The Minstrel Boy: The Silver Bayonet... on the road!

For the past few years - with the exception of the Pandemic times - a reenactment of the battle of Culloden has been held at the Backus-Page House Museum's territory. It is a lovely spot just south of Wallacetown, ON, and I'd recommend it for hikers, birders, lovers-of-wetlands, and people generally interested in history of Southwestern Ontario. This year's even, held on Canada's Victoria Day weekend, had another special event. (The photo is from a few years back.)

A game of The Silver Bayonet was held for a few players after Saturday's battle!

We had planned this a few weeks ago and I hosted a game for Neil (British infantry unit), Bill (French infantry unit), and Mike (British Naval unit.) Rochy, Silas, and Bill K. watched and enjoyed game. Rocky assisted Mike with the Naval crew. (Made up based on the British list.) Bill had the books (main rules and Canada supplement) and it appeared that he has gnawed through more than half the book. Neil and Mike are waiting to receive the books they'd ordered. Actually I was the only one who had played the game before so I worked up a scenario and we started the game. As I said, Rochy assisted Mike, Silas took charge of handing out cotton balls to denote a discharged firearm, and Bill K appeared to quickly memorized the books I had.

(For those who are interested, Rochy, Silas, and Bill K all said they wanted to play next time or sooner and Bill K was already planning to set up a Trading Company unit.) {My evil plan was working! Heh-heh-heh!}

The scenario: A small convoy of wagons hauling the food supplies, ammunition, and the pay for a near-by garrison. It never arrived and different teams of Silver Bayonet troops when out to find them. The presence of the French in Canada was a surprise... but why not? The Vatican unit would have been out of line but not the French!

Neil, Bill, Bill K, Mike, and Rochy prep the table and the units.
Bill brought the tangled-up castle in the middle of the table, part of his collection.
He also provided his own figures, while I provided for Neil, Mike, and the Harvestmen.

Prior to Bill coming to the table, I had places a log cabin in the center.
It was a Dollar Store buy, probably $2. Well worth it!
Note Bill K devouring the rules!

Action under the fly.
Silas watches and soaks up the game and the rules.

We're starting to kick off the game.
Some spectators have been "blurred" in the interest of privacy.

Mike's two Royal Marines, ship's carpenter (rated as "sapper") for the game,
Junior Officer/Master Gunner encounter a demon outside the log cabin,
He was a pretty inept demon, doing little damage before returning
to the Immaterium.
(Marines by Knuckleduster, sailors by Blood & Plunder/Firelock Games)

Meanwhile, Mike and Rochy's Supernatural Investigator encounter
none other than Sasquatch! I said Mike could fight, run, or try to communicate.
The Investigator offered Bigfoot some food and Bigfoot JOINED THE NAVY!
Mike's Crew added Sasquatch to their outfit.
(Sasquatch by Paymaster, Investigator from Trent Miniatures Irish Rebellion range.)

At the other end of the board, Neil ran into a batch of Jo-Ga-Oh Stone-Throwers,
a sort of Iroquois goblin who throws stones. They played catch with the Army for a
brief time and disappeared into a wooded area.
(Stone Thrower from Paymaster, Blunderbuss man from Trent, figures called Beddles with easy
head swops. They were Officials of the Church of England, protecting parish borders,
and investigating possible frauds.)

Silas has his bag of cotton balls, ready to go!

Bill found a cannon, but had no artillerist in his crew, while Mike turned green with jealousy. (Mike runs the cannon crew of the HMS Earl of Moira reenacting unit.) Neil and Bill exchanged some shots.

The action turned again to Mike and Rochy who encountered the TRUE HORROR
OF LIFE IN CANADA... Canada Geese! Although these do not appear in the books,
I decided these nasty beasties had to be present. The Ship's Carpenter/Sapper waded into
the gaggle with his two-handed axe and did tremendous destruction to the Cobra Chickens.
Just what they deserved! I had no figures of geese so I made a stand-in in paper.

On his side, Neil put his unit in a small copse of trees, using his infantryman,
veteran hunter (with blunderbuss), and his rifle-armed woodsman to good effect
against Bill. Each unit had a dog added to them (a freebee) and Neil's went searching.
When his troops caught up, they found a barrel of corned beef!

Mike and Rochy's pup ran up to the small wagon. All three teams could see numerous
bodies of bandits around the wagon. (I don't have the cash or patience to paint up a load
of casualties, so I downloaded paper casualties from the Junior General paper soldier
website. That site is worth a look.) The cart contained musket cartridges and a few
bags of loose gun powder.

The Naval crew entered the "castle" and encountered 3 werewolves who
were defeated in a true battle royal! Bigfoot was not a great fighter, despite
his size. I chalked it up to the Sasquatch folk being very peaceful.
Mike actually intended to have Bigfoot carry the cannon once he got to it!

Bill's French crew came skulking around the castle. The big pink/purple thing
is a tape measure. The grounded musket is the marker for the attack geese!
You can see the cannon barrel peaking out from behind the trees in the center.

When the werewolves appeared, so did 4 Dark Wolves, who sped toward the castle.
Bill tried to shoot the barrel in the wagon since it was probably explosive.
He hit it but did not damage it. After that he was distracted by melee!
(Wolves from Old Glory)

Bill's French officer, grenadier, and infantryman engage Mike and Rocky's
sailors and ship's carpenter in hand to hand. It was messy.

Since it was almost dinner time, we called the game at about 5:30. There were point values assigned to defeated creatures, found items, and other things... but nobody seemed to care! All the players were satisfied with the game and we all enjoyed ourselves. Dinner for Bill, Neil, Beth, and was cooked by Neil's wife, Jane - spare ribs and new potatoes. It was as good as could be.

Neil, Bill, and Mike all said they'd play again. Silas, Rochy, and Bill K were all bit by the bug. In my opinion, the game remains a good cross-over for RPG players who want to do a more "historical" game and for historical figure gamers who want a small-unit skirmish game with a twist.

By the way, did I mention a Vatican unit?