Today in ASL history

[Actionjick]

July 31st, 1986. The heavy metal band GWAR introduces their counter storage system, Whacko, to the SL community. Whacko was seen as the simplest snd most economical storage system to be developed to that point although counter retrieval was time consuming. GWAR's method, which eliminated cumbersome counter trays, was to dump all the counters into a game box and store them that way. Simple, space saving but labor intensive, Whacko was never fully embraced by an unappreciative gaming community much to the chagrin of the heavy metal band.


July 31st. 1993.
Le Herrison
German = Darryl
French = Fish
Turn 7A, Fish wins

 

[von Marwitz]

July 31st, 1986. The heavy metal band GWAR introduces their counter storage system, Whacko, to the SL community. Whacko was seen as the simplest snd most economical storage system to be developed to that point although counter retrieval was time consuming. GWAR's method, which eliminated cumbersome counter trays, was to dump all the counters into a game box and store them that way. Simple, space saving but labor intensive, Whacko was never fully embraced by an unappreciative gaming community much to the chagrin of the heavy metal band.

Here in Germany, Florian Mentl embraced that storage system until a few years ago. I saw it with mine own eyes in stunned disbelief. He pointed out, that this system is quite effective after the game when sorting the counters back into the storage system...

von Marwitz

 

[Actionjick]

Here in Germany, Florian Mentl embraced that storage system until a few years ago. I saw it with mine own eyes in stunned disbelief. He pointed out, that this system is quite effective after the game when sorting the counters back into the storage system...

von Marwitz

Lol. Fish met GWAR in New York City and was amazed that was how they stored their counters. Whatever works.

 

[Actionjick]

August 1st, 1900. Sigmund Freud finishes his manuscript " On the Interpretation of Games " which explores the relationship between games and gamers and the Id, Ego and Superego.It isn't known why Freud never published this work but there is an entirely unfounded rumor that Freud had discovered the key to ultimate game appeal and hoping to become rich was developing his own game based on his theory.

This has never been substantiated but conspiracy theorists maintain that a copy of the manuscript was obtained by an American G.I. on occupation duty in Germany. The manuscript, according to this theory, made it's way to the U.S. where it had a tremendous impact on game development. Supposedly Charles Roberts came across it and led directly to the development of the first modern wargame, Tactics.


August 1st 1993
Three playings of Tavrontis Bridge. Darryl won the first as the British. Fish won the next two, playing each nationality.

The Bridge to Nowhere.
Darryl = Italians
Fish/= Russians
5A Fish wins
We must have been on a bridge kick.

 

[Actionjick]

August 4th, 1957. Twelve year old John Hill receives the copy of Tactics he ordered from Charles S. Roberts. While the extent to which John was influenced by this first modern wargame is unknown the impact he made on gaming is undisputed.

August 4th, 1989
Toujour L' Audace
Axis = Mark Nixon
Allies = Darryl
Started 1950 hours
Finished 2250 hours
Turn 7A
Mark wins

 

[Actionjick]

August 6th, 1983. On this day the very first online Squad Leader game was attempted. Engineers using ARPANET tried to play The Guards Counterattack online. Unfortunately after rolling four twelves in a row the Improbability Generator fried out shutting the entire system down. Though this first excursion into online SL was not a success it eventually led to today's VASL, I'm sure those engineers would be proud. Unfortunately their names are lost to history, as so many are who have contributed so much without recognition.


August 6th, 1989
Backs to the Sea
Axis = Fish
Allies = Darryl
Started 2030 hours
Ended 2330 hours
Turn 4A Fish wins

 

[Actionjick]

August 12th, 1070 A.D. On this date Strahl Hiisi releases Cohorts and Centurions, the first knockoff of the highly successful wargame Advanced Cohort Leader. Having attended several of Bill the C's ACLOk events Strahl decided the market was ripe for additional ACL modules so he developed Cohorts and Centurions. C&C is believed by some wargame historians to be the first true TPP.

August 12th, 1989
First to Strike
Axis = Fish, Steve Pleva
Allies = Darryl
Turn 7A
Fish and Steve win

August 12th, 1989
Taking of Takrouna
Axis = Fish
Allies = Darryl
Begun 1132 hours
Ended 1534 hours
Turn 6B
Fish wins

August 12th, 1990
The Commisar's House
Axis = Fish, gives balance
Allies = Darryl
Begun 0815 hours
Ended 1948 hours
Turn 9A
Fish wins

August 12th, 1990
The Guards Counterattack
Axis = Fish, balance
Allies = Darryl
Begun 2056 hours
Ended 0030 hours
Turn 5B
Fish wins

 

[Actionjick]

August 17th, 1977. Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler receives his special order of 25 copies of the just released Squad Leader. Geezer, one of Europe's biggest game collectors, had commissioned Avalon Hill to produce 25 copies of the game with a purple box. These were to be given as presents along with gold vinyl copies of Master of Reality. Geezer was thrilled with his copies but AH was not so thrilled.

While making a nice profit off of the commission a typo at the printer's had resulted in 2500 copies being produced before the error was discovered. Origins was only days away and AH had no choice but to release the remaining 2475 purple box copies there.


August 17th, 1990
Crux at Calais
Axis = Fish
Allies = Darryl ( balance )
Begun 1630 hours
Ended 2246 hours
Turn 6B
Fish wins


August 17th/18th, 1990
St. Goar Assault
Axis = Fish ( balance )
Allies = Darryl
Begun 2359 hours
Ended 1025 hours
Turn 8A
Fish wins

 

[von Marwitz]

August 17th, 1977. Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler receives his special order of 25 copies of the just released Squad Leader. Geezer, one of Europe's biggest game collectors, had commissioned Avalon Hill to produce 25 copies of the game with a purple box. These were to be given as presents along with gold vinyl copies of Master of Reality. Geezer was thrilled with his copies but AH was not so thrilled.

While making a nice profit off of the commission a typo at the printer's had resulted in 2500 copies being produced before the error was discovered. Origins was only days away and AH had no choice but to release the remaining 2475 purple box copies there.

Fun story! And a mystery solved!

I have seen pictures of the purple box but only once or twice and never saw one in the real world. However, it was somewhat of a mystery, where these purple SL boxes came from. Until reading your post, I thought they were the very very first SL boxes printed in a small number and went quickly out of stock - and while making the next printrun, they changed the disturbing color.

It appears I have not been that far off the mark with what I imagined.

von Marwitz

 

[Actionjick]

Fun story! And a mystery solved!

I have seen pictures of the purple box but only once or twice and never saw one in the real world. However, it was somewhat of a mystery, where these purple SL boxes came from. Until reading your post, I thought they were the very very first SL boxes printed in a small number and went quickly out of stock - and while making the next printrun, they changed the disturbing color.

It appears I have not been that far off the mark with what I imagined.

von Marwitz

Fish had a purple SL box. Not sure what happened to it after he passed. His brother Mike asked me to go through his ASL stuff and take what I wanted. I only wanted his rules, ASLOk paperwork and his dice and dice container. Mac had picked up the small wooden container while he was in India and gave it to Fish. I sent the container and Fish's favorite dice to Mac. They were buddies long before I met Fish and it seemed to me Mac should have them.

Glad to have cleared up the mystery for you??????. Captain Bacchus is a great researcher although a bit prone to revisionist history!!!!

 

[Actionjick]

August 18th, 1859. On this date Charles Darwin published his treatise On the Origin of Gamers By Means of Random Selection. Darwin had become an avid gamer in 1832 while sailing on HMS Beagle commanded by Captain Robert FitzRoy. FitzRoy introduced Darwin to Advanced Cohort Leader and the TPP Cohorts and Centurions. FitzRoy was a fanatical gamer and was distantly related to Strahl Hiisi, the producer of C&C. Darwin quickly embraced and mastered the game.


After the five year voyage Darwin spent several years researching and refining his theory of the emergence of modern gamers. Freud obtained a copy of the treatise and it supposedly greatly influenced his own treatise On the Interpretation of Games. Darwin's theory was not well received and seen as heretical by many of his contemporaries who only played backgammon.


August 18th, 1990.
Under the Noel Trees
Axis = Darryl
Allies = Fish ( balance )
Begun 1130 hours
Ended 1336 hours
Turn 3A
Fish wins

 

[Actionjick]

Fish had a purple SL box. Not sure what happened to it after he passed. His brother Mike asked me to go through his ASL stuff and take what I wanted. I only wanted his rules, ASLOk paperwork and his dice and dice container. Mac had picked up the small wooden container while he was in India and gave it to Fish. I sent the container and Fish's favorite dice to Mac. They were buddies long before I met Fish and it seemed to me Mac should have them.

Glad to have cleared up the mystery for you??????. Captain Bacchus is a great researcher although a bit prone to revisionist history!!!!

I don't regret not grabbing the purple SL box but I do regret not getting the Sgt. Kalmer German 8-1 SL counter. Kal had been part of Mac's SL playtest group and had earned a counter for his efforts. We used Kal whenever possible, even into ASL, until the printing was entirely worn off. Sorry Kal. I'll dig out Fish's dice tower and hopefully he is on it. We stuck the counters of people we knew on our Chute Five dice towers.

 

[von Marwitz]

After the five year voyage Darwin spent several years researching and refining his theory of the emergence of modern gamers. Freud obtained a copy of the treatise and it supposedly greatly influenced his own treatise On the Interpretation of Games. Darwin's theory was not well received and seen as heretical by many of his contemporaries who only played backgammon.

Did he also foresee the evolution of the IIFT with CTC?

Cheers,
von Marwitz

 

[Actionjick]

Did he also foresee the evolution of the IIFT with CTC?

Cheers,
von Marwitz

Captain Bacchus has been unable to confirm this rumour. Interestingly there are pages missing from Darwin's log of the Beagle voyage. In the log before the missing pages Darwin noted that Fitzroy had been lamenting the wasted attack power of one his cohorts in their current game of ACL. Food for thought.

 

[Actionjick]

Did he also foresee the evolution of the IIFT with CTC?

Cheers,
von Marwitz

Tried to engage Captain Bacchus on this topic but he had naval issues on his mind. The Eisenhower made port after 206 days at sea without a port call. Seeing that brought up a sore topic for the Captain. What bothers him is that ships are named after soldiers but as far as he knows Army bases aren't named after sailors. That led to sailors wearing camo at sea and I knew the night was a washout at that point.

 

[kempenfelter]

Did he also foresee the evolution of the IIFT with CTC?

You mean the de-evolution of the righteous IFT, don't you? (Chuckle) Are we not men?

 

[Actionjick]

You mean the de-evolution of the righteous IFT, don't you? (Chuckle) Are we not men?

I say it's all just wind in sails.

They played gigs about 3 blocks from my house.

 

[Actionjick]

September 10th, 1952. Bill " Fish " Conner is born. Legend has it he came out of the womb clutching a pair of dice in one hand and a harmonica in the other. I was never able to confirm this.

 

[Yuri0352]

?

 

[Paul John]

Did he also foresee the evolution of the IIFT with CTC?

This is commonly considered an example of disadvantageous mutation in scholarly circles.