Well, this lot popped through the door recently, a very nice treat.
Many, many pre-printed 'Dominion of the' titles. These are all Lulu prints which are so much nicer than my homegrown printing efforts and only a couple of pounds more than the PDF equivalents.
As I'm planning on running Alexander the Brief at a few more events, the author very kindly sent me a couple of display copies of Dominion of the Spear and Dominion of Pike and Shot. An added bonus is that these books also contain all the scenarios for each period as well. Result!
The only downside to having the books is that they don't come with a separate QRS. As John Salt discovered with the WRG (neu) rules, Lulu seem incapable of printing those. But fear not, the QRS is printed on the back cover of the book! A very clever solution.
I've already got the PDF of Frederick the Great, but I also ordered the Lulu version as it is so much nicer. I was vaguely thinking of doing a mini campaign of the '45 using them, but then I discovered that this edition also includes the AWI/Stuart rebellion etc already (Dominion of the Claymore/Tomahawk?). So that has saved me the bother and includes an extra battle I'd never even heard of from the '45.
Being long interested in the WSS, I just had to have this too. As an added bonus it includes a load of stuff for the ever mysterious Great Northern War as well. A period I've always been vaguely interested in, but could never be bothered to actually do anything about it. Now I have rules and a ton of historical scenarios, there is no excuse.
What a fantastically good value set of stuff. I'd highly recommend the Lulu versions of these rules as they are very inexpensive and look so much better than my PDF prints. Hats off to those of you who understand the mysteries of booklet printing and can do it themselves, personally I'd rather pay a bit more for someone else to figure out how to do that.
I've been doing some cheeky printing and binding at work for my "Dominion of" rulesets - someone has to keep the knowledge of the old technology alive...
ReplyDeleteI was pretty expert with the ring binding machine at work. Ahem. Sadly not an option now I'm retired. The push fit binders work OK, but only for thicker documents. I've no idea if you can even buy those any more, and we also seem to have run out of paper clips at home. All this twentieth-century tech!
DeleteI have also bought the Lulu printed versions of the rules … and think that they are well worth that little extra cost!
ReplyDeleteAll the best,
Bob
Yes, I quite agree, we'll worth spending a bit more on them..
DeleteMartin,
ReplyDeleteGlad you like the books! I think that you will find that the Dominion of the Claymore, Tomahawk and Talwar, apart from covering the Jacobites, covers mainly the French Indian War (and a few battles from India and the West Indies) and not the American War of Independence. That is another book in the series - Dominion of Patriots and Redcoats!
Steve
Ah sorry, I just flicked through until I discovered the 45 scenarios. I took the books to the Society of Ancients Conference and they were very handy for people to look through, and we had quite a good group discussion about the Dominion series at the end of my Alexander the Brief session.
DeleteWell done on Alexander the Brief and fair play to author for recognising your sterling work!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark. Alex went down very well at the Society of Ancients Conference, and is due for a return at Partisan in a couple of weeks.
DeleteCool!
DeleteYou can also print a pdf file in Acrobat Reader in "booklet" format -- folded A4 sheets = A5 pages -- and use a 360 degree stapler. This allows neat stapling down the centre of the pages to give a very functional and nice looking booklet. Here in Australia we have access to an amazing budget item for only $3.50! It easily staples through 11 pages (for the longer Dominion items).
ReplyDeleteHmm, that might be worth a try. I find the menu options in Acrobat bafflingly poorly laid out, but now I know it is possible, I'll hunt around for the option.
DeleteIt's in the Print dialogue box.
DeleteSelect File > Print
- Page Sizing and Handling: Select "Booklet"
- Booklet subset: Select "Both sides"
- Orientation: Select "Portrait"
Not sure if it is the same with you, but I also need to click "Fit to page".
DeleteI found the booklet option in the printer specific options. Well blow me down, that was easy!
DeleteI have a long stapler and can staple A4 sheets as A5 booklets although I find 44 A5 pages the limit of what the stapler can punch through, but I do use card for the cover which probably does not help! The other issue as the page counts increases is that the outside edge of the booklet becomes less and less even.
ReplyDeleteI guess another option would be to fold the booklet and use a thin slide binder.
DeleteYes, a little uneven at the outside edge, but fairly minor with 11 pages. Thanks Steve for releasing all as pdfs.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks Martin for your "one hour" rules variants.
There's no mystery to my printing these booklets; I do them A4, double-sided and hold them together with a bulldog clip :)
ReplyDeleteLOL, very practical! I put mine in a clear folder, although now the mysteries of booklet printing have been revealed, who knows...
Delete