This one man guerrilla war would of course make for a superb solo map campaign, using one of the 1:25000 maps of highland Britain for example, with few roads and fewer villages and a couple of rivers as ‘boundaries’. I used the map of Scotland East and South East of Cape Wrath and the Kyle of Dunness, but many others are equally suitable. For this type of game Dodd would be very mobile indeed, restricted only by some supply factors, though operating with his guerrillas in any numbers would restrict him further.
Dodd’s little band would not be the only one operating naturally, and other groups of Portuguese would be encountered by the French troops. The river Tagus would be and indeed was, under the control of the Royal Navy gunboats, and a flourish of ‘the Nelson touch’ should not be out of the question, should Wellington get wind of old General Eble’s bridge building at Santarem and Punhete.
During the campaign Boney’s conscripts should suffer a high rate of attrition, as they did in reality. Movement, especially rapid marches or night actions can be a problem, one suspects, for men whose boots have worn out and are barefoot, or are in the throes of dysentery. Forrester’s novel allows Dodd to survive in the hills throughout the winter and his course of action should be to harass the soldiers of the 4th Battalion 46th Ligne around their village, to lay ambush and to kill French officers and NCO’s; and of course wherever possible to delay and disrupt the movement of convoys and supplies. If at any time, Rifleman Dodd meets a British unit, he joins it and returns to the lines. For the French player, only Dodd’s confirmed death provides victory...well, they were never going to take the Lines at Torres Vedras, were they?
A number of the book’s small skirmishes make for a good single-player game on the table using figures of almost any scale. Sgt.Godnot’s seven man counter ambush on the hill above Punhete, with Dodd’s night attack and all its problems of controlling a ‘volley’ from a dozen Portuguese, followed by hand to hand fighting can make for a good short game. I’ve always added the “supernatural” edge to Rifleman Dodd’s targets; by killing rather than wounding all he hits.
The attack upon the bridging column in the woods outside Santarem makes a very good game in 1/300 or any larger scale. If Dodd and his companions can block the road at more than one point, the rate at which they exhaust the column guard is only limited by their own rate of movement and fire. The convoy commander must fight first, using his own guards to try to establish the strength of the enemy before summoning assistance; and the French officer sent to request reinforcements should be accompanied by a strong escort, mounted, to make sure that he gets back to Santarem without falling prey to more guerrillas!
It should be possible for other, unrelated Portuguese groups to join Dodd’s action of course, drawn by the sound of battle; and French and irregular units can be fed in as the game progresses. If possible the ‘Green Inglez’ should attack both sides of the convoy from the safety of the woods. Victory for Dodd should be to disable the convoy until nightfall and if he has sufficient men to set fire to wagons under cover of darkness.
If the convoy gets through, or Dodd is driven off, killed or captured then it’s a French victory. A rare event in this campaign and possibly front page news in Paris. Dodd of course may choose to withdraw from the action without any consideration for another guerrilla band that may have become involved. As a rifleman, naturally his rate of movement should be double that of the ‘blues’ and his men, being hill farmers and goat herders can easily keep up with him.
My one attempt to game the attack by Dodd and his guerrillas upon the hated French dragoons from the ridge above the high road was unsatisfactory; though splendid from the Portuguese point of view! Like shooting fish in a barrel, given the poor mobility on foot of the dragoons and the short range of their carbines. Losing their colonel and four officers in rapid succession, the French simply had to mount up and ride off, leaving a section of dismounted Dragoons to their fate. ”C’est pathetique, mais c’est la guerre!”
Suitable Figures
There are good figures of British rifleman (and that’s who you’re going to be!) available in all the scales under the sun, and whatever you choose you only need the one! My own favourite is a thirty year old ‘Hinton Hunt’ Dodd. When it comes to the French, Table Top and Frei Korps 15mm figures are among the best, and most attractive and only small numbers are needed for the skirmish games. Unfortunately there are fewer guerrilla’s around, so I used the Falcon 15mm Spanish irregulars, with a sprinkling of the Table Top range, whose figure SPA16, a guerrilla firing is one of the best Napoleonic era figures made anywhere. Some of the RN naval boarding party from the same range make good pike or musket armed Portuguese. The pontoons and wagons can be expensive even in 15mm scale and so I’d recommend the old Peter Laing range now manufactured by John Mitchell, as the cheapest and most useful; from the same range come sheep, mules, oxen etc, and a few good peasants too.
As for painting well, what colour is scruffy, tattered or ragged?
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