The Summer of the Boxers, 55 Days in Peking

The Summer of the Boxers is a solo wargame published in issue 136 of the French wargaming magazine Vae Victis. The game is in French (with almost no language-dependent text on the counters), and the rules can be downloaded for free from Vae Victis' web-site (here) so I thought I might as well start this blog with an English-language review of the game. Also, it is a game specifically designed to be played as a solo game, rather than the adaptation of a multi-player game to the solo format, which also makes it quite interesting as the very first game to be featured on this blog. (My current plan is to review a new game each week, with a mix of specific solo games and adaptations of standard games to the solo format. I also want to cover all kinds of boardgames and not only wargames.)

The game components are as follows:

• a 15-page rulebook
• a zone-based A3 map of the Peking Legation Quarter at the time of the Boxer Rebellion, with a morale track and a supply track at the sides
• 108 high-quality die-cut counters

map, counters, rulebook

map

counters

The player has to provide their own 54-card deck and two D6 dice.

The game aims at depicting the struggle of the international armed forces protecting the Legation Quarter during the siege of the foreign legations' compounds in the summer of the year 1900, which is certainly the best-remembered episode of the war (which lasted 1899-1901) in the West, as seen from the Westerners' eyes. The French title of the game, les 55 jours de Pékin, is a clear reference to the well-known 1963 film 55 Days at Peking.

Throughout the text and the rules, there is a very clear pro-Western and anti-Chinese bias. It certainly does not diminish the playability of the game, but it has definitely been a minor annoyance to me in terms of being able to enjoy it (I like to be immersed in my games as a player).

The game pits you (as the defender of the foreign legations' compounds) against the Boxer irregulars and the Chinese governmental troops. The game unfolds during 54 days (hence the 54-card deck), and each turn follows the same routine: draw a card, check its colour (red or black). If it is a red card, it is a day of respite, during which you may move about your troops and rally your demoralised units. If it is a black card, it's either a day of bombardment of the foreign legations' compounds by the Chinese or a day of combined bombardment and attack by the Boxer irregulars and the Chinese governmental troops. Some random events may spruce the routine up with unexpected (bad or good) extra events, but basically that's that. And, in my opinion, that is both the strength and the weakness of the game.

Its strength, because after an easy start with your troops being all at their full strength, you start feeling the attrition brought about by the almost daily bombardment, and you despair at the erosion of your morale and your supplies. I guess this part is pretty realistic and this is certainly how the besieged Westerners must have felt at the time of the siege.

Its weakness, because despite the Chinese units being operated via a clever system of colour-coded arrows and random rolls, each turn is extremely similar to the previous ones, and you always end up doing the same: concentrate your fire on the Boxer mobs because those are the really dangerous ones; once you have eliminated them, the rest is usually dispatched quite easily and quickly.

As a result, I have mixed feelings with regards to this game: on the one hand, the attrition and erosion of the Western side is very well modelled, and you really end up praying for the next card to be a red one, especially towards the end of the game; on the other hand, it sometimes feels like the game pits your AI versus the game designer's AI since you end up always repeating the same actions. Also, given the way victory points are calculated at the end of the game, you had sometimes probably better not use your officers because their loss entails a huge negative VP penalty at the end of the game – which I do not think is consistent with the overall 'heroic' portrayal of the Westerners in the game.
Another negative aspect of the game is the luck factor. In my first game, I had like 15 black cards in a row, and the whole Legation Quarter ended up as a mass of smouldering ruins well before the end of the game.

All in all, though, a good nerve-racking game of attrition management.

the basics of the game: draw card, roll dice, draw Chinese units

First turn of the game: black card, meaning bombardment! The supply marker has been moved down 1 day on the supplies track.

Fighting around the Italian Legation. The Austrian troops must choose between moving to the barricade to extinguish the fire, or attacking the Boxers.

Situation at the end of the game, and a minor defeat for me, mostly because of the sad state of the NW part of the Legation Quarter. And this all happened during the next to last turn of the game!

Q&A
Some parts of the rules are either wrong (the initial placement of the civilian counters) or not very clear. I contacted the author of the game, asked him a few questions, and he promptly answered. Here is the translation of our Q&A.

Section 1.5.1 – Destruction of General Staff
Q: My understanding is that the Chinese GS can only be eliminated in close combat, and never during the soldiers' shooting phase. Is this correct?
A: Actually the Chinese GS is eliminated with the very last unit it is stacked with. Meaning the Chinese GS remains in game up to the moment there aren't any Chinese units left in its zone.

Section 4 – Game Play
Q: At the bottom of page 5, it says “+1 at the end of each day without combat”.
Is this on top of whatever is indicated in the table at the bottom of page 6?
otherwise:
Does this mean that at the end of a “black day” with no face card (i.e., with no combat against the Boxers) morale goes up by +1, and at the end of a “red day” morale goes up by +2 (+1 as indicated on the table, and then +1 at the end of the day)?
A: No, morale only goes up during “red days” and then only if there is no combat (i.e., no random event entailing combat).

Section 5.1.6 – Test for the return of the wounded
I told the author that a streak of bad luck (several black cards in a row) made the game impossible to win. He suggested recovering 12 points of soldiers instead of 1D6+6 when drawing a red card between 2 and 10.

Section 5.2 – Bombardment
Q: Are civilians to be taken into account at their facial value (10 or 5 points) when determining the column to be used on the table at the bottom of page 7?
A: Yes.

Section 5.3 – Events Table
Q: No.6 (Discovery of a mine). The text reads: “if the event is obtained with a black card, in addition to the attack of the 20 Boxers, it's the final 6 unengaged Boxers that attack in zone 3.” I reckon you mean that it's the final 5 unengaged Boxers that attack, since there are only 25 Boxer units in the game.
A: Correct; there are only 25 units.

Section 8.1 – Positioning of Soldiers
Q: You should maybe remind here that “Betsy” is not available at the start of the game (see Section 3.4).
A: Correct.

Section 8.2 – Positioning of Civilians
Q: The rules indicate the following:
4 counters in the British Legation
2 counters in the French Legation
2 counters in the US Legation
1 counter in the Russian Legation
1 counter in the German Legation
Total: 10 counters, whereas there are 12 civilian counters in the game. What happens with the two extra counters?
A: The correct initial set-up is as follows:
4 counters in the British Legation
2 counters in the French Legation
2 counters in the US Legation
2 counters in the Russian Legation
2 counters in the German Legation
Total: 12 counters.