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.

The Upside to Moving

There are many upsides to the new place, but something that meshes with my previous post and encapsulates the change in my personal attitude is that I'm now far more comfortable about hosting games and even having a mini-asl event as the Cleavinator does over the New Year's break. Being able to prepare decent food ahead of time will make it far more of a pleasdant event than having to traipse out to buy food etc.

There are at least 4 ASlers up on the Central Coast, three of whom are currently active (counting myself that is) and I'm sure I can inveigle The Cleavinator up this way if I offer scotch or beer during summer. Definitely a late summer/early autumn or late spring/early summer timeframe. Plus if Neil of NeilBabble is available, I might shanghai him to fill out the ASL quartet and leave me free to act as Mein Host. Which also means I will not be alone in caffeine addiction.

Having enough room to play games in a convivial environment, and sufficient wall space to access all my books and games simply and easily is going to make a huge difference.

Speaking of coffee, I am splurging on a new machine...influenced by Mark Humphries, an ASL aficionado I met for the first time at Malaya Madness:

Once more into the rubble...

In Australia, Jason Marks has a small limited edition publishing house that specialises in books on Stalingrad. The range of titles is very small, but the books are some of the few available that deal with the small unit operations within the city, given the destruction of many of the records and the very few survivors from the Kessel.

I'd been after his Death of the Leaping Horseman book ever since I heard about it, but for a while there it was only available on the second hand market for around $200 USD which was just too much for my blood. However the other day, while looking to spend money on research materials, I found he'd reprinted it and I could pick it up for AUSD$80. Oh yeah that was very much in my range again. I also picked up An Infantryman in Stalingrad, a detailed and very interesting reminiscence of the combat experiences of a leutnant in the 94. Infanterie division who took part in the battles for the Barrikady factory as well.

Given I've been on a Stalingrad kick for a while (with varying levels of active work) it was an easy decision to make. I'm still to pick up the latest book, which is another $80 AUSD on the barrikady fighting, but it will come. Anyway this interest in oparticularly the factory fighting arose out of the ASL historical module Red Barricades, which focuses naturally on the Barrikady complex and the period in October November 42 when the factories were progressively assaulted. I'd steered clear of the Stalingrad stuff for a while in ASL, purely because I doubted I'd ever get to do another Campaign game through lack of time and opponents. However while working on the Flames of War Stalingrad book, I found myself looking again at gaming small parts of the fighting using FoW and ASL.

To cut a long story short, the books arrived on Friday, and I've been picking my way through them occasionally as it suited. There's so much detail there at the tactical level, one sees the composition of a particular German assault group down to individual weapon loads for the soldiers. The best thing about the books is that they're based on the actual extant primary source war diaries and corroborating evidence wherever possible, and in the case of the memoir, egregious errors have been corrected but the original errors are footnoted and explained. The only quibble I have is that the maps are just a tad too small and could have been redrawn to give more clarity, but some of the private collection photographs are outstanding, particularly the ones shot while on the approaches to to the actual factories.

I'm now impatiently awaiting the release of Valor of The Guards and the Red October modules from MMP, just to see what the scenario listing is like and how they match up with the descriptions in these books. I don't think you'lll see me trying to build terrain for them anytime soon, at least not until I'm in Aussie myself and have a decent amount of room to store and build the modules, but there's some real incentive to get it right.

In The Mail

Back from a revitalising holiday to find that Mark Pitcavage's Scenario Designer's Guide was part of the accumulated mail waiting for me. First glance - nicely done. Lots of reading to do and a few notes to make before a fuller report is on the cards. Not sure that it'll be as useful as might have been suggested for non-ASL scenario designers but more later on that.  So much to do today and I haven't even typed up the updates.

Time On Target 2: At the Sharp End

Years ago, a couple of guys created an Advanced Squad Leader product called Time On Target. The first issue was a collection of themed scenarios set during the Battle of the Bulge and were released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the battle. They attracted pretty universal acclaim for the obvious research and dedication that went into them. At the time they were amongst the best ASL scenarios released.

Then about a year or so later, Time on Target 2 was released. This dealt with actions in April 1945 that occurred in Northern Germany involving the British 21st Army Group and the opposing Germans. Unlike most late war situations which usually end up resembling a heavy metal car lot, this featured a huge range of actions drawing heavily from John Russell's No Triumphant Procession: The Forgotten Battles of April 1945.

Because they fell outside the usual US-centric Western Front ASL view, this scenario pack appealed greatly. However obtaining the book upon which the scenarios were based became an issue unto itself. I did however find a copy of the 1945 Story of the 79th Armoured Division which helped in some regard.