The Silver Bayonet - The Ruined Chapel

Having barely escaped the ravenous wolves, our heroes press on into the deep, dark forrest. Led only by Dulles' intuitive sense of direction and a crude map the previous party had sketched out for them - to show where they were headed, in case they did not make it back - they pressed ever onward. When the long, overgraown pathways led them to the deepest, darkest heard of the wood, they came upon a clearing. So dense was the wood, here, that it seemed almost night, though it was clearly mid-day. In the middle of the small clearing stood the remains of a small chapel. Surrounding it, and spreading off into the wood that consumed it, was an extensive graveyard. Among the silent stone grave markers, something stirred. Something sinister, that could no longer be considered human... 

Carrying on the campaign we started with The Wolf Pack, Finnegan and I played the second scenario in the short solo/co-op campaign in The Silver Bayonet. 

FORCES

Mister Collins' Crew - Finnegan

• The Reverend Mister Collins
• Private Graham - Highlander (-3 Health due to injury in previous game) 
• Mister Farrer - Swordsman

Dulles' Rifles - Tim

• Lieutenant Richard Dulles' - Officer
• Sergeant Grabbe - Rifleman
• Rifleman Coyle - Rifleman

The Enemy

• Vampires
• Revenants (zombies) 

THE GAME

Ruined Chapel in the middle of the deep, dark woods. 

I did find my box of trees! You'll have to imagine, as we did, that they are MUCH larger and more ominous looking... and less like a Xmas Tree Farm. 

Our Heroes approach the Ruined Chapel!

Something stirs within the overgrown graveyard!

ROUND ONE

Finnegan won the initiative and Mr. Collins charged forward and tried to bash in the skull of one of the Revenants. He dealt it a serious blow, to be sure (7 damage!), but the Revenant fought back and dealt Mister Collins some pretty serious damage as well (8 DAMAGE!) 

Yikes! 

Not a great start!

Private Graham went next, moving up the pathway and blasting at the revenant, but missing...

Mister Ferrars came to the rescue, charging in and finishing off the damaged Revenant! 

This did not bode well - three attacks to take down ONE of the revenants... of which there were six on the board... and a new one appearing EVERY turn!? 

On the Monsters Activation Phase, another Revenant shambled up to Mister Collins and attacked. This one failed to 

the rest of the Revenants shambled towards the group.

Lieutenant Dulles charged in and slashed at one of the revenants, but didn't seem to slow it down. Despite their slow shambolic gait, their attacks were more ferocious than one would expect and it was all he could to to parry and turn aside its attacks.

Sergeant Grabbe and Riflemen Coyle also moved up. 

And that's when the Vampire appeared!

ROUND TWO

This time Dulles' Rifles took the initiative and Sergeant Grabbe shot at a revenant, but his bullet passed right through it. He followed up the show with a charge and damaged it severely with a few jabs of his bayonet and bashed with the butt of his rifle (dealing 8 damage!) 

Lieutenant Dulles attacked the revenant again... and again was just barely able to hold off it's counterattacks. 

Riflemen Coyle dashed past them both into the ruined chapel in hopes of searching it and finding what it was they came for! 

The Revenant Sergeant Grabbe has been fighting redoubled it's own efforts and injured Sergeant Grabbe (5 Damage!). The sergeant was unable to deal any back in kind. 

As Rifleman Coyle was about to search a pile of rubble in the Chapel, a revenant stumbled in through the doorway and set upon him. Coyle got the upper-hand, though and knocked on of its arms clean off at the shoulder... of course the horrid thing just picked up the arm with the other hand and proceeded to swing it around like a club!

The Revenant attacking Lt Dulles finally landed a blow, causing him to bleed profusely from his arm. (9 Damage!) But Dulles found an opening and was able to cut a good chunk out of the relentless attacker. 

The vampire drew ever closer. 

More revenants came stumbling up to join the others. 

Mr Collins Shouted "there's too many of them, we need to find what we're looking for and get out of here" Then he burst into the ruined chapel and, rushing to Rifleman Coyle's aid, stove in the Revenant's head with his hefty silver cross. 

Private Graham followed his leader, sprinting into the chapel to look for the sacred artifacts. 

Mr. Ferrars came to the aid or Lt. Dulles, finishing off the Revenant that had been attacking him. 

ROUND THREE

Mr. Collins' Crew once again took the initiative.

Mr. Collins quickly searched the and found a strange candelabra - one of the items he believed the previous group has been sent here to recover. 

Private Graham also made a quick search of the corner of the ruins he was in and discovered a Jewel- Encrusted Silver Cross - the other item they were on the lookout for! He shouted out to Mister Collins "I've found it, sir!"

Mr. Collins bellowed for all to hear; "WE HAVE SECURED THE ITEMS, CLEAR A WAY AND LET US DEPART THIS ACCURSED PLACE!' 

Mr Ferrars shot his pistol at (missing) and then charged another Revenant, cutting it' head clean off with his sword! Huzzah! 

The Revenant fighting Sergeant Grabbe landed another blow (leaving him with only ONE HEALTH!?), But with a final burst of effort, Sergeant Grabbe knocked the thing apart with series of furious blows from his rifle. 

Another Revenant stumbled over the corpse of the one Mr. Ferrars had just finished off an injured the preacher, who was unable to deal any damage back. 

Vampire surging forward towards Sergeant Grabbe! 

Sergeant Grabbe decided the discretion was, in fact, the better part of valour... and scarpered! That's supposed to be smoke trailing him from his discharged block powder rifle... but it could also be, in part, dust kicked up as he tore off down the trail! 

Lt. Dulles decided to stay in the fight, hoping to clear a way for Mr. Collins and Private Graham to get clear of the tussle. 

Rifleman Coyle gave up on his idea of searching the Chapel and lead the way out... spotting the vampire charing towards them, he aimed his rifle and blew a hole clear through it's chest with his silver shot (9 Damage)! The blow clearly staggered the monster, but it quickly recovered and continued to charge towards him! 

Another Revenant clawed it's way out of the earth next to a grave marker nearby. 

ROUND FOUR

Mr. Collins' Crew seized the initiative, again and sped off down the road after Sergeant Grabbe! 

The Vampire charged poor Rifleman Coyle. The usually steadfast Rifleman froze as the vampire cut him with it's sword! 

A Revenant attacked Lt. Dulles again and overpowered him and knocked him to the ground.... (Out of Action!)  



The newly-raised-from-the-earth Revenant attacked the terrified Rifleman Coyle and it was just too much for him to bear... he ran screaming off into the woods. 

(he was also taken out-of-action... but, as we discovered later in the post-game sequence, he turned out to have received only flesh wounds, it makes sense that he just fled in terror....) 

Sergeant Grabbe decided to take up the rear and hold off the monsters as best he could to give the others a chance to distance themselves. He reloaded his rifle, took aim and shot at the Vampire.... but missed. 

ROUND FIVE

Mr Collins' Crew made good their escape and exited the scene, pursued by... well.. the undead. 

The legions of the damned bore down on Sergeant Grabbe. He briefly considered reloading his Rifle and trying to finish off the Vampire... but there was no real purpose in it and he followed Mr. Collins and his fellows down the pathway through the dark heart of the forest! 

POST GAME

Checking on Lieutenant Dulles and Rifleman Coyle, Dulles received a permanent injury and Coyle's injuries were mere flesh wounds. Dulles permanent injury reduced his Courage by -1! I guess something about facing vampire shook him to his very core. We said he pushed the revenant off of him and rolled to the side. 

The Revenant had been temporarily distracted by Rifleman Coyle running past, screaming, and that gave the injured Lt. Dulles a moment of reprieve - long enough to crawl into the woods and hide for a moment and then sneak off when some of the Revenants had cleared away. 

I never saw Dulles +3 Courage  as actual COURAGE, more of a supreme arrogance, overconfidence and the utmost disdain for others he perceived of being at a lower station than himself (anyone less than nobility, all foreigners, and monsters). Something about the revenants they faced or the cold-dead stare of the vampire he briefly glanced, broke that impenetrable armour of contempt. 

Experience

I like that experience (which, I think, kind of also double as victory points for determining the victor in a head-to-head/competitive scenario..?) isn't solely tied to killing the enemy. You can gain quite a bit from accomplishing the scenarios objectives - which aren't always KILL THE THINGS! In this one the rewards were:

• +1 XP if the unit investigates three or more clue markers
• +1 XP if the unit Kill five or more Revenants
• +1 XP for each Vampire Killed by the unit
• +1 XP if at least four soldiers exit the table
• +2 XP if a solder exits the table carrying the Silver Cross
• +2 XP if a solder exits the table carrying the Candelabra

We killed six Revenants, More than four soldiers exited the table in relatively good order, and they were carrying both the Silver Cross and the Candelabra, for a total of SIX extra Experience Points - the maximum we could have gained. 

We COULD have stuck around and tried to finish off the Vampire... but then more would likely have been taken out of action and we'd have lost the XP for not getting more guys off the table...? Or if we killed the Vampire AND still gotten 4+ off... we would have simply lost the additional XP as soldiers can only gain a maximum of one bonus XP per scenario.... (in addition to the one they get for surviving) 

This meant everyone gained two Experience Points (one for surviving, and one bonus point) 

Normally a soldier will gain one or two experience points (rarely, if it's stated in a scenario, you an potentially gain a third... but it's rare and it would only be the one soldier that did that one thing... and I haven't actually found a reference to this happening in any of the scenarios in the book that I have read!?) 

You need five Experience Points to get to Tier One and gain some sort of benefit (+1 Courage - some benefits are fixed, at other tiers there is a choice). That's going to be at least three games, under normal circumstances. It requires TEN experience to get to Tier Two, EIGHTEEN to get to Tier Three... Tier Seven needs a HUNDRED experience points... so, under normal circumstances, that would be fifty to a hundred games you've have to play - with the SAME UNIT!? It lists up to Tier Nine - which would require TWO HUNDRED EXPERIENCE POINTS (requiring 100-200 games played!?). 

It's been a while since I played Frostgrave, but I remember wizards going up MULTIPLE levels in ONE good game. I guess there were a LOT more things that COULD be improved in Frostgrave (casting numbers for 8+ spells, learning new spells, etc).

I am currently leaning towards using The Silver Bayonet for my weekend campaign in February. If so, I think I will change the experience requirements of the Tiers to be two per tier (i.e. Tier One requires only 2 Experience Points, Tier Two requires four, Three requires six, etc...) - so the participants can actually see their characters improve over the very limited campaign of six scenarios over the weekend... 

Given my mercurial attention span for games, I may have to do this for our regular campaigns as well!? 

Revenants are HARD TO KILL! They have 10 heath, so are very hard to take out with a single blow - meaning two to three of your unit have to attack one, generally in melee (as they have damage reduction against shooty weapons), to take it down... They also have a defence of 12, so you're generally only going to hit them about 50-55% of the time. I can see making them a bit tougher. But I would have at least made them easier to HIT!  

Revenants are basically zombies, and I feel like zombies should be totally easy to hit... maybe a bit harder to actually take down their strength should be in overwhelming numbers and their ability to take some hits and keep going, not their ability to dodge blows. Might change their defence to ten...? 

Also, I still can't help thinking this book is a little on the sparse side... 

Frostgrave, a hard cover book that is the same price as The Silver Bayonet, has 222 pages to the Silver Bayonet's 160 pages. 

There are fifteen different soldiers for hire to The Silver Bayonet's twenty four (but convenient table summarizing them!?). 

The Silver Bayonet has thirty-six "attributes" - of which, seventeen may be selected by officers or soldiers the rest describe things monster special abilities. By contrast, Frostgrave has EIGHTY spells (ten colleges, 8 spell each - in the core book) and twenty-nine different traits/special abilities for monsters... 

Speaking of Monster, for a game that's about hunting monsters, there are only nineteen different ones (including bandits and cultists) in The Silver Bayonet, to TWENTY-SEVEN in Frostgrave!? 

The Frostgrave core book - in addition to the "Standard" set-up-terrain-and-treasure-and-go scenario, it has TWENTY different special scenarios... The Silver Bayonet has ten scenarios... plus the four for solo/co-op play (which you will have to play over and over, many times if you want to get beyond Tier Two). There are some very general guidelines for making your own scenarios in The Silver Bayonet... but no simple, straightforward "Standard" scenario, like there is in Frostgrave. 

There are PILES of treasure tables in Frostgrave and about fifty different potions and magic items (not including grimoires and scrolls of the aforementioned EIGHTY spells or multitude of different +X to hit and/or damage magic weapons). The Silver Bayonet's seven "Special Armoury" items.... 

Also for campaigning in Frostgrave - you can set up a base of operations and add all sorts of fun stuff to your base that can give you in-game and out-of-game bonuses... there is nothing of the sort in The Silver Bayonet. 

Am I regretting picking up The Silver Bayonet? Not at all... Am I feeling a LITTLE BIT disappointed and like there COULD have been so much MORE in here... Oh, yes... 

On one hand I really hope they were holding stuff back so they'd have material to put into expansions with loads more scenarios. On the other hand... seriously, you could have given us a bit more in this book and STILL had PLENTY to put into future expansions. Especially if it ends up NOT being popular enough that Osprey decides not to make any future expansions!? 

I would LOVE to see campaign book expansions for this game. A couple of the off-the-top-of-my-head obvious ones could include:

Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign could introduce the Ottomans and a whole pile of new monsters based on North African and Middle East myth (Mummies, Djinn, etc.)

Maybe a War or 1812 book adding options for Americans and more monsters based on First Nations legends (Wendigo, Sasquatch, etc - I mean, they already got the minis in the Dracula's America line!) 

The Peninsular Campaign? The Russian Campaign?! Both could have a bunch of scenarios linked into a campaign that skirts the actual campaigns of the historical armies...