Chop Sockey Kung Fu Miniature Wargame Rules test game --"We wuz just funnin' the China Man!" -After Action Report

Greetings. Hello there boys and girls. Well over a year or two ago, I began working on writing "Chop Sockey!!," a set of rules for kung fu comic or movie style wargames. The results are promising. A friend and I play tested them once, and then, like so many other things, along came the pandemic and that put an end to shared playtesting.

Alas! 

Having finished writing my book on Trump (yes, this is a plug, Feel free to buy it. Link below) and anxious to begin work on a new project, I pulled out the rules and gave them a test run playing solo. 

Basic scenario concept was to have a group of innocents being mistreated by bad people and some heroes need to come, intervene, and give them a chance to escape. 

Looking for suitable bad guys, I chose my recently painted "steam punky" Dead Rabbits gang. 

Now for the good guys, I realized that while I had suitable civilian figures, I had no rules for civilians, at least not yet.. (They shall be written soon and will be finished by next solo game.  I promise. The stats for civilians will give them very low, combat ability but high saves. This way, they don't really add much to combat but they do stay around long enough to be rescued.) 

For the good guys, I chose suitable Chinese Boxer rebellion or Taiping Uprising figures, creating a group of generic mobs of ten men with spears, swords, and muskets. I faced them off against each other at one corner of a four by four card table. I then put two suitable kung fu heroes at the farthest corner of the table. 

I called the scenario "We wuz just funnin' the Chinaman!" as an homeage to the classic 1970s TV show Kung Fu which chronicles the adventures of Kwai-Chiang Kane, a half breed Shaolin monk who wondered the old American west. An interesting show that shaped American images of kung fu and the martial arts in its early days, a common event in the series was that Kane would wonder into a western town. Soon after the local, inbred white trash with bad teeth would begin hassling him because he was Chinese and did not really fit in in that neighborhood, and go further and further with their hassling. Kane would inevitablly lecture them with Chinese philosophy (or the 1970s AmericanTV version of Chinese philosophy --think fortune cookie philosophy), that would fail, they would then attack him, and he would kick in half a dozen peoples teeth, leaving them on the ground whining "But we wuz just funnin' the Chinaman, and he done kicked our teeth all in!" 

Alas, good stuff. If you've never seen the show, your education is lacking something. 

Anyway, that's sort of what I was going for here. My results were mixed. 

Game Forces

The Dead Rabbits -a particular colorful group of White Trash and Irish Trash, no less

Unit One: Seven Dead Rabbits

            Classified as "Warriors" -each unit consists of a standard bearer with a Dead Rabbit on a pole and five men with clubs or swords and one with a firearm

Unit Two: Seven Dead Rabbits 

            Also classified as "Warriors" and equipped identically to the first unit although one was actually a woman and not a man -not that this makes any difference in these rules. It does, however, add color to the table top. 

Liam Angus McGutstab O'Heaney

            A widely feared drunken berserker. He was classified as a hero but given no chi points (He may conceivably have great chi. No one actually knows as he's simply too drunk and uncouth to know how to use it anyway if he does. I am, by the way, very proud of the figure. He's a conversion from, of all things, a Gaul gladiator, and I'm quite proud of him. See my old posts on the subject.) 

Ook Ook O'Brien

            A gorilla in a top hat. He escaped from the circus and was taken in by the Dead Rabbits. They were eager to have him, because they needed some better educated, more sophisticated, better travelled members and, being as he was widely travelled with the circus, he met the bill and filled the void.  

    Ook Ook is classified in the rules as a gorilla. Yes, there are rules for gorillas and other animals and I was hoping to try them out. Besides, it is a rule of thumb among wargamers, if you have a figure of gorilla in a top hat, put that figure in a game almost any chance you can. 

 The Good Hearted Chinese 

Three units of ten Chinese tong members classified as "fighters" armed with swords, spears and a few muskets. Each had a standard bearer. 

Two Kung Fu heroes at the far end of the table. These were unarmed but each had four points of "chi." 

Victory Conditions

The Chinese must escape off the far corner of the board with two thirds of their forces intact. 

Turn One

To determine which side went first a simple pair of dice were rolled for each side. The Dead Rabbits won. 

The turn sequence involves moving the units on a side, one by one, and then taking each unit through the entire turn sequence. 

Since the Dead Rabbits had four "units" -two seven man gangs, the gorilla, and the drunken berserker hero- this would mean four units would move through their sequence.

The first Dead Rabbit gang charged at the middle of the Chinese units. 

Being Warriors they had automatic activation and since they were charging they got double movement. Thus they moved ahead 8 inches, made contact with a group of Chinese seven or less inches away, and hand to hand fighting broke out.   

The attackers were classified as warriors and got 2 dice per figure or 14 dice total. 

The defenders were classified as fighters and got 1 dice each or 10 dice total. 

The dice were rolled and the Dead Rabbits inflicted 6 hits on the Chines tong members. The Chinese rolled their saving dice and only one of the six saved. Of the five hit, dice were rolled for the hit resul and three were wounded and two were dead. 

In that melee the Chinese caused three hits on the Dead Rabbits, killing two and wounding one. 

The second unit of Dead Rabbits charged the nearest unit of Chinese tong members and inflicted 7 hits. 

The hero and the gorilla were blocked from charging any of the other Chinese due to having the two melees taking place in front of them so they just advanced at normal speed and took up a position in support of the brawling gangs. 

Nevertheless, after the first turn, it was very obvious that the Chinese side was definitely way outclassed. Classifying all the forces on one side as "warriors," a designation intended for elite soldiers and their tribal or feudal equivalents, was a mistake. It had produced a very lop-sided battle. (Of course, I have thoughts on how to modify this in the future.) 

Chinese Phase of the First Turn

The Chinese side had five "units." These were the two heroes far to the rear and the three 10 man units of Tong fighters, two of which had taken heavy casualties already and were greatly weakened. 

Since the victory condition for the Chinese were to get as many figures to safety as possible, the untouched unit of Tong fighters decided to flee at double speed. In hindsight, I'm not sure this was a good idea, but, as they say, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

One of the heroes decided to charge into combat and to use lots of Chi to speed his entry. A normal charge or running move for a hero is 8 inches. For each point of Chi used, a hero can add 4 inches to his move. Using three points, he moved a total of 20 inches (8 + 12) and charged into combat with one of the Dead Rabbit gangs. He decided to go for broke and use his remaining chi point to add to his combat effectivness. 

Alas! Despite some heavy modifiers for that turn -the result of him using his chi- one hero versus seven warriors is a fight where the seven warriors have a strong advantage. A couple warriors left took hits and left the game but this meant that there were still five of them and one hero with no chi points, all alone against them and their nearby friends. 

The other hero saved his chi and moved 8 inches towards the center of the action. 

The remnants of the badly mauled units attempted to flee, but due to their wounds were not able. (If a character has a wound, he must consult a chart and pass a dice roll before perform actions such as fighting or moving. While a character can have multiple wounds, he must pass a dice roll for each and every wound or he cannot perform that action. The characters rolled badly and could not flee.)   

Turn Two -- Dead Rabbits Phase 

The two units of Dead Rabbits pursued or attacked the two units of Chinese tong members and the hero who supported them. They inflicted some more casualities but not enough to change the flow of the battle. 

The gorilla and the hero still found themselves waiting in support, watching, ready, but still not actually doing anything. 

Turn Two --Chinese Phase 

There were three units of tong fighters. 

One was undamaged but had chosen to flee. This was intended to increase the forces chances of meeting the victory conditions. In hindsight this might have been a bad idea, as the Dead Rabbits had already achieved their victory conditions, and it had become obvious that the scenario was probably quite unbalanced. 

The two Chinese heroes found themselves touching bases and formed a unit. This allowed them to activate and move together, as well as pool their dice in combat. 

Alas, when they entered combat, they found themselves outclassed by the large number of Dead Rabbits they were facing. Not only did they inflict little damage on the Dead Rabbits but one fo the heroes took hits and missed his saves and was killed and removed from the game. This left just one hero, one unwounded tong fighter, and several wounded tong fighters faced off against an overwhelming force of enemy warriors supported by a hero and a gorilla in a top hat.

Turn Three -FLEEEEE!!!

Seeing no other real option, the tong fighters fled the table. 

 

ANALYSIS

As a game, not terribly successful, but as a game testing or rule testing session a lot was learned about balancing scenarios. Several rules were tweaked afterwards. Others were added.  

And Please Consider Buying My Books. 
My Amazon Author Page

Thank you!

Chop Sockey! Kung Fu Movie Wargame Rules update

Greetings, I'm a bit behind on the weekly blog post so here's an update on my new project, Chop Sockey!! a set of wargame rules intended to recreated kung fu movie style battles. I've been working on it fairly steadily and while the pandemic and social distancing has put a kibosh on play testing the rules continue to be written.

I am at the moment writing the rules for vehicles and riding beasts and the concepts seem to be coming along well.

For a sneak peek, (no release date set yet) here's the current version of the table of contents with current page numbers:


 Table of Contents

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2
But I don’t watch kung fu movies!! What the heck is a kung fu movie wargame??!! --- Notes for historical and other miniature gamers who have find these rules thrust in their hands. 2
2. Force Creation and Troop Types 3
Minions 3
Fighters 3
Warrior 3
Heroes (or Villains) 3
Specialists 3
Monsters, Creatures, and Animals 4
Forming Units 4
Chi and other special considerations 4
3.  Terrain 6
Rough Terrain 6
Dangerous Terrain 6
Elevated Terrain 7
Moving uphill 7
Moving downhill 7
Increased elevation 7
Impassible Terrain 7
Cover 8
Climbing fences and walls 8
4.  Battle Rules 9
Objectives 9
Sequence of Play 9
Turn Phases Table 10
Activation 10
Activating Units Table 12
Special Actions 13
5.   Movement 14
VEHICLES AND MOUNTED ANIMALS 14
Chi aided movement 15
6.   Combat and Close Combat 15
Basic Concept 15
Melee 16
Combat Sequence 16
Melee Weapons Table 17
Hits 17
Effects of Hits Table 18
Saving Throws 18
Wounds and the Effects of Hits 18
Wound Effects Table 19
Spectacular Hits and Morale Throws 19
Charge effects 20
Use of Chi in Combat 20
Breaking Free of Combat 21
ANIMALS IN MELEE 22
7.  Ranged Combat 23
Ranged Fire Hit Roll Chart 24
Ranged Weapons Chart 24
Firing Modifiers Chart 24
Running out of ammo 25
Chi in ranged Combat 25
Firing at Mixed Units 25
----Method One 25
----Method Two 26
Ammo –Running out of Ammunition 27
Catching thrown weapons, arrows, or bullets 28
8.    Morale 30
Morale Effect and Ending Moral Effect Check Table 30
Effects of Chi on Morale 31
Shaming 32
9.    Special Actions and Rules for non-combat challenges 32
10. Optional And Scenario Specific Rules 33
1. Multiplayer games (more than two sides) 33
2. Artillery and Crewed Weapons 33
3. Vehicles 33
4. Sorcerors, Technicians, Snipers, etc. 33
5. Creatures 33
10.   Duels and Tournaments 35
Single combat between heroes 37
Fighting Strategies. 37
Combat Results 38
REFERENCE CHARTS                                                                                                                     40

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,