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.

More ASL crack: Omaha

The latest ASL fix arrived on Wednesday from Fine Games (www.finegames.com) just 7 days after the order was processed. I had ordered (despite my misgivings at Critical Hit's record) three major HASL products: Kharkov, Kursk (Ponryi) and Tyrants Lair 2 (Berlin) as well as two older CH products: Red Christmas and Spanish Fury. Added to this that CH's Omaha West had arrived a couple of days prior and I was inundated with major HASL nirvana.

Sadly, Kharkov arrived without the mapsheet and Red Christmas was missing the Scenario card for 3b. My frustration was pretty intense at this pointg because mapsheets and overlays are almost impossible to do without. Edoardo (ASRomafan from Gamesquad) put me in touch with Ray Tapio from CH directly and this morning I have received a very gracious and prompt response sorting out the issue to my satisfaction. Can't ask more than that for resolution of a customer service issue.

I intend to write up a few initial impressions on the products that have arrived complete and will follow up on the others once I have all the replacement parts.

Omaha West (Final Countdown Edition)

Seriously this is one pretty major work. 3 standard HASL maps, 16 scenarios, a large amount of set up charts and a duplicated set of 2.5 fullsize countersheets plus a 12 page booklet of rules. Landed cost for me: approx AUD$91.

US Playaids, Naval Data ccard and the Omaha West rules

German Widernest Play Aid cards

Normally I find the inclusion of duplicate counter sheets a gimmick rather than a selling point but in the case of Omaha west, the inclusion is a definite plus as tehre will be a need for the additional landing craft and the HASL specific SW like banagalore torpedos and the like. The quality of the countersheets, while not up to the level of BFP or modern MMP in terms of diecutting, is certainly a vast improvement from that previously available. I don't particularly like the reduced size turrret speed notation as it does not easily meet the eye but that's a quibble.

The scenarios don't all focus on the beach assault itself, with five of the sixteen included focused on actions in the hinterland proper, while several use the whole map depth. Apart from the 39 turn monster Black Day for the 116 which effectively is the CG for this module, the scenarios cover a great range in overall size, with the first three scenarios serving nicely as introductions to the mapsheets.

The scenarios

 

The Big Scenario: 39 turns of Bloody Omaha

The map is the real star of this. CH got it absolutely right in printing the beach defensive works on the mapsheet as the amount of fortification counters required would have been obscene. It's a very impressive sight when laid out. It has meant that my Gaming table plans have been revised.

All in all very impressed. It's a module that were it not for Joe Balkoski's books and Saving Private Ryan, I would not have been interested in. I doubt I will be buying the companion Omaha East unless the price point reverts to sensible levels as $USD199.00 + P&H is obscene.

Upcoming attractions and rants

I had hoped to post much earlier this month, but the current Australian Heatwave cioupled with real life work commitments have meant I haven't had the energy or indeed the time to do much other than play ASL in what free time I have had.

A lot of ASL goodness has arrived in the last two weeks, some of it outstanding, others being fatally flawed, but more on that over the weekend.

In two weeks time I will be at CanCon, playing ASL in canberra for the first time. I will remember to take photos. In preparation for one of the rounds, the Cleavinator will be playing me in a game of FB12 on the weekend. As I don't yet own Festung Budapest (trust me, I already regret placing other ASL purchases ahead of this) I am looking forward to breaking my FB duck.

And I now own Journals 3 and 6, so I have knocked off a sizable proportion of my Holy Grails already.

A lot to review from now on, even if only as an overview.

Critical MisHit

I've been burned before, and you'd think I'd have learned my lesson but CH's quality control is not even third world or emerging nations level.

Here's the current litany of incompetence:

Roman Glory, a well thought of and known to have been playtested scenario pack on an HASL mapsheet, arrived without the Nikitovka mapsheet but with a mapsheet coded as BG3,.

El Alamein Afrika Korps: This I expected to have problems, but it's actually hard to determine what is actually missing as there is no actual list of contents to check what overlays are missing, eother in the product or at the CH website.

In both cases an email was sent to CH's customer service rep as per their website. Except that I received an auto-response to the email advising me that I needed to resend to a new email address.

Frankly this is bush league company business practice. As for the various reprints and "upgrades", I'll obtain scans of the new scenarios and rules, the counter sheets I do not need, and restrict myself to playing them on VASL if I need the new maps.

No more from CH except for the final couple of older products I have played but yet to purchase.

And as for charging $299 for Omaha East, you just have to laugh at the sheer gall. I see that a couple of known GS denizens have plunked down the shekels already, but then one of them is not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer based on my knowledge of him from CSW and GS over the years, while the other is probably the most megalomaniacal collector I know in ASLdom, but he's cool about it, although I wish he would not try to corner the market in the OOP classics that do turn up from time to time.

Anyway, I think I will buy Gazala (hopefully with the correct amount  and type of overlays) despite the known overlay/map colouration mismatch and that will be it for CH newer releases. I have lost count of how many DTW map versions I have now...

At least I have a workable set of Oosterbeek and Third Bridge to be getting on with as the scenarios in there do not do any justice to the area portrayed.

One Down, Three to Go

The MMP Friday before Black Friday sale did nothing for me, other than reminding me that buying a second edition game when the first edition  is still sitting unpunched on the shelf 12 years later is a Bad Ideatm.

Instead I wandered to Noble Knight Games to check out what was available from my Wishlist of rare and OOP items...Heat of Battle's King of the Hill!

Kerching!!!! Sold to the crazed kiwi. This was fine retail therapy and set off the perfect start to the day provided by Manu Samoa in Cardiff. Take that, Stephen Jones you moustachioed miserable muppet!

In also ordered the new version of Ruweisat Ridge and Bir el Gubi, CH products I know, but the tricksy hobbitses included maps and counters...The scenarios are almost certainly unplaytested dogs but I don't care, extra one piece desert mapsheets make me happier.

ASL Crack

Two additions to the ASL library arrived today: the original edition of Genesis 48 from CH and also the El Alamein Afrika Korps core pack. TBH, the Genesis Jerusalem map is something I want to look at in detail, but the counters need to be redone, so definitely thinking about making up my own set with decent and standard graphics and iconography.

Interestingly, the El Alamein pack I have features overlays that aren't too much lighter than the large desert map sheet. I'm not sure I will leave the overlays in the shape they are, preferring to cut them as per the older WOA overlays.

I have some ideas for 1940 Western Desert armour/ infantry battles as well as some early 1941 actions, but will need to do more research as the focus will be on the use of A9 - A13 tanks.

In my current PBeM games, I'm doing okay in FrF45 Totensonntag as the Poles while my US paras are whittling away at the defending Germans in ASL 12 Confusion Reigns from Paratrooper module. I think the title refers to my efforts to come up with a coherent attack plan though.

Exciting pace on both games, even with me doing late shift during the week., and I think my play is going okay, despite some silly omissions and mis-steps.

Pete

The Half-Squad that could

Many thanks and welcome to my fanatic half-squad of blog Followers, one of whom does more promoting of my blog on Gamesquad than I ever do. Much appreciated as I'm actually not great at promotion stuff like that, feel a bit self conscious about pushing my own barrow, but peer recommendations carry a lot of weight.

I think that folowing Ian's example in posting regularly and illustrated even minorly has helped me in sharing my enjoyment of ASl as a game., which in turn has allowed me to rediscover my enthusiasm for actually playing rather than just collecting and reading about ASL.

It's been particularly cathartic of late as I've been able to switch off mentally from real life issues (with the support of SWMBO it must be said) and retrieve some work-life balance.

And silly me is probably going to pick up the major two AK releases just for the large mapsheet (the overlays will need to be colour edited) and the nice counters.

Playing To Do Part I

This is probably the easiest one to get out of the blocks. I'm looking at themes in terms of products and subjects. I'm hoping to get one Live VASL + Skype game done per month and have maybe 2-3 PBeM games going simulatneously. My goal is to hit 50 plus games next year - nowhere near the numbers posted by the hard chargers  in the 100+ games club, but unless I get a new job closer to home, the 4 hour commute each day is a limiting factor.

The basic idea is to get a like minded opponent willing to run through a theme list in partnership. Sure it may mean playing a couple of scenarios that both of us have played before, but generally that will mean playing a solid design anyway.

WCW '96 ASL Open -

Interestingly, I thought I'd played more of the scenarios, but I guess the amount of multiple playings has skewed my memory.

• 01. Will to Fight...Eradicated - Played, but always willing to play again
• 02. Scotch on the Rocks - ROAR Brit 30 vs Germ 20
• 03. Tigers at Merefa - ROAR Germ 21 vs Sov 9
• 04. Cat Becomes the Mouse - ROAR Brit 16 vs Germ 22
• 05. Abandon Ship - ROAR US 74 vs Germ 69
• 06. Los Ejercitos Nuevos - ROAR Rep Span 27 vs Nat Span 21
• 07. Eye of the Tiger - Played, and would play again at the drop of a hat.
• 08. The Last VC in Europe - ROAR Brit 30 vs Germ 20
• 09. Sweep Up
• 10. Stand and Die - played this most recently at ASLOK, I don't think I've grokked this yet, but I like it a lot.

Winter Offensive -
Currently playing through this with John Knowles although we skipped the first for some reason..

• 01. French Toast and Bacon - ROAR US 21 vs Germ 24
• 02. Failure to Communicate - Completed
• 03. Counterattack at Carentan - ROAR US 18 vs Germ 22
• 04. I Don't Like Retreating - ROAR US 6 vs Germ 9
• 05. Astride Hell's Highway - ROAR Germ 10 vs US/Brit 7

Action at Carentan -

This is out of left-field a little, as it's not widely known or publicised but it got some pretty good  press in Desperation Morale, the downside is making the VASL map work unless it's already been fixed. And with four scenarios it's certainly something that could be completed pretty quickly.

• Cole's Charge - ROAR Germ 5 vs US 1
• The Cabbage Patch - ROAR US 1 vs Germ 1
• Green Devils - ROAR Germ 3 vs US 2
• Cooperation Reigns - ROAR Germ 2 vs US 0

After these I'd like to have a crack at Busting the Bocage from CH, another set of scenarios on an HASL style map. Further down the track, Time On Target/KE MM97-99 series and knock off the Friednly Fire back catalog.

Pete

Currently listening to: Glenn Miller - A Portrait of

Kursk? Since when?

 Hell's Bridgehead: Clash along the Psel River. July 1943 

It had to happen, after years of avoiding Kursk as a subject to bother with (overrun as it is with the SS fanboys), I've finally bitten the bullet and grabbed Critical Hit's Hell's Bridgehead module and volume 6/4 that focuses on it. I think I may well have just put the game on the shelf as a conversation piece and not even thought about playing it until I actually read the designer's notes and most importantly Kurt Martin's irreverent and amusing piece on the playtest. Sure it was written back in 2002 but it's the type of off the wall commentary style that works for me, and I love the reference to the "Kursk Blues Cafe". 

I can see why HB has garnered so much praise and positive feedback and I'm glad I made the decision to buy it and the relevant issue. The best thing is that what map and rules errata has been corrected in the 2nd Edition and the new map style is ver' pretty indeed:

Hell's Bridgehead by CH

The scenarios are a good mix, not too small, not too big with at least three proper CGs.  Plus there are the scenarios in the magazine that use the K2 map which is almost as pretty (no pic of K2 sorry). There's so much material here for great ASL games (especially once I look at playing some of the Schelling mini-CGs from the ASL journal on different aspects of Kursk. Thankfully I doubt I'll be spending gratuitous amounts on supplementary reading (mostly the KOSAVE , Glantz and Zetterling books)

Lots of reading in 6/4 to take note of and some interesting additional scenarios outside the focus on Kursk - including a look at the Japanese airborne assault on Palembang airfield. Now to sort through all the existing errata and check 7/3 for additional material using the Kursk maps or even Tigers to the Front. The K2 mapsheet could well be used as the basis for some more non-HASL designs.

I'm glad in a way I took such a long time to look at CH stuff again - I'd lost the most severe of the negative pre-conceptions and so I've been very pleased with the advances in presentation and general feel.

I blame Balkoski!

The bocage rules in ASL never held as much fear for me as they have for others. It's notable how my interest in the American actions behind the beaches on D-Day and afterwards has gradually increased. I can point to the series replay of an old SL-COI tourney scenario in the General magazine that first made me look at the airborne ops behind Utah and gradually I've developped more of an interest in the US sector of D-Day, although I still struggle to throw off the negativity of the Longest Day and SPR in terms of association with the worst kind of jingoistic pap.

Thankfully Balkoski and admittedly BoB have helped a lot, but rather than focus on the beaches (particularly Omaha) it's the actions on D+1 to about D+8 that really hold my eye. Hence the easy decision to acquire the latest issue of Critical Hit magazine as it includes Busting the Bocage, a look at the fighting inland from Pointe du Hoc post the cliff assault. Now while the smaller ASL scenarios don't really appeal, there's a lot to be said for BtB as an accessible series of games particularly as the mapsheet is so much better in terms of rendering the Normandy countryside than any geomorphic collection of generic boards.

Here's a pic of the map (sorry it's not the best picture):

Busting the Bocage by CH

Sometimes they get it right! (includes pics for once)

Between the return to work and real life issues, I've just not had the chance to do anything other than play a little PBeM ASL and look at the pretty modules that have all arrived. Oh my, there's some really nice stuff out there from Critical Hit and I'm still only catching up with stuff from 2002-2006!

The first lot to arrive was Tigers To the Front - a look at Soviet attacks on the "Panther" Line in Army Group North just as Bagration destroyed Army Group Centre (June 44) to the south. Talk about serious eye candy and potential for some excellent Face to Face play once I get to the Paddington Bears meetings. The cool thing is that there are enough scenarios that I can play via PBeM on small suibset maps while I get my head around the new map which is very very nice.

I'm not usually a real fan of Late War Eastern Front Heavy Metal but this has sold me on the idea - and it's rural terrain - so much more a fan of that than urban terrain (after a diet of urban/ruined city terrain I definitely needed a change).

So here's the Tigers to the Front map:

Tigers to the Front

Mmm ASL.

Came home from work today to find my copy of the Critical Hit 1997 Special Edition had arrived from Canada. I bought this purely for the Dzerhezinsky Tractor Works content and I'm happy enough with the price I paid, given the issue is long out of print. It was interesting to see that there was some extra material for Platoon Leader 2.1 which I can easily retrofit into PL2.5a if needed.My next order of business is to get hold of the actual module for the Tractor Works so I can go ahead and look at correcting the issues of play balance and clarifications that personified this particular era of Critical Hit. Now all I'm looking forward to is the arrival of Issue 7.3 and Stalin's Fury over the next few days - My copy of CH's Hell's Bridgehead is waiting on confirmation of the availability of Issue 6/4.

I'm pretty sure I'll be purchasing a few more products over the next few months, probably just to catch up with things again, but I may go nuts and get hold of the Berlin module because I'm such a nut these days about Historical map sheets.

You'd think that a small module with only four scenarios would not be amongst my must buys, but Action at Carentan is definitely on my must buy to play list. That and Journal number 7 which has a lot of very enjoyable, smaller yet intriguing scenarios are probably going to feature a lot in any face to face games I get to play over the next few years, with the latter being probably the dominant series of scenario choices for VASL.

More ASL on the way...

Okay so my ordering hasn't quite finished yet...the consequences of having to spend  a day at home sick or rather unable to leave the house for extended periods of time.So here's what I'm looking to buy this month including stuff that is on its way already:

Critical Hit:

• 1997 Special Edition Critical Hit "Dzerhezinsky Tractor Works" issue (Includes "Grain Elevator" Map and Campaign game [Currently shipping]
• Volume 6 Number 4  Critical Hit "Kursk" issue (Includes serious extras for Hell's Bridgehead Kursk module including extra map)
• Volume 7 Number 3  Critical Hit "Normandy" issue (Includes complete 3rd edition of Busting the Bocage) [Currently shipping]
• Action at Carentan Scenario pack (4 scenarios plus a custom mapsheet)
• Hell's Bridgehead 1st Edition (Kursk map + 8 scenarios)
• Hell's Bridgehead Upgrade (Extra two scenarios plus larger map)

Possible additional stuff coming:

• Tigers to the Front (Operation Bagration in ASL terms)
• Beyond the Beachhead (more ASL Normandy)
• The Killing Ground (Operational treatment of the post D-Day Normandy battles) - really like the core system used in this

I've pretty much decided on the three webshops I'll be using: Sentry Box in Calgary, Canada; Gamer's Armory in the US and Warchest in Australia as they've all been really responsive to orders and requests and they're gamers as well as being smart businessmen (read Professional).

Nothing like someone who understands that you are shopping around for the fastest delivery rather than best price - I hate stuff being on back order, preferrring to order something that I know is in stock. Unfortunately as I'm currently looking at OOP items in the main, this means I'm subject to a much more limited selection. The key here is minimising the shipping as much as possible by ordering multiple items from each. However I've also got to take into account that each retailer has different products in stock. :(

Oh well. At least I'm going to get a lot of VASL time out of this.

The Bells of Hell Go Ting a Ling Ling

So work's been busy as all getout lately. That hasn't stopped the deliveries of goodies from parts elsewhere thankfully, I'm now at the point where I've got 95% of my boardgame collection stable with very few more purchases needed. I finally got hold of the Stalingrad maps I referenced a while ago, and sure enough there's a significant difference in area covered betweren the large hex and the smaller hex versions, the latter actually reaching to the Volga.How did I pick these up? Through the auspices of Warchest in Melbourne, Australia. Must say I'm every impressed with the service from him. Fair prices to boot.

I bought the second edition of Critical Hit's Valor of the 37th Guards, which included not only the large hex map of the Dzerhezinsky Tractor Works but the original map from the 1997 DTW module and the original Grain Elevator minimap from the 1997 Critical Hit Special Edition. So I've almost completed the necessary accumulation of product.

I'm going to end up with some duplication of mapsheets but that's no hardship as I'm sure I can find a use for them. So basically all I'm after now is the original DTW module with its 2 Campaign games  and four scenarios and the 97SE with the Grain Elevator scenarios/CG. The latter is on order already from The Sentry Box in Canada, and I may have scoped out a copy of DTW although I'm paying the OOP premium :(

I also picked up one of the lesser items on my want list - a copy of the old Area-Impulse ACW game, They Met at Gettysburg which has a poor reputation but surely can be salvaged.

I even started playing some ASL again, Stalingrad natürlich, with my old adversary Jay White. We're now on Turn 3 of our game that was interrupted by me getting sidetracked by real life, and so far it's been one crazy rollercoaster ride once again, with the highlight for me being the critical hit I scored with a Molotov-Projector on one of the two StuIG33Bs Jay is fielding. One flank is almost completely secure through the blazes that have started up.

Anyway I really need to take some pics again (I've been slack - no change there) and posting again

Stalingrad: The Maps

Here are some pics of the various maps:

This is the reworked version of the Dzerhezinsky(sic) Tractor Works map, as you can see it has a yellow clay tinge to the map rather than the familiar Red Barricades brick-dust look. Unfortunately for ASL players, Critical Hit's superb quality assurance came to the fore and they shrunk the hex sizes to 3/4 inches across so they could fit the map on one sheet. Brilliant decision guys, for a game that will end up with some of the most counter intensive scenarios around. This is one map where the expense of getting the mapsheet enlarged is worthwhile. I'd say that the best way to do this is to enlarge it by 33% so you can match the RB sized hexes, as Don Petros most likely worked to the same hex size as Charlie Kibler. What you won't notice is that very original map is wider by four hexrows (the rework begins on the D hexrow) and 9-15 alternate hexgrains. Outside of a few coordinate changes in the setups (and they got them wrong) CH didn't alter anything in the scenarios - really tells you about the playtesting doesn't it.

This is the reworked map from Valor of The 37th Guards (yeah CH, you're real original in your titles). As you can see, the colour is closer to RB in style but again there are some issues with the map. Personally I actually prefer the original scope of the DTW map but the new Vot37G one works as well. The good thing is that I think you actually get both the original 3/4" hex map and the revised, smaller area RB style map in Vot37G for all of $15 US. Don't buy from CH, they're gratuitous on shipping.

This is the actually the map of the Stalin's Fury module from CH, which is a modified version of the infamous Grain Elevator mini-CG from the 1997 Stalingrad Special Edition. From all accounts, the CG is a complete crock but the map as you can see is pretty. Such a shame therefore that CH dropped the ball (again) when it came to actual playtesting/design. Oh well at least it gives me something to tool around with regarding designing a CG.