I was going to do a comparison between the 1st Edition (The hardback in the picture) and the 2nd Edition (smaller softback) of Lasalle. I have gone through both editions at this point and I actually find very little to compare. While some of the basic concepts are the same, like the use of base widths (BW) for measurement. these two editions are very much two different animals. 2nd Edition isn't a simple revision of 1st Edition, it is a complete breakdown and re-thinking of the concepts and ideas introduced back in 2009. 2nd Edition is more rules "heavy" in that the book is dedicated to the rules themselves. The army maker (I would call them army lists) is available as a free download on the Honour Publishing website so it doesn't take up space in the rule book. I would call that a bonus as it allowed Mr Mustafa to keep the rule book as slim as possible and to update the army maker as needed.
I don't know when I will have an opportunity to try these out, my Napoleonics are sitting in a box somewhere in a room full of boxes. I'm especially curious to see the Momentum concept in action. I have other rule sets that use a similar concept but not quite the way its presented in 2nd Edition Lasalle. I do have one beef with the rules as presented, and this is not unique to this new edition of Lasalle, basing. 2nd Edition basically says that as long as both opposing armies are using the same basing then there is no need to rebase, great! Who wants to rebase? My issue is that if I were new to Napoleonics and I'm getting ready to build my army I have no guidance on how to base them, in fact I would almost have to buy another set of rules in order to base my troops. It seems to me, that based on a graphic that shows the actual ruler measurement for a BW, that Sam knows exactly how he would like to see troops based simply based on that graphic and the rest of the fabulous graphics in the book. I think spending one page and giving a suggestion on how to base would have been appropriate. In the end its one of those little nit pick things that just bothers me. Personally, I still have a good number of troops that are mounted for Napoleon's Battles, I'm simply going to take two stands from that system to represent a single stand in Lasalle, problem solved.
From a production standpoint this is a beautiful book, lots of graphics, illustrations and pictures. The binding seems sound, unlike the issues with the 1st Edition binding which tended to give up the ghost rather quickly. It "reads" better than the 1st Edition and I think the organization of the rules is much better. It is broken into two sections; basic rules and advanced rules. It feels like you get a really good game with the just the basic rules, the advanced rules add a little more meat and flavor and you can add which ever ones you want, you don't need to do it all!
From my standpoint, it looks great, reads well and I think it will provide a good game. Hopefully I'll be able to at least get some troops on the table and give it a go solo. I do feel motivated to go dig out by British troops and maybe get those Portuguese allies painted right now.
