The Silver Bayonet: Britain is the fifth expansion for the highly-regarded gothic horror skirmish wargame. Published by Osprey Publishing, with an accompanying miniatures line from North Star Military Figures, The Silver Bayonet: Britain - Bones of Albion is written by Joseph McCullough, the author of the main wargame rules. This campaign hits on some main British staples - druids, Romans, Saxons, Vikings, and Normans.

This campaign book is mid-sized, coming in at 63 pages, and includes: one new soldier, 15 new monsters, 11 new attributes, and eight new competitive scenarios that makeup the Albion campaign. Notably there are no new forces - just a new soldier type. Author Joseph McCullough explains in the intro how he's American but has adopted Britain as his country and how excited he was to write this book, being a love letter to Britain. Silver Bayonet units will travel all over Britain, fighting undead from different eras.

If you're totally unfamiliar, TSB is a warband-sized (eight or fewer models) game where you paint up Napoleonic soldiers from a specific country who fight other Napoleonic soldiers and gothic horror monsters such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc. The massive conflagration of suffering caused by the Napoleonic Wars has drawn out an evil faction called The Harvestmen who are using said suffering to push lots of cryptids and monsters into the world. Your warband is a hand-picked group of elite warriors ready to fight to find artifacts, secrets, and treasure that will help fight the war.

Terrified British civilians. Credit: North Star Military Figures

New Factions

There aren't any. All countries involved in the Napoleonic Wars are being sent to Britain to grab as much of the magic loot as they can.

Is there anything more hardcore than a peg-leg Napoleonic soldier smoking a pipe scratching kill-marks into the stock of his musket? Credit: Braingbug Design

New Soldiers

This campaign book includes one new soldier, only available to Britain. The Bow Street Runner is basically a cop who has been employed by Magistrates in London. They've now been pressed into service to work on national security threats, even joining Silver Bayonet units. They're pretty well average - having a Melee and Accuracy of +1, with Defence 13. They come with two pistols and a hand weapon. I think the models are neat, so they'll be cool to include in a unit, but they don't really fill a super niche role. They're cheap at 13 recruitment cost.

World Building

Britain is a very old country with a ton of history to grab - so it makes sense that the author chose to go for a little bit of history from a few different periods. The main premise is that the druids were pushed back to the Isle of Mona (Anglesey) by the Roman legions. They prepared a final ritual - a doomsday device if you will - that would be enacted as the stars above came together in the sky. The Romans managed to fight off the druids and interrupted their ritual. The Romans dug up eight of the nine standing stones that they dubbed 'The Bones of Albion' and sent them as trophies throughout the Empire. Not all of the Bones made it to their intended destinations - some were lost in the ocean, many were scattered around the island.

North Star sculpted some sweet terrified civilians for our Silver Bayonet games. Credit: North Star Military Figures

Over the hundreds of years, many different tribes invaded and conquered land in Britain. Their bodies were buried all over Britain. Later, the Royal Military Canal was constructed on the Romney Marsh in Kent. Workers uncovered the keystone of the Bones of Albion - they didn't know it, though. They tossed it aside and as it lay in the mud, the spell that had been designed by the druids to 'bring death to the Romans' became 'undeath to all of the invaders of Britain', raising up the bodies of all the tribes that had tried to conquer the island.

Silver Bayonet units were mobilized across the entire island of Britain to contain the tide of undeath - ghosts, zombies, etc. - and then they actually figured out what the Bones of Albion were, causing all of the Silver Bayonet units to then start searching for these immensely powerful stones as fast as they could.

Scenarios

There are eight scenarios in the new Bones of Albion campaign. The first seven scenarios include a Bone of Albion as one of the clue markers that you can pick up. Models carrying a bone move slower, aren't as great in melee, and can't shoot. If you have a Combat Engineer they're actually better at carrying the stone, which is neat as hell, giving you more of a reason to take a model like that. There is also a really neato optional rule for providing special rules to the person carrying the Bone of Albion during a scenario.

The Bones of Albion special rules. Credit: Joseph A. McCullough

There is a table for bespoke Unexpected Events and Encounters as well.

Imagine you're sitting in a tent on a rainy night planning out where to go in Blighty to find all the Bones of Albion... Credit: Brainbug Design

For each scenario you'll need the following:

Scenario One: walls, low hills, trees, shrubs. Skeletal Roman Centurion, 2x Skeletal Roman Legionary, maybe more depending on Clues and when monsters are killed.
Scenario Two: some small ponds / swamps, low hills, shrubs, a ruin or two. 3x Norman Ghost Warrior, Norman Ghost Knight.
Scenario Three: five small houses (stone roundhouses in the book), stone walls, piles of stone, shrubs, extra buildings, small hills. 2+ Scoti Slaugh, one or more Scoti Slaugh Headtaker.
Scenario Four: large rocks, uneven ground. One Pixie, 2x Lindworms, possible Goblins.
Scenario Five: low walls, rocky terrain, hills, no trees. Multiple Norwegian Aptrganga, possible Norwegian Aptrganga Skin-Changer.
Scenario Six: burial mound, standing stones, 4x Anglo-Saxon Zombies, 4x Anglo-Saxon Zombie Thegn.
Scenario Seven: earthen ridge, shrubs, rocks, low hills, ruins. 4x Danish Draugr, 4x Danish Draugr Berserker, Danish Draugr Wizard.
Scenario Eight: stones, trees, shrubs. Most of the monsters already used come back during this scenario

Monsters

There are fifteen new monsters in this supplement. Many are variations on a theme but they're all worth it.

The Anglo Saxon Zombies are fairly normal zombie type guys for Silver Bayonet - low defense but resistance to ranged damage.

The Anglo Saxon Zombie Thegn are basically champions for the previous guy. They have extra defence, extra melee, they have Strong.
Civilians are a new thing for TSB - the entry actually tells you how they activate in game. Soldiers can guide the civilians off a board edge to gain experience. Monsters will treat the Civilians as a target and if they're killed both sides lose potential experience.
Ancient, walking corpse of Danish origin, the Danish Draugr is similar to the previous zombies but instead of Allergy to Blessed they're allergic to fire. They also have an extra point of Melee, so they're more dangerous. They do not Reanimate like the Anglo Saxon Zombies do.
In the Dane armies there were Danish Draugr Berserkers, who would remove their armor and shields and work into a frenzy. They are better in melee but have lower defence with a higher health.
In addition, there is the Danish Draugr Wizard who are not great in melee like most wizards are - but they have Weather Control.

Weather control table. Credit: Joseph McCullough

Lindworms are almost invincible serpents that are extremely vicious in melee combat and terrifying to soldiers. This is a Big Bad, something that would be difficult to take down for almost any Silver Bayonet unit.
One of the most fearsome undead monsters that we'll face down with our Silver Bayonet units is a Norman Ghost Knight.
Norman Ghost Warriors are less dangerous in melee (they have +0 melee stat and 11 defence), but can move through everything and have damage reduction. They're annoying and they'll stay with your unit until they're finally killed off.
Similar to Draugr but not allergic to fire, the Norwegian Aptrganga are allergic to silver and another tough opponent in melee due to their strength and defence.
We've gone through a number of Scandinavian dead guys - the Norwegian Aptrganga Skin-Changer is a shapeshifter that usually shows as a giant wolf, but can also be a bear or a musk ox. They're only suspectable to silver weapons, so make sure to bring your... silver bayonet. They're fast, with an above-average defence of 13 and 16 health.
An interesting movement mechanic separates the Scoti Slaugh from others - it has Flitting Movement - so it moves 6" randomly, then it activates. That makes it much harder to predict where it'll go.
Much more than 'just another Danish guy' the Scoti Slaugh Headtaker also has Flitting Movement, but is faster, has Melee +3, high defence and health, and has a special rule that makes your models roll worse on the injury table if they're taken out of action by this model.
The dead Romans have a Skeletal Roman Centurion to lead them, and while they don't hit super hard, they're super tough - Defence 13 and DR 8 against ranged and 4 against all other attacks. They also buff all Roman Legionaries on the board, providing them +1 Speed, Courage, and give them Strong.
Regular old Skeletal Roman Legionaries are again tough - DR 8 against ranged but not melee - and have Defence 13. They're going to stick around for a while and eventually roll a crit to take you out.

Spanish Silver Bayonet soldiers hunt down a goblin. Credit: Michael O "mugginns"

Final Thoughts

This campaign will be one I'm very interested in as it crosses over nicely with the middle age Britain history that I'm so interested in. It gives a ton of modeling opportunities, including undead middle age guys, standing stones, ghosts, etc. The only problem I've found is there isn't a model from North Star for the Lindworm - I can probably find one in my collection somewhere but that would have been cool to get.

Overall I think this campaign is more consistent than the others, in terms of how it works and what happens - it's not so much going from one scene to another, where you're in a castle then in an underground cathedral then a dark forest. It should be easier to play, I think. I think it'll even be pretty easy for groups to pickup at a local store and play, because most historical games already have some of the terrain needed, and you might have SAGA guys you can use as the undead. It offers a lot of opportunities for three or four player games, which I think definitely follows the theme - getting to Britain and getting your hands on all the Bones of Albion!

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Tags: historicals | napoleonics | Skirmish | silver bayonet