Exclusive Play of SASL?

[pcfrederick]

Hi - I was just curious how many out there play SASL exclusively when they want to play ASL, or is it more of a "I do it when no one wants to play with me, but I'd rather play a real opponent"? I'm wondering how many actually would rather play SASL, or some version of it (homemade AI or "Bot" opponent) instead of a "real" opponent? I know there are some GSASL groups out there, which sound interesting to me, and once I learn the game itself, I may join one of those.

Thanks

 

[TopT]

Hi - I was just curious how many out there play SASL exclusively when they want to play ASL, or is it more of a "I do it when no one wants to play with me, but I'd rather play a real opponent"? I'm wondering how many actually would rather play SASL, or some version of it (homemade AI or "Bot" opponent) instead of a "real" opponent? I know there are some GSASL groups out there, which sound interesting to me, and once I learn the game itself, I may join one of those.

Thanks

Not being snarky but you are not going to learn "the game" playing yourself. The mistakes you make will continue as you will not know any different. Live VASL is easy and people will play you at will. JMO.

I play SASL also.

 

[pcfrederick]

Not being snarky but you are not going to learn "the game" playing yourself. The mistakes you make will continue as you will not know any different. Live VASL is easy and people will play you at will. JMO.

I play SASL also.

Jim - I understand. I want to learn the game first and will learn it through playing with others either F2F or VASL. I was just curious if SASL was something that was something people choose to do becuase they enjoy the SASL game, or if it is more of a "band-aid". I know it is a different game than ASL, but I enjoy Fog of War and uncertainty of commands not being followed etc. IMO, it makes things more "real" rather than having an omniscient perspective of everything.

 

[Paullus]

I Exclusively play SASL because I enjoy it. But I also play VotG SASL (Tom Morins not yet released SASL rules) together with a friend on the same side SASL CG (VotG CG2). We have a great time dividing the Germans into two Kampfgruppen.

 

[witchbottles]

There are some expansions in this arena in the works, besides Tom Morin's pending SASL rules for VotG - you have the Otto Carius CG out there free of charge, the RB SASL additions added quite some years ago, and I am aware of at least one set of rules for another popular HASL CG in play testing and proofing at this time.

So SASL does receive expanding support, both official and TPP.

SASL is not in my view a "band aid" it is a horse of a different color. Two major differences change the flow and feel of any game played via SASL:

1. The enemy, although at times predictable in their general activations - function so completely without form, flow, or concern for a " master strategy" that another player would guide them towards if paying them - that they become at times surprisingly strong and quite difficult to manage in a game. I have lost more than once to not keeping a weather eye on where those activated units are capable of ending up with the complete randomization of movement on their part. In fact, this tends to help one being to " think ahead" - and that is a trait well learned for regular ASL.

2. Command and Control simply do not exist in regular ASL. it is singular effect in SASL only, and rather well - modeled overall IMO. I am in the camp that some form of crossover to regular ASL would not be a bad thing, but there are many who strongly disagree with adding C and C to regular ASL.

To me, and my decidedly narrow perch, SASL compared to ASL is like Go compared to Chess. Both are quite easy to learn ,both are quite difficult to master, both are balanced and yet both show signs of imbalance inherent when players of different experience levels play. But one cannot simply state they will do well in SASL play because they are a top ranked ASL player, just as a top ranked Chess master has proven to be rather handily defeated in a Go game. General principles of both games are the same. ( i.e. the A-D rules structure). General principles in Chess and Go are the same, ( i.e. forward thinking maneuver to win a position from a balanced start point).

The similarities between SASL and ASL end there.

my $.00017 thoughts - inflation strikes hard, and America's currency ain't worth what it used to be ( )

KRL, Jon H

 

[Augie]

There was a period of a few years back in the late 90s/early 00s where I did SASL exclusively, due to work, family, etc. I enjoyed SASL for what it was - a different add on system to ASL geared to the lone wolf. Now that my daughter is in college, my career has "matured", and I connected with the local ASL community, I play SASL far less now - but I still enjoy its unique flavor from time to time, pretty much as described by witchbottles.

In addition, I like the campaign game (albeit fictional) as my SASL German company plays with the hands it is dealt throughout the war --- so far it has fought in Poland, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, Greece, Russia (and is on the verge of experiencing General Winter). The campaign game adds the additional flavor of making short term versus long term play decisions, along with getting emotionally invested in your cardboard pieces who have improved their mettle in battle.

 

[pcfrederick]

Great feedback guys. Please keep them coming. I enjoy the insight. I think that I too would enjoy the CGs, and for that reason made sure I got RB and VotG. Are there other modules out there with SASL CGs?

 

[witchbottles]

Great feedback guys. Please keep them coming. I enjoy the insight. I think that I too would enjoy the CGs, and for that reason made sure I got RB and VotG. Are there other modules out there with SASL CGs?

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/SASL 2.0 €  ’¶ Tiger Ace - Otto Carius Campaign.pdf

The Otto Carius Cg from designer Andrew Kerekes in Australia

 

[peterk1]

Hi - I was just curious how many out there play SASL exclusively when they want to play ASL, or is it more of a "I do it when no one wants to play with me, but I'd rather play a real opponent"? I'm wondering how many actually would rather play SASL, or some version of it (homemade AI or "Bot" opponent) instead of a "real" opponent? I know there are some GSASL groups out there, which sound interesting to me, and once I learn the game itself, I may join one of those.

Thanks

It's quite difficult to learn the game by playing SASL, mainly because it dumps a ton of new rules that you need to know really, really well for the system to work, on top of the normal rules of the game. SASL also has the bad habit of throwing Guns and Vehicles at you way before you are ready, so you will have to kludge and cancel those until you are ready.

That said, once you are good at the basic ASL rules, SASL offers you a wonderful opportunity to practice at a slow pace so you can absorb a lot of info in a short period of time. It's probably better than FtF for mastery of the rules.

That said, I was totally lost trying to play SASL until TopT posted some VASL logs on here a long, long time ago. Thanks man! I had a lot of enjoyment over the years because of those logs letting me break through the wall.

 

[indy_go_blue60]

I play it exclusively; as far as I know there aren't any other players in my area and, having played VASL online once, I didn't enjoy it. With SASL I can take my own sweet time, maybe a turn today, 2 turns tomorrow, then take a week off for other things. I do find situations I don't understand, but usually a careful reading of the RB fixes the problem. Most of the SASL rules can be learned in a couple of games, except for the rare situations (like air support which I've seen once in maybe 40-50 games.)

You do get a lot of the SOS with activations, but what's fun is when you get those that change the entire nature of the game, like an elite squad with a 9-1 leader and a HMG in a 2cd level location with a LOS over most of the board.