ASL Starter Kit #1

I bit the bullet and sniped one from eBay on the cheap (about 10% off retail from MMP). I think this will just age on my shelf for a few weeks or months--it's just good to know it's there. There is a local grognard that will have a stroke when he finds out I've expressed some interest here, so I have the coaching thing covered. From Barnes' article--I assume a guide is important.

Wish me luck!

Eh, you can work it out on your own, it's not that hard to learn...it's not any more difficult than a FFG game. Everything makes sense, which helps, but the difficult is in some of the details and remembering to stick to process.

Good luck. A guide is more than helpful. I've been considering the plunge into ASL and Beyond Valor. I play the original Squad Leader but every time I attempt to get into my Crescendo of Doom and GI Anvil of Victory modules I become discouraged. The rules became way too convoluted. This is the reason I was put off ASL because it came out right after Anvil. AH basically admitted that Anvil was shipped more or less broken and was just a stop gap.

The starter kits look perfect for a new player and you should give it a go on your own if WW2 tactical combat is of interest to you. The rules are really a lot easier to pick up than everyone moans about. Once you get into a few rounds it all sort of falls into place. From what I understand the rulebook is only 12 pages. Don't be put off by the accronyms as they are necessary to actually making things easier to digest. The infantry rules and the phase sequence really do make sense once you start playing.

Read the rules once over then set up the first scenario and try it yourself with the rules handy.

Pat, ASL came out to fix those problems with Crescendo of Doom and GI: Anvil of Victory. That's mainly why I've stuck with original SL: I wouldn't have to buy ASL right after buying Crescendo and Anvil.

--Mike L.

Yeah it's kind of a rock and a hard place. After investing in all of the original modules and realizing that shortly after I would need to invest into a new system it seemed like such a waste. I was already starting to see the GW approach of outdating all of their products with new ones and was weary of another trap. I have now seen that over the years that wasn't the case and ASL is the game the original was meant to be.

Seeing as how many years have passed I can feel comfortable in looking into purchasing ASL without much regret. I think I'm ready.

The main problem I have now is wanting to get into some Market Garden or Ortona scenarios and just get the life sucked out of me reading through the many unwanted rules in the old system of rule presentation. In the first SL set it worked fine but once you got into Cross of Iron I found I was skipping too many minor of the obscure rules, when the scenario at the end of each section would always feature said obscure rule.

I still play the first 12 scenarios though.

I am happy to teach anyone to play with the Starter Kit rules using VASL. Send me a FA Message.

TedTorgerson wrote:

I am happy to teach anyone to play with the Starter Kit rules using VASL. Send me a FA Message.

I might take you up on this. I have a set coming in about a week, I'll bone up a little and send you an IM.

Thanks!

Interesting to see you here, Ted, I saw you quit BGG awhile back. We played a POG game some time ago...

My best advice for learning this game is to just keep plugging away. I learned through a combination of watching VASL games here and there, reading and re-reading the rules over and over, browsing the full ASL rulebook, reading some replay articles, rinse, repeat.

It is fairly unlike any other game system, so it seems scarier than it really is. Once you grok the fundamentals, it all sort of makes sense in a very clean way.

Not to say I don't need the rulebook a fair amount for little details, and I have not even attempted the vehicle rules, but by and large it is an intuitive system... once you get it.

Just set up the first scenario and play it solo. After a few turns, you will immediately understand the flow of the game, how much sense it actually makes, and just how expansive and ripe with possibility it is!

Enjoy!

Interesting to see you here, Ted, I saw you quit BGG awhile back.

I'm like a bad penny. I always turn up. I'm over on ConSim a bit and playing some at wargameroom and VASL.

We played a POG game some time ago...

I remember that one! As I recall you had every VP space in Russia, except the Odessa or Riga fort held out for 3 or 4 siege turns. I think it came down to a very fotunate reshuffle that gave me Grand Fleet to cancel your High Seas Fleet. Great game.

MMP really needs to reprint Paratrooper. It could serve as the intermediate stepping stone from ASL SK to ASL.

I just got my starter kits yesterday (#1 infantry and #3 vehicles; #2 is out of print). I'm well pleased with the quality of the components and feel that I'm getting my money's worth. I haven't read the rules yet but look forward to trying out a solo game or two soon to see how it plays.

BigLizard wrote:

I just got my starter kits yesterday (#1 infantry and #3 vehicles; #2 is out of print). I'm well pleased with the quality of the components and feel that I'm getting my money's worth. I haven't read the rules yet but look forward to trying out a solo game or two soon to see how it plays.

Hey there, BigL. I just want to point you towards the really nice guided tutorials to ASL Starter Kits by Jay Richardson. The ones I'm referring to are all called An ASLSK Tutorial (Part ?) and have about 50-100 thumbs. They are nice tidy walkthroughs, with excellent explanations of why things are the way they are. For example, Americans soldiers have a lower morale level than ~equivalent~ British or German units. We're they pussies? No, they just had a tendency to head for cover compared to those other units, who were more likely to start returning fire. Hence, an American unit breaks more easily than a German one. You're still thinking this sucks, but Americans broken morale level is much better than the Germans' broken morale level. The American unit is much more likely to just flip right back over and start shooting the place up. A broken German unit is one that is very likely quite panicked or damaged, and will not recover easily once broken.

They've been great for learning the game without a coach.