We want to thank all of our customers for their patience over the past months as we prepare our first books for publication. We've had the pleasure of talking with many of you, and your support and feedback have been invaluable. We are currently preparing Napoleon's Finest: Marshal Louis Davout and His 3rd Corps, Combat Journal of Operations, 1805-1807 for the printer. Napoleon's Last Grande Armée: Eyewitness Portraits From the 1813 Campaign will follow as soon as possible. REVISED SCHEDLUE We needed to reverse the initial publishing schedule to allow for the extra time it is taking to re-write the original text for Napoleon's Last Grande Armée. While everyone wants to get the books as soon as possible, pushing the project to achieve our initial deadline is at odds with our publishing goal of a high-quality, essential reference work. The overwhelming consensus was: "Take the time and make it excellent." In addition to Scott Bowden's English translation of the original after-action reports published in the 1896 edition of Opérations du 3e Corps, Napoleon's Finest now features: New, original art by Keith Rocco (Rocco's excellent work appeared on most of the covers of Napoleon Journal) More color maps for a total of almost 30 A dozen uniform plates by Steve Palatka showing the infantry and cavalry as it appeared from 1805-1807 (Palatka's work appeared regularly in NJ) Nearly 60 biographical sketches by Scott Bowden of Davout, his staff, and his division, brigade, and regimental commanders New special sections written by Bowden on Davout's command style, his reputation of being "hard" on his staff, the organization of French artillery during this period, and whether Napoleon's Imperial Guard was a "drain" on the line infantry regiments More than a half dozen color orders-of-battle presenting archival data in diagram form showing 3rd Corps unit strengths for every major battle and important operational phase New sample text and artwork will be posted to our web site by April. If you have any concerns about your order, we welcome your questions and comments. Contact us via email at dlombardy@aol.com or call toll-free USA & Canada: 1-877-280-5252 Without your support we could not produce these books. To say "thank you" for waiting, there will be a special offer in April on Keith Rocco's Civil War art book. Updates and sample pages will be posted to our web site as soon as we have them. Napoleon's Finest won't be in our warehouse until early June. Matt and I are almost done with the editing of the text for Napoleon's Finest, as well as the proofreading on the maps and OBs. The first page layouts can be done in about 10 - 14 days. Back to OSG News March 2004 Table of Contents Back to OSG News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Operational Studies Group This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com