A TALE OF LOVE AND WAR IN WELLINGTON’S ARMY
A review and a scenario for Sharp Practice: Part One
For a variety of reasons, mainly children, work and a persistent health problem, I listen to a lot of audiobooks these days and only read about 30-40 actual books a year. This is a bit of a problem as it means that I tend to be a bit choosier about what I read than I would previously have been. This is a bit of a two edged sword: I am much more likely to abandon a bad book as unworthy of my time, but secondly it means that I’m much less likely to try something outside of the ordinary (I find – as I’ve advanced in years – I am less tolerant of boring literature and it has become increasingly difficult to push myself to finish a book if I don’t think I’ll enjoy the end result. I put it under the ‘life’s too short’ maxim .... Ed.). So when I first encountered
Lynn Bryant on Twitter, I didn’t think much about it. She was very clued in on Peninsular War history, but she did seem to write romance novels and that wasn’t really my thing. How wrong I was. I picked up her book An Unconventional Officer: A Tale of Love and War in Wellington’s Army on Kindle for the princely sum of £1.99 and I am very glad that I did so.
BACK STORY
An Unconventional Officer is the story of Captain Paul Van Daan, recently purchased into the (fictional) 110th regiment. It begins just before the regiment ships out for India, where they will take part in the Assaye campaign, and then back to blighty until the move to Portugal to join Sir Arthur
Wellesley’s army. The book takes in the battle of Talavera and concludes with the retreat to the Lines of Torres Vedras.
Anyone writing about the Peninsular War must wrestle with the inevitable comparisons to Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe series and it should be said that these are very different books. Bryant’s hero is a rather different man to Richard Sharpe and – while he is most certainly the main protagonist – this is far more of an ensemble piece. The 110th regiment of foot is a character itself, certainly, but the secondary characters – Lt Johnny Wheeler, Sgt O’reilly and Lt Carl Swanson amongst others – are finely drawn with a novelist’s eye for detail.
Van Daan is a Byronic hero with a troubled past. If anything
in the book gave me pause it was him. He is deeply unconventional and his behaviour is at times outrageous. It would certainly bring a lesser man to grief. However, a decisive nature, extreme competence and the devil’s own luck are the prerogative of the literary hero and if Van Daan sometimes comes across as a little too good to be true, you forgive him because there is so much other stuff going on. He reminded me at times of the old 2000AD comic book character Slaine – a celtic warrior written by Pat Mills – but painted by his then wife, Angela Kincaid, a hero drawn with a female eye and surprisingly different for it. Van Daan is by nature, a bounder, rather than a cad. For future reference a bounder is the sort of chap who goes to the Front and wins the Victoria Cross. He then seduces his colonel’s wife. But a cad seduces his colonel’s wife and never goes near the Front.
Patrick O’brian and Alan Mallinson, both historical novelists at the peak of their profession and great favourites of mine, have both been criticised for the leisurely pace of their plots in comparison to the greater narrative thrust of Bernard Cornwell. Well, I can tell you that Lynn Bryant leaves Cornwell choking on her dust. An Unconventional Officer fairly rips along and things happen with tremendous rapidity: Bryant has her story and is determined to tell it and doesn’t intend to hang about along the way! There is combat and action aplenty leavened with some genuinely comic moments. Not all of these land exactly right, but I get the sense that the author is still finding her feet with some of the characters and the breezy style means that none of them outstay their welcome. There is a substantial twist about a third of the way through, which actually shocked me, but it’s a testament to the author’s narrative skill that it doesn’t come across as gratuitous or unbelievable.
CAMP FOLLOWERS
Anyone who has spent any time in uniform will tell you that the wives of a unit make up an often unremarked, but vital, auxiliary who keep forces in the field fed, watered and sane. Byrant has clearly done her homework here and her depiction of the regiment in camp and on the march is excellent. Her female characters – Anne Howard and Rowena Summers – are very different, but equally interesting. Anne’s struggles to negotiate the sometimes murky waters of the officers’ mess (and the ladies of the officers’ mess) were especially well done. One of the peculiarities of campaigning in the 18th and 19th century was just how often the men of an army brought their families with them and in Bryant’s depiction of camp life I can see echoes of the story of Juanita Smith and the other numberless women that followed the drum with Wellington’s army.
Pacier than Mallinson and O’brian, more balanced than Cornwell and funnier than C.S. Forrester, Lynn Bryant is a worthy addition to the firmament of authors who have made the Peninsula war their fictional home. An Unconventional Officer is a rollicking adventure story, leavened a good dollop of history and a dash of romance.
If you’d like to dip your toe before risking the price of a cup of coffee, you can find some
free short stories on the website lynnbryant.co.uk. I’d recommend An Unnecessary Affray which deals with Black Bob Crauford’s awful mess at the Coa, but there are a few, so you may take your pick. I have taken advantage of the Kindle and picked up the rest of the series for less than twenty quid and I recommend that you do too.
SCENARIO: OF OLD BULLOCKS A LOAD
Note: This scenario has been playtested once and due to the current Level 5 restrictions currently in place in the south of Ireland, that playtest had to be done solo. It is based fairly heavily on the Escort Duty mission from the Sharp Practice rulebook, with some tweaking. If you want to fiddle the difficulty levels, feel free to adjust the number of leaders on the Mahratta side.
The 110th have been despatched to India and having landed in Calcutta, they have marched to Poona to join General Wellesley’s army. Wellesley is planning to move deeper into Maratha territory and wishes to secure his supply lines. Three days earlier, a bullock train was lost to roving Maratha horsemen and eight men were killed. General Wellesley is expecting a convoy of bullock carts, with two guns and ammunition, to arrive shortly. They are waiting for an escort at the village of Pilar.
Lt Van Daan has been given temporary command of the Light Company as Lt Johnny Wheeler (more of him in part two) has been seconded to the Colonel. His job is to meet the convoy with it’s small escort of sepoys and lead them back to Poona. While making their way through the baking heat, the 110th are ambushed by a large force of Maratha horsemen.
DEPLOYMENT POINTS
Van Daan and the convoy enter the table at either point 1 or 2, determined randomly. They place a secondary Fixed Deployment point, as they have no Primary Deployment point in this scenario. The Convoy makes d3 moves onto the table before the Maratha player deploys.
The Maratha player rolls d6. On a roll of 1-4, they place their primary deployment marker within six inches of that point. On a 5-6, they choose whichever Point they wish. Once that has been placed, roll a second d6 and place a secondary deployment point there. If the Maratha player rolls the same number as his Primary Deployment Point, please re-roll.
LEADERS
Lt Paul Van Daan: 21 years of age. The son of a Dutch father grown rich as a clerk in the East India Trade and an English viscounts daughter, Van Daan has “...the natural arrogance of the very well born or very wealthy” and is “... taller than average and physically very fit and strong.” His mother died of smallpox when he was ten and clever, bookish Paul ran wild. Kicked out of school at fourteen, his father apprenticed him to an East Indiaman that was promptly wrecked. Plucked from the sea and deposited in Antigua, he was seized by a press gang and spent two and a half years in the Royal Navy. After fighting under Nelson at the Nile, he managed to get a letter home and was released. After a stint in Oxford, where he studied law and was the despair on his father, he bought a commission in the 110th Foot along with his childhood friend, Carl Swanson. A disciple of Sir John Moore, he spent two months training at Schorncliffe before joining the 110th at Melton.
Van Daan commands the Light Company of the 110th Foot.
◗ In Sharp Practice terms, Paul Van Dann is a Status III leader, new money with extravagant wealth. He is not considered a gentleman and is treated as such only due to his rank, though – in Paul’s case – this is generally due to his behaviour rather than his birth. In Sharp Practice nomenclature, he is certainly a Cad and is treated as a Flashing Blade, due to his skill with a sabre, though he is equally skilled with his fists. He is a Strapping Fellow, a Good Looking Chap and is Charming.
Lt Carl Swanson The son of a country parson near Melton, Swanson has known Van Daan since they were both children. Swanson remained at home, while Van Daan was at sea. He is much more straight laced than his friend, but joined the army as a means of making his way in the world. He took two months of light infantry training at Schorncliffe and is a competent officer. Swanson has considerably more tact than
his friend and spends a certain amount of his time pouring oil on troubled waters in Van Daan’s wake.
In Sharp Practice terms, Carl Swanson is a Status II leader. He is considered to be of good family, but is of straitened circumstances. He is an Honourable Gentlemen, but possesses no special skills. He is of average stamp, Fair of Face and is Affable.
Sgt Micheal O’reilly The son of a school master, O’reilly is an educated man and was at twenty a follower of Wolfetone. After the failed rebellion in 1798, he fled Ireland and slipped into England. He encountered a recruiting party of the 110th and joined up. His superiors were happy to make use of a hard working, educated ranker who would take on administrative tasks and he rapidly rose to sergeants rank.
O’reilly is in 1802, a Status One Leader. He is a Strapping Fellow, Plain and Unremarkable and is a Pleasant Fellow.
FORCES
110th Foot ◗ Lt Paul Van Daan, Leader III,
mounted. ◗ Three groups of 8 Regulars,
Muskets (p99 Sharp Practice) ◗ Lt Carl Swanson, Leader II ◗ Two groups of Loyal Native Infantry, Muskets (p113 Sharp Practice) ◗ Sgt O’reilly, Leader I ◗ One Group of 6 Rifles. (p99
Sharp Practice)
Note: It seems that the Colonel of the 110th has an affection for rifles and there are a small number of men in the light company armed with them. Unlikely, but not unheard of.
The convoy is treated as two mule trains and moves as such.
Marathas ◗ Rakesh Bedi, Leader II,
Mounted
◗ Tiku Tulsania, Leader I,
Mounted ◗ Two groups of Mahratta Cavalry (treat as Mutineer Cavalry p116 Sharp Practice) ◗ Deven Verma, Leader I,
Mounted ◗ Two groups of Mahratta Cavalry (treat as Mutineer Cavalry p116 Sharp Practice) ◗ Balruddin Kazi, Leader I,
Mounted ◗ Two groups of Mahratta Cavalry (treat as Mutineer Cavalry p116 Sharp Practice)
Secondary Deployment Point (see deployment)
OBJECTIVE
To win the scenario, Van Daan and his men must get the convoy off the table, the Maratha player must prevent them from doing so.
TERRAIN & MINOR CHARACTERS
“A sloping valley winding for around five miles between barren hills, littered with scrub brush and cacti. The hills were shallow enough for a skilled horseman to ride easily over the top.”
The board should be open enough as it represents the valley floor with a few hills placed along the edges to give some cover. Scattered lichen, a few model trees and a couple of rocks will make up the rest of the scene. There are no minor characters.
NOTES
I haven’t played a Sharp Practice II game where there has been this much cavalry before and it was bloodier than I expected. The Maratha’s managed to damage one of the convoy wagons, but were slaughtered by a counter attack led by Van Daan. Repeating the events of the books, the Rifles managed to drop the Maratha commander, but the 110th were badly cut up when their initial volley failed to stop the cavalry onslaught. It’s a small game and therefore a bit ‘swingey’, but it provided an entertaining afternoon’s gaming and a chance to re-acquaint myself with the cavalry rules.
I hope you enjoy this scenario and give An Unconventional Officer a try. In part two, next month you will find a scenario for the 110th’s part in the battle of Assaye, statistics for several of the other characters in the books, uniform details and a history of the regiment up until 1810. Until then, I remain your obedient servant and conrad.kinch@gmail. com or @aquestingvole on Twitter will find me.
LINKS
An Unconventional Officer is currently available on Kindle and will be available in a new paperback edition from Amazon by the time you read this. ■