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Gaming in China’s History

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This topic contains 60 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by  sundancer 11 months, 2 weeks ago.

Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 61 total)
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  • #1615397

    phaidknott
    7023xp
    Cult of Games Member

    Museum Miniatures have a range of 15mm Ancient Chinese available:

    Chinese – Chariot (museumminiatures.co.uk)

    as do Kurusan

    Khurasan Miniatures (tripod.com)

    Just putting out some 15mm info there (in case anyone looking at doing some rank and file mass battles). Ofc while you are looking at this part of the world and eras, you could also look at an Ancient Vietnamese Army (featuring Elephants and crews with CROSSBOWS, nearest thing to a tank you’ll find up until WW! 🙂 )

     

    #1615398

    I shall have a look at those…didn’t realize there were any armies in the 15mm scale.

    #1615400

    phaidknott
    7023xp
    Cult of Games Member

    The museum ones are quite old (but look fine painted and ranked up en masse), The Kurusan releases ARE very nice (and probably what I would look at first). I may have done a dis-service and missed someone out, but as with all things there’s nearly ALWAYS 15mm’s available for any period and any army (just some might be quite old sculpts), I imagine that you could also get things from Irregular in 6mm that would do the job 🙂

    #1615404

    Terrain wise Warbases do some in 28mm for the Boxer Rebellion. These will all work the Qing period and into the 20th Century.

    Gou-House-web

     

    https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/buildings/55th-day/

    #1615419

    torros
    23808xp
    Cult of Games Member

    @warhammergrimace  Just at the half way stage of Longest Day

    #1615420

    @torros it’s a great show…I saw a behind the scenes about the show. They built the city from scratch and made a permanent set.

    #1615431

    torros
    23808xp
    Cult of Games Member

    @warhamergrimmace I’m sure were missing some of the subtleties in the interactions and cultural differences within the various interactions  but enjoying it immensely

     

    I do hope the leader of the bad guys is the time keeper at the peacekeeper corps. I woukd find that funny

    #1615438

    You’ll not get any spoilers from me lol

    #1616271

    I suspect that most gamers find influence on what games to play or scenarios from a number of sources, including books, history, comics and Film/TV. In this short article I’m going to look at finding influence in film and tv for Asian based game ideas. Getting hold of Asian films isn’t all that hard, as there has been for many years a regular influx of films from the east readily available for purchase in shops, but for the purpose of this article I’m not going to be looking at DVD’s that can be bought. I’m going to be reviewing some of the apps available to view Asian film and TV, at the same time I’ll be recommending some of the choice films or TV shows which I think are some of the best ones to view.

    The apps I’ll be looking at are as follows;

    Viki

    Netflix

    Amazon Prime

    Last year there were several TV shows worth watching from China and Korea, one of the best was The Longest day in Chang An, this can be watched on both Viki and Amazon Prime. The TV series is about a former detective turned convicted criminal, who becomes China’s last hope to thwart mysterious invaders who threaten the empire’s capital city on the day before the Lantern Festival. This is a historical drama set in the Tang Dynasty, with the features of the 24 TV series. Its action packed, full of suspense, drama and great set design.

    On Netflix one of the better series was a Korean historical Zombie drama, called Kingdom. I really enjoyed this first series, and a 2nd season has just recently been released. The series is adapted from the web comic series The Kingdom of the Gods, which was authored by Kim Eun-hee and drawn by Yang Kyung-il. Set in Korea’s Joseon period, a few years after the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592-1598).

    It tells the story of Crown Prince Lee Chang (Ju Ji-hoon), who becomes embroiled in a coup/political conspiracy and is forced to embark upon a mission to investigate the spread of a mysterious undead plague that has beset the current emperor and the country’s southern provinces. This definitely one of the TV shows to catch on Netflix, especially if you’re considering an historical game with a supernatural flavour.

    Over on Viki and Amazon there are quite a few dramas set during WW2 which are worth watching. The first is Sparrow on Viki, this is a spy drama set in Japanese occupied Shanghai, which revolves around a communist spy called the Sparrow, and Nationalist spies who have infiltrated the Japanese military and police. Set in the 1940s during Shanghai’s revolutionary times, communist agent Chen Shen infiltrates the Japanese’ base and adopts the code name “Sparrow”. His mission is to obtain the “zero” intel, a secret plan that could destroy China. To do so, he becomes the assistant of Bi Zhongliang, the leader of the Special Operations Team under the Public Security Bureau.

    The next recommendation is My Battalion which is available on Amazon, it has two seasons.  It is a heroic story of the Chinese Army courageously resisting the Japanese Invaders during the World War II. In the year 1938, the Japanese Army went south to invade Xu Zhou. Liao Guangyi, the Chief Commander of the 56th Corps were forced to retreat. This tells the story of this famous battalion from their retreat to the final battle which they fought. This is highly recommended for anyone thinking of building a Chinese army for Bolt Action or any other WW2 period rule system.

    My final recommendation is My Country is a Korean historical drama set During the transitional period between the end of the Goryeo dynasty and the beginning of the Joseon dynasty, two friends become enemies following a misunderstanding. They try to protect their country, and the people they love, their own way. The series follows the bloody coup that started the Joseon Dynasty, centred around a group characters that are caught in the coup. They fight to survive against the turmoil and strife of this period.

    There are several more TV shows that are worth catching such as the Candle in the Tomb, set in modern China, about tomb raiding, with ghosts and other supernatural phenomena. I’d recommend Viki as it can be watched for free, if you don’t mind the adverts and all of the programmes are subtitled. Ever Night which has 2 seasons on Viki is a great Chinese fantasy drama, with magic and martial arts.

    #1616666

    A quick post about the miniatures available in 1/72 from Caesar Miniatures

    CAEH004Thumb

    CAEH004a

    This set from Caesar represents the army of the Qin (also spelt Ch’in) – one of many warring states – who succeeded in subduing all others to form a united empire under the First Emperor in 221 BCE. The Qin dynasty that followed was short lived (only 14 years), but it was a major landmark in Chinese history, and the army that achieved that success is known to us today largely through the discovery of the Terracotta Army in Xi’an.

    CAEH032Thumb

    CAEH032a

    For those unfamiliar with the long history of China, the Ming dynasty ruled from 1368 to 1644. It overthrew the previous Mongol Yuan dynasty that had been established by Khubilai in the 13th century, but for much of its long history it still found itself fighting the Mongols. Other military adventures included combating pirates along the coast and suppressing internal revolts, and of course the expedition to Korea in the 1590s to fight the Japanese.

    CAEH033Thumb

    CAEH033a

    Qing dynasty, which ruled China from 1644 to 1911, and by using the term ‘troopers’ it doesn’t even specify if we are talking infantry or cavalry. In Europe 1644 saw armies walk on to the battlefield with massed ranks of pikes, and 1911 saw them building up their stocks of machine guns and aircraft, so this is an enormous period with much change. Certainly China was pretty backward in 1644, and had stagnated since, but even there armies and military technology had changed to a degree over these two-and-a-half centuries.

    CAEH043Thumb

    CAEH043a

    The Han dynasty was the imperial ruling family of China between 206 BCE and 220 CE, and followed on from the collapse of the Qin dynasty that had briefly unified much of China for the first time. Its story was one of expansion into neighboring territories, consolidation of existing holdings and allied states, and dealing with threats and aggression from other peoples or internal revolts. Today it is seen as something of a golden age in Chinese history.

    CAEH036Thumb

    CAEH036a

    For China World War II has a rather different significance to that in the rest of the world. China had been more or less at war for many years, with revolutions and fighting between parties and warlords taking their toll, while the 1931 Japanese invasion and occupation of Manchuria led to a kind of low-level war with her aggressive neighbour that suddenly became full-scale when Japanese forces invaded and conquered large parts of China from 1937. When Japan attacked the USA and the British Empire in 1941 China became one of the allied powers, but in large measure left the final defeat of Japan to the westerners. The years 1941 to 1945 were mainly ones of stalemate, when large Japanese resources that could have been useful elsewhere were tied down in China, but the Chinese also husbanded their strength for what most expected to be a renewed civil war between nationalist and communist once the Japanese menace was removed.

     

    All text and images have come from the website Plastic Soldier Review.

    #1616667

    I found online some examples of the caesar miniatures that have been painted

    T2qB4CXypaXXXXXXXX_!!196313303.jpg_560x560q90cmf4TB27hIgcTZRMeJjSspoXXcCOFXa_!!196313303.jpg_640x640q90TB2aSAFXrmI.eBjy1zjXXaq5VXa_!!120665449

    #1617351

    You can use Spanish/Portuguese style building such as the ones recently released by Sarissa

    PSX_20210227_161153

    https://sarissa-precision.com/collections/mediterranean-28mm

    #1617435

    oriskany
    60769xp
    Cult of Games Member

    @warhammergrimace – this whole thread has been buzzing like a bee in my skull all week.  Tomorrow is my last Gulf War stream, then I am seruiously thinking about setting aside 3-4 days for breaking out TSR’s old Battlesystem 2nd Edition for a small battle of Chinese ancients.  Assuming nothing else comes up, I’ll build the armies, translate into Battlesystem, and hopefully run a first test game by the end of the week …

    Probably just two small armies from the Seven Warring States period.

    #1617443

    @cdn41 my wife is also Chinese, which is why I became interested in the history of China, alas she has no interest in history. She said she use to call asleep in history lessons.

    I now know more Chinese history than she does lol.

    @oriskany that sounds like a great idea.  I assume you’ll be using 2nd edition Battle system rule. Seven warring states is a good period, due to the amount fighting between them.

    I’m slowly putting together a book list together. I’ll put them in the thread when I get a chance.

    #1618172

    The Taiping Rebellion is considered one of the bloodiest conflicts in history, and is certainly the bloodiest civil conflict, with an estimated 20-25 million people killed during this rebellion.

     

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