Napoleonic Rules - Lasalle from Honour Publishing

Sam Mustafa's latest publication through his company; Honour Publishing.

I know I'm a bit of rules junky, not as mad as some but fairly serious. Napoleonics was one of the periods that I had sworn off buying any new rules for. I have long since narrowed my choices down to either Napoleon's Battles (for which I have all the editions) or Age of Eagles. Now Sam Mustafa has brought out a new edition of Lasalle, the original was published in 2009 I think. That particular rule set really brought about a renaissance in Napoleonic gaming in my area. I know that my local game shop at the time sold at least 40 copies of the rulebook and my club (the League of Extraordinary Gamers or LEG) invested a considerably amount of time in putting together a tournament at Genghis Con trying to build on that excitement. That is the tournament that I constructed 16 6'x4' game mats for. We were anticipating upwards of 32 participants and I think we ended up with 8. 

I gave up on the 1st edition of Lasalle relatively quickly. While I have no particular problems with the rules and concepts I did have a problem with the armies and their generic feel (at least that's what I remember, I went looking for those rules and right now I have no idea where I put them). For the most part I find many of Sam's concepts and ideas pretty exciting and innovative  I haven't been excited enough to delve into any of his other rule sets. For the most part I'm happy with the rules I have picked as my "standard" go to sets. Now Sam has released a "revised" edition of Lasalle and I was curious enough to pick it up.

From a production standpoint this is a beautiful softbound rulebook with all the colors and graphics that you would expect from Honour Publishing. It is well written and well organized, and there are all kinds of charts and chapters that can be downloaded directly from the Honour Publishing web site. I think the most intriguing of the downloads is the Army Maker. While it could have been in the book, leaving it out reduces the size and cost of the rule book and allows updates as needed by Honouring Publishing. 

While the basic concepts are the same, this appears to be more than just a revision. While I will need to sit down and actual play it seems like there are some significant changes in how things work for the better. The Army Maker file is a huge bonus and I think moves the rule set up to something you could use to produce historical battles when you want to. I'm looking forward to making a deeper dive into it as time permits. Right now I think this one is certainly worth adding to your collection.

Backlogs and New Projects

As most of you have been able to tell from watching the horde of miniatures coming in to my house I sometimes  have a hard time focusing on just a single project. Currently on the list are:

1) WWI US Marines - I have everything for this army but only 1 platoon of 15 is painted.
2) Modern US Marines - I have almost everything for this army either in hand or on the way. I may need a few more troops and I definitely need more HMMWVs and probably MRAPs (a 6x6 Cougar and a 4x4 Cougar are on the way).
3) ACW Union - Infantry and artillery are all finished, I need to get to the cavalry but that's a low priority for this army. Currently all my Generals are old Stone Mountain minis or Old Glory, I'm planning on replacing them with some from Peter Pig painted up to a much higher standard. The only other thing I would like to do is finish the Fire and Fury game markers that I also acquired from Peter Pig.
4) Napoleonic British - I may go through a re-basing exercise for this army. Currently mounted for LaSalle which I have now decided I don't like very much. I may go back to Napoleon's Battles basing or perhaps the Napoleon at War basing, actually for the British infantry it should work out to be the same, just the cavalry is mounted differently I think. So most likely the infantry component is finished, I need to work on artillery and cavalry at this point.
5) Flames of War DAK - This army is basically finished, there are a few odds an ends that need to be completed but it is a playable army. I am considering going back and stripping down vehicles and re-painting them with some new techniques that I have learned since I painted that one.
6) LoTR - I have one army based around the Knights of Dol Amroth that is about 1/2 done, but I'm unhappy with it. I may go ahead and just go with the Grey Company, or make a left turn and do Rohan. How can I pass up vikings on horseback?
7) SAGA - Still up in the air on this one but I already have a bunch of vikings painted up so really all I would need are a few leaders painted up and I would be done. I need to dig the miniatures out and see what I really have. Certainly more than what SAGA requires. My biggest issue is that these rules are irremediably expensive for being a paperback set. I have hardbound rules with considerably more content that cost less than SAGA.

So those are the armies that I have currently. I am contemplating an TYW army (Danes) and maybe a Confederate army for ACW.

Tons of Fantasy and Science Fiction stuff floating around the desk. This stuff is primarily intended for competition painting. I do need to pick out a piece or two to get ready for ReaperCon in May

NEWEST project. My Dad called last night and he has decided that he wants me to paint another one of his carvings. This one is not a carousel animal but more of a statue type piece that would be a decoration on a carousel. It was one I had considered painting when they went to Europe in 2011 but I painted the Hippocampus instead. Sounds like I made a good choice because he has something pretty definite in mind for this one. Its also small enough (about 2' tall) that I can bring it home and work on it rather than having to drive up to the shop. Since its for my dad everything else will probably come to a stop while I work on that. I think its time to break-out the airbrush and get used to using it again. Airbrushing is going to make this go much faster than working it with a brush.

15mm British Napoleonic Army

My club (LEG) got heavily into La Salle when it was first released. Right now I'm not so enamored with it but it did give me the opportunity to replace the army that I had sold some time ago. I was experimenting with Old Glory and AB and they are actually mixed within the battalions. Despite the Old Glory tendency of over exaggerated poses I think I prefer them in the long run over the ABs. At 15mm the sculpting quality is just not visible on the gaming table and the price for Old Glory and not having to order half a dozen codes to get what I want has won me over. My original British army was Minifig and yes, Heritage. I can see why I got halted from finishing this army up. I believe I was waiting for the flags to arrive from GMB and then I ran out of the pike staffs I was using for the standards. So another project that needs to be completed. I think I only have one more unit of infantry to finish plus all the cavalry and artillery, not to mention Portuguese and Brunswick allies. Although I have to admit I'm still not sure where the Brunswickers fought in the Penninsula. Anyway here are a couple of shots to warm you up and the rest are in the Napoleonic Gallery.