Walloons to the Rescue Playtest

Well the play test is completed and the scenario definitely needs some tweeks. Degrelle and the Walloons are nigh unstoppable until they penetrate the woods, but even then the 10-3 is difficult to slow down.

The play balance was far better between the Partisans and the Luftwaffe Field Division squads. Of course that is part of the challenge for the Partisan player. He occupies the central position and can certainly mass to deal a knockout blow to the Luftwaffe squads, before turning full attention on the Walloons.

All in all, not a bad game, but again could be better.

Walloons to the Rescue Playtesting

Well, after two complete turns, Walloons to the Rescue is playing pretty well. I did forget to add SAN and ELR to the scenario, but these shouldn't detract too much from the game play. Not having a sniper probably hurts the Partisans the most, especially given the heavy woods and lots of juicy German officers to take out.

As for balance, 24 squads of Partisans simply doesn't go as far as I had originally thought. The Walloons are pretty tough. The Luftwaffe boys are well balanced to face the Partisans. But the Walloons are some tough hombres and after 2 turns are showing that they may be fairly unstoppable..at least until they begin to head into the forest.

So turns 3 and 4 should be interesting next week.

Wednesday!!

Wednesday is game night via SKYPE. Tonight's scenario is Walloons to the Rescue. This will be the first play test of this homegrown scenario.

Primary thing we will be looking for tonight is an acceptable balance of the forces. The Walloons might be a tad too powerful, especially given the addition of 2 half-tracks. But the mission itself is a bit of a bug hunt, and the burden of hunting is on the Germans.

Should be fun!

Super Bowl Sunday

Today is a day for catching the big game and maybe working on some ideas for new scenarios. Considering putting together a spreadsheet of years, theaters, campaigns, battles and participants along with different types of battles from meeting engagements, to control of objectives, to moving off the board, to destroying the other side.

Will post it here once it's good and ready. The idea will be to help spur some creative scenario design.

ASL Starter Kit 3

One of the ongoing frustrations is finding a reasonably priced copy of the ASL Starter Kit 3. The Starter Kits have been a great way to get back into ASL and relearn some of the many rules that have been forgotten or...well ignored...for the better part of 13 years.

Anyway...it looks like MMP doesn't plan on getting a new batch in for a while. And the folks selling these on E-Bay are out to gouge for as much as they can. One dude has a buy it now for over $160.- .  Ridiculous to say the least, but apparently some people are willing to cough up that kind of cash.

Let's hope that MMP gets some new one back from the publisher sometime in 2011.

Favorite Side to Take in Squad Leader

Everybody has a nationality that they prefer to play in ASL. Some like the Americans, others the Brits or the Japanese. The reasons we like a particular nationality are equally varied. For many years, I had an opponent who hated the Germans and would never play them. I on other hand love to play the Germans, so always enjoyed squaring up against the German hating opponent.

But I must admit that I don't win with the Germans as often I do with the Americans. My win percentage playing the Americans is much higher. Some of that may be related to the circumstances of the individual scenario. Of course the Americans have that great ability to rally and one of my strange gaming quirks is an uncanny ability to rally. This skill is thoroughly frustrating to my regular opponents. Naturally, they too have quirks like rolling rate of fire again and again and oh again. One can only rally so many times before the fifth rate of fire morale check finally DM's you.

How about you...what are your favorite nationalities to play and what gaming quirk do you have that your gaming buddies find annoying, amazing or both?

First Attempt at Scenario Design

ASL Scenario AP31 First Cristot from ASL Action Pack# 4 NORMANDY

The inspirations for my blog name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E._Jones

Snowed in...

Well the blizzard of 2011 is still rolling through Tulsa. So looks like a great day to work on ASL Scenarios. I have made a few over the past 30 years. They have ranged from very small recon skirmishes to all out campaigns. The most ambitious was done in 1981 and was a Squad Leader (Cross of Iron) fight of the Cherkassy Breakout of 1944. We literally mapped the whole thing out and then positioned the forces inside and outside the pocket. We then would decide at what point we wanted to game and would get out the boards and the forces dispositioned there and fight it out. Off-board artillery was based on the artillery available in the real Order of Battles. It was a cumbersome game and we of course never finished, but the concept actually worked and we had a great time.

Another mega scenario was based on German attempts to breakout from Budapest in 1945. It was a massive battle and tremendous fun. The losses on both sides were staggering. I've never played another scenario where I lost over 80 tanks and still had a huge force on the field. The Germans actually won the game after landing glider born SS at the juncture between my Soviet and Romanian forces. A German armored thrust led by Panthers and Tigers punched through at the same point. My Romanians were no match for the SS and my force of 24 T-34's thrown point blank at the Panzer Wedge were brushed aside. My heavy KV's couldn't reach the point of attack as I had them on the right flank and there was just too much board to move down. The Germans were able to open a breach and held it for the 1 full turn and it was game over for the Soviets.

So today, I'll look at creating a nice one board, 5 turn scenario that shows a little more ASL wisdom.