The Silver Bayonet: Rulebook (Hardcover)

Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing

As the wars of Napoleon ravage Europe, chaos and fear reign and the darkness that once clung to the shadows has been emboldened. Supernatural creatures - vampires, werewolves, ghouls, and worse - take advantage of the havoc, striking out at isolated farms, villages and even military units. Whether they are pursuing some master plan or simply reveling in their newfound freedom is unknown. Most people dismiss reports of these slaughters as the rantings of madmen or the lies of deserters, but a few know better. . .

In Britain, a secret award - the Silver Bayonet - is presented to those soldiers brave or fortunate enough to have faced these creatures and survived. Seconded to specialist units, these survivors are tasked with rooting out and destroying the supernatural menace, investigating strange reports, scouring battlefields, and seeking out allies and artefacts that could stem the tide. Britain is not alone in this fight - the other great nations have their own units dedicated to the battle against the supernatural - but that is not to say that there is unity in the face of this common foe. While rival units may forge uneasy and fleeting alliances, patriotism and national interest will just as often pit them against each other in races for ancient knowledge or forgotten treasure.

The Silver Bayonet is a skirmish wargame of gothic horror set during the Napoleonic Wars. Each player forms an elite band of monster hunters drawn from the ranks of one of the great powers. Riflemen, swordsmen, and engineers fight side-by-side with mystics, occultists, and even those few supernatural creatures that can be controlled or reasoned with enough to make common cause. The game can be played solo, cooperatively, or competitively, with players progressing through a series of interlinked adventures with their soldiers gaining experience and suffering grievous wounds and their units triumphing. . . or falling in the face of the shadows. It is a game of action and adventure, where musket and sabre meet tooth and claw.

To play The Silver Bayonet, you will need a few things beside this rulebook:

• Miniatures - approximately 8 per player, in any scale

• Markers and tokens - Most scenarios feature clue markers and fatigue tokens

• A table - 2.5' x 2.5' or 3' x 3'

• Terrain

• Dice - all dice used are ten-sided. There are three distinct types of dice that should be designated by color: Skill (Red), Power (Blue), and Monster (Black).

• Standard deck of playing cards

• Measuring device - all movements and ranges are listed in inches.

• Unit Sheet - the Unit Sheet is available at the back of this book. It is also available on the publisher's website.