Gaming Sharpe: Sharpe’s Company

Summary

It’s the spring of 1812 and Wellington’s army faces the two great fortresses barring their progress into Spain; Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz. Captain Sharpe soon finds himself in the thick of the action at Ciudad Rodrigo, but then his world starts to dissolve as he loses his Captaincy, his lover is threatened by a returning Sgt Hakeswill, Harper is flogged and Teresa and his daughter are trapped in the hellhole of Badajoz. Condemned to administrative duties, Sharpe can only watch as his beloved riflemen are stripped of the green jackets, but of course, he succeeds in the end, capturing the breach, rescuing Teresa and getting his company back.

What’s in the Game?

Who are the Characters?

Where we might take inspiration for rank and file characters from most of the Sharpe books, here the focus is fully on the lower ranked officers. We lost Col. Lawford to injury but gained Col. Windham, as the company changes commanding officer. Captain Rymer takes the place of Sharpe in command of the Light Company, and we also see more of the drunk Lt Price, and everyone’s favourite royalist American, Capt. Leroy. And following the literary form, we are introduced to another plucky Ensign, Matthews, who has the normal mayfly-esque lifespan of a Sharpe novel Ensign…

Of course, our old staples are here – Harper looms large in this book, and Hagman makes more than one appearance. We get some time with Teresa as well, although not too much. 

What are the Missions

‘Capture Ciudad Rodrigo’ is the first mission and soon after Sharpe takes up a personal mission of ‘Kill Sergeant Hakeswill’ which he fails by the end of the book. Sharpe also has another mission of ‘Regain the Light Company’, which he does complete successfully. His mission at Badajoz isn’t actually to take the city, it is ‘Protect Teresa and Antonia’

In amongst all of this there are some great combined challenges where Hakeswill and his desire to regain command cross over, and obviously at the end of the book, Hakeswill becomes the danger to Teresa!

The Book is the TV Episode

One thing to quickly note here, is that this novel is exceptionally close to the writing and plot of the TV episode. Barring a rousing speech about spades (missing from the novel), and the failed attack on the dam (missing from the TV episode) they are pretty closely tied.

Siege Warfare

Sieges are a difficult thing to model in a game of Duty & Honour. The basic format is one where the fortress is pummelled by cannon fire until the wall is breached, and then men are thrown at the heavily trapped breach and die in their hundreds, until they enter the city and the siege is lifted. Playing a historically accurate game, the chances of the PCs dying are high, especially if they are part of the ‘Forlorn Hope’ – the people first into the breach who take the full force of the explosives. Even in the novels, while Sharpe wishes for the Forlorn Hope in order to get his Captaincy back, he never actually leads one. He sort of rallies the troops after the first few waves of fighting happen.

In a game, the PCs may be better suited with special side missions, like trying to blow up the dam or sneaking into a fortress through the sewerage or some other ruse. A fully fledged Siege mission would be a dangerous affair and characters would rightly expect to come away injured, at best!

Hakeswill…

While I have been on record as thinking Simmerson is the premier Sharpe villain, most people don’t go further than Obadiah Hakeswill. He is an absolute bastard and in many ways, I think, one of the most cleverly written characters in the book. He uses the system and the pretty lax regard for the safety of the men for his own means, and almost always wins out one way or the other. Hakeswill is the character responsible for the existence of the Cheat Death talent, in the game, and if you can make a recurring bad guy NPC even slightly as malicious and manipulatively evil in your game, you’re onto a winner. 

Hakeswill’s trick is how he weaponises being ‘technically correct’ in a world where rules, regulation and face are paramount. When he points out – or engineers – an infraction, it has to be punished. To not punish it would be to condone it. And in this manner he is never in the wrong, but is always terrifying to the men. In game, having a challenge involving such a character testing Soldiering to ensure your musket is clean etc. would be appropriate. Slovenly soldiers will be punished, sir. Says so in the regulations!

Playing with Rank

A lot of this book revolves around the concepts of promotion and demotion. Sharpe was originally ‘gazetted’ to Captain – a field promotion – but it was never confirmed from the clerks at Horseguards. So when a new Captain, Rymer, appears, he has to give way and surrender his company. As they have too many Captains, he is demoted to Lieutenant and then removed from the Company altogether as his presence unsettles the new Captain. He is assured, however, that he will be promoted after the siege as ‘they will be handing out captaincies with the rations’ when officers are killed in the fighting. After the battle, he naturally gets his rank and his company back.

Similarly, Harper is stripped of his rank of Sergeant when he is framed by Hakeswill for the theft of officers’ belongings and flogged. Private Harper of the Rifles soon becomes Private Harper of the South Essex when he is stripped of his rifleman status and trappings, but again, by the end of the novel, he has his rank and his green jacket back.

Rank is an important part of the structure of military society and playing around with it in game is a powerful tool. However, it is a bit like the old D&D staple of level-drain. It’s interesting in the short term but can be a bit of a punch in the teeth to have fought for those promotions and then be busted back down with no recourse (unless it’s justified, of course). Always have a way to bounce back, for that sweet victory.

The Horrors of War

The siege of Badajoz might be one of the British army’s greatest victories, but the sack of Badajoz in the aftermath has to be one of its most shameful. Rape, murder and pillage happened at an unimaginable scale. Frankly, this is not one of the aspects of the period I would recommend replicating in your game. Even though your characters could be on the side of the angels, trying to quell the hysterical depravity, you still have to have that depravity described, over and over again. Unless your group is wanting to play out a warts-and-all critique of the period, I would fade swiftly to black and maybe explain why. It is important to reflect that for the invaded people of Spain, sometimes the British were worse than the French…

Marching On…

Sharpe’s Company may be an iconic instalment in the series, but it doesn’t offer a lot when it comes to gameable content for Duty & Honour apart from the glimpses of more administrative duties, an idea about sieges and, of course, the abominable Sgt. Hakeswill. We may have more material as the British move into Spain, and we read Sharpe’s Sword.