Contentious bayonet issue

[martin goddard]

Do you prefer your American civil war infantry to have bayonet fixed or not.
This may cause temperatures to rise, so take it easy  chaps.

martin

[Leslie BT]

No sheathed. Safer there.

[SimonC]

No sticky out bits on any figure gets my vote

[pbeccas (Paul)]

Bayonets fixed please.

[Colonel Kilgore]

Maybe cold steel showing for the real men, and rather less so for those of poorer quality?

[I hope the hedging of bets here is not too obvious...].

Simon

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Possibly a compromise? Since bayonets impeded reloading, if your forces rarely used them then don't represent them on the table but
a) count fixed bayonets in the add-on effects of a charge
or
b) have a few stands of charging figures with bayonets to substitute at the appropriate moment for visual effect.

[Wardy64]

Forward corporal Jones - but don't panic!

Dave

[Colonel Kilgore]

b) have a few stands of charging figures with bayonets to substitute at the appropriate moment for visual effect.

That's got to be a winner for Martin - more figures required, chaps!

Simon

[Leman (Andy)]

As far as I know bayonets were only fixed prior to a charge because they were a bloody nuisance in a firefight. I prefer bayonets absent.

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Just as well it's not AWI, plug bayonets prevented fire altogether! Offset socket bayonets were still a pain to reload around throughout the C19 with muzzle loading firearms.

[Ben Waterhouse]

Just as well it's not AWI, plug bayonets prevented fire altogether! Offset socket bayonets were still a pain to reload around throughout the C19 with muzzle loading firearms.

Plug bayonets in the AWI? I don't think that's right. As far as I recall plug bayonets went out by the War of the Spanish Succession, 70 years earlier.

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Given the poor battlefield performance of f/l muzzle loaders you'd be forgiven for wondering if making it possible to actually fire them was a retrograde step!