Dear friends, gamers, grognards!
I hope you do well!
Thank you for your continued interest in the games and products by “Sound of Drums,” your kindness, and your support. We’ve had a crazy and exciting year. My goal was to release six games in 2025. Well, we’ve printed four. Why? We’ve grown very quickly and needed to establish functioning processes at all costs. It’s all about efficient procedures and processes, and we’ve worked very hard on that. We’ve set up a new customer support tool, updated the website, optimized the logistics process (where you can lose a lot of money if you’re not careful), brought new fulfillment partners on board, and finally, with Les3Zouaves and DiSSimula Editions, established two collaborations with very interesting design studios. And on the side, but not to the extent I would have liked, we worked on many new projects and completed current projects.
We have a lot of news and updates for you:
Battle Commander Vol. 1 + BC: Expansion 1, Neither King Nor God and Primosole Bridge are on their way to the different fulfillment partners, and in the coming days and weeks we will complete work on Battle of Napoleon Vol.2 and the German edition of Euopa Universalis – The Price of Power.
➽ Gamefound Quatre Bras 1815 / Wartenburg 1813
➽ Gamefound Europa Universalis Deutsche Edition
The Pledge Manager of Battle Commander Vol. 1 on Gamefound is closed now and we prepare shipping data for the fulfillment partners. Below are some completely fresh photos of the final production version. We are very happy with the final quality provided by our production partner and we hope you will be happy too once you hold it in your hands.
Battle of Napoleon Vol.2, the wait for was well worth it. Trust me. The box will be amazing and Wartenburg 1813 a game that you would not have expected to be so good. I am really sorry for the delay, but we put a lot of heartblood into the rules 2.0 and the scenarios. Your support (and kind patience) allowed us to make a maximum possible effort.
In 2026 we will see a Spanish and Chinese edition of 1793: Patriots & Traitors by our partners HQWargames and Wargame Mate. They both also publish Battle Commander Vol. 1.
As we are almost sold out with English copies of 1793: Patriots & Traitors, we will print a 2nd edition which will include all the erratas, clarifications and a more streamlined rules manual. I am currently in touch with Jason St. Just to see if we will print at the same time the expansion 1791: A new dawn.
End of January we will be able to show you more of No Retreat Vol. 1 – East Front Designer’s Edition. This game and its following volumes will be part of our preorder system. I said to Carl that he has complete freedom of design and I asked him to put everything in the box he always dreamed of.
End of Feburary / early March we will fulfill Battles of Napoleon Volume 2: Quatre Bras 1815 / Wartenburg 1813. The moment we started fulfillment you will be able to support Battles of Napoleon Volume 3: Aspern-Essling 1809. We will offer you this battle like no other publisher did before. We will portray the battle behind the battle with much detail: the fight for keeping the pontoons over the river Danube intact. Or from the point of view of the Austrian army destroy these to prevent French reinforcements and supplies reaching the French troops fighting for their life in the villages on the eastern bank of the river.
➽ Gamefound Battles of Napoleon Vol 3: Aspern-Essling-1809
Wolfang Klein and Erich Rankl are working on the revised edition of their first game: Assault – Red Horizon 41. the gane that started it all for Wolfang and Erich and which knows a huge success among lovers of games on tactical level during World War 2. The combat system and the campaign mode are unique features in their games.
➽ Gamefound Assault Red Horizon 41 revised edition
Next, expect a fantastic design by Gottardo Zacani: Operation Valkyrie. This will be a solitaire game about the first 24 hours after the assassination attempt of Hitler in July 1944.
➽ Gamefound Operation Valkyrie
The LTD Pilot Edition Neither King Nor God – The Age of Renaissance in Europe was sold out in lightening speed. Several retailers bought the remaining copies of this limited edition. Now we are working on the 5 player version of the game which will be epic in size and scale with over 600 customized wooden playing pieces. A 6th faction, the Ottoman Empire will be a non player faction. Expect more courtier types, the New World, a diplomacy level, sieges, Landsknechts and much more in this epic game.
We started marketing of a cooperative game designed by Philip Dubarry: The Great Escape. Yes, inspired by historical events and the fantastic Hollywood movie. We have high expectations in the performance of this title. We will invest maximum efforts in art work (Marc von Martial will work with Wouter Schoutenen) and marketing in this title.
At the end of 2026 you will see the launch of Battle Commander Vol. 2 and you will be able to follow Battles of Napoleon Volume 4: Ligny 1815.
All these games will have outstanding component quality, unique playing experience and artwork is taken care of by the fantastic Marc von Martial.
Well, does this sound like a plan? 🙂
On top of our designs we will help Yves and Sergio to publish their game designs and offer them to a broader public.
Yves successfully funded Brandywine 1777 – A time for heroes.
The concept of A time for heroes is already well known by Gettysburg – A time for heroes.
And me personally, I am very excited about his concept of solitaire games “Decisive Hours” and the first game in this series: Austerlitz 1805.
And finally, I have a dear friend in Torino. I met him many years ago and I love his style of graphic work and his game design. I was bugging him for many years to work together on his games and allow me to take care of printing, logistics and distribution and he will focus on design. Finally, with Model’s Counterattack and the follow masterpiece Sicily Operation Husky Sergio agreed.
THANK you all for your tremendous support. We really appreciate it!
With your enthusiasm we are able to bring you fantastic games on your table. Our ambition is to show and prove that we are trying to make a maximum effort that you will hold close to perfect games in your hands.
We wish you and your beloved a great start into 2026, peace, health and harmony!
Uwe Walentin
🥁🎲⚔️
