Major blunt eyed the patch of forest ahead with not a little trepidation. It just seemed to ooze malevolence. No airy bluebell wood in the spring here. This area promised pain and terror. And somewhere in there was the lost unit.
He looked back and was surprised to see the two privates of his unit standing behind him obviously wanting to get his attention but also not wanting to disturb his reverie.
“Yes?” he asked and Tobias Function stood to attention before speaking.
“Mmffffl flofffm dibl mmmffm fee!”
The problem with Private Function was that what came out of his mouth only sounded like English. You could half grasp that there were words being spoken, but not what they actually were. A brave and reliable soldier nonetheless.
Blunt looked over to Function’s best mate, “Translation Parts?”
“Yes sir, Major sir!”
“He was saying sir, that he has a bad feeling about the woods sir.”
Blunt suppressed a shudder. Private Function’s bad feelings were usually right.
“Nothing to worry about. Just a stroll in the woods. But if it makes you feel safer, load your muskets before we go in.” Blunt replied without much feeling.
If you go down to the Woods today.
In this first solo scenario from the rule book, the unit are tasked with entering a woodland to find orders lost by a unit that had previously entered the woods and perished. The unit starts off in the forest after finding the remains of the missing unit and the sound of wolf howls coming from around them.
Turn 1
The turn opens with Pvt Wullie Mc Feegle and Pvt Ezkiel Parts both shooting at Dark Wolves and missing, while Sgt Maj Podraig Clarsha blasts away with the 7 barrels of his volley gun at a Dark Wolf and draws first blood.
The Dark Wolf runs at Clarsha who dodges a bite and hits back with the butt of the volley gun smashing its skull and killing it.
A Dark Wolf attacks Mc Feegle, sinking its teeth into the highlanders arm. Mc Feegle tries to hit back but only succeeds in driving the wolf back.
Pvt Tobias Function takes a shot and hits, killing the Dark Wolf. Cpt William Sweet shoots at and misses a Werewolf. Dr Pestremus Sussorous seeing Mc Feegle’s bloody arm moves towards him readying a bandage and fires his pistol at a Dark Wolf but misses
At the end of the turn Maj Richard Blunt shoots his rifle at a Dark Wolf but misses and another wolf arrives at the edge of the woods.
Turn 2
Mc Feegle, Pvt Parts and Sgt Maj Clarsha all reload (though for Clarsha this was a bit pointless as the Volley Gun can only be used once per scenario – which represents that reloading 7 barrels would be time consuming).
The Werewolf closes with Cpt Sweet rending him with its claws, sweet stabs back with his bayonet plunging into the Werewolf’s chest but sees that the bayonet hardly scratches the Werewolf’s hide. But he does push it back.
A Dark Wolf attacks Maj Richard Blunt who manages to sidestep.

A Dark Wolf attacks Mc Feegle who burns a fate dice to reduce the damage helping him to survive the attack. Mc Feegle now decides to move back rather than counter attack, leaving the Doctor on his own with a lot more wolf eyes staring at him than he would like.
Cpt Sweet burns the last fate dice to quick reload and manoeuvres putting some distance between him and the Werewolf, shoots his rifle, and luckily Cpt Sweet is one of the unit who has loaded silver shot and does some permanent damage which is enough to kill the beast.
Pvt Function reloads and sees something interesting (a clue marker) and moves towards it.
Maj Blunt reloads and ducks behind a tree. And Dr Sussorous reloads.
At the end of the turn 2 more wolves arrive at the edge of woods.
Turn 3
Function checks the clue marker and finds an ornate silver ramrod (this find adds another power dice to the fate pool) then moves to support Blunt.
Parts also sees something and investigates a thicket. This clue marker is not as useful and reveals another Werewolf!
A Dark Wolf attacks Maj Blunt drawing blood, Blunt thumps it with his rifle butt causing it to back off.
A Dark Wolf attacks sweet who is overcome by his wounds.

Maj Richard Blunt shoots at a Dark wolf misses.
Mc Feegle shoots at a wolf, hits and kills it then moves back putting some distance from the wolves that were approaching him.
Dr Pestremus Sussorous shoots his pistol but misses.
Clarsha attacks a Werewolf with his heavy cavalry sword but doesn’t even scratch the lycanthrope.

At the end of the turn another wolf turns up.
Turn 4
This turn continues with the unit trading blows with the Dark Wolves and mostly missing.

Near the end of the turn the units luck changes as Pvt Parts, who has loaded silver shot, fires at the Werewolf and hits leaving the werewolf looking badly hurt.

And at the end of the turn another Dark Wolf arrives.
Turn 5
A Dark Wolf attacks Pvt Function doing damage. Function then retaliates with his bayonet, killing the wolf!

Following on from this a Dark Wolf attacks Mc Feegle reducing the highlander to 0 health and putting him out of the fight.

A Dark Wolf attacks Clarsha and takes the Sgt Major out of the fight.

A Dark Wolf attacks Dr Sussorous but misses. The Doctor stikes back with his sword stick killing the Dark Wolf.

At the end of the turn the roll to determine whether another Dark wolf turns up brings a bit of luck as the result is that nothing happens.
Turn 6
Maj Richard Blunt shoots at a Darkwolf but completely missies. Dr Pestremus Sussorous moves towards a clue marker as does Pvt Parts, who also reloads.
A Dark wolf moves in to attack Maj Blunt but misses. The Major retaliates doing a small amount of damage and the wolf moves back.
Now a wolf moves in to attack Pvt Function but misses. Tobias retaliates slashing with his bayonet. And the Dark Wolf backs off.
A Dark wolf attacks Parts but misses. Parts strikes back but does no damage. The Dark Wolf backs off.
Just before the end of the turn Function reloads.
At the end of the turn another Dark Wolf arrives.
Turn 7
Major Blunt sees something in the leaf litter and investigates and finds the missing orders! Now the unit can leave the woods. With the orders found Blunt draws his pistol and shoots at a Dark wolf and kills it. And shouts to the unit that it is time to leave.

Function begins legging it towards the edge of the woodland.
Dr Pestremus Sussorous also notices something in the leaf litter and finds a bag of silver shot. Grabbing it he starts moving to the edge of the woods.
The wolves are not going to make it easy though, and a Dark Wolf attacks Maj Richard Blunt, but misses. Maj Blunt then hacks at the Wolf with his sword killing it.

The Werewolf attacks Pvt Parts rending him with its claws putting him out of the fight.

Turn 8
Pvt Function. Major Blunt and Dr Pestremus Sussorous all move off the table ending the game.
Post Scenario Stuff
After the battle, in campaign play, you roll on an injury and death table for each of your unit who were reduced to 0 health. For once the dice were with me and all my downed figures survived.
Thoughts and musings
I know I missed a few odds and ends, like reloads and strike backs but that’s fine and noted for next time.
I tried something different for this battle report and used a voice recorder as I went along rather than making notes with pencil and paper.
The plan was to then run the audio files through a text to speech app and edit that for the battle report. Well, it sort of worked, mostly. Some of the audio got garbled and some of it just failed to be transcribed.
Another thing I need to remember to do is to make a note of when I take a photo and set my camera to number the photos for the battle report, so when I note ‘photo 1’ then the filename of the image will tally with that.
My plan is to make the battle reports a little more ‘narrative’ but its only my second ever so still a learning experience.
Overall, I really enjoyed playing The Silver Bayonet and am looking forwards to another game. I can’t decide whether to continue the British Unit campaign or re-run the scenario with another unit.
If you’ve played this scenario let me know in the comments how your unit fared.