STEEPLECHASE AFTER ACTION REPORT

This was a homemade game where each player controlled a single courier racing to deliver a message from a General to The Emperor Napoleon. It is set in the Peninsula. Players collect boasts for having successful adventures and shame for suffering indignities or failing. If at least one message gets to the Emperor, the player with the most boasts wins. If no player makes it with a message then the player with the most shame loses.

Five couriers volunteered to undertake the perilous mission.

Gaston -Gaston is a braggart. He equipped himself for the journey with two bottles of wine.
Henri - He is cunning and had filled his sabretache with a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine.
Donald - Also cunning, he rides a superb horse and keeps a pouch of coins handy.
Andre - He is an excellent horseman who rides a superb horse. He brings a pouch of coins.
Jacques - Jacques is a famous swordsman who rides with a pistol and a bottle of wine.

The horsemen will need to cross through enemy patrol lines , get past guerrilla invested hills, and get the the Emperor. The river can only be crossed at the bridge though the stream can be forded. 

The table at game start. Patrols are all in their start positions.

Gaston got off to a great start and heading directly for the bridge but he ran into the path of some British dragoons. They beat him down, robbed him, and then left him for dead when they saw an opportunity to chase pursue Andre.

Donald and Andre galloped by on their superb steeds and got across the bridge in all the confusion. Andre though attracted the attention of a patrol of riflemen.

The dragoons by this time were distracted by Henri. Henri would fight his way clear of the cavalry. As he was passing over the bridge he spotted a small child in peril in the river and heroically paused to save her life.

Gaston though dragged himself to a local farmhouse where his spirits were lifted by a local farmer's daughter. She eventually persuaded her father to billet the young man and he was able to recover from his wounds.

Andre would get bogged down in the rough terrain and finally brought down by the riflemen. His message was taken from him and he was treated quite well but he knew that Henri and Donald were riding into the lead while he stewed in captivity.

Jacques was bringing up the rear but he charged into the British dragoons and savagely cut a pair of them down. They would flee but on the corpse of one, Jacques would find two bottles of wine and a message that Gaston had lost.

Dodging patrols and guerrillas, Donald was the first to arrive at the village where he stopped in at the tavern and recovered from a thirst. He also purchased some food for later. Henri passed him meanwhile and made the turn in the lead position.

Andre was given parole by his riflemen captors and he took it. He did not though get his message back so his only opportunity to win now was to find some notable adventure.

Jacques got to the first bridge and found two red-coated Englishmen guarding it. They were quickly dispatched and he continued on his way. Wary of the riflemen and approaching guerrillas, Jacques took a roundabout detour that took him miles off course.

Gaston, meanwhile, had gotten underway again and was trudging across the countryside when he ran into a pack of guerrillas. They thought little of his attempts at parlay and grabbed him. The next thing he knew, Gaston was buried up to his neck in the earth and the guerrillas ambled off, leaving him there to die.

Henri and Donald, well and safely in the lead, each decided that their adventures had not yet been memorable enough so each of them leapt their steeds over the walls of the monastery to do some talking to the priests. Well, it turned out that these monks were actually guerrillas who were determined to fight. They defeated Andre but from their midst emerged a beautiful maiden who begged her brothers to spare the life of the dashing Hussar. Just then Henri though, that other dashing Hussar, slew two of the guerrillas and drove them form the monastery.

Andre found himself at a farmhouse where he used the opportunity of hiding from a nearby British patrol to dally with the farmer's daughter. When the farmer then took a pot-shot at him form a window, Andre decided it was time to depart so he kissed the girl and rode away. Curiously, the farmhouse was now well ablaze behind Andre.

Jacques had dallied in the village and when he finally got underway again, he found himself beset on two sides by guerrilla bands. There was no escape so he gloriously fought. One band soon took to their heels but then the other, much to his annoyance, threw down their weapons and hailed the Frenchman as their liberator. "Hooray for Captain Jacques!" There was nothing for Jacques to do now but ride away from the noisy mob and look for more adventure.

We had left Gaston buried to his neck in the middle of the Spanish plains. Surprisingly, this hardly slowed him down though and he was soon free and off away again and when he popped into a small wooded grove where he found yet another country maiden. His luck had been unbelievable and so he pressed it. She took him off for some romancing but then suddenly revealed her three bandit compatriots who quickly seized the startled Gaston. The Lady though would see no harm done to the brave Frenchman and his life was spared. With no difficulty at all, Gaston would slip himself free form his bonds and was soon running across the fields again.... straight into two groups of Guerrillas...

Henri and Donald continued to loot the Monastery for a time. Henri would claim two bottles of fine aged wine and a pistol while Donald would collect two horses and a nun.

The unfortunate Andre was run to ground by a patrol of redcoats and managed to buy a bit of time by parlaying, saying something about being given parole by the rifles so not actually an enemy. Henri though saw the trouble that Andre was in and rode to the rescue. Together, the pair would fight a terrific battle in the stream. Henri would suffer two terrible wounds before fleeing, leaving Andre to fend then for himself. Andre was, once again, captured. Eventually, Jacques would ride up and send the infantrymen packing with his sabre. Andre was grudgingly rescued and Jacques increased his boasting tally.

Gaston would be beaten into unconsciousness by bandits and left for dead but when they saw him moving off they renewed their assault upon him. He was captured. It was clear that the bandits were now plotting ingenious new ways of torturing the Frenchman.

Donald had a bit of bad luck on his run for the finish line. First he encountered a pair of British soldiers at abridge and got a wound before he was able to ride clear and then had a patrol of British Dragoons surround him. It was only with the use of a cunning ruse that hew as able to escape and then limped his horse up to the Emperor to pass off his message.

The French had achieved their mission!

The finally boasts were tallied. (These scores are approximate)

In last place was Andre with but a handful of boasts.
Henri: 28
Jacques: 38
Donald: 41
Gaston: 52

It should be noted that because Gaston was a braggart, he got a +1 for every boast chit that he had which was 13. I suppose that Donald actually won but since Gaston would have told the tale better in the mess, he claims the greater glory.