The Minstrel Boy: May 2024

A few days ago, Beth and I got the opportunity to introduce The Silver Bayonet to Nick, our Wren's partner. He'd played D&D and many video game, but he was a newbie to skirmish gaming and since he is had a taste for horror movies, TSB seemed the right thing to do. Nick took command of a Scots-heavy British-Canadian unit while Beth ran an Aboriginal/Lenni-Lanape warband. The scenario was a variation on the fort/trading post scenario from the "Canada" book.

Although this show later-game action, the photo shows the table in a good light.

The kitchen table prior to the game starting. Dark green patches indicate
dense, heavy woods and lighter green light woods.

The trading post had not been heard from in a while and two opposing units came to investigate as night was falling and some figures could be seen working within the walls of the post. "Working"... yeah, that's the ticket!

Beth's warband with a dog included.
The turtle was there just for fun.

Nick's from Scotland originally so his unit was heavy with a
the Scot's Burr. He also had a dog with the unit. Here you see
a Native scout, two infantymen, a rifleman, the Highlander, and
the officer in Highland kit 'way to the left.

Since cobbled the game together, some of the foliage - like the
palm trees - were left to the "Theatre of the Mind" to be re-imagined.

Both sides moved to enter the trading post's area with Nick moving slower than Beth. Once the troops entered the area defined by the walls, the people inside were revealed to be ghouls! A clue marker showed a stew being cooked, but a human finger floating on the top gave away the source of the protein for that dish.

Imagine a stew pot here.
This campfire was a gift from our friend and fellow Silver
Bayonet-er, Mark T.

Ghouls milling about and a clue marker using an extra-large rat head,
(I have a slew of GW Skaven heads that need to be used up... somehow.)

Ghouls looking ghoul-ish.

Funny... you don't look ghoulish.
(Pulp Miniatures dungeon torturer)

The approach!

Beth's warriors encounter the disgusting stewpot... and a surprise revenant!
Why he was in Russian uniform is easy to explain: he was handy!
Now he's doubly dead.

The Lenape explore the trading post after dispatching two ghouls.
(Figures by Blue Moon, Trent, Old Glory, and Prince August)

The dog took an active part in the fray.

Soon enough, both warbands were in the post.
Beth's "woodsman" (a great new troop type) is in the center of the photo, setting fire to the building.

The units meet the hard way!
The red beads means the weapon has been fired and needs to be reloaded.
The yellow bead is the fire. I rolled percentage dice each turn to see how
the fire had spread.

The dogs are fighting! Much growling ensued!

Scots wa' here! And here they are!

At this point, the house was on fire... and horror erupted in the midst of the fire fight!
The Baxbaxwalanuxsiwae came roaring out of the conflagration!
I fudged the entry a bit, cutting down the conditions outlined in the scenario...
'cause I wanted to see "how the monster worked!" (That's what Star Trek redshirts are for!)
(Monster Figure from North Star)

The Cannibal Monster embodying Hunger was taken on by both Scots and Lenape.
We removed the house to make movement and melee simpler.

We can see the Crown's Supernatural Investigator in his bicorne.
The Baxbax (please don't make me type the whole thing!) rolled
barely mediocre attack dice and was killed by both although the
Crown unit put it down and gained the victory points.

The melee from Beth's perspective.

One the Embodiment of Hunger was put down, we decided to score things. Each player had taken out 2 ghouls (+1 point each), Beth recovered the hidden journal (+1 point), and Nick gained the credit for finally dispatching the Baxbax (+3 points) although half of his unit was killed in the encounter. Since it was getting late in the afternoon, we called it a "winning draw" in Nick's favour.

Well, Nick is VERY much in favour of this game and looks forward to playing it again. I'm hoping to host a game of this at an upcoming reenactment with some other reenactors who are keen on the game. I'll keep you informed!

The photo at the top of the blog is my first attempt at making grave stones for "table clutter" and atmospheric things on the table.