Tuesday night at Dragon's Lair, the local group was playing
Song of Drums and Shakos Large Battles, a Napoleonics game using the
Song of Blades and Heroes game engine. The rules include activation rolls and contested combat rolls, but with
SDS you add more dice to your roll instead of modifying a single die roll. Also, every failed activation roll gives your opponent a chance to react with one of his units.
Careful readers will note that the miniatures are American Civil War troops, which we used to proxy the French and the British. It didn't detract from my enjoyment of the game, but I kept hearing the Battle Hymn of the Republic whenever I looked at the table.
It was a fun game, with the rules slightly different than
SoBaH, but still easy for a player of that game to pick up. Since I was just using reference sheets, I can't tell you much more about the actual rules, but the game does play fast like all Ganesha Games offerings.
I'm not that familiar with the Napoleonic era, so I couldn't tell you how historically accurate the rules are, but Joe, who's more of a historical guy than I am, seemed satisfied with its verisimilitude. And most important, we all enjoyed playing it.
