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The San Pablo |
Some months ago I was able to purchase a custom made gunboat brokered by The Virtual Armchair General and built by the prolific Richard Houston. Normally Mr. Houston builds boats in 25mm, but I wanted a 15mm version of the San Pablo of The Sand Pebbles fame and Pat at TVAG was able to convince Mr. Houston to do this request for me. More on this later in this post.
For years I have tinkered with a Banana Wars or China Sailor project, but like many of my projects, I buy books, maybe even figures, scoop up rules, create a Yahoo group or cheap free website, and then not much more than that as my interest waxes then wanes and waxes towards another project.
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BAR toting Marines - picture from Eureka |
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Eureka Filipinos |
Rules? Easy enough I think. I recently uploaded a set of rules to Google Drive (the link can be found at the upper right of this blog) called Yanks Up the Yangtze, written by Cannon Fodder Miniatures's Greg Blake, who was kind enough to allow me to tinker with them and offer them as a free set to anyone who wanted a copy. Several years ago I reformatted them to bring about a cleaner appearance, changed the ranges to inches, and added a card set to aid in play.
Terrain? Ahhh, there's a problem. I have this aforementioned gunboat, a real beauty, which is just dying to make an appearance on the game table. I would have to come up with some sort of river feature for my Terrain Guy tiles to use the gunboat. And as The Terrain Guy has closed shop, I do not know what I can do to add some sort of river edge to my terrain tile set up. I have a blue sea mat, but I really should have a brown one for China. Also, no manufacturer makes Chinese buildings in 15mm. I just keep finding it amazing with a few ranges of 15mm Boxer Rebellion figures on the market that no one has made Chinese buildings to go with them. I can stretch it a bit and use Japanese buildings, like the excellent offerings from Oshiro Model Terrain, but players are too smart for that weak substitution attempt, yes? There are also companies making Vietnam buildings but again, not correct for China, but some actually might be useful for the Caribbean.
Anyway, back to the boat. It alone could create the gaming construct needed for a scenario. The decks lift off allowing figures to be placed throughout the miniature, so boarding actions could be fought. But that would also mean that I need some sort of Chinese conveyance in order for the Chinese to approach and attempt to board the boat. Small launches? A junk or two? Who makes 15mm Chinese junks? Perhaps a scenario could start with a Chinese force already onboard, and they have to clear each area. So many possibilities I guess, but before I get that far I need to get the American mounted and painted, and then start purchasing the opposing forces.
Like most of my other projects, this one will see future posts over the future months as I try to get my gaming focus narrowed a bit and start to see some projects actually hit the table.
Inspirational! I have looong wanted to do a pulp sort of game based in Warlord era Chine, sort of a High Road to China meets The Sand Pebbled meets The Land That Time Forgot. Me thinks I need one of them boats!
ReplyDeleteWell, that boat is a rariety...custom made, and the chap who made it doesn't make 15mm any longer...but you might be able to get a 25mm one! :)
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