Pitman
Forum Guru
So, how was 2006 for you, year-wise? Good, bad? Play enough scenarios? Do well in tournaments? Meet some cool opponents? Design anything? Buy anything? Happy, sad?
I'll start things off. I think 2006 was a pretty good year for me, ASL wise. I got in around 75 scenarios or so, which has been fairly steady for me for a couple of years, down from a high of slightly over 100 in 2003. About half of those scenarios were at ASL "events" such as tournaments, gatherings, etc. The other half were against individual opponents. I did not keep records, but I know I won more games than I lost. I also played a lot of cool opponents in 2006, including some for the first time. Among these "first time" opponents, in particular, I would like to recognize two opponents from ASLOK this year who gave me really memorable games (one defeat, one victory): Peter Struijf and Rich Domovic.
I would also like to thank all the "regulars" at our Ohio-Kentucky "third Saturday" ASL gatherings, including Stan Jackson, Rod Callen, Russ Hall, Mike Malloy, and Ron Bonear, plus the occasionals such as Dave, Craig, Greg, Mark, etc., who need to show up more often! My last game of 2006 was just a couple of days ago, a wild and woolly playing of "The Drive for Taierzhung" against Rod Callen, and it was a fun and fitting end to my ASL playing year.
In terms of tournaments, I went to my usual three: ASLOK, Winter Offensive, and the WBC. I did not try for the Grofaz this year at ASLOK, so I can't report any success or failure there, but I did win one Mini, the East Side Gamers mini. I did not win anything at Winter Offensive, darn the luck, but had a fun time there nonetheless. At WBC, I did not match last year's third place, coming in only in 6th place, thus winning the rarest WBC trophy plaque for the second time in my gaming career--a dubious achievement if there ever was one. I had a fun time at all three tournaments, and played a lot of cool people and met and bs'ed with a lot more.
As far as the writing front goes, I had an article published in the latest ASL Journal, "Hungry Hungry HIPpies," and I wrote an article that should be published in the next ASL Journal. I was also asked to write a review of Armies of Oblivion for the review section of this website, which subsequently was reprinted in View from the Trenches.
The designing and publishing front was very exciting for me this past year. First, with the help of over 90 awesome playtesters, the scenario pack Few Returned was finished and turned over to MMP. When MMP put it up for pre-order, it made its P# in a weekend, and now has almost twice its P#; I can't help but be gratified by that. Now the waiting game begins!
The year 2006 also saw the first publication under the Desperation Morale name; my Scenario Designers Guide, a 72-page manual that included, as everybody here knows, two FREE scenarios. Both the critical reception and sales of that product exceeded my expectations, which was quite nice. Lastly, I did have a single stand-alone scenario published, "Bloody Bari," in Critical Hit's Hero Pax #4. This tournament-sized Italians vs. German scenario features an Italian 10-3 leader (!) and Italian tank hunter heroes! Can we say COOOOOOOOL?
I also made progress on other projects. Throughout the year, I did research on my big partisan project (and now have 224 single-spaced typed pages of notes related to it), and I would say the research is about 90% finished. This is a long, ongoing project to create a complete partisan chapter H showing the SW, vehicles, and ordnance of every partisan/guerrilla force in World War II, as well as to create some really kick-ass partisan scenarios. Ideally, in its published form it will even have countersheets.
I also designed a bunch of scenarios for a new scenaro pack, titled Ruins of the Reich, for which I will start begging for playtesters soon. This will probably be published as a full-color scenario pack by Desperation Morale, although at this early stage, nothing is set in stone. The theme of this pack is that every scenario takes place in May 1945, in the last ten or twelve days of the war. It features some incredibly interesting and varied and, dare I say, kick-ass scenarios. A couple were playtested at ASLOK this year, but the project is still right at the beginning of playtesting.
Unfortunately, though I made relatively little progress on my 1944 Warsaw Uprising project. The research is finished, but it has been stalled in map creation. Hopefully I will make more progress in 2007 on this cool project.
In 2007 I hope to design and submit more stand-alone scenarios instead of trying to think only in terms of packs and projects.
In addition to my own projects, I also did a little playtesting for other folks, although not as much as in previous years, primarily because I was so involved in playtesting my own stuff.
The web front was very exciting for me this year. I was able to add some new freely downloadable scenarios to the Desperation Morale site, as well as some new additions to the ASL Museum (I have a backlog of things to add to that, so I should get cracking). Most exciting, however, was the creation of a huge new section to the site, the comprehensive World of ASL compendium, a massive listing (with photographs, descriptions, capsule reviews) of every single ASL product, EVER. I created it and it is about 98% finished (I have been lazy about adding a few last little things). It is one of a kind and the reception that it got was really positive and very gratifying. So score one for the Desperation Morale website.
On the purchasing front, I bought everything that came out in 2006, but I think I will start a separate thread for commenting on it. I failed yet again to get March Madness '98, one of the few ASL products I don't own, but I feel less of a need for it now that Armies of Oblivion is out. I was pretty disappointed that Valor of the Guards did not come out in 2006, as it easily could have. I was happy to see the newsletter Banzai! return. The ASL world needs some more newsletters, guys. We need somebody with a surfeit of energy to step up to the plate!
So, in short, I think I had a really fun ASL year in 2006. Thanks to all of you who made it possible--I hope your ASL year in 2007 is awesome.
I'll start things off. I think 2006 was a pretty good year for me, ASL wise. I got in around 75 scenarios or so, which has been fairly steady for me for a couple of years, down from a high of slightly over 100 in 2003. About half of those scenarios were at ASL "events" such as tournaments, gatherings, etc. The other half were against individual opponents. I did not keep records, but I know I won more games than I lost. I also played a lot of cool opponents in 2006, including some for the first time. Among these "first time" opponents, in particular, I would like to recognize two opponents from ASLOK this year who gave me really memorable games (one defeat, one victory): Peter Struijf and Rich Domovic.
I would also like to thank all the "regulars" at our Ohio-Kentucky "third Saturday" ASL gatherings, including Stan Jackson, Rod Callen, Russ Hall, Mike Malloy, and Ron Bonear, plus the occasionals such as Dave, Craig, Greg, Mark, etc., who need to show up more often! My last game of 2006 was just a couple of days ago, a wild and woolly playing of "The Drive for Taierzhung" against Rod Callen, and it was a fun and fitting end to my ASL playing year.
In terms of tournaments, I went to my usual three: ASLOK, Winter Offensive, and the WBC. I did not try for the Grofaz this year at ASLOK, so I can't report any success or failure there, but I did win one Mini, the East Side Gamers mini. I did not win anything at Winter Offensive, darn the luck, but had a fun time there nonetheless. At WBC, I did not match last year's third place, coming in only in 6th place, thus winning the rarest WBC trophy plaque for the second time in my gaming career--a dubious achievement if there ever was one. I had a fun time at all three tournaments, and played a lot of cool people and met and bs'ed with a lot more.
As far as the writing front goes, I had an article published in the latest ASL Journal, "Hungry Hungry HIPpies," and I wrote an article that should be published in the next ASL Journal. I was also asked to write a review of Armies of Oblivion for the review section of this website, which subsequently was reprinted in View from the Trenches.
The designing and publishing front was very exciting for me this past year. First, with the help of over 90 awesome playtesters, the scenario pack Few Returned was finished and turned over to MMP. When MMP put it up for pre-order, it made its P# in a weekend, and now has almost twice its P#; I can't help but be gratified by that. Now the waiting game begins!
The year 2006 also saw the first publication under the Desperation Morale name; my Scenario Designers Guide, a 72-page manual that included, as everybody here knows, two FREE scenarios. Both the critical reception and sales of that product exceeded my expectations, which was quite nice. Lastly, I did have a single stand-alone scenario published, "Bloody Bari," in Critical Hit's Hero Pax #4. This tournament-sized Italians vs. German scenario features an Italian 10-3 leader (!) and Italian tank hunter heroes! Can we say COOOOOOOOL? I also made progress on other projects. Throughout the year, I did research on my big partisan project (and now have 224 single-spaced typed pages of notes related to it), and I would say the research is about 90% finished. This is a long, ongoing project to create a complete partisan chapter H showing the SW, vehicles, and ordnance of every partisan/guerrilla force in World War II, as well as to create some really kick-ass partisan scenarios. Ideally, in its published form it will even have countersheets.
I also designed a bunch of scenarios for a new scenaro pack, titled Ruins of the Reich, for which I will start begging for playtesters soon. This will probably be published as a full-color scenario pack by Desperation Morale, although at this early stage, nothing is set in stone. The theme of this pack is that every scenario takes place in May 1945, in the last ten or twelve days of the war. It features some incredibly interesting and varied and, dare I say, kick-ass scenarios. A couple were playtested at ASLOK this year, but the project is still right at the beginning of playtesting.
Unfortunately, though I made relatively little progress on my 1944 Warsaw Uprising project. The research is finished, but it has been stalled in map creation. Hopefully I will make more progress in 2007 on this cool project.
In 2007 I hope to design and submit more stand-alone scenarios instead of trying to think only in terms of packs and projects.
In addition to my own projects, I also did a little playtesting for other folks, although not as much as in previous years, primarily because I was so involved in playtesting my own stuff.
The web front was very exciting for me this year. I was able to add some new freely downloadable scenarios to the Desperation Morale site, as well as some new additions to the ASL Museum (I have a backlog of things to add to that, so I should get cracking). Most exciting, however, was the creation of a huge new section to the site, the comprehensive World of ASL compendium, a massive listing (with photographs, descriptions, capsule reviews) of every single ASL product, EVER. I created it and it is about 98% finished (I have been lazy about adding a few last little things). It is one of a kind and the reception that it got was really positive and very gratifying. So score one for the Desperation Morale website.
On the purchasing front, I bought everything that came out in 2006, but I think I will start a separate thread for commenting on it. I failed yet again to get March Madness '98, one of the few ASL products I don't own, but I feel less of a need for it now that Armies of Oblivion is out. I was pretty disappointed that Valor of the Guards did not come out in 2006, as it easily could have. I was happy to see the newsletter Banzai! return. The ASL world needs some more newsletters, guys. We need somebody with a surfeit of energy to step up to the plate!
So, in short, I think I had a really fun ASL year in 2006. Thanks to all of you who made it possible--I hope your ASL year in 2007 is awesome.
