What ASL Product Have You Bought Recently?

lluis61

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Just received: Dispatches from the Bunker #53; and just downloaded from the ASL Scenario Archive The March Madness 2022 Grumble Jones Pack
 

Carln0130

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Picked up the brand spanky new Chapter H tonight. Got it at the employee discount at the Citadel Game Cellar in Groton CT, where I am doing my retirement gig with the utmost glee. Had a young guy walk in and ask if we had any hex and counter wargames today. I thought I had entered a time warp back to 1977. Great place, loving it and loving my new Chapter H. If any of you guys ever get into the area, please stop by. The Military History section is extensive and well stocked.
 

Barking Monkey

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I picked up geoboards 61, 66 & 72 along with the new Pocket charts from MMP. The boards are quite nice and as soon as they arrived I set up a SASL game and began to play. I love a country board (no villages, no extreme terrain, maybe a lot of grain or some gullies, etc.) so should have bought these awhile ago. 61 has a little stream running across the short dimension which it doesn't seem we get too much of, the few stream boards are more like 66 where it runs the full board length. Seems a little odd as my impression is gullies are as likely to run in one direction as the other.

My only issue with the pocket charts is the spiral binding makes it a bit difficult to follow rows to the end on 2 page charts. This means that, for instance, on the terrain chart if I'm looking for something like kindling # I often have to take a quick look at the notes column for a clue confirming I'm still on the proper row. ("No, an orchard wouldn't have THAT note...) I get that there are reasons they did this - the spiral binding improves the layflat of the product and putting the binding between single pages instead of going with a two page side by side format (to accommodate 2 page charts) saves table space. You have to compromise somewhere I guess.
 

DVexile

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Following the general ASL advice of "if it is in stock, buy it" combined with "HASLs never reprint" I went ahead and ordered Hatten in Flames. It doesn't seem to be in stock anywhere but MMP itself, making me wonder if it is soon to be out of print. I'm actually only just doing SK at the moment, so not really ready for a HASL or CGs, but reviews seem to indicate it is one of the best newbie HASLs available so I figured I'd better pick it up while I still can.

In a similar vein I grabbed maps 42, 43, 45, and 48-51 while they are still in stock as I don't expect to ever purchase the modules they are from.

Oh, and I also picked up a 2mm corner clipper. It begins...
 

DVexile

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Oh boy, my new toys came...

21100
Maps from modules I never expect to purchase

21101
Hatten In Flames which will go on the shelf until ready to play, or if not just sell once out of print

21102
2mm Corner Clipper, modified with a D6 to prevent over straining the part that breaks


21103
Oooooo... Clipped corners...


 

Faded 8-1

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Sharp!

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Yuri0352

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Oh boy, my new toys came...

View attachment 21100
Maps from modules I never expect to purchase

View attachment 21101
Hatten In Flames which will go on the shelf until ready to play, or if not just sell once out of print

View attachment 21102
2mm Corner Clipper, modified with a D6 to prevent over straining the part that breaks


View attachment 21103
Oooooo... Clipped corners...


You were very wise to add the modification to your Corner Clipper. I made the similar adjustment to my clipper several years ago and I have had no problems or malfunctions whatsoever.
 

Gordon

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Interesting. I never made any modifications to my Oregon clipper and have clipped thousands of counters. It makes sense why one might do so, and maybe I'll do it now to make sure it lasts for several thousand more counters.
 

DVexile

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Interesting. I never made any modifications to my Oregon clipper and have clipped thousands of counters. It makes sense why one might do so, and maybe I'll do it now to make sure it lasts for several thousand more counters.
It seems plenty of them more or less last forever with no modification. But a healthy fraction seem to suffer the plastic breaking where it forms a lever compressed against the spring. Here's a link to where the failure and a repair method is described:


The Amazon reviews for the product are full of people reporting it breaking, as well as various BGG threads (and probably some here on GS as well). But of course we tend to hear more from those with a problem than those without a problem so hard to tell just how frequent the issue is. I figure it is an easy and cheap insurance measure that might help!
 

Jwil2020

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The Amazon reviews for the product are full of people reporting it breaking, as well as various BGG threads
Add me to that list. My first one broke at the notorious stress point after only a few hundred counters. I contacted Oregon Laminations expecting there to be some kind of warranty. The owner apologized and informed me that the device is actually made in China and the manufacturer provides no warranty. However, he was nice enough to ship me a new one for free since I had only had it about a month.

AFTER I got the new one, I did a little research (yes, got it backwards) and discovered that my problem was quite common. I've also employed the d6 mod, and so far, no problems. But I do have about 20 full counter sheets waiting for their turn, so we shall see...

The rounder is certainly easy to use and does a great job smoothing out those rough edges. Nevertheless, I wonder who the genius was who decided it should be called a "heavy duty" clipper when all the stress is on a little plastic piece. :oops:
 
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