“We waited in our summer camps, we waited all summer long
To be paid for the bloody work we had done
I fought with Freeborn John, I fought with General Ireton
The best of men in the worst of times
I have honours to my name, I have served my God
And not that fool of a king
But when I close my eyes to dream I see pikes against the sky
I hear dying men and horses scream“
“No one tells us what is happening
No one ever says what is happening“
From Rumour and Rapture by New Model Army.
“It was soon after the battle of Newburn that strange stories began to travel the country. Tales whispered in taverns up and down the land that chilled the blood of even the bravest.
Many spoke of the sounds of battle still being heard on the breeze long after the guns had fallen silent. Villagers avoided the battle field and spoke in fear about the strange ferine figures seen moving among the dead when night had fallen, creatures who fed on the dead and figures that appeared as dimiutive old men soaking their dirty red caps in the pools of drying blood.
As the Wars of the Three Kingdoms continued over the following years so the number of reports of creatures from dark myth and legend increased adding to the woes of an already troubled country.
Soon on both sides of the conflict, whether Parliamentarian or Royalist the leaderships sought the advice of mystics, village wise folk and the clergy on how to combat these supernatural terrors. These wise folk callded upon old almost forgotten knowledge and the advice they gave saw the formation of special companies of soldiers and helpers, their differences set aside to fight the more terrifying foe, armed with Silver Pikes and Silver Shot.”
A home brewed setting for Silver Bayonet
This is one of the posts that I wrote waaaaaaaaaaay back and have not been happy with and have kept on tweaking for about a year, possibly more!
It all came about when I was telling some gamer buddies online about The Silver Bayonet, when, as I was typing a message, I had a little lightbulb moment, remembering the film “A field in England” that I knew was a favourite with the group and thinking some of the themes would fit The Silver Bayonet and had the thought “Oh yeh! English Civil War Silver Bayonet!”
What followed was the reading of a lot about the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and that turbulent time in Britain’s history. To get more info about the troops of the times I went straight to Osprey Publishing’s Soldiers of the English Civil War 1 and Soldiers of the English Civil War 2 as well as a variety of web articles about the period.
So what follows is my home brewed ideas for playing games of The Silver Bayonet set in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
Caveat
I make no claims to being an expert in the history of the time, I’m a dabbler and I’m still learning. My main aim was to have a flavour of the period and an excuse to paint more miniatures. So please forgive any gaffs!
The Homebrew Rules
Of course, the easiest way to play Silver Bayonet set in the English Civil War period is to grab some minis to represent your soldiers and just assign them soldier types from the published rules set.
The idea can work equally well for any faction in the game as there were wars across the majority of Europe around the time period. In fact many of the soldiers of the British Isles and Ireland were veterans of European campaigns.
It is one of the great strengths of The Silver Bayonet that it is thoroughly adaptable and will probably work well for any black powder setting without having to change much at all. However, and I blame Joseph for writing such inspiring rules sets that cause ideas to pop like fire crackers as you read them, I wanted to go a little deeper into homebrewing land.
I made the decision of not having separate lists for Parliamentarian and Royalist factions because from my albeit small study of the period, they were very similar and I like the idea that the threat of the supernatural outweighed the political and religious differences.
Firstly, I’ve changed the ranges of firearms. This may not be strictly historically accurate but I wanted to reflect that firearms were possibly not as accurate or powerful in the 1600s compared to the 1800s. So, reduce all ranges by 2”
Special rules
Another small change is the Shotbag is for both Muskets and Blunderbusses as cartridges were uncommon.
The Soldiers
The following soldiers are unchanged from the core rules. I’ve included all the soldiers from the main rule book in case you want to play a non British faction or if you are using the ‘Going outside the list’ option. Also for some of them I’ve simply chosen a name that I felt was more in keeping with the period which I’ve added in brackets:
Artillerist, Champ o Faith (Minister), Coachman, Dhamphir, Grenadier, Guard, Heavy Cav, Highlander, Highwayman, Irregular, Junior Officer (Ensign), Light Cav, Marine, Native Scout, Rifleman (Sharpshooter), Sailor, Sapper (Engineer), Supernatural Investigator, Swordsman, Tactician, Veteran Hunter, Vivandierie (Camp Follower), Werebear, Woodsman are all unchanged.
New or changed soldiers
Alchemist
More often found working in their laboratories than on the battle field, alchemists are however, often recruited to special companies for their knowledge of potions.
Equipment: Handweapon, Pistol, Potions x 2.
Attributes: Brew Elixir.
Chirurgeon
Use Doctor from the main rulebook with this change to the Medic attibute. Medical science was not as advanced in the 17th Century as it was in 18th.
So the Chirurgeon makes a d10 roll before using the attribute on a friendly figure with more than 0 health. On any roll apart from a 1 the Medic attribute works as in the main rule book. On a 1 only 1 health point of health is gained.
Clubmen
These were initially farmers who had banded together to eject troops from either of the two factions from their land. Some of them become attached to special units.
Equipment: Handweapon.
| Speed | Mellee | Accuracy | Defence | Coourage | Health | Recruitment |
| 6 | +1 | +1 | 14 | +1 | 10 | 18 |
Engineer
Use Sapper stats with +1 Courage and 16 Recruitment.
Equipment: Petard, Handweapon, Pistol
Attributes: Petard Training.
Musketeer
Armed with matchlock muskets a bandolier of 12 wooden tubes containing powder charges (although not limited to only 12 shots in game terms), nicknamed “the 12 apostles”, a bag of shot and a handweapon these are the standard infantry along with Pikemen.
Use Infantryman Stats.
Mousquetaire en Francais
(Possibly a bit confusing having these but couldn’t resist and an excellent exscuse for buying some of the Northstar 1672 Muskateer minis.)
The strange occurrences around battlefields are not just confined to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, similar supernatural happenings have taken place across europe.
These elite french troops sometimes come across the channel on missions or to help out special units.
Equipment: Musket, Handweapon, Shotbag.
| Speed | Mellee | Accuracy | Defence | Coourage | Health | Recruitment |
| 6 | +2 | +2 | 14 | +1 | 11 | 26 |
Pikeman
Pikemen were used to protect Musketeers from cavalry using a pike sometimes up to 18 feet long, although some cut down their pikes to shorter lengths. When serving in the special companies this was done to create a more manageable pike length weapon.
They were also sometimes more heavily armoured than the Musketeers wearing a helmet, breastplate and occasionally tassets.
Equipment: Hand Weapon, Heavy Weapon, Breastplate.
Attribute: Pike Training.
| Speed | Mellee | Accuracy | Defence | Coourage | Health | Recruitment |
| 6 | +1 | +0 | 13 | +0 | 10 | 10 |
Occultist
Stats and profile are unchanged but Occultitsts are very wary of serving alongside Supernatural Investigators, because you never know when one might be a Witch Hunter! So you cannot include an Occultist in a Unit that also includes as Supernatural Investigator.
(Can’t remember where this mini was from but I know I added the crows and spell book (which I think was from a Frostgrave wizards sprue) – if you know let me know in the comments).
New Attributes
Pike Training
All melee attacks on a figure with pike training from an unmounted opponent have a -1 penalty (excepting critical hits). Additionally a figure with pike training when standing directly behind an unmounted ally causes that ally’s unmounted opponent to have the -1 penalty. In both cases the -1 penalty only counts for the first attack. Subsequent attacks in the same activation or from the same figure in a later activation do not receive the penalty as its assumed that the attacker has got past the pike. All melee attacks from mounted opponents on a figure with pike training are at -1.
Brew Elixir
Before the game roll twice on for elixirs.
On a 1- Bad batch! The elixir causes -1 to speed. On a 2 Elixir is a dud. 3-8 Elixir heals 1 point of Health. On a 9-10 Elixir heals 2 points of Health.
Petard Training
A Petard was essentially a bell shaped container made from iron or brass fixed to a long pole. Filled with gunpowder and with a slow match attached Petards were generally used to place on doors or wall often secured with hooks or rings. The resulting blast would create a hole or at least in theory. For the purposes of Silver Pikes and Silver Shot the petard has a cone shaped blast area 3″ wide and 2″ long. Any roll of 1 on the on either the Skill or Power die results in a blast radius of 3″ centered on the person holding the Petard. Lighting a Petard is an action and the petard goes off in the following turn. For doors assume a defense of 16 and walls 18.
What do you think?
There you go my rough and ready homebrew rules for playing The Silver Bayonet during the period of the Wars of Three Kingdoms. I will post a battle report when I try them out and any tweaks after I test them out.
What do you think? Are you likely to give the homebrew rules a go? Have you written any homebrew rules for The Silver Bayonet? Let me know in the comments.
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