Today in ASL I ... (Day to day ASL doings)

[Paul M. Weir]

The greater number of turns I put down to an overall lower skill set with earlier players. As time went on new tricks/sleazes were discovered and disseminated and play accelerated. Personally I miss those type of scenario a bit. While there were many breakneck actions in wars, most were a bit more pedestrian, so in a sense another part of the simulation end of ASL has atrophied to favour a quickie game.

As for the excess boards, I think that was a psychological reaction to the very limited set of boards that had to make do for many years. A sort of "If we used as many boards as we can, it'll seem like we have more boards.". Like male size boasting.

As for redoing existing scenarios, why bother? It's not that we don't have thousands of scenarios. I would make an exception in the case of newer research on an action revealing gross historical errors by the original designer, who may not have had access to better information, the information not being available. Even in such a case I would be inclined to do it as a new scenario rather than fiddle with an old one.

 

[von Marwitz]

There are a few older ASL scenarios that include more boards than seems necessary. It may have been a holdover from folks used to designing SL scenarios, many of which not only used more boards than required, but also added many unnecessary game turns -- in some of them half the game would be simply moving units to a position where the fighting could actually start.

There is some merit to what you point out. Though I believe that simply the style of play has changed.

The "extra" turns and maps would allow you just to heap your units somewhere on the board an then let the engagement develop. I.e. you did not need to spend much thought on a setup but your setup developed during the first turns of movement before the engagement itself began in earnest. And some decades of experience on how to play the game has had a chance to become more common knowledge. The average player today may be a bit more adept than the average player 25 years ago. I played a few of the old style scenarios and have to admit that this easy going approach had something going for it.

Of course novadays the situation has changed, with the importance of setups greatly increased (especially in ultra-short scenarios of 4 to 5 turns)y more thought is being put into a setup than was necessary in these old type scenarios: If you come up with an optimized setup for the old style scenarios, this might easily win you a turn or even more which could affect the balance of the whole thing.

von Marwitz

 

[Carln0130]

I returned from NE Nigeria (Boko Haram country) a week ago and sent out a mail to my five ASL gang members in Nova Scotia. Got responses from four. First game set up for this Thursday....and another one end of August during our traditional family trip to Yarmouth, where Dave Olie is always the gracious host (and fun opponent).

Nice to be home !

And of course, going to ASLOK in October.....very excited about that.

Welcome back Peter. Let me know about that KGP CG. Still have it saved.

 

[Jacometti]

Hi Carl,

definitely on my MUST do list for the rest of this year.....however lots of family time and visitors in the coming weeks....so we could possibly pick this up in September?

The good thing about VASL is that you cannot have too few .50 Cal MGs in your countermix.

 

[hongkongwargamer]

Getting SET
for AngkorFEST!

 

[Nineteen Kilo]

I finally after 25+ years sat down and made a Board 12 Marketplace overlay to correct my first edition board which does not have the Marketplace.

For my next trick I'm going to sit down and read my 1992 voter pamphlet - I hear this Ross Perot guy is getting some traction...

 

[hongkongwargamer]

You know you played too much PTO when at work, I looked at my file directory and realized that I named one of my EXCEL files "Sept to Jungle 2017 Fixed Income Report" ..

 

[volgaG68]

I finally after 25+ years sat down and made a Board 12 Marketplace overlay to correct my first edition board which does not have the Marketplace.

Interesting. I had never heard of this particular issue before.

 

[hongkongwargamer]

Interesting. I had never heard of this particular issue before.

.. and a very happy birthday to you sir

 

[volgaG68]

.. and a very happy birthday to you sir

Thanks, Jack! '68 was a good vintage, as you well know! :happy:

 

[hongkongwargamer]

Thanks, Jack! '68 was a good vintage! :happy:

The Best, I heard.

 

[Nineteen Kilo]

Interesting. I had never heard of this particular issue before.

Yes my board 12 pre-dates ASL. If memory serves it was released with GI Anvil of Victory.

The rules for the Marketplace mention the problem; I just committed the problem to memory rather than bothering with the overlay. Yesterday was slow enough to finally do something about the problem.

 

[Jacometti]

Yes my board 12 pre-dates ASL. If memory serves it was released with GI Anvil of Victory.

The rules for the Marketplace mention the problem; I just committed the problem to memory rather than bothering with the overlay. Yesterday was slow enough to finally do something about the problem.

You sound like a man who is finally turning his life around.

Keep it up!

 

[Michael R]

Just finished 3.5 turns of Belgian Blitzkreig as the Belgians. I put 1 squad and 3 HS in the Z6 building. Lost them all, but prevented the early German win. Was it too much? I won’t know until the next session. The German player chose to keep out four squads and the 9-1 for the turn 3 entry, but I believe he did not gain anything for it. They are no further up the map than the rest of the Germans.

 

[GeorgeBates]

Just finished 3.5 turns of Belgian Blitzkreig as the Belgians. I put 1 squad and 3 HS in the Z6 building. Lost them all, but prevented the early German win. Was it too much? I won’t know until the next session. The German player chose to keep out four squads and the 9-1 for the turn 3 entry, but I believe he did not gain anything for it. They are no further up the map than the rest of the Germans.

I put everything but 2.5 squads in the forward setup area, and extracted all but a squad lost in CC to the hedge lines at the rear. There, every single unit and half the reserve melted on often improbable shots yielding perfectly passable MCs. No leapfrogging backwards in anticipation of reinforcement for George that day... Next match!

 

[hongkongwargamer]

We will be posting pics and videos on angkorfest.wordpress.com

 

[HansK]

Finally started punching Hakkaa Paalle! now that I have some more counters trays, I am using GMT countertrays, and a third binder.

The new Yanks will be next.

 

[Philippe D.]

I have been steadily advancing in my organizing of the various vehicle/gun counters. Germans done, Russians done, French done. This requires a bit of cutting and pasting, but I'm happy with the way it looks (I still need to decide whether I want to keep the footnote order, or make up something smarter; and then, label the compartments, possibly).

(For some unknown reasons, the French vehicles in the picture seem to have German colors)

 

[Whiskers1123]

I have been steadily advancing in my organizing of the various vehicle/gun counters. Germans done, Russians done, French done. This requires a bit of cutting and pasting, but I'm happy with the way it looks (I still need to decide whether I want to keep the footnote order, or make up something smarter; and then, label the compartments, possibly).

(For some unknown reasons, the French vehicles in the picture seem to have German colors)
View attachment 2280

How do you get them out of that thing?

 

[Philippe D.]

That's definitely a good question I use a small suction tool