Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) Start Kit #2 has arrived!

Even though I am only seven pages through the twelve pages of ASL SK#1 rules, I decided that I really needed the indirect and artillery rules from the second starter kit too to do "infantry attacks" properly, so I was lucky enough to find it through Board Game Geek (see below, the prized parcel has arrived): 

The simplified ASL rules have now grown to twenty pages (and some interesting new nationalities in the mix), admittedly a lot of repeats from the first set, so not at all bad from teh learning perspective!

Not sure I will rush forwards for the ASL Starter Kit #3 as it seems a very expensive and "hard find for what it is! The alternative rout is the "Full ASL manual" (about the same price), but without counters. That would mean joining the ASL Modules hunt on eBay and the likes, something I don't think my wallet could afford! 

Note to Self: ASL Resource Link(s) and Third Time Lucky [Updated]?

Superb ASL Resource Link:

https://www.desperationmorale.com/

I know, it is like Groundhog Day, or a scratched record (again and again). Yes, I am going in again. Wish me luck or pass me the bottle of Jack Daniels, and yes I mix it with coke and ice. The ASL Starter Kit #1 is my way in (again). I have also ordered ASL Starter Kit #2 as well, because "you do need indirect fire" in WWII infantry combat. I was also looking (too much looking) at ASL Starter Kit #3, which brings in tanks, but the prices were/are just too crazy. ASL, sigh, like an attractive mysterious woman, perplexing. It seems so right until you start dating! It is not that the "sound of" the rules doesn't feel right - even "good" (when [or rather if] you managed to cram them all into your head), but it is that there seems so much to learn and options (edge cases) to remember, so you are left with the feeling of "have I missed something"! Which - is frustrating, but in the end for ASL - is that a bad thing, if it gets you there? 

Footnote: I have a theory. A lot of the ASL rules seem to stem from misuse of Squad Leader rules or dissatisfaction with unintended game effects. In the same way that the follow on versions of DBA (or its more complex cousins DBM, DBMM etc) were aimed at stopping "competition gamers" distorting the historical principle of the game, winning in "unhistorical" ways. Trying to maintain the historical realism and avoiding clever mathematical twists that inevitably snag rules.

Please see Bob Corderey's Blog Home Page (Wargaming Miscellany) - The First Rule and The Spirit of the Game on https://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/ - top right hand side! I also want to run ASL with miniatures, 1:1 (they are company sized battles). Does that make me "mad and bad"? Because otherwise you forget what you are trying to model in the real world. I have a friend who invested heavily in 2mm blocks of troops and literally said it makes you stop trying to "wibble" when you realise the number of men you are trying to control!

Update I: Found this interesting blog/website as it describes ASL SK#1 - Simple Equation Scenario 3 was thinking of transferring to the tabletop (spoiler alert the attack was bounced and ran out of turns):

https://www.stallardhonour.com/a-journey-into-advanced-squad-leader/

Update II: Board Game Geek tutorial support (thanks to "John Y", see comments):

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/157922/an-aslsk-tutorial-part-1

The Internet is a rabbit hole of ASL resources!

Do I .. turn to the Dark Side? ASL? Maybe in a Covid-19 it could be a good thing?

After the joyous reminiscence of Avalon Hill's Squad Leader ... I contemplated the "dark side" of the equation. As we all know ...

It came to pass that after the fourth boxed game supplement and countless interesting approved and unofficial [with dodgy arywork] add on scenarios the publishing the mages at Avalon Hill sensed that something deep inside their beloved Squad Leader game system was broken. Every new rule that added for realism seemed to break existing mechanics and the game engine framework was audibly creaking under the strain. It seemed so close to being perfect, but alas each step forward seemed to take them away from their goal of "the ultimate WWII infantry wargame/boardgame. All the applicable rules were just so "hard" to remember and play could become very gamey, so the Squad Leader game was re-forged in Ragnorak into the ... Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) product. Rather than a revamp it was a essentially a new game, it remained d6 based but you always seemed to roll two of different colours. 

I bailed out at this point as the mere thought of buying very expensive boxed games (and there were many to get) counters simply that replaced counters I already had seemed the less sane side of crazy. I did occasionally glance up at beautifully crafted boxes such as "Beyond Valor [Sic]" and "Hollow Legions" in game shops, but I walked away. I did come close once while holding a ASL box set entitled "Paratroopers" but put it back on the shelf .. I was confused. Even when a close friend moved to Finland and offered me his entire ASL collection at a crazy price .. I said "no" .. but know. So what changed?

Well, after a thought provoking presentation  Connections UK 2014 presentation by Ivor Gardiner (see slides [left] or the audio or even going one better and do both, you won't regret it) I had to go back and "look and see what I was missing" so I bought the new "Starter Kit#1" pack back in 2018 (see below, the ASL beast an "introduction" [note, it is now no longer published by Avalon Hill as they sadly have long since departed the boardgame coil], but to my eternal shame, I have still yet to play it! But the rub of it is that .. I know I really have to, "as some point" .. or I cannot call myself a (no shame) wargamer. After all I have even played [a couple] of games of "hard core " DBM 'ers and lived to tell the tale - so what is to lose apart from more dignity and we all know that is overrated?): 

Unboxing reveals smart counters, a nice (but thick paper) map-board and well laid out rules which I have even read [once]. But the project is in a "stalled state" and I hopr to have the time soon to jump in with two feet(see below, as games go considering the materials offered, it was worth the price, but "just to say"): 

Part of my "self-inducement strategy" is to make/program a Computer Assisted Instruction version (CAI) to help run through the sequence of play and "assist" game-play by prompting for appropriate rule checks. That way, what is left of my precious memory can be used to better purpose to remember to start the dishwasher off before I go to bed.

Watch this space

;) 

Online Magazine Repositories: "The Dragon" and "Space Gamer" + bonus UK ASL Fanzine site [and AH General]

 While looking through the Internet I came across these interesting sites: 

• UK ASL Fanzine and Avalon Hill's "Sport Game" info site: https://www.vftt.co.uk/indexs.asp
• The Dragon D&D Fantasy Magazine Repository: https://archive.org/details/DragonMagazine260_201801
• The Space Gamer Sci-Fi Magazine Repository: https://archive.org/details/space-gamer_201601/page/n1/mode/2up

The interest stemmed believe or not from reading an old AI article that mentioned Traveller, and many hours later ... tons of good stuff there!

Update: The General https://archive.org/details/general_magazine [Thanks to Ed M's comment below]

Valor and Victory - A Simple Version of ASL?

Thanks to "Old Trousers" at "Numbers, Wargames and Arsing About" (inspirational title if ever there was one: http://flagsofvictory.blogspot.com/

See post:
http://flagsofvictory.blogspot.com/2018/11/stout-hearts.html

Intriguingly he highlights a FREE game that is in the genre of ASL but for "normal people" (brilliant quote). I will certainly be dipping in here!

URL:
http://www.valor-and-victory.com/index.htm

ASL if it is good enough for the "1st Royal Irish" it's good enough for me

I thought long and hard about this one, but in the end I felt I just had to get it, if only because of this UK Connections 2014 presentation by the then CO of the 1st Royal Irish (see links below):

• http://professionalwargaming.co.uk/Connections2014Gardiner.pdf
• http://professionalwargaming.co.uk/IvorGardiner.mp3
• http://professionalwargaming.co.uk/1RICO.pdf
• http://professionalwargaming.co.uk/1RICO.pdf

Through the post today this arrived. Not the dreaded "ring binder infantry and tank and artillery and air and paratrooper" manual of death I remember from last century, but a slim line "ASL Starter Kit#1" (see below):

I was a fan of the original SL (Squad Leader) series, having all four modules but could not face the relearning or re-education that ASL implied in the 1990's. I did have the opportunity to bulk buy a collection [Beyond Valor et al] from my friend (something I did not ever regret until perhaps this point) but did not have the inkling or space. I hope to make it to the end of the first six modules ;) with a little help from some wargaming friends.