A.P. Fourteen.

Gordon

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I see, so you hire a bunch of women to wear military uniforms and use long sticks to push the counters around for you as you sit up on a balcony? Kinky.
;)
 

Ric of The LBC

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I hear there's 12 scenarios but who cares, you want the BOARDS.

View attachment 10494

Pete said, "I want the gnarliest Bocage Hill you can do!" Don Petros said, "I'm your man!"

We gave him version 1. He said "I want gnarlier!" Version 2: "Dammit, I said GNARLIER!"

We said "Pete! There's LIMITS! You canna break the system!"

He said "I'm Pete G-Dang Shelling and I'll break what I want! NOW GIMME GNARLIER!"

So we pushed the Gnarl button to 11 and thus was born, board 84.

Sometimes I still wake up at night, shivering. It's the Gnarl, you see.


View attachment 10495

In contrast, board 12ab just wants to be a picturesque sleepy village. With the longest gully in the system.
Caves and Bocage scenario. GO!
 

Evan Sherry

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Are there any other players out there that aren't really enthusiastic about new boards all the time? I'd rather see us go on a hiatus for a while and use the plethora we already have.
It is perfectly fine for you and other ASL "players" to be unenthusiastic about new boards. But new boards are not about or for those who lack "enthusiasm". New boards are for scenario designers who are creative thinkers and have the "enthusiasm" others lack. New boards are where new inspiration and scenario ideas come from. Players are free to play and be "enthusiastic" about whatever they want to be "enthusiastic" about. If scenario designers and board artists were not "enthusiastic" about new terrain and new tactical problems, ASLers would still be playing only on boards 1-49.
 
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bprobst

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Are there any other players out there that aren't really enthusiastic about new boards all the time? I'd rather see us go on a hiatus for a while and use the plethora we already have.
The only problem with that theory is that new players have a lot of trouble getting hold of all those older boards. A constant stream of new boards at least gives them a fighting chance of being able to play new scenarios.
 

Houlie

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Mark me down as enthusiastic for new boards. Between an annual WO pack (1 bd) and maybe an AP every year (or every other) if we are lucky (say average 1 bd). That's two new boards per year give or take. That doesn't feel unreasonable. JMO.
 

bprobst

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I guess we can extrapolate the chapter B rules on stream-orchards to gully-orchards easily enough.

It's a very strange "sleepy village" IMO. The road network and the general layout is fine. But why is the village equipped with so many tall buildings, not to mention several big-arse not-factories? I can't follow the logic of what the place is supposed to be, which then poses the question of how do you find a suitable scenario to use it?
 

BigAl737

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I see new boards, peer through the dim light at my fellow VASL cabalites, heave a sigh, and wonder if that trap door will ever open. (cue the Animals)
 

Philippe D.

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I guess that's a "no" then? :)
No, it's just a "no" to a different questions, which would have to be "do ALL players think there are enough maps".

I'm not a scenario designer and don't plan to be, so I cannot really comment on the lack of some map designs. From my player's point of view, the number of existing geoboards is quite enough; very clearly there are many that I've never used. But still, I carefully get every new one, and actively look for the best storage solution for them, etc.

I had about 10 years when I stopped playing the game, and when I came back about 3 1/2 years ago I had to hunt for a number of the "new" maps that I had missed (and that was after I got the first Map pack; my boards were the older, mounted type). So yes, it's possibly a problem when you're just getting into the game or getting back into it, especially since scenarios published in newer publications (say, the ASL Journal) will tend to use the newer boards (and there are good reasons for this: if the boards are inspiring to the designers and they feel they fill a hole in the selection, they will be used).
 

von Marwitz

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On one hand it is nice that there is a continuous flow of new geo-maps.

But on the other hand I mirror Philippe D.'s opinion: If you miss out on something, it might get difficult or expensive to close the gaps later. You are somewhat "obliged" to buy stuff to keep the core components (to which I count geo-maps) complete. This is true not only for MMP but also for BFP.

I also agree that new maps increasingly see less and less play. Usually in the product they are published with. And after that, chances of their being used decreases with every extra map published. At the same time the chances for you running into problems without a complete set of geo-maps increases with every new geo-map.

I won't go so far yet, that additional geo-maps become more a liability rather than an asset for that reason. But this viewpoint is from the perspective of a player who has been with the hobby for decades and having kept his kit complete.

For anyone entering the hobby, the perspective might very well and increasingly be the opposite. Especially, if core components are not available separately. That this observation is true may be witnessed for example by the commercial success of countersheets by Broken Ground. It might be the only (cardboard-) way to get hold of certain nationalities at this time. And financially, it might be the only viable way for new players on top. The cumulative price for all counters of all nationalties is massive even if resorting to Broken Ground. If you were to get a complete kit by MMP, ist would be unsurmountable en bloc for most (and impossible, too, for things being OoP continuously).

Basically with the scope and scale of the necessary components for a complete ASL 'core-kit' (i.e. all nationalies, function coounters, geo-boards and rule-book), the current business model of selling them by core-modules is not worthwhile any longer but obsolete. The system should be switched to sale by component (i.e. individual geo-boards, counter-sheets (or sets of these), rules-sections, and scenario packs) with only HASLs remaining based on the current 'module'-system.

For a newbie wanting to go 'all in' the current solution with regard to counters is actually Broken Ground. With regard to geo-maps it is to print out VASL-maps on 160g/m² paper of individual scenarios played with a normal ink-jet printer.

von Marwitz
 

Gordon

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Crap, mis-typed after double checking the coordinate. I meant I9.
 
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