Triple Point Blank Fire

Out of Nowhere!

2010-07-30T15:49:00.008-04:00

I just finished a nice gaming session with the Prawn this morning. Since he transferred to a new school we just don't get in as much ASL (if any) as usual. Today we rocked The Fires of Midway -- a game by The Hell of Stalingrad designer Steven Cunliffe. The Prawn's IJN sank Midway Island, USS Hornet and USS Yorktown whilst taking only one carrier loss and a whack of planes. Highly recommended for anyone who likes the PTO. Just plain fun!

So I checked the mailbox upon the Prawn's leaving and discovered Out of the Attic 2 from MMP! Nice! I love surprises (I forgot I had pre-ordered). What was an even better surprise was the way my mail carrier enjoys envelope origami.

Now, I know that the envelope doesn't explicitly say "Do Not Bend" but that doesn't grant carte blanche... It was very difficult to pry it out. Good news though, the magazine itself is in excellent shape.

What's in there that would interest ASLSK newbs? Here's a pic of the contents:

I've scanned the magazine which is meant to serve as a kind of "best of" compilation of scenarios and articles for ASL from various sources over the years. For example, there's a couple of scenarios from Lone Canuck's George Kelln (Go Canada!).

For newbies, the most obvious content is the "Tactics 101" article by Mike McGrath who exhorts new players to "kick their opponents while they are down". Good stuff. There are a couple of articles on AFVs -- a ruleset that sometimes boggles the new ASLer. The "Squad Leader Clinic" looks very interesting.

Newbs looking to step up or to get a preview of full ASL (other than looking through the scenarios) can check out the article on Snipers and the one on Bypass -- two very important rule additions when moving from ASLSK to full ASL.

Overall, it looks like a new bit of "must have" stuff for ASLers. Kudos MMP.

p.s. Here's the back cover -- can't wait to see PTO ASL!

Should a newbie buy ASL Journal?

2010-07-20T16:25:00.006-04:00

Hmmm... I get this question all the time*. Short answer: yes! But I know you don't frequent this blog for the short quips; here's the long answer.

This past week I was up at the cottage. My wife's family has a nice one in Tobermory, Ontario and we trudged up there to enjoy a week away from it all. I took up a few small games like ATO Magazine postcard games and some reading (Antony Beevor's D-Day -- not sure if I like it, his Stalingrad was superior imho). In the stack were the ASL Journals 2 and 8.

Now, I've only four full ASL games under my belt at this point so I consider myself still firmly in the "newbie" category. So the question remains, is it worth the money to pick up Journal 8 ($20) and/or Journal 2 (reprint $50). Aside from the well known ASL Axiom of "ALWAYS BUY STUFF WHILE IT'S IN PRINT" (see WO Bonus Pack) the answer thoroughly depends on whether you ever intend to make the step up to the "big leagues". And even if you don't you can always sell the thing for a princely sum when it goes out of print.

Anyways, here's a brief couple of reviews of the two latest Journals.

ASL Journal 8

I'll start with the most recent Journal. There are actually two articles that are directly addressed to newbies: Mark Pitcavage's "The Agony of Defeat: Why Bad Things Happen to New Players" and John Slotwinski's "Tips for Making the Transition from ASL SK to ASL". In the former, Mark details and gives concrete advice to players who want to improve their game and stop making horrible play errors. It's fairly succinct and damned direct. In Mark's own words he tells you "with appalling frankness, why you are bad." I love it. In the latter, John makes the very excellent point that "ASLSK is ASL". For those timid ASLSKers, this might blow your mind. Having played full ASL I know what John says to be absolutely true. You've probably heard it before, the majority of the ASLRB is stuff you don't need the majority of the time. So, unless you have the brainstuff of a flea it's not a big deal to just pick the relevant sections for a new scenario and quickly read what is applicable in the rulebook. Case in point, in VOTG2 with Andy, I read up on the Assault Boats while we sat at the table setting up and playing. No problem!

What else is useful to the ASL newb in Journal 8?

Other than the (endless) errata for full ASL products there are some great articles that don't require full ASL knowledge. There's a great preview of the Finnish core module, Hakkaa Paalle, and if you like designer notes (I love 'em) there are articles about Action Pack 4 and the Turning the Tide scenario pack. Want to be a better player or at least get into the minds of better players? There are two articles analyzing scenarios in the Journal from three experienced players (J.R. Tracy, Bret Hildebran and Matt Shostak). Finally there are two more articles on different aspects of the sequence of play, Vehicular Overrun and Setup. I'm not forced to read those advanced articles but I'm glad they are there and even a brief skim with my limited knowledge gets my ASL juices flowing.

Oh yeah, and there are 16 ASL scenarios. I've even played one! (VOTG19!) So thumbs up! At a fair price of $20 I don't think ASLSK-level players need to avoid this one.

ASL Journal 2 (Reprint)

This one's a little pricier at $50 or so. But look at all the neat stuff you get! The original Journal was fetching quite the premium on eBay for the longest time (remember: BUY EVERYTHING IN PRINT WHEN YOU CAN) and MMP felt the demand was there.

First of all, there's a hojillion scenarios. Secondly, it's neat, at least from my perspective, to see a slice of ASL's history before I played the game. For example, Curt Schilling wrote the intro and an article and a few scenarios in this Journal.

Okay, but what's useful to the ASLSKer?

There's a great comprehensive Rout Example from Tom Repetti -- you don't need the ASLRB for that. There's not one but TWO great articles on how to more effectively use your AFVs in ASL (by Matt Shostak and Chas Smith) but still applicable to ASLSK. More designer notes on Kakazu Ridge (the included HASL) and Pegasus Bridge, the latter probably will be on the playlists of most new ASLers. There's a great article by J.R. Tracy on caves, the dreaded caves that many ASLers cringe in fear about... I haven't grokked it by any means but I'm glad it's there if I one day go to the PTO... And finally, there is, amongst more stuff, a guide to ASL on the Internet, updated by Chas Argent for 2010. He should have included this site but what the hell! ;)

I don't want to sound like some guerilla marketer for MMP but I have to justify the expenditure of cold hard cash for these ASL products too. In my mind, the cost is well justified before I even play a single scenario. Or am I just hoarding stuff to fulfill my rampant OCD?

*- I never get this question... I only talk to myself...

VOTG2 AAR - Part One - Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more...

2010-07-05T23:30:00.009-04:00

June 2010 TABSCON saw the Master and the Apprentice square off yet again on the bloody soil of that city on the Volga. Stalingrad, ah Stalingrad... Our scenario of choice was from Valor of the Guards seeing as our last one (from it) was such a frickin' good time. Andy noted that VOTG2 Russe! Drown in the Wolga! was all about machine-gunning hapless Soviet troops trying to reinforce General Chuikov's city defenders. And the map was nice and cramped. (If you missed me waxing eloquent about the history of the scenario click here.)

We diced off for sides and the high roll got the Germans. I lost so I got quickly familiar with the OOB and the map set-up. Funny thing because now that I re-read the scenario card I realize I once again read the set-up instructions wrong*. This is getting to be quite the cock-up for me. As I frequently tell my students, literacy is a valuable skill. Anyways here's the map:

Not quite the tight quarters as VOTG19 nor were we starting off in the same bloody buildings. However, you'll note the nice blue river hexes on the right (east) side of the map. My troops literally had their backs to the wall here. The scenario revolves around the dusk of September 15th 1942 when STAVKA releases the 13th Guards Rifle Division to General Chuikov's control. The Germans are already having a hell of a time prying the 62nd Army out of Stalingrad so it was critical that they interdict the flow of reinforcements.

The white circled buildings and piers indicate the VC. Andy had to control ALL five of them to win (barring an exception that didn't come into play in our game I don't think...). The red line indicates the westernmost set-up the Russians could have. Now here's the stupid part. I only skimmed the set-up notes depicted here:

I mistakenly thought that the road I had to set-up on was the easternmost north-south road closer to the shore. I only realized my mistake while writing up this AAR. If I wasn't so dumb Andy might have had a chance...

Couple of other things in that picture above: (1) note the board configuration -- again, it's a tiny subsection of the whole VOTG map; (2) dusk effects start on turn 3 where hindrance starts affecting shots so that by the last turn there's an automatic +2 on shots. You know where this is heading... close combat!

So, Andy left me for about 10 minutes as I set-up my forces waaay back. Now to be honest I probably would have left a squad or two up front a bit to slow things down but I generally prefer a reverse slope defense anyways and it sort of applied here. Well except that reverse slope is better when the enemy doesn't have three MG nests on the top of the slope looking down on you... [Pro Tip 2 kids! While you're setting up? Look at the opponent's set-up instructions too!]

Whatever, I'm sure Vasily Zaitsev would show up and take them all out anyways (hehehehe...). My set-up included 12 ? markers which I tried to do better with. I'm sure I don't really cause much consternation to Andy when I haphazardly place them in sub-optimal positions. At position (A) I put a stack of 4 of them down. It was a fairly conspicuous house with some very good sightlines on the northern flank. Again, I'd normally put an MG in there but this time I was playing waaaay back. I meant for it to slow Andy down for a turn at least and I think it did its job.

At position (B) was my larger leader-led stack of fun on Level 2 (third floor kids!). I didn't realize it at the time but I was a sitting duck for prep from the MG nests on the top of the hill. Regardless, their main purpose was to make taking their building very difficult and to be the biggest speed bump. At position (C) was my INF Gun led by one of the Commissars. I was not allowed to set it up in HIP but it had good sightlines and would be something to reckon with. Finally at position (D) I put a 6-2-8 squad with MMG HIP'ed in hex LL24 Level 2. I think it was a nasty surprise...!

Here's a pic of Andy's set-up. Note the three MG nests up on the bluffs (when am I going to remember that the pink terrain is a level up?!). These guys made it incredibly painful for my guys. In retrospect it was probably a good idea not to set my guys up the west -- I have a feeling that they would have been shot-up, routed and interdicted by the MGs all day long and as it turned out I would need every able-bodied man on the last turn.

The Germans get the first moves in the scenario and they had to make hay. They only get 2 turns without dusk hindrance on shots, then Russian reinforcements (and ammo!) start rolling in off Assault Boats(!) from the east. The reinforcements increase as the darkness starts to fall.

As expected, Andy had to respect my INF Gun and hit both flanks: the north wing hindered only a half-turn or so by the fake stack (who soaked up a 16FP attack); the south wing running, unknowingly into a HIP'ed MG nest. German progress was generally good.

I can't lie, I thought that I was in an excellent position on Turn 3, midway through the game. Andy had only so far controlled the northernmost pier which I didn't bother to defend and he was having difficulty rolling up the northern flank. The advance in the south was stymied and the Gun was popping anyone trying anything close to the middle. What is more, Zaitsev did show up and took out the southernmost MG nest. Woot!

Of course, as ALWAYS happens in ASL, the swing of fortune cause my INF Gun to malf. Uh-oh. There really wasn't anything stopping them now when you consider the pretty impressive firepower still being projected from the German MGs in the rear.

At least one good thing happened on Turn 3 for the Reds... Chuikov himself showed up! Well, Major Chuikov... I took it as a good omen when he disembarked from his Assault Boat to "shore" up the defense on the south flank. I was able to find a shadow in the MG fire and beach the reinforcements without trouble. (Alas, Chuikov was to spend much of his time blowing his craptacular morale checks late in the game... I'm not sure he survived close combat.)

A little note about Assault Boats. A pretty common comment from ASL players to their ASLSK brethern is that there is no need to memorize the monster-sized ASLRB. For the most part you only read up on the rules particular to a specific scenario just before you play. Assault Boats is one of those rules. I literally read the rules on them (about a quarter of a page) on Turn 1 and didn't really have a problem incorporating them into my play. So again, if you feel the leap from SK to full ASL is going to be a bear, stop being silly.

Andy was starting to feel the time pressure as we eased into the second half of the game. The north flank was stubbornly holding out and applying ridiculous amounts of defensive fire. He even traipsed a unit into 8FP residual (I rolled crap!) to get where he needed to go. But as all things in Stalingrad, hex LL18 eventually was put down to a combination of MGs, CCs and failure to rout. Those fine NKVD boys will be missed *sniff* *sniff*. :P

This is a shot from Andy's perspective up on the bluffs above the Volga. I can imagine that his frustration was quite in keeping with the history. The Germans could see the mighty river from many vantage points across the city but they couldn't ever push enough Russian into it: "Bul-bul!!!"

On Turn 4 fortunes swung haphazardly again. I was sure that I had enough reinforcements now to at least keep ONE VC building from the Wehrmacht... So of course what happens?

Andy shoots up one of the Assault Boats, you know, the one with a 6-2-8, DC and 8-1 leader in it? Yeah, that one. So, it was going to be close...

Here's a nice low angle picture of the odds facing Andy on something like Turn 5.

Of course the game would be decided in deadly close combat. It's Stalingrad!

Here's another view, close up, of the carnage.

In the end, it wasn't quite enough. There were 4 Melees going into the last half-turn and I actually won one of them. The shot above are the stacks on the final few buildings blown up for analysis. I think in the end, Andy ended up taking 2-3 of the 5 buildings he needed and I heaved a huge sigh of relief. It's the first game of full-ASL that I've won and it wasn't decided until the last half-turn. Nothing is quite like ASL to get your blood pressure going.

Here's a shot of the whole board at game's end. I think it took us 4 hours or so? Andy will correct me if I'm wrong. That's a whole lot of cardboard carnage.

Highlights:

1. My ASL notebook had the British wartime slogan "Keep Calm and Carry On" on the front cover. Lo and behold, Andy wore a T-shirt with the same slogan. It was a hilarious moment.

2. My overall strategy was to delay bits and pieces of the German forces at a time. I had no illusions that I'd get a huge game changing shot at a killstack but I tried to pick a bit there and a bit here. I held off shots as long as possible on defense til I had at least the x2 PBF mod.

3. A big equalizer to the MG nests? The Russian SAN of 5. That number comes up a LOT.

4. Major Chuikov was a 10-3. Andy remarked that he'd never seen a more useless 10-3 leader ever. Brutal. You are a disgrace to the name sir!

5. The game closely held to history. Like their counterparts in 1942 the Germans got close. But close is not nearly enough in Stalingrad.

Good times. Once again, a hearty thanks to Andy for being a great sport and supplying the kit. Thanks to TABSCON for hosting the space for our game. Thanks to MMP for Valor of the Guards especially designer Tom Morin -- daaaamn this game is fun.

* - New rule:

ALWAYS DOUBLE-CHECK THE SET-UP INSTRUCTIONS FOR BOTH SIDES!!!

VOTG2 AAR - Part Zero - Stalingrad in Print

2010-07-03T12:36:00.006-04:00

Well it's been two weeks since "The Drubbing of Andy" and where's the AAR?

Well funny thing. I went to Chapters/Indigo the day after with the family and they had a nice selection of military books on the discount table and lo and behold... there was Jon Bastable's Voices from Stalingrad and William Craig's Enemy at the Gates. I added a couple of reference books (planes and tanks from WWII to present day) and I started reading.

The AAR was delayed because I love reading about Stalingrad. And these two particular books (along with some of the others I have on the topic and Eastern Front in general) specifically address the action in VOTG2. The scenario falls on a fairly early date in the Battle for Stalingrad while the Wehrmacht is attempting to close the Volga life-line to the Soviet defenders of the city (something they were never able to fully do). The title itself comes from the taunting of the German soldiers in the surrounding state buildings as they tried to push the last few defenders in this sector into the river.

Russ! Zavtra bul-bul! Translation: "Russians, you're going glug!-glug! soon!"

So, this peculiarly named HASL scenario actually has some neat backstory! See pages 91-93 from Enemy at the Gates.

What is key to the scenario though are the reinforcements. Their story? It was on that day in history that General Chuikov, commander of the Russian forces in the city asked for and got the ultra-critical reinforcements he wanted from STAVKA, the 13th Guards Rifle Division. The scenario takes place at dusk (SSR indicates growing light hindrance as the game progresses), the only time the Russians could safely cross the river without getting blown away. All this is simulated in the scenario, again, on just a small sub-set of the main VOTG map (which Andy cannot stop raving about and I'd concur). What is critical in the scenario was critical in history: the trickle of men to merely keep the fascist invaders at bay.

Speaking of SSR, the Russians start the scenario with an INF Gun and according to the history, the commissar in charge, a Col. Petrakov, impressed a few of his conscript troops to handle the thing. So, if the commissar is incapacitated in the scenario, so too is the Russian player's ability to use the Gun as their "crews" don't know what they are doing.

What impresses me is really seeing the link between the history and what is possible in ASL. The designer, Tom Morin, took what is a semi-exciting narrative in a few history books and is able to create such a credible and exciting gaming experience. It's funny because ASL, as I understand it, was originally built to service DYO scenarios where you'd put points of troops up against others in some hodge-podge melee. The H(istory) part of the HASL in the game is where the vast majority of the game's current adherents truly focus. It's not a stretch to say that many scenarios need to be as close to airtight as possible on the historical aspects or players won't even bother.

So kudos to Tom Morin and other scenario designers who put in such efforts. In this particular instance, someone (me!) has noticed. Nice job.

Here's a brief annotated bibliography for Eastern Front/Stalingradists:

Antill, Peter. Stalingrad 1942. Osprey Publishing. Great Britain: 2007.
- Your standard, basic, Osprey title on the campaign for Stalingrad. Beginners start here.

Bastable, Jonathan. Voices of Stalingrad: Nemesis on the Volga. F+W Publishing. United Kingdom: 2006.
- Bastable does a superb job with collecting and showing us the words from the combatants and victims themselves from the 200-day long battle.

Beevor, Antony. Stalingrad - The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943. Penguin Books. Great Britain: 1998.
- Absolutely required reading from one of today's most popular historians. Beevor also has books on the fall of Berlin, Crete and most recently, D-Day. This book on Stalingrad is awesome.

Craig, William. Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. Konecky & Konecky. USA: 1973.
- The basis for the movie (which is NOT history but Hollywood). Some of the stories in the book have apparently not stood the test of time academically -- however, it was the first, and for a little while, best, book on the subject. Well worth a read too.

Glantz, David & Jonathan House. When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. University Press of Kansas: 1995.
- Glantz is well known these days for his huge treatises on the Eastern Front which have absorbed the now (more) open Soviet archives into their narrative. Can be a bit dry but has fascinating detail into the Ostfront and how the Russian Operational Art of War stopped the Wehrmacht cold.

So there you have it. I've been reading. Part One up next!

Keep Calm and Carry On.

2010-06-27T23:13:00.007-04:00

Just finished up the photos for the VOTG2 AAR. Valor of the Guards, well, Stalingrad really, is fast becoming the ASL battleground of choice for Andy and I (and the Prawn). As my marking pile has dwindled to nothing I've refered back to my new ASL notebook, the one I keep AAR notes in and possible future topics for chatter on this blog. The virtual deluge of new ASL stuff has been really impressive of late and I want to comment on it.

I declare this the Summer of Games!

Summer of Games will include mucho ASL(SK) stuff and mucho slaughter of cardboard. If only the combatants of Stalingrad had kept the following handy advice in mind (and lived in England):

The Circle is Complete...

2010-06-19T21:51:00.003-04:00

Just got back from TABSCON June 2010 Edition and had another awesome time. I only got in two games. The second was The Pocket at Falaise from ATO Magazine with Lembit Tohver, its developer (great game btw and nominated for a CSR Award). The first was VOTG2 Russe! Drown in the Wolga! with Andy. I'm proud to say I took the peksy Russkies and won a tight one on the last half turn, holding on to the Victory buildings.

Andy, if you've recovered from the game you'll notice the two chits above that I now hold hostage... Face me again, if you dare! (Just kidding, someone found the INF gun and I scoured the floor and found the concealment counter. I'll get them to you next TABSCON!)

AAR to follow...

J2 too!

2010-06-16T16:10:00.008-04:00

Nice! Another package full of ASL goodies from MMP this afternoon. It's the J2 reprint!

This is the shiny shrinkwrap on the magazine. The cover of the magazine is a little grainy -- looks like a scan of the original cover...

Ye olde contents slip. This is one fully packed magazine. One and a half countersheets that presumably go with the Kakazu Ridge HASL scenario and map. There's also Chapter Z for the HASL.

Here's the whole shebang. Nice!

And above is a snap of the Table of Contents -- because there's actually a magazine in there!

Out of Nowhere

2010-06-07T18:35:00.005-04:00

If you scroll down to the bottom of the MMP pre-order page you'll find the latest ASL pre-order: Out of the Attic II!

The original Out of the Attic was published in 2003 and ostensibly contained rarer out of print scenarios and interesting articles. Looks like it's enough of a niche that Chas has stuff to fill it up a followup issue.

Of interest for newer ASLers are the "tournament" scenarios -- read as finishable in a sane amount of time -- and the articles which seem to slant a bit towards helping newbs get over the hump (cf. Mike McGrath's Tactics 101 article!).

You know the drill. Go pre-order it!

ADDENDUM: More details here on the scenarios.

What's in Rising Sun?

2010-05-22T12:59:00.004-04:00

For those of you who don't frequent the user-unfriendly atrocity known as CSW, here's the latest on what's going to be in that frickin' box. It looks like a lot!

- 1,300 ½” counters and 592 5/8” counters (1,892 total)

- boards 34-39, 47 in “Starter Kit” style

- overlays 1-6, B1-B5, Be1-7, Ef1-3, G1-5, GT, M1-5, O1-5, OC1-4, P1-5, RP1-5, Wd1-5, X6

- 32 scenarios: • Smertniki • On The Kokoda Trail • Shoestring Ridge • Bungle in the Jungle • The Eastern Gate • Hazardous Occupation • Red Star, Red Sun • The Bushmasters • Cibik's Ridge • The Rock • Today We Attack • KP 167 • Jungle Citadel • Sea of Tranquility • Hell or High Water • Bloody Red Beach • Grabing Gavutu • Tanambogo Nightmare • Take Two • A Stiff Fight • Battlin' Buckeyes • Broken Bamboo • Last of Their Strength • Munda Mash • OP Hill • Orange at Walawbum • Ramsey's Charge • Shanghai in Flames • Smith & Weston • The Drive for Taierzhuang • Totsugeki! • White Tigers

+ the Sand and Blood CG (Gavutu/Tanambogo)

Source: The Chas

And more! This was from a quote from Brian Youse about how MMP is considering the packaging of core ASL:

The point is to make the system smaller. Easier to keep the core in stock. One PTO module. One Desert module. Hell, if it wasn't too late i'd stick the Americans in with the British and call the module "The Good Guys".

The Ethiopians are going in Hollow Legions which will have the Italians and in all likelihood the Desert and anything else we can squeeze into the box. Despite the fact that I just cringed because I implied the Ethiopians are somehow "core module".

Source: Ultimate Evil

MMP Web Sale - ENDS TOMORROW!

2010-05-16T14:28:00.003-04:00

Brian Youse posted on CSW that the web sale ends MONDAY. Go!

MMP Web Sale

2010-05-10T20:48:00.004-04:00

Forgot to mention this the other day when it first went up so you need to be quick. MMP is offering the past few Action Packs for a package deal of $60 (that's AP3/4/5 for $20 each)!

Go now here!

p.s. OCS Burma is on sale too!

EDIT:

Turning the Tide scenario pack is now up as well (and if you're up for it, Storm over Stalingrad and A Most Dangerous Time are also deliciously priced...).

Code of Ho no longer...

2010-05-07T23:36:00.002-04:00

Looks like the combined PTO ASL module will be called "Rising Sun". So says Chas here.

Reading about the Pacific Theatre of Operations

2010-05-03T21:52:00.006-04:00

Been on kind of a PTO kick these past weeks. I think it started with HBO's The Pacific (sequel to Band of Brothers). Though I haven't seen any episodes in full I've seen a few clips and I'm dying to see it out on Blu-Ray or DVD by Christmas -- I'm keeping my fingers crossed. [In a somewhat related note, the gentleman who wrote Band of Brothers, Stephen Ambrose, has had his number called up here recently. Disturbing if true.]

Other than GMT's top flight Combat Commander: Pacific, I haven't gamed the tactical level of the PTO much -- not even Memoir '44 Pacific! So, thanks to Chas Argent's recent update on the Code of Ho reprint (click here) and the buzz on The Pacific I've been diving into two books:

With the Old Breed by E.B. Sledge

and

Helmet for my Pillow by Robert Leckie

And yes, they were downloaded onto my wife's Kindle in about 13 seconds. Cool.

Just wanted to throw those titles out there and whet the whistle for the PTO pack for ASL. I hope it comes soon!

Tank lovers - check it out!

2010-05-01T14:26:00.006-04:00

Some of you may have already seen this but it's too cool not to repost -- especially for ASL tank fans. They've dredged up a T-34/76A in Estonia. Check it out!

p.s. is there a German counter for this tank? Hmmmm...

Action Pack 6!

2010-04-26T15:55:00.006-04:00

Seriously, is there anything better than coming home after a long day at work and finding an MMP package waiting for you?

I didn't think so.

Turns out that Action Pack 6 is here! A Decade of War. Ten scenarios, new Australian Balancing System, and three of the new "innovative" 11"x16" mapboards that are meant to cap off regular geomorphic mapboards.

Here's the blurb on the back.

Here are the juicy contents. Note that mapboards are numbered 1a/b, 2a/b and 3a/b (they are backprinted!).

Here's mapboard 3a for your viewing pleasure.

Looks neatorama.

VOTG19 - Cellar Dwellers AAR - There will be blood...

2010-03-21T13:23:00.013-04:00

Take a look at that map area.

It doesn't look like much eh?

I only noticed this scenario in passing as I was skimming the J8 contents last week or so. Knowing that I was going to TABSCON to learn OCS first thing in the morning, I sort of pre-selected this scenario to try out with Andy. Pretty small area, five turns and we're in Stalingrad, home of fun times for wargamers.

So, as mentioned, I spend about four hours plugging away at OCS Tunisia (a fantastic learning experience btw, if you want a realistic grasp of operational level war with a logistical model that's like a tough mental puzzle: OCS is your only choice), I was ready to kill Russians/Krauts. Now to be perfectly honest I had not fully appreciated from my skimming of the scenario notes that the set-up would be like this (sorry, forgot my camera!):

For those of you who don't see the mess, picture the same set-up blown up in VASL, like this:

So, as the set-up went on and I actually re-read the scenario it dawned on me that not only was this a short scenario with limited real estate, this scenario would be capital-I, INTENSE. Andy, as the Russians would set-up his 4.5 squads plus leaders and SWs in the basement of the State Bank building. I would have the non-stairwell upstairs with 6 squads, leaders and SWs. Victory goes to the Germans if we clear the building of GO Russians -- the Reds win if they can sneak a squad out the North or East map edge. Ridiculous.

Obviously, we weren't going to have any sort of playability with three adjacent counter stacks past a dozen each... So we jury-rigged the following play-aid so we could handle things a bit better (feel free to print out and share with friends):

Alas, not only did I forget my camera, I didn't write anything down. But here are the highlights:

1. I set up my forces with my HMG on the ground floor between the stairwell hexes so anyone coming out of the basement was going to get it bigtime. I set up my forces upstairs with a 10-2 leader to rally anyone, ready to assault the cellar asap. There are only five turns and there are a lot of rats in that basement to take care of.

2. Outside I had another 9-1 leader with a squad backing up the infantry gun, aimed directly at the cellars to continually take potshots. Just north of them were another squad with an MMG to keep Andy's outsiders from getting uppity.

3. Another interesting wrinkle in this scenario are the 4-4-7 squads on both sides being Walking Wounded. I won't bore you with the details (frankly I still don't know what they are) but the are NOT the cream of the crop in either OB. I think they all got shot up.

4. Who dares, wins. With that rallying cry I was advancing into the stairwells and cellars from Turn 1. Being a gutted building, the TEM was +4 most of the time, regardless of the massive point-blank fire pouring across the broken bits of bank building. The +4 makes a HUGE difference. So if you play the Germans in this scenario don't be a pussy. Go for it. You won't win if you don't get troops mixing it up in No Quarter, Hand-to-Hand melee.

5. The infantry gun is key in this scenario. It can fire into the cellars from your initial placements and be the first wedge that gets the door open down there. Blast away.

6. About midway through the game, my northern MMG squad collapsed (thanks crap dice!) and my Gun was threatened. Though it was bad it wasn't critical as I was attriting the basement rats pretty well by that point. But I was running out of time and warm bodies.

7. The key point in the game was when Andy's assault engineers came up in hex CC21 and melee'd a solo squad. If I had rolled a 5 instead of 7 on the CC in turn 4 it still might have been a game... the rest of my guys were actually in the cellar in BB19 by then, about to mop the scattered, bloodied remnants of that dank, dark hole.

8. I malfed 3 LMGs I think, and broke a couple trying repairs. Andy malfed his MMG outside. Stalingrad grinds up men and machine.

9. I honestly think this was the best full ASL scenario I've played. It certainly got to the point right away. Andy and I are thinking of more VOTG next time... something involving Germans machine-gunning Russians landing on the shores of the Volga... awesome!

Good times again. Thanks to TABSCON for the venue and Andy for another awesome time. P.S. here's a fun play-aid if you're doing VOTG19.

Valor of the Guards at TABSCON

2010-03-20T18:32:00.006-04:00

I had a great time at TABSCON March 2010 today. I finally got a game of MMP's/The Gamers' Operational Combat Series in -- it was the Race for Tunis scenario from OCS Tunisia. That is a true hex and counter operational wargame. Wow.

So, my brain is now totally busted open but Andy is keen to apply the coup de grace. He hasn't yet got his Journal 8 so I dug mine out and we tried a simple little corner of Stalingrad. Let's just say that when you put the Red Army and Wehrmacht in the same building to start the scenario, there will be blood.

ASL Journal 8 in da house!

2010-03-11T21:38:00.005-05:00

Is MMP having Chas Argent as a full-time ASL dude paying dividends? I think so. Hot on the heels of the WO Bonus Pack and DB3, I found ASL Journal 8 in the mail today.

I've skimmed the contents already and it looks awesome. With the 20-odd scenarios come some designer notes, articles and tantalizing hints of the near future. Of note for newbs is Mark Pitcavage's article "The Agony of Defeat: When Bad Things Happen to New Players". Looks like required reading for newer players.

Oh yeah, and what an great cover!

ZOCTALK!

2010-03-07T10:05:00.002-05:00

I've added Joe Steadman's ZOCTalk blog to the links on the sidebar as he's up to Defensive Fire in his video primers for ASLSK (http://zoctalk.blogspot.com/ ).

You are dumb...

2010-03-06T22:44:00.003-05:00

Helllooooooooooo!!!!!

The WO Bonus Pack is being reprinted! Don't buy it off eBay for $50! Like this chump:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110500643570&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

UPDATE:
Ummm, wow:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310204078904&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

And finally, the coup de grace:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310204079324&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123
STILL ACTIVE!!!

Doomed Battalions in the House!

2010-03-01T20:12:00.005-05:00

I was feeling a bit run down and tired (a long weekend with my son's dual fifth birthday parties and the Gold Medal game in the Olympic hockey)... then I perked up and realized I hadn't checked the mail yet. Lo and behold -- Doomed Battalions 3!

Now with The Last Hurrah goodness. Time to paw through this stuff!

Winter Offensive 2010 Bonus Pack in the House!

2010-02-24T21:04:00.006-05:00

Speak of the Devil. Look what was sitting in my mailbox today. Winter Offensive 2010 Bonus Pack... Yummy!

Now, before I get into the contents, I must say that the shrinkwrapping resisted all manual attempts to be opened. I had to dig around for a pocketknife. Geez...

Here's the back of the pack. Basically, not only do you get a new awesome mapboard (59) and two new scenarios, two bucks goes to the ALS Association's charity. Nice all around.

Sorry about the glare!

This small scenario pack should just be the first trickle of a deluge of ASL stuff coming out in the next couple of months from MMP. Should be exciting!

Two Things...

2010-02-22T20:39:00.004-05:00

Joe Steadman has posted the Movement Phase primers on http://zoctalk.blogspot.com/.

And MMP has announced in their CSW folder that the Winter Offensive scenario pack will be reprinted in the next few months. That means more happy gamers and more happy ALS charities.

Peace out!

ASL Primer Videos

2010-02-08T20:46:00.004-05:00

Joe Steadman is a steady contributor to the wargaming community, when he isn't busting perps in his day job, and his two most recent videos are ASL Primers. Check them out here on his blog:

http://zoctalk.blogspot.com/

UPDATE (Feb 15): Joe has the Rally Phase Primer done up in two parts today. Also, my computer decided that booting from the hard drive was for losers!

S6 - The fat lady has sung!

2010-02-02T21:54:00.006-05:00

It's over and it wasn't pretty! More details later this week as I write up an AAR. Mr. Kastel schooled me and the dice did not feel like disputing it. Regardless, another fun game of ASLSK with another great competitor. I'm a bit rusty on the rules for the long layoff and I relearned a lot of stuff.

Here's another gem:

Self-rallies are 3.1e and proceed before Unit rallies (leader-led) which are 3.1f. A nice subtle difference but something to keep in mind if you're playing competitively.

Overall I'd say that S6 - Released from the East is another good, solid scenario from ASLSK1.

I'm stalking Brian Youse - WO Scenario Pack!

2010-02-02T19:25:00.007-05:00

This just in folks!

For us saps who can't make it out to MMP's Winter Offensive they've just dropped the WO Bonus Pack here:

http://www.multimanpublishing.com/ASL/prodwo10.php

It was announce on CSW seconds ago! http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@366.3TyVaf8mJ2C.28574815@.ee6d502/78561

Two scenarios, a new map and proceeds to ALS charity. Go get it!

SK VASLeague 2010 - Round One GO!

2010-01-31T16:13:00.002-05:00

Just wrapped up a great first session (first two turns) with Mr. Larry Kastel in our SK VASLeague Round 1 matchup. There be German SS roaming about here. It's turning out to be quite the bloodbath all around.

As always, I'm learning something new in this game. First, SK3 level errata has been added somewhere along the line that states:

SK3 3.3: "Units enter from off board - either at the start of a scenario or as reinforcements - as directed by the scenario card, including turn and location of entry. Units are set up offboard along the specified edge(s) of the map at the start of their RPh in the player turn of entry.They may not perform any action while offboard except move during the MPh per normal Open Ground movement costs. They must enterduring the MPh or APh of their turn of entry or be eliminated. Roads are considered to extend off board for purposes of road bonus."

Soooooo... basically I and my opponents have being doing this all wrong for a year (ha!). Reinforcements must basically set-up in "virtual hexes" just offboard before entering during the MPh or APh. There you go, more stuff you didn't know...

2 Half-Squads - Super Chas Episode

2010-01-19T11:33:00.002-05:00

Just checking out my fave ASL podcast and lo and behold, the latest episode features SuperChas, the head honcho of ASL at MMP. Here's their new URL if you've been out of the loop:

http://www.the2halfsquads.com/

Episode 30! I have been a little behind in my listening!

ASL Journal 8 - for newbs?

2010-01-17T15:54:00.004-05:00

Matt Kirschenbaum is over at MMP's Winter Offensive this weekend and got his dirty mitts on a copy of ASL Journal 8. He's posted a nice precis of useful content to the newbs in the Journal here:

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@366.Vjdia8OoG9k.62@.1dd0ce19/6048

Let's be clear here, this Journal isn't for people satisfied with SK-level ASL. If you ever intend on moving "up" to full ASL then you already know the first rule of ASL -- BUY IT WHEN IT'S IN PRINT. But for those of you who need a kick in the pants, it sounds like #8 is going to be great for even us newbs...

Niagara Boardgaming Weekend

2010-01-12T22:01:00.004-05:00

Well kids, it's that time of year again...

Last year, as my wargaming revival was in full swing I was alerted to not only TABS but NBW -- Niagara Boardgaming Weekend.

This year, the convention run by L2 primary Art Lupinacci, is being held on February 18th - 21st. It promises to be as good as last year was: games up the wazoo.

If you're in the area I recommend a day or two at the event where a whole bunch of us are planning a weekend of wargaming (and lots of ASLSK!).

CSW Forum:

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?13@366.plOIasksFqX.22@.1dd12e1d/

Check out the site here for more information:

http://l2designgroup.com/NBW/NiagaraBoardgamingWeekend.html

In case you missed it...

2010-01-06T17:02:00.002-05:00

MMP's long-awaited new website is currently in testing here:

http://mmpstore.sillydog.net/

Thank God.

Desperation Morale - The BLOG!

2010-01-03T11:32:00.004-05:00

Mr. Mark Pitcavage, proprietor of desperationmorale.com, has started a blog! Welcome to the ASL blogosphere (all three of us or so... haha!). Great first post is a review of 2009 for ASLers.

Go now:
http://desperationmorale.blogspot.com/

Start the New Year off MMP-style!

2010-01-02T21:44:00.006-05:00

Brian Youse posted the latest on ASL/MMP stuff coming out in the next couple of months (WO is Winter Offensive) on CSW:

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@366.zao3amtSCiM.42@.ee6d502/78109

Long and the short of it? This ASL stuff is coming:

ASL Action Pack #6
ASL Journal #8
Doomed Battalions
Operations #54
ASL Journal #2 reprint (actually going to the printers tomorrow)

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T11:01:00.006-05:00

Now I don't like "resolutions". I think they're kind of dumb. But I do like "Things I want to get done!". Here we go:

Punch out Beyond Valor. Sitting in my closet untouched is the base game. I'm going to hand clip every single counter and post the gory details on this blog. I've got to do it by hand because my C4 Corner Counter broke after doing about 20000 counters.
Do a ASLSK demo. I've been planning on evangelizing the hobby by doing a demo of the game for a local game e-tailer (fungamescafe.com) who started carrying ASLSK1. Paul Paterson, who runs the website, has a monthly game day where dirty euros get played. I need to get in there and represent!
Write more stuff on this blog in addition to the AARs. I'm considering widening the focus to wargaming in general but you know what? I think I get a few mentions of other things in from time to time so I'm pretty sure this blog will be ASL-centric for the foreseeable future. Any thoughts out there?
Play more. 'nuff said.

The 'Geeks End o' Year Stats

2009-12-31T12:00:00.008-05:00

Aldie, at Boardgamegeek, has posted the Top 100s in all sorts of categories. And I'm on a couple of them!

For Files, I have three entries: Dominion Horizontal Card Box Dividers, Command and Colors: Ancients Combat Reference, and Fields of Fire CC Play Aid. I was a busy beaver.

Even better, in the Session Reports I have six entries! They are for A Most Dangerous Time, Napoleon's Triumph, Unhappy King Charles, Memoir '44 - Hedgerow Hell, and the two ASL sessions posted here on this blog. Woot!

I have no shame in tooting my own horn, those things took a lot of time and effort. Thanks to everyone who thumbed me and I look forward to telling more fun stories of my games on the blog and the 'geek in the new year!

Files:
Dominion - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/45908
CC Ancients - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/40962
Fields of Fire - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/39295

Sessions:
AMDT -
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/408061/a-short-but-mostly-dangerous-time
NT -
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/384766/a-first-game-of-napoleons-triumph
UKC -
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/431970/happy-in-the-end-a-session-report-of-unhappy-king
M44 -
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/399595/hedgerow-hell-is-memoir-heaven
ASL D1 -
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/420737/d1-guryevs-headquarters
ASL U15 -
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/477162/u15-battle-for-the-warta-line

U15 AAR on BGG

2009-12-27T16:51:00.002-05:00

Just posted the U15 AAR on the 'Geek. Thumb it up!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/477162/u15-battle-for-the-warta-line

2009-12-24T13:50:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone! Enjoy your families and get in a game or two.

U15 AAR Battle for the Warta Line Part Duh

2009-12-23T20:36:00.002-05:00

MID-GAME OVERVIEW

As we headed into turn 4-5 of 7.5, it appeared that it was still anyone's game. To recap, I had funnelled Andy's forces into the centre of the board with tough flank defenses. On the Polish left, some of the SS were even being held up by a couple of Polish infantry squads.

In addition, I was hoofing my forces into the middle to meet the deluge. The MMG and 9-2 leader on the left was effectively preventing anyone from using that side of the board's routes to escape. On the right, I had squads CXing in to block the roads out of town.

Of course, Andy's goosesteppers were having none of that. They had an easy time piercing my frontal screen (am I being dumb by leaving half-squads out there to die?). Andy even broke out the rarely seen Trailbreak counter when his surviving PzI crashed the thin line of woods outside the village.

Hoping to surprise him, I let the PzI get within a good range of the squad with the ATR in the two storey building but their shots either ran wide or merely SHOCKED the tank. In turn Andy was having his Panzer lay smoke about to cover his fast advancing infantry.

Everyone was converging on the tall building (point B) where I had a squad and my "hidden" artillery phone/forward observer. Would the OBA they were calling down right on top of their position make a difference?!

As lucky as I was early in the game, the dice started to right themselves. As a very large stack of German infantry climbed the stairwell into the building (my men were pinned by a stack in the front who took grievous casualties), the spotting rounds from my OBA started going everywhere but where I wanted... The result was that there was going to be some very nasty point blank shooting in the building...

True to form, the OBA veered off considerably, impacting harmlessly on the near board edge. Also true to form was the SS. As they took my troops in 2N1 they invoked No Quarter and gunned down the Polish prisoners with glee and abandon. Would the war crime be avenged?

Things were getting grim. Despite an SS 9-2 leader eating a sniper's bullet the PzI was running roughshod in the rear. In fact, it did an Overrun on one of my reinforcing squads from the right flank. One snake-eyes later (that's a 2KIA for you guys keeping score at home) the squad was promptly turned into fruit salad and the PzI turned around in the hex and came back to clear the foxholes around 3N7. If anyone has ever played Command and Conquer, the real-time strategy game on PC, you'll recall the tanks and harvesters who squished infantry to gruesome effect -- that was basically what the German armour did to my hapless Polish this turn. I won't lie... I laughed.

THE LATE-GAME

In the late game, above, you can see the nice funnel being formed by the action. I didn't count the VPs Andy had available -- I think it's a bit gamey really -- so I just did what any military commander would do here: pinch off the breakthrough.

From the left, the leader-led MMG squad started to sweep through. However, Andy was no fool and the Panzer was sweeping in the opposite direction. Though I had one squad on the treeline at 3T9, I was trying to quickly reinforce from 3V3 from the right. By this time the foxhole filled with squads at 3Q4 were already smushed (what was worse though? He rolled a snake in the CC to clear the foxhole and birthed an 8-1, OUCH!). It was looking to be a very tight final couple of turns.

In the above photo you can see the results. From left to right, the two squads running in from the left were pinned or broken by the PzI which had, at this point, swept completely to the left side. Though I was able to liquify a few SS stragglers from that side, my own men were cut down. In the second green circle, I assault moved a unit from the foxhole in 3N7 towards the one in 3P8. If I was not broken I would have engaged the Germans in that next hex in CC and kept more VPs from exiting. Alas, Defensive Fire shot them up.

The squad at the end of the board (in the third green circle) was the last line of defense. They prep fired to no effect and then it was up to the final stack (in the fourth circle) to hump it to the exit area. They were gunned down in 3V5... there would be no help...

I think the above shot if just before the last half turn (German). Note that there's really nothing stopping the hordes of SS from crossing the Warta line save for one Polish squad in 3T9. Surely it wasn't enough...

Ah, the icing on the cake. The villainous Andy, one wartime atrocity under his belt already, now demonstrated to this newb the exact permutations of the dreaded VBM sleeze. Basically, he wheeled his PzIB inbetween 3S9/3T9 in Bypass. What this means kids, is that the enemy squads in adjacent hexes cannot do anything but shoot at this vehicle. The SS would be free to waltz off the board and to victory!

Honestly though, there wasn't much I could do, even if the VBM didn't happen. Andy eventually exited off 19VP worth of units so the game was won already, albeit close. Plus, I don't want it to sound anything other than that I had a blast. Having played little or no games of any kind, much less ASL for a couple of months I was ecstatic to get a chance to play at TABSCon. The game was pretty casual; Andy and I took the better part of five hours to go through it and I enjoyed every minute.

It's been a year since I re-discovered my wargaming roots and picked up ASL(SK) and I look forward to another year of hard fought scenarios with the system. More thoughts soon and perhaps a year-end wrap up...

This too, is coming...

2009-12-20T23:35:00.003-05:00

PRE-ORDER HERE:

http://www.multimanpublishing.com/preorder/viewGame.php?id=42

EDIT:

Chas Argent has posted the scenario list on CSW here:

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@366.wfBAaHRkBHM.164@.ee6b46b/40992

It's coming.....

2009-12-19T09:05:00.002-05:00

PREORDERS: http://www.multimanpublishing.com/preorder/viewGame.php?id=82

Purdy!

2009-12-17T16:56:00.003-05:00

Check it out:

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@366.B4VxanzGzr5.20700347@.ee6b46b/40883

I love maps.

And this one too for river lovers:

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@366.B4VxanzGzr5.20700361@.ee6b46b/40889

And this if you don't understand the new system:

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@366.B4VxanzGzr5.20700369@.ee6b46b/40896

Battle of the Bulge

2009-12-16T20:28:00.005-05:00

It's the 65th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge today -- one of wargaming's "Biggies". As I'm sitting here pondering which of my Bulge games to play it suddenly struck me that I should have a ASLSK scenario set during the battle right?

Hmmm, a quick flip through the scenario binder shows nothing... S30 Ripples on the Pond is part of Operation Queen that was just before the Bulge... but that's it.

Anyone know of any ASLSK scenarios set during the Battle of the Bulge? Or should I just dig out FAB: Bulge or SCS Bastogne?

U15 AAR - Battle for the Warta Line Part I

2009-12-15T20:35:00.010-05:00

INTRO & SET-UP

It was a brisk day on the 6th of September, 1939, when the leading elements of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Regiment threatened to cross the Warta River and encircle the elite Polish 10th Infantry Division in the opening battles of what would become WWII.

Likewise it was a crisp winter day a couple of weeks back when Andy and I hooked up once again at TABSCon to play ASL scenario U15 - Battle for the Warta Line and reenact this interesting firefight. I had been out of ASL for a few months since my last VASLeague game, busy with real life and was raring for some action.

Jonesing for a go with Allied Minors, Andy picked this scenario from the recent Turning the Tide pack from MMP. It's a pack that updates 20 old school Squad Leader-era scenarios to the ASL system and are ostensibly "classics". Long story short: it was F-U-N.

As mentioned U15 pits the fledgling Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Regiment against the dug-in bits of the Polish elite 10th Infantry Division. I was the latter and within minutes of getting out of car, putting together a sick defensive set-up that would have the nascent SS goosesteppers twisting on barbed wire... or so I hoped. It was just my second full ASL game ever and I think I acquitted myself well.

Above is a VASL screenshot of the boards. Right is NORTH, down is the Polish (EAST) side which I had to prevent 16VPs of Germans from exiting. VPs were standard 1 per half-squad equivalent, 1 per leader +1 per negative mod, but no VPs for vehicles and crews. Upon a quick survey of the board it seemed like the best way, in my mind, to slow down the Germans and give them the roughest time was to funnel them into the "village" on the eastern board, anchoring the flanks with oodles of barbed wire and foxhole fortifications I was given on the OB. On top of that, I had a few interesting toys to set-up too: an artillery phone (OBA!), and a 1+3+5 pillbox.

What's that you say? Second game and the scrub is already dabbling in the arcane arts of OBA? It's easy, when you have your more experienced opponent do all the work! Hehe.

So, given a few minutes to figure out what foxholes and barbed wire were (and finding a notebook to write down HIP stuff -- the leader with phone especially) I came up with this layout, again, recreated from my crappy blurry photo in VASL:

The dark brown squares are the foxhole locations which would be HIP. The pillbox I placed on the extreme right behind barbed wire (white squares) with overwatch over a quarter of the boardspace. No doubt some more experienced player is choking in laughter at me now -- and after the game Andy suggested that the pillbox should have gone on a hill with CA of even more area. My thinking at the time was that the pillbox would threaten the easiest approaches of the German vehicles -- TWO Panzer IBs (oooh scary) -- and I would actually distribute the majority of my ATRs amongst the other infantry scattering the map. I chose a modified reverse slope defense. Most of my men would be in smaller half-squads delaying the enemy and trying to run back to the first line of defense on the eastern board.

Much of the barbed wire was meant to prevent end runs by Andy's infantry and funnel them into a more concentrated bunch where I could inflict grievous harm with my OBA. I had no illusions though; no plan survives contact with the enemy, or the dice in ASL!

Below is a VASL recreation of the set-up from the blurry photo I took. I blame the insufficient pre-game coffee!

Below is a detail of the set-up on the left flank. Of note is point A where I threw my best leader, a 9-2 with an MMG and full squad in a foxhole behind barbed wire and on high ground. Note that most of my squads were dispersed as an anti-OBA measure. I also reasoned that should Andy choose a flank to hit, this would have been the side as the opposite flank had the more menacing pillbox.

I think I put two ? counters with a half-squad in the uppermost middle stack -- my one really diversionary stack. Andy couldn't discount there being two squads or a squad and a nasty SW in it. Did it work? I'll let Andy answer that one...

At point B I put the HIPed 8-0 leader with the arty phone. Note my inexperience here in forgetting/not knowing about the second floor placement of the squad. Stacked with him was a single squad and ATR. Again, I was hinting at an MMG here but wanted to surprise Andy with an ATR, which I felt he would lead with.

On the right flank you can see point C, where I placed my main point of defense in the middle front of the village. In a foxhole was my second best leader (9-1) and two squads (one?) and an MMG under a concealment counter.

Point D was the pillbox. There I put two squads, my last leader and another ATR. (Yes, early in the game Andy told me that was illegal and one squad popped out!)

EARLY TURNS

The very earliest turns were a bit slow, as most scenarios are, as we sorted out how to OBA and Andy contemplated my bizarre defense. HA! On the left flank, I saw some of the SS infantry try to flush out and determine what exactly they were facing under the ? markers. (? are basically concealment markers, one of the key differences in full ASL from ASLSK, bypass and SAN being the other two.)

My plan here was to hold up the German hordes for a turn or more (if I was lucky) and retreat anything I could to another defensive line. For the left side, I was hoping to delay and harrass in the midst of the woods, especially under concealment.

Luck did favour me greatly in the beginning... Andy's first OBA roll was a 12DR, essentially he broke the radio and his repair dr was a 6. So much for artillery raining down on the Polish. It appeared that the German war machine was still a bit creaky at the start of WWII. What was more, Andy malf'd his PzI's MA (an MG) and that repair dr was also a 6.

Now if you know anything about a game like ASL, being so damned lucky in the beginning usually spelled a severe dicing later on. I won't lie to you, I was very happy about the dice but I knew I was in for it later...

Well, for now, the DRs were Polish-friendly. A German half-squad was vapourised in their MPh on the left making the early boxcar count for the bad guys something like 3 in two half-turns.

In more good news, my OBA hit a small concentration of German squads on the centre-right, on the edge of the open ground. I rolled a 3DR for a 2KIA and it seemed I could do no wrong.

By turn 2-3, the Germans were pushing hard on the middle towards point B and my OBA phone (I am amazed at how much I had to keep secret from Andy -- but here I flat out asked him what I could do with the second floor observer...). As he kept some of the advanced Polish half-squads locked in CC, large stacks and his other PzI were advancing steadily.

I may have surprised Andy with the ATR in the building and his PzI was vulnerable for a crucial turn but my men were unable to find the range and their shots were wide... You may scoff at a lowly PzI, but to quote a famous axiom, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king". The PzI was that one-eyed man, jumping the line and causing havoc with my troops shifting from the right flank to try and stop the flood in the middle.

It would NOT be pretty...

Newbie November... in December...

2009-12-13T20:27:00.004-05:00

I count myself among the lucky few. That is, the lucky few that can coax a wargame session out of their wife. So I didn't complain much when my wife, who has suffered through Combat Commander, Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage, and Bravery in the Sand etc, drew the line at ASLSK. One look at the hexes and counters and she shivered in fear.

Well, it only took a year but she broke down the other day and said she wouldn't mind learning it. We tried to get a game going in November but failed -- thanks kids! -- but got in a couple of sessions this past weekend in S1 Retaking Vierville. Long story short, I gave her the American paratroopers and balance and it came down to the last turn as usual in this great scenario. [If you want to see my first AAR from this scenario click here.]

On turn 5, in my last half-turn, I made a run into the village and was hit by THREE DRs of 3. Let's just say I became quite proficient with the upper row of the IFT. It came down eventually to a CC in one of the last victory hexes where three burly paratrooper MMCs pounded the snot out of my one 9-1 leader and elite half-squad. Was it fun? Dude, I played ASL with my wife! Hell yes!

Anyways, it's been just over a year playing this awesome game called ASL and I've got a lot to reflect on. Here's a list of fun things:

I've played about 20 SK scenarios now. Enough that playing S1 again was almost bizarrely easy. I miss my support weapons and vehicles!
I've played just 2 full ASL games (with Andy) and it's been great. Not at all do I feel like I'm in over my head. So, for me at least, SK was a great way to dip my toe in the waters of full ASL.
I have a LOT of ASL stuff.
I have met and befriended a LOT of people through this game.
I cannot wait to see where I am next year with more ASL and wargaming under my belt.

It's been a fun year. For those following along, I hope it's been good to you too. More AARs soon!

TABSCON AAR...

2009-12-07T20:50:00.005-05:00

... will be posted soonish. I had a boffo time and all I did (and had brainpower for) was play Andy in a ripping fun scenario. Here's a teaser pic for you. Yes, that is the evil SS doing evil sleeze. I love it!

TABSCON December 2009

2009-12-04T15:38:00.003-05:00

I've been totally out of it for the past few months thanks to school start-up, volleyball coaching and swine flu beating up on the kids. But tomorrow is TABSCON damn it and I'm going!!!

If you're in the Greater Toronto Area come on out. Admission is $5 and it's non-stop gaming. Andy is going to whip me in another full-ASL game and who knows what other shenanigans will happen -- the Prawn will even make an appearance!

The website for TABS is here: http://www.tabsonline.net/

Be there or be square...

2-Half Squads Moved

2009-12-02T20:11:00.004-05:00

Well it looks like the fellows from 2HS have moved their site and contents from podbean. The new updated URL is:

http://www.the2halfsquads.com/

They're up to episode 28. I need to catch up!

MMP's Black Friday Sale

2009-11-27T17:05:00.003-05:00

MMP is having their yearly Black Friday Sale for US Thanksgiving. It's only 24 hours and is web only so get going -- as of this posting you have 7 hours!

http://www.multimanpublishing.com/sale/bf09.php

You've got Action Pack 4 and 5, along with Valor of the Guards and Special Operations #1 (it's got a couple of ASLSK scenarios and some great content for other MMP games).

Of the other games I have and LOVE Stalingrad Pocket II, Warriors of God and Storm over Stalingrad. I don't have the other SCS titles but if they are as good as the rest in the series you might want to add them to your cart!

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends!

Lest we forget...

2009-11-10T19:59:00.002-05:00

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

Bonus Pack Action

2009-10-19T11:20:00.005-04:00

ASL Starter Kit Bonus Pack #1! Announced a couple of hours ago here:

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@366.9nwhaouanqF.22@.ee6d502/76439

The good news, I think, is that ASLSK is getting much love from MMP. Awesome!

ADDENDUM - Back at home, here's some more stuff for you too lazy to get to CSW:

The HOT Box Cover (by Niko Escubi):

Cost is US$10 plus shipping.

Included is THREE scenarios for ASLSK1 level only and one SK-map, a new one, "P". Design credits according to Brian Youse (http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@366.5vq9aoJCnS0.10713617@.ee6d502/76455):

I did Clearing Carentan, Chas Argent and I did One More Hedgerow, Ken Dunn did Sink's Encouragement. Ken and I created the map, Charlie Kibler painted it.

Order page is here: http://www.multimanpublishing.com/ASL/prodbp1.php

ASLSK XP1!

2009-10-06T18:56:00.002-04:00

Enough with the acronyms. ASL Starter Kit is getting an Expansion Kit from MMP and it just hit pre-orders:

http://www.multimanpublishing.com/preorder/viewGame.php?id=81

GO!

Really Chas-tastic!

2009-09-28T11:31:00.002-04:00

So, it turns out that September is a very busy time for teachers. Who'da thunk it? Anyways, Chas is churning out the ASL stuff now:

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@366.FUQraw4XinT.140@.ee6b46b/39628

Chas-tastic

2009-09-11T23:47:00.002-04:00

Here's some fun news. (I've been out of it for a few days with the startup at school!) Good ol' Chas Argent, who has been the "Action Pack" guy for MMP for the past couple of years (more? less?) has been hired on as a full-time employee of MMP. Announcement from Brian Youse here:

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@366.aFsSaXKbfRr.108@.ee6d502/75273

Congrats Chas! I think, as many others do, that ASL is in great hands!

AP6

2009-09-03T21:19:00.002-04:00

Well, well, well... what's this about?!

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@366.M3g4aKU5d3d.136@.ee6d502/75046

Half-boards...!

ADDENDUM: Chas Argent has posted what this might look like here: http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@366.M3g4aKU5d3d.722@.ee6b46b/39375 COOL!!!

S15 AAR - The long story short...

2009-08-31T17:11:00.003-04:00

It wasn't pretty. MartijnV, my opponent, took me apart quite skillfully to make it to the VASLeague Final.

Complete AAR to follow but I just wanted to mention that once again, my game was a super-positive experience. I have yet, knock on wood, to play anyone who wasn't a good sport.

Also, Martijn and I drew quite an audience. Kudos to Lorenzo and ChrisNL who were another set of eyes for us for rules oversights. Again, the ASL community seems to be quite awesome.

VASLeague Round 4 - News! I suck!

2009-08-30T17:42:00.007-04:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that reading is a skill that is integral to ASL. Also, "Level 1" means hills. "Level 0" is the ground. Read over your S15 scenario card... yeah, the Germans set up on the HILL, not the ground.... God I suck... That is all.

p.s. Thanks to MartijnV, my opponent for a tough, tough game so far. One other thing, does anyone have a good method of recording and transmitting HIP-status Guns to opponents in VASL? The problem being that my encrypted files to Martijn were not able to be opened by him (they are vanilla Microsoft Word 2007 files). Ease of use and infalliability a plus!

p.p.s. Wow we drew quite the crowd on VASL while playing today. Shout outs to Lorenzo, Andy, Pvt. Davis, Evan, et. al. Roll low kids!

World of ASL - Updated August 2009

2009-08-23T20:49:00.001-04:00

Just caught this on CSW here. Mr. Mark Pitcavage has once again updated his World of ASL resource on his Desperation Morale website. Go check it out:

http://www.desperationmorale.com/worldofasl/worldrecent.html

Here's what he says about the update:

I have uploaded a major update to the Desperation Morale Website's World of ASL Compendium, adding the more than 20 ASL related products that have come out between May-August 2009, including the longest review of an ASL product in the compendium, of the travesty "One Wild Ride."

"Mr. Ekted's" ASL Primers

2009-08-15T11:19:00.004-04:00

Thanks to Luke (rindu!) who posted in the last comments page:

Dude, I just remembered something. Some links for your learning ASL roll. About a year before the Richfam tutorials came out, ekted from BGG wrote two blog posts, outlining the basics of SK. They were way helpful to me, and he's a cool guy!

http://ekted.blogspot.com/2006/05/asl-primer-i.html

http://ekted.blogspot.com/2006/05/asl-primer-ii.html

Check 'em out!

S19 - Terrain Transformation

2009-08-12T15:20:00.002-04:00

S19 - Purple Heart Lane with a few terrain transformations in my paint editor. This is what Carentan should look like in the scenario.

VASLeague Round 3 - AAR - Purple Heart Lane

2009-08-06T13:30:00.022-04:00

Remember this scene from Band of Brothers? When Winters had to get the paratroops out of the ditches and charge the MGs set-up by Fallschimjagers in the sleepy little French town of Carentan, before they were cut to ribbons? That heart-stopping moment is the focus of ASLSK S19 - Purple Heart Lane. (This scenario is available at MMP's website here.) This is the AAR for my VASLeague Round Three game of that scenario with BryanS (as the Germans). It definitely lived up to the drama of the television show!

Thanks to Winters and Andy -- my opponent from the day before my VASLeague session -- I learned that aggression is important in these sorts of scenarios where you are attacking entrenched defenders. Though to be perfectly honest, the German troops here are hardly "entrenched" per se, but still elite. So a hearty thanks goes out to Andy for teaching me that pussyfooting around when you need to take an objective is stupid. (See D1 AAR!)

Below is a screenshot of the set-up. Due to SSR, the grain fields are impassable flooded fields that do not block line of sight. This was historical reality in Normandy as German troops tried to narrow the approaches to key locations. There is one other minor terrain transformation (and I'm still a little hazy on why it was necessary -- was it just to give more breathing room to the entering US Airborne?) in that hex CC6 is considered Open Ground*. The final SSR of note is that starting on Turn 4, German squads could start pulling out of the town and concurrently raise the VP locations required to be taken on a one-squad to one-building basis.

Essentially, the 101st Airborne have to charge into the town and capture/control at least 6+ buildings by game's end. They have one squad almost to the crossroads with a leader, one squad starting their run and five off board raring to go. Opposing them at first are a couple of German elites with LMGs and leaders. Four more squads come in on turn one from the south (left side of the board) with leaders, MGs, and a DC.

The plan was simple. Charge!

Above is a shot of the board after my first turn, at the start of BryanS' Rally Phase. I've established a fallback position (very very important tactic kids!) at Z8 where I put a leader to rally anyone who broke during the charge up the middle of the intersection. I actually laid some smoke in the wrong position accidentally which slightly hindered my charge but basically allowed me to move about to set-up the Z8 command post. Through sheer weight of numbers (BryanS simply didn't have enough squads to fire at me) I got close enough to ambush the building in W6 despite the tenacious defense. Buildings controlled after one turn: 1.

The Z8 hex turned out to be an excellent position to prep fire from and fix the enemy in the first set of buildings. Twenty-one leader-led-FP is nothing to sneeze at.

BryanS spent his turn deploying his reinforcements around the main set of buildings, probably with an eye to trying to hold out as long as possible before bugging out to increase the victory threshold. His advance forces were basically down to a single leader who continuously survived multiple point blank shots and wounds to limp away.

Above is the board disposition after two full turns. The 101st have taken the two outlying buildings and another to the west (top). That top squad would perform a sweep around the right flank and doubletime to secure the other buildings on the fringe of the town.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Aggression proved the better part of valour and I charged again, carefully, with single units, trying to find cracks and seams in the defensive fire. The key is to use the terrain as much as possible. I conciously also tried to "fix" defenders with the non-moving elements of my forces.

The shot above is Allied Turn 3, just after Movement. Note the residual laid down. In probably the most critical DF shot of game, BryanS had the misfortune to roll boxcars -- if I'm remembering right it either allowed my guys to sidle right up to him in the main buildings or was a FPF shot breaking his men or both. And again, if I remember correctly, I annihilated his men in another round of CC.

On, as it would turn out, the last turn of the game, BryanS had one last ace up his sleeve in a DC-toting squad next to my megastack of Airborne. He attempted to operably place the DC and in my DF I rolled five-hojillion point-blank-fire snakes, or the equivalent. His squad was vapourized and he conceded.

Red Stars are controlled buildings

Doing the math, by the half-way point of the game I already had my required six buildings with few casualties while inflicting some grievous damage. There was no way Bryan could disengage without taking more hits and even if he did, I had more than enough manpower to capture the additional buildings to make up for it.

It was a ridiculously successful assault borne of massive aggression. Part of it was evoked by the memories of the Band of Brothers show and part of it was the game I had had with Andy the previous day. In retrospect, this scenario (by Brian Youse, head honcho of MMP) really captured the "feel" of combat in Normandy. I actually tried and succeeded in the use of fire and manuever.

I think I've heard this somewhere, not sure of the source, but there are wrong answers, but there are never any wrong questions -- in essence, my forces asked too many questions of BryanS' and I won a hard fought victory.

Thanks to Mr. Youse for a fun scenario. Thanks to BryanS for being a great opponent and gracious in defeat. As per usual, my VASLeague opponent was a gentleman. Thank you to anyone reading out there. Sorry I haven't been on in a bit but I've been enjoying the sun -- yes, the scrub does go outside!

Roll low!

p.s. next VASLeague opponent and I are playing S15 - Hammer to the Teeth!

* - Talloaf has explained this terrain SSR: the SSR says "woods mass" so it's the whole bloody woods! You can now run to the top of the map (west!). Don't do it coward!

New 2 Half-Squads!

2009-08-05T00:40:00.004-04:00

New episode posted last night. (And if you missed it, the LIVE episode from a week ago!)

http://the2halfsquads.podbean.com/

Go!

Vacation in the Pacific...

2009-07-24T15:02:00.006-04:00

What the heck has the scrub been up to?

Well, thanks to the little ones having some sort of crazy sleep issues I no longer get any! Yay!

Gaming has gone on the back shelf -- yesterday, the missus and I got Fire in the Sky on the table, an MMP title that's not ASL-related (got it in a nice package deal from Chas Argent -- thanks Chas!). Relevance to ASL?

Mr. Argent made a recent post/progress report on Gamesquad and CSW about the upcoming PTO repackaging of ASL-stuff: the long out-of-print Code of Bushido and Gung Ho! will be bundled together and hopefully come out next year. I sense a nice dovetailing of PTO interest between this and the Band of Brothers "sequel" in the Pacific...

In other news, The 2 Half-Squads have episode 21 up:

http://the2halfsquads.podbean.com/

On my plate?

I'll finish up the AAR on my third round VASLeague game (my round 4 opponent is in Europe and just had a baby so things are still getting sorted out) and post it soon and perhaps a primer on VASL itself, or making homemade counters -- why the last two? Ken Dunn has accepted my offer to playtest the new ASLSK HASL and I'll need to get more British counters on the table if I want to do ftf play!

Roll LOw!

Pawndering METT-T

2009-07-13T23:05:00.006-04:00

A wargamer whose blog I follow had an interesting post today about how to approach scenario-based wargames a la ASL(SK). Some cogent thoughts here:

http://pawnderings.blogspot.com/2009/07/digesting-scenario-style-wargames.html

Once the ASLer has stepped away from plain rules "mastery" you have to start trying to win right? METT-T!

TacticalWargamer Link

2009-07-12T21:42:00.003-04:00

Michael Dorosh, of the tacticalwargamer.com, has posted a list of Third Party Publishers of ASL products here:

http://www.tacticalwargamer.com/boardgames/advancedsquadleader/tpp/advancedsquadleadertpp.htm

I've added it to the links bar on the right too. Check it out!

2 Half-Squads LIVE!

2009-07-06T19:53:00.003-04:00

Just saw this on the 2HS site. For episode 23 they are planning a live show with call-ins!

http://the2halfsquads.podbean.com/

The show is planned for the 27th of July. Now I just need to fix my stupid mix + soundcard combo...

D1 AAR - The Other Side...

2009-07-04T05:47:00.003-04:00

Andy has posted a response AAR to D1 on the 'geek here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/420888

Check it out!

And yes, thanks to the kids, I never sleep...

D1 AAR Part Two - ... things always turn crappy in Stalingrad!

2009-07-02T07:00:00.008-04:00

Hopefully I haven't been missing much as I recall what happened at TABSCon... Andy, please add/correct as you see fit. I broke one of my cardinal learning rules in forgetting to bring a notebook and pen.

As it stands, Andy has already sent me some notes about the AAR. I share his attitude that ASL is more a journey than a destination -- in other words, we're going to make mistakes, sometimes a lot of them.

One mistake was that in taking my men prisoners he didn't realize that would slightly impair the effectiveness of his own troops (makes sense though right? Man, ASL is detailed!) so he probably wouldn't have taken prisoners and invoked what is known as "No Quarter" -- the fun state of game where troops realize someone has violated the Geneva Conventions and all bets are off -- no one is surrendering for the rest of the game.

Andy says it best here:

But every bit of knowledge puts you closer to the perfect game...

Yep!
When last we met, the board was looking pretty stinking good for the goosesteppers. Hell, look at that blue mass! (SK fans, you can overstack in full ASL but it starts costing you in DRMs to rolls for and against you -- nice overstuffed hexes do that!) Not only that but we were starting to collect brown counters...

Now, I'm not sure if it was just around turn 3 or after but I generated my first Hero ever in one of these turns. I think it was a snake roll in a rally attempt or something. Heroes are even more extra special SMC dudes that essentially replicate the Hollywood stereotype of war movies. This guy can do anything like lug big SWs around, add -1 DRMs to shooting, don't break, just wound, etc. etc. I'd actually generate two of the guys in the course of the game. Things were looking better and better.

Below is the situation into the third turn. Now some interesting things started to happen. First, I was starting to activate a LOT of sniper activity. Apparently someone dialed up Jude Law and Ron Perlman and my troops started to keep their heads down even while peeing. Note the wounded leader on the right, and the broken half-squad holding the Cursed MMG of Doom.

Things were obviously going to be a tougher slog as I approached the headquarters itself -- where, of course, there was everyone's favourite toy, the HMG... Better yet for Andy, it was on the second floor (buildings aren't all bungalows in full ASL kids!) and had a nice vantage point for anyone approaching. My only real hope was to do the German equivalent of a human wave and try to overwhelm the defenders with sheer numbers. This plan was helped along by Andy's bad luck rolling on getting his reinforcements (six more elite SMG squads and the friendly neighbourhood commissar). One slight hiccup? The tenacious Russians on the right and the total ignorance of yours truly about what the gashy-looking terrain feature was... Gullies slow down troops kids!

You can start seeing some of the seeds of my undoing here in a shot after the fourth turn. Notice the unattended Soviet MMG? Yeah, they died or ran away, and so did everyone else except the hero (who's wounded too!). The sniper was wrecking havoc and Andy's disparate defenders were basically concentrated in the headquarters now.

I could do it though right?

Well first one in is a rotten egg! I lobbed in a squad and Andy started unleashing HMG fire and ambushing me with a LMG toting squad in the attic of the building I was in! The jerk! Is he trying to make me fail here?! The nerve of the man.

Sneaky Russians aside, that was a cool thing to pull. I hadn't even realized it was possible. But, multilevel buildings can hide nasty HIP troops. In this case they put most of the frontal approach hexes in crossfire -- and another new rule was introduced: "encirclement". If your troops are taking fire from opposite hexsides or from three or more hexsides then they start to feel really unconfortable.

Things were bogging down, with time getting tight I tried and failed to get close from the front and the right side approach had my half-squads trying desperately to climb out of gullies.

In addition, what was funny was, during this whole time I was ELRing down madly. My dice were running cold and I was rolling a LOT of eleven's. That's good at Vegas, not good in ASL. Andy kept having to dig deeper and deeper into his German counters for worse and worse troopers (and half-squads). Look at it this way, I started with 17 elite MMCs, and ended up with a bunch of Conscript level, and 2nd-liners by the end. Stalingrad does that I guess, turn men into quivering pieces of jelly... or is that the HMG's doing?

Above is the late game pic. By now, about turn 6, Andy had the majority of his reinforcements in the headquarters and I was not going to get in without a lot of luck. I even berserked another half-squad but their glorious charge ended in bloody smears on the front steps of Guryev HQ.

Amusing tale from the endgame?

The squad that I had taken prisoner from me earlier was rescued after a CC -- they even armed up with Russian stuff from their jailors. Two turns later as the attempted to take the headquarters? The were encircled and taken prisoner again!

Russian sergeant: "Put your hands up! You are surrounded!"

Hans: "Not again!" [Drops weapons.]

Russian trooper: "Hey, why are you all using our weapons?!"

Sad.

So, in the end, Guryev's Headquarters was just fine thanks. Andy's troops stiffened their resistance just in time and reinforced with a bunch of commissar-led elites easily held the building. (And yes, the commissar did his old "shoot your own to make an example" trick he does so well...)

What can I say about my first game of full ASL? To be honest, it played a LOT like ASLSK with just a few additional rules and chrome. Yeah, we didn't have tanks and guns but who cares? It was definitely a confidence builder and having an experienced mentor like Andy makes it much easier. Rather than consult the rulebook every five seconds, I'd just ask him something like, "What's bypass?" or "What is the stacking limit?" or "Why are you hurting me?"

Here's a list of the stuff I have to study up on for the next full ASL game I get to:

1. New terrain like gullies -- probably something you have to do on every new board you play on. Just quickly review the terrain you haven't seen in a while. On top of that, (pun intended) I have to check out multi-level stuff.

2. ? markers -- I think some of the subtleties of deploying that stuff will come with time but it was all lost on me at first.

3. Bypass -- didn't really come up, but at the end I asked Andy about a host of this stuff that I've read about from other sources but never understood. Bypass, Dash, Firelanes etc.

4. Prisoners & Encirclement -- I don't know if I'll ever top this ridiculous double prisoner story.

5. Heat of Battle, Leader Creation -- chromey but fun.

6. Snipers! -- extra chromey fun. I can finally understand the SAN reminder cards I've seen at Desperation Morale! Heck, Andy's head was spinning with all the sixes I rolled. In contrast, I think he rolled two or three three's total -- heck I don't know. Stupid Ed Harris was bumbling around or something...

7. Concealment -- What many have told me is the biggest addition to SK in full ASL concealment. However, it never came up enough in our game, probably due to Andy not wanting to be too picky about it and secondly, because it probably doesn't come up enough in this scenario -- we were pitched into each other almost immediately and no one was really sneaking around.

There has been a LOT of discussion about ASLSK4 or the like. Having played "full ASL" now I think that you probably don't need it if you have an experienced player to show you the ropes (heck, people made do without SKs for years right?). It comes down to your comfort level with making mistakes.

If you're afraid of making mistakes and need deterministic outcomes play a Euro or a game with 2 pages of rules. You're already "slave" to the dice. What's a little fudging around if you're having fun? Granted if this was a tournament or competitive endeavour then by all means, hone your ASL-Fu to a fine edge. I think that I've been lucky so far in that my opponents and I are in it for the sheer joy of playing one of the most fun and intense games around -- and frankly, we're comfortable making mistakes. We don't get too caught up in it.

Other than rules, what could I have done better, tactically? Well Andy suggested that I not take my sweet ass time. Really I should have gone full bore to the HQ, instead of lollygagging around. Ideally you'd have at least a toe in the door before the reinforcements showed up. And another thing I realized is that reading the scenario card carefully would help figure this stuff out. Next time, next time...

My thanks for this first full ASL experience to Andy and TABS. The former for winning graciously and teaching me stuff, the latter for giving us a venue and opportunity to even get together. It was a gentle introduction to the big enchilada -- well, as gentle as Stalingrad can get!

I hope this has been an enjoyable read (I'll probably post an abridged version to BGG in the next few days.) My VASLeague Round 3 game is already being prepped for posting and Round 4 begins soon! Roll low!

D1 AAR Part One - Things always start rosy in Stalingrad...

2009-07-01T12:25:00.001-04:00

Well, I finally took the plunge into full ASL this past weekend at TABSCon since I had access to Andy B, an ASLer in the Toronto area who has been dying to kill me.

And he has.

We played on some super juicy Deluxe ASL boards and D1 - Guryev's Headquarters from Streets of Fire. (Click here to get it!) I've heard rumours that MMP wants to reprint these puppies on SK-style cardboard and the only thing I can say is DO IT!!!!!! The luxury of the double (triple?)-sized hexes is ridiculous. Given that you have less geographic area to work with on the maps themselves, the scenarios are shorter, tenser affairs with little manoeuvre and mucho blood. Blood everywhere. Awesome.

Here's a look at the two boards on which D1 takes place...

The boards are DASL boards b and d. The left edge in the picture is North and the building by the roundabout in the upper left is Guryev's Headquarters itself. The goal of the scenario is for my Germans (we determined this by random die roll) to have more full squad equivalents in the building than the Russians by the end of game (turn 7).

Above is our set-up. Those neat little piles of counters are so small and well organized... that would soon change as all hell would break loose on the opening turn.

Seeing as it was my first game ever I'm going to note certain rules and such that are different from the SK-level -- I should say in addition to actually, there aren't many different rules at all. Andy was ever the gentlemen in explaining new things but to be perfectly honest, an experienced ASLSK player shouldn't have much new stuff to learn. The scenario choice was also very appropriate given that there were no AFVs or Guns.

The first rule we encountered was Environment Conditions. We just chucked it. Andy felt that neither of us were going to be setting fire to things so it wasn't likely wind direction was going to be a factor. One rule down!

The second immediate new rule was basically the ? question mark counters on the Russian defenders. I had no easy way to figure out who was what and more importantly, where the hell the MGs were (more on that later). Also confounding things were two squads which were HIP -- something I think isn't in SK-level (just HIP Guns).

My initial plan was to press up against the Russian defense and probe for weakness while trying to slide 5-6 squads down the right flank and dash, hopefully, towards the Headquarters while the others were engaged. It wasn't really a bad plan but it just lacked aggression. Seven turns is NOT a long time.

Here's what the first movement phase looked like. Seems pretty good right?

Other than a half-squad (very very useful that deployment rule -- you can start the game with full MMCs deployed to half-squads) scouting the left that was HIPPed and the right flank running into a bit of delay, the advance seemed good.

I've become a lot more use to doing CXing and things of that nature to really plan out my moves optimally. I think this comes with more experience in the game. At first you're just happy to figure out that MMCs move 4 MPs worth... later you're squeezing them with leaders (with no neg bonus) and CXing for double that.

I must also say that I had the hot hand in the first couple of turns. The dice were rolling pretty much in my favour no matter who rolled them:

Subsequent Defensive Fire at point blank range... whatever! The prawn and I have chatted about this recently too. We almost HATE hot dice in the beginning of a contest or game... the law of averages means some tough slogging later in the game... this holy truth was evident in Stalingrad this day.....

So at the close of the first half turn I felt that I had made excellent progress. Most of my squads were across after advancing and though both Close Combats were inconclusive, the sheer weight of seventeen full elite German squads seemed likely to push forward next turn...

New rules so far? Ambushing in CC is already in SK but not the special edge cases like boxcars and snakes on the CC roll -- these allow the affected units to slink away or invoke the chromey "Heat of Battle" rules. This turn I had a half-squad go BERSERK! What does that mean? I asked Andy. His answer was that that squad was going to charge the closest KEU...

Essentially, my little berserk half-squad spent the next movement phase charging forward through the wide-open streets towards an SMG-toting Russian full squad. Thanks to a ridiculous morale of 10, the little dudes actually charged into the enemy hex and had it out in CC. I think you know where this is going...

[See teaser photo in last post.] The neatest part of tearing the Russians a new one was the triple-point-blank-fire that occurred. The namesake of this blog is that special case when units are in the same hex and firing on each other (in SK-level this is basically only when an AFV drives into a hex with enemy units in it since there is no berserk/HOB in SK). Needless to say, the little fellas went bonkers on the Russians in AMBUSH no less...

Ouch!

If there's one hallmark that makes a good wargame it's the narrative generated from the game. This is something you're just not going to get out of a Euro like Agricola or Puerto Rico or whatever. For example, take the case of the Cursed MMG.

Early in the game, around turn 2, the Russians who would have been manning a MMG in hex bD2 ran off after taking fire. They left a perfectly good support weapon lying around and in the next rally phase I rolled a SIX -- what the HELL?! Pick the damn thing up you scrubs!

I should have known then that the MMG was cursed. Slick with the blood of the Russian who last held it, the MMG was to be an albatross on the neck of every German squad who managed to pick it up... By game's end, its bad mojo extended into the full hex and even squads who didn't pick it up were gunned down...

It was a pretty eventful first couple of turns. Above is the board disposition after two complete. I don't know, it looks pretty good from here...

The only hiccup was a squad of Germans who were taken prisoner in a CC in the outlying building on the right. They had their own adventures in this scenario... but more on that later.

Now, a chat about snipers. So far in the early two turns I hadn't been rolling a lot of Sniper Activation Numbers -- mostly 2's hahahahaha.... For the SK-newbs, the "SAN" is the number that your opponent rolls that triggers YOUR sniper. The sniper counter is that one you see on the left edge of the above photo. When your SAN gets rolled you have a possibility of activating the sniper on a dr and then the sniper moves about the board (after making a direction and distance dr). The closest eligible target is either wounded, pinned, broken or outright killed depending on whether it's an MMC or SMC.

It's a rule that a lot of ASLers wondered why it wasn't included in SK. Granted it's a bit chromey and leads, occasionally to some break in the action (as you scream SAN!!!! at your opponent), but man does it level the playing field at times. If you look at the SAN numbers on the scenario sheet you'll notice that the German SAN is 3 and the Russian SAN is 6. That means, if you check the handy probability chart I made up here in this post, that about 13% of the time I shoot my squads, the Russian sniper will activate. On the flipside, I guess because it's Stalingrad, the German sniper only activates 5% of the time. (Without going in depth into it, it's a little more complicated than that too...)

Why is this important for an SKer moving up to full ASL?

Remember all those times you took silly 2fp +3 shots just for shits and giggles hoping for a snake eyes? With SANs you are now more likely to trigger a sniper who will take heads off. Your heads. So, snipers are cool and all but now, popping your squad up to take low percentage shots is now not a great idea -- there are consequences to blasting away with no thought!

The sniper activations I was triggering in the early part of the game were generally harmless. Andy would roll too high on the check and nothing would happen, or a squad would pin only to get up again. So Vasily Zaitsev, as we joked, wasn't about in this part of Stalingrad this day... alas, he was coming though...

I'll leave the first part of this AAR with these shots:

The innocuous looking MMG has been recovered by this hapless half-squad (they weren't going to make it). Everything was coming up roses for the Germans (famous last words!). Stalingrad didn't seem so bad really (what the hell was I thinking?!). What was this grumbling from the veterans? So far, the vaunted Guardsmen were running away and being ambushed by screaming teenagers... Better yet, Andy was rolling crap, including on bringing in his reinforcements. Guryev was going to lose his headquarters...

The German high tide of Guryev's Headquarters. Things would not be this good again...

Howzzat for a one hundredth blog post?! Wakka wakka!

D1 - Teaser

2009-06-30T23:16:00.005-04:00

[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

2009-06-29T20:59:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-06-28T22:55:00.006-04:00

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!

2009-06-28T19:21:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-27T23:19:00.007-04:00

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

2009-06-25T19:33:00.008-04:00

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!

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!

2009-06-22T22:14:00.005-04:00

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

2009-06-21T13:37:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-06-20T09:23:00.006-04:00

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...

2009-06-07T10:02:00.003-04:00

... 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. :) ]

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

2009-06-06T09:08:00.003-04:00

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.

TABSCon XIX June 2009 & other stuff...

2009-05-30T10:19:00.007-04:00

1. Alright you apes, TABSCon XIX is just four weeks away on June 27th!

That's the good news. The even better news is that my previously unavoidable social engagement on that day is now kaput and I'm free to attend. Andy, rev up the ASL machine -- I'm ready for a full ASL learning experience (or butt-kicking). Peloton, let's ASLSK-it-up!

Consider this an invitation for anyone in the Greater Toronto Area (and beyond) to get down to TABSCon and get your gaming on!

2. Battles Magazine has launched and has gotten a ton of good buzz. So, I continued my one man quest to restart the moribund global economy and purchased a copy. It arrived in less than a week and long story short, it is worth every penny. I have never seen such a graphically pleasing wargame magazine. And the content? It's great too. Go get yourself a copy if you're a wargamer -- it even has ASL and ASLSK scenarios!

3. In non-ASL-related news, I will soon have a published article in MMP's Operations Magazine. Alas, it's based on this and not ASL, loyal readers. Never fear though, I've been pondering a submission based on ASL(SK) for Operations in the future.

4. Lastly, thanks to everyone who has been emailing me comments about the blog. Much appreciated!

p.s. Happy Birthday to Mrs. scrub. She's, uh, 27 today. Yeah, yeah, that's it...

2 Half-Squads

2009-05-29T23:09:00.002-04:00

I've finally gotten the podcasts downloaded and listened to up to episode 18 (playing now on my media player on my PC but more usually enjoyed on the way to work).

Unless your soul is dead, you have got to hand it to Dave and Jeff (and assorted guest hosts) for making an absolutely hilarious and entertaining podcast. Considering what could be an incredibly pedantic topic, the gentlemen have really communicated the sheer fun of playing ASL and the discussion around it. The audio quality is excellent too -- a welcome change from a lot of other amateur stuff out there.

I strongly urge that everyone with half an interest in ASL go and download podcast asap here:

http://the2halfsquads.podbean.com/

I know the guys have dropped by here occasionally so, Jeff and Dave: GREAT WORK!

Bounding Fire Stuff!

2009-05-25T16:43:00.004-04:00

I totally forgot I even ordered this stuff months ago when it was announced. Anyways, Bounding Fire Productions, a third-party ASL producer sent me their two latest scenario packs: Beyond the Beachhead 2 and Operation Cobra.

Just thumbing through the contents I think I got my money's worth... lots of full-colour scenario sheets on glossy paper, four SK-style maps, a bunch of overlays from small villages to big double sized ones that seem to be made to straddle two maps at a time! There's a small counter sheet and more three-hole punched notes and even errata for Into the Rubble, a previous scenario pack.

Now I just need to learn full-ASL! Haha!

LINK:

http://www.boundingfire.com/

2 Half-Squads - New Episode!

2009-05-25T16:00:00.002-04:00

I've got my wife's iPod/iTunes checking the 2 Half-Squads podcast but for some reason it didn't alert me 'til today. Anyways, the boys have put together an episode (just in time for the Memorial Day weekend for our American cousins) here:

http://the2halfsquads.podbean.com/

I have got to get caught up on these podcasts!

Linkorama

2009-05-17T12:31:00.006-04:00

Thanks to a post from Donald Lazov in the CSW ASLSK folder a couple of weeks ago I've been checking out more web links for ASL learners. (The original post is here.)

1. Jeff's ASL Site - Not updated since 2004 but has a tactical tips section and more stuff here: http://www.vims.edu/~jeff/asl/ . For example, here are his "Finer Points of ASL": http://www.vims.edu/~jeff/asl/finepts.htm

2. Hans Mielants Page - Primarily known for running some very involved "multiplayer" Solitaire ASL at: http://www.mielants.com/Simulation/ASL.html

3. Dispatches from the Bunker - A well known ASL newsletter from the New England area of the States. The Dispatches have a nice newbie tips page at the end but the majority of the issues are devoted to full ASL scenarios and articles. Go here: http://www.aslbunker.com/Downloads/tabid/54/Default.aspx

4. First Fire - I'm certainly not the first ASL blogger but First Fire may be able to lay claim to that here: http://firstfire.blogspot.com/2004_01_01_archive.html

5. ASL Wiki - ASL + Wiki = good resource here: http://davidramsey.no-ip.info/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

6. Blind Hex - Another ASL Blog here: http://www.blindhex.blogspot.com/

7. Dice Tower "Perry Sez" - Perry Cocke is the acknowledged last word on ASL rulings and such rulings are now called "Perry Sez"'s. A collection is here: http://dicetower.com/ASL/PerrySez/

8. Laurent M.'s ASLSK Scenarios - Run out of ASLSK scenarios and played TPBF1 a hundred times already? Laurent has a bunch of new ones here: http://lm.polar.free.fr/aslsk.htm

9. WebGrognard's ASL FAQ - Seems not to have been updated any time recently but included here for completeness: http://grognard.com/faqs/FAQ0.htm

Some of these links are to sites for more experienced players or people immersed in full ASL rather than the SKs. Regardless, there's a LOT of stuff out there for ASL on the Intarwebs.

eASLSK3 - Chapters 5-7 done!

2009-05-11T07:30:00.002-04:00

In a fit of productivity after weeks of nothing, chapters 5-7 are done with examples! Woot woot!

A fun thing I've learned?

Manhandling is Hazardous Movement! Minus 2 DRM when shooting at them in ANY PHASE!!

Anyways, here's a shot of the latest:

Did you know...? #2

2009-05-10T10:48:00.006-04:00

Did you know... ... about Random Selection?

Now, this is a funny thing in ASLSK and (I think) full ASL. Frequently you'll get a situation where more than one thing or squad or SW or whatever is supposed to take a certain result. Example: A K/# result on the IFT when there is a stack of units. The SK-level rulebook says to "randomly" determine this.

But what mechanism do you use?

Most probably just pull out a die and assign the potential victims a number and dr. Note that this means only ONE victim takes the result.

The neat thing is that in full ASL random selection actually has an associated mechanism that allows more than one victim. Random Selection forces all potential targets to dr and all targets that roll the highest (including ties) suffer the result. So, a series of rolls like 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, would cause the latter two units to suffer the K or whatever.

For some reason, this rule was pulled from ASLSK. Too bloody? Too little space to include? Who knows. But if you're not opposed to it, in a friendly game you may want to spice things up with this minor amendment to the rules.

VASLeague Round 2 - AAR Part 4

2009-05-06T14:15:00.002-04:00

[Four parts?! How self-indulgent!]

Axis Turn Five

My half of the fifth turn was quiet as I waited for the inevitable counterattack from the remaining Russian squads their reinforcements. Lady Luck was still on my side however. The first-line reinforcement squad armed with the LMG was vapourized by yet another very low roll by yours truly in hex T3. And of course, the Commissar offed another hapless conscript half-squad when they failed their miserably low MC.

In the MPh I even brought in my HMG stack from M5 to O5...

Allies Turn 5

Paul was massing one last big push into the Bread Factory from the east. The question was whether he could mosey around the inevitable blasting from my stacks o' death.

In the interest of brevity and following the axiom of "a picture is worth a thousand words", here is the answer to that question:

OUCH! -- The Wall of Lead

They couldn't make it past the Wall of Lead. Stacks were blasting from O5, P5, R5 and the Bread Factory itself. It was a brave charge that ended in tragedy. Turn Six saw some little bit of maneuvering (one stack approached the Russians directly and the HMG stack went to good ol' N3).

On the final Allied turn the rally checks for the last couple of squads failed and that was that. Appropriately, I guess, the Commissar was the last to shoot in this meeting engagement around the Red Barricades' Bread Factory #2.

S18 Baking Bread - End of Game

Here's a final shot of the map at the end of the scenario. The last of the Russian forces huddled up in R1, their AT Gun still sitting alone in R5, and a ton of their discarded support weapons littering the field of battle.

For the Germans, the MVP was Sgt. Esser himself who, after watching his stack get blasted away, picked up an LMG and voluntarily forfeited his leadership modifier for the rest of the game -- who says there's no "Berserk" in ASLSK?

Notes from the Rubble

1. Once again, I'd like to thank LTC Paul for being such a good sport. In retrospect, I think he was a good guy for trying to the very last in the face of such long odds. He definitely passed his PMC.

2. I really, really, like S18. The more I think about it, the more I like the densely urban scenarios a la Stalingrad.

3. I think this was my very first scenario with a Gun. I wasn't too worried about it; AFVs are moving Guns after all... I think Paul did a fine job with the HIP -- perhaps he could have rotated the CA once counter-clockwise? But how would he know that I wouldn't be charging Esser on a route north?

4. A Commissar really changes the rally calculations. I'd say Paul was unlucky for the most part early, but seriously, no halfway decent squad should be failing the rally checks?

5. Gun crews self-rally?! Oh crap!

6. My counter discipline is a LOT better. My language about doing things is not as precise as it needs to be. You must always be very clear in what you intend to do, and with whom or what you intend to do it with.

Example: In the early game I prepped or DFed a line of squads in big FG. Later on, I added anothe squad into the stack in the group. When I DFed again later I said "same guys" doing the DF. Well, when I was placing the Fired markers I discovered I had neglected to mention that new squad and Paul and I had to judge what to do. Had I intended to fire with them or was I holding them back...? The answer was honestly in between... I intended neither but as a courtesy I should have been more precise in my language with Paul and explicitly said what I was NOT firing with I guess. I was a LOT more precise after that. You have to be if you're in a competitive situation -- amongst friends it's a different story.

7. HMGS still rock.

8. Seeing as I hadn't played an ASL game in anger since the last VASLeague round I was a bit rusty at first but I really had no problem getting right back into the swing of things by game's end. I was almost taking a "mini-break" from the game. There's no question it's still in the top echelon of games I've ever enjoyed and this match really reinforced that. I may dabble in Memoir '44 or SCS or Ancients or whatever but I think that ASL is still in that sweetspot of complexity, scale, and sheer nervous excitement over every single die roll.

On to Round Three!

VASLeague Round 2 - AAR Part 3

2009-05-05T10:25:00.002-04:00

Axis Turn Two - Start of the RPh

The Axis second turn was quite eventful. Scratch that -- every turn was eventful -- that's why I love ASL goshdarnit.

As would be the case for much of the match, Prep Fire on units in buildings was pretty fruitless. Esser's trimmed down stack and his personal LMG did nothing to the units holding the Bread Factory proper.

Little would happen until my Movement Phase when things started to develop. I pushed my 7-0 stack to the R-column of buildings south of the AT Gun and followed up with an advancing line of 4-6-7s onto the P-column. Seeing the danger Paul swivelled his Gun CA to O5/O6 where he could still keep N3 under fire and address the German first-liners threatening him directly. His TH roll was ineffective.

In DFPh, the Russians firegrouped the squads and MGs in the Bread Factory on Esser in N3 and promptly rolled boxcars -- malfing the MMG by random selection. Esser was earning his nickname of Sgt. Luckypants McRabbitfoot. The dice gods evidently favoured me this night because my 12FP+3 shot in the AFPh on the 9-1 stack of broken Russians promptly snaked for a double CR result. Maybe I should have been calling myself McRabbitfoot.

I recall now that Paul and I, at the end of the session, remarked that the dice in the game were weirdly all over the place. The funny thing was that under the VASL Analyzer at aslscenarioarchive.com we averaged close to 7 on our DRs.

Axis Turn Two - DFPh

As we pressed to the Advance Phase I thought I was sitting very pretty. Though the Russians still held the Bread Factory I had maneuvered a nice assault force into a kind of right hook envelopment. I was making inroads on the Factory and the Gun was just not doing its part. Of course, I suddenly realized that I hadn't yet moved my reinforcements onto the board. Paul quickly checked the rulebook and told me I had only a one turn window to move OR advance them onto the board... whew... I advanced them to L5 to support another base of fire with the HMG closer to the Factory. DON'T FORGET YOUR REINFORCEMENTS KIDS!

Allies Turn 3 - Start of RPh (I think!)

The Allied half of the second turn was full of close calls. Yet another conscript unit fell to the wrath of the Commissar and Prep Firing across the streets yielded scary shots but no effect in the end. Of note was a German firegroup rolling snakes (cowering!) and their targets passing nasty 2MCs.

Though I was able to break the Gun crew (twice in the game too), it was becoming pretty clear to me that I wasn't going to attrit the Russians fast enough this way and I'd better be pushing men into the Factory soon... To make sure I got the message the fresh Russian reinforcements moved onto the board (Paul is not as dumb as I) from the east mapedge. The only thing that made me a little less stressed was the quality of the reinforcements. They were mostly crummy 4-2-6 conscript MMCs who I really could ignore for a half-turn or so til they brought their FP to bear.

Axis Turn Four

Here's how things looked around the start of turn four. We had called it a night after turn three and another 2+ hour session. When we reconvened I was ready to start "The Push"...

Axis Turn Four - MPh

I think that screenshot above says it all. It was masterfully executed if I do say so myself... or at least the Prep Fire finally broke both Bread Factory stacks... Cue the Elite squad with DC hanging out with Esser in N3... The 30 FP DC attack CRed two squads in that stack and the rout was on.

I'm not quite sure what happened in this turn to cause it but I think Paul was a little flustered from the advance when he shot from R1 to P2 before I had taken the hex. Luckily he missed (and really, I wasn't going to make it stand if it did) and we had our quote of the match.

Allies Turn 4 - Start of the RPh

This is the incredibly ugly situation facing Paul at the start of his turn. In (A) I had taken the Bread Factory with Esser and another stack in P2 and P3. At (B), my reinforced HMG stack with 9-2 was looming over the scene. Both (C) and (D) held stacks of 4-6-7s and LMGs, only differing in leadership. The latter two stacks were now turning the tables on the Russians, covering every close approach to the Bread Factory and near enough to support if things even got close to CC. Every Russian squad of note in the area was DM and low crawling away or a turn away and conscripts. The Commissar wasn't going to win this himself... I was in a very strong position but ASL is such a nailbiting game I was far from overconfidence. The victory condition was both Bread Factory hexes and I could easily foresee some last turn CC win by the Russians ruining my plans...

Next up, the conclusion!

VASLeague Round 2 - AAR Part 2

2009-05-04T14:24:00.001-04:00

Axis Turn 1 - DFPh

With just around 2 weeks to go 'til the deadline, Paul and I set-up and played turn one. It was a two and a half hour session: grueling and nervewracking.

My number one concern was the MMG and squad in P3. They were (1) elite, (2) armed with a nasty SW, (3) occupying a victory hex with a full field of fire on my incoming troops. The very first roll of the game was my Prep Fire from Sgt. Esser's group into that building for a 16FP + 2 shot.... If they failed to break the target there'd be some nasty retaliation. The final DR was an 8 for a 1MC and whew! I broke the unit. No MMG return fire (for now) and I started drawing up plans to advance on the factory. My first gamble of the game.

I moved a nice kill stack with a HMG and 9-2 leader to L5, advancing them to M5 later. This stack proved to be a nasty piece of work, mowing down units the entire game. I've said it before and I'll say it again... HMGs are awesome. That 7FP and 3 ROF for the German version is, in the words of my students, "sick".

After pushing a bunch of 4-6-7s into buildings across the street south of the factory I played a few nervous smoke games farther down with stacks of my slighty better troops, led by a 7-0. They were to roll up the left flank of the Russians in the south with the intent of getting some better sightlines to the factory itself -- and hopefully, trip over the HIP gun.

As luck would have it, Sgt. Esser's large stack in the N3 building was way too juicy a target. Paul unHIPed and laid into Esser's stack. The Gun turned out to be in R5 zeroed in on the N3 building. The Gun hit and a MMC broke. For the next couple of turns, the 45L Gun laid waste to the hex and was waxing squads up and down. But Sgt. Esser passed every MC and even picked up a dropped LMG later to wield it himself.

The only other thing I noted early was the nice defensive set-up in the north. The Commissar waited in R2 for the inevitable routing squads where he could easily rally them...

Allies Turn 1 - Start of the RPh

Of course, we went to the second half of the first turn where the Commissar promptly claimed his first victim. He ELRed the broken Russian squad when they refused to listen to his wonderful rhetoric. My "elite" Germans did no better in N3, refusing to budge under Sgt. Esser's tender ministrations. Ah well.

Prep Fire was both "hit and miss". (In fact, if there's a general lesson that has to be made known to new players it is this: Don't depend on Prep Fire!) Paul's squad in O7 took a PB shot at my 7-0 and three squad stack and missed. Whew again from me. Then his whole line in the neighbourhood started shooting across the street -- no effect! But his newly unveiled Gun popped a few rounds (thanks ROF!) and literally popped the head off a unit (thanks Critical Hit!) and broke the other squad. Esser was left, again, with a bunch of headless corpses under his command.

Allies Turn 1 - MPh

I think Paul sought, immediately to take advantage of Esser's very precarious position. He moved in two different squads from his immediate reserves to try and CC N3 (I think -- Paul's offered to write up an AAR from his side and I'll post it when he's finished it). Alas, I had a leader-led (9-2) HMG in M5 with LOS to N2 and O3, both hexes he would need to get to if he wanted to advance into N3 and take out Esser.

In both instances the HMG (and supporting squad at first) chewed up the Russian advance. I kept a LOT of rate. Now, my memory of this is hazy as I didn't pay attention to it at the time but Paul mentioned it later when we convened for Turn Two onwards -- Defensive First Fire where you keep ROF in your SW is not carte blanche to keep blasting away -- the key limiter is the MF expended to get to the hex. So, in at least two instances, I think, I kept ROF and fired a second/subsequent time on the same squad moving into the open ground hexes of N2 and O3. Having expended only 1MF to get to the hex I was allowed only ONE shot. Was this game changing? I'm not sure. I do recall that both squads who tried this ended up very dead. I apologized to Paul, I think some of my enthusiasm with the HMG might have "jedi mind tricked" him... To be fair we were both tired from the long turn and it was a Sunday night before a work day (and I certainly didn't do it on purpose!).

Regardless, in the end Paul couldn't get his guys into CC with Esser in N3. He would maintain a bastion of German fire from that building until his advance midgame.

The rest of the turn saw my 7-0 stack rout the guys next door in DFPh and my HMG, still maintaining ROF rout the other squads on the O-line buildings. Things were starting to get ugly...

Axis Turn Two - Start of RPh

We concluded the session by doing Turn Two's Rally Phase -- we'd know what we had going into the next turn and would have time to think about it. Here you can see that the routed O-line squads were backed up with the 9-1 into hex P5. The squad in R3 had run up into the Bread Factory and taken up the MMG left behind by the others. While the Gun was still threatening N3 with a nasty -2 acquisition counter my guys on the M-line and the 7-0 stack in O8 were making noises on the Russian flanks.

It was turning out to be a very interesting game...

VASLeague Round 2 - AAR Part 1

2009-05-03T14:14:00.017-04:00

Welcome to Part One of the VASLeague Round 2 AAR I'm writing. At least I'm pretty sure it's going to be more than one part given that all my other AARs are. Let's get to it!

My second round opponent was LTC Paul who is a reservist in the United States and has a PhD to boot. Given that we were in the same time zone I thought it would be a breeze to hook up and finish the match. Alas, it wasn't until last Wednesday when we were finally able to conclude things due to a protracted game of computer tag. I'm just glad that we had the two months to be able to play. When real life rears its ugly head wargames get shoved in the corner.

We decided on S18 - Baking Bread (available originally in MMP's Operations magazine but now downloadable here). Baking Bread is an allusion to the tense firefight for Bread Factory #2 (those crazy Soviet names!) during the battle of Stalingrad in October of 1942. The scenario was adaptable, presumably, from Red Barricades, the HASL module that many consider the best ASL experience, bar none.

Compared to the other ASLSK scenario set in Stalingrad (S2 War of the Rats), Baking Bread is a claustrophobic, dense, urban nightmare. Scenario rules make all non-building terrain "Rubble" -- that is, chunky +3 TEM, 3 MF piles of broken stuff representing the detritus of intense urban street fighting. No nice trees and orchards here. VASL was able to show this with Rubble counters over the affected hexes (see pic above). Other than an ambush modifier for Russian squads (probably representing their inherent fanaticism in defense of their once-lovely city) the scenario also gives ASLSK players their first glimpse at the Soviet Commissar leader.

The Commissar, for those who don't know their Russian history, was a very nice fellow who followed the rank and file troops around and thanks to Stalin's visionary leadership shared command of the units with the military officer. He really was a useless adjutant except that he had the authority to perform summary executions for the political good. In ASL, this means the 6+1 leader is really a 10-0 fanatic who, thanks to his scary powers, rallies broken squads with ease. The problem being that he ELRs then Casualty Reduces anyone who fails to toe the party line. Like I said, very fun at "parties". Haha.

Here's a shot of the map with some crazy markings on it. At first I was quite surprised at the size. It's a fraction of a full map, condensing a lot of urban terrain in one. If War of the Rats was anything to go by, this map with MORE units and a Gun would be quite unpleasant.

According to the historical notes, Sgt. Esser, observing the carnage around him charged his small band of Wehrmacht soldiers into the Bread Factory (marked by "V" overlays on the map). This is represented by the open blue arrow from the top left. Esser's band sets up in sight of the Bread Factory filled with Russian troops and back up by the "X" where the commissar is polishing his pistol.

Another small group of squads is in the buildings below, making the crossing into the street a (hopefully) fatal activity.

Given that I had only six turns as the Germans to take and hold the two victory hexes I couldn't be dawdling. My plan was to sweep the reinforcements from the left edge through the streets below and threaten the units on top in an aggressive advance. A subsequent reinforcement on turn 2 would support whatever position needed it. For the Russians, they would receive a mediocre stack of conscripts from the right edge on turn 3. I felt confident that they wouldn't be much of a threat if I took the factory asap.

The main problem? The Russians had a 45L anti-tank gun HIPped (hidden-initial-placement). Paul was honourable enough to email me an encrypted Word file with the Gun's HIP and CA -- to be shared when he unleashed hell on my troops. Neat eh? Not to spoil things but I gave him such a juicy target on the first turn he was blasting away with it immediately from the position marked with a "?". The Gun had Q5 and R4 in a covered arc.

Here's the first turn, set-up and ready to go:

[I have no idea what the red ringed halo is...]

The game begins in Part 2 later!

2 Half-Squads - More stuff!

2009-04-30T20:21:00.004-04:00

Just checking up on my favourite ASL Podcast by the 2 Half-Squads and they've been mighty busy.

Two new episodes since the beginning of the month, a video of the ASL Open in Chicago and something intriguing for the newbie ASLer -- a Newbie-Do (Part 1) where the boys walk through S1 Retaking Vierville.

Go!

http://the2halfsquads.podbean.com/

VASLeague Round Two Completed!

2009-04-29T22:11:00.002-04:00

Woot! Let's just say it was another barn burner. More details and AAR soonish.

In the meantime, here's the Quote of the Match:

scrub - dude, im not sure why you fired on your own men...
LTC Paul - Because they SUCK!!! LOL!
scrub - OMG LOL

LOL indeed. It was another great scenario and a gracious and awesome opponent -- sorry for being such a sloppy player (though I think I improved by game's end).

More from VASLeague 2...

2009-04-26T20:56:00.005-04:00

We finally caught each other in a big match of Computer Tag. Tonight we ripped through 2 turns in almost 3 hours.

Highlights?

1. Turns out we may have royally screwed up the HMG last week. Units that expend only 1MF get shot at only once in the MPh. I may have shot more than once with the HMG of Doom last week. It's ok, I think it had ROF once tonight. Damn you dice gods!!!

2. Speaking of dice, the ASL Scenario Archive has an awesome VASL Analyzer. It's at http://davidramsey.no-ip.info/asl/analyser.php and rocks. Now you can definitively prove your dice were crapola. For what it's worth I was averaging 6.3 and opponent was 6.9 (4 snakes and 1 boxcar for me, 1/3 for him) if I remember correctly. I do NOT want to play tomorrow night when I will regress to the mean... if you know what I mean? Haha, I'm funny.

3. Prep Fire has demonstrated to us that it SUCKS in terms of getting people to move out of houses. But I think we knew that.

4. I almost forgot my reinforcements in turn 2. The SK and full ASL has rules for this! Unlike other games (I'm thinking SCS and whatnot) if you do not put the guys on the board on that turn you LOSE THEM! [Check 3.3] Wow, luckily I forgot them in MPh but was able to Advance them in APh. Lucky lucky boy...

5. If you know S18 - Baking Bread, Sgt. Esser, who leads the first squads nearest the "Bread Factory" has now been renamed in our game, Sgt. Luckypants McRabbitfoot. Nothing phases him. NOTHING. Now he has a machine gun...

6. The Commissar ate his first victim today, some schleps from the Ukrainian steppes refused to stop peeing their pants so he perferated them. Nice. His name is Ivan actually. Awesome at parties...

Remember, roll LO....

World of ASL Updated!

2009-04-25T15:37:00.001-04:00

Mr. Mark Pitcavage has updated his extremely useful World of ASL resource on his Desperation Morale website. Go check it out:

http://www.desperationmorale.com/worldofasl/worldrecent.html

Good work sir!

I like Keith Dalton...

2009-04-24T18:31:00.002-04:00

Let me get to the point of all these posts and summarize: You are all wrong. I am right. Whatever the topic. As long as we're all down with that, won't be any trouble.

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@159.rnYieNVK41q.426@.ee6d502/71084

What the --?!

2009-04-24T18:03:00.003-04:00

Seriously, the MMP folder has EXPLODED again. I'm pretty sure I was caught up earlier this morning but now I'm staring at 250 more messages in the folder at CSW.

I'm afraid.

Hold me...

Also, this seems fun:

http://www.ths85.net/zekesaslparadise/asl-physics.html

UPDATE:
Ok, I'm getting caught up in the CSW folder now -- sometimes it becomes a chore. It seems to be a lot of hubbub about skulking. Skulking is the "gamey" tactic of assault moving your squads out of enemy LOS and advancing them back into the original hex later in the turn. Essentially you are trading the ability to Prep and AdFire for "invincibility".

I hate these kinds of discussions. Especially when people invoke the "realism" argument, i.e. How realistic is it for troops in war to run away and back to avoid fire blah blah blah?!

ASL, like others of its kind is a warGAME. Stop being dumb. Here's how you can handle it:

1. Don't do it. Get shot up. Prove to the world that you are dumb.

2. Do it but picture any number of visualizations that help you deal with it.

3. Just do it.

I suppose you and your opponent can agree not to "cheese" it by skulking but c'mon. Really. It's a game. And as soon as I figure out what VBM sleeze is I'll make the same argument. War-G-A-M-E.

Peace.

A nice summary from the CSW discussion...

2009-04-21T21:21:00.009-04:00

Well I've caught up to the current posts on the MMP folder. [See last post made minutes earlier!!!] It only slightly deviated into stupidity near the end. Here's a nice post I cherry-picked from Todd Pytel (he was quoting Mark Pitcavage as well). I think it a nice succinct post and summarizes some of my thoughts as well:

---If you have played all the way through ASLSK3 and you are still afraid of ASL, then it is not for you. Stay satisfied with ASLSK or seek out some other game. Don't look for endless baby steps.---

Perhaps I could rephrase Mark's point more diplomatically and provide some further justification for it. To those people that want SK4+: You want to play ASL.

Great! Now, here's the thing. Nobody knows every ASL rule by heart. In fact, there are a bunch of relatively common ASL rules that I'd guess only maybe the top 10-25% of ASL regulars remember completely - stuff like Airpower, Deep Snow, Spreading Blazes, Canister Fire, etc. They're not that far-out or difficult as ASL rules go, butyou just don't use them every game. I'd say that nearly every scenario I play has at least one thing in it that I don't know off the top of my head, and often that I've never seen before. If you want to be an ASL player, this will happen to you. So, you're going to have to look them up. In the ASLRB. And understand them well enough to apply them in the scenario. This is an unalterable fact of playing ASL.

Now, there are only a handful of significant rules in a basic full ASL scenario that aren't in SK3. Those rules are your first test. You have to be willing to find them in the ASLRB and spend some time and energy parsing the sentences and understanding them, because that's what we all have to do nearly every game. If it makes it easier, trim that step down a little more and choose to ignore some rules. For example, play a full ASL scenario without HOB and Snipers so that you can focus on Concealment and Bypass movement - the scenario isn't going to come crashing down around you.

But at some point, you have to come to grips with the rulebook. There is no other way. If you can play SK3, you're well, well past the point of dealing with dozens of interlocking, fundamental rules. You can play scenarios and learn just one or two more rules at a time, just like the majority of regular ASL players do when they play a scenario.

When Mark says that ASL is "not for you" if you can't go from SK3 to full ASL, it's really not an "are you tough enough?" comment. The nature of the game is that you're always learning something new about the system. You simply don't "know how to play" full ASL in the same way that you "know how to play" SK3. You're always using the ASLRB to improve your imperfect knowledge. An SK4 would only delay your recognition of this fact. It wouldn't make dealing with it a lick easier.

If you're truly uncomfortable with digging into the ASLRB to learn something new, then (sadly) ASL is probably not the game for you, because that is, to some extent, what ASL is all about.

Nicely said sir.

The "Future" of ASL...

2009-04-21T20:14:00.009-04:00

There has been a mini-tempest brewing up in the MMP folder on Consimworld.

A gentleman by the name of Lonnie Anderson has posted a short and impassioned plea to MMP about the accessibility of ASL. Here is the start of the discussion:

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@159.ZIKhelRE3XJ.384@.ee6d502/70746

As of this moment there are approximately 200 responses and counters to this posting. It's so long and involved I'm only halfway through it. (To be honest, it's been good discussion so far -- the occasional lapse of CSW into unremitting trashtalk has not yet occurred.)

Of course, I asked myself what I thought and here it is so far:

1. I think the idea of a ASLSK4 is awesome. I love ASLSK and the idea that it could extend in perpetuity is exciting but, in the end, is not realistic. ASLSK will continue in action packs and HASLs -- but honestly, if you want more you're not that far from full ASL and the great stuff available there. If MMP never does more for ASLSK I still think it's enough for us to go on.

2. HOWEVER, MMP must see the merit of perhaps doing something about reducing even more the Herculean learning cliff that getting in full ASL entails. MMP must have another mind-think and ask what could ease the transition from ASLSK3 to full ASL? I suppose they could wait for another Jay Richardson-type to show up and do it for them but really, why not a transition product. There's no question it would sell like hotcakes.

3. Newbies to the hobby, it's not that hard to learn ASLSK. Really it isn't. I've said this before and I'll say it again... In the event you can't find a mentor, the richfam tutorials are your tutor. There's no way anyone with any wargame experience or who can handle the intricacies of the more complex Euros can't handle ASLSK. Having now been more immersed into ASL I can see that just a leeeetle bit more effort from the new player to learn will work wonders. Stop expecting the beauty of ASL to magically manifest itself for you within seconds of pushing a counter across a hexside. Play a few games before giving up.

4. Hardcore/Grognard ASLers, do yourself a favour and don't make getting into ASL harder than it is. You certainly aren't expected to grow the hobby or be evangelizing or even friendly. But seriously think before you put down a newbie on CSW, BGG or wherever. I'm positive many have taken up the challenge of ASL(SK), then having found a literal wall of opposition to their presence on a forum or convention, decided that this stuffy old hobby didn't need them crowding out everyone else's style. Now that I think about it, yes, BE FRIENDLY. You don't have to mentor anyone but being nice costs you nothing.

5. As for the ASLRB2... in my humblest of opinions, that rulebook is a fantastic gaming achievement. It's a reference of epic proportions. But as I've said before, it's a dictionary for when you're learning a new language, not a bloody instructional course of study. Stop expecting this thing to teach you ASL. That's not going to happen.

Secondly, as good as it is, there's something wrong with having to learn ASL from a person rather than a manual. There must be something that can fill the gap between pushing cardboard around and approaching the ASLRB2 without having a personal tutor around. Alas, brighter minds than I need to solve this problem (or has it already been solved?).

Blah, back into the CSW stream...

[UPDATE: I've found that the posts I'm still reading are a fascinating cross-section of the kinds of people and learning experiences that would be interesting to anyone who enjoys ASL... as nutty as CSW sometimes is, this is a golden moment here.]

Did you know...?

2009-04-20T20:44:00.008-04:00

Did you know... ... the Rally Phase?

Some stuff about the Rally Phase (RPh) that are frequently done incorrectly:

1. Both players are active during the Rally Phase, not just the ATTACKER. I remember my first playthrough I thought that the RPh was active player only. Yes, noobs, that means that everyone gets to rally that's stacked with a Good Order leader!

2. All self-rally attempts get a +1 DRM. That's just self-rallying leaders right? Wrong! The ATTACKER may attempt to self-rally one additional MMC without the boxed morale who is not stacked with a leader. The key is additional -- you can't try the same unit twice! (In fact, no unit may attempt to rally more than once a RPh.)

3. All rally attempts may receive a TEM of -1 if done in woods or buildings. It's apparently safer in these sorts of terrain.

4. Leaders may not use their leadership modifier on themselves to self-rally! They are good, but not that good.

5. The +4 DRM for Desperation Morale only applies to Rally Attempts, NOT Morale Checks! Sometimes players like to add that +4 when doing MCs from the IFT. Don't!

6. Don't forget that a natural boxcar on a Rally Attempt (DR of 12) means Casualty Reduction! Your men just went to pieces trying to get it together. Roll low!

I've been meaning to piece a few of these "nuggets" of learning together from the crappy notes I take when playing. Hope they help (and I hope I didn't screw them up!).

VASLeague 2 OR HMGs -- I love them!

2009-04-19T21:08:00.009-04:00

It's been a while since I've played some ASL(SK) so I was a bit rusty tonight versus Paul, my opponent in the VASLeague.

Yep, we just started our game in the last 10 days of the two months we had. I laughed -- LAUGHED -- when I heard the VASLeague gave 2 months a round. Now I know why. If it wasn't me then it was my opponent who couldn't scrap together the time. I think that face-to-face play is less likely to be disrupted but for some reason, as soon as ASL moves online all bets are off.

So, we decided at the last moment to play S18 - Baking Bread. (MMP has the map here. ) It's set in my favourite of hotspots, Stalingrad. To make things even crazier, the map is a fraction of the whole in an intense built up area. What is more, special scenario rules put every non-building terrain hex as rubble (+3 TEM, inherent terrain, breaks LOS etc. etc.). So the map is pretty busy. Here's a shot from the middle of the action:

So far it seems pretty even; the balance seems to see-saw between the two of us (I'm German). The HIP Russian gun tore me a new one but my HMG seems to be handled by some German Davey Crockett -- first Allied turn he eliminated two units, CRed a third and, broke two more. That's what I call a severe beating.