LITEROTICA PODCAST
LIT CAMS (200 Free Tokens)ADULT TOYSVOD MOVIES

Sharpe OOC Casting Call

Arghl! Teary eyed women! I am undone.

*pats awkwardly* There there. There.
 
Steiner said:
I was referring to the psychotic French beauty who is determined to put an end to the least pompous Major in the Army.
Click to expand...


Why, that villanous, good-for-nothing, surrender monkey! :p
 
OHO! Surprise attack! ^^



Question. Are you saying you intend to attack me right now? Before, while, or after Alfonso's men mount up?

Also, how do you view the geography around the camped men? I was thinking that, basically, the action centers around them. The men are camped right beside the road, which goes on straight for quite a while. The ground is grassy, and your men would probably be in a forest, or right behind and on top of a hill. Just how close the cover would be...


Probably, between 100-200 metres. Have in mind there are about 120 men in that formation, plus horses and baggage.
 
Dear Katamari

Not just yet..Justine is the sneaky kind, she'll wait until Alfonso and his gallant chaps are taking a rest or watering their horses or even better, finding quarters for the night.
 
Lady_Mornington said:
Dear Katamari

Not just yet..Justine is the sneaky kind, she'll wait until Alfonso and his gallant chaps are taking a rest or watering their horses or even better, finding quarters for the night.
Click to expand...


Aha. They are taking a rest now. Mostly disorganized in formation right now, and I would imagine they have been marching for at least a couple hours, which means their legs are more or less cramped.

Remember the current time is early morning. Let's put that at anywhere between 8-10 AM.
 
Dear Katamari

That puts some perspective on the whole venture...Justine will wait until Alfonso's men are dismounted and are tending their horses preferably waiting until the moment when the piquets are about to be set.

Using the Polish tactics of shock eg. riding straight at the disorganized troopers, firing carbines and then hack and slash.

Quite gory but then again she's a nasty piece of work our Justine.
 
I see. Then, I am guessing it will be at noon, Spanish meal time (around 14:00-15:00PM). Alfonso would choose a position that allowed him to look all around, but not necessarily easy to defend seeing how they are still in Spain...

Perhaps on top of a hill (with a smooth slope somewhere for your men to climb up easily), with a small village (cottages with stone walls and wooden/straw roofs).

The camp would be set outside of the village, so as to not disrupt the population's life (meh, like it matters... I don't envision more than 100 people living there).


So: Forest for cover roughly 150 metres away, then ploughed ground (a bit treacherous for horses, if I remember correctly) with paths between the patches. Then, a low stone wall, and the soldiers' camp. Disorganized, no real formation kept. They would cover one whole flank of the village.

If I were Alfonso (and Justine would probably know this), I would place sentries on all sides of the village, BUT the one with the camp. After all, an attack from that direction should be easy to see.




These are my calculations, feel free to offer your own but know that I will respect these without a second thought or discussion if they are accepted:

If you attacked at day-light, you would be discovered roughly 85 metres away, and a barely organized resistance would be prepared to receive you. But you could punch through without losing more than ten men in the initial charge and clash. I estimate my losses from there on as sixty men, with your force reduced to twenty-four men if you escape right through the village (escaping any other way means you lose up to twenty).

If there happened to be a cloudy weather, you would only lose twelve men.

If you wait for night-fall, my losses would be about thirty men, and your own ten.


About whether I would pursue or not... depends completely on how our duel ends. Wounding Alfonso means no persecution, but leaving him alive, uninjured and with his men...
 
Dear Katamari

I'd take my chances on a head-on attack at noon. Given the inaccuracies of muskets (According to Richard Holmes only 20% of the shots fired at 100 yards actually made their targets. A quick dash across the fields, spurring the horses for the final climb before entering the village. If your calculations are correct Justine will suffer losses of say 16 men whereas Alfonso would take casualties up to 60.

Weighing in the moralé of the men then Justine and her Petité Freres are the winners. These darlings have nothing to lose and thusly Justine will not care a flip if they succumb in inflicting such casualties on the opponent. Further there's the psychology of the Spanish civilians to ponder. If they are to be liberated, the French almost beaten and then out of the blue their gallant soldiers being massacrated then the already fragile trust in the Spanish government might crumble further.

On another note I wish that Justine had more men but that's too late to worry about now. And I'm impressed by your calculations. I have to confess that I am fairly well versed in the mechanics of martial practices yet I couldn't do such an accurate a count. :)

So: Sunny weather and a head on assault with the intention of sending as many Spaniards to heaven.
 
Have in mind there would be no real "climb". There is a slope, more or less smooth and of not too much inclination, that goes up into the village. If there were an actual climb... hooooo... shortest-lived character EVER. (And I do mean Justine)



About my estimations, they are not necessarily accurate. I just have a good imagination for fantasy and realism. Most shots miss, the initial slashes are stronger, the best-trained horses fighting against infantry can rear up to scare the enemy away with their hooves (or split their heads open), etc...

Then there is sight and sound. After you jump over the first barrier of defense, you are constantly trying to find an enemy, but all of them are unmounted so you can just look down and hit anything green. If you stay too long, though, you open yourself to attack.

Truth be told, sixty casualties on my side might be five or even ten men too much, but that is up mostly to what your men actually do in combat. For example, if they reserve their pistols for shooting inside the camp, that's at least 20 men shot blank-point. Then, initial slashes and surprise factor can account for up to 20 men. And lastly, up to 20 more in the ensuing scuffles.

The estimation was a bit optimistic towards your side, but yeah... not necessarily super unrealistic.



Oh, and an addition to my calculations. Those 60 casualties on my side would include... perhaps... about 20 wounded ranging between badly, and very badly wounded (definitely out of the picture for the next battle).

On the other hand, out of the surviving 24 men in your squadron, I think at least four of them would have gunshot wounds, not necessarily lethal (suffered when running away, other gunshot wounded are already dead by that point). And most of those 24 would have slight wounds (shallow cuts or grazes).
 
Last edited:
Dismounted enemies in no solid formation. The wet dream of any dragoon. Let us assume further that Alfonso's men do not have the discipline nor the time to form square in order to repel Justine's attack.

The French will attack, keeping ranks as they do, when inside the encampment they'll fire carbines and pistols then launch the all out attack with sabres.

And a revised figure would thusly read:

Spanish Hussars: 45 dead or severely injured

French Dragoons: 16 dead. Justine will not permit any of her men to fall into enemy hands and will have her own dispose of any injured not capable of getting out on their own accord.

I have to confess that I might be able to steal a few paragraphs from my library in order to rend credibility to the attack as such but that's a minor point. If you're ok with the last estimate I'm about to set Justine lose on you.

Lady M
 
Seems like a good calculation to me.

Now, the problem is getting around to writing it. Just how much does each of us write?

I think you should write up to as your men charge. Then, I organize the initial reactions and defense. Then, back to you just as your men break into the camp. Justine probably sees Alfonso now and attacks him. Back to Alfonso, and I guess I could write also a general description of the first moments of battle.

Then, we go into the duel phase...

And finished the duel, you write the escape of your men, and we go on as usual.

Is this Ok?
 
If I might possibly interject?

Holmes's figures are for trained infantry with muskets. The Spaniard's are dismounted cavalry with carbines.

I would be VERY wary in expecting a 20% hit rate on that first volley. The Dragoons prefer close in saber work - and THAT is what they train to expect.
 
True.

But in this case, the dragoons are open to fire from multiple positions by an enemy that outguns them. They are 40 men charging into 120. Even if they kill the first squads organizing to repel them, they still have to deal with their horses moving them into the center of the encampment, where they can be shot by any soldier that sees them and is, at that moment, not impeded by baggage, unloaded weapons, nervousness, or just trying not to trip on his own boots.

And of course, this is close quarters combat. Most shots are going to hit.
 
You're always welcome to interject Steiner

The situation is as far as I understand it as follows:

The Spanish Hussars will be dismounted and rather disorganised apart from the piquets. It is therefor plausible to assume that there will be no volley-fire on behalf of the defenders. Given the element of surprise, the possibility of the Spanish forming square is slim to none. Mainly due to the lack of time to do so.

Will the Spanish gentlemen be carrying their carbines *shorter range than muskets as far as I gather* or leave them with the horses? I suppose they will not unsaddle their mounts and given that the country they operate in for all intents and purposes are held by friendly forces one might assume that they would be a bit sloppy with regards to keeping their firearms with them.

So all in all a considerable number of Frenchies will die in the effort but all in all they will manage, if everything works out, to startle the Spanish.

Having read Katamari's post perhaps it was a tad premature for Justine to chose an attack at this point, although she may not be able to reverse it she could still settle for a short one, killing the piquets and pouring as much fire into the Spanish encampment before retreating.

Would such a compromise do?
 
Last edited:
Even if they hadn't unsaddled their carbines, this is close quarters combat. The realm of pistols and sabers. The range of firearms does not matter except when considering initial and final casualties (when the dragoons get in, and then when they get out).

I feel the final estimates are pretty accurate...
 
Dear Katamari

That will be fine...I'll post the reply in the IC thread right away...A full out attack estimated casualities of 45/16 and an eventual duel? Should it be fought mounted?
 
Now you say that... perhaps Alfonso's first reaction to an enemy attack would be to mount up... that would be the realistic thing to do. Then again, that opens her up to be shot by any of Alfonso's men.

If on the other hand, you want to go for style, then it would be on foot, I guess. Perhaps Justine's horse gets shot from under her and she manages to land Ok. She can then leave helped by one of her men, or just steal a horse (to add salt to injury).
 
Dear Katamari

I've posted the first installment of the impending battle, Justine has taken her men to begin the charge.

Further, a duel on foot well why not. One could assume that neither Alfonso nor Justine are too keen on letting their soldiers help them fighting it...A bit of old time chivalry so to speak.
 
A scrappy and disorganised brawl between two units out of their element in unfamiliar terrain. Almost anything could happen.

Trained infantry would, I feel, eat Justine for breakfast. But these aren't trained infantry. No Volley Fire, lighter balls that do less damage and less accurate shooting (shorter barrels).

You've chosen to charge but were I in command, I'd have taken the piquets, fired the village and moved on. Justine's men could have done that almost without casualties. :)
 
You have a point Steiner but right now we need a bit of drama, thinking on the impending duel between Alfonso and Justine.

Besides if she cancelled the attack now her stock with her men would take a plunge.

As for trained infantry, well I wouldn't pit the poor girl against the Chosen Men, Besides she isn't that evil, only misunderstood, tragic childhood and what not...
 
Your ideas sound fine. A clash of commanders would be a nice traditional way to resolve this.

The big question is why Justine would leave the young man alive or vice versa. If you intend to have them confront each other on the field, you'll need a Deus ex machina to end the duel honourably on both sides.
 
I think that the reason is as simple as pride. Justine has yet to find an opponent who could best her. Besides even though she's a callous young woman she is not entirely void of feelings...Besides Sharpe has had ample opportunity to duel one on one even on the most crammed of battlefields.
 
Hey, hey, who said the Hussars were untrained? Lady Mornington herself defined them as "elite cavalry", and that was what I was going with.

But even elite cavalry are not inmune to disorganization and surprise attacks.



That said, about the duel ending with both characters alive. Justine could capture Alfonso, or viceversa. Justine could wound Alfonso, or viceversa.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top