The Boxer Rebellion in HOTT
By Alan Saunders
I have based these lists on these two sites:
http://www.sdu.edu.cn/~boxer/kewen.html (Boxers, Christians and the Gods)
http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/bxr1.html (A Chinese Account of the Boxer Rebellion)
After each list I have included selected quotes from these pieces which should explain most of the troop types. Other explanations follow:
Although both sides claim supernatural abilities for both themselves and the opposition, it appears that those of the Foreign Devils are almost entirely defensive in nature, or used to neutralise the abilities of the Boxers. I have therefore opted to give them no offensive magic.
I have classified most Foreign devil foot as Shooters to reflect their modern weapons and the fact that the Boxers were almost exclusively sword and spear armed. More aggressive Foreign Devils are Blades which should make them a tough opponent for the Boxers even at close quarters.
Boxer
| 1 Magician | (Red Lanterns) @ 4AP | 4 |
| 1 Warband | General (Local commander and bodyguard) @ 2AP | 2 |
| 2 Warband | (Fanatic Boxers or Tigermen) @ 2AP | 4 |
| 1 Behemoth | (10' high Boxers in an irresistable phalanx) @ 4AP | 4 |
| 2 Fliers | (Red Lanterns with fans) @ 2AP | 2 |
| 6 Hordes | (Other Boxer foot) @ 1AP | 6 |
Stronghold: Palace or temple.
Options: Shooters @ 2AP (Imperial foot with modern weapons), Riders @ 2AP (Imperial cavalry), God @ 4AP (Guandi the War God in golden armour), Magician general @ 4AP (Local commander with magical powers)
"The beliefs and practices of the Boxers in this realm--the array of magicoreligious means the Boxers used to control their immediate environment, to make it less dangerous, more predictable--were especially impressive."
"The Boxers were best known for the invulnerability to foreign weapons they acquired when possessed by their gods. "
"In Beijing it was said that when the Boxers went into battle, men and horses were more than ten feet tall and the swords of the former were so numerous that it was impossible to resist them. Like their brothers in Tianjin, moreover, when bullets struck their clothing, they rolled off like rain drops, not injuring them in the slightest."
"The top Boxer commanders in the Tianjin region, were alleged to have exceptional magical powers. They were able to make themselves invisible and to disappear into the earth."
"No less powerful than the magic of Boxer leaders was that of the female auxiliaries of the Boxers, the Red Lanterns. These girls and young women, it was maintained, were able to protect the Boxers during combat. They could send swords flying through the air without looking and from a distance lop off enemy heads. They were also able to hurl bolts of fire and, using their magic, make off with the screws holding together the foreigners' artillery. When the Red Lanterns stood erect and did not move, their souls left them and engaged in battle. They were not daunted by weapons of any sort. Foreign guns were paralyzed in their presence. They also had extraordinary healing and restorative powers. A former Red Lantern from the Tianjin region recalled that, once the senior member of her Red Lantern unit had gone into trance, all she had to do was clap her hands in the direction of a sick person and the person became well."
"The local magistrate knelt and prostrated himself in the direction of the fire and prayed to the gods to protect the granary. Suddenly, there appeared in the air a god in golden armor who stood atop the flames and then disappeared. Neither the granary nor the homes on either side of the church were damaged. Everyone said it was Guandi (the God of War) making his power manifest."
"The most impressive claims with respect to Red Lantern incendiary magic related to the ability of these women, by waving their fans, to fly. After becoming accomplished at this, they soared through the sky to other lands where they set fire to foreign buildings and homes."
"In Tientsin there were societies of red lanterns, which consisted of young girls who could walk in the air if they held a handkerchief in one hand and a red lantern in the other, which could help the Boxers to burn the missionary buildings."
"A rumor said that the red lantern girls could pull down high-storied houses with thin cotton strings, and could set fire to the house simply by moving a fan, and also said they had the power of hanging a rock of several pounds on a hair."
Foreign Devils
| 1 Paladin | ('Devil Prince' with magical powers, 'White Lady' or White Lanterns) @ 4AP | 4 |
| 1 Artillery | (Field artillery) @ 3AP | 3 |
| 1 Cleric | (Missionaries or naked women) @ 3AP | 3 |
| 2 Blades | (British, Japanese or Russian infantry with fixed bayonets) @ 2AP | 4 |
| 4 Shooters | (Other European or US infantry) @ 2AP | 8 |
| 1 Warband | (Armed sailors) @ 2AP | 2 |
Stronghold: Church or legation building
Options: Riders @ 2AP (Bengal Lancers)
"Bishop Favier, the white-bearded leader of the Catholic defenders of the Northern Cathedral in Beijing, which the Boxers had besieged for weeks without success, was transformed into a "devil prince" (guiwang), two hundred years of age, who, in addition to being highly skilled as a strategist, practiced sorcery, was expert at divination, and had gained complete ascendancy over the minds of the other "devils." "
"And repeatedly, we are told, Boxer efforts to overpower churches in southeastern Zhili province were thwarted by the apparition of a white-clad woman, whose presence stopped them in their tracks and deprived them of their powers. "
"Chinese Catholic survivors in southeastern Zhili apparently believed that the appearance of the Virgin Mary above their church (the Boxers' "white-clad woman") was instrumental in protecting them from a number of Boxer attacks between December 1899 and July 1900"
"A Chinese teacher in Shanxi stated that there was an organization of Christian women in the capital of the province who were called White Lanterns and had magic so powerful it could overcome that of the Boxers and Red Lanterns."
"The Boxers regularly attributed the casualties they suffered in fighting with the foreigners in Tianjin to the latter's placement of a naked woman in the midst or in front of their forces, which broke the power of the Boxers' magic. The story was also circulated and widely believed by the populace that a naked woman straddled each of the many cannon mounted in the buildings in the foreign quarter of Tianjin, making it impossible for the "gunfire-repelling magic" (bipao zhi fa) of the Boxers to work properly."
"One of the more intriguing things about this report is its clear implication that Chinese at the time saw no bar to attributing to foreigners the same kind of supernatural powers they believed to be possessed by certain Chinese."