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Paul Franklin-Bihary
United States
Seattle
Washington
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Recently, I've had to give up every other week of my regular face-to-face ASL game because my buddy has started a band (and I'm in it).
Now, this, in and of itself, is not a bad thing in the least. I haven't played music nearly enough since my other band broke up about five years ago, and I'm really enjoying myself in this new one. For the first week or three I actually thought I might be willing to let ASL go. I thought that I might be content with playing a couple PBEM scenarios at a time and not really bothering with the face-to-face permutation anymore, at least for a while.
But now that my wife has decreed that I can't go to band practice every week (which means that my face-to-face game has resumed every other week), I realize that I can't let ASL go that easily. Every time I play it, I want to play it more.
As much fun as some VASL is, it doesn't really replace holding cardboard in your hand, tweezing chits across plexiglass over beautifully rendered terrain, and dropping real dice in a dice tower. The tactile aspect of ASL is too strong. I love being able to see the entire board (or boards) easily at one glance. I love stringing out a LOS. I love flipping through the rulebook when a question comes up (wait, I do that in my PBEM games, too...nevermind). I love the mountain of gear scattered across the end of the table, chits piled in chaotic yet useful dollops. And having my friend shooting the shit across the table with me is the most important piece of all.
Even though I don't get to practice with the band as often now, I'm really glad that my wife required my presence at home. In fact, there are moments when I would like to go back to once a week gaming and put the band on the back burner. The more I touch my ASL equipment, the more I want to use it. This gives me hope that, no matter what happens down the road (other than my friend moving far away), ASL will be a regular part of my life for the rest of my life.
Music is a passion for me, one of my first and most important hobbies. I will never give it up, either. But over the last ten years ASL has taken its place in my upper echelon of "do first" activities.
I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to play with me. THAT will be a glorious day indeed.
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Paul Franklin-Bihary
United States
Seattle
Washington
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The more I play this game, the more I am astounded at its variety. Most games, in the rules, explain the 'object' of the game. ASL is different. Each different scenario offers up a new objective, and these victory conditions amaze me with their seemingly infinite permutations.
After recently finishing a scenario where I bounded across open fields to destroy recently landed gliders, I turn to one where a very small field with six holes in the ground open up to an underground series of tunnels in an abandonded quarry that must be swept of all enemy forces.
I've played scenarios with virtually no movement, where both forces, entrenched, duke it out over small distances with continuous fire to inflict the most casulties on the other. Some scenarios involve running around as quickly as possible to try to get your troops across a 'finish line' before the time runs out (and the enemy decimates your squads).
Besiege a three-level fortified building. Or stay hidden until the last turn so that the enemy can't find you. Or hold that bridge. Or blow up that bridge. Or maneuver your AFVs into better positions than the enemy. Or escort the prince to safety (yep, that is not a misprint).
Now that my 3" D-ring binder of scenarios has been completely filled, I realize that I will never be able to taste all the variations that this game offers me, even if I play a new scenario every week for the rest of my life.
Can any other game claim to offer this many variations in one set of rules? Not that I've seen. Except, perhaps, a role-playing game. Could I conceiveably create a scenario with VCs that have never been attempted before? Probably not after 20 years of masters in the field whipping them out left and right.
It's almost enough to never play another game title for the rest of my life. But not quite.
Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:11 pm
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Paul Franklin-Bihary
United States
Seattle
Washington
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The devastation from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan won't leave my mind.
As a kid, I was always interested in Japan and Japanese culture from a very young age. I grew up in the late-70s and 80s, when Japanese culture was just starting to have a major impact in the states. My first exposure was probably some old racist Looney Tunes from the WWII era. Then I moved to Shogun Warriors (those giant robots), and I watched 'Star Blazers' every morning in my early years. I started eating sushi in the early 80s with my dad. I became interested in Manga and Anime in the late 80s. I studied Japanese in high school. This was all during the big Japanese boom, when Japan was considered to be the most important country economically in Asia, when Japanese technology and cars started to take the advantage away from the US. Needless to say, I've always been a bit fascinated with this country and our relationship, as Americans, with it.
I've always been amazed with the Japanese and how they came back after the end of WWII. They were nuked, but over 30 years they restarted their society and became a world player again. The same fortitude that drove their war machine became something that improved their society immensely after it failed. Their resolve and passion for work has always amazed me.
Yet the constant reflection of the nuclear end to the war in the Pacific still haunts much of their pop-culture. From Godzilla to Akira, the idea of an even bigger tragedy happening to their country is a consistent theme in much of their entertainment. In the Katsuhiro Otomo comic version of Akira, there are panels that show the destruction of a future Tokyo that look so much like the imagery I'm seeing from the earthquake and tsunami that it almost comes across as prophecy. I know that this quake is not as horrific as the atomic blasts were, but it is close.
I'm rambling, but the main point here is that I'm thinking of my Japanese brothers and sisters constantly, and hoping that things start to get better sooner than later.
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Paul Franklin-Bihary
United States
Seattle
Washington
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Every game of ASL teaches me something about what not to do if I ever find myself the leader of a bunch of people fighting with guns.
In my most recent lesson, I neglected to remember that the scenario had 8 turns, and in my folly I ran my men headlong into battle as the defender. Partially due to some incredible dice on my oppanent's side, but also due to the fact that I shoudln't have run my forces out into the open at all on turn 1, he racked up half of the VPs that he needed to win the scenario by the end of the second turn.
This, and many other similar experiences, are quite humbling. I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the strategy of combat, and of ASL, but I still make some really stupid mistakes and learn from them the hard way. I wish I could internalize more of it and quit making the same mistakes over and over again, though.
Such is life. The bumps and bruises teach us and keep us from getting giant heads. I'm glad that my losses are in cardboard and not blood.
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Paul Franklin-Bihary
United States
Seattle
Washington
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There are times when my ASL playing dries up, for various reasons. My weekly partner gets sick, my VASL PBEM games slow down for unknown reasons, a baby is born and the game gets preempted, etc.
These are the times when I realize how sick I am with my ASL addiction.
I actually get mildly depressed when these 'slow-downs' occur. Is this because I love the game so much that I pine for it when I can't participate? It is because I have set up routines in my life around this game that get broken and I may have some mild form of OCD? Is it because I don't get my weekly 3 beers on Tuesday? AM I ADDICTED?
I can't really pinpoint the answer, but it does disturb me a bit how much sway this game has over my life.
But it also excites me. ASL is worthy of this devotion. I never tire of it. Every game, even repeated plays of the same scenario, is a new experience, exciting and enjoyable. The rules are dense but expertly written and (usually) extremely accessible. I feel like I learn something about strategy and the rules and WWII every time I play. This game enriches my life in many ways (beer included).
So is it a bad thing that I get mopey when I don't get my ASL fix when I should?
I mean, I could be fiending for crack or to eat my next murder victim. In the grand scheme of things ASL is a pretty mild obsession.
But obession it is. I guess I'm just cursed, like every other ASL lover.
I'll survive until next week. If those soldiers could live in a foxhole for a week with friends exploding around them, I can live my posh life and wait for my next game.
'Nuff said.
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Paul Franklin-Bihary
United States
Seattle
Washington
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I like them all. I like The Pacific even though I haven't finished it yet. I like Band of Brothers better. I like Saving Private Ryan best. These films really changed the way I saw WWII, and were moving tributes to the dudes who actually died and fought so that this game, ASL, was possible.
It always jarrs me into awareness whenever Stephen Spielberg is on the Oscars. He always walks out to the 'Band of Brothers' theme.
Remember the guys, people.
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Paul Franklin-Bihary
United States
Seattle
Washington
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Imagine a valley next to some hills, with a forest across the clearing. JUST enough space to land some gliders. And here they come, falling from the sky, trying to skim the tops of the snow-topped trees and still land safely, as close to the dark, protective depths as possible. The German troops, freezing in the icy hills, set out to take down the US gliders landing all around them as the US run forward from the woods to protect their gliders and, well, kick some Nazi ass. This is scenario U9, A Belated Christmas. It is a winner.
One of the brilliant things about this scenario, even though it adds another layer of rule-checking, is these gliders that enter on the first three turns. The entire point of this one is to inflict casualties (US) and take the gliders (US and German). The Germans need to play a careful game of advancing, but can't be too careful because they need to destroy those things to win, so running across open snowy fields with glider hindrances dotting the landscape becomes an important part of the game. Some of the gliders may crash or wind up in really varied placement in the open, behind hedges, and in the woods. This means that the random gliders ARE the scenario in many ways, dictating who has the advantage and making the scenario really replay-able as well. U9 tastes like something I need.
This scenario seemed nicely balanced, given the swings of randomness involved. In our playing of it, most of my gliders landed intact, and almost half of them wound up really far behind my line, making the German task (especially without a really important HMG) very difficult. But still, we played until turn 6 without really knowing that it was too late for the Germans, which led to resignation. But this was only one permutation of the scenario! I could see the scenario going a lot of different ways. Over time this variety should ensure that there are some plays of this scenario where there are more early glider-defendable positions for the Germans, making it an offensive push for the Americans. I want to play this scenario again right now just to see if this happens.
Also, the back and forth fighting did seem expertly balanced in this battle, with a mixed group of German 548s, 467s, and 447s working really well against the 747s on the US side. Once in position, the ebb and flow of DMs, routs and recovery worked really well, and kept the fighting tense and exciting. Can I reproduce with this scenario? It's that good.
Well, I REALLY won this scenario in our playing. I played US, and Steven played Germans. On the first turn, I nailed his HMG up on the big cliff that could see everything below. I nailed him hard, and kept that guy down for virtually the entire scenario. That set the overall tone for the game, because I also rolled better than usual throughout the entire engagement, doing more damage than average, hitting way too many critical hits with the mortar and getting multiple heroes from HOB. Yet, it was a hell of a lot of fun for both of us, regardless. That's what she said.
I highly recommend this one, people. Check it out if you are willing to have some random fun while playing a great tactical game of ASL. Try this baby, and you'll find more than a mere scenario; you'll get a new favorite. Belate your pleasure no further! PLAY IT.
Edited 2/23/11 for nuance and rhythmic impact.
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Paul Franklin-Bihary
United States
Seattle
Washington
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One of my favorite things about ASL is the fact that I learn something about WWII every time I play the game.
I've played a lot of other wargames, and this is generally the case with all of them. When you play the game, you are teaching yourself about an aspect of that war without reading massive tomes in the oftentimes boring genre of History. Of course, you will never replace the accuracy and extensiveness of a good history book with a game, but you can still learn quite a bit from running through a scenario or two.
The thing that makes the learning of history through games the most interesting to me is the subtlety of what is learned. I may not learn the specific dates that a shift in tactics happened or a new technology was introduced into a conflict, but I can actually see the impact of these historic moments on the gameplay and learn about the effects of these aspects on history in a very enjoyable fashion.
All wargames do this to some degree, but ASL does it with a level of detail that surpasses many others. Every scenario has the little paragraph of historic background and the 'aftermath' on the scenario card, of course, putting that particular engagement in the context of the entirety of the war. But the game also sometimes illustrates the power of certain weapons, terrain and even battlefield tactics on the overall outcome of the battle in ways that I mentioned above. If you take the time to read the historical notes on the vehicles and ordnance of the war provided in the rules, you just kick it up another notch. This game drips with historical info, and I've learned more about the reality of WWII from playing it than I ever did in school, by a long shot.
This is just another reason why I can't stop loving and playing this game.
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Paul Franklin-Bihary
United States
Seattle
Washington
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1) It has the word 'Advanced' in the name of the game.
2) It replicates every theater of war, in virtually every country involved, with virtually every different kind of land unit used in the war (including a few air and water units), on practically any possible terrain, with every kind of weapon and wrinkle that WWII had to offer. Except for, perhaps, really hot 1940's European, North African, Australian and Asian women (and men, dare I say) who pulled soldiers AWOL from battle.
3) The leader units have names, and one of the Americans is named Aaron, and that is the name of one of my best friends.
4) Rate of Fire.
5) Heat of Battle.
6) Snipers.
7) Concealment.
8) Sewer Movement.
9) Booby Traps. (He said, "Booby!")
10) More scenarios than I'll ever be able to play in my lifetime, and they keep on coming.
11) There's even a scenario where Jews get to kick some SS ass.
12) If you like 'loosely based on' scenarios, there are a significant number that give the flavor of the war. If you like historically accurate scenarios, there are multiple HASL modules to keep you happy.
13) The ASL Starter Kits exist, and make the game much more accessible to non-grognards like me.
14) Every scenario has a paragraph or more of historical background and aftermath that has taught me more about WWII than any schooling I've ever had.
15) The rulebook is longer than the last book I read.
16) Despite the length of the rules, the game plays remarkably smoothly and easily and is a hell of a lot of fun unless the dice are being mean.
17) Finnish troops. Really? FINNISH troops? (And a soon-to-be-finished Finnish core module? REALLY???)
18) VASL.
19) Even better for a person like me with a job and a family with a child, PBEM VASL.
20) I'm sure I could think of more, but if this doesn't cover it, then I just metaphorically rolled two sixes.
This game rulez.
Period.
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Paul Franklin-Bihary
United States
Seattle
Washington
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Since I'm still relatively new to ASL, I have a lot of problems when I'm choosing a scenario.
Sadly, I don't have a huge ASL collection yet. I came in to the system late, so I've been waiting on MMP to reprint most of the core modules. This is the least of my problems, though, because I still have a hell of a lot of ASL scenarios. I have been semi-religiously buying all the Action Packs and Scenario Bundles, and even getting some old ASL Annual scenarios from a secondary source. So my problem isn't so much that I don't have enough scenarios, it's more that I don't have enough scenarios that I can actually play with my limited gear. There are still enough scenarios in my closet that it take a long time to go through them all to find the ones that I can actually play. VASL makes this part of the process a lot easier, since I can use any unit or overlay or whatever I want.
This leads to my next problem; I am still new to many rules as well. I want to play as many different kinds of scenarios as possible, but I usually gravitate towards ones that are 'simple' because I get a little bit scared about trying to teach myself a new game concept. I'm currently playing U9, "A Belated Christmas", which includes glider landings, and it took some time and effort (and the creation of a 'cheat sheet') to be able to play. I'm always glad I persevere whenever I bite off a new rule, because it adds yet another layer of wow to the game, but it creates a lot more work and sometimes I just want to play the game. I'd love to try a Night scenario with extreme weather and SSRs up the wazoo, but that is still quite a lot to handle for a self-taught beginner. So, I've been trying to choose the next scenario by selecting one with one or two new concepts at a time, but this just adds to the selection time trying to figure out which one fits best.
Next, I genuinely want to play every scenario I own, and replay some of my favorites as well. How does one choose when one wants it all? A gigantic 15 turn monster with 80+ units, OBA, wind, burning buildings and so many SSRs that they are printed in 4-point font? Sounds delicious! A simple 5-turn infantry only afternooner? I need a diet; that sounds delicious as well! My personal difficulty in weeding out contenders just makes it more challenging to choose.
Finally, the ROAR factor. There are some instances when I choose a scenario that just looks badass, but I hop onto ROAR and find out that it is really low-rated or horribly one-sided, and I decide not to go there. This always bums me out. I enjoy playing scenarios that are not perfectly balanced occasionally, but usually it is more fun for me and my regular opponent if they will be close. I know that I could use the balance provisions on the scenario, but I like to play it raw the first time, and pretty much every scenario I play is the first time. ROAR is a blessing and a curse. I have finally started to log my games on it to help add to the statistical diversity.
Regardless of the challenge, I do, in a sick and twisted way, really enjoy whipping out a few ASL boxes, riffling through the scenarios, and going through this agonizing process every time a new game is in the cards. Maybe I shouldn't complain at all. This is also part of the beauty of the game of ASL. This process of elimination, of discovery, of cross-referencing and analysis, is yet another layer that adds to the joyful madness that is this game. So, after all this typing, I guess I should just leave it at that. I like the fact that it is hard to choose my next scenario.
What about you?
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