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Keith Medlin
United States
Holly Springs
North Carolina
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Storage for ASL is a bear. A quick rundown of all the modules, boards, counters, boxes, scenarios and rules is hardly needed to begin thinking through this puzzle.
So, why write about this when it's already been written about before by countless others? Simply put...there are as many ways to "do it right" as there are ASL players. I am in the middle of rebuilding my storage and, therefore, my thoughts on the subject are timely.
Plain Ole' Planos...
The most popular trend of wargame storage has been the Plano. Since the first fisherman/wargamer renaissance man figured out those lure containers make great counter storage solutions because of their customize-able bins it's been the go-to choice. Variations have emerged such as RAACO and even home-made match-box solutions. All are fantastic...provided you have the space.
My Plano storage solution looked like this:
3x Administrative Counters
2x German/Finn
1x German SS
2x British
2x American
2x French
1x Allied Minor
1x Axis Minor
1x Italian
2x Chinese
2x Japanese
Yes...that's 20 whopping Planos. Now you've got to split up counters in such a way that they're relatively easy to find and grouped together in often strange configurations (All Tank Destroyers in 1 bin for example). Or Pz III counters in one bin. Well...there are about 8 or 9 variations on those Pz III tanks and you're digging through a pile of 25 counters to find the 2 of your variation!
Furthermore, you add in rulebooks, scenario books, dice cup/tower, notebook, dice, and pencil/pen and you've got a massive tub of ASL. In fact, I had 2 full to the brim tubs of ASL gear. Heavy too!
It got me thinking about moving the stuff to a new home, condensing it's storage footprint, and cataloging the counters in some way to make it all more manageable and less...well...like fishing.
Helloooo #1 Coin Envelopes!
#1 Coin Envelopes are 2.5" x 3" little manilla envelopes. They can hold about 15-20 1/2" counters or about 8 5/8" counters comfortably. They are pretty thin, and Avery 22806 labels (2" x 2") fit on them perfectly. Of note, they fit into baseball card storage corrugated storage boxes perfectly.
A guy that plays ASL near me showed off his system a few months back and the thought has been nagging at me ever since. There has to be a better way to deal with ASL! I had to get some priorities first and address those things up front.
I want my storage system to:
1 - Store my ASL stuff safely.
2 - Reduce the load, weight, and footprint of my ASL gear
3 - Make it easier to find counters for scenario set-up & play
4 - Not hurt the ease of access that Planos have for those 'in-play' moments when you ELR.... err ... Hero Create...yeah that's it!
So let me address each of these in order with the Coin Envelope System.
1 - Coin Envelopes are acid free which means the paper who bleed out the color on the things you store inside it. Since the envelopes will be touching front and back on the counters it's critical that they don't cause undo wear. My sweaty fingers will do that on their own over time!
Coin Envelopes fit perfectly into a baseball card storage box which means that you have a nice way to give a hard outer shell to the envelopes. Since a fully packed card storage box weighs next to nothing when filled with the ASL counters, dropping it won't mean counters all over the place like a dropped Plano will.
2 - The Germans have the largest OOB in the ASL world. I used just shy of 300 envelopes to catalog all of them which fit nicely into 2.5 baseball card boxes. The boxes are about 18" long and stack really well. In fact, I can slip both the German OOB and Russian OOB into an old laptop case and I've got all of BV ready to go where I go.
Weight wise, There are far more storage options for me than big rubbermaid bins. In fact, bags, backpacks, etc. all become reasonable travel options. The weight reduction alone is worth it. My German & Russians in Planos were 5 separate Planos. That was a lot of plastic and air to carry around everywhere. The other nice thing is that I can put out all the German & Russian OOB on a game table which is not possible with Planos because you'd have to stack them.
3 - You probably choked when you saw "just shy of 300 envelopes," but I catalog this way:
* 1 envelope per 15 1/2" counter
* 1 envelope per Gun or Armor Type (slight variations share in some cases where 1 variant has no CMG and another does for example)
* Every envelope has an Avery Label with the counter's image on it along with the unit designation (Pz VG, PaK 36, etc.) so when you're flipping through the boxes you can identify the ones you want quickly.
I separate Infantry by Squad, Half Squad, SMC by Troop/Leader Quality descending.
I separate Guns by type (AA, ART, RCL, INF, AT, etc.) by caliber ascending.
I separate Armor by family, variant, and caliber ascending.
I separate each of the sections with a notecard indicating what can be found in the section (example: Armor < 50)
It's a lot to get set up, but once you've got the cataloging down you know exactly how to put your hands on exactly the counters you need. Furthermore, you can lay out your potential ELR and HS envelopes prior the start of the game for just the units you know you'll need.
It makes cleanup a cinch since you're just putting things back into the baggies.
4 - I know I've said a lot about wanting to get away from the Plano. There isn't a better way I know of, however, for storing the administrative counters. They are easy to pick up and put away out of a Plano. So sue me! I like my Planos for a lot of things, but unit counter storage in ASL isn't one of them.
If a Plano is the right tool for the job...use it!
I know this is a lot of information all at once about storage solutions. It's dry and a bit...well...unhinged, but I assure you that it's worth being open to other methods for storing your ASL collection because as I said before...there are as many great ways to store them as there are ASL players. My hope is that this will give you some insight into the Coin Envelope method of storage and perhaps inspire you to change the way you archive and access all those wonderfully devilish counters that make up the cardboard battlefield.
Unitl Next Time... Roll Low!
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