Given my penchant for historically based fantasy, see http://bogdanwaz.blogspot.com/2015/02/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-playtest.html and http://bogdanwaz.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-road-from-moscow.html, The Silver Bayonet, the new Napoleonic horror skirmish game from Joseph McCullough, was a natural for me. I recently got the rules, put together a unit, and started on the four scenario solo campaign. Below is a report on the first game, The Wolf Pack.
Here's my Silver Bayonet Unit. The unit is led by Captain Andrzej Milna, a member of the minor nobility who left home as a youth to serve in Kosciuszko's Uprising against the Russians and Prussians in 1794 where he first served with Sergeatn Staszek Soroka, a woodsman from the White Forest. After the defeat of the Uprising, they joined Dabrowski's Legions fighting for the French in Italy. Their unit was forcibly sent to Haiti in 1802, when they were no longer usefully to Napoleon in Europe. Having enlisted with the French to free their homeland, they did not want to fight to enslave others, they joined the Haitians. Milna is the officer, with the attributes of Indefatigable and Inspiring. Sergeant Soroka is classed as a Veteran Hunter with the Quick Load Attribute. The unit has been joined by Sulavi Coidavid, a Haitian mambo, classed as an Occultist and her bodyguard, Bien Aimee, classed as a Native Scout. Three infantrymen round out the unit, Privates Dobusz, Szymanski, and Kowalczyk.
This is the table set up for the first two scenarios. The mountains and jungle forming the borders for the two 2.5' x 2.5' boards. The Wolf Pack scenario will be on the right hand side of the table, The Ruined Chapel on the left.
As background for this scenario, a French specialist unit searching for a ruined chapel is believed to have been destroyed along the trail by supernatural forces. Haitian rebel General Dessalines sends Milna's unit to investigate what the French were looking for. The first scenario finds the Poles and their Haitian allies in the jungle where they are finding evidence of the destroyed French unit. There are six clue markers that I placed randomly around the board using directions dice. Each time the characters investigate a clue, there is a table saying what the clue is as determined by a card draw. The key item is the orders that the French unit had been given explaining their mission.
The Poles start clustered in the middle of the board. One half of the unit will activate followed the monsters and then the other half of the unit get to act. The monsters in this case are the viciously predatory Dark Wolves. Since wolves are not native to Haiti, I said they were some of the slave-hunting dogs that the French general Rochambeau brought in against the rebels, numbers of which went feral and are being used by the supernatural forces of evil, known as the Harvestmen.
The game starts out well, Sergeant Soroka and Private Kowalczyk bring down two of the feral beasts with their first lucky shots.
This clears the path for Milna to search a clue marker, revealing a silver ramrod that gives an extra Fate Pool dice that can be used to reroll or modify bad rolls.
The Dark Hounds move in on the unit from all sides.
The big rebel scout, Bien Ami, throws himself upon one of the dogs, only slightly wounding it.
Sulavi, the voodoo priestess, rushes to her companions aid but the dog tears into her horribly.
Private Szmanski realizes that one of their attackers is approaching on two legs, a werewolf! Soroka aims his rifle at the creature and strikes it with a silver bullet but the creature continues on, although heavily wounded.
Milna rushes to the aid of the two Haitians, using his silver-edged Zweihander sword, a family heirloom captured by one of his ancestors in battle with the Teutonic Knights. He cuts through the hound, killing it instantly.
At the other end of the clearing, another werewolf appears.
The dogs begin to swarm the unit. Two leap at Private Dobusz who fends them off with difficulty.
Another dog attacks Bien Ami, wounding him severely.
One of the Dark Hound has brought Szymanski down. However, as the werewolf approaches the party, Sgt Soroka blasts it with another silver bullet, killing the horror.
Sulavi rushes to aid Dobusz and manages to put down one of the hounds while Milna runs to aid Bien Ami. His greatsword slashes through the beast.
In the distance, more hounds emerge from the woods.
The second werewolf now reached the center of the clearing and bit at Sulavi, fortunately missing the already wounded mambo.
In return, Sulavi slashed at the throat of the creature with her silver ritual dagger, killing it instantly. (Mechanically, I used the optional Critical Hit rule that add +2 damage, added to the +1 Melee Sulavi has, resulting in the werewolf taking 13 hits against it's Health of 12.)
Dobusz managed to dispatch the remaining Dark Hound, giving them a moment of respite. (I used one of the Fate Dice to be able to reroll Dobusz' Power Die in this attack, increasing the damage enough the kill the hound.)
It was not to last, as more of the beasts charged into the clearing.
Soroka and Kowalczyk killed one of the dogs while the rest of the party moved toward the southern edge of the clearing. Bien Ami managed to investigate another clue, finding silver saint's medallion (Giving them another Fate die).
Another set of hounds appeared, moving to cut off their retreat.
Kowalczyk followed after the big scout, managing to come across a packet containing the missing orders!
Just as the pair of hound were about to hit Bien Ami, Soroka hit the first with a rifle shot. Milna used his pistols to bring it down. The second hound could not reach Bien Ami. In the next moments, the rest of the party fled the clearing to the relative safety of the woods. With the retrieved orders, they could now find the ruined chapel for which the French unit had been searching.
My overall evaluation is that this is a fun set of rules, different enough from the Frostgrave system to give it a different feel. The solo scenarios seemed well balanced - I was particularly lucky in my dice rolling, especially from Sergeant Soroka who did not miss a shot with his rifle the entire game. I'll be posting a report of the second game in the campaign, The Ruined Chapel, soon.
