Strategikon II
Received two new rule books recently. One is Song of Drums and Shakos which is for small unit Napoleonic Skirmish Games. Rules look very interesting and I am anxious to try them out. Seem simple enough, should be very playable. One side has initiative and tries to activate his men by rolling on 1D6. Most you can get is three actions per attempt, but if you roll two failures, initiative shifts to the other side. An officer or leader can try to activate a group with one roll for the group.
You roll against the figures quality, the lower the number the better. regular troops are a "4". Officers may be a "3" or a "2". Combat involves attacker and target(defender) rolling off against each other with modifiers. If you double your opponent he is wounded, triples kills him outright. If you use "volley fire", the target is -1 for each figure firing beyond the 1st one.
Normal Infantry move is 120mm, about 5 inches(one action). If you succeeded in getting three actions, you would hence move about 15". Musket effective range is about 9 inches, with medium out to 18 inches and extreme at 27 inches.
Song of Drums and Shakos is published by Ganesha Games. Check them out at: Ganesha Games
The other set of rules I received is the Deluxe version of General de Brigade. They come in a hard copy bound book with lots of pictures, art work and diagrams. My first impression is that they are a big improvement over the original, but are pretty expensive, $55. They certainly appear to read better than the original and there are some subtle changes. Will have to play a game with them first before reaching any final conclusion. Bottom line is, if you liuke the original, you will like these better. If you hated the original, you probably won't like these either.
