The Silver Bayonet: Italy is the fourth 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: Italy is written by T.C. Stephen, an expert on Italian history from the Napoleonic period to WW2. For this campaign we return to Europe, specifically Calabria, the southern most part of the boot of Italy that touches Sicily.

This campaign book is huge and full of new stuff including: two new forces, seven new soldiers, nine new monsters, 10 new attributes, three new environmental special rules, four competitive scenarios, and a six scenario solo campaign with additional rules for playing it competitively and a hard mode. This book clocks in at 94 pages whereas the previous ones were 63.

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.

New Factions

TSB: Italy includes two new forces: Calabresi and Kingdom of Naples (Bourbon). While the author notes that the Calabria Campaign was mainly fought by Great Britain, Bourbon, France, and Calabresi, they do also say it’s perfectly acceptable to play the campaigns or scenarios with Silver Bayonet units from other countries, even the New World, as your unit may have been sent there to investigate something important.

The Calabresi

The Calabresi are the natives of Calabria – specifically, these are bandits. They’re very mean to foreigners invading their land and can be vicious in a fight. They’ve been raiding and fighting a guerilla war with the French in Calabria. They have access to 13 soldier profiles, a smaller number. They don’t have access to any real trained infantry – their ranged attacks are going to be pretty limited.

The box of soldiers from North Star includes an officer, highwayman, champion of the faith, irregular x2, occultist, clergyman, and lupo mannaro. The official list of available soldiers are as follows:

• Native Scout
• Occultist
• Supernatural Investigator
• Veteran Hunter
• Irregular
• Tactician
• Swordsman
• Champion of Faith
• Highwayman
• Woodsman
• Agent Provocateur
• Lupo Mannaro
• Calabrian Clergyman

The Kingdom of Naples (Bourbon)

The author makes a note here that the Naples guys being represented are native Italians- the French exiled them to Sicily and took Naples for themselves. Sicily was held by the British at the time (Murat actually took over Naples and attempted an invasion of Siciliy that went very poorly).

The Bourbon have 18 different soldier profiles available to them, making them a fairly normal force for TSB. They have access to regular infantry like the Grenadier, Infantryman, and Sapper, while also gaining access to the new Light Infantryman and Agent Provocateur. Bourbon can make a warband from the following:

• Artillerist
• Champion of Faith
• Doctor
• Grenadier
• Infantryman
• Irregular
• Junior Officer
• Light Cavalryman
• Native Scout
• Sapper
• Supernatural Investigator
• Swordsman
• Veteran Hunter
• Agent Provocateur
• Conscript
• Provincial Soldier
• Coachman
• Light Infantryman

New Soldiers

This campaign book has seven unique soldiers ready to fight in the Calabrian countryside. The Agent Provocateur is available to all nations as what is essentially a spy; think Michael Hogan in the Sharp series. This soldier can embed themselves in cities and societies as well as explore the countryside. Their stats are pretty average – +1 on Melee and Accuracy, with 13 Defence and 10 Health. You’ll use this soldier especially on the flanks, where they can take advantage of Master of Cover (one better cover bonus) and Sneak, a brand new skill. Sneak allows a figure to essentially disappear and be un-targetable for one turn – unless they’re not in cover. At 22 points this will be one of your more expensive choices for your unit.

Available only to Calabria lists, the Calabrian Clergyman rocks in at 14 points and as opposed to a regular Champion of Faith, these guys have Great Faith (their weapons are always blessed) and can choose from a variety of weapons. They’re basically a less-skilled (they have +0/+0 in Melee and Accuracy) but blessed beatstick.

At six points, the Conscript will go a long way to helping players fill out their Silver Bayonet unit’s last few points. France, Britain, Naples, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Spain can take these figures. While they have a musket and a cartridge box, they have -1 Accuracy and -1 Courage and are Quick to Run – a new attribute that causes the figure to take a Terror check any time they take damage. It’s an interesting soldier that I can definitely see filling out quite a few units.

Interestingly enough, we’re now in our fourth campaign book and we finally have a Light Infantryman. Sharpe fans rejoice! They’re available for pretty much every regular army: France, Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, Naples, USA, Upper Canada, and Lower Canada. At 16 points with +1 Accuracy and +1 Melee, with a musket and cartridge box they’re pretty good – but Light Infantry Training is going to set them apart quite a bit.

They can move 4″ and then shoot without a negative modifier, which is immensely useful. Often I find I have to move to find clues and fight monsters but when I do I’m shooting with a negative and missing because of it. I expect to see these figures in a lot of lists!

The Lupo Mannaro (Calabrian Werewolf) is a Calabresi-only figure that is a heavy hitter – they’re 30 points. When in Werewolf form they can’t investigate clues. To get there they have to pass a TN14 check (the Skinshift rule says so) to get into Werewolf form with a +3 Courage stat. When in Werewolf form they’re a veritable beast, with +2 Melee, 14 Defence, 14 Health, Strong (+1 damage in melee), Indefatigable (can only take one Fatigue), Quick Healing (Regenerate 2 Health each activation), and Hard to Put Down (makes negating damage with Fate die easier). These figures are blenders, and at 30 points you’d expect as much.

Fitting in between an Infantryman and Conscript, the Provincial Soldier ranks up at eight points with a musket and cartridge box. Compared to the Conscript, they’re better at shooting with a 0 Accuracy, while they’re worse than the Infantryman who has +1. This figure will fill a place when an Infantryman can’t fit, in my opinion. They’re available to France, Naples, Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, Upper Canada, and Lower Canada.

Available only to France, the Voltigeur is the elite light infantry of Napoleon. At 18 points, two more than the regular Light Infantryman, they’re +2 Accuracy and Nimble (ignores difficult terrain) along with the earlier mentioned Light Infantry Training. With the +2 to hit with musket they seem like a no-brainer, and French players may even take two of them.

World Building

My Egypt campaign book review indicated that I really wanted to know more about the Egyptian campaign and the forces in play during the Napoleonic period. Italy totally brings it on the history front, with 21 pages of introduction to the setting and individual RPG-like hooks for each force involved in the campaign. This is immense – as I have to imagine Italy during the Napoleonic wars is not a subject that many wargamers are going to be hugely literate on.

The campaign itself is very focused on Necromancers and their magic used to raise the dead, so it would be remiss without some neato special rules to bring out the theme. The Green Mist blankets the battlefield in a … green mist that obscures visibility for living figures but doesn’t affect undead or Necromancers. Shooting attacks at 7″ or more are -1, while 14″ or more are -2. If the monster with Raise the Dead is removed from the table the mist dissipates.

The Necromancers that will be the mainstay of the campaign also have rules for raising undead and buffing them up; they are Raise the Dead and Dark Gift. If a player figure gets within 24″ of the Necromancer they’ll use Raise the Dead, while if they’re outside of 24″ they’ll use Dark Gift. Raise the Dead allows them to summon a Skeletal Soldier, Revenant, Black Dog, or a Ghost randomly. Dark Gift allows them to heal undead creatures nearby for two Health (or even themselves).

The final campaign rule is very interesting – it’s called Roaming Patrols. Players randomly determine what type of patrol shows up (if the players want to use the rule, or the scenario calls for it), and Deserters, Briganti, French, or British soldiers can then enter from a board edge. The patrols are made up of three figures so it isn’t a heavy burden to use the rule. Initially, the patrols will fight monsters if they see them, but if they don’t see those monsters they’ll start fighting the players’ units.

Scenarios

The main campaign for Calabria is a six scenario solo campaign that does have advice and rules for cooperative or competitive play as well. The author put an incredible amount of time and energy into this campaign, with a prologue that, like an RPG, welcomes you into the campaign and shows you why your unit is here, and an epilogue afterward. Like the normal solo rules in the main book, there are Unexpected Events and Additional Encounters to make solo games harder and more random.

The scenarios call for some terrain but I think it shouldn’t be hard for most wargamers to find the specific pieces, including small town buildings, graveyards, church buildings, a forest, and a ruined temple.

It’s hard to make a list of all the monsters you’d ever need for this campaign, as much of it can be random from the Raise the Dead table – but I’d expect to use two or three necromancer types, a bunch of revenants (zombies), ghosts, black dogs, skeletal soldiers (skeletons should do), spectral soldiers (you could buy a box of plastic Perry infantry and use contrast paint to make them ghost green), and a grave golem or two. In addition you’ll need briganti (bandits), deserters, and cultists but this list isn’t exhaustive. I expect that a group of players could get together and find figures to use in their collection while purchasing a few new ones from North Star.

The author also includes four other scenarios that can be used in the campaign or outside of it; to me they seem like more generic matched-play type scenarios that can be used for one-off games or home campaigns, and they’re very welcome, as many of the scenarios we’ve been given so far are very specific.

Monsters

There are nine new monsters in this supplement – fewer than Egypt but well worth the time because the Necromancers and their mechanics are great. Even if you don’t play in Italy, you can use them for a really fun undead campaign.

• The Brigante/Brigantessa are freedom fighters who will also work for the necromancers. They’re basic infantry with lower defense but Master of Cover.
• The Brigante Chief is hired by the Necromancers as a bodyguard. They have the stats of a basic Infantryman but have Nimble, Master of Cover, and Indefatigable, making them harder to bring down.
• The Grave Golem is a big bad at 18 Health. They’re basically grafted together pieces of headstones, sarcophagi, and other stone materials on top of a dead soldier’s body. They’re slow but hit well and are tough, with Damage Reduction (4). The model is also amazing.

• Il Negromante is even crazier than the Golem, having Defence 15 (very hard to hit for most soldiers), Damage Reduction (4), Quick Healing, and Ethereal amongst other special rules and the Necromancer traits. He’s not one to be trifled with.
• Necromancer Acolytes are not nearly as tough as Il Negromante but will still put a crimp in your plans as they can Raise the Dead and heal them up when they get hit.
• The Nightmare Witch (La Janara) is not as imposing as the name implies – they can paralyse your guys when they hit them and have Damage Reduction (2), but are allergic to a number of things and Weakened by Faith.
• The Possessed Boar will really mess you up if you let him get near you, as he’s super fast, hits hard, and has Damage Reduction (5) with a few allergies. You definitely don’t want to come up against 30-50 of them.
• The Spectral Soldier is essentially the ghost of a soldier who died during battle. Their stats aren’t super impressive, but they’re Indestructible, only being hurt by Enchanted or Salt weapons. Their Ethereal Firearms are really neat – they don’t have to reload, so they can move closer to you then fire, and they ignore armor.
• The Skeletal Soldier is a chaff unit that the Necromancer will toss at you – low on Defense and Health, and Brittle (if hit by a Heavy Weapon or a critical from a shot they just die). They do have Damage Reduction (4) vs Ranged so you have to close on them. They collapse into Bone Piles when killed and can be raised up later by a Necromancer.

Final Thoughts

The author’s enthusiasm for Italian history and specifically this time period is immediately clear when you read this book. This is clearly a labor of love for them; it is something that, as a wargamer who has never really published anything, would be immensely proud of writing. There is so much character and flavor to this book that, for a Napoleonic newbie like me, I never would have expected from Italy, which I would consider a sideshow to the main show.

The whole structure and mechanics built in for the Necromancers and undead in this supplement are super welcome, as we haven’t seen this kind of thing yet in TSB. Even if you’re not playing in Italy I think they’ll be useful to playing a campaign anywhere a Necromancer might take up residence.

Overall, I think this book is one of the strongest offerings for The Silver Bayonet and I’m blown away, quite frankly. All of the mechanics and atmosphere combine to make a campaign book that I think any TSB player needs to have on their shelf.

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