Napoleonic Gothic Horror game coming from Osprey?

[Matakakea]

New figures, the Russians for Silver Bayonet came in yesterday, along with the Vampires, Goblins and Living Scarecrow. I'll have pictures of them all very soon.

Great news. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Russian Werebear.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

The two action activation with reloading being a single action felt very quick, basically load and shoot every activation.

That's true, but just as with Frostgrave crossbows you won't be moving at all if you do that.

Despite Richard Sharpe so famously going on about shooting three rounds a minute, 1 to 6 rounds a minute for smooth bore muskets was common in the Napoleonic era according to historical sources.

Sharpe's quote there is in ref to rifles, not smoothbores.  Three rounds a minute for aimed rifle fire would have been pretty good, especially as the fight goes on and weapons start to foul, people get tired, injured and dehydrated, gunsmoke starts to cover the battlefield, etc.

The rate of fire depended on quality of weapon, training, and time taken for aiming.

Granted, but I don't believe the game has a stated time scale.  You could probably reverse engineer a rough idea by looking at figure size and movement speeds to calculate ground and time scales, but I honestly doubt that much of an attempt at simulation was a design consideration here.  MCCullough's previous rules certainly don't show that kind of attention to small details over ease of play.

Then there is the fact it takes longer to reload a rifle than a musket. Is that reflected in the rulebook?

Not that I know of.

Originally I liked the idea of the split activations in the turn but the playthrough did not seem as interesting as I first thought.

Ash playing both sides probably didn't help that any.  With two brains opposing one another the system might be more interesting - although that wouldn't help your co-op concerns.

The return fire or duck for cover rule was interesting but in play it did not look that great.

It did seem to generate a fair amount of extra creeping movement, FWIW.  Actually firing back wasn't as common or impactful as I would have expected. Feels very strange that the mechanic exists here and not in Stargrave, at least to me.

What I want from the Silver Bayonet is to feel the same but with added supernatural horror.

That did seem lacking compared to, say, Strange Aeons.  It's been suggested that's due to the basic intro scenario, maybe it comes through more in more standard games.

[dampfpanzerwagon]

I've been working on a Flintloque/Silver Bayonet cross over project and posting details on Other Adventures (where I have previously posted information about Flintloque) but now think that I should also place a link here.....



and



For more information, see the Blog.

Tony
http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/2021/11/flintloquesilver-bayonet-cross-over_9.html

[Grumpy Gnome]

Sharpe seems to apply the 3 rounds a minute standard to muskets as well as rifles…



Reloading a musket on the move is an interesting concept.

[Sarmor]

New figures, the Russians for Silver Bayonet came in yesterday, along with the Vampires, Goblins and Living Scarecrow. I'll have pictures of them all very soon.

Can't wait for these to be revealed (and released)! My group decided to set our games in the Duchy of Warsaw, so for we're all eager to see Wave II units.

[VonAkers]

Hi Guys
I too am looking forward to the Silver Bayonet .
I have a lot of Peninsula buildings , terrain and figures that I can now get the much desired '"Double Duty " use on.... Huzzah !!
Grumpy G   in regards to you thoughts on the rules , that its not very horror like.. that may well hold true ( sounds a bit  like it )
However that surely would be easily fixed, by a few House rules ? Mods .?

For example by Substituting in  say 2 x 6 zombies/ Undead,  for a troll  you can make the game as Horror themed as you like , and with Plastic figures, conversions  would be very easy and Fun ..!! ....Dont wanna make Zombie Napoleonic Infantry ?... ( as if ) then buy some from Eureka Miniatures they have some nice ones in metal ready to go  ..
Wanna play multiplayer...?? what about doubling the the figure count and Players ?
Have 2 players per side , and increase the  number of generic soldiers used say 3 groups x 2 extra,& increase the monster count ?? ,,,so a 6 player game + Monsters !
I could go on,,
I would not get to worried about the historical relevence, just does it "work "and is it a bit of fun for very little investment in time and Money ?
Sounds like it to me
Cheers
Ps Yes I like Big Games  and will not lie , gonna make some Zombies tonite ,
 

[Grumpy Gnome]

I am glad more people than I expected seem into the concept of the Silver Bayonet.

My issue with the Horror in the game is not the type of monsters, I do not find zombies more horrific than trolls. Nor am I unwilling to mod a game. I could quite easily use Frostgrave or Rangers of Shadow Deep to play a modded Napoleonic experience.

Joe has a fertile imagination and he is good at Game mechanics. I like that he has tried to address swinginess by not only adjusting to 2 d10s but by differentiating those as power and skill. I would not have thought to do that. Sure I have considered going to 2 d10s, it has been heavily discussed on these forums but I had not considered the skills and power concept and in theory I like it. Now we need to try it extensively in practice.

I know Joe wrote Cthulu rules and put them in Blaster. I was wondering what he had come up with for that and how it may make the Silver Bayonet more Horror focused than his previous games. Mental strain from facing the occult? There are terror checks and madness rules in the game but we did not see them displayed in Ash‘s playthrough. From what I understand it is the first scenario of the game so I guess Joe did not want to throw people in the deep end… but an opening scene can set a tone, like the opening of a James Bond film or the opening scene of the original Star Wars.

The characters are not encountering the supernatural for the very first time. That concept alone changes how I expect the game to feel in a narrative sense.

Maybe if the hobgoblin had been more dangerous, forcing the players to work together… as I have seen a Troll taking out characters left, right and center in an early Game of Battle Companies for Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game…. the Horror aspect would feel more… horrific. 

Maybe it is in part down to Ash and his presentation. He did not model the clues, no dismembered corpses on the table. Everything is well lit, the table is not creepy, it appears to be a sunny day with moderate weather. And yet the characters seem to expect trouble. It is not like the horror surprises them.

Is any of this making sense?

Of course Mrs. GG and I can make mourn own game. We can role play, do our immersive modeling, play background music. We were going to do something similar with Sharp Practice but I was hoping Joe would do the bulk of the heavy lifting for me with the Silver Bayonet.

[Matakakea]

The order arrived around 0930 this morning. Fortunately I have next week booked off, so I can study the book and get straight into the painting.

[VonAkers]

GG
Good thinking ...You may be on to something there with Sharpes Practise ( Im a fan)
It would be quite easy to add in another set of markers / cards into the bag , maybe a different colour for the monsters , or a specific monster numbered chit ..?
Worth a try maybe .
Cheers
 

[Chief Lackey Rich]

I like that he has tried to address swinginess by not only adjusting to 2 d10s but by differentiating those as power and skill. I would not have thought to do that.

The introduction of a mechanic that lets you use limited resources (the power/skill/monster die pool) to influence rolls after the fact (including monster die rolls when your opponent's figs are at risk) goes a long way toward mitigating swings too.  People would probably have far fewer concerns about the d20 rolls in all his previous rule sets if there was some kind of re-roll mechanic built in to the game - just think about how many fights are largely decided by one or two key uncommonly high or low rolls resulting in a sudden kill or clutch spell/power going off or being resisted.

[Vanvlak]

I just realised to my surprise that I probably have a small force for this (the rules are still on the way).
And it's actually painted too! Having a complete something is unusual for me 
I had once purchased a force of pump-kin, tiny little pumpkin-headed people, led by a larger figure in what could easily pass for a Napoleonic period uniform! These were painted, but I had applied some alterations and touched them up a little. I think I have a larger pumpkin-headed monster which is unpainted somewhere too. At least this has cheered me up a bit after a rough week 

[Grumpy Gnome]

The introduction of a mechanic that lets you use limited resources (the power/skill/monster die pool) to influence rolls after the fact (including monster die rolls when your opponent's figs are at risk) goes a long way toward mitigating swings too.  People would probably have far fewer concerns about the d20 rolls in all his previous rule sets if there was some kind of re-roll mechanic built in to the game - just think about how many fights are largely decided by one or two key uncommonly high or low rolls resulting in a sudden kill or clutch spell/power going off or being resisted.

Excellent point mate, I agree. Rerolls and might/will/fate points help lend a player a sense of agency in Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Excellent point mate, I agree. Rerolls and might/will/fate points help lend a player a sense of agency in Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game.

Sure do.  I'm a fan of mechanics that let you offset the worst of being bitten by bad dice, as long as they run on a fairly limited resource so you can't entirely dodge the element of chance.  Malifaux might carry that a bit too far for my tastes but I have to admit their card manipulation mechanics do open up a lot of interesting design space for weird abilities.

[metalface13]

New figures, the Russians for Silver Bayonet came in yesterday, along with the Vampires, Goblins and Living Scarecrow. I'll have pictures of them all very soon.

Exciting! Russians and Austrians are what I really want to see.

[Romark]

Exciting! Russians and Austrians are what I really want to see.

Seconded!