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Friday 23 February 2024

Wargaming China

The very first wargaming article that I wrote was published over fifty years ago in the WARGAMER’S NEWSLETTER.

It was about a solo battle that I had fought between Chinese and Japanese troops during the early part of the Sino-Japanese War. I used Airfix British World War I infantry and artillery figures to represent the Chinese …

… and Fujimi Japanese World War II infantry and artillery and Airfix Japanese infantry for the Japanese forces.

I’ve always had an interest in this war … for which I partially blame Herge's THE BLUE LOTUS as the story deals with the incident that leads to the outbreak of the fighting between the Chinese and Japanese.

Whilst browsing YouTube I came across a very interesting channel entitled WARGAMING CHINA ...

... which describes itself in the following way:

This channel focuses on the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression 1931-45 or the Second Sino/Japanese War 1937/45 as its known in the west. It is a channel for modellers, wargamers, armchair historians and lovers of toy soldiers or anyone who is interested.

Since discovering it, I have spent several hours trawling though the numerous (over fifty) videos on the channel, and I particularly liked the ones that featured the scratch-built ship models that have been used in some of the tabletop battles.

15 comments:

  1. A very interesting report Bob with some nice mechanics for handling solo play. The old Airfix box art is great to see too.

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    1. Maudlin Jack Tar,

      I’m glad that you liked my trip down memory lane!

      The box art on the earlier boxes of figures was a little less sophisticated than it is nowadays but had a certain charm that made it attractive and was also a helpful painting guide.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  2. Bob -
    Interesting you should post this, as the Asian wars of 1931-45 have been somewhat in my mind lately. Of course I am in no position to begin a whole new project - not when I have a zillion others clamouring for attention.

    I recently bought a book on the Chinese Civil War (1945-49) - one of Osprey's 'Essential Histories', published 2022(2010), and authored by Michael Lynch. No huge volume, nor very detailed, it strikes me as a useful primer.

    Maybe, on the north and east fringes of Sangrian Rajistan, a certain Anti-occidental realm of Khitai has been undergoing certain upheavals... I can see a potential for 'proxy map games' to represent the massive scale of the campaigns... A semi-project, if you will.
    Cheers,
    Ion

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    Replies
    1. Ion, "a semi-project" I've many of those.

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    2. Archduke Piccolo (Ion),

      If you can get hold of a copy, Osprey published CHINA’S WARS (https://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/2016/03/chinas-wars.html) some years ago, and I can thoroughly recommend it as a source of information about Chinese military history during the late 19th and 20th centuries.

      I like the concept of a ‘semi-project’. It’s fits in with quite a lot of things that I’ve been thinking about doing over recent years.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  3. A bit of history there, Bob! And still going strong now. Long may your love of the hobby continue!

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    1. Prufrock,

      I am a bit of an ‘ancient’ wargamer … and intend to carry on for as long as I can!

      All the best,

      Bob

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  4. The Airfix figures were very versatile back in the day. Looks like I'll be spending a few hours on YouTube this weekend.

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    1. Dan Foley,

      I only wish that my Airfix figures had retained the paint jobs I did on them, but the soft plastic they were made from had a habit of shedding any paint that was applied to it.

      I hope that you enjoy looking at the WARGAMING CHINA YouTube channel. I did … and came away with several ideas.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  5. That's very interesting! Who was the 'Sandars' you quote as an influence on the rules you used, and what was that influence?
    I have also used the 'write alternative CoAs' method for solo play, but mine were quickly down from 6 (or 4) to 'weighted 3' - i.e 1-3 Option 1, 4-5 Option 2, 6 Option 3; I found it a lot easier to think of 3 options that didn't have to all be equally likely as 6 which did.

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    1. JWH,

      I was referring to John Sandars, who wrote the excellent INTRODUCTION TO WAR GAMING.

      I’ve used a variety of methods for generating order options for each side during solo wargames and this was my first experiment. It worked … but was by no means perfect.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  6. BOB,
    Good to see the older AIRFIX box artwork - I certainly had some of these figures in my youth- I think a box of 48 plastic figures was about 50 cents from Mr Barnes Hobby & Cyle Shop here in Campbelltown- I use to save my school lunch money to buy a box of AIRFIX toy soldiers. Best Wishes. KEV.

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    1. Kev Robertson (Kev),

      The UK price for Airfix Series One models and boxes of figures was two shillings (2/- or 10 pence) which was my weekly pocket money. At the time, Airfix released several new models each month, and I tried to save enough to buy at least one and sometimes two once I had a newspaper round. (The first model I ever built without assistance was an R.E.8 biplane. I was eight-years-old and we had just moved into the first family home that we owned.)

      I bought most of mine from the local branch of Woolworths or the local, independent department store, Roomes. (The latter still exists and I understand that it is still owned by the same family, some of whom I went to school with.)

      All the best,

      Bob

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  7. Fascinating stuff there Bob. I'm drawn to the Nomonhan battles of 1939, between the Soviet Union and Japan, due to the mix of units involved and frankly for something a bit different. Ditto the invasion of China/Japan in 1945. Rather one-sided as these things tend to be, but lots of fun for sure.

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    Replies
    1. Steve J.,

      I have always wanted to refight some of the battles between the Russians and Japanese but have yet to get around to it. Perhaps one day …

      All the best,

      Bob

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