"Why the hell everyone has a horse except me, a dragoon?!" - private Leo Sole
Next few months were spent marching and starving. Leo and everyone around went so thin that the column they were marching in became visibly shorter and a bit narrower despite having the same number of people.
Private Leo was spared from the most of the news about what is happening in the big picture, he was just a private after all. But There were rumors, rumors that could put one on a bloody flogging tripod, but they were spreading anyway. Soldiers were talking about a big French defeat just a few days after the Battle of Medina de Rioseco. The local population got more and more angry and often outright hostile, which made provisions even harder to get. Soldiers were speaking about partisan groups attacking supply caravans. Whatever was the truth, Leo knew that he had no propper meal for a very long time.
One could get used to hunger, Leo was surprised to discover, it numbs you, like being just a bit drunk, all the time. You even stop feeling exhaustion, you just march, sleep, march again. There only pain in a shoulder, from the weight of a musket.
And then, one morning: "Good news, cavaliers, we are going gonna feast tonight!"
But nothing comes easy, the feast they are promised is in a spanish supply wagon, about six miles north. Division's scouts stumbled upon it yesterday late in the night near a local farm. The problem there are also some armed men, because of course there is. So now Leo and his fellow soldiers had to go there and liberate the supplies.
I start the session by checking supplies again. Of course the company is not supplied, so obviously no horses. But before going for a foraging scenario I roll for a seasonal mission: Pillage. I decide that it's a lucky break for Leo, his company just stumbles onto a Spanish supply wagon. And then depending on how it goes maybe I can squeeze another mission in the same season.
A group of ten, lead by sergeant Pinchon, arrived at the destination after a few hours of walk along an empty dusty road. From a far they could see a farmested, and then another one. So which one was the one scouts were telling about?
"Must be this one", Pinchon pointed with his finger, his guess was good as anyone's. And his intuition was correct!
"The wagon is in a courtyard," private Dylan Gaumont returned with good news, he was assigned to the company after the last battle to replace the casualties, a seasoned dragoon who seen some action in Austria, "no civilians in sight, but there are maybe ten armed men, six horses. No colors, but they are wearing army boots."
"Probably deserters", guessed Jordan.
"Even deserters have horses, of course..." muttered Leo.
I roll for the number of PEFs: 2, roll what kind of terrain it is: both are farms with road and surrounding wheat field. Check the first PEF, enemy is present and so is our target! Roll for the type of enemy: Deserters. Number: one more than my party. Deserters can have horses, and I check individually for each man: 6 horses in total.
The group moved forward along a low stone fence, keeping silent, muskets loaded. Severin pointed at a stairway leading to a roof of a flat-roofed building, a perfect position for an ambush, and then rolled his eyes as sergeant jumped out of the cover shouting:
"Attack!"
The sudden command caught the frenchmen by a surprise and alerted the deserters. A great job! Six deserters instantly jumped on the horses, others scrambled for cover loading their rifles. But then the whole group, uncertain of what enemy they are facing, decided rather to retreat leaving the wagon behind.
"After them!" commanded sergeant, encouraged by this turn of events.
My side gets an advantage, so I decide that the group managed to sneak close to the enemy without being noticed, but then I lose leadership roll, giving away the first action to the enemy. Not surprising considering the sergeant's rep3.
Enemy use their turn to mouth the six horses, the rest six deserters load the rifles. But then pass 0d6 on Will to Fight roll, so the whole band retreats. Sergeant pass 2d6! So he his eager to fight and commands to follow the enemy.
"Sergeant! We could be running into a trap!" Severin caught up with Pinchon, running through a wheat field, but his advice felt onto deaf ears.
The riders were quickly galloping away, the five deserters left behind seemed to be an easy prey. "Pity the horses got away." - thought Leo, running and trying to hold his scabbard with the but of the musket to his leg to prevent it from painfully hitting his shin with each second step.
Here I used the chase rules someone posted in the THW forum, resulting in a successful chase, which have me an automatic advantage for the next firefight.
History: the summer was tough on the Imperial Army in the Peninsula. After a crushing defeat at the Battle of Bailén just two days after the Battle of Medina de Rioseco the French side loses close to 20 000 soldiers and two generals, mostly taken a prisoners of war. The spanish send the prisoners to an uninhabited island where half of them die from starvation. A fate that Leo luckily escapes.
The defeat not only sent French army on a general retreat behind the Ebro river, even Joseph Bonaparte - Napoleon's brother and newly installed King of Spain had to flee now hostile Madrid. The french defeat proved to the Spanish elite and commoners alike that the invaders french can be defeated, sparking resistance movements everywhere.
"You may well, General, be proud of this day; it is remarkable because I have never lost a pitched battle until now—I who have been in more than twenty." - french general Dupont
"It is the more remarkable because I was never in one before in my life." - spanish general Castaños
No comments:
Post a Comment