ASLOK Monday Day 4

Monday 4th October

Finally able to play David Goldman (Mr ASL Open) from Chicago after a couple of failed attempts. I'm pretty wiped by this stage - it's been a long time since I had any real sleep.

David Goldman, Mr ASL Open and a man of exquisite musical taste.

David is one very nice gentleman and an absolute pleasure to play - personally I loved having Nina Simone as background music - it helped take the edge of my slightly manic stage. Poor Dave had to take a couple of work calls so the game was leisurely - this suited me quite nicely as I was starting to run on fumes now with Cherry Coke and more coffee being required.

David and I played Friendly Fire's FrF 51 Bite of the Bassotto where I was the Fallschirmjäger. I set up the Bassotto to make it last until the midgame as I'm shocking at keeping my AFVs alive past turn 2 (as demonstrated against Steve Linton in later games). This is the game where I start getting some good DRs together although Streetfighting a Staghound in the street with an ATMM pretty much contributed the best part of my game.

David felt the scenario may actually be a little tough on the FJs as he misread the VCs and so the game was over in the final NZ game turn. My first win in ASLOK and against the ASL Open TD! It was a memorable game with a memorable opponent. Thanks David.

ASLOK 1 and 3, World Cup 1 and 2.

Other than the game, I ended up thinking seriously about making the Chicago Open in 2012. If possible I can bring Kirsty and we can make a week of it seeing the sights. Having met so many of the Chicago crowd, I'm positive I'll enjoy it even more.

The loneliness of a long distance ASLer - Jim Burris, sans Holmstrom, is able to use his dice cup safe in the knowledge that there are no remains of rum in the glass (for now). I swear Jim hardly moved from that chair all week.

My second game of the day was against another nice guy, Jim Burris from St Louis. Jim's a very thoughtful, deliberate planner who's been out of mainstream ASL play for a year or so. All I can say is based on his ASLOK record this year, he's not that rusty at all. He's also no slouch once he's got his plan sorted. The actual game (AP52 Into Vienna Woods) moved very quickly once he had his set up sorted - it was over at the end of the SS turn 3 as I had caused only one HS casualty and Jim was ensconced on the 2nd level with nothing remaining of mine onboard - I got my head handed to me - it's a scenario I need to look at in more detail for a sov setup (forgetting my second lmg didn't help at all there).

ASLOK  1 and 4, World Cup 1 and 3

At this point I was toast both physically and mentally - I needed to get some sleep so I stayed up for a little bit, had some scotch and crashed after being coma'd on the couch.

Great day for meeting people again.