caravan is appraching in the background.
Little do the Americans and Japanese know, but it is supplies for a small Bolshevik force sent to raise the red flag of rebellion in Pleasant Valley. Little do the Bolsheviks know, that the "supplies" that the caravan carries consist mainly of opium.
Photo by Jim Pitts
The British flying column enters, lead by His Majesty's Armoured Car "Ajax." Jim Pitts (Colonel Campbell) commands these troops. Larry Brom built the house behind the armored car. It is constructed of styrofoam packaging and corrugated cardboard.
The camera picked up the very cool light from the Flourescent lighting in the game room, and shows the table as a white or off-white suggesting a winter battle. In actuality the table was covered with a brown cloth, with mottle overspray of green and a red-brown.
Some rules changes from the standard The Sword and The Flame
Since we had eight factions on the board, sequencing the game did not seem to fall within the standard "Imperialists move on red cards and natives move on black". Each player had a card assigned to him and we had a very short deck of these cards, one per player. We also had one "High Die" card which, when it came up allowed one unit of the player with the highest D6 roll to move or shoot a unit.
We ran through the cards once for movement, then once for fire. All close combats were simultaneous. This seemed to work rather well.
In addition we used 10-20 man units, with some units beind much smaller than others. Again, there seemed to be no problem with this.
Photo by Jim Pitts
The American archaeological team and their Chinese body guards are led by the reknowned archeologist "Ohio Jones" (Played by Jay Stribling). Jones is trying to get the contents of his trucks (which might disclose stolen artificts if inspected closely) down the road to the other end of the table. Certainly the British would take the word of a fellow westerner about the innocence of Jones and his gunmen.
Photo by Jim Pitts
Wo Fat's army advances to "protect" the American archaeologists from the bandit hillmen. Phil Young commanded these magnificent fighting men.
Photo by Jim Pitts
The hillmen attack the Japanese (lead by Sean Pitts) who rashly moved out to meet them. The Japanese were slaughtered, loosing all but four of their number. These Japanese were apparently just armed sailors - not the "Special Naval Landing Force" of WWII fame.
Special rules for wounded men
Each wounded man was diced for during the Rally Phase, to see the effect of medical care. The "owning player" rolled a D6 for each of his wounded, and the following results were applied immediately.
Photo by Jim Pitts
The Bolsheviks (Lead by Robert Whitfield) advance against a group of hillmen who are attempting to seize the Bolshevik supply caravan. The Hillmen treated the Reds quite roughly.
Photo by Jim Pitts
Attempting to shelter behind the US Naval landing party and what remained of the Japanese force, the archaeological party is attacked by the vengeful hillmen.
So who won this game?
Fred Diamond, playing the hill bandits won the game handily. He cut up the Japanese, he wreaked havoc upon the Bolsheviks, he negotiated with the Chinese Warlord troops, as well as Ghurka motorized column. Fred-San took the precious fossils from Ohio Jones and stole camels from the Opium traders. In short - he was "The MAN."
Jim Pitts, upon reviewing this text commented: "And of all the sides on the table, the British Flying Column, ably commanded by Col. Campbell, took nary a casualty whilst shooting up the Damned Bolshies and intercepting the opium caravan!" Of course we must allow him a bit of enthusiasm, since those were his command!
The umpire - Jay Stribling - also playing "Ohio Jones" was humiliated. He blamed the dice - "Made in China!"
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