I think SBH is a perfect introduction to the hobby of tabletop battles. It's simple and fast (I played at least 10 full battles lasting no more than 45 minutes each) and its activation mechanics are addictive. Basically, every model has a Quality rating, a number to be rolled on d6 to "activate" the model. You can roll one, two or three dice to activate, and every success you roll entitles you to do one action or movement. But -- there's a catch. If you roll two or three failures, play passes to the opponent(some specific situations and model types get other disadvantages, e.g. a magic-user or cleric who rolls three failures when attempting to cast a spell loses his powers for the remainder of the game). So every turn you have to make your tactical choices-- you have to decide how much you are going to risk with your dice rolling. A neat idea.

Combat is furious and requires no book-keeping. No hit points, no armor classes, no nothing. Models have a Combat score. They roll a d6 (SBH is completely d6 based) and add their Combat score. The two scores are compared. Basically if you beat the opponent and you roll an odd number, he gives ground. If you beat him with an even number, he falls down. If you double him, you kill him, and if you treble him (possible with some situational modifiers, also ganging up on a lonely opponent can be very effective in this game!)you score a "gruesome death" -- meaning that his friends will have to test for morale.

The SBH mechanics are very complete for a 34 page book. There are all kind of special rules (you can have amphibian models, assassins, mounted figures, flying monsters, etc.)making sure that every model is different and has its own niche in combat. Assassins, for example, are very difficult to catch in broken terrain as they move through cover and shadows, and they kill you easily -- but once you close with them they are relatively fragile in combat. There's a point system to design your own miniatures and there are 183 (if I counted them correctly) ready to play profiles (undead, orcs, bugbears, ogres, elves, dwarves, etc.)

I want to stress out that this is a simple, fast-playing game. Don't buy it if you like to browse through hundreds of tables of effects or modifiers. It's perfect as an introductory game (for example to play with a younger brother) and also as a game with all the essentials (tactical decisions to make)and no fluff. SBH is not miniature specific, so you can play it with any scale or model you already have. No centimetres or inches are used -- you have to make three measuring sticks (I did mine with a balsa wood lath from the hobby store, for a grand expense of 30c)and all measurements and ranges are calculated with these three sticks (and yes, you can play on a hexboard too if you want, and in that case the sticks are not needed).

Another feature of the game is campaign rules. Your warband (you play with 8-10 models on the average, so the game is very inexpensive) gets more powerful after every two-three scenarios. You can raise the stts of the models or you can buy "advances" for the warband -- they are like dirty tricks that can save you when the going gets tough.

SBH is played on a 2'x2' table (if you use 15mm miniatures) or 3'x3' table (with 28mm miniatures). The author plays with 15mm from Splintered Light Miniatures (www.splinteredlightminis.com) on a DBA table with DBA terrain. Splintered Light will be carrying a few copies of the game at Historicon. The author told me that a Companion book is planned for September and after that the SBH line will expand into other genres (the author is an history buff and will probably do an Ancients skirmish system).

All in all: an excellent little game which gives you what it promises -- fast fantasy battles full of cinematic color and surprises. It can be bought for $4 as emailware from the author at andreasfiligoi@gmail.com or, if you want a printed book, you can buy it from the site www.lulu.com/songofblades. There's a Song of blades yahoo group (I didn't join it for lack of time but the author told me it's active)and the author keeps a blog at songofblades.blogspot.com

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