Song of Shadows and Dust is a standalone miniatures wargame based on the award winning Song of Blades and Heroes rules engine. The rules reflect the gritty reality of urban violence while preserving the keep-it-simple, play-as-you-want, no-book-keeping-required spirit of the Ganesha Games family.

Original: An unique setting among ancient Roman life, the real completion for the background on my gladiator fights by Ferrum et Gloria upcoming rules.

Flexible: Inspired by the break down in civil order which plagued the great cities of the Mediterranean in the first century BC, these rules are suitable for any pre-modern setting from Babylon to Bruges.

Expansive: Includes 57 unique character profiles with whom to populate your faction or guild – from henchmen, assassins and punch-drunk boxers, to street urchins, elder statesmen and courtesans. Players are also free to create their own custom characters choosing from among 46 defining special rules.

Variable: Eleven different faction objectives allow for 121 different tabletop scenarios.

Easy to learn: The elegant core rules are easy to learn in just one game.

Fast to play: Games are designed to be finished in under an hour allowing small campaigns to be completed in a single sitting.

Expandable: Easily supplemented by special rules and scenarios drawn from the other rule books produced by Ganesha Games.

It is available now as downloadable pdf for only $8, next in book format too. And this one is the blog of the author.

The editing phase for my rules is proceeding. Andrea drew the logo and the cover in his new illustration style. Now he has to draw more gladiators. We are thinking about the page layout. The book will be in full colour and in the BattleSworn same format. However we are still in the initial phase of the text editing in Italian language. And after we have to translate the book in English. Maybe an Italian rough draft will be available for Lucca Games. But the final release will be ready by March 2014…

This is not a regular Roman arena like one of those that usually I propose but I think that it is interesting for gladiator games too. It is more a fighting pit arena than an amphitheatre, made of wood, where two opponents destroy each other like savage beasts. They haven’t a place where flee or take a break, it is to the last man standing without mercy. Some gladiatorial fighting styles don’t fit in this pit but other do. It is so beautiful and accurate that it deserve attention.
To know more go to Iron Mammoth’s Studio.

Resin, a lot of heavy resin. This arena is a pretty anonymous and huge ring with few decorative elements that felts a lack of stairs and terraces. The exterior part reminds me of the railway buttresses (maybe the maker utilised some sheets for railway modelling to cast it). The interiors are more Medieval oriented. From this description it is clear that I do not like this arena so much? However, it is still a impressive-looking arena. You can find it here.

After four years since I started to work on it, I have got the complete text in Italian of the first part of my Ferrum et Gloria gladiator rules!!! Now the editing work will start with the help of Andrea. After, he will translate the text in English language. In the meantime, during the spare time, I will start to write the second part. Some things are ready some are not. I have to playtest some ideas about chariots and beasts. A lot of work in progress, but another step ahead.

Some news about Kaustic Plastik with a new gladiator wave. This time they are going to realise 3 gladiators dresses and weapons for a “School of Pompeii” set. You obtain the pieces to mount a complete figure and the spare pieces to partially dress two more figures. It is called set number 1. Could we expect a number 2 and a number 3? The quality is higher than previous, with better faces and new armours. In the meantime they had realised some beautiful imperial legionaries, so after hard work some lessons were learned to arrive to this new production. The set is based on the classic match Myrmillones versus Retiarii.

A secutor! This is my preferred gladiator kind. I like the big close helm with only two holes for the eyes. Pity, the figure neck is too much high, so the helm don’t cover it and the part of the shoulder near it. Another regret is the shield, a little too small and with upper acute angles. The net could tangle on them, so a shield with upper rounded angles was better. However for an overall verdict on this figure I can say that it is very good. Extremely very good.

A scissor! This secutor version is peculiar with the arbelas instead of the large shield. A metallic armour was needed to protect the body from fucina deep shots. But a mail shirt can be dangerous when points penetrate in the rings that constitute it. So maybe was better a plate armour. But the mail shirt is more flexible for a better fighting. And under it a protective padded cloth could stop the points.

The best retiarius in 1/6 format. It is very similar to that previously made with the Totti’s face but a better head make the difference.

So after this realise we can find a lot of gladiators kinds to build our schola. But remind, these are very expensive limited editions – for example this set is realised in only 400 copies – so you have to be hurry. This set is available starting July in Asia, August in USA, September in Europe.

Some articles on the web are very influential. I grouped some biscuits tin arenas that I found on the web, and now there are more, thanks to that examples. They aren’t inspired by my work on these pages but from the original pages. However, post after post, even my proposals are becoming an important resource about arenas for miniatures.

Here a tin arena realised with a low rectangular biscuits tin. Some walls were built and a hexagonal terrain was added. These chaps brought the gladiator game and the arena in a pub. I can imagine the points calculus for the fight after a couple of pints. More here.

Using an hexagonal biscuits tin you can have an arena more similar to an elliptical shape as the original ones. More attention was gave to details, adding cork walls, columns and doors. The only complaint is for the dull grey colour on the walls. This kind of realisation is ideal if you want a medium size arena. And all is inside a strong box. More here.

Another arena, directly inspired by the previous arenas, especially by the last one even if the shape is circular. Always cork walls and that stuff, but with more details, better textured surfaces and an awesome colour painting on the walls! More here.

A colleague at job have got a Danish biscuits tin box as this one. I have direct one’s glance to the butter biscuits and to their tin box. I don’t know if I can steal it for my miniatures. After I saw this arena, I realised that I NEED another arena. A portable arena for duels. However: eat more biscuits, so you can build more arenas.

English women and girls are famous for the abuse of hats at celebrations. I saw this strange habit at the Luca’s marriage too. If lots of hats are around in English houses, you can find hat boxes too. So, if you are a real wargamer, you can sacrifice a hat box to built a circular arena. The only thing to do is to cut the height of the “walls” to a more proportioned dimension. Some paint work, some sand and grass for the terrain, some details added as doors and gratings, and you have got your arena. Look more for this one here.