Playing again with a vengeance

I think I've rediscovered the fun element in ASL. For years it was almost a chore to play ASL, the effort required in keeping up with clarifications, Q&As, errata, even accessing the latest and greatest new scenarios seemed beyond me. In a way this mirrored my experience with miniatures. Too much effort required in the process compared to the enjoyment attained from the outcome.

But in the last few weeks I've got back on VASL, played in an online ASL tourney (lost in the 1st round even), and found that I don't need to be totally au fait with all the minutiae to play a competent game. Results are immaterial at this point (I'm on a fairly long losing streak) but with each game my interest is growing as I find it interesting to analyse the past games and look to improve.

I've found my comfort level in terms of ongoing games - 4 PBeM VASL and a live VASL game seem to work nicely in terms of scheduling and pacing. It will certainly fill the gap between face to face gaming as well. The main thing is that I've broadened my pool of opponents and look to be involved in regular games from now on.

I'm currently playing scenarios from a wide variety of publishers, designers and theaters of war:

• Melee Pack III: MP17 Bagging Burcorps (Japanese vs British);
• Windy City Wargamers' ASL Open'96 pack: WCW07 Eye of The Tiger (Germans vs Soviets); 
• ASL Journal 3: J41 By Ourselves (Norwegian vs Germans); 
• AH General: T09 Niscemi-Biscari Highway (American Paras vs Germans)
• Friendly Fire Pack: FrF09 The Abbeville Bridgehead (Germans vs French).

Action Pack 4 is due any day now (I had hoped it would arrive this morning but no luck there) so that will probably dominate my ASL thoughts apart from the PbeM stuff until John arrives from Taiwan in the next couple of weeks. Valor of the Guards is still sitting on my desk, waiting for an opportunity to get on the table, but for now I'm happy to take my time bfore diving in.