Red Dragon Falling: the Coming Civil War in China
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RED DRAGON FALLING: THE COMING CIVIL WAR IN CHINA CONTENTS 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Components 3.0 Set Up & Hex Control 4.0 How to Win 5.0 Playing & Ending Turns 6.0 Unit Stacking 7.0 Actions in General 8.0 Move a Friendly Force 9.0 Subvert an Enemy Force 10.0 Attack a Hex 11.0 Recycling Eliminated Units 12.0 Moving Capital Cities 13.0 Atomic Attacks NOTE: To remove the rules from this starting points for such a confl ict would 14.0 The Three Gorges Dam magazine, carefully and slowly peel either be the collapse of the Chinese real them from the subscription card they are estate bubble —which is already broadly 15.0 South China Monsoon attached to by peeling from the top and predicted to be inescapable and will then the bottom meeting in the middle. constitute the largest fi nancial collapse in 16.0 Charts & Tables The card is not intended to be removed. world history —or the growing potable water crisis (a third of the water consumed by the These rules use the following color system: Chinese is undrinkable by US standards). Red for critical points such as errata and exceptions, Blue for examples of play. Beyond those factors, or in combination with CREDITS Check for E-rules updates to this game them, there’s also the gender imbalance, the @ www.modernwarmagazine.com. fossil fuel air pollution crisis, the increasingly Design: Ty Bomba endemic corruption, the aging population 1.0 INTRODUCTION structure, the expanding rural-urban economic Development: Eric R. Harvey gap, as well as the general collapse of ideology 1.1 Game Premise and the resultant moral lapse throughout the Playtesters: Ty Bomba, Eric R. It was the Chinese scholar-historian Wei populace. One, some, or all of these factors Harvey, Joseph Miranda, Chris Yuan, writing in the mid-19th century, who may eventually lead to a crisis in China, as so Perello, Stephen Wagstaff, Gary fi rst formally identifi ed his nation’s apparently often occurs in history, resulting in a civil war. Copeland, Dennis Milbert inescapable cycles of “chaos and humiliation” Map Graphics: Joe Youst (quru), followed by “rejuvenation” (fuxiang), 1.2 Sc ale followed by “wealth and power” (fuqiang), Each turn of play equals two months of ‘real’ Counters: Larry Hoffman and then back to quru to start again. More time, probably sometime late in this decade & Eric R. Harvey recently, Queens College futurist and or early in the next. Each hexagon represents sometimes-CIA analyst Dr. Br uce Bueno de 80 miles from side to opposite side. Production: Callie Cummins Mosquita wrote concerning China that he sees & Chris Cummins no factors in the present-day environment Old Hands Note: There is no ZOC in working to end or defl ect that same cycle. Red Dragon Falling (If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it). © 2015, Decision Games It was the shared conclusions of those two men, working over a century-and-a-half 2.0 COMPONENTS Made & Printed in the USA. apart, which inspired me to design this wargame modeling the military parameters 2.1 Map & Counters and possibilities inherent in the next phase Th e components to a complete game of Red of Chinese quru —civil war. The likely Dragon Falling (RDF) include these rules, MODERN WAR 19 | SEP - OCT 2015 R1 RED DrAGON FALLING: THE COMING CIVIL WAR IN CHINA the map sheet, and 176 die-cut counters The order of battle is drawn and extrapolated 2.6 Unit Types (also called “units” and “unit counters”). from that of the Chinese armed forces of 2014. There are several types of Players should provide themselves with units, listed as follows. one or more standard (six-sided) dice to 2.4 Sample Unit resolve combat and other probabilistic The 38th Offensive-Mobile Group Army Amphibious Assault Division events that occur during play, as well as is pictured below. It has an attack strength two large-mouthed opaque containers (or “attack factor” or “AF”) of “9,” a defense Offensive-Amphibious Group (such as cereal bowls or coffee mugs). strength (or “defense factor” or “DF”) of “6,” Offensive Mobile Group Army and an indeterminate movement factor of “d3” nd Errata: The starting location of the 42 (see section 8.0), which will be calculated Offensive-Defensive Group Army Marine Group army is misprinted as 2220, anew each time it moves during play. On which is coterminous with the city of one side the unit is printed in the faction Defensive Group Army Shantou. Place the 42nd in hex 2219 instead. colors of the Communist regime, while on the other it’s printed in Rebel faction colors. Static City Garrison 2.2 The Game Map The printed data are otherwise identical on The game map displays the militarily both sides of the counter, and the further Parachute Division significant terrain found across the ethnic- significance of the differently-colored sides Han core area of China when portrayed will be described in the rules that follow. Missile Division at this scale. A hexagonal (“hex”) grid is Air Defense Division printed over it to regulate unit placement 2.5 Sides and movement similar to the way squares Each unit’s faction is shown Air Support are used in Chess and Checkers. by its color scheme. 38th Oensive-Mobile Group Army Errata: Hex number 2902 has been 2.7 Unit Organizational Sizes Unit Size misprinted as 2802. Consider this false Set-up Hex Defense Units are classified by their size, Strength hex number a Chinese deception. Unit ID symbolized on each unit as either XXXX, Attack Strength XXX, or XX, defined as follows: A unit is always only ever in one hex at any one instant. Each hex contains natural and/ Movement XXXX —A group army Communist Rebel or manmade terrain features that may affect Faction side Faction side movement and combat. The map’s terrain XXX —A corps representations have been altered slightly from their exact real-world configurations in Communist side = Red background with XX —A division order to make them conform to the hex-grid. white numbers on a yellow unit. The terrain relationships from hex to hex are, Note: The nine Chinese air corps don’t carry however, accurate to the degree necessary Rebel side = Blue background with any organizational size symbol. That’s done to present players with the same space/ yellow numbers on a white unit simply to make their visual differentiation time dilemmas that would be faced by their from ground units that much easier. See real-world counterparts if this war were Taiwanese = White background with 3.3, 6.7, 9.5, 10.2, 10.8 and 10.11 for more actually waged. Each hex on the map has a green numbers on a blue unit. details on their unique characteristics. unique four-digit number printed in it. They’re provided to help you find specific locations Note: The three Taiwanese army corps 2.8 Static City Garrisons referred to in the rules (for example, Beijing included in the game will start the game The 30 city garrison markers is in hex 2405), and to allow you to record with their nation (Taiwan) neutral and represent agglomerations of unit positions if a match has to be interrupted out-of-play. It’s possible that Taiwan may the various constabulary and and taken down before it can be completed. enter play on the Rebel side after play militia formations that would has begun. See 3.1, 3.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, invariably play a large role in the urban 2.3 Counters 8.15, 9.3, 10.3, 10.12 and 11.1 for more combat of this war if it were to actually There are 176 counters in the game, many of on unique Taiwanese characteristics. happen. They are the only static units in the which represent combat units while others are game, meaning they never move from their provided as memory aids and informational hexes of placement, nor do they ever attack. markers. Carefully punch out the counters. At the same time, however, they’re never Trimming the “dog ears” from their corners with eliminated from play, merely switching sides a fingernail clipper greatly facilitates handling (shown by flipping over their counters) each and stacking during play and enhances their time their respective cities change hands. appearance. Each combat unit-counter displays several types of information: faction, type, set- 2.9 Marker Counters up location, combat strength, movement factor The following counters (a.k.a. “markers” capability, and organizational identification. and “chits”) are included in the game as R2 MODERN WAR 19 | SEP - OCT 2015 informational and mnemonic memory together go through the entire garrison side is “in control” of important hexes at aids. Their functions are explained in the container that way, alternating blind picks different times during play. Hex control is only corresponding sections of the rules that follow: one at a time until all garrisons are placed. important when considering city hexes and the TGD. At the end of the set up procedures Turn Marker (see section 5.0). 3.3 Mobile Units described above, each player controls all Then the two players do the same with the hexes on the map that contain a mobile unit Communist Capital City Ma rker (se e 3.1, 5.6, counters in the mobile-unit container, with the or static garrison unit of his faction. Neither 6.6, 7.2, 9.2, 10.6, and all of section 12.0).