My comments about the Song of Drums and Shakos Scenario

The play of the SDS Scenario went smoothly, despite some mistakes I made initially in relation with the Activation step. I forgot to take in account the modifiers of the Leader and Élan Special rules. In SDS a model is activated by rolling one, two or three dice against the model’s Quality (see below for Solo modifications) that for the normal rank-and-file men is Q4. However, Leader rule makes that any model within Long distance from a Leader has its Quality rolls increased by one. Élan Special rule adds a further +1, making that a model with both rules will activate on a roll equal or higher than 2 (66.7 % probability). These Special SDS rules, that make easier the Activation, were not applied until mid-game, resulting in some turns wasted with only one or two, or none models activated (see below for the reason behind). Since the error affected both sides, Austrian Jaegers and French Voltigeurs, no biases were introduced.
The SDS rules are very easy to learn and apply and can be summarized in a single one-side Quick Reference Sheet (QRS). It is worth to use it: I wasted some time searching the rulebook for the way a fallen figure stands up after a combat… well the procedure was described in the QRS!
At last, the found difficulties were caused by my lack of familiarity with Skirmish-type games. It is curious, but after one is used to visualize the retreat or rout of an entire battalion or brigade after a firefight or combat in a tactical o grand-tactical game, it becomes more difficult to visualize a single man in a similar situation in a skirmish game.

SDS is, in my opinion, well suited to solo play. As you could know, there are two general ways to play solo battles. The first is to take a side under soloist control and to fight against a randomized and/or programmed enemy. This implies to devise one or several alternative plans for the other side, a task that can be too laborious. The other possibility is to play both sides but randomize the available options. You are like a god, so if you don’t introduce any bias, pure chance will drive the play. The crude facts originated will be explained after the play by finding the adequate narrative, and I assure you that the search for the plot under a random sequence of events is also very fun. I used this secoind way in the Scenario..
The only randomized mechanism I used in the Wethau Bridge scenario was the Doghi’s mechanism for Activation that is the hearth of the SDS motor. To activate a model in SDS (or in any of the ’Song of Song of Blades and Heroes’ family of games) you roll one, two or three dice, at your choosing, against the model’s Quality. If at least one dice is equal or higher than the Q value of the model, this becomes activated. However, two dice failures imply that your turn immediately finishes with the initiative passing to the other side, so finding the equilibrium between activation and loss of the initiative is the crux of the game. The Doghi’s system uses a D3 die that indicates the number of dice to be rolled in each case. The system is elegant and easy to carry out and produced a very interesting game.
I used no figures in the Scenario: every day computer tools, i.e word processor, worksheet and presentation programs, were used instead. No pictures are available but the game was very enjoyable and fun and, maybe I’ll use the AAR as a script for an AAR with miniatures.

(French Voltigeur picture was taken from Iron-Mitten blog)

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