Hi Everyone.
I did a quick forum search and didn't see anything (but may have missed it).
Have there been any announcements about expanding the forces of the Boxer Rebellion?
It would be great to see more forces available in plastic (and there are other uses for this period). Here are some photos (from Wikipedia):
Thanks.
Prussians, french, and british for this era are numerous. The prussian/german uniform matchesn the great war kit from this very company, and I can send you some links for very nice brits and frenchmen in those uniforms. Alas, I don't recognize the rest of the troops there.
@Randall I am pretty sure you can use the WW1 Russians (yes I know they don't have the fuzzy hats, but the saucer caps should work) and when they get released the WW1 Japanese for the Boxer Rebellion (in the later case they might work better for that Boxer Rebellion).
Digital has several kits they work for this. German Seebatalion is appropriate, as is the British Indian kit... aside from the niggling detail of being armed with the SMLE instead of Lee-Enfield Mk.1. Likewise, the Naval shore party kit is nearly perfect aside from the wrong rifle (Martini-Henry in this case).
The WW1 Japanese Infantry kit is good for Boxer too, and the Foreign Legion one is period appropriate. It should be good enough to be used for other French troops (and in particular has their pith helmet).
I seem to recall that there might have been contemporary sets on the schedules way back when this set was first released, but it's been a while, and if there were I'm not sure if WA is still developing them. I for one have been enjoying every release to appear in the "Imperial Conquests" and "Great War" lines, and hope to see many more sets from these eras!
There are bound to be details that are going to be "off", but seems to me that it surely wouldn't take much hand-waving to get something out of the Wargames Atlantic world-war sets for the French, Italians, Russians, Germans, and British.... Honestly, these five sets seem to me to be quite versatile for all sorts of uses covering that turn of the century up to the start of WWII!
I'd love to see one or more sets of Wargames Atlantic Americans for this general time period - imperial through WWI = but I bet you could find something out there somewhere for America from WWI or ACW that could be souped up for the Boxer Rebellion with a little imagination and maybe a bit of creative modeling and kitbashing.
The thing I would want to see the most would be Qing matchlockmen. The vast majority of Qing soldiers who had firearms were using matchlocks even up to the First Sino-Japanese war but all the firearms in the Boxer boxset are modern. Even if it was just an upgrade pack that included both the matchlocks and cartriage belts....
Other possible avenues of expansion could be Manchu mounted bannermen and Taiping Bretheren.
@thomas lapoint Now that is not a bad thought.
I would absolutely love to see some WA versions of more Boxer Rebellion troops.
First, there are many more options for Chinese - mounted boxers, imperial troops, mongols? Some of those could double duty for a Back of Beyond type use, and some, depending on weaponry, could be used as far back as say Opium Wars, Taiping Rebellion, etc.
Second, there are the European troops. There are a lot of interesting troops that took part in (for instance, and always popular with wargamers) the Peking Legation campaign. You could do Sailors (which would work for Italians, Austrians, etc. - all wore a common late 19th century Sailor outfit, just different headgear), French Marines, US Marines, German Marines, Russian Infantry (which also double for Russo-Japanese War), Japanese Infantry (also for Russo-Japanese War), Russian Cavalry, Japanese Cavalry, British infantry, British Royal Marine Light Infantry. A lot here to get all to, but something that WA could do, is a few sets, each covering troops for several of these options. I'm imagining something like a 30-40 figure box, split half and half between several different types of troops. Maybe 10 each of US, French, and German Marines. The players of small skirmish games, get one box and done. The "Sword and the Flame" players, could buy two boxes, and have 1 unit of each type. The serious gamers would get a half dozen boxes HAHAHAHA - sorry, got carried away with dreaming.
Of course, doing the nationalities separate is probably better for head, weapon, and pose options. Russians and Japanese would be perfect in 28mm, I know I'd go nuts, and you could do a box of infantry, a box of cavalry, and a box of command/MGs/Artillery for each of them. That would cover several good campaigns of the Boxer Rebellion, but would also open up the Russo Japanese War.
I don't need to tell you guys how to organize or schedule sets, all I'm saying is that I think more Boxer Rebellion is a great idea.
-Chuck
@Charles Turnitsa I think the WW1 sets for both Russia and Japan are supposed to cover the infantry for it, though mostly Japan's set given the last look I got.
I really have to tip the hat to WA producing this Boxers set. It is a bold choice.
The issue with that particular conflict is that just about every Imperial power was involved, and that is a lot of period specific uniform box sets... My answer is that you can let every single other historical miniatures company in the world fill that uniform soldier specific niche.
WA should lean into, is what its multi-pose kits are good at...
One of the real heroic aspects of the Boxer Rebellion was the besiegement of the embassy and delegation staff of various countries in numerous Chinese cities. Ex-Patriots and Embassy personnel from several countries banded together to make improvised defences and hold out against rebels surrounding them. From a skirmish wargaming perspective this is the real story of the Boxer Rebellion.
You already have this wonderful box of Boxers that makes a whole host of irregular forces. Why not make a box of irregulars that represent the multi-national embassy staff? I know there were some uniformed soldiers in these embassy sieges but other miniatures can fill that niche. What WA can provide and what it is good at is providing is a wide range of multi-pose figures that can fill need for the irregular multi-national embassy staff in the sieges. Nationals from every imperial power banded together and the history says even the women significantly contributed to defences.
I know there were some big battles where waves of boxers charged trains and ranked uniformed soldiers gunned them down. There were big river boat battles as well. But the potential for a real historical urban skirmish warfare scenario could be unlocked with a set of Edwardian irregulars. And ya, I'll pick up a handful of embassy guards from somewhere (this is me pleading for you not to put uniformed soldiers in this set).
I'd like to say that you could use these multi-national Edwardians elsewhere, but I'm not sure they could fill the role of Boers or Irish Rebels.... They might just look too international and upper class.
might be useful, though i'd imagine that the research needed to pin down the outfits might be a pain.
one thing i think would be a good choice would be a set of Late Qing Dynasty Imperial Army troops. that would let you do the units that fought agaisnt the rebels, and you could kitbash with the boxer troops set to make the units that joined the rebels. and the imperial army fought against the european expeditionary forces as well, even as they fought the rebellion. plus they'd be useful for the conflicts of a few decades earlier, like the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiping rebellion, and the Opium wars.
my understanding is their uniforms didn't change much during the 19th century, just the amount of firearms in use, until the losses in the boxer rebellion led them to need to rebuild and do major reforms. so one box ought to be able to cover most of that century's conflicts.
Depiction of the Taiping rebellion
the slightly fancier uniforms of the Imperial Palace Guards
@INSURGENT Skirmisher actually VSF, pulp, and Steampunk gaming could use upper class multi-national Edwardian/late Victorian irregular forces, (and nah they would likely work for characters if nothing else for the Boer, Spanish and Americian war, etc. conflicts in the late 19th and early 20th century or close enough for most gamers).
Also I am pretty sure the WW1 Russian work for Boxer and so should the WW1 Japanese if they ever do them (if they decided to drop them they should go for pure Boxer Rebillion/Russo Japanese war Japanese and cut out the funky bedrolls).
Americain Marines would be nice too since I am pretty sure the Spanish American war and WW1 had the same or similar uniform.
@Mithril2098 Hmm I am going to level with you I think they should do a pure coolie set or a female boxer/civilian set over the Guard since the boxers can be done up as part of the army (in some ways its actually easier to make them up as proper army than the rag-tag boxers).
@Brian Van De Walker, I think Diana Perton's book is pretty clear that the reason these ad-hoc Imperial formations were fighting their way up the rivers and railroads was to releave the embassies and legations. Centering the urban skirmish warfare aspect of that conflict might be really rewarding. Its been a while since I read this but it might even be possiable to compleatly represent all of the personalities under siege in a few of the embassies. That kind of urban compound defense on a 28mm scale is almost what this scale of minatures is born to do.
I just think you would get much less milage out of uniformed troops of any of the Imperial powers or Chinese goverment forces. The Boxer box set looks like a wonterful mix of insurgent rebels right now and would play right into these Urban siege scenerios.
As a final note, if you can do enough research it might be worth doing a set of legation guards, with several different imperial uniforms on each sprue. Yes their poses would be limited but you might have enough variation with heads and arms to make it work.
@INSURGENT Skirmisher Nah, you can get plenty of milage out of any of the uniform troops, just depends on what games you play (games like sludge and Turnip28 could always use new fodder and you do want uniformed mooks and allies for pulp games every once and awhile, and the Chinese can probably just be used as fantasy troops out of the box depending on thier weapon options). Oh, and that period was a really busy time frame for all the powers involved, so on the history gaming front its likely more useful than you think.
