D1 - Teaser

[Just finishing up the pics and starting the AAR. Here's a shot from the game.]

Triple Point Blank Fire -- x3 firepower baby!

More of the 2 Half-Squads

Just checking out everyone's favourite ASL podcast. The boys have two new episodes since I was last there:

1. Episode 20! Haakaa Paallesasdfa;cj;se is on tap.

2. An ASL Extra Episode featuring an ASLSK3 scenario S23 - Monty's Gamble. Get out the slide rules kids, there be tanks about!

GO!

VASLeague Round 3 FINISHED!

Too tired to type much. Here's the VASL Analyzer numbers:

Opponent: Snakes: 0. Boxcars 2. DR Average = 7.568
(37 rolls). dr Average = 4.25 (4 rolls)

scrub: Snakes: 2. Boxcars 0. DR
Average = 7.19 (42 rolls). dr Average = 1.75 (4 rolls)

DR was pretty even. But the boxcars and snakes tell the story. One dr meant an ambush... Great game, great and gracious opponent.

My mom beat me at Squad Leader!

Great picture from the front page of the 'geek -- right now it's the "hottest" pic on the site:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/504564

p.s. the post title is from the first response on the thread. Hilarious!

TABSCON XIX Recap

Another TABSCON has come and gone and despite a city-wide garbage strike, the TABBERS have hosted another fun event. Hightlights? The nice weather, the guy who won six raffle prizes, and scrub's first game of full ASL!

Andy who frequents the blog and is a fellow TABBER has been planning my imminent demise in ASL and today he fulfilled his lifelong dream of concurrently teaching an ASL newb the ropes and hanging him with them. Haha! Seriously though, thanks a lot to you Andy! The severe beating was a gentle one. A slightly more thorough AAR is to follow but here's a pic of the scenario, D1 - Guryev's Headquarters, a DASL scenarios! Shiny big maps!

I also got a chance to play Conflict of Heroes (dug it out to teach a new player), and No Retreat!. The latter to teach Kozure and John -- I think they were both impressed that the whole Eastern Front could be played in a reasonable amount of time on a ledger sheet of paper-sized map.

I also dragged the prawn along and he filled in as my substitute in a game of A Most Dangerous Time with Ben. Alas, the prawn discovered too late that housekeepers are not combat troops and his home castle was take by marauding Oda.

Thanks again to Andy for a great time. My brain was suitably mushy afterwards. Thank too to the TABSCon Steering committee. See you guys in September!

Now where the hell is my VASLeague opponent?!

The Pacific - a sequel to Band of Brothers

Tom Hanks' and Steven Spielberg's Band of Brothers on HBO (and later on DVD ad nauseum!) was a big reason I got back into wargames and into ASL itself in particular.

The "cinematic" nature of ASL was a big draw of course -- die rolls replicating some of the chaos and sheer intensity of the conflict we so often see on the big screen, be it in Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers or The Longest Day et al.

So, some interesting news has come that the long awaited "sequel" to Band of Brothers has entered final production and will be released March 2010.

Check out the trailer on youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I_O6lHIDTM

UPDATE: Looks like the powers that be don't like free advertising. Youtube has pulled this trailer for "The Pacific". Fear not though, just search the site and there are mirrors.

All I can say is, with due deference to our veterans, is WOW. I cannot wait to game after seeing something that stirring. Here's hoping MMP can get the much anticipated Code of Ho module redone in time to take advantage of the synergies involved. In the meantime, I'll be playing ETO in ASL and Combat Commander: Pacific!

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UPDATE: TABSCon in two days! If you're in the Toronto area get out there!

UPDATE: My opponent and I in VASLeague Round 3 have settled on a scenario and sides (S19 Purple Heart Lane -- Band of Brothers inspired! -- and I'm the American parachute infantry!) Somebody call up Lt. Winters!

TABSCON XIX! Five days to go!

Toronto
Area
Boardgaming
Society
is hosting TABSCON XIX this Saturday. I'll be there with the Prawn (probably unless he wigs out and possibly others). I've hopefully got a game with Andy of "real" ASL and I'm game for anything else*. Post a comment!

LINKS:
http://www.tabsonline.net/

* - ASLSK, ASL, Combat Commander, CC: Ancients, M44, AMDT, NR!, Kiev to Rostov, Case Blue, SCS Bastogne, blah blah blah...

ASL Phases Quick Reference

As a nice Father's Day treat (and yes it's recent!), check out Jay Richardson's new ASL Phases Quick Ref sheets:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/43693

They're HOT! Granted it's for full ASL but it'll be a great bridging aid to those coming up from ASLSK level. Thanks Jay!

Roll low...

As each June comes to a close and the day light hours lengthen and grow, so too does the massive pile of marking that oppresses and mocks me. After a furious week of non-stop marking I'm done. Take that education!

So, as usual, my VASLeague game has been put off to the last minute. You might as well call it the Procrastinator's League.

Anyways, here are some fun dice links for those of you who like math:

1. http://www.nextshooter.com/trueodds - Nice pictorial representation of all the possibilities of rolling two dice.

2. http://boardgames.about.com/od/dicegames/a/probabilities.htm - Short article with the odds of rolling a specific number with two dice.

3. http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/TwoDiceWithHistogram/ - Want to roll a lot of dice and see what happens, without having to literally roll the dice?

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dice#Probability - Wikipedia has a say.

5. http://www.jimloy.com/math/probabil.htm - Nice concise math explanation.


So, this chart is probably the most interesting one:

2 – 1 – 2.8% - 2.8%
3 – 2 – 5.6% - 8.4%
4 – 3 – 8.3% - 16.7%
5 – 4 – 11.1% - 27.8%
6 – 5 – 13.9% - 41.7%
7 – 6 – 16.7% - 58.4%
8 – 5 – 13.9% - 72.3%
9 – 4 – 11.1% - 83.4%
10 – 3 – 8.3% - 91.7%
11 – 2 – 5.6% - 97.3%
12 – 1 – 2.8% - 100%

The bolded numbers are the probabilities (with bad rounding) of rolling a particular number or less -- very important in ASL!

[Post inspired by the severe beating I received from the prawn in our last C&C: Ancients game -- wow, what a crushing defeat!]

A couple of threads...

... from Boardgamegeek for those of you who haven't seen them:

1. richfam has a new geeklist up for the "Best ASL Scenarios". It's here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/10504

2. Attached to the list is a link to his "Next Steps" thread that reprints his article from a VFTT issue: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/80764

[EDIT: I have been informed by the commissars that the new list is old. And that I will be shot by firing squad tonight. :) ]

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Anyone play any ASL(SK) yesterday to mark the D-Day anniversary? I was only able to get in an Overlord game of Memoir '44.

D-Day's 65th Anniversary

Just a reminder I'm sure you guys don't need. D-Day was 65 years ago today. Thanks to the men and women of the Allied countries involved! Celebrate by playing a consim today and being glad you aren't in one because of their efforts.