Song of Blades and Heroes

Ganesha Games New Site

2010-01-08T09:54:00.001-08:00

Ganesha Games has a new home on the net: www.ganeshagames.net

We will slowly copy all the information from our blogs there. This blog will remain active but please buy products from our official site.

blog for a Song of Deeds and Glory Campaign

2009-11-19T11:41:00.000-08:00

http://villagegamessdg.blogspot.com/ is a blog just opened by some SBH players in Anoka, Minnesota. It's a large group playing at Village Games.

Song of Deeds and Glory PDF available

2009-10-08T15:53:00.000-07:00

Song of Deeds and Glory is an expansion for the popular Song of Blades and Heroes miniatures rules. It features all the rules and guidelines needed to run extended campaigns, taking warriors from green recruits to grizzled veterans. Now players can send their warbands on the path to conquest and carve out their own territories!

This book includes rules such as:

Territories: own land, defend it from usurpers, or launch raids on your neighbors
Scenarios: a multitude of new combat situations
The aftermath of battle: will your heroes live or be horribly crippled?
Exploration: find strange and useful treasure and visit exotic, dangerous locales
Shopping: use your warband's hard-earned gold to purchase the finest gear or hire the services of experts
Development: watch your characters grow as they survive new battles. Boost their stats, train them in new skills, or send them on personal quests
Special rules: 15 exciting new powers such as Immortal, Enchanter, and Illusionist
Rosters: 36 new creatures such as the Minotaur Skeleton, the Dwarf Gunner, Insectoids, Automatons, and the powerful Kryxxtendrella, Queen of Dragons!

The 40 pages pdf is available for $8 directly from me as emailware (andreasfiligoi@gmail.com) or as a download from wargamevault http://www.wargamevault.com/product_info.php?products_id=65050

It will soon be available on sabersedge and wargamedownloads.

The print version will be available in the next few days. Check this space!

2009-06-17T03:19:00.001-07:00

This is Ganesha's program at Origins 2009 (Columbus, OH, June 24th to 28th). Make sure you come at our tables if you attend, and please vote for our Song of Drums and Shakos napoleonic skirmish rules in the Best Historical Miniature Rules award. All our events are ongoing -- short scenarios repeated during the day, so check the Origins guide for details and hours.

Wednesday and Thursday
Fear and Faith demo game. Zombie survivors must recover a crate of grenades in a zombie-infested area.

Song of Drums and Shakos demo game. A meeting engagement near a village.
The SDS scenario will be repeated every day with different forces.

Wednesday Night:
Playtest game of Tales of Blades and Heroes, the RPG based on SBH.

Friday
Multiplayer Mutants and Death Ray Guns scenarios (two, one ran by Ganesha and another by another GM)
SDS meeting engagement scenario.
Tales of Blades and Heroes playtest in the night.

Saturday and Sunday
"Song of Blades for Dummies", an introductory scenario aimed at new players;
SDS meeting engagement.

Also remember that there will be other SBH and MDRG tables in the miniature hall, and that Splintered Light Miniatures will be demoing Song of the Splintered Lands.

See you there!

Song of the Splintered Lands available at Origins!

2009-06-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

SONG OF THE SPLINTERED LANDS, a supplement for Song of Blades and Heroes joint-produced by Ganesha Games and Splintered Light Miniatures, will be available as a printed book at Splintered Light Miniatures' booth at Origins 2009 (Columbus, OH, June 24th-28th). The author John McBride will run games of SSL every day.

The book includes:

Campaign Rules for two different rebellion scenarios and for
building and defending a ‘strategic hamlet” in disputed territory;

More Fog of War with rules for variable strength warbands
and variable missions with dummy markers and scouting;

Cultural Background for the Druid’s Wyldewood, the dwarves of
Mountain Home, and the goblin races of Moonglade;

New Races including the Druid’s Children -- talking and tool-using
animal species including hares, hedgehogs, moles, shrews, squirrels,
foxes, and others;

New Special Rules including scouting, deafness, ballistas, beasts of war and bodyguards;

New Terrain, particularly defensive works of wood and dirt including
ditches, stockades, and log buildings;

And More!

Kid friendly, this is a great game system for father/son (or parent/child) gaming. Prizes for all participants.

song of drums and shakos nominated at Origins 2009

2009-04-24T11:23:00.001-07:00

Our Napoleonic fast play skirmish rules "Song of Drums and Shakos" written by Sergio Laliscia have been nominated at Origins 2009 in the best historical miniature rules award. Andrea Sfiligoi of Ganesha Games will attend Origins and will run ongoing demo games of SDS and other games -- if you attend this great con (Columbus, OH, June 24th-28th)remember to look for our table and vote for us!

Song of Arthur and Merlin available on Dec.23rd

2008-12-21T08:26:00.001-08:00

On Dec. 23rd, Song of Arthur and Merlin, the Arthurian sourcebook for Song of Blades and Heroes, will be available from our blog www.ganeshagames.blogspot.com as a $8 pdf.

It will also be available soon as a download from many online pdf retailers -- watch this space-- and as a printed book (37 black and white pages with color covers).

For those who do not have the basic books in the Song of Blades series, please take note that we'll offer all the books including SAM in a discount bundle on www.wargamevault.com

Here's what the back of the book says:

PULL THE SWORD FROM THE STONE AND BECOME KING OF THE BRITONS!

Song of Arthur and Merlin is the third expansion for the Song of Blades and Heroes miniatures rules, bringing the world’s most famous legendary king to your tabletop battles. Written by Arthurian expert Daniel Mersey, this book includes:

* Three versions of the Arthurian story: Hollywood’s knights in shining armor, the gritty hero of Welsh legend, and a historical world stripped of all magic and monsters.

* 6 special scenarios and campaigns for Arthurian games and 11 new scenarios for all Song of Blades and Heroes games.

* 100 new rosters including famous knights of legend, magicians and creatures from British folklore, and the historical Britons and their Saxon, Pictish, and Irish enemies.

* 38 new special items from Arthurian legend.

* 19 Arthurian warband advances.

* New special rules and optional rules for playing games with larger warbands.

THE ORIGINAL SONG OF BLADES AND HEROES RULEBOOK IS REQUIRED TO PLAY THIS GAME. TO FULLY ENJOY THIS BOOK OWNERSHIP OF THE PREVIOUS SUPPLEMENTS SONG OF GOLD AND DARKNESS AND SONG OF WIND AND WATER IS RECOMMENDED

OneMonk offers FREE song of Blades miniatures

2008-11-07T15:20:00.000-08:00

OneMonk just made available a free set of ten fantasy 30mm paper figures. These are samples from several of their currently available sets.They come complete with the three measuring sticks and bases with game stats for Song of Blades and Heroes. The miniatures can be downloaded here

OneMonk and Ganesha Games team up

2008-10-19T01:49:00.000-07:00

OneMonk, provider of fine paper miniatures, is teaming up with Ganesha Games. OneMonk will initially do a set of paper minis for Song of Arthur and Merlin, the Arthurian supplement for Song of Blades and Heroes. The minis will be available at the same time as the rulebook (December).

OneMonk will also do a small promo set that will be included with pdf downloads of SBH. The paper minis will have stats printed on their bases, and the measuring sticks will be included in the PDF. We are working out details so there's no date for this yet.

Song of Wind and Water is available NOW

2008-09-17T06:25:00.000-07:00

Song of Wind and Water, the second supplement for the Song of Blades and Heroes fantasy miniature rules, brings the forces of Nature to your tabletop. With simple weather rules, new terrain types and special abilities, your battles will nevel look the same again.

New Terrain: bogs, swamps, quicksand, desert, lakes, rivers, ruins, witch woods, thick vegetation, snow, bladegrass, sleepflowers, stickyweeds, suspended bridges and teleport fields.

6 Precursor Artifacts, 19 new abilities, 2 scenarios, shieldwall and rally rules, FAQ, 98 new profiles including Nymphs, Frogfolk, Apemen, Plant-Men, Desert Nomads, Dinosaurs, Orcs and Goblins,Manticores, Pegasi, Hydras, Sasquatch, Yeti, Griffins, Catoblepas, Cyclopses and Hippogryphs.

32 pages, pdf available as emailware sending a $8 paypal payment to andreasfiligoi@gmail.com

Printed book available on http://lulu.com/songofblades
read the first review on http://boromirandkermit.wordpress.com/

FREE HACK Issue One is available

2008-09-10T03:57:00.000-07:00

The first issue of FREE HACK, a webzine focusing on Ganesha Games products, is available as a free download from http://www.lulu.com/songofblades

Soon it will be available also from www.wargamedownloads.com

Ganesha Games to publish Free Hack ezine

2008-09-04T01:40:00.001-07:00

Ganesha Games is putting together FREE HACK, a free pdf webzine about its games. The first issue will be available for download from www.lulu.com/songofblades on September 10th, 2008. The second issue should be available by December 10th.
First issue will focus almost entirely on Song of Blades and Heroes, with more than 20 pages of FAQs, variant rules and a scenario. Sneak peeks from upcoming products are included.

Miniature manufacturers, websites and shops can get a FREE advert on issue one by sending their A4 or half-page ad artwork to andreasfiligoi@gmail.com. Advertising on future issues will be $5 per half page. Please send the artwork no later than September 8th.

Ganesha to publish Song of Arthur and Merlin

2008-08-24T08:00:00.001-07:00

The Once and Future King comes to Song of Blades*

Arthurian author/wargamer Daniel Mersey (who, among other things, collaborated on the Warhammer Age of Arthur book and wrote the Glutter of Ravens rules) and Ganesha Games have agreed on publishing a Song of Arthur and Merlin supplement for Song of Blades and Heroes. Daniel has already written an outline of the book which has been greenlighted. For more about Daniel, visit http://www.freewebs.com/merseybooks/

The book will feature three playable versions of the Arthurian myth: a Dark Age historical Arthur, the Arthur of Welsh myth, and the Arthur of Hollywood. The major characters, magic items and creatures will all be featured. The book will be about 40 pages, illustrated by Andrea Sfiligoi (who will also act as rules supervisor) and will likely be on sale as a pdf for $9 and as a print-on-demand book through www.lulu.com/songofblades.
Note that this will be an official Song of Blades supplement, not a stand alone book... Ideally this should be in the e-shops for Christmas.

Andrea gets interviewed at Origins

2008-08-05T07:57:00.001-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/6gb2nx

just a relaxed chat I had with Clyde L.Roher of Theory from the Closet
podcast. Being an RPG podcast, there is a lot of talk about Familiars, but
SBH and other stuff is discussed as well. Warning: I speak with a
recognizable Italian accent, I hope it's not tiring to listen to that for
such a long interview...

See you at Origins 2008!

2008-06-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

A quick note to confirm that Ganesha Games will be at Origins 2008 in Columbus, Ohio, USA at the Origins Games Fair at the end of June. You'll find me running demos of Song of Blades and Heroes and Mutants and Death Ray Guns in the miniature hall. If you bring a USB pen or removable hard disk, you'll be able to buy PDF versions of the games straight from me.

Make sure you attend, play a demo and please vote for SBH in the Best Miniature Rules category!

SBH nominated at Origins!

2008-04-30T07:04:00.000-07:00

Ganesha Games is pleased to announce that the "Song of Blades and Heroes" fast play fantasy skirmish rules have been nominated as Best Miniature Game at the Origins Game fair.

We take the opportunity to thank all the loyal fans, editors, translators, webmasters, reviewers, distributors, manufacturers, retailers, websites, playtesters and last but not least members of the songofblades yahoo group who contributed to build a positive buzz about the game.

Andrea

Mutants and Death Ray Guns is available!

2008-04-05T02:03:00.000-07:00

Ganesha Games has just published Mutants and Death Ray Guns, a fast-paced, skirmish level, post-holocaust, science fantasy miniature system for two or more players, based on the popular Song of Blades and Heroes mechanics.

After 200 years of war with nuclear and biochemical weapons, new races compete for supremacy over a scorched Earth. Pit your band of after-the-bomb desperadoes, mutant humanoids, sentient plants, robots, androids, hyper-evolved animals and zombie-like Wretched against the dangers of a wasted world. Face irradiated terrain, contagious diseases, aggressive life forms and malfunctioning equipment. Collect artifacts, find food, fight over scarce pools of uncontaminated water, and save your resources, because in the harsh post-apocalypse world every energy cell, every ration and every drop of water means the difference between life and death.

Have you got what it takes to survive?

Designed for fast-play, you can finish a battle in 30-45 minutes; play a mini-campaign in one evening!
Play with any single-based miniature, in any scale.
Inexpensive and Convenient: play with as little as four miniatures per player. The game requires little space -- a 2'x2' table is enough!
Uses three sticks for easy measurement of movement and ranges.
Includes five factions: Humans, Androids, Mutants, Robots, Mutated Plants, Mutated Animals, and the disease-ridden Wretched!
40 pre-generated characters and six scenarios included.
Complete rules for physical and mental mutations, power armor, high-tech weapons and psionic powers!
Campaign Rules: your characters become better fighters, gain new mutations and equipment after every battle.
Also includes a list of manufacturers of suitable miniatures.
Note: this is a complete, stand alone product. Purchase of Song of Blades and Heroes is not necessary.
The game can be purchased as a pdf (send $8 Paypal payment to andreasfiligoi@gmail.com) or as a printed book on www.lulu.com/songofblades
The pdf is also available on wargamingonline.com, on www.lulu.com/songofblades

2008-02-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

Beginning today (Feb. 20th), PDFs of Song of Blades and Heroes and Song of Gold and Darkness are on sale on Wargaming Online site, Mongoose's e-store.

This should bring further exposure to the rules (already on sale on key20.com, wargamesdownloads.com, arima.it and lulu.com/songofblades, and as emailware by the author).

On another note, "Mutants and Death Ray Guns" post holocaust science fantasy rules are in advanced playtest and should see the light of the day at the end of March.
Soon after the core rules, Ganesha will produce "Assault on Neo Tokyo" , a sourcebook for MDRGs based on Kremlin Miniatures' 15mm sci-fantasy miniature line.

Song of Blades available in French!

2008-01-30T17:17:00.000-08:00

Ganesha Games has just published the French version of SBH.
To receive the French PDF, just send $4 paypal payment to andreasfiligoi@gmail.com.

Song of Blades and Heroes distributed by Key20

2007-11-11T14:23:00.000-08:00

Song of Blades and Heroes is now distributed by Key20 (www.key20.com). In the U.S, ask for the printed book (MSRP $14.95) in your local gaming shop or download the PDF ($4) from the Key20 website.

Ganesha to attend Lucca Games 2007

2007-10-25T03:50:00.000-07:00

Ganesha Games will be attending the Lucca Comics & Games convention in Lucca, Italy, on November 3rd (Saturday). We'll be at the Arima stand (arima.it is the Italian e-tailer that sells our Song of Blades and Heroes rules)so if you attend this huge con (85000 visits last year) be sure to visit us for a game. Painted and unpainted 15mm minis for Song of Blades and Heroes will be available.
http://www.luccacomicsandgames.com/page.php?page=7

Song of Gold and Darkness is available

2007-08-29T08:26:00.000-07:00

Treasure and danger await in the depths of the Earth. Will you dare enter the Dungeon? Song of Gold and Darkness is the first expansion for the Song of Blades and Heroes fantasy skirmish rules. It includes complete rules for dungeon adventuring such as: Rules clarifications and expansions; 11 new Terrain types; 18 new Special rules for your models; four new warband advances; Necromancers, Sorcerers and Summoners; rules for treasure, climbing, bashing down doors, lock picking, traps, light and darkness, movement and combat; potions, magic clothes, magic weapons and jewelry; four dungeon scenarios; guidelines for solo dungeons; rosters for 156 new monsters and warriors, including Dark Dwarves, Dark Elves, Hobgoblins, Snakemen, Giants, Angels, Demons, Were Creatures, and classic dungeon dwellers such as Brain Devourers, Eye Monsters and Gargoyles.

Song of Gold and Darkness available from Sept 5th

2007-08-12T02:03:00.000-07:00

Ganesha Games announces the release date for “Song of Gold and Darkness”
Song of Gold and Darkness will be available as emailware on September 5^th for $8.

Cover for Song of Gold and Darkness

2007-07-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

Hi, this is the cover for the dungeon supplement coming out in September. Comments welcome!

first good review of sbh

2007-07-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

ACARHJ just posted a nice review on The Miniatures Pag:

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=114311

SBH available at HISTORICON!

2007-07-18T06:30:00.000-07:00

A limited number of copies of SONG OF BLADES AND HEROES fast-play fantasy skirmish rules will be available at the Splintered Light table in the dealer hall at Historicon. Splintered Light will announce the skirmish packs.

If you didn't buy the $4 pdf straight from the author at andreasfiligoi@gmail.com and prefer to have a printed copy in your hands, pre-order it now and drop by the Splintered Light table.

SBH available for sale!

2007-07-13T04:15:00.000-07:00

Recruit your fantasy warriors and fight!

Song of Blades and Heroes is a fast play, skirmish level fantasy miniature system for two or more players. The rules are simple, fast, and above all FUN.

EASY: simple and easy to understand rules that you learn in just one game;
EASY MEASURING: no counting inches or centimeters. SBH uses three measuring sticks to measure all distances and ranges;
FAST: A game lasts 30-45 minutes. Play a mini campaign in a single evening;
INEXPENSIVE: 5-10 models per player are needed;
CONVENIENT: the game needs little space -- a 60x60cm play area is enough. Bring all your armies in a shoe box!
MULTI-SCALE: play with any single based fantasy miniature, in any scale;
HEX-FRIENDLY: play on hex grids if you prefer;
NO WEIRD DICE: SBH uses standard six-sided dice only;
READY TO PLAY: stats for 180+ monsters and heroes are included, and you can create your own!
NO BOOK-KEEPING: SBH is an action point system that requires NO book-keeping and always keeps players on their toes;
HIGH SOLO PLAYABILITY: the SBH mechanics work well in solo play;
CAMPAIGN: with campaign rules, your warband grows more powerful after every battle;
Six basic scenarios included.

SBH is the first of a line of games designed to be quick, inexpensive and requiring very little space.

Skirmish packs of 15mm fantasy miniatures are available from www.splinteredlightminis.com.

Every skirmish pack (Kobolds, Bugbears, Skeletons, Lion-Men, etc) has enough models to build a large warband.

Written and ilustrated by Andrea Sfiligoi (Golem Games on TMP)

To purchase the e-book, please send $4 Paypal payment to andreasfiligoi@gmail.com (you'll be emailed the PDF and the cover files, make sure you have around 4 megabytes of free space in your mailbox).

To purchase the printed book, please visit: www.lulu.com/songofblades

Almost there!

2007-07-07T02:32:00.000-07:00

I'm doing the last minute changes to the layout and designing a cover- The PDF is ready and will be sent out for proofreading. We are almost there.

SBH will be available in 3 languages

2007-06-30T00:18:00.000-07:00

"Song of Blades and Heroes" will be initially available in three languages: English, Spanish and Italian. The PDF will retail for $4, the printed book will be made available on Lulu for around $10. The book itself will be A4, stapled, 34 pages, with a color cover and black and white interior. Game stats for more than 180 warriors, monsters, beasties and animals will be included.

I'll have the English and Italian versions ready for the end of July.

Join the SBH Yahoo Group

2007-04-02T14:48:00.000-07:00

For suggestions, rule clarification and such, please sign up on the Song of Blades yahoo group:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/songofblades

What is Song of Blades and Heroes?

2007-03-25T03:25:00.000-07:00

SBH recreates the battles of bands of adventurers and warriors in a fantasy world. It's been
specifically written for 15mm miniatures mounted on round bases but it can be played in other scales. It is part of a line of games I am developing, called "1-cent gaming" because we use cents as bases, and also because the games are designed to be quick, inexpensive and requiring very little space.

SBH can be easily adapted to larger scales. As long as your minis are singly based, you can play SBH.

The rules are written for two players but it's possible to play with more.

The nominal ground scale with 15mm models is 10mm =1 yard. One figure represents one
creature. One turn represent a few seconds.

Measuring is very simple. All distances and ranges are measured with three measurement sticks labeled Short, Medium or Long. No halving, no multiplying, no weird fractions, no counting centimeters.

Premeasuring (checking a range before declaring an attack or a movement) is allowed. Players
may measure distances at any time.

SBH can be played on a 2'x2' wargame table (a DBA table is perfect) or on a hex grid.

Models are described by a profile. Stats are Quality, Combat and Special Rules.

SBH is an action point system that requires NO book-keeping at all. You decide to roll one, 2 or 3 dice vs the model's Quality, and get to make one action per success you get. If you roll 2 failures, though, play passes to the opponent. Players are always on their toes.

Combat is simple-- roll a die for both combatants and add their Combat scores. If you beat the opponent, he either recoils or falls down. If you double his score, you kill him. If you treble his score, you inflict a gruesome kill, requiring morale rolls.

Magic using models can use magic to make ranged attacks or to "pin down" enemy models. Ranged attacks are weak, but pinned down targets are extremely vulnerable.

Special Rules are "rule breakers", allowing a model to do something not normally allowed. For example, a model with the Shooter special rule is armed with a ranged weapon.

Using a point system, you can create your warband or your own miniatures. Stats for more than 180 soldiers, monsters, beasties and animals are included in the rulebook.

Simple campaign rules let your warband grow more powerful battle after battle.

There are 6 scenarios included with the game.

The full rules can be learned in just one game. A game lasts 30-45 minutes. You can play a mini campaign (3 scenarios) in a long evening.

Expansions and campaign books are already planned.

For a preview of the rules, send a mail to andreasfiligoi@gmail.com

Welcome to Song of Blades

2007-03-25T03:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Song of Blades and Heroes! This is my blog for wargamers interested in my fantasy skirmish rules. To buy a PDF copy of the rules, send $4 via Paypal to andreasfiligoi@gmail.com. Before buying, you can read a game preview -- just ask me for it and I'll email it to you.