<Oh crap, I didn't check, this went to Army Lists :( >
I see nothing on the front page, but I see that Lasalle has sold out apart from some "shop soiled" copies in the online store.
So Congrats on the sell out Sam :)
Also I now see a PDF copy for $16 for those that still want a copy.
Can I ask why not do a reprint?
The problem I can see with the PDF copy to print out is whats to stop stop stupid from printing off a dozen copies for the whole club.
cheers
The PDF version of the rules includes the errata and clarifications as of 28 May 2010 which is cool.
French Infantry divisions now have to take Polish, Saxon, and Westphalian cavalry as Reserve brigades so the Allied Reserve Brigade "tip" is now an official rule!
I hope there is a second printing too.
Cavalry or cuirassiers as reserve support? Have the organic polish lancers really been taken from the French?
it remains a tip in the january amendment this has not been updated so is not yet a rule as i read it. there is not an update in the errata for the 28/5/10 update to state this.
Congrats on the sell out Sam, I do hope there will be a reprint as i am getting plenty of requests on my site for a copy.
"Can I ask why not do a reprint?"
When I first printed Lasalle, I based my estimate of sales on previous games, and printed accordingly. With a hardback, full-color book, you need to guess right the first time, because it's just prohibitive to print small quantities thereafter. Unfortunately I guessed wrong: Lasalle sold more copies in five months than Might and Reason and Grande Armée had sold in five years. So I sold out.
However, at this time the relatively slow pace of sales just doesn't justify doing another big reprint and spending $13-$15k. I think there will be a demand for the game in the months and years to come, but not enough to justify that sort of big outlay.
I'm a very small business, and I have to keep an eye on the cost and timeline for printing the next book, so I decided to save my pennies, and let Lasalle run out of print, and concentrate instead on the books to come.
"The problem I can see with the PDF copy to print out is whats to stop stop stupid from printing off a dozen copies for the whole club."
That, unfortunately, is a given.
"Cavalry or cuirassiers as reserve support? Have the organic polish lancers really been taken from the French?"
No, no, no... I just added the "Reserve Allied" support rule from the errata into the book. It's the same rule fix that has been up there for months. It fixes the glitch whereby a French player could get Cuirassiers early by just choosing the Westphalians and bringing them on at-start as an allied brigade.
just to be clear...from page 109 of the recently updated PDF version of the rules :-)
"For a French Infantry division, an allied Polish, Saxon, or Westphalian cavalry brigade is a "Reserve" choice, and therefore must enter as a reinforcement. For a French Guard division, these allied brigades may start on-board."
Sam, I recommend you move the above new French special rule from the Tip document to the Errata document so people with the printed rules now the previous "recommendation" is now a "rule."
For those interested, I still have about two dozen copies of the printed book in stock and I know that a couple of other UK retailers (that I supply) still have some stock...
Mike
From this post I'm getting the impression that the PDF version is slightly different.
For example:
"The PDF version of the rules includes the errata and clarifications as of 28 May 2010 which is cool. French Infantry divisions now have to take Polish, Saxon, and Westphalian cavalry as Reserve brigades so the Allied Reserve Brigade "tip" is now an official rule!"
Are there are lot of updates/changes/adjustments in the PDF version of the rules? It would be nice to know the exact differences between the PDF version and actual rulebook.
It is as I said: the PDF is the same text, with corrected errata. The "Allied Reserve" rule is the only thing that appears from the "Tip" sheet, as opposed to the "Errata" sheet.
The PDF has a lot of white space, where pretty pictures used to be.
Some of the text in the PDF diagrams also need tidying up Sam. The high contrast change to mainly Austrian white is accompanied, in only a couple of diagrams, by text that still refers to the British that were originally there.
The PDF is great to have though, much appreciated.
Evan - can you give me those pages where it says "British" instead of "Austrian?" Thanks.
Pg 32 - text box
Pg 57 - R/H text box
I have a hard copy of the rules. I would be interested in a pdf as well if the errata and updated optional rules were included in the text - as opposed to being an 'appendix'. I am not clear from the posts so far whether the changes are 'integrated'.
If the changes are integrated then I would like to some mechanism whereby purchasers of the pdf can get updated copies of pages that are changed again in the future, as buying a new pdf every time there are further amendments would not be economic.
There are no "amendments." There will be no "second edition" or revised PDF. The only rules changes are those that are to be found in the errata, and the "Allied Reserve" designation that was included in the "Tips" file - as explained above.
The two corrections that Evan mentions have only to do with labeling units in the captions of an illustration. An Austrian unit is erroneously labeled "British."
Because I had to make some graphical adjustments for the PDF - getting rid of a lot of background colors and amping-up the contrast, I got rid of the British in the game play examples, and replaced them with Austrians. (Blue vs. White is a lot easier to see on a lo-res or B&W printer, than Blue-vs-Red.)
But apparently I missed two of them, so there are two Austrian units labeled "British" in captions, that I'll fix.
The combat examples themselves were not changed a bit; only the nationality of the units on the non-French side.
I bought a copy of the pdf as soon as it came out. There were two reasons for this:
1. So I had a copy with all errata included.
2. So I could make notes on it without having to disfigure my hardback copy.
On checking some errata issues today I noticed that the following errata is not included in the pdf version:
p66 Army Morale
p75 Entrenchments
p76 Unpredictable
p76 Home Field Advantage
Worth knowing if you are relying on the pdf being an accurate version of the rules.
I just glanced at the PDF, and the Home Field Advantage correction is definitely in there. So is the "Unpredictable" errata correction.
For some reason the "Entrenchments" correction isn't in there (the word "not" is missing in : "They are NOT obstacles.") Neither is "Army Morale" (the text in the example should read "more than 11" instead of "11 or more.")
I'm not sure how that happened, but I won't have the time to fix it, probably, until the end of the week. My apologies.
Its a shame that the pdf download cant be made into a living rulebook similar to GW's Blood Bowl. That way every year the latest version is available to the players that want it. The catch is the loss of revenue for Sam, as it becomes open to all. Now, if a reprint was available with all the errata in it, and new OPT rules from past players experiences (that Sam agreed with of course), I for one would be interested in buying it.
As I am running the first UK event in a couple of months I am intrigued by some of the rules queries coming up. I certainly agree that the rules may not be giving historical results across the board, but if you stick to the rules then obviously the playing field is fair as all players have the same choices from the beginning (depth of pockets etc being the one thing that will stop players always producing a new army). I would love the opportunity to discuss with the NZ and AUS tournie organisers (and any other countries I have missed) the problems they have found as I am sure we could all reach a concensus if a full and frank discussion was entered into. I am also sure that Sam would be interested in a group tournament concensus of opinion as that helps to remove issues within the rules. We used to run many competitions for WAB in the UK where a concensus was formed by the 4/5 main umpires, and then they all used the same amendments. This lead to players understanding what was happening with the rule set. After a few years however the leading lights seperated and now we have some ambiguity again.
Once again though I am sure Sam would be interested in any thing that increased popularity of the rules, and at the same time removed ambiguities.
Trev
So I have 2 corrections to write in to my print out of the pdf. Not bad at all.
I would like to see some mechanism for downloading the corrected pages, but it is not a huge deal.
I would love a proper bound copy with all the pretty pictures, but my print out of the pdf in plastic pocket sheet protectors is at least as good, and even has some advantages. For instance I can print out or remove only the pages I need for play rather than bringing the whole book with me.
If people want a "perfect" PDF, I can provide a corrected one. Just give me a week, since I'm extremely busy at the moment, and then send me an email with your e-receipt pasted in (the receipt that shows you bought the PDF in the first place), I'll send you a corrected one as an email attachment.
Before we do that, however, I'd also like to make sure that those were the only two errata that failed to make it in. (I think there was a third one, involving a caption of an illustration that read "British" when it should have read "Austrian," or something like that.)
best,
Sam
Hi Sam
for those of us lucky enough to have purchased the 'proper' rulebook is there an option to get a copy of this revised/full PDF possibly at reduced cost ?
Cheers
Gary
The majority of books were sold by retailers, so I have no record of transactions, or proof of purchase and so on.
It's actually quite difficult to set up, even with electronic records. I've been contemplating offering a "bare bones" PDF of Blücher that would come out at the same time as the full color book with all the extras, like advanced rules, campaign system, etc... And then letting people who got the Bare Bones PDF get a few dollars' discount off the book. But thus far we haven't figured out how to program it.
Sam, have you considered a print on demand solution for further hard copies? Either in small lots that you sell directly or through a fulfillment service like lulu.com? You'd have to increase the price even further to cover the higher cost of small print runs, but it would be a means of keeping the book in print. Black and white would be pretty much the only way to make it economical as a hard cover. Even has a soft cover, colour would run you over $30 at cost. Hard cover colour has a cost of over $40 at 136 pages + covers.
Hi Sam
""The majority of books were sold by retailers, so I have no record of transactions, or proof of purchase and so on.""
Fair enough and no biggie as amendments etc available here anyhow :-)
Cheers
Gary
"The majority of books were sold by retailers, so I have no record of transactions, or proof of purchase and so on."
Sam - what about people who bought direct from you (e.g. as I did)? Once you have the PDF updated and correctly incorporating the errata I'd quite like to get a copy, and would be happy to pay something for it, but preferably not the full US$16?
Also I'm not sure Alan's query "I would be interested in a pdf as well if the errata and updated optional rules were included in the text - as opposed to being an 'appendix'" got fully answered - does the PDF have the errata incorporated so the text is actually changed/corrected/updated in the actual pages of the book - or is the errata just an appendix tagged on at the end or such (so no different to the errata online - i.e. separate from the main text)?
Cheers & TIA,
John
I have no plans to offer a full-color PDF option at this time. I'm afraid it's just not cost effective, given the very low demand, vis-a-vis the expense of getting the webmaster to work on the various store features that would be required to compress and deliver such a massive file.
At the moment time is fairly precious, and I'm trying not to spend too much of it on Lasalle, otherwise Blücher is never going to get done. As mentioned, the PDF compiled all the errata as of May 2010. The actual text was changed on a page-by-page basis, to conform to the errata. ALTHOUGH, apparently the two errata mentioned above must have slipped through. But I have not yet found the time to go back through the master errata list and check it viz the PDF, to make sure that every one is indeed there. I do still intend to get that done, however.
Hi Sam - thanks for the response. In reverse order:
"As mentioned, the PDF compiled all the errata as of May 2010. The actual text was changed on a page-by-page basis, to conform to the errata. ALTHOUGH, apparently the two errata mentioned above must have slipped through. But I have not yet found the time to go back through the master errata list and check it viz the PDF, to make sure that every one is indeed there. I do still intend to get that done, however."
That's great - thanks for clarifying - it make the PDF _very_ worthwhile for everyone, even those like me with the hardcopy rulebook! :-)
"I have no plans to offer a full-color PDF option at this time."
I certainly wasn't asking about a full colour PDF version of the rulebook. :-) I was asking about getting the current basic B&W with the Errata incorporated at a discount ;-) Getting a copy of the PDF as a play-aid to the existing hard copy rulebook I have will - as you have confirmed the errata is incorporated into the main text - make it ideal as a second copy for actual game play as a couple of the other guys have commented above. And TBH I will probalby get a copy regardless once you have corrected those errata errors identified above. It just would be nice to get some 'benefit' of having bought a hard copy version (but I appreciate there is a significant logistics problem with such); but if not to least know that if I pay the full price (for a PDF copy on top of the hardcopy book) the PDF is not gonna suddenly get discounted in a month or two or such or whether there is definitely not likely to be any further (errata or similar) updates to the PDF in the near future (the latter which you have alluded to as being the case earlier in the thread)...?
Mycenius
Non of the downloadable extra's like the new Optional Rules and AB lists are in the pdf. Still its useful to have though because you can scribble notes all over it.
Hi Alan - right - but the actual (errata) corrections to the text wording and such are?
Thats right the errata is incorporated into the text, with the exception of the couple of items that Sam plans to fix that were mentioned above. Once those items are amended then there should be no need to refer to any other seperate downloads for the core rules
What is not incorporated are the new Optional Rules, Tips and Suggestions and new Army Lists but of course they are freely available on the download page. Its the incorporation of the errata that is most important from an ease of use point of view.
This is odd, I'm looking at the text for those two rules:
p66 Army Morale
p75 Entrenchments
And the text is NOT in error. Both are written correctly in the PDF. It's the ERRATA sheet that was in error!
For example, in the Army Morale example, 11 is "greater than one-third" of 31. So "eleven or more" is correct. The errata sheet was wrong to suggest changing it to "...more than 11."
So this is good news; only the errata sheet needs fixing, which I will do momentarily.
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