J8 articles?

[Kevin Kenneally]

All,

I am wondering which article, in YOUR opinion, is the best article for J8?

I like the Dave Olie article.

 

[klasmalmstrom]

All,

I am wondering which article, in YOUR opinion, is the best article for J8?

I like the Dave Olie article.

Agree, it is good, but I did find one small error/omission in it though:

On page 53 under Commissars it says:
"..In any scenario set prior to October 1942 a Russian player may replace..."
But the rule (A25.22) says: "...during or prior to 10/42..."

 

[sswann]

The article placing ALL of the various set up rules, restrictions and conditions in one easy to find article is mine. Those pages should become a part of the rule book!

 

[Candice]

I liked the Maczek Fire Brigate setup article with the two contrasting defensive setups. It was great to see two good players make very different setups. Rules articles are nice and all, but I prefer gameplay articles. I hope there's a series replay in J9. I learned a lot from the previous ones by getting the pieces out and moving along with the article.

The overrun article was terrible, except for the examples at the end. Too dense, too confusing, and too much of a reiteration of the ASLRB. Again, don't tell me the rules; tell me how to use them in the game!

Still, this was one of the best Journals. Definitely the best since J3.

 

[Kevin Kenneally]

Agree, it is good, but I did find one small error/omission in it though:

On page 53 under Commissars it says:
"..In any scenario set prior to October 1942 a Russian player may replace..."
But the rule (A25.22) says: "...during or prior to 10/42..."

The article I believe was meant to help folks with certain areas.

But the RULE BOOK is the definitive answer to the rules question.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

The article placing ALL of the various set up rules, restrictions and conditions in one easy to find article is mine. Those pages should become a part of the rule book!

The article didn't profess to do that, though.

I'm going to try to cover every rule related to setup but...I'm bound to overlook any number of things

So these are not ALL because the author himself admitted he was not trying to be comprehensive - just the major areas of difficulty that he was aware of.

I think the editor deserves some kudos for illustrating the article nicely; it was well laid-out. I suppose if space was not an issue, they could have had illustrations for all the examples given.

I would not put this into the rulebook, which is far too big as it is. Besides, knowledge of the rulebook is arguably part of the game. However, a point-form version might make an interesting "cheat-sheet".

 

[klasmalmstrom]

The article I believe was meant to help folks with certain areas.

But the RULE BOOK is the definitive answer to the rules question.

I know, I just thought that since it is a kind of "rules"-article in an official ASL publication I would mention the slight difference between the article and the rulebook, that is all.

 

[James Taylor]

I liked the Maczek Fire Brigate setup article with the two contrasting defensive setups. It was great to see two good players make very different setups. Rules articles are nice and all, but I prefer gameplay articles. I hope there's a series replay in J9. I learned a lot from the previous ones by getting the pieces out and moving along with the article.

The overrun article was terrible, except for the examples at the end. Too dense, too confusing, and too much of a reiteration of the ASLRB. Again, don't tell me the rules; tell me how to use them in the game!

Still, this was one of the best Journals. Definitely the best since J3.

I highly recommend you re-read Carl's overrun article again. I'll grant your point on its density, but it is ABSOLUTELY an article about tactics. In fact, I would not be suprised if both Bret and JR, (two very good players) read the article and at somepoint went, "Hmmm... I did not know that... have to add that to MY game."

In terms of the articles J8 may end up being the best ASL publication EVER.

JT

 

[Candice]

I highly recommend you re-read Carl's overrun article again. I'll grant your point on its density, but it is ABSOLUTELY an article about tactics. In fact, I would not be suprised if both Bret and JR, (two very good players) read the article and at somepoint went, "Hmmm... I did not know that... have to add that to MY game."

In terms of the articles J8 may end up being the best ASL publication EVER.

JT

Sure, there are some good tactics in there. But most of it was what felt like a tedious rehash of the OVR Flowchart. The last part of the article with examples was top-notch. It was just the huge walls of text earlier that were hard-slogging. If there was one really good tactical tip in the article it was to consider waiting to be overrun rather than take a forlorn chance at killing the AFV.

It may be that I'm still too newbish to fully grasp the subtleties of the overrun. In which case, the article might have flown right over my head. I'm still in the ASL phase where I want to reduce tedium, minimise strange occurrances, and read articles with gameplay content rather than rules reiteration.

 

[Sparafucil3]

In terms of the articles J8 may end up being the best ASL publication EVER.

It was good, but not Medrow's first article on Infantry good. -- jim

 

[Tuomo]

In terms of the articles J8 may end up being the best ASL publication EVER.

I think I agree. Maybe none of them are Top 10 EVAR, but together I think they're a more solid bunch than anything I can recall published in one zine.

The article that jumped out at me more than anything else was Pitman's "Why You Suck". OK, he was a good deal kinder than that, but frankly that's the kind of tone I was wishing he would take. Too many players, IMO, are on a slow-track learning curve and just don't seem to make much progress over time. If they're happy and enjoying the game, great, but if they want to get better, sometimes I think a spare-the-courtesy approach might help them break out of whatever mental block is holding them back. Then they could still enjoy the game but also sample the sweet sweet taste of Victory every now and then too.

At any rate. Pitman's article didn't go nearly that far (but for someone who's often connected with internet flame wars, one would think he'd be just the guy to go there and get away with it), but it did give a lot of nicely-structured bite-sized nuggets of Why Newbies Suck. "This is what experienced players do. This is what YOU do." I wish MMP had included a companion piece similar to the Maczek Fire Brigade article, but showing how an experienced player's thought process differs from a newbie's. Ah well; that article has yet to be written.

Overall, though, in terms of value to those who really need help, I thought Mark's article was unique.

 

[aiabx]

Speaking as a minor-league (at best) player, I really got a lot out of both "Why you suck" and "You've been setting up wrong your whole life". I'm not sure which has proved the most useful, but I'm not going to decide on a best article until I've finished Carl's overrun textbook.

 

[TopT]

I highly recommend you re-read Carl's overrun article again. I'll grant your point on its density, but it is ABSOLUTELY an article about tactics. In fact, I would not be suprised if both Bret and JR, (two very good players) read the article and at somepoint went, "Hmmm... I did not know that... have to add that to MY game."

In terms of the articles J8 may end up being the best ASL publication EVER.

JT

I totally agree with your last statement. I keep re-reading the articles. There are so many and all are well written. A good job all around and well worth the money

 

[Dave Olie]

Thanks all for the kind comments about "A Place For Your Stuff". I'd like to give a hat tip to Tate on this one. Several years ago in a thread on the ASLML, he stated something to the effect that "all the really useful ASL articles have already been written". So I set out to prove him wrong, and in the view of some of you I guess I succeeded.

Klas, you're absolutely right to pick up on that. I don't know how that error slipped in there; I know the rule perfectly well. All I can say is that it slipped past me, the editor, and at least one proofreader.

I also agree that my article is just a small part of a great overall package, one of the best Journals/Annuals ever.

 

[shirlfactor]

I got allot out of all the articles. Fortunately I was able to read them before the noreaster and put some of it into effect. I took a whirlwind and overran 3 broken British siting on 2 road hexes in a dispatches scenario " Lets Dance" I didn't quite understand overruns to pull something like that off before I read Carl's article. In that same scenario I remembered from Mark's article to trade in some of my ?'s into 5/8 ? so that I could hide my whirlwind and tiger tank. David's article is also good because it should be read before you start any scenario IMO that way you don't forget something that you could do, I'm sure that I forget things here and there its nice to have a checklist to look at before I begin playing a scenario. I think all 3 articles are top notch.

 

[Chas Argent]

All I can say is that it slipped past me, the editor, and at least one proofreader.

Actually it slipped past about 20 proofreaders.

I also agree that my article is just a small part of a great overall package, one of the best Journals/Annuals ever.

Thanks for the good feedback David.

 

[Spencer Armstrong]

Thanks all for the kind comments about "A Place For Your Stuff". I'd like to give a hat tip to Tate on this one. Several years ago in a thread on the ASLML, he stated something to the effect that "all the really useful ASL articles have already been written". So I set out to prove him wrong, and in the view of some of you I guess I succeeded.

Klas, you're absolutely right to pick up on that. I don't know how that error slipped in there; I know the rule perfectly well. All I can say is that it slipped past me, the editor, and at least one proofreader.

I also agree that my article is just a small part of a great overall package, one of the best Journals/Annuals ever.

Dave, Chas & All:

Just got mine y'day. J8 is a great package and an absolute steal at the price. Dave's article is particularly excellent, extremely handy. I'm lined right up with Steve S's comments above on this one. I plan to put a copy in my rulebook for quick reference because it's so nicely organized.

:clap::clap::clap:

S

 

[Martin Mayers]

Brilliant Journal
I vote the setup scenario also.
With a close second the newbie scenario.....which reminded me that after 20 years playing this darned game I'm still a newbie hehehe

 

[mglouie]

J8 is very good. I just wish they would look at some other mags to get better lay-out and overall design down better. Take a design course, something, the whole thing isn't very appealing to look at (the cover is great though). Best article for me was the set-up article, but I first saw that type of article in Le Franc Tiuer. Worst read was the OVR article, but to the authors credit it may be the most difficult subject in ASL to discuss. They should have just re-printed the old OVR article from Backblast by JR VanMechelen, that is absolutely the best on the subject.

 

[CraigBenn]

Well different strokes n'all - I thought Carl Nogueira's overrun article was the best in the journal. In fact all the articles were pretty good....but one of the best journals/annuals ever??? C'mon surely not - none of the scenarios jumped off the page and said PLAY ME!, they all looked like fairly bog-standard 'by the numbers' efforts to me.

I haven't read all the journals or annuals by any means, but Journal 3 with the Kursk mini-CG and scenarios like the Cactus farm, Canicatti, In the Bag e.t.c would win the trophy for me. At least it wasn't all east front like Journal 7. Still you can't always tell just by looking at the cards I suppose.