Asl Learning problems?

amidge

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Hi all,

As a neophyte I'm struggling my way through the rulebook and playing the odd game via PbEM, and am really loving the game. I was wondering if there are sets of 'learning problems/puzzles' to teach better tactics (and rules comprehension). I envisage something like 'Go' puzzles, where you start with only a few pieces, in a pre defined position and try to achieve a very limited objective, probably over only a turn or two or even a few phases. For asl I imagine that'd be something like, use these three squads to take that building with the mg, or get this tank across a road controlled by an at gun. Problems, with suggested solutions, like this would be fun, but also great ways to learn tactics and some rules, without digging into a whole game.
 

Pacman Ghost

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In The General 18.1, they did exactly that, and posed a few tactical problems for people to solve and discussed possible solutions in 19.3 and 19.4. It was for the old Squad Leader, not ASL, but the principles carry over.

I found going through move-by-move replays very useful e.g. "Scenario 8" in The General 23.2 and 23.3 and "Fighting Withdrawal Example Of Play" (not sure where I found this one). There are other documents in the "Examples Of Play" series, although they're more focused on the rules, rather than tactics.

Jay Richardson wrote an excellent document called "An ASLSK Tutorial", while Eddy M. del Rio wrote a series of Examples Of Play for some ASLSK scenarios. View From The Trenches and Banzai! (the magazine of the Texas ASL group), are also rich sources of information.

That should be enough to get you started... :)
 
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amidge

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Brilliant, that is the sort of thing I was looking for. I'll see if I can dig a few of those out. I'm fairly new to this, is there some archive of these ancient ish documents? Or is it a Google search and prayer sort of thing?
 

Philippe D.

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I think VASL would be a tremendous tool for this: play (possibly solo) a simple scenario and record a full log of the game, adding comments. Then a learning player can download the file and follow it as a full replay.

The only problem I see with this is the risk that a newer version of VASL is likely to make the log useless, if the log format is not backward-compatible - and I understand that they tend not to be.
 

clubby

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Brilliant, that is the sort of thing I was looking for. I'll see if I can dig a few of those out. I'm fairly new to this, is there some archive of these ancient ish documents? Or is it a Google search and prayer sort of thing?
Play. On VASL. With real people. It's hard to learn from articles or lessons because the situations are idealized to point out what they want you to learn. So you only learn one thing, what happens when things go exactly as planned per the article.
 

hongkongwargamer

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Play. On VASL. With real people. It's hard to learn from articles or lessons because the situations are idealized to point out what they want you to learn. So you only learn one thing, what happens when things go exactly as planned per the article.
Hear hear - seldom truer a statement made !!
 

amidge

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Thanks all for the replies! I'm playing now on vasl, and it is a terrific learning in tool. The jump from SK to full ASL is a bit intimidating though. It's the thought of thousands of rules, spread across hundreds of pages and various modules that I could be ignoring at any moment, while thinking I'm playing correctly! Worked examples are great for showing where those misc rules show up and their tactical relevance.
 

von Marwitz

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There was old Chapter K which I found quite helpful back in the old days before youtube tutorials etc.

von Marwitz
 

Robin Reeve

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I think VASL would be a tremendous tool for this: play (possibly solo) a simple scenario and record a full log of the game, adding comments. Then a learning player can download the file and follow it as a full replay.

The only problem I see with this is the risk that a newer version of VASL is likely to make the log useless, if the log format is not backward-compatible - and I understand that they tend not to be.
Using Jinks or another recorder of what is happening on the screen makes you record your game with your comments.
Then you put it on Youtube.
 

Robin Reeve

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Thanks all for the replies! I'm playing now on vasl, and it is a terrific learning in tool. The jump from SK to full ASL is a bit intimidating though. It's the thought of thousands of rules, spread across hundreds of pages and various modules that I could be ignoring at any moment, while thinking I'm playing correctly! Worked examples are great for showing where those misc rules show up and their tactical relevance.
The Index is your friend.
Start over there when looking for a given topic.
 

Philippe D.

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Using Jinks or another recorder of what is happening on the screen makes you record your game with your comments.
Then you put it on Youtube.
I suppose it would work (I don't know how to put something on Youtube, but then I guess I'd manage if I really wanted to), but it wouldn't have the convenience of a fully functional log. With a log, you can stop at some point (which you can do with a video, of course), and check the whole board to see how you understand things.
 

Robin Reeve

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The record records what is on the screen, with the vocal comments made.
It creates a video file that you can upload on you Youtube personal channel - and you simply declare it as public.
 
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