Song of Drums and Shakos

May (and early June) sped past in a whirr of work. I've managed no figure painting for six weeks but I have put together a little Spanish village to fight Song Of Drums and Shakos over. I had a look at the resin buildings on the market and very nice they were too; and pricey. I figured that a nice size village would set me back at least £200.

A quick browse over t'internet led me to the lovely Kapiti Fusiliers site where the clever Roly Hermans showed me how to knock together a foam board village. (I recall similar from the sadly defunct Major Rederring).

So a quick trip to ye olde arte shoppe and for less than a tenner I got a couple of A2 size foamboards. I chose the more expensive black version so I wouldn't have to undercoat. A further visit to the local model train shop got me some splendid pantile roofs. For about £20 I made myself a village in about three weeks, probably 20 hours work. Being a fat fingered Klutz they're not as good as a purchased article but cheap and quick (there seems to be a theme recurring through this blog) and not too bad on the table. I also play with very nice people who are always complimentary.

Song of Drums and Shako are produced by Ganesha Games who produced mostly fantasy or futuristic small scale rules but have released some historical skirmish rules on the same game engine. If fantasy/sci fi players are going to convert to historical gaming I think this could be the way. Most of their rules are skirmish type games where each player has fewer then ten figures each. Based on a simple but subtle activation system with basic combat and morale it seemed right up our street.

The rules suggested that a game should take about 45 minutes so a mini "campaign" seemed in order. Or rather a series of scenarios like those computer game thingies the youngsters play these days.

The rules have a few scenario ideas so I started with these and added a bit of a twist. tbc