The First Man in China

A participation game

Presented at Fantizan, 9th February 2003

Rules: Based on Mayhem Warrior Heroes from Two Hour Wargames, scenario by Chris Johnston

"Over a thousand years ago, in the time of the Sung Dynasty, China was wracked with unrest and turmoil.  A band of notorious cut-throats and brigands who lived in the water margins of Liang Shan Po took up arms against the Emperor.  Led by the greedy and venal Wang Lung, the rebels kidnapped the wife of an important magistrate and held her hostage in the Celestial Temple.

 "But it was a world very different from our own, a time of heroes no less, and a few brave and noble officers from the Imperial Guard volunteered to rescue the magistrates wife.  For they knew that word of such heroic deeds would surely reach the Emperor's ears.  For as the ancient sages say: many are the rivers of China, but all flow into one sea.  Thus may many men strive for greatness, but there can be only one FIRST MAN IN CHINA."

This was the scenario for the participation game we ran at Fantizan '03.  It was based on the campaign we'd been playing at the workshop before Christmas, in which each player ran the career of an Imperial officer all competing with each other for glory and honour.  We were using "Mayhem: Warrior Heroes" skirmish rules from Two Hour Wargames, with a customised version of the campaign rules to suit the Chinese setting.  For the show we stripped down the rules a little for speed and simplicity, and settled on a Raid: Hostage scenario.  To keep the tension high, LSP bandits were represented on the table with counters (some of which were blank) until they became visible to the player parties.

We ran the game twice on the day, and both games ended with a player character reaching the Celestial temple and defeating Wang Lung in personal combat.  In the first game, the Temple's main gate turned out to be completely unguarded when the counters deployed there turned up blank.   In the second game, one player decided to improve his chances with a little "friendly fire" and took out his rival's archer.  The gods of fortune did not look kindly on this however, and his rival made it to the Temple first and slew Wang Lung, winning the game.

Miniatures: Tang, Sung, Qin, Han; all from Amazon Miniatures

Buildings: Monolith, Walls: Village Green, Trees: The Last Valley. Wooden kits, Palace and Dragon Boat: Woodcraft