Recapping the year gone by is a tradition here at Grumble Jones. It's a great way to look back and recall the great ASL moments of the year that has ended. Most years are fairly similar in character with a few tournament games and a healthy dose of quality ASL with my long time opponent Dan Best. But 2024 was different and massively so. By year end, I will have played 168 games in 2024. My previous best year (2021) was 126. I will have averaged 3 games a week for the entire year. That's a helluva lot of ASL. The title picture above speaks to the weariness and exhaustion that frankly accompanies such a huge ASL commitment. In November, Dan and I would play 11 days in a row. And keep in mind that Dan's total games played will exceed 190 for the year.
Now playing that much ASL certainly has a lot of positives. It helps improve your game, your rules muscle memory and a host of other things that we associate with veteran players. But there are also some negative things that creep up. Dan and I both were increasingly impatient with things we don't like in scenarios like Dismantled Weapons, spending two turns to enter a board and get to the action, overlays, too many SSR's, mist, dust, and a host of other visibility issues and of course those scenarios that expect you to find joy in moving through open ground against an entrenched opponent. At the beginning of the year, these things don't trouble you so much...but after 100 games...yeah your patience fuse is cut pretty short. Dan and I also play fast. We don't dilly dally and we move into contact and get the fight going. ASL is not chess and I personally don't think it should be played that way. This means that a game that is supposed to take 8 hours will take us three. We are hyper focused during our game play and don't allow each other too much time to think things through. And we both love that about our game play. During a game with Paul Works this year he said to me that "Dan plays every scenario like it only has two turns." And I can vouch for that statement. Dan has made me a much better defender, because he comes at you hard and fast with everything. You slip up...cower or just roll bad and your goose is cooked!
"You gonna PREP Fire or whistle Dixie!?!"
As with most years, the Kansas City March Madness Tournament is usually the first big event of the year. I really look forward to it each year. So many friends and ASL acquaintances attend this event, that I usually feel very at home. The venue is great and the game room is spacious with plenty of room to move around and not disturb the table next to you when you move about the room.
Two of my all-time favorite opponents: Mike Bistodeau and Dan Best. Friends since my first ASL tournament in 2013.
I cannot recommend this tournament enough. If you are in the KC region in March...make it a point to attend. You will be glad that you did.
June would usher in the next big event, which was the Texas Team Tournament. Another great venue and outstanding event that brings so many great players to Austin. I've enjoyed this tournament each time that I have been able to attend. Great fun and so many opportunities to win something.
I still cherish the Audie Murphy Award glass that I won in 2013 for most snakes. Long time readers of this blog know what an accomplishment that was...as my dice have never been that lucky before or since.
Two notables of the ASL Community.
Roy Connelly moving around the room. I always enjoy our games against one other. Looking forward to our future contests.
In September I would host my first Invitational Tournament for some of my Kansas City buddies. It was a huge success and just a great weekend with friends and our spouses. It was a lot of work and not a few pennies, but well worth it. We all had a great weekend of ASL and time with each other.
It also gave me a great reason to break out my GEO-HEX (circa 1988), my Dragon Armor and a bunch of Airfix minis from a time...long...long ago.
I am profoundly grateful to have these men as my friends. It's truly great to have friends that share your interests. We are all passionate about ASL.
Following the Grumbler Tournament, Dan and I settled in for a long haul series of 3 and 4 game weekends. We tackled some scenario packs to complete them such as the Roma Pack, the recent Arnhem Pack and Kampfgruppe Peiper I. It's really satisfying to complete all the scenarios in a pack or a HASL module. Dan and I have both owned KGP since 1993 and had not played it. The opportunity to play the stuff we have accumulated over the years has been awesome. Dan owns 9,277 scenarios and has played 14% of his collection. I own 4,167 scenarios and have played 21% of my collection. With all the new product coming out each year, we'll never really get ahead. I'm aiming for 25%, which I hope to reach before my ASL playing days are gone.
The next looming objective for Dan and I is to complete 1000 games versus each other before Dan sets out on a hike of the PCT in 2027. Currently we have played 677 and have four more before year end. So going into 2025 we will have completed 681 games. And we have two years to play 319 games or 160 each of the next two years. It will be close as 160 games is a hard pace to maintain...but we will give it our best shot.
And now it's time for our good friend and blog editor, Doctor Rollwright to go over the year's statistics.
2024 was a very good year for me...I got knocked down a few times, but kept playing!!!
2024 was a tough year for the Grumble Jones blog. It took a bit of a backseat to actually playing ASL. with Dan and I playing 3-4 times a week, I simply did not have the time necessary for the AAR's. Each AAR averages bout 4-6 hours and I was lacking that for much of the year.
By the end of 2024, there will be a total of 893 posts on this blog. It feels like a lot and at times, I fear the blog has plateaued. Subscriptions to the blog area anemic 129...the Old Guard as I like to call them. These are the folks that this blog is truly dedicated to. The monthly average for blog views is at just over 4000. It's been at this number since roughly 2017. Growth among subscribers and viewers is non-existent these days. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Our community continues to age and younger gamers are not entering our community at a sufficient rate. In other words, our losses in the battle of life won't be filled by replacements. As to the future, the blog will certainly continue with monthly scenarios and AAR's from time to time. But it's not likely that you will see new content every Monday AM as was the case in previous years. My apologies for that reduction in content, but time and my own personal enthusiasm are down a bit. Bloggers blog best when they are inspired. So, I'll let inspiration be the guide for AAR's going forward.
One great positive in the blog stats for 2024 was he return to normal views. Whatever bot attack was coming from Singapore appears to have moved on. The 45,000 views in July of 2023 was crazy and not a single post was actually viewed. A very strange and unsettling period.
Above are the top 10 viewed blog posts. These are the posts that people are reading. Hube's Pocket is number one and number 7 is our playing of the Critical Hit Civil War ASL product. And of course Hill 621 is number 3. For reference, the average blog post receives between 150 and 300 views.
And now a look back at 2024's opponents.
Roy Connelly - Texas 2024
Matt Shostak - Texas 2024
Chris Kubick - Texas 2024
(Apologies Chris...I neglected to get your picture during our game.)
Richard Burton - March Madness 2024
Mike Bistodeau - March Madness 2024
James Treu - March Madness 2024
Randy Shurtz - March Madness 2024
Paul Works - Grumbler Invitational 2024
Dave Mareske - Texas & Grumbler 2024
Dave Lamb - Texas 2024
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Jeff DeYoung - Texas 2024
Dan Best - Opponent at large - 155 games in 2024
My thanks to all of my opponents this year!! Thanks for the great times we shared this year!
And thanks to you, the readers of this blog.
Thanks for spending your valuable time here at Grumble Jones. We will see you in 2025.
Great post! I aimed to get 60 done this year. I'll just be shy of that. Had some busy times interfere.
ReplyDeleteLike you, extensive SSRs are a turn off. Overlays used to be, but then I cut and sorted them all, now I don't really mind. But the worst are the terrain SSRs. "All hills are marsh, except that hill, which is a giant parking lot, and roads are bullies and bullies are elevated Rail Roads, and Elevate Rail Roads are Roads..."
You get what I mean.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year my friend!!
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