Well, ITGM is certainly not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but the game does have some merits. Yes, it is a throwback to the 1970's and is the British equivalent to Column, Line, Square (I'm told-never played CLS). On the plus side, if you have the space and the number of figures necessary, the game is extremely pleasing to the eye. Of course, the number of figs required is pretty ridiculous (I have close to 1700 25mm naps and its enough for a moderate sized game on a 14' foot table).

On the plus side, the game can handle large numbers of battalions, squadrons, and batteries. Again, it can probably handle more than most people or groups could amass. While it does have the modifier for rested muskets, you could simply ignore that rule if you don't like it :-).

It has some interesting rules in it as well, however, such as a casualty table which accounts for officer casualties within a battalion and generates negative modifiers once a battalion has lost a certain number of officers.

On another note, if you like this style of game, but want to make it more '90's, General de Brigade has been released over the last year or two and is basically ITGM with command and control and some other small changes. It still requires the large numbers of figs etc...but it combines the feel of ITGM with the modernization of miniatures rules over the last 5 or so years. I use ITGM with only the command and control rules of General de Brigade drafted in.

As far as Shako goes, I do like some aspects of that rules set as well and have been tempted on a few occasions to try it, but have let the urge pass when faced with rebasing all those figs. It too, however, has some rules that I don't like, such as the battalions automatically breaking on failed square attempts and some quirky results that can happen due to skewed die rolls etc... On the whole its a nice little system however. Its biggest problem, and the biggest difference between the two, is that it follows the modern of trend of playing miniatures with LESS figs and doesn't look as good as a game. The trend nowadays seems to be using smaller battlefields with less figures in tiny little units. This is a trend I don't really like. I play games with miniatures because they look good. Otherwise, I would simply play board or computer games.