This scenario is unashamedly inspired by Hornblower and the Hotspur (1962). Lieutenant Hornblower, of HMS Hotspur, leads a daring raid onto the French mainland during the British naval blockade of Brest, as the uneasy truce brokered by the Treaty of Amiens breaks apart in early 1803. His mission is simple: to destroy one of Napoleon’s semaphore towers. After all, one of the most surefire ways of defeating the enemy is to disrupt their lines of communication.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, France enjoyed a growing chain of ‘optical telegraph’ stations – towers similar in size to small windmills. Their pivoting wooden arms could be arranged to transmit and relay a semaphore code. Undamaged, this system could send messages across all of France in hours rather than in days…
The scenario is written with small scale skirmish ruleset such as Songs of Drums and Shakos or Forager in mind and designed to be played in 28mm. The Silver Bayonet could also be used at a push. Larger rule sets, such as Sharp Practice 2, Muskets and Tomahawks or Chosen Men could be used by increasing the number of troops on each side.
Table scenery
This game is designed to be played on a 4ft x 4ft table, representing a small coastal plateau with a semaphore station placed centrally. Beside the central ‘tower’, the rest of the table should be clear of substantial cover, with just scrubby patches of bushes and trees. There should be a rough path running north–south past the door of the tower, used by coastal watches, and an access path to the east as well, the door is on the eastern (landward) face of the tower. The raiders will arrive having clambered up from the shore, along the western edge. The action in this scenario happens on a cloudy night.
Forces
The British raiding party has put ashore in jolly boats with muffled oars, and clambered stealthily up over a low, rocky cliff to reach their objective. The party comprises the following:
The sailors also carry a small powder keg, for use as a petard, and fuses, and pitch enough to set fire to the tower.
The French tower is only lightly manned. A group of second-rate garrison soldiers are stationed there onguard, not expecting trouble after the tedium of the blockade. Who knows, they may also have had a little too much to drink. The guard comprises the following:
As noted above for larger skirmish sets, double the number of infantry used.
The objective
The British player’s objective is to destroy the semaphore station using either fire or explosives, before evacuating back to the jolly boats. Recent heavy rain has rendered everything far less flammable, and the small petard carried cannot be relied upon to do sufficient damage to the semaphore machinery unless braced alongside it. The French player, of course, has to prevent this from happening.
Special rules
This action is taking place at night, so any model wishing to see another further than six inches away must first roll 2D6 to determine how much further they can see. In the case of shooting, this requirement is waived if the potential target has just fired and not yet moved. The flash and smoke will provide sufficient clues. If the semaphore tower is set on fire, this rule is negated. The French sentries do not carry lanterns and whilst the British might, they are certainly shuttered! The rules you use may have their own spotting rules, so use these as a guide.
Set-up / deployment
Start with the British raiders anywhere on the western board edge. Two French guards are patrolling, bored, outside, so place each sentry separately on the coastal path roughly halfway to the north and south edges. A third guard is awake inside the tower, whilst the others and their officer sleep. The door is shut but not locked.
The raid begins
The raiders move first, at the player’s discretion: a slow, creeping advance might be tempting but then the raiders will run a greater risk of being discovered! The French sentries – independent of each other – are to move their normal distance in a randomized direction. The French player should roll to determine whether the sentries passively spot any of the advancing British; based on their facing at the end of their move, their arc of sight through the night is 180° to their front. if any raiders are seen, the sentry immediately raises the alarm by shouting (and see below).
Raising the alarm
Other than the above, the alarm will be raised by any shots being fired, by any hand-to-hand fighting occurring, or when the raiders reach within three inches of the tower’s door or windows. Whenever any raiders move either within twelve inches of a French model or within six inches of the building’s footprint, roll a D6. On a roll of a ‘1’, one of the seamen has coughed, stubbed his toe, or rattled his cutlass, and the alarm is raised.
Once the alarm is raised, the two sentries may immediately turn toward the threat and take a free turn of shooting at anyone they can see (if it was a sentry who raised the alarm, he need not re-test his spotting distance). It will take one full game turn for the third guard within to wake the other guards, during which time they may not act; they are still unloaded at the end of that game turn, although once he has woken the others, the third guard may fire his musket in the following game turn if he wishes.
Reinforcements
Ironically, the French have no way to signal for reinforcements in the dead of night, but luck may be on their side. From the third game turn onwards, the French player should roll a D6 to see if the coastal patrol arrive: they do on a roll of ‘6’. Add one ‘pip’ each turn thereafter (5, 4, etc). Rolling a natural roll of ‘1’ will always fail.
The patrol arrives randomly from the northern or southern end of the path. If the alarm has not yet been raised, they will simply trudge along the path past the tower at their normal rate of advance. In this case, the patrol may passively roll to spot the raiders just like the sentries may, but they are tired and inattentive, so their spotting distance is just 2D6”, without the basic six inch. Note that the presence of the chatting, clanking, grumbling patrol will negate all of the conditions outlined in the ‘Raising the Alarm’ paragraph above except shooting, as long as the patrol is still on the table.
Once the alarm is raised, the patrol may act at the French player’s discretion. If they have left the table by the time the alarm is raised, it will take them a full game turn to arrive back on the edge from which they exited.
Doing the deed
To set charges, the British need to enter the tower and take a turn to set charges. The British can choose how many turns they want their fuse to burn, with a minimum of one turn. They want to get out! On a D6 roll of 2+ the charge explodes, wrecking the signal equipment and setting the tower on fire.
The British player wins if the tower is destroyed and achieves a major victory if they do so with minimal casualties (no units destroyed). The French claim victory if the tower remains intact and a major victory if the British are also driven off with a unit destroyed. WS&S
This article was featured in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy Magazine 127. Discover this issue, and others, in our webshop:
