Joseph McCullough is having great success in wargaming recently. I say recent, but he’s been going strong for the last few years. Don’t know the name? I know him as the author of the rules for Frostgrave and all of it’s expansions. Frostgrave, Ghost Archipelago, Rangers of Shadowdeep, Stargrave, and Oathmark (maybe others) are all his and are all remarkably popular right now. His rules tapped into a niche for miniature wargaming. They are skirmish-level, maybe a little smaller (skuffle?), and miniature agnostic. They feature small, focused warbands that players can build, advance, and compete with but that don’t reach god-like levels of power like some RPGs build to. The rules feature the risk of death in scenario with a chance of coming back after the fight, so permanence is variable if that makes sense.
His latest rules, Silver Bayonet, keep the same basic ideas as Frostgrave and others but have some changes as well.
It’s the Napoleonic Era. To those of use in the States, that means something different to those in Europe. Distance is its own lens, and all that. During the seemingly constant and all-encompassing war(s) that define the era, something has been unleashed. Dark powers, known as Harvestmen, are operating more openly, releasing and using your standard slate of horrible horrors. Werewolves stalk, revenants shamble, and vampires mince. All of this in and around large militaries as they clash in the better documented historic conflicts.
The Silver Bayonet is a British military unit specifically established to combat or study the more esoteric critters and events that are happening in the background of the larger conflict. Each nationality has their own equivalent unit.
The setting is historic. This is an interesting idea. Many of the miniature agnostic rules out there are fantasy or pulp themed. Not a bad thing, but what are players to do if they have lots of minis to fight with Old Boney, ehh? Where’s their game? If you have piles of old Napoleonic era soldiers painted and ready, you can use them for Silver Bayonet. You’ll still have to source the monsters, but the player warband can be built out of what’s on hand.
Don’t have Naps on the shelf? Or, are they all multibased and you have no plans to chop a few off? Not a worry, there are options out there. The official SB released miniatures for each nationality are a bit of a mish-mash of the nations’ forces in the era. They are all more characterful than your average Napoleonic miniatures. I picked up the Austrians and Russians. Austrians because I have a story in mind for the Hungarian version of the British Silver bayonet. The Russians will be parts of a special project I have in mind for the future, maybe near future.
New rules to learn, but first I have to find players. Son1 and Son2 had no interest in Silver Bayonet. Grumble. But the brothers are up for it. Kenney1.0 is going to paint and play the British (strangely not fenians) and Kenney2.0 is playing Spanish. The goal is to paint and start getting actual games in over the next few months.
Nicely the rules include a solo play option so we can all learn the game mechanics before we get together. We’ll see how those play.
Equipment for the game is standard stuff, no need to buy fancy measuring tools or templates that only work for a single game. There is a fatigue rule, so tokens or markers to indicate fatigue. You do need three colors of d10. No need to have specific colors as long as both players are clear on which color you are using represents which die. Tape measure and playing cards, which we all have anyway, and you have all you need for the mechanics.
The game does require a good number of monsters. That’s what I will start with. I have more than enough monster minis or random figures that will work to fill out all of the required baddies.
2022 Count:
250 figures painted (0.850 per day)
19 figures printed
192 figures purchased
4 terrain painted
the immortal frequentist 
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