Shakos and Bayonets Supplement Quick Review.

If you have been following this blog, you know that I am a fan of Muskets and Tomahawks for my F&I gaming. So, when Studio Tomahawk came out with their newest army book covering the Napoleonic Wars, I of course picked it up. I do not really have any plan to collect in this period, but I had a buddy that had an interest, so thought it would be worth a look. I was also interested to see if there would be any enhancements to the core rules. So, let’s talk about the Shakos and Bayonets rules.

The first thing to understand is that these are not stand alone rules, but a period supplement. This is how the core rules will be expanded in the future to cover other periods. I suspect each supplement will be similar in this approach. This supplement adds new traits, weapons and troops to cover the major combatants in the Napoleonic Wars. This is a small section though, as the core rules really govern. This section is only two pages, so nothing too scary to remember or learn.

As with most rules of the period, Shakos and Bayonets includes a four page short history of the Napoleonic Wars. For grognards of this period, nothing much to see here. However, for the gamer new to the period, this is a very nice summary. I am a big fan of companies including this type of background into their rules, as anything that helps get new players into a period and learn a little history is a good thing!

The next section in the book are the army lists. This includes lists of units for all the major combatants (France, Austria, Britain, Russia, Prussia and Spain), as well as a list to cover minor nations that you can use for all other armies. This gives you listings that include the expected specialist light troops of each nation, along with their standard infantry and elite troops. So, dust off those Grenzers and Legere! I have to say, I am tempted to paint up a few figures, as the 28mm figures in the market are fantastic and to much looks as nice as Napoleonic uniforms on the tabletop. Fortunately, I have a backlog of other figures, so may just be able to save my bank account.

Lastly, we have a new Scenario generator for the period, that includes four new scenarios. You can use the older scenarios for the period also (as stated in the rules). I feel that these will also work well for F&I games to give some variation. The first scenario is “Convoy” and covers one side trying to get their convoy of the table and the other stopping that from happening. The next scenario is call “The Final Hour” and is a rear guard type of fight where one side is trying to pull back, while the other is in pursuit. Next we have “the Assault”, which is one side hold and the other trying to take a hard point on the battlefield (seems like perfect for an attack on a block house!). Finally, we have “Heart of the Inferno”, which is a face to face slugfest to represent more set piece fighting. The chapter ends with a new Random Events table for that extra fog of war.

Overall, it is a very nice supplement. It is soft cover (I would have preferred hard) and done with the expected Studio Tomahawk quality. Like all their offerings, it is full of eye candy to get your creative side going. A very nice little book. I will be trying to scenarios for my own F&I games in the future, so a valuable buy in the end.

• Manteuffel