Chop Sockey! Kung Fu Wargame Miniature Rules playtest

Chop Sockey -Kung Fu Miniature Wargame Rules is one of my current works in progress. The goal was to create a set of rules that would be simple and fun to play while allowing for the flexibility needed to recreate the battle action of a classic kung fu movie or comic book. While much work remains to be done, we had our first real test play, and the basic concepts seem to work surprisingly well. 

Troops and characters are divided into four classes: minions, fighters, warriors, and heroes. 

Minions are those mobs of virtually useless combatants who get mown down by the dozen when the hero enters the room. 

Fighters and warriors are more ordinary people with the warriors being a step up from the fighters. Picture your elite samurai or commando-types and you have the basic idea. 

Heroes, well, heroes are heroes, except of course the heores who are really villains, and regardless highly skilled in kung fu and other deadly arts. They dominate the game, but that's the way it should be.

Close combat is handled by rolling large quantities of dice and comparing the difference in the die rolls. Aside from no hit at all, the results can be a hit, a deadly hit, or a spectacular hit. A spectacular hit is so frightening that it causes enemies to check morale. 

A long view of the set up for the game. At one of the table, you can see a jungle stockade where bandits have been holding women and children as prisoners. They are being held by an arch villain (a hero in game terms) and two five man units of bandits with sub-machine guns (fighters) and two five man bands of traitorous peasants (minions) who have allied themselves with the  bandits and their villainous yet highly skilled leader.

On the other side, are three bands of peasant militia (fighters), one with rifles and two with spears. They are led by three heroes and two native guides (specialists rated as warriors). Their goal is to cross the river, storm the stockade and rescue the prisoners.  

Another view of the set up. 

The evil bandits and their prisoners.

The good guys, come to rescue the prisoners.

The prisoners.

 A close up of the mountain bandits. These are Westwind's Montagniards (delightfully inaccurate Montagniards by the way) from their Vietnam range.

The game ended in a clear victory by the good guys who destroyed the villains and easily won the game. While some rules and stats need to be tweaked, 

Gangs of New York gaming -- figure and rules availability

In the nineteenth century, at least according to some reports, the streets and neighborhoods of the great city of New York were dominated by large, violent gangs with exotic names. The Dead Rabbits, the Pug Uglies, the Roche Guards, and the Bowery Boys were only some of names of gangs associated with the period. Would the battles between these gangs and /or sometimes the authorities make good wargames? There's no reason they wouldn't.

There are many manufacturers of suitable figures and even a couple lines of miniaturess intended specifically to represent the old gangs of mid-nineteenth century New York, not to mention a set of rules for the period that look quite nice as well as scenery. .

The following is an overview of some of the more prominent lines. If you know of others, please share in the comments. All photos of the figures come from the manufacturers website, and, honestly, are used without permission and no attempt at copyright infringment. My hopes are that they will appreciate the free reviews and publicity. When my figures are painted, I hope to share photos.

TVAG or The Victorian Armchair General

TVAG or "The Victorian Armchair General" offers many interesting products including both figures specifically for the period, downloadable PDFs for scenery, and an interesting set of rules for the period. I ordered from them once, and was quite pleased with the experience and intend to order from them again. While I have yet to actually play the rules, I do own them and they are a fun read and look like they will produce a fun game. They have been around for years and even revised a couple times.

You may find their website here: http://www.thevirtualarmchairgeneral.com/230-bhoystowne.html

The above figures represent Asbury's depiction of "The Dead Rabbits," a savage Irish slum gang who entered battle with a dead rabbit on a pole as their standard.

These represent "The Shirt Tail Gang," more brawlers from the Five Points slums who entered battle with their shirts untucked so no one would mistake who they were. (Yeah, Asbury's stuff is great fun.)

The people at TVAG -The Victorian Armchair General, even have figures for the police in uniforms from both the 1840s and the 1850s-1860s.

[As an aside, shortly before the Civil War, as tensions grew between the two political parties in New York State, there were two police departments that patrolled the city fighting crime and each other. Yes, it was a strange time. One police force was created by the city government and the other by the state government. They considered each other illegitimate and occasionally battled each other and even released each other's prisoners.]

The Victorian Armchair General (TVAG) also makes downloadable PDF scenery for the period, as well as "B'hoys," a fun looking set of rules for riots, brawls, and other urban engagements of the period.

  

BRIGADE GAMES

Brigade games makes beautiful figures for a wide variety of periods, including figures that appear to be specifically designed to recreate the events and characters of the film, "Gangs of New York." While I am, perhaps unexpectedly, actually not a fan of the film, they are beautiful figures. Currently they are not labelled as "Gangs of New York" figures and tucked in, almost hidden away with the Victorian Age figures on their website, but the resemblance to characters in the film is obvious. They cost a bit more than the TVAG figures (a dollar more per figure at the time of writing) but are well worth getting. I ordered all five packs and am pleased with what I have. On the other hand, I do need to say that I have ordered from Brigade Games three times and twice the order was just slightly off with a figure missing, or an unordered figure, or a mislabeled package of figures in the order and it was a nuisance getting what I had paid for and finding out what the results would be. As I write, I am waiting on them to fix an order that was ordered over two months ago and they say should have arrived, due to backordered stock, two weeks ago.

You may check out their website here: http://brigadegames.3dcartstores.com/Victorian-Age_c_221.html

PERRY BROTHERS

Tucked away in their US Civil War line, Perry Brothers has four packs of rioters to represent participants in the New York City draft riot of that conflict. While I have not seen the figures themselves, I do have several packs of Perry Brothers figures for World War Two (alas, still unpainted) and the American War of Independence (which I have in many cases painted). Their figures are beautiful and while I ordered them through an independent game and figure dealer (now closed), next time I intend to order from them directly. I expect if there were problems with their customer service, I would have heard about it but have not. 

There is, of course, no one reason one could not use figures intended for the 1863 draft riots as participants in the New York City Dead Rabbits Riot of 1857, six years earlier, or other troublesome people roaming the streets of New York waving sticks and throwing bricks. 

You may find these figures here: https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product_info.php?products_id=1444&osCsid=gbh9ll2amv6tgpkp63aga656b6

CASTING ROOM FIGURES

Casting Room Figures is a British company connected with Wargames Foundry. While I am not sure what the exact relationship is, I ordered these and other figures off of The Casting Room Figures website and they arrived in the USA quickly and without incident. I believe they can also be ordered off of the Wargames Foundry website. These figures were part of their Victorian line, a few decades later than the period we're aiming for but still serviceable figures.

You can find the Casting Room miniatures website here: https://castingroomminiatures.com/ and this range in particular here: collections/victorians-edwardians

West Wind Miniatures EMPIRE OF THE DEAD line

This is really a "steampunk" fantasy line with many fanciful, interesting, or in some cases, just plain weird figures in it. However, they do make some useful figures for the period we're talking about particularly urban looking horse drawn wagons. I ordered these figures through Brigade Games, who no longer plan to stock the line, and if I wish more in the future intend to order straight from the manufacturer.  You may find their website here: https://westwindproductions.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=65

Of course, they make figures aside from the wagons, which I just had to have. I received, by mistake, this figure of someone called "Cedric Hyde," described on the website as Mr Hyde of Jekyl and Hyde's illegitimate son. I'm not sure what I'll use him for, but he'll either get that silly looking gun chopped off and be used for this period or thrown in with the science fiction figures.

Now this, of course, I just had to have. Alas, while ordered and charged for, I get Cedric Hyde instead. Discussing the shipping was a nuisance.

Like many "steampunk" ranges, the range does contain useful figures if one is looking for mid-nineteenth century thugs and gang members. While I did not order these figures, they do look quite suitable for what I am doing and perhaps I should have.

Other Manufacturers

Of course, there are many other places suitable figures can be found. Wild West, Colonial, and Steampunk ranges all offer possibilities, but one can also explore ranges for the American Civil War, the Alamo and Texas War of Independence, and other ranges as well. If you find any good ones, please feel free to mention them in the comments section. 

Books and Media for the period. 

There is a variety of media one can get if you wish to explore this period of American history in more depth. Please remember, if you order through these links you are supporting this website.

First, once again, we have this wonderful set of rules. 

  

Second, we have Herbert Asbury's classic yet sensationalized work, "Gangs of New York." Asbury was writing in the 1920s about life in the mid-nineteenth century and historians who look it over pretty much universally feel he was more interested in entertaining the reader than sticking to the facts and presenting a historically accurate document. It's an entertaining read that has been through several editions, but should not be taken as gospel. This is probably why when you look for more details and other sources on some of the things he describes you simply don't find them, as it is likely that they never existed.

Tyler Anbinder's "Five Points: The 19th Century New York City Neighborhood that Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum," is a more serious history of the time and place written by a contemporary author. The two books at times contradict each other. 

The Great Riots of New York is a late nineteenth century work that describes historical events as the author understood them to have happened. It is probably one of the sources Asbury used to write his book and parts of it are well worth reading to understand this period.

Yes, there was a big Hollywood movie based on these things and the events in Asbury's book. Perhaps unexpectedly, I was not a particularly big fan of the film, neither are the people at TVAG either by the way, they make that clear in the introduction to their wonderful rules, and it is also not particularly accurate in its depiction of history. Dates are mixed and some of the details not quite right. Nevertheless, if you are going to game this period, it's gotta be a "must-see" film so,  if you wish, consider buying it through this link.

I was a bigger fan of a much lesser known BBC-America show called "Copper," which portrayed the adventures of a New York City police detective during the American Civil War. The show ran for two short seasons only and the actual number of episodes is a bit limited but it was a very interesting series and gives an interesting depiction of the underside of the City of New York at the time, even if it does not mention any of Asbury's gangs. Be forewarned that is a very dark and at times difficult to watch series but very well done. For instance, several episodes of the first season deal with the main character's attempts to get a 12 year old prostitute off of the streets and into a better life. She is portrayed disturbingly realistically. The situation is complicated when it turns out she is fleeing an abusive, yet completely legal, marriage to a man three or four times her age, and the legal options under the laws of the time are quite limited when he announces he wants her back. (The age of marriage at that time was much, much lower than now.) Worth watching if the period interests you and you can stomach dark materials.

Please be aware-

while there are only two seasons of the show available, they are being sold in several different packages so there are six items listed below.

And one more time, the awesome rules . . . 

Finally, my books . . . 

Yeah, I've written books. Please check them out and see if they interest you.

  

Ping Pong as a Survival Skill -a Story from the Chinese Cultural Revolution

When we think of survival skills, many don't think outside the box or limit the range of such skills. Recently, I spoke with a Chinese friend who is from Wuhan, epicenter of the coronavirus. While he teaches at a college far from Wuhan, his parents still live there. As the entire city has been quarantined with no one going in or out, there is good cause to worry.

He said they are doing well but running low on food. He said he has been ordering food off the internet to deliver to them but it takes a long time to get there and he is worried. I asked if there was anything I could do. Of course, there's not really, and reminded him that his parents had survived worse and that his mother had once survived based on her ping pong playing skills.

Apparently, during the Cultural Revolution, a period of total chaos and dysfunction in Chinese history due to insane political extremism, at some point she'd found herself homeless and adrift in territories far from home. (I'm not sure how this happened, but it was not uncommon at this time. The authorities would occasionally order urban people, particularly intellectuals, to move to the countryside to "learn from the peasants" and since the peasants (farmers) often didn't particularly want them there, and society was falling apart, people would find themselves far from home without resources or food or means of making a living. It didn't help that young people were joining the Red Guards, roaming around unsupervised and trying to force the implementation of poorly thought out government mandates. They'd sometimes quite and try to find a way home too.

So this young woman, all by herself, far from home, found herself in need of food and shelter. Often one step in doing this was to find the local ping pong table where she happened to be and use it to make friends with strangers. Which often led to offers of a meal and food for the night.

(As an aside, due to China's high population density, people tend to often live in small, crowded houses or apartments. In a city like Wuhan, this would have made it difficult to stockpile a long term food supply, although a lot of the Karen (Burmese hilltribe) refugees I know in the USA have a few 50 pound bags of rice around somewhere in their houses or apartments. It's not a bad idea dn it makes them happy.)