Updated July 2008

We have been working for a few years with Wargaming Online, a subsidiary of Mongoose Publishing, who were interested in hosting the A&A range of titles on their internet-based download site. Recently Mongoose have decided to transfer this activity to Wargame Vault, part of the US-based OneBookShelf organisation. We will be putting all our files onto Wargame Vault in due course. At present during the handover, files can still be accessed via Wargaming Online (see the link below).

In due course revised and/or additional links will appear on this page.

There are a number of such sites now in operation and many of the classic wargame producers have stopped printing their rules and placed them as downloads, some free where they are supporting a specific metal product and some where payment is required. In all cases it does require honesty on the part of the customer, and some sites specifically draw attention to the fact that handing the file around to a wide circle of friends is effectively theft.

What is A&A’s plan for using the download site ?

This is another area where we have had some discussion.

Until now we have operated an update system so that any changes that are made to rules get covered by download files from our own website. The customer then has the task of updating his paper copy. We have incorporated the changes in the next reprint cycle, with minor changes keeping the existing edition number with a numeric suffix, and major changes calling for a new edition. Our intention for all existing products is to place the current edition on the download site. Any updated versions with a new suffix will also be placed on the site incorporating all the changes.

The other question is what the policy will be for new products. In cases where we feel that the product is very specialised or has a limited interest base (for whatever reason – which may previously have been a reason to not follow a project) then the product may be limited to the download site.

What is A&A’s plan for paper products?

Some titles remain popular and are regular sellers. This is often because there is a ready availability of suitable models, and the model producers stock the rules in support of their metal products. In other cases we may be the only publisher providing playable rules giving the right feel without micromanagement. Our review of sales and future plans for titles takes this into account. We maintain an analysis of how titles are selling and those that are “at risk” can be identified. It is possible that in the medium to long term some titles may be withdrawn from the "paper product" but will remain available as download products.

Terms and Conditions

Product are made available for your personal use only. Apart from the permissions granted on page 1 of our products, please do not copy the data file wholly or in part, and/or distribute it to other users. If you do this, you defeat the purpose of our offering the product at a lower price for a download version, and this also works against our continuing to provide you with our products in this way.

The expansion of our product range with download versions will enable us to bring back into circulation some products which are no longer in print. Some items will therefore are ONLY be available in a PDF download version. This is indicated on our website.

Andrew Finch and Alan Butler

Partners, A & A Game Engineering

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