ASLOK XXIX October 1-12 Loot

 The final list of loot. I didn't think I would have much difficulty getting it back weight-wise, but space was at a premium. I need to work on my luggage system still. I have the weight allowance but not the room.

• 3 x Dice towers from Jack Daniels
• Schwerpunkt 20 x 3 (Aaron C, Jackson Kw)
• Friendly Fire 9 x 4 (Aaron C, Jackson Kw, Ivan K)
• Rally Point 9 x 2 (Jackson Kw)
• ESG Dezign Pak 10 
• Panzerknacker, Molotov, Dust Devils, Sniper, and ROF dice
• East vs West 12mm 5 dice set (Ivan K)
• Tweezers x 2
• 300 x US sized page protectors
• Overlay Binder and Inserts
• Travel Board Binder
• 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm deluxe counter cutters
• Festung Budapest, Decision at Elst, Rising Sun
• ASLOK XXIX Tees x 5 (Aaron C, Jackson Kw)
• ASL Open Tees x 2 (Jackson Kw)
• Plano 3601 low-profiles x 5
• Longstreet: A Biography by Jeffrey Werts
• Guadalcanal by Richard Franks
• Gettysburg: the Second Day by Harry Pfanz
• AVRES in Normandy by Richard C Anderson Jr 
• Pleva HIP Trays x 3
• Ops Spec Ed vol 4 and Vol 5
• Board 68 x 3  (Aaron C, Vlad S) 
• Miscellaneous Critical Hit modules (mainly desert and winter)

I gave away one of the Pleva trays to an ASLer who has been doing it tough, and one set of tweezers was passed on to another ASLer.

Sadly I managed to lose a pair of Battleschool dice (green and white 14mm plain) as well as the little counter picker, but they are easily replaced.

November 2013 Paddo Bearz meeting

Trooped down to Sydney for the monthly Paddo Bearz meeting today, and yes I played some ASL face to face.

Jeremy Dibbens and I played a game of BB5/G35/ASL105 Going To Church with Jeremy taking the attacking Canadians and myself playing the point defence SS. I almost made the cardinal mistake of reading the VCs and leaving myself vulnerable to a loss after a single Prep Fire attack, but realised just in time.

Jeremy has good taste in ASL, he picked up  a full Raaco set, an LFT dice tower and Battleschool dice so his ASL gear is all shiny new and freshly punched. However he has not clipped the counters, although as he has been playing Ivan recently, he now knows the True Path of ASL Counter Righteousness.

Here's a picture of my still flawed final setup and tactical plan. The 238 stacked with the hero and 8-0 should have been on Level 2 in E4.

Pre-Game Setup and Plan.

Jeremy is still relatively new to ASL (I felt rather bad handling his shiny new counters - it just felt wrong) so he was up against it a little bit in that I had played this scenario before as both Germans and Canadians, plus I had an idea on how to prepare for the end game with blocking half-squads on stairwell locations.

Despite generating a second hero from the 238 in the belltower, Jeremy was still in a very strong position by turn 3. I feel he wasted time in crossing to the stone wall, particularly as he had managed to get Smoke into G3 on Turn 1 and I was hurriedly redeploying to get at least a 658 and 348 back to the church.

Sadly for Jeremy, he bum-rushed his 9-2 plus 458 into OG adjacent to a waiting 348, 6 down 2: DR: 1,2 = Final DR of 1:  2KIA. The good thing is that my end game was pretty well played, and Hjeremy took away some insights I hope, particularly with the Cleavinator kibitzing with our total approval.

I think I am at the point where I am more comfortable "teaching" ASL to someone who is not a complete novice, because both of us get to learn things. Next up for Jeremy, a delivery of US counters (my duplicate set of Yanks) and Chapter H, plus a few Schwerpunkt scenarios that will help him (and me) with understanding Shermans and US infantry capabilities - there is no way I would ever expect someone to grasp US infantry and Shermans from scenarios such as Kurhaus Clash or Among the (skulking) Ruins.

I also picked up my copy of Friendly Fire 8, so expect a few overviews of the scenarios to come...plus hopefully some PBeM/Live VASL updates - a lot of games on the boil or just starting to simmer now.

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.

ASLOK Friday October 1

Friday October 1

Up at 6am to catch the 9am train to Sydney for the 2:35 pm flight to San Francisco. I was bringing my PTO boards, a folder of Action Pack scenarios and the AP6 boards, the rulebook, some dice, system counters and the Japanese, Chinese and Soviets along with some Red Barricades mapsheets.

Met up with Aaron Cleavin, Andy Rogers, Neil Andrews and David Longworth at Sydney. bought a couple of litres of single malt 12yo scotch at Duty Free only to have to get Aaron C to take one bottle with him due to duty free restrictions.

The flight to SF was pretty dire - I used to really like the window seat but I was hemmed in badly by two heffalumps and suffered mild clautrophobia for the whole flight. Not a great start as I managed to not sleep at all which is unknown for me while travelling.

Clearing Customs at SFO was pretty straightforward but getting through to domestic was a nightmare as the security alert had gone to Orange and the queues were horrific - ended up missing my flight to Denver and had to get placed on a flight to Chicago with a later arrival at Cleveland around 11:30pm.

Caught up with the Cleavinator at Chicago which was good. The Cleavinator had unfortunately dropped the ball and forgotten to transfer the Glenfiddich to his checked luggage before transiting through domestic which meant TSA got the benefit of a litre of scotch gratis. The day was only getting better.

Arrived Cleveland at around 11:25 and managed to get to the hotel by around 11;45 after much fluffing around on my part. Credit Cards are blocked by bank at home despite specific instructions to the contrary - some heads will roll. Pay hotel bill with spending cash

Aaron had me playing a scenario by 11:55pm so we could say we were playing on the Friday - as I was wired as by now, finishing at 4:30am was no hardship. Result as expected: a win to Cleavin.