[Sorry about that. Trying to post Flickr links seems to have messed up my post first time. Let's try again without.]
Wargames that revolve around a fight for a single bridge are notoriously dull. Not in terms of the fighting itself, which can have plenty of ding-dong action. But they are necessarily pretty limited in tactical options, as it's all about the bridge.
TMP stalwart Shipka recently persuaded me to work with him to design scenarios for battles from the Russo-Polish War of 1831, the "November Uprising". The first battle we looked at, Ostrolenka, is just such an action, with the Russians trying to eliminate a Polish bridgehead and create one of their own.
What makes this one interesting is that the terrain on the Polish side of the river makes it difficult for the Poles to prevent the Russians crossing, but difficult for the Russians to expand their foothold. Another factor is that the Polish commander was wary of committing all his forces, for various reasons, so we built in some (optional) command and control constraints so the Poles can't just mass everything to make a Russian crossing impossible. And the battle also has local colour, in the form of a Polish rocket battery and significant numbers of Polish volunteers armed only with scythes and other hand-to-hand weapons.
Although not many people are likely to have suitable armies to fight this, you could either use proxy figures, or else transpose the scenario to another setting so you can use your favourite Napoleonic armies instead. You can find the scenario in the "Bloody Big BATTLES!" Yahoo group files, or else find the Flickr version via my BBB blog.
I'd also be interested in other ways people have found to liven up river crossing games.
Chris
Bloody Big BATTLES!
link
bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk