Silver Bayonet is a game where, against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars, a secret war is being waged against monsters. In this case there is a troll under the bridge.

Information leads the warring factions to believe the troll has a dark artefact in its lair. And that needs to be retrieved and kept out of the hands of the others. Who without doubt would use it for their own nefarious purposes.

Between four players and enormous troll, a glorious and mad fight ensued. Elite monster hunting bands from Russia, Spain and two French, battled it out.

The rules are straight forward and robust. Building your warband – largely assigning skills and equipment to each model – can take a bit of time. I accidentally left a bunch of slots empty and took a bunch of stuff that wasn’t useful. But it didn’t seem to matter. In the chaos, I nearly got the artifact off the table, before dying heroically. Very French.

We played two games. Earlier in the day, the four warbands investigated a farm.

Under a woodpile was a hobgoblin, and in the well were several zombies.

Having discovered the hobgoblin, I herded it towards the Spanish, who cheerfully gunned it down. Co-operation, of sorts. I was hoping it would kill a couple of them, but the Spanish gunners were too good.

No mystery is complete without a zombie. The cavalryman is mounted on a Litko horse. A handy game token supplied by our host, along with most of the figures and all of the terrain.

Silver Bayonet is fun. With just the right number of Napoleonic figures to paint, most warbands having between 6 and 9 members, you can really go to town.

Thanks to my fellow gamers for a fabulous Sunday.

(Vague posting here for a combination of privacy and suspecting a second post might pop up on a blog near here sometime soon!)

Beware the moors.

But if you must go, make sure you keep your powder dry.