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Saturday, September 19, 2020

Miao and Nien - Allies of the Tai Ping



The Heavenly Kingdom of the Tai Ping had two important allied groups.  These were provided by the Miao tribesmen and the Nien rebels against the Manchu.  Both groups brought something valuable to the Tai Ping cause.

The Miao fielded two types of infantry.  Some were simply spear men of which the Tai Ping had a near endless supply.  Others were armed with a Chinese version of the jezail.  The latter were very useful.  They provided the Tai Ping with accurate distance weaponry that was otherwise in short supply.  
 


There were two main groupings of Miao, the black and the white. So named for their clothing colour choice.   
 

 
The Miao were capable and well-motivated soldiers.  Using Taiping Era I’d rate them as Committed Chinese Troops.  Here are the stat’s for them that I will be using for Field of Battle 3.

Troop Type
Unit type
Unit class
Defence Dice
Combat Dice
Arms
Formation
Miao ‘jezails’
Infantry
Regular
D4
D10
Rifle

Line,
Skirmish
Miao
Spears
Infantry
Regular
D6
D8
Spear
Attack Column,
Line,
Square

The Nien, bandits to the Manchu authorities, controlled an extensive territory.  They secured this by placing garrisons in fortified villages and via the use of an extensive cavalry arm.  The Nien cavalry were mainly lancers and once again were good soldiers. These proved to be a useful asset to the mainly foot slogging Tai Ping.  Using Taiping Era I'd once more opt for Committed Chinese Troops. In FoB3 they will look like this.
 




Troop Type
Unit type
Unit class
Defence Dice
Combat Dice
Arms
Formation
Níen
Cavalry
Regular
D6
D10
Lance
Attack Column,
Line,


Every now and then the Tai Ping deployed a unit of European manned modern artillery.  Should you want to emulate that rate them as European regulars-that's what most of them had been. The British Royal Navy sailors were particularly keen to desert. One battery only.  I'd suggest 9 pounders.  In reality the available ordinance varied considerably.

8 comments:

  1. Interesting stuff! I know very little about this conflict.

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    Replies
    1. It is. We don't know nearly enough of what is out there. I'm hoping a Chinese Gamer might turn up with new translations.

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  2. Thanks Jonathan. I've a few Taiping posts to come.

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  3. OB - These look great. I agree with your classifications as Committed Chinese. I wonder whether it should vary depending on how close they are to home territory. I think the war(s) went on long enough that you can play around with the values. Re-reading some of Lindley's writing it might be reasonable to let very well trained and committed Taipings to use Western Drill. What do you think?

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  4. Thanks Trebian.

    Yes, very good points. I was thinking along the same lines.

    ReplyDelete