"Lasalle 2nd Edition Discussion Groups" Topic

Apart from the Official Facebook Group, are there any other Discussion Forums for these rules around?

Just getting into the rules and after a few games I'm finding them a Day v Night experience over the original set bearing this name. Massive improvement.

Curious to see how others are finding them, rule interpretations they may have, the usual stuff.

Not interested in the Official Forum, as it requires an Facebook Account, which I most certainly don't want!

Forget FB, start the discussion right here. What did you see as the biggest improvement?

Great idea. I have the first edition, would love to hear some thoughts.

I agree. I've not yet played but have the rules. I've watched some youtube videos which look like the rules are good.

Like others I refuse to do Facebook.

A facebum account was set up for Lasalle 2nd edition? Surely there's been a mistake.

Long live traditional forums where conversation can be good, and Lasalle players can still congregate accordingly.

I own the new edition, and have begun to review and read, while enjoying the sense of the revisions that I am seeing. It has me inspired to get more into Napoleonics, cheers! : )

Lasalle 2 is superb; the orders system is brilliant, with a player able to take actions but the opponent able to interrupt if the actions are taken near the enemy. A bit like Crossfire. The advanced skirmish rules are also great, with the player winning the skirmish battle able to place skirmish figures to disrupt enemy troops.
Completely unlike v1

A facebum account was set up for Lasalle 2nd edition? Surely there's been a mistake.

Well it was definitely a mistake in my view but it wasn't just for Lasalle, it was for all Sam Mustafa's games.

I understand the software that ran his original Forum's was under constant cyber attack and so he switched to FB. Not sure if that was supposed to be a temporary measure but whatever, its still there. So I'm not!

Lasalle 2 is superb; the orders system is brilliant

And with that Dexter has stolen my thunder! 🤣

To answer USAFpilot around the biggest improvement. That's it right there. Pretty much the whole story. Its the Order/Game Turn or Sequence, thing.

Its a bit of a muddled response, in that the Orders are the integral part of the Game Turn, which dictates the sequence of play.

In simple (I hope) terms the game runs on "Momentum" or "MO". At face value these are just Command Points under another name. However they are key to the system and there's a lot more to it than that.

The game has five Orders. Rally, Movement, Change Formation, Bombard, Volley.

Of these, Rally and Movement are known as "Force Orders" and Change Formation, Bombard, Volley are what are known as Global Orders. The difference is the first two can only be applied to a specific group of units where the other three can be use right across the table, where units are in a position to comply.

Specific orders inherently cost more (MO). For example if you need to Move four Brigades, that's four points gone on Force Orders from your total. However, if some or all of the units in those Brigades want to Fire, you issue a Volley order, which being Global, allows them all to act on that for just one additional point!

There is also an additional one point cost for things like difficult terrain, charging etc that has to be applied if any unit in a Brigade meets the requirement.

So without going into further detail you can start to see the way costs build. Move a Brigade, Change Formation and Fire and there go three points.

Now this of itself isn't a revolution. The challenging part is that while you are juggling the MO available and how best use them you need to watch for "Interruptions"

These occur if you use a Volley order, or in other circumstances, when you are "near the enemy". This is a catch all phrase which I think of as being like Zones of Control in a Board Game. Its a fixed distance of Four Base Widths from the enemy (all game measurements are expressed in Base Widths).

Past that point, moving, changing formation and attempting to rally all give your opponent chance to Interrupt, or react, to what just happened.

It doesn't have to be taken but if it is, your side finishes the order that's being reacted to but then the play shifts to your opponent who can then take any of the five order types I have mentioned and use them in any sequence they like. Just as you have done, until that point.

The key is, as long as you have MO you can do things. The only other proviso is that no unit can carry out the same order more than once per Turn. Sounds obvious but you have to plan ahead. No use having an idea and MO available if the units you want to Volley has already done so.

You may be the first player in a Turn and then have to give up your planned actions on an Interrupt but then get play back again immediately, after the enemy has fired on you, for example. Which allows you to try and pick up your intentions again.

If one side can't, or won't, take up an Interrupt they have to Pass. If then the enemy is in the same boat and Passes themselves that's the end of the Turn. Naturally, this becomes more likely as the current Turn progresses and the chances of running out of MO increases. Also as soon as both sides run out, the Turn ends regardless.

When it does you discard any unused MO and the new Turn sequence which includes MO generation commences.

The other parts of the rules, moving, combat, shooting work well and more than do the job if you are not looking for staggering levels of detail. As mentioned there is also a proper point to skirmishing, with two levels of detail, as well as some worth while Chrome in the Advanced Rules.

That said, its the above Orders Phase that is the deal maker. Best of all, along with it testing your tactical brain, if at any point you step back from it you can make direct connections to real world decisions.

So its not just there for the game value you can see that in a particular circumstance, you really would need to get to C via A and B! Which is all the more rewarding.

Plus the 9 scenarios with attacker/defender, balanced point wise or not, objectives, handling of reserves and terrain setup make the game fantastic for 28mm pick up games on 180x120cm tables in 2 hours (with 10-15 units per side).

Agree with Trajanus for almost everything, the main flaw is in my opinion the artillery, it has the same cannister range of the muskets, and there is no difference between calibres. So you may simple fire on the artillery with the infantry, and this is a big step back from Lasalle 1.

Heavy artillery can reroll "1s" in a volley shot (cannister) rolling dice per base not per unit, so you have 8-10 dice. And the artillery can evade a charge by an attempt to retire. So the question is are you willing to move a unit in volley distance of a battery, because you will be interrupted on shot to pieces in case of and cannot charge anything if you survive by a successful retiring battery.

This is down in the weeds stuff, but opting not to interrupt is not passing.

Only the active player can Pass.

If the other guy has a lot more Mo than you, it's a good idea to let him wind some down.

Being caught with no Mo at the end of a turn when the other guy still has 2 or more spare is not healthy.

DB

This is down in the weeds stuff, but opting not to interrupt is not passing.

Not down in the weeds at all, its the kind of thing I want to hear.

Yes you are right. You don't become the Active Player until you actually take up the Interrupt option, so declining to do so is not actually a Pass.

I think we have been inclined, or circumstances have suggested we should, take up Interruptions more often than not. This has frequently lead, to say, a quick round of Volley and then a genuine Pass.

Hence the inexact comment! 😀

Just started playing love it. Also introducing friend to Maurice and Longstreet, very different games but for an evening . They all work really well.
Bit house rules, but looking for a list of Napoleonic commanders and their traits. Don't mind if it's from another game just trying something out to play along a campaign idea with Lasalle.

The best source I've found for rating Napoleonic commanders is the Napoleon's Battles Rules.

There is a website "napoleonsbattles.org" with a link to dropdown menus of NB commander ratings, although I see my computer brings up a "not secure" warning when I go to that page, for what it's worth…