A Great End to a Fine Year

In the end, 2012 worked out pretty darned well.

I ended up playing 36 games in total, one more than I had thought. I may have only won 7 and finished the year off with three losses in 24 hours but I played a hwole bunch of people I hadn't played before and for once played more Live VASL games than PBeM.

I picked up two Grails: King of the Hill and Journal 3, caught up on 95% of the releases from ASLOK XXVI and XXVII, plus finished the scenarios of Journal 7, most of Journal 8 and even started on Journal 10.

All this and taking two mental health breaks totalling 7 months away from gaming.

And as the header pic may show, I'm enjoying the opportunity to not take wargaming too seriously, thanks to Scott Holst for introducing me, via the Cleavinator, to Girls Und Panzer. I foresee a new catchphrase being used when trolling for opponents on Gamesquad: "Anyone up for some Tankery?"

Plus I just love the whole Over the Top concept despite not being a huge Animé fan at heart.

I hope you all had a good 2012 ASLwise and look forward to meeting you across either the virtual mapboard or Face to Face at ASLOK XXVIII where I may even have a few 1/100th scale models of the tanks from Girls Und Panzer to show off and give away.

Pete

The Bell is Yet to Sound

With three days to go before the end of what, in retrospect, has been a very good year for me in terms of ASL, I couldn't resist the opportunity to squeeze in two more games.

For me, it's a huge positive in that I went looking for Live VASL games as opposed to PBeM. And it felt comfortable. The only diownside is that I had more takers than opportunities, so for those great people who offered to play me as a default, my heartfelt thanks. I see some more dice purchases in my future, even if I have been told I do not need any more dice.

So I'm playing Damon Norko in FrF40 Sporck's Eleven and Chuck Hammond in ESG38 Choke Point. With these two probably finished by Sunday evening, along with the near to completion of J111 Prussia In Flames, I should get to 35 completed games for 2012 with a day to spare.

I've  just finished ESG38, and I liked it. Chuck handed me my head in this one, but i take some solace that he would roll 3s and 4s on low FP attacks, but I would compound the damage by rolling 9s, 10s and the useful 12s in response. Don't let my tale of woe or that it uses the same board configuration as FrF30 Biderman's Escape dissuade you from playing it. It is quite different in terms of approach routes and defensive setup.

On my playlist for ASLOK.

Some Tweaking and Updates for the New Year

ASLOK XXVIII

 2013 is the year I return to ASLOK after a three year gap since my initial attendance. It's been a long wait until I could confirm my attendance for 2013, and Pre-registration was my Xmas present to myself. It helps that Kirsty has signed off on attendance for 2015 and 2016 as well, so I'm all set for ASLOK XXX and the subsequent 30th anniversary ASLOK as well.

Now all I have to do is generate a decent and attractive playlist so I can maximise my chance of games. There are a few ASLers I have promised games against, and I am looking forward to those games in particular.

New Blogs

I've had a quick look around and added a couple of Blogs to my blogroll:

Firstly Davide Bendazzi's Wargames Journal . I played Davide in a game of FrF30 Biderman's Escape which despite some appalling rules gaffes on my part (RST Tanks firing MA and CMG while CE, anybody?) was a superbly enjoyable game. Check out Davide's well crafted AAR when you have a moment.

Secondly, Lauchie from Scotland's Snake Eyes blog. Have a visit, let him now he is not alone out there in Blogland and even better, see if you can arrange a game.

New Stuff

I've ordered a few more HASL packs from overseas, surprisingly mostly from Critical (mis)Hit, but I feel pretty confident I will get value out of these, particularly as they were at reasonable prices courtesy of Mike Dean at Fine Games.

2012 Games

 I'm hoping to finish off my game with John Knowles this coming weekend, and hopefully I will get one more VASL Live game completed before the New Year.

ASL Games Played 2012

There must be an easier way to format this...


My totally awesome display of ASL skill.

2012 ASL Games Played

Scenario	Name	Side	Opp	FtF PBeM VASL	Won or Lost	Ladder/ Tourney
WO3	Counterattack at Carentan	US	John Knowles	VASL	Lost	N/A
MP15	Just A Bit Outside	UUSS	Aaron Cleavin	VASL	Lost	N/A
WO4	I Don't Like Retreating	German	John Knowles	VASL	Lost	N/A
MP16	Power Struggle	Soviet	Aaron Cleavin	VASL	Lost	N/A
AP83	Take Two (playtest)	Japanese	Randy    Shurtz	VASL	Lost	Playtest
MP17	Bagging Burcorps	British	Aaron Cleavin	VASL	Lost	N/A
MP18	Marsh Madness	German	Aaron Cleavin	VASL	Lost	N/A
WO5	Astride Hell's Highway	US/British	John Knowles	VASL	Lost	N/A
J113	Maczek's Fire Brigade	German	Ian          Percy	PBEM	Lost	N/A
FrF001	Jarama Proving Ground	Nationalists	John Knowles	VASL	Lost	N/A
MP19	Ski Patrol	Germans	Aaron Cleavin	VASL	Lost	N/A
J103	Lenin's Sons	German	Lee   Thornton	PBEM	Won	N/A
AP84	Thai Hot	Thai	Spencer Armstrong	VASL	Lost	Playtest
FrF30	Biderman's Escape	Soviet	Davide Bendazzi	PBEM	Lost	eASLeague
BFP099	Ivanovskii	German	Mark McGilchrist	F2F	Won	JunoBear
FrF53	Raid Into The Reich	Polish	David  Wilson	F2F	Lost	JunoBear
MP17	Bagging Burcorps	British	Murray McCloskey	F2F	Lost	JunoBear
FrF20	Rostov Redemption	German	Nick    Irvingg	F2F	Won	JunoBear
SP87	Fangs of the Tiger	Soviet	Jeff      Sewall	PBeM	Lost	Ladder
J114	The Marketplace at Wormhoudt	British	John Knowles	VASL	Lost	N/A
BFP030	Melee Near The Coast	Japanese	Jon       Halfin	PBeM	Won	N/A
J100	For A Few Rounds More	German	Sandro Coriasco	PBeM	Lost	VASLeague
J115	Last Push To Mozhaisk	Soviet	John  Knowles	VASL	Lost	N/A
SP174	Krupki Station	German	Burnie      Fox	PBeM	Lost	Ladder
ASL088	Art Nouveau	German	Ivan       Kent	FtF	Lost	Ladder
FrF57	Warsaw in Flames	German	Aaron Cleavin	VASL	Won	N/A
FrF45	Totensonntag	Polish	Eion Corrigan	PBeM	Won	Ladder
ASL012	Confusion  Reigns	US	Mark   Moore	PBeM	Lost	Ladder
J118	Elephants Unleashed	Soviet	John  Knowles	VASL	Lost	N/A
J119	Sovkhoz Haystacks	German	John  Knowles	VASL	Won	Ladder
ASL015	Trapped!	US	Mark Moore	PBeM	Lost	Ladder
J120	Ishun Tank Traps	German	John   Knowles	VASL	Lost	Ladder
J111	Prussia In Flames	Soviet	John   Knowles	VASL	TBD	N/A
FRF40	Sporck's Eleven	German	Damon Norko	VASL	TBD	Ladder
ESG38	Choke Point	German	Chuck Hammond	VASL	TBD	Ladder

2012 Playing Record: 32 games so far

Won: 7  Lost: 25  
Win/loss Percentage: 22/78

Merry ASL Christmas

Woek up this Christmas morning to see two new scenario packs had been released for Pre-order by MMP. Initially I thought it might have been Rising Sun as well.

I've ordered my usual two of each (one set for me, and one set for whoever locally wants one)

An interesting mix of scenarios from the first four packs by Friendly Fire, which given how many from those packs have already been publishedin the Journal, means I could have avoided ordering this. However we are talking about someone who owns about three versions of Dzerzhinski Tractor Works so restraint is not a realistic option. Maybe this way I can get John Knowles to broaden his ASL horizons from the older school Official  ASL scenarios.

I would have liked to see Wunderwaffe, Wunderwagen and Pavlov's Dogs included with a small half countersheet but perhaps the reprint of SV will include them as part of the countersheet.

ROAR Stats are as of December 25, AEST.

BoF1 The Marco Polo Bridge Incident  [FrF3-17] (Japanese vs Chinese, China, 1937)
ROAR: Chinese 35, Japanese 27
BoF2 A Polish Requiem [FrF3-26] (German vs Pole, Poland, 1939)
ROAR: German 32 Polish 26
BoF3 The Abbeville Bridgehead [FrF2-09] (French vs German, France, 1940)
ROAR: French 15, German 26
BoF4 About His Shadowy Sides [FrF3-19] (Russian vs German , Lithuania, 1941)
ROAR: German 47, Soviet 37
BoF5 Adolf’s Amateurs [FrF3-20] (German vs Russian, Finland, 1941)
ROAR: German 25, Soviet 24
BoF6 Cavalry Brigade Model [FrF3-21] (German vs Russian, Russia, 1942)
ROAR: German 10, Soviet 7
BoF7 The Fields Of Black Gold [FrF2-12] (German vs Russian, Russia, 1942)
ROAR: Soviet 43, German 24
BoF8 Sting Of The Italian Hornet [FrF4-29] (Canadian vs Italian, Sicily, 1943)
ROAR: Italian 34, Canadian 26
BoF9 Pursuing Frank [FrF4-31] (Russian vs German Poland, 1944)
ROAR: Soviet 6, German 12
BoF10 To Have And To Hold [FrF1-07] (American vs German, France, 1944)
ROAR: US 17, German 21
BoF11 Second Thoughts [FrF1-08] (German vs American France, 1945)
ROAR: German 23, US 19
BoF12 Forging Spetsnaz [FrF3-24] (Russian vs Japanese, Korea, 1945)
ROAR: Soviet 20, Japanese 19

Looking at the ROAR Stats, I can see why a couple or three will get tweaked, but there's a distinct feeling that these are the second wave rather than assault troops of Friendly Fire. However they are Friendly Fire designs so they generally make for great ASL. Marco Polo, Abbeville and Fields of Black Gold are my favourites from this selection.

Pretty standard fare, although the inclusion of the old GI overlays will be interesting especially as a pre-cursor to the Overlay bundle. The Breskens series are pretty much non-entities as far as scenarios go, encapsulating the worst excesses of SL-GI. There was niore than the obvious board reason they were released as part of the Rogue series by AH.

The Old ASLML

Years ago, on the old ASLML, I wrote some posts regarding fixing a few of the more notorious ASL Dogs. Unfortunately several computers and one lost box of CD Archives later, I cannot find my notes or the original posts. Shame really as I'm really keen on playing those scenarios again.

The scenarios were:

• A8 Agony of Doom
• A21 CounterAttack on the Vistula
• N Soldiers of Destruction

And yes I know there have been official MMP revisions for one or two of them, but the revisions didn't go far enough or missed the actual cause of the imbalance.

Upcoming in 2013

I have been pretty remiss in writing up AARs for this blog, especially given I play so many PBeM games during the year. The usual obstacles of time and aptitude do put a hindrance in the way, but 2012 had some great games for AAR purposes, even if the skill levels were not of the highest.

Funnily enough the scenarios that I enjoyed the most were the shorter, more tourney oriented types. So I'm working on preparing AARs of BFP30 Melee Near the Coast, FrF30 Biderman's Escape and FrF45 Totensonntag. If I can get these three AArs done in January I will be happy as it will then allow me to look at perhaps adding one AAR every two months after that. The trick is playing around with the graphics as I am a complete tard with graphics programs.

Other projects in 2013 include creating a couple of T-shirt designs I hope to have ready forr ASLOK 2013 and potentially a bunch of games on the King of the Hill map, if I find they actually work for me.

2013 New Year's Resolutions and Wishlist part 2

Before I go ahead with this second part of my goals and ambitions for 2013, the previous instalment playing goals require additional comment.

In 2012, I resigned from a position and workplace that was making me physically and mentally ill. After 4 months, I was able to find a better role in a much healthier environment. The codicil to all this was that for the first three months of the year I was trying to get the headspace working properly. I then had a nice smooth 3 months of good ASL; but as I started the new job, ASL took an understandable back burner while I delat with the stresses of the new role and the lingering aftereffects from my previous job.

It was only in the last few weeks that I've been able to face ASL and gaming again, but in that time I've also come to the realisation that to manage 30+ ASL games in that time andwioth oustide factors weighing in is a pretty good achievement by my standards. I doubt I'll ever break the 100 games per year unless I get a position that doesn't require 4/5hours commute/transit per day.

What looking at the numbers from 2012 does do is convince me that even with a conservative playing schedule, I can come damn close to 80+ games per ASLOK year and around 60 in a non ASLOK year. The trick will be in managing my FTF games so I actually get to play longer, more in depth scenarios.

2013 Purchase list

The coming year looks to be a fairly intensive one ASL release wise and the list below will be my core purchases:

• Festung Budapest (MMP) - I passed up buying FB as it was released just after I resigned and money was not available.
• Rising Sun "Code of Ho" (MMP)- the new core modules are just too good to pass up. Code of Ho looks to be another win for MMP in terms of the total package.
• WO2013 pack (MMP) - I really think MMP are on a winner with this release each year, as it starts the year off with a couple or three scenarios that generate discussion and much play along with the new board(s).
• Decision at Elst (MMP) - I don't like the fact it's an HASL for ASLSK, as I feel ASLSK has already gone as far as it should in terms of it's focus and development. Once someone has reached ASLSK 3 level, they shouldn't need trainer wheels beyond that. I'll be buying it, but i won't be playing it SK style.
• Poland in Flames (BFP) -Early War has always been the highlight of my SL/ASL involvement, ever since the release of Crescendo of Doom. Given the quality of previous releases, I doubt I will be disappointed with this one.
• Scenario Pack releases - Hopefully we see the return of Friendly Fire at ASLOK and the usual set of releases from Schwerpunkt, East Side Gamers et al. I may pick up a few CH items on the down-low and discount market, but they are a very low priority.
• Holy Grails & older releases - Just a few now to go, but the acquisition of King of the Hill pretty much convinced me that 2014 (a non ASLOK attendee year) will be the go to year for picking up the remaining Grails.
• Dice and accessories - A Pleva dicetower,  a complete set of Battledice and hopefully some RAACO, Hozan and Box-Box storage should round out 2013 nicely. 

I also intend to pick up a few things at ASLOk that might seem mundane: a couple of poster frames and a portable playing mat similar to the one I saw Mark Pitcavage using at ASLOK 2010 plus some US letter sized page protectors and hopefully a good portable mapcase for the boards.

Final Resolutions

1. Have fun.
2. Don't sweat the hard stuff.
3. Be realistic.
4. Finish the US vs World challenge with a .500 average or better after 6 or more games.
5. Play more FTF and get in some HASL scenarios.
6. Play a few non-ASL boardgames to break up the year.

2012 in Review Part 3: Toys n Stuff

ASL Crack obtained in 2012 

 A stellar year for feeding the ASL addiction product wise. A lot of Gaps filled, primarily the raft of releases from ASLOK 2011.

2012 releases

• Le Franc Tireur 13
• From the Cellar 7
• Dos Equis Pack
• Action Pack 8
• Winter Offensive 2012
• Journal 10

Catch Ups

• Le Franc Tireur 12
• From the Cellar 3
• For King and Country
• ASL Starter Kit 3
• Schwerpunkt 17
• Friendly Fire Pack 7
• East Side Gamers Dezign Pack 7
• Special Ops volume 1
• Special Ops volume 2
• Action Pack 7
• Out of the Bunker

 Holy Grail(s)

• King of the Hill
• Genesis '48

 DTO  and Misc Fix

• Afrika Korps: El Alamein
• Afrika Korps: Bir El Gubi
• El Alamein: Ruweisat Ridge
• Genesis II (at 33% retail)    Do not buy from Gamesquest UK, they are bait and switch merchants.
• Omaha West (at 33% retail)

 So where's Fortress Budapest?

It wasn't a priority and Late War East Front City fighting is a acquired taste, particularly as I do not do CGs. I'll see how my non-ASLOK ASL budget goes for 2013.

2012 in Review Part 2: Scenarios

So today I reached the magic number of 30 scenarios played for the year.  Of those 30 games, I managed to scrape out 7 victories, which looks pretty harsh in the cold light of day. It has been a very good year when you take into account I did not play any ASL from January to March and from July to October.

The Breakdown

There was a bit of a theme to many of my games as I played through the scenarios from several products in series.

6 scenarios were from Friendly Fire

5 scenarios were from SOCALASL's Mèlée Pack III
5 scenarios were from Journal 8
3 scenarios were from the Winter Offensive 2011 and 2012 packs
2 scenarios were from Journal 7
2 scenarios were from an upcoming Action Pack
2 scenarios were from Paratrooper

2 scenarios were from BFP
2 scenarios were from Schwerpunkt
1 scenario was from Doomed Battalions

So 50% of the games I played were published by MMP with the majority of the remainder coming from the usual recommended suspects in Third Party publishing, with a significant sample from a more esoteric publisher. The absence of LFT from this is purely because I am yet to arrange a theme opponent for a playthrough, plus I am tempted to wait until i can arrange some KGS Cholm play. Other publishers just didn't feature because I haven't looked at them this year.

Opponents

An axiom of ASL is that you learn more from playing a wide variety of opponents than you do from playing within a small playing circle. If that's the case, then I have learned a lot this year.

Apart from  John Knowles (8 games) and the Cleavinator (6), I played some 14 different opponents, 11 of whom were first time opponents.

So since ASLOK 2010 , I have pretty much quadrupled the number of people I have played in three short years.

 My 2012 shortlist

FRF 30 Biderman's Escape
SP    87 Fangs of the Tiger
BFP 30 Mèlée near the Coast
ASL 12 Confusion Reigns
MP   17 Bagging Burcorps (the only scenario I played twice in 2012)

So all in all, a much better year for actual play than I've managed in quite some time, and I will probably get two more games in by the end.

next up...what ASL crack did I get this year...and why Festung Budapest did not make the cut.

2012 in review Part 1.

2012 initially looks to have been a less than stellar year in my ASL career, given the intrusions and disruptions of an acrimonious resignation, job hunting, settling into a new jopb and the attendant downsides to all this that saw me switch off ASL for 5 months in total, including a three month period where I didn't even want to look at ASL.

However as I look at my number of games I actually played to a conclusion, and the current games I am involved in, it's beeen a better year than I expected. I'm yet to go through the final numbers but I may actually reach my goal of 30 games for the year, which is frightening.

I played 17 different opponents in 2012, but that should be exceeded easily next year when ASLOK will take care of 20 alone.

I haven't done the final tally or looked at the win-loss percentage as yet, howevre apart from the raw numbers, I feel some of my play backslid while other aspects where great. More than a few games went to the wire but I couldn't close, whereas lately some of the games I have been playing have been seriously influenced in outcome by the dice on both sides.

So not as bad a year as I thought, and still room for a few more games to get finished. Plus I have a few AARs to do for some of the PBeM games I played in 2012, some of which were just full on top ASL experiences.

2013 New Year's Resolutions and Wishlist part 1

Yes it is that time again...the time where I make a whole bunch of promises, predictions and generally put my hopes for 2013 on the line.

2013 Tourneys

Cancon: 

I owe it to myself and to Steve Linton to atttend CanCon - especially given that I am a miniatures gamer at heart and I've been in Aus since 2008 but have yet to attend. This should be achievable as a regular annual pilgrimage as well, now that work situation is settled.

JunoBear

It wouldn't be a Queen's Biirthday in Aus without traipsing to the bearz for 4 games of ASL goodness. 'Nuff Said.

ASLOK XXVIII

I have three more ASLOKs in me before I have to retire from International Jetset ASL. This is the first of those three and the one I have been jonesing for since the return from ASLOK XXV.

ASL Playing

PBeM

Resolution 1: Limit myself to no more than 4 concurrent PBeM ASL games.
Resolution 2: Actively participate and complete all round of the 2013 eASLeague
Resolution 3:Sort out the tri-monitor configuration once and for all.
Resolution 4: get through 3 games every 2 months minimum

Live VASL

Resolution 1: Limit myself to no more than 2 concurrent games
Resolution 2: Be more realistic in my session planning
Resolution 3: No pick up games - I need the prep time

Face to Face ASL

Resolution 1: Attend and play 10 of 12 Bearz meetings
Resolution 2: Play all 3 local to Central Coast ASLers at least twice each
Resolution 3: Play at least 2 ASL games for each day at ASLOK
Resolution 4: 2013 is the year of the DTO

2013 ASL Completed Game Target: 75

Expected number of Face To Face Games: 41

• Cancon: 4, JunoBear: 4, ASLOK: 20, Bearz: 10, other: 3 

Expected number of completed PbeM games: 18 + 2 carrying over from 2012
Expected number of Live VASL games: 20