"The Four Eyed Dog is Dead"
Wargames Rules for Tai Ping Rebellion

by Tony Cullen (c)Copyright 2002

Basing:
All figures will be based on Trays;
 WidthDepthNo of Figures
Infantry60mm20mm4-5
Cavalry60mm30mm3-4
Leaders25mm25mm1-2
Artillery30mm50mm1 gun 3-4 crew

Units: Units are formed of a number of Trays.
Artillery will be in single Tray units.
Disciplined or Firearms armed troops will be in units of 2 Trays, Other troops in 3 Tray units.

Formations:
Disciplined units may use Skirmish, Line, Column and Column of Companies.
Other units may use Skirmish or Column.
(See formation diagrams)

Unit Classification:
By Morale; each unit will have a morale rating of one of the following:

  • 1. Resolute
  • 2. Competent
  • 3. Poor
  • 4. Inept

By Training; each unit will either be Disciplined or Rabble.

By Weapon; Units may be one of the following:

  • Artillery
    • Light, medium, heavy or Howitzer; Rockets
    • Fast or Slow
  • Cavalry
    • Melee, Bow or Melee & Bow
  • Infantry; Each tray may be:
    • Melee Only
    • Mixed melee & Bow
    • Mixed melee & Matchlock
    • Bow
    • Matchlock
    • Musket
    • MLR
    • Jingal

Condition:
Each unit will be in one of the following conditions;
1Steady 
2Disordered 
3ShakenNo advance
4BrokenFleeing, no fire
5DispersedGone

Sequence of Action:

  • 1. Orders
  • 2. Charges
  • 3. Move
  • 4. Stationary Fire
  • 5. Moving Fire
  • 6. Melee
  • 7. Rallying
  • 8. Stink-pot dissipation

Orders
Each unit will have one of the following orders:
Manoeuver The unit may move as required, it may not engage in Stationary Fire.
Attack The unit must advance on the Enemy at maximum speed and engage in Melee.
Hold The unit will hold position. It may turn to face approaching enemy and may engage in stationary or moving fire.
Rally The unit may remain stationary or may retire. It may not move closer to any known enemy. It may attempt to recover its condition. It may not fire, but will fight if meleed. A unit which is Broken may be given Rally orders but it will continue to retire.
No Orders The unit will stand or retire. It may not engage in stationary fire.
Voluntarily Retiring: The unit must move at its best speed away from the nearest enemy and towards its own base line.

Officers will have a number of Actions available to them each turn dependent on their ability. Poor officers will have an ability of 2 and excellent officer 6.
Each Action point may be used to either:
a. Change the orders of a unit within 6" of the Officer.
b. Move the officer (only one point may be used each turn for movement).
c. Rally a unit within 6".

If an officer is involved in a melee then he loses 2 Actions from the next turn.

Charges
Units with attack orders may attempt to charge.
Charging units must take a Morale Test before charging. Charging units able to charge should then test for movement.
Cavalry or Units in Skirmish Order, charged, may elect to evade, this decision must be made before the Charger has rolled for movement.
Standing Units charged must take a Morale Test if they would be contacted.
Charged units, which pass the Morale Test, may attempt to change formation.
Roll 1d10-1Disordered
 -2Shaken
 -1Rabble
 +1Disciplined

If the resultant score is less than or equal to the distance from the Charging unit in inches the Unit may change formation. If this test is failed the Unit's condition worsens by 1 level.

Evasion
A Charged Unit which is either Cavalry or In Skirmish Order may elect to Evade.
If the Unit is Rabble it must take a Morale Test but may evade whatever the outcome.
Evading units should roll for movement as normal. Movement must be directly away from the charging unit.
If the evading unit is contacted it will immediately become Broken and should take a Morale Test.

Movement
Each unit wishing to move should roll 1d10, modify the score by the factors and determine the distance they may move from the movement chart. Units wishing to either move and change formation or move and fire must indicate this before rolling on the chart.
Factors:
Attacking+2Disordered-1
Resolute+2Shaken-2
Competent+1Poor-1
Skirmishing+1Inept-2
Column of companies+1 

Movement Chart Dice RollMove and
Change formation
Move and
fire
Move without
firing
1 or less0 / Nfc00 2 - 40 / Nfc0½ 5 - 60½1 7 - 9½11 ½ 011 ½2
Nfc = No formation Change
0, ½, 1, 1 ½ = multiplier on normal move distance.

Normal move distances:
Foot8"
Cavalry 12"
Fast Artillery Manhandled3"
Fast Artillery Limbered8"
Slow Artillery Manhandled1"
Slow Artillery Limbered6"

Allowed movement forms are; Straight ahead; Incline up to 45 degrees; Wheeling (half speed for rabble units); Side-step at half speed.

Formation Changing
A unit wishing to change formation whilst remaining stationary will take a full move to do so. If the Unit wishes to move as well as change formation it must roll on the relevant column on the movement chart.
Limbering or unlimbering Artillery is a formation Change.

Turning a unit (90 or 180 degrees) is a Formation Change. 180 degree turns are achieved easily; 90 degree turns may only be attempted by Steady Units.
Roll 1d10 requiring 3 or more for a disciplined unit; 6 or more for rabble; failure on this roll will make the unit Disordered.

Fire Combat
Fire combat is conducted by Tray.
All trays have an arc of fire of 45 degrees.
In order to conduct Fire combat cross reference the weapon and the range on the weapons table to gain the fire factor; to this add or subtract any tactical factors.
Roll 1 d10 and subtract the Total Fire Factor the result is the number of Morale Tests forced upon the target unit.
Note: a 0 (10) rolled on the dice will always inflict at least 1 test up to the maximum range of the weapon.
WEAPONS TABLE
WeaponRanges
2"4"6"8"12"18"24" 36"48"Melee
Cavalry Bow67810-----7
Cavalry Bow & Melee78910-----6
Cavalry Melee---------5
Melee & Bow67810-----7
Melee & Matchlock678910----7
Bow66799----8
Matchlock56789----8
Flintlock45678----8
MLR4556678--8
Jingal45567810--8
Very Light Artillery4466679--8
Light Artillery44666779-8
Medium Artillery3456667798
Heavy Artillery3356667788
Rockets6666666668
Infantry Melee Weapons---------6

Tactical Factors:
Firer Disciplined-1Target in Cover+1/+3
Firer Disordered+1Target in Column of Coys+1
Firer Shaken+2Target Skirmishing+1
Firer Attacking+1Target is an Officer+2
Firer Skirmishing+1 

Defences
Defences are broken up into 60mm lengths for the purposes of receiving fire.
Defences are categorised by their strength generally into strengths 1, 2 or 3. Very strong defences may be strength 4.

Artillery against defences
Artillery may chose to fire at Trays in cover or at the cover itself.
Howitzers firing at Trays in cover ignore 1 level of cover. Howitzers firing at cover are treated as medium pieces.
If the Target is cover carry out the firing procedure as usual. The number of tests forced on the cover are taken as destruction tests rather than morale tests.

Roll 1d10 per test on the following table:
Gun TypeNo EffectReduce Cover by 1 Level
Light or assault1-89-0
Medium1-78-0
Heavy1-67-0

Rockets
Rockets work slightly differently from other artillery.
Rocket batteries may consist of 1, 2 or 3 launchers. Before rolling for effect in the normal manner a rocket battery must hit its target. Roll 1d10 for each launcher in the battery.
9-0Nominated target is hit
8The Unit nearest the target and in arc is hit
2-7miss
1The Unit nearest the launcher and in arc is hit;
if the target is the nearest then the launcher itself is hit.

Once hits have been determined roll on the weapons table as normal.
Rocket hits against units in cover always hit the cover as Light artillery.
Rockets must spend one stationary turn reloading after either firing or setting up before being able to fire.

Melee
Melee combat is conducted by Tray within Units.
Broken Units will not fight.
In order to conduct combat cross reference the weapon on the Weapons table to gain the Melee factor; to this add or subtract any tactical factors.
Roll 1 d10 for each Tray in the Unit and subtract the Total Combat Factor the result is the number of Morale Tests forced upon the opposing unit.
Note: a 0 (10) rolled on the dice will always inflict at least 1 test.
Tactical Factors:
Resolute-2Disordered+1
Competent-1Shaken+2
Inept+1Opponent Skirmishing-1
Officer with Unit-1Self Skirmishing+1
Opponent in Cover+?*Self in Column of Companies-1
Attacked in Flank/Rear+2Self in Column-2
Attacking Flank/Rear-1Charged this move-1
Bayonet armed-2 

* Lvl of cover

In Multiple unit combats each unit calculates and rolls as normal. The outnumbered unit must allocate rolls to its attackers before rolling them.
If one side breaks or disperses the other gains one level of condition and may pursue.
If both sides break roll 1 d10 each, and modify:
+3Resolute
+2Competent
+1Poor
+1Disciplined

The Winner Stands Shaken whilst the loser breaks. If both sides disperse then so be it.

Officers
Officers may be fired upon, applying the appropriate modifier.
Officers attached to Units may issue orders to that unit without using any action points.
If an Officer is with a unit which suffers Morale tests from fire then one of the tests may be moved onto the Officer from the unit.
An officer takes Morale tests in the same manner as a Unit, however if he fails the test he must roll on the Officer at Risk Table.
If an Officer is with a unit which breaks he must take an At Risk test.
If an Officer is with a Unit that disperses he is considered lost.
If an officer is lost his replacement will appear a number of moves later as determined by a dice throw.
1-33 moves
4-62 moves
7-01 move

A replacement officer has 1 less action point than the officer he is replacing, with a minimum of 1.

Officer at Risk table
1No where near him.
2Cap removed from his head, carry on with aplomb!
3Bullets pluck at his jacket as he stares boldly forward.
4A nick, but not close enough.
5A small wound to his arm but he manfully carries on.
6Rendered unconscious a forced to leave the field.
7Cruelly wounded he is carried from the field.
8A limb is severed, in shock he bleeds to death.
9Hit in the guts a bloody, messy death.
0Shot between the eyes.

Rallying
Units which have Rally orders or hold orders may attempt to rally their condition.
Units with Hold orders, which have not fired this move, will rally one level if they roll a 10 on 1d10.
Units with rally orders will rally as follows:
1-6No effect
7-10Rally one level
11+Rally two levels
Modifiers:
+1Officer with Unit
+1Disciplined
-2Under Fire

Voluntarily Retiring
Any Unit may change its own orders to Voluntarily Retiring without the aid of an Officer. The Unit will continue in this mode until an Officer has changed its orders.
An Officer may only change a Voluntarily Retiring Unit's orders to Hold.

Barricades and walls
Barricades are broken up into 60mm lengths for the purposes of receiving fire. They are categorised by their strength generally into strengths 1, 2 or 3. Very strong walls may be strength 4.
Barricades may be bombarded by artillery to cause a breach, or assaulted intact.
Walls may only be reduced by bombardment.
Once bombardment or assault has reduced a barricade's strength to 0 it is assumed to be breached.

If a unit assaults another unit still in cover of a barricade it may divert any of the Morale tests it causes into a destruction test on the barricade.

Breaches
Once a breach has been made in defences it may be assaulted. Both attacking and defending units fighting over a breach that is one width (60mm) wide may only fight with one Tray, that is they only get one dice roll.
Cavalry may not assault breaches caused in walls or masonry.

Morale
To take a morale test roll 1 d10 for each test and modify the result as follows:
Resolute+1Officer with Unit+1
Poor-1In Cover+1
Inept-2Under Artillery fire+1
Disciplined+1In Skirmish formation-1
Fired on/meleed in flank/rear-1 

If the result is 3 or less the Units Condition worsens by one level.
A 1 always fails.

Stinkpots
Both armies used stink-pots/incendiary bombs to drive the enemy out of entrenchment, barricaded buildings, and to repulse them from walls. This is a one shot weapon and cannot be used again. Units should be designated as carrying stinkpot bombs (or a single figures throwing a bomb can be attached to the unit as a visual aid).
Stinkpots have a very short range (3"), but can cause considerable problems to the enemy. Stinkpots are launched at cover sections, either walls or barricades. They effect the cover section targeted and any adjacent sections (i.e. three contiguous sections).
Any Unit, including the launching or friendly units within 2" of the effected sections either immediately after launching or after movement must take a morale test. If it fails it does not suffer a worsened condition but must move backward until 4" from any effected cover.
At the end of each turn roll for each active stinkpot, a 1-2 means the stench has dissipated.

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