Valor of the Guards is finally here!

Happy VotG day to me!
Happy VotG day to me!

Exquisite timing from Milsims sees Valor of the Guards arrive at my door on my birthday. Even though I was Pre-order #22 or so back in 2005 and knew then what VotG would contain, seeing the contents in reality still managed to impress me. There's a lot included in the box: 17 scenarios, 4 campaign games, 780 1/2" and 352 5/8" counters, two mapsheets and 36 pages of rules. When I showed Kirsty what the box included, even she was impressed! It helped that I trotted out the old saw, "ASL. It's not just a game, it's a lifestyle!" which brought a laugh. At $77 plus P&H, VotG is very much a bargain.

What strikes me after just a brief look at the package is how much more play value I'll be getting compared to Red Barricades. Don't get me wrong, I loved RB, but I've pretty much run the gamut of playing all four Campaign Games and all 11 or 12 scenarios that I know of that use the RB map and to be honest, RB can become a chore at times to get through.

Of the 17 scenarios in VotG, I'd hazard that I'll be able to get through 14 of them before the end of the year in Face to Face play without overdoing it, and the three remaining are the larger scenarios that will reward taking the extra time to get familiar with all the new rules and the various aspects of the terrain. Once I've finished playing through all the scenarios as both sides then I'll definitely be looking to play the various CGs and the extra scenarios that have been published already in Dispatches From the Bunker. This should take me right up until the end of 2009 and yet still leave me time for more casual ASL play.

Thankfully with regular attendance and availability of other ASL players at the Paddington Bears in Sydney, my days of solely playing ASL via VASL/ PBeM are history.

Not only is this a stellar day for me ASL wise, but it's kickstarted my interest in other things Kessel Stalingrad. I've picked up a few more books on Stalingrad from Jason Marks et al, and some generalist Eastern Front histories that piqued my interest.

Last but not really least, a quick perusal of the VotG chapter has allowed me to revisit the much-maligned Critical Hit Dzerhezinsky Tractor Works/Grain Elevator HASL modules. Just from this, I'm pretty sure I can come up with a much more workable version of the DTW and GE campaign games as well as sorting out the various scenarios. This is not something designed for the rigours of competitive play but is more along the lines of a historical study game - purely for the interest in seeing how the history plays out on the tabletop or the mapsheet.