Sergio's blog: hints, ideas, pictures and news about SDS (and more) from the author

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Versione italiana pronta!

Finalmente la versione italiana di More Drums & Shakos è pronta. Sarà disponibile tra poco....
The italian version of More Drums & Shakos is ready and will be available soon...

Buon fine anno a tutti, con i miei migliori auguri per un 2010 ricco di..... 6 al dado! :)
I wish you all a Happy New Year and a lot of 6 when rolling dice.... :)

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Working hard during holidays

Well, I spent the last 5 days working on my new game, and defining the pipeline for the big project Andrea and me are outlining for the historical side of Ganesha Games. In the next days, stay tuned for some quick preview of what's going on in my lab... (kitchen, bedroom? who needs 'em?)

I am really enthusiastic about my new projects, and rules are taking shape almost by themselves...

OK first game is almost done, and I started playtesting the system...

More to come!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Almost midnight...

Merry Xmas to all of you guys!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Proclamation

Shortly before midnight our Army of small soldiers crossed the Niemen.
A winter Campaign is before us, but I am sure that all our allied squads will fight with honour for the common cause. Soldiers from Baden, Berg, Bavaria, Saxony, Westphalia and many other loyal brothers have joined the Grande Armee. In the next weeks, tables all around the world will witness episodes of valor, critical decisions and - this is my hope - great joy.

More Drums & Shako was released yesterday at 23:45 and it's already 2nd in Wargames Vault Hot list.
Thank you my Captains!
General SL
CinC

Monday, December 21, 2009

More Drums is on the way...

In few hours More Drums and Shakos will be officially released.
Merry Christmas everybody (buy yourself a gift ;-)

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Italian Line Grenadier


A friend of mine, SDS player, was asking me questions about the Italian line Grenadiers uniform.
I take this opportunity to post here 2 pics of the first member of my future italian squad (a Grenadier, of course :)
He is from the 2nd Line Regiment, a unit that took part in the Russian Campaign of 1812.
White uniform with red lapels and pipings on cuffs, turnbacks and collar, green cuff flaps.
The miniature is Front Rank 28mm.


Here is a side view. All stats for italians are in More Drums and Shakos.

Friday, December 18, 2009

MDS Cover preview



Here it is!
Hope you like it

Share your Squads!

I was thinking that it should be nice to receive some of your squads rosters and your hints on how to play with them: something similar to what I am doing with my demo squads.
So everyone is kindly invited to share this info here in the blog!
If possible, even with some pictures :-)

SDS review on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Song-Drums-Shakos-Ganesha-Games/dp/B00262OTRU

Glad about it.... It is always a pleasure to read that our work is appreciated.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

"Alles Vorwarts" - The Prussian Swarm


PRUSSIAN Landwehr squad
1 Officer, 1 NCO, 1 Standard bearer, 1 Drummer, 12 Landwehr infantry
Total points: 390
Comments: 16 figures and you still have 10 points to spend! That's a lot of Muskets, but you must use them carefully, due to the Green and Unreliable Special Rules. Unfortunately the combination of the two works against you: on one side you want to keep them in groups within 1M from the Leader, on the other a model killed in action (tripled in combat) will cause a Morale Test for all Green models within 1L...
So, move the Flag forward as soon as possible, keep the soldiers packed in 2 groups and go ahead, trying to overwhelm your opponent with number. I'd say just one volley and then charge!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Tyrolean squad


Here they are! I am quite satisfied of the result for these first 13 figures. I decided to paint the Command (Leader, Sub-Commander, Standard bearer and drummer) and 9 more rebels in different poses.
The "historical" figures (Andreas Hofer, father Joachim Haspinger and Josef Speckbacher) are painted according to contemporary prints. All miniatures are from Eureka (great job Nic!) and are part of a set of 46 including also some dead and wounded and a cannon with its crew. For the next step I'll paint some 10 more, all armed with pitchforks, axes and scythes and a couple of women with musket. The flag is also taken from pictures I found on the net and is scratch built with paper and painted. As soon as the other ones are ready we'll play a scenario against the Bavarians and I'll post the battle report here.



A zoom on the command group (from left to right: drummer, Speckbacher, standard bearer, Hofer and Haspinger). Father Haspinger is the character who inspired me for the special rule "Fervour" which is in More Drums & Shakos - in release next week.
I think that the miniature of Speckbacher has been modeled according to his statue in Halle, Tyrol.
These pictures have also been published in the Song of Blades Yahoo Group.
Cheers

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Tyroleans

The first 13 Tyroleans are almost ready! I have to flock the bases, then I'll make some pics and I'll post them here... :)

Friday, December 11, 2009

More Brits..

BRITISH VETERANS
1 Officer, 1 NCO, 1 Standard bearer, 1 Drummer, 6 Line Veterans
Total points 404
Comments: well, if your opponent allows you to play with 4 excess points (you could allow him to do the same), this is what I call a simple but deadly bunch. 10 soldiers grant a Morale test for half squad at 6 losses and, with 7 Steadfast soldiers - and the National Rule for Britain in effect - these guys are very hard to break. Q3 allows you to maneuver with relative ease, and keep a high volume of fire on the enemy. Just keep your Officer and Standard bearer safe (i.e. properly covered) because what can spoil your perfect toy is loosing them early in the game...

Here come the Brits!


BRITISH LINE
1 Officer, 1 NCO, 1 Standard bearer, 1 Drummer, 7 Line Infantrymen, 1 Rifle
Total points 390
Comments: those 10 points left hurt... but in "More Drums and Shakos" the supplement about to be released, you'll be able to use them :)
Here your Rifleman could make the difference: keep him within2 Long from the enemies and use your rifle at his best (an aimed shot is normally 4:1 at this range) and when it is loaded - and you get 3 actions - try to snipe some VIP (Officer? who said Officer?) closing within 1Medium and... aiming! (your Rifleman is a Marksman isn't he?). Don't be too shy with your Infantrymen, after all you can afford to loose 6 figures before testing Morale. Drum beating, group forward!

2 ready made Squads

I thought it could be useful to post here some of the Squads I use for demo at Cons.
They are simple and straightforward, and are ideal for pick-up, introductory games.




AUSTRIA
1 Officer, 1 Drummer, 1 Standard Bearer, 6 Line Infantrymen, 1 Grenadier, 1 Cuirassier
Total Points 399

Comments: without an NCO, you must keep all soldiers within the command range of the Officer, if you want to avoid some 4+ activations, but your Secret weapon is the Cuirassier. Keep him covered from enemy musketry fire as long as you can, and when you decide to charge (remember to use his Fear special rule) plan the action carefully and do not leave him alone in the middle of the enemy line. If you do, you'll probably be surrounded by a swarm of enemies in no time.



FRANCE (all LIGHT INF.)
1 Officer, 1 NCO, 1 Drummer, 2 Chasseurs, 2 Voltigeurs, 1 Carabinier
Total Points 396

Comments: no Flag.... this means you have to reach a central position as soon as possible. Your Q4 + Elan soldiers are war machines if in command (they activate at 2+), but when it's time to test Morale they drop down to 3+ if in command and 4+ if OOC..
It could be worth to detach the 2 Voltigs with the NCO for a flank move, and aim to the enemy's Officer. If in command, shooting and reloading in the same turn is a must, but always remember that you only have 8 men!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Painting time!

Having some holidays to spend close to Christmas, I am going to paint the (wonderful) Tyroleans I got from Eureka Miniatures: as soon as some of them are ready, I'll post some pictures here... Stay tuned!

Double release

For the first time in Ganesha (short) history, More Drums & Shakos will be published in english and italian at the same time.

Per la prima volta nella (peraltro breve) storia della Ganesha, More Drums & Shakos sarà pubblicato contemporaneamente in inglese ed in italiano.

Army lists

A quick list of the Nations included in MDS:
Brunwick (Austrian allied 1809)
Brunswick (British allied 1813-15)
Canada, Indian Confederacy and British "Colonial" Infantry (war of 1812)
Confederation of the Rhine
- Baden
- Bavaria
- Berg
- Hessen-Darmstadt
- Nassau
- Saxony
- Westphalia
- Wurttenberg
- Wurzburg
- generic profiles for other members
Dutch-Belgians
Foreign regiments in french service
Foreign regiments in british service
Hanover
Italy
Naples
Nassau in british service 1815
Ottoman Empire
Portugal
Saxony in austrian service 1806
Spain (King Joseph's)
Spain
Sweden
Tyrolean Insurgents 1809
USA (war of 1812)
Warsaw

More Drums & Shakos almost ready

More Drums is on the way.... The supplement including all the Army lists of the Minor Powers is almost finished. Some small details are still to be added, but it should be released in the next week or two...

A start?

Here we are.
I've been thinking about creating a blog for my Game since long, and I finally did it.
This blog won't be exclusively dedicated to Song of Drums and Shakos, but also to other gaming experiences, ideas, projects and suggestions from the readers (if any... :-)
Enjoy!