Once the smoke had cleared from the famous charge up the San Juan Heights the fighting settled into a state of siege warfare. A ring of trenches appeared around the city of Santiago, Cuba. What was expected to be a splendid little lightening war became a plodding set piece affair while surrender negotiations took place. This period of intense boring inactivity lasted several weeks before the sinking of their fleet convinced the Spanish that no help was coming and they should give up. During this period the Rough Riders began to attack across "no man's land". Partially to liven things up but mostly because the Spanish were sending out sniper patrols, the Rough Riders responded in kind. If the Spanish had the "cohones" to travel in the dead zone the Rough Riders would go there also. Teddy Roosevelt, who upon the promotion of Leonard Wood assumed command of the Rough Riders, authorized several types of sniper missions. As they had taken a number of sporting rifles with them, they had the means and they had the nerve to take it to the Spanish. These missions included head hunting or officer termination parties, stay behind ambushes and counter sniper patrols. Sometimes the Rough Riders would sneak out at night and lie in ambush for dawn to break which was when the Spanish patrols were most frequent. Most of the time they just woke up early and went hunting. This scenario seeks to re-create a small unit meeting engagement in "no man's land" between the Rough Riders and a Spanish sniper patrol as it would have occurred in the hills around Santiago. ROUGH RIDERS CAST OF CHARACTERS: Quality die rolls for personal skills NAME: ARMAMENT HAND GUN RIFLE HAND TO HAND HORSEMANSHIP MORALE Lt. Col. Teddy Roosevelt: pistol,sword d8 d10 d8 d8 d12 Lt. Devereaux: pistol, scope assisted rifle d10 d12 d10 d10 d10 Sgt. Cash: pistol, bolt action carbine d12 d12 d12 d12 d10 Sgt. Reynolds: pistol, bolt action carbine d12 d12 d12 d12 d10 Corp. Norman: bolt action carbine d10 d10 d10 d12 d10 Corp. Bull: bolt action carbine d10 d10 d10 d12 d10 Trooper William Tiffany: bolt action carbine d8 d8 d8 d12 d10 Trooper George Smith: bolt action carbine d8 d10 d10 d12 d10 Trooper Joe Stevens: bolt action carbine d8 d10 d10 d12 d10 Trooper W.J. Clay: bolt action carbine d8 d10 d10 d12 d10 Trooper B.F. Daniels: bolt action carbine d8 d10 d10 d12 d10 Trooper Coville: bolt action carbine d8 d10 d10 d12 d10 Rough Rider names are taken from actual rosters. SPANISH ARMY CAST OF CHARACTERS: Quality die rolls for personal skills NAME: ARMAMENT HAND GUN RIFLE HAND TO HAND HORSEMANSHIP MORALE Major Julio Campos: Pistol, sword d10 d12 d10 d12 d12 Lt. Herman Cortes: Pistol, Bolt action rifle d8 d10 d10 d12 d10 Sgt. Gorellano Saboya: Bolt action rifle d8 d10 d10 d12 d10 Sgt. Jesus Goya: Bolt action rifle d8 d10 d8 d10 d8 Corp. Raul Bailen: Bolt action rifle d8 d10 d8 d10 d8 Corp. Rey Alfonso: Bolt action rifle d8 d10 d8 d10 d8 Trooper Mario Torres: Bolt action rifle d8 d10 d8 d10 d8 Trooper Ricardo Alcantara: Bolt action rifle d8 d10 d8 d10 d8 Trooper Luzon Zaragoza: Bolt action rifle d8 d10 d8 d10 d8 Trooper Holquin Cordoba: Bolt action rifle d8 d10 d8 d10 d8 Trooper Montado Asturias: Bolt action rifle d8 d10 d8 d10 d8 Trooper Pina Beleares: Bolt action rifle d8 d10 d8 d10 d8 Trooper Gerona Vergara: Bolt action rifle d8 d10 d8 d10 d8 Trooper Armando Valencia: Bolt action rifle d8 d10 d8 d10 d8 Trooper Mariel Torcha: Bolt action rifle d8 d10 d8 d10 d8 Spanish names are compilations of Spanish Units names. Modifying "Warpaint" for The Spanish American War Back to The Gauntlet No. 10 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 by Craig Martelle Publications This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com