"A River Runs Through It' Britcon 2018 Batrep

This batrep covers the first game of the day on the Saturday. I was drawn against Jez, the eventual event winner, and my mission was simple, get to the ford and hold the ford

Thirsty Work

   Lt Dumas gazed down towards the winding river at the bottom of the valley. As he had been informed by Capitaine D'Astardly  for the space of half a mile, the river, exiting a narrow ravine, widened and slowed in its flow. Here there was a ford, the only one for about 10 miles as the river soon entered a rocky defile. General Massena wanted the ford secured against a reported Spanish column that was approaching. This order had filtered down until Capitaine D'Astardly and his force had been dispatched to secure the ford and to deny it to the Spaniards. 

   D'Astardly had sent Dumas and his men ahead to scout out the ford as he hard marched his men towards the valley in the Dragoons wake. Dumas had dismounted his horse behind the crest where he had halted his men and handed his bridle and helmet to one of his dragoons and gestured Sgt Planchet to accompany him.  Getting down on his hands and knees, he had scrambled  forward, Planchet following in similar manner, to the crest of the hill overlooking the small valkey. Stopping behind a large rock, Dumas took a small telescope from his coat tail pocket and scanned the area around and beyond the ford and noted with some satisfaction that the ford was devoid of human presence.

    "We have made good time, sergeant; send a couple of men back to Capitaine D'Astardly and inform him we appear to have stolen a march on the Spaniards" 

    Down by the ford, carefully screened by a thick horn bush, Lieutenant Pedro Quixote was also looking through an equally small telescope. Alerted by one of his ragged scouts, a man with superb eyesight the young officer noted, Quixote trained his telescope on the large rock on the crest, half a mile from where the track entered the valley, and watched as the head of a man peered around it. "The French" he muttered. Then speaking more audibly "No one is to move, the French are on the hills" his men, a small detachment  of scouts sent ahead to carry out a reconnaissance on the ford muttered their acknowledgement. Here, they knew, they were safe from prying eyes. 

    Having reached the ford at mid morning, Quixote had sent back a runner to inform Major Don Esposita that all was clear. He had then led his men into the shade of a small copse of trees on the far bank and waited the arrival of the major and the rest of their force. And now the French had arrived and they were stuck on the far bank with no sign yet of Don Esposita.  

Quixote's men occupy the copse on the far bank as the Spaniards arrive

    Lifting his water bottle to his lips, D'Astardly drained it. The long, forced march had been hard indeed, especially for his green troops. The news that the ford was unoccupied had lifted their spirits and the thirsty men had picked up the pace with the thought of cool, refreshing waters in the valley.          Cresting the hill, they had started descending the hill pell mell, the river slow moving, sparkling waters drawing them on. 

     At the bottom of the hill, D'Astardly and Sgt Mouttley, the company's senior
sergeant, and the rest of the NCOs had had a time of it getting the men back into some semblance of order. Ahead of them, the dragoons had fanned out along the bottom of the small valley, screening the column and its gun.

   With the men once more in column, D'Astardly had resumed the march towards the ford when he noticed  one of the dragoons galloping towards them and beyond him, on the far side of the valley, a cloud of dust had risen. "Capitaine, it is the Spanish!!" called the dragoon as he neared the column. "Thank you, Jordan; return to Lt Dumas; Column will form line!!" he cried. This caused much confusion and once more D'Astardly, Sgt Mouttley and the company NCOs were busy getting the column into a line. With the ford so close and the Spaniards closing, D'Astardly had decided to get the men into a firing line now rather than attempt the manouvre so close to the enemy. Drawing his sword, D'Astardly took a deep breath and  shouted "Company will advance in line; by the centre, ADVANCE!" and the company started towards the river bank and the approaching enemy, the company NCOs chivvying the men to speed up or slow down but always to maintain the line.

D'Astardly's men reach the river bank

As the Spanish line reaches the ford, Quixote's men
 reveal their position and open fire on the French troops

Realising the threat the scouts offer, Lt Mercier attempts to bring his gun into action against them. In so doing they draw much the scouts fire which whittles te gun crew down and leaves Mercier wounded. A blow to the French forces

Attempting to inflict maximum damage on the Spanish troops across the river, D'Astardly 

leads his men forward to improve their chances of hitting the enemy with their musketry. 

Wishful thinking it turns out.

Dumas decides that his men can do nothing whilst mounted so, ordering them to dismount, he takes his men forward to bolster the French flank which is taking many casualties from the scouts by the copse. By this time, even the pioneers have been thrown into the line to add their fire

The Spanish line extends all along the river bank. to their rear, left, their cannon plays havoc with the French line and D'Astardy sends Sgt Mouttley with half the men in an attempt to out flank the gun but this proves a thankless task and the men suffer greatly from the cannon fire

The young French conscripts have taken a beating and are relieved when
 D'Astardly begins to withdraw them from the river bank

Their numbers depleted, D'Astardly makes the best of a bad situation and, using his dragoons as a mobile screen, withdraws his men from contact. The Spaniards, glad to have won, are to focused on relieving their thirsts to follow up and D'Astardly's men make good their escape 

Carrying it's wounded, the battered column made it's weary way back up the hill, enveloped by dust and agonised by thirst. D'Astardly stood by the side of the track, watching the youngster marching past, heads down and shoulders bent. They looked beaten but they didn't appreciate how lucky they were, how could they. Against the British they would now all be prisoners or worse, dead. A British commander would have flung his men across the ford as soon as the French started to withdraw and pinned them against and destroyed them at the foot of the hill. The Spanish however, stopped and drank water and celebrated their "victory" and in some ways that was worse. As he and his men withdrew, they could hear the Spaniards cheering and shouting, shots volleying into the air in jubilation. Bah! he thought, his men had not fought so badly, they would improve...indeed they must if  France was to lead those ignorant beasts, the Spanish, into a better future....

Postscript 

Well that was a short, sharp and rather bruising lesson for the French and me. With his skirmishers in the copse in the first turn, they proved to be a very formidable thorn in the French side, and were crucial to the Spaniards success.

Thanks to Jez for such an educational encounter. I might have come a distant second in that encounter but, crucially, my guys got some more narrative background and I couldn't ask for more than that.....at least that's what I'm telling myself.

pip pip,

the General