Ideas for Starter Kits?

[Warbear]

Is there a list of these somewhere?

I've created a German site for ASLSK - it contains a list: https://www.unknowns.de/wbb4/lexicon/index.php?entry/85-aslsk-guide/
If anyone has or knows scenarios, which are not in the list, please send me a PN.

 

[kempenfelter]

It's not absent in SK #4...

Rule 8.2 PTO Terrain:

"A unit in a Dense jungle (8.2.1), kunai, or bamboo hex may not participate in a multi-hex Fire Group if another unit in that Fire Group occupies some other Dense jungle, kunai, or bamboo hex."

Oops!

 

[TheSQLGuru]

Is there a list of these [125 Starter Kit scenarios] somewhere?

I keep it up to date. It can be found on the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit Facebook group that I moderate, along with a large assortment of useful files and useful posts (I have done quite a few Quiz of the Day and Lesson of the Day posts for example, and they are easy to find by searching the group).

 

[Eagle4ty]

I keep it up to date. It can be found on the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit Facebook group that I moderate, along with a large assortment of useful files and useful posts (I have done quite a few Quiz of the Day and Lesson of the Day posts for example, and they are easy to find by searching the group).

Would be nice to post it here as a PDF.

 

[adepss1]

I would not want to extend the SK product-line much further but rather keep all of the so far published products in stock. Starter Kit won't be "Starter" any more if you have a dozen products for it. If I were asked, people should move on to ASL, though I understand that it might be to challenging for some.

von Marwitz

Like the late John Hill said in his interview, the ASLSk are a ripoff! and I now tend to agree...

 

[Whiskers1123]

I think we still need ASLSK #5 The Desert Campaign, then it should end.

 

[jrv]

ASLSK #4688: "Valley of Tears: the Yom Kippur War on the Golan Heights."

JR

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Like the late John Hill said in his interview, the ASLSk are a ripoff! and I now tend to agree...

If John Hill didn't buy a copy, how does John Hill get to decide its value to others? I was grateful that the ASLSK existed when I got back into full ASL after an absence - great way to ease back in. Many people here have been saying the same thing.

 

[Whiskers1123]

I think we still need ASLSK #5 The Desert Campaign, then it should end.

With like 4 new boards with the terrain on them and no overlays.

 

[TheSQLGuru]

Like the late John Hill said in his interview, the ASLSk are a ripoff! and I now tend to agree...

I am curious what makes you and John Hill believe that.

 

[TheSQLGuru]

I think we still need ASLSK #5 The Desert Campaign, then it should end.

Relatively speaking, a TINY TINY fraction of all ASL played happens in the Desert. IMNSHO it would be completely silly to add this to SK.

 

[tripvm]

I am curious what makes you and John Hill believe that.

He said basically that almost verbatim in an interview on the 2 Half Squads podcast. Episode 32.

Edit: I am assuming that is the interview mentioned in the earlier post.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

He said basically that almost verbatim in an interview on the 2 Half Squads podcast. Episode 32.

Edit: I am assuming that is the interview mentioned in the earlier post.

Here's the transcript for that interview:

The 2-Half Squads' Interview with John Hill

The 2 Half-Squads (Jeff Hallett and Dave Kleinschmidt) have just celebrated their tenth year of presenting entertaining and informative re...

thetacticalwargamer.blogspot.com

I believe he was confusing ASL with the ASLSK - the follow up suggests he was talking about how the SL counters were replaced by ASL.

JOHN HILL: And that worked out, and there were a lot of guys that (?)…in many ways, ASL is, you know, it’s just SQUAD LEADER with a hell of a lot of chrome.
Jeff: Mm-hmm.
JOHN HILL: And some guys like a lot of chrome, some don’t. Fine. It proves that the system will function if, whether you layer on as much as you want. You know, when you get down to looseleaf book number three or something, you know, you’ve layered on quite a bit, (but) that still works.
Jeff: Yeah.
JOHN HILL: My personal preference, I think, in…I think ASL has gone too far with too much detail, and too much that slows down the game too much.
Dave: And when you look at the fact that they reissued ASL Starter Kits…
JOHN HILL: Yeah, I thought that was a rip-off.
Dave: …which have pared it back down.
JOHN HILL: Yeah…but I also think that I was sort of, had a bit of…a lot of gamers told me they had a problem with…’your old counters are no good any more, you gotta buy all these new ones.’ So, I sort of like wherever possible to try and keep backward compatibility.(7)
Dave: Right.
JOHN HILL: (But) it’s become a legend, it’s become a lifestyle. The problem I thought…once again, it’s the old question of detail versus playability. It’s not necessarily realism. Well, realism has many different flavours. One of my design objectives with SQUAD LEADER was once you learned the game, the basic game, you could play it in real time, two minutes (per turn). People have done that.

I couldn't tell you for sure what Hill was referring to, but my impression is he wasn't talking about the ASLSK at all. I wouldn't think they were even on his radar. Listening to the interview you see that he talked past and over the interviewers a few times. I'm not accusing him of being rude, I think he had a lot of deep knowledge of the subject material and was trying to organize it before saying it. Not to mention conducting the interview by phone, and so not getting the usual visual cues that it was his turn to talk. Later in the interview he references a Squad Leader scenario with " I forget the actual scenario but everybody knows it, Hill 681 or something like that."

 

[Ken Dunn]

How is it a ripoff?

Like the late John Hill said in his interview, the ASLSk are a ripoff! and I now tend to agree...

ASLSK is a ripoff? How is it a ripoff exactly?

 

[TheSQLGuru]

If John Hill didn't buy a copy, how does John Hill get to decide its value to others? I was grateful that the ASLSK existed when I got back into full ASL after an absence - great way to ease back in. Many people here have been saying the same thing.

There are MANY like you!!

 

[TheSQLGuru]

"JOHN HILL: My personal preference, I think, in…I think ASL has gone too far with too much detail, and too much that slows down the game too much. "

Gee, the designer of Squad Leader feeling that ASL went too far. What a surprise.

I think his "ASLSK is a ripoff" comment was off-the-cuff. And he never did address the part about ASLSK paring back down the "too much detail/too slow" part of ASL that JH doesn't like. His "counters are different" statement could not possibly have been about SK. And that statement - a good bit of the of the article actually - comes across (to ASL(SK)-biased me anyway) as envy that ASL has "become a legend, it’s become a lifestyle".

The most important thing for me is that ASLSK is ASL WITHOUT the "...far too much detail ... far too slow..."!! But it DOES have a lot of the improvements ASL brought when compared to SL.

Final Statement: ASLSK is 80-90% of the fun of FASL with maybe 1% of the rules. ?

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I think his "ASLSK is a ripoff" comment was off-the-cuff.

He never said that, though. If you listen to the original broadcast. He said "Yeah, I thought it was a rip-off" which I think was a reference to ASL. The interviewer is mentioning ASLSK, but I don't think Mr. Hill even knew what that meant. They never discuss the Starter Kits at all, and his subsequent comments are about replacing the original counters and the backlash to that, which has nothing to do with the ASLSK.

 

[klasmalmstrom]

At least the post responded to here was only from 2015 - not from 2003 - like it was on BGG.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

MMP is working on a PTO expansion, Chinese included. not sure if this will included any Korean scenarios?
I agree with you. some more Korean scenarios for SK would be nice.

Maybe the ASLSK could even be a testbed for other eras and nationalities not covered in "full" ASL.

 

[Brad M-V]

I believe he was confusing ASL with the ASLSK - the follow up suggests he was talking about how the SL counters were replaced by ASL.

I think you nailed it, that's what it sounded like to me too. I really like what he said at 29:15 regarding the in game 2 minute turns and how he had watched different guys playing ASL taking 30 mins a turn due to all of the rules reading they would do, and yes, it was more detailed but less realistic. Later he said a leader is pretty much limited to telling a unit to move/attack there, but beyond that the leader is just watching and hoping everything goes well. I've always felt this way myself, the Starter Kits produce a gaming experience closer to the speed I want but I'm still required to buy the big binder to utilise all the terrain rules, charts, chapter H, etc. making it all a little bit of a compromise. There would be a market for a Squad Leader 2 IMO. I'm into ASL because it's still better then anything else out there right now, but the SK chrome trimming is responsible for that...