January 2014
It's been an interesting start to the year, with lots of overtime at work impinging on my energy levels to play and arrange games - No Paddo Bearz, minimal Live VASL
Games Played:
- J147 Into the Grinding Mill - VASL - won as KMT vs John Knowles with an upfront defensive variation. Surprised John with that, and did some damage up front.
- DftB107 StossGruppe Schlicter - VASL - won as Norwegians vs Daniel Takai in the first round of the 2014 VASLeague. Played a good game but was helped by decent rolls on high FP DF attacks
- AP59 Taking Heads - PBeM won as Japanese vs Ivan Kent - Banzais in the end game allowed me to focus on grabbing buildings rather than exits...the .50cal was almost too quiet until it was too late.
- BoF 01 The Marco Polo Bridge Incident - VASL - Lost as KMT vs John Knowles but tight and close game - very nice scenario.
- SV08 Through the Mud and Blood - PBeM - Won as Soviets vs Rick Carter thanks to Human Waves and getting enough troops into CC to deny control - tough scenario for the Finns/Swedes, particularly if the Soviets can keep initial casualties low. Read the SSRs though, the Soviets forgot about their Turn 3 FFE and thought the reinforcements arrived on Turn 3.
Malaya Madness Update:
- Air travel booked and paid for
- T-Shirts and Registration paid
- Hotel accommodation sorted
- Scenario choices finalised
- Setups for Rounds 1, 2, 3 and 5 sorted
- Mapboards sorted
- Round 4 continues to be a major problem for me
- West Of Alamein arriving today to pass on to Jackson K
Still to organise:
- ASL travel pack - Still working on what mix of nationalities to take
- Checking duplicate of Yanks countermix is complete enough to pass on to Jackson K
- Learning to use the new smartphone - yes, I sold my soul to the devil.
- Luggage - have to buy some new stuff to fit within Scoot's baggage restrictions - 20KG is not a great deal of room to play with
- WO2014 pack - I may just have my copy of this arrive before I leave.
February Games:
Almost nothing scheduled at the moment - PBeM games are all completed, VASLeague Round 2 doesn't begin until March 1st so I have no idea who or what I will be playing. I think I may call February an ASL bust except for Malaya Madness, but I may get 7-8 games done there anyway.
What's new:
- The biggie: I needed to reduce the ancillary items I am taking to Singapore, and the idea of lugging a slightly dodgy (due for replacement) Android tablet plus Camera plus my old Nokia in my carry on just seemed too much like overkill. So I merged the tablet, the phone and some camera aspects into one and bought this:
 |
| Samsung Note 3 |
Add a decent phone wallet case and that's a lot less needed to be included in carry on. I may just be able to fit everything in the camera bag. A bit of a learning curve to make it work for me, the priority is making sure I have enough music, video and ASL docs on the phone to make the travel as stress free as possible.
Still a fair amount to do, and with all the pre-tourney practice games other attendees have managed I think I'm heading into some ASL experience deficit territory. But really, who cares? I can only play my game as best as I let myself .
