I love the smell of new counters in the morning. It smells like...victory!

I’ve been a bit forgetful in terms of ASL lately. All my focus has been spent on plotting and planning my attendance at ASLOk. This would be okay if I was actually playing ASL at the Bearz or via VASL, but I’ve been too tired after work to play, even when I don’t fall asleep on the train and miss my stop. It’s not that I haven’t been thinking about ASL, just actually playing the game has been an issue. In the interim,  a fair bit of ASL stuff has arrived on my doorstep in the last 4 weeks, notably so with Doomed Battalions which contained even more ASL goodness than I had thought possible. LIke Valor of the Guards, it’s an impressive amount for the money.

Midway through last week, I had another MMP box delivered. This was my much-anticipated February order of the limited printing Winter Offensive 2010 ASL for ALS bonus pack. Really it wasn’t so much the bonus pack, but the additional items I ordered to defray the postage charges that was the source of my joy. Two Starter Kits (1 and 2), Starter Kit Bonus Pack (Bocage), the one Action Pack I didn’t have (Few Returned) and a scenario pack (Turning the Tide). In itself that’s a fairly sizable gap that has been filled in my ASL collection.

BoardGameGeek ASL Starter Kit #1

I’d been fairly non-committal about the new SK manufacturing style of the boards, and a little less than enthused about the actual SK boards themselves. However I’m a huge convert now (having just compared the portability of my SK style boards directly with a similar number of the old mounted boards. Being able to fit so many boards within a single SK style box is certainly a bonus. I just have a lot of counter trimming and organising to do and definitely it’s time for RAACO!

BoardGameGeek ASL Starter Kit #2

The Raaco order will have to wait until after ASLOk, due to budget considerations. Sadly it’s the ideal time to be purchasing from UK & Europe with the strength of the Australian dollar vis à vis the Euro and Sterling.Otherwise I’d be grabbing a double sized Raaco setup for my ASL now. I shall make do with a couple of planos for my Starter Kit setup as that’s about all I want to take with me to ASLOk. A small folder of scenarios and pre-printed VASL maps will round out the deal.

Still to come this year in terms of ASL pre-order goodness are Journal 8 (my card’s already been charged), ASL Action Pack 6, Starter Kit Expansion pack 1 and hopefully the reprints of For King and Country, Journal 2 and Starter Kit 3. Add in a few more catch up purchases and 2010 is definitely my ASL year.

Some Gaps Filled

Apart from DB3 which arrived a few weeks ago, there hadn't been much in the mail from MMP due to the weather interfering. Last Tuesday a large box arrived with the WO10 bonus pack (my primary order). The box was necessary as I also took the opportunity to purchase Starter Kits 1 and 2, Action Pack 3, the Starter Kit Bonus pack and Turning the Tide. Not many gaps left in terms of completing my official stuff now. I'm definitely grabbing BV3 now and FKAC when reprinted. J8 looks to have finally been charged to my card, so after that it's just J2 reprint and AP6 to arrive of my ASL preorders that are in production.

I do like the look of the Starter Kits. Once BV and FKAC arrive I'll have a serious amount of the SK boards - I may end up with another copy of AoO anyway because I went cheap and got the AoO mapless version in the expectation the SK map pack would be coming out soon after. I might just have to bite the bullet and make a Raaco order, the AUD is really strong vs the Euro right now and my bonus came through rather nicely.