2006: Your Year in ASL

Pitman

Forum Guru
Joined
Jan 27, 2003
Messages
14,165
Reaction score
2,629
Location
Columbus, OH
Country
llUnited States
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.
 

Jack Dionne

Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2004
Messages
933
Reaction score
3
Location
Winnipeg, Canada
Country
llCanada
I finished the ASL year by having 3 other ASL’ers over. We played and had fun what else could you ask for. My goal in 2007 is to try and play at least one scenario a week and get in a couple of campaign games.

I used the holidays to get all the counters from AOO finally put away, glad that’s over. I am looking foreword to the new ASL stuff coming out this year including the one you designed Mark. Thanks for all your hard work and to the play tester of course.
 

jpipes

Member
Joined
Oct 24, 2006
Messages
55
Reaction score
2
Location
Durham NC
Country
llUnited States
For me 2006 was a great year. It marked the 10 year anniversary of when I sold my original ASL collection back in 1996 (!!) and the start of a new direction in wargaming when I managed to find another ASL collection after all that time. It was in the summer of 2006 that I was writing an article on the 7th Panzer Division for a magazine in the UK when I began to ask myself what wargames I had that could recreate nicely the German crossing of the Meuse River. I started thinking of ASL and after awhile posted a note on the forums. A reader contacted and right around my birthday in mid-August ended up selling me his entire massive ASL collection for $500. I was very fortunate to find this collection and more importantly was back into ASL in a big way!

Since that time I've played almost a dozen scenarios and learned a great deal. I even took part in a local ASL tournament where I was awared the "best newbie" award after winning a scenario against another player in a real head-to-head match. In a small way that was very gratifying. I've been told my (meager) record of 5 wins to 6 losses is pretty good for an ASL newbie, so that's nice too!

I've made some excellent new friends learning and playing ASL and have forged a solid foundation for playing ASL for many, many years to come. In that sense for me 2006 was a most wonderful year!!
 

tekay44

Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
603
Reaction score
64
Location
Mass.
Country
llUnited States
Started playing ASL this year, and, have 6 mos. of so under my belt. Went to my first tournament in Albany NY, and, had a blast. Also got turned on the Red Barricades, and, am enjoying and learning the infantry aspect very much. If this year is anywhere as good as the last, I am in for a good time. Happy New Year everyone.
 

jimfer

Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2003
Messages
880
Reaction score
241
Location
Fort Worth Texas
Country
llUnited States
Thanks Mark for another excellent thread.
My 2006 ASL year featured my good fortune to win the Austin Texas ASL event held every June by the Central Texas ASL guys. Brian, Mike and all the Austin guys put on a first rate tournament and I cannot say enough good things about them. I only played about 15 senarios the whole year. I really would like to play more often but the wife has other plans. I do plan on attending at least 2 tournaments this year and if I can get some of the local guys to play more would like to find a way to play about 30 games this year, wife willing...:rolleyes:

Jimfer
 

Michael Dorosh

der Spieß des Forums
Joined
Feb 6, 2004
Messages
15,747
Reaction score
2,796
Location
Calgary, AB
First name
Michael
Country
llCanada
Let's see - I started out the year buying Armies of Oblivion in February despite not really playing the game simply because I am still in the habit of picking up all the modules. Over the summer, got involved with some VASL with GJK and Peterk, convinced to buy v2.0 of ASLRB. Then went whole hog; bought plastic containers for all my counters to replace the big tool chest that has been in my closet since I moved out of my parents basement 10 years ago. Picked up Op Watchtower and Blood Reef Tarawa in Oct, and then went as far as to pay big money for empty boxes to Doomed Battalions and For King and Country. Then went ahead and bought the mounted boards I could have bought for AoO but never figured I would need them.

I bought some used SL boxes on ebay as well (four of them) just cause I like the box and it came in a big lot with the GI box as well (mine disintegrated long ago) as well as old scenarios.

My ebay acquisition of all the original Squad Leader scenarios is complete as far as I can tell (including the Series 100, etc., all the General scenarios) and my collection of AH and MMP ASL scenarios moved towards completion with several purchases of The General on ebay.

I bought an ATS game just to see, and got two TPP (which I did not pay for - one was thrown in as a freebie by Scott Holst when I purchased an ASL Annual from him, the other came from my Secret Santa.)

And after all that, I played very little. All VASL, and mostly PT - helping Peterk with his CG though that has slowed down considerably - mostly my fault, but hope to pick up soon.

No idea what 2007 will bring. Spending a lot less money, hopefully. :) Of course, I do have preorders waiting to go, too.
 

Canadian Dude

Malicious Maniac
Joined
Jul 4, 2006
Messages
1,420
Reaction score
60
Location
Canada, eh
Country
llCanada
2006 was by far the best year of ASL for me. Actually... it was also the worst considering its been my only year playing ASL.

Tale of how I started ASL. Before ASL I was a warhammer snob and scoffed at the idea of of card board coutners being pushed around. What a bore! I had tried a couple times to get Lost into warhammer but Lost claimed that ASL was gods gift to man.

I didnt believe him up untill one day last year. It was after school and Lost's mom had told him "Lost, you have no social life. I want you to bring a friend over." Lost looking to shut his mother up, brought the craziest nut he knew me :nuts: While there I pointed at a game, "whats that?" Lost replied "gods gift to man."

I figured since god had been so kind, I may as well play this thing called ASL. We played the guards counter attack. That my friends, was all I needed to get hooked on ASL. From there I almost totally abandonned Warhammer and have been all out ASL. I got SK3 and made many failed attempts at getting the rule book and BV3. But it looks like I have enough money now so all is good. Also got another friend playing though he wont buy it.

On the playing front I played a bit over a dozen scenerios. My win record with Lost is 50/50. My win record with the other player is.... 0%. B*stard's damn good. 2006 also saw the finish of the first CG date of KGP II. Infact I kicked off the new year by playing KGP with Lost and getting to turn 3 of the second CG. All is going well for bother sides.

All in all 2007 looks promising. Hopefull fit in at least 3 CGs and a few scenerios.

- The Canadian Dude
 

Fritz

Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2003
Messages
233
Reaction score
4
Location
Chicago
Country
llUnited States
Pretty good ASL year for me in '06. Played 53 games and a half dozen or so playtests, and ended up with a winning record for a change. Went 3 and 3 at the Open which was a surprise, and squeaked out some victories against a few *much* better players throughout the year. Had an excellent time hosting the Pouting Fireman hissef for an all day extravaganza, and got out to Oak Park more regularly for Goldman's monthly Game Days.

Looking forward to the first match of '07 this Friday.
 

asl548

Recruit
Joined
Dec 29, 2006
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
Location
USA
Country
llUnited States
Old ASL'er here from Jasper Indiana. An old school buddy (Hi Roy Mustang) turned me on to ASL again last year and it has been a real joy. We both like the PTO the best and plan on starting a BRT CG in the near future.

Chuck "I like Banzai charges" Archer
 

asevenson

Greenhorn
Joined
Apr 20, 2004
Messages
62
Reaction score
2
Location
Seattle Area
Country
llUnited States
My ASL 2006:

Finally made the jump from SL to ASL last year and glad I did. Have played 1/2 a dozen or so scenarios and still working my way through the rules.

Attended some Puget Sound ASL sessions also and looking forward to more play in 2007.

My 2006 ASL purchases:

ASLSK#1 and #2
ASLRB
BV
Blood Reef Tarawa
Red Barricades
Journal #7
Devils in the woods
Solitaire ASL

-- should keep me busy for awhile :D
 

Aries

Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2002
Messages
4,187
Reaction score
5
Location
Earth
Country
llCanada
Darn near no ASL at all. 2006 was the year after moving year for me.

2006 was a "year of rest" as it was a substantial event moving for me.

I've had to get used to a few things. No more basement to hide "junk". No more large diningroom to put 4'x8' table suitable for any wargame I own. No more workshop meaning I have had to adjust to no more woodworking (that hasn't been "fun").

Granted, I now have a "real" hobby room (the last one was barely a "room" really. But I have had to learn to adjust lifestyle wise in a few other areas.

in 2006 I got the ASL RB2 though. And ASL is one of the few wargames I can play these days "space wise" as well as solitairy friendly. So I think over all, if I pull out a wargame, a board game, I am likely going to be pulling out ASL almost certainly before any other.
 

Bob Holmstrom

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2006
Messages
1,572
Reaction score
120
Location
Palatine, IL
Country
llUnited States
I didn't get near enough ASL in last year. Only 20 scenarios or so.

I did attend two great tournaments in Chicago and St. Louis and had a blast at both, although i wasn't able to "threepete" at the STL tourney.

I did manage to buy the last official ASL module that i did not own, Tarawa. I don't know if i'll get a chance to play it anytime soon though.

I hope to triple my ASL play this year and get 60 or so scenarios in and make it to Octoberfest for the first time.
 

BobO

Argentine Dove Hunter
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
1,721
Reaction score
77
Location
VA
Country
llUnited States
Bob H.,

re: avatar

Is that Wolkey in dire need of taking a dump?
 

Brien Martin

Panthera oncia
Joined
Jan 27, 2003
Messages
2,106
Reaction score
64
Location
In the boondocks
Country
llUnited States
Pretty good ASL year for me in '06. Played 53 games and a half dozen or so playtests, and ended up with a winning record for a change. Went 3 and 3 at the Open which was a surprise, and squeaked out some victories against a few *much* better players throughout the year. Had an excellent time hosting the Pouting Fireman hissef for an all day extravaganza, and got out to Oak Park more regularly for Goldman's monthly Game Days.

Looking forward to the first match of '07 this Friday.
Fritz,

Will we be seeing you and your rather worldy tastes in beer and scotch at Winter War this year?

Brien
 

Darrell Andersen

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2004
Messages
3,623
Reaction score
178
Location
Cedar Rapids, IA
Country
llUnited States
"Had an excellent time hosting the Pouting Fireman hissef for an all day extravaganza"

That's "POUT-Y" not "POUT-ING" damn it.

If you're are going to go to the trouble of casting me in the gay porn classic "Chuikov's General Staff" you damned well better get the credits right.

It was a fine day of ASL and one of the highlights of another very enjoyable year on the ASL front!
 

RobZagnut

Elder Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2003
Messages
8,814
Reaction score
1,378
Location
USA
Country
llUnited States
>Is that Wolkey in dire need of taking a dump?

Are you sure that's the way you want to start the new year? Both you guys are now on my ****/dump list.

Although, it does look like me after I've rolled a 12 when firing my Tiger.
 
Top