Episode 17: Monkey Business

It’s business as usual in the broadcast foxhole, which means our carefully laid plans to talk in-depth about Phases in ASL quickly fall apart amidst a lot of other monkey business. Still, we do finally get down to a good discussion of the pre-game sequence. We’ll be covering the rest of the phases (hopefully) next time. We hope you enjoy this one. Thanks for listening!

Show Guide:

• Listener feedback — We get a LOT of email. Sorry if you don’t get to yours on this show. We’re doing our best. Please keep writing!
• What’s in the Box — Another splendid offering from Schwerpunkt
• Scenario Report — What we’ve played recently
• Box Art — Egad! What can one say about it?
• ASOP: Pre-game Sequence — an in-depth look at what needs to happen before the first dice roll.

Show Links:

• Counter Culture — C4 Corner Cutter
• Schwerpunkt — Tampa Bay ASL Group
• ASL Scenario Archive — Monkey’s with Typewriters. Free Scenarios!
• Texas ASL Group — Great ASL newsletter
• Cheeta the Chimp

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ASL Extra #7: The Burial Mound

In this Extra Episode Mike Stubits plays Dave K. in AP 44 The Burial Mound. Set up your boards and follow along if you dare. Rich Spilky provides the neutral commentary in this after action report of a scenario that is on the ASL Open list. Hope you can learn something from this scenario analysis. You need boards 56, 57, and 58. Don't have all the boards? You can look them up as VASL or click here.

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Episode 16: Happy Mortars Day

It’s Spring! A time when a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of . . . mortars? Well, that’s where our thoughts have turned. It’s too early (at least here in mid-western North America) to bring out the gardening tools, so instead we celebrate the season by hauling out another handy tool — the mortar. Test your knowledge (and endurance) with our mortar quiz show.

Also in this episode:

• What’s in the Box? — it’s something from the Tampa Bay ASL group. Can you say “Schwerpunkt“?
• History — about the . . . hmm, we can’t pronounce it, so how can we type it?
• Listener Feedback
• And lots more

 

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Episode 15: Dalton, Part 2

After too long a break, we are back with the next exciting installment. And here we are very happy to announce The 2 Half-Squads t-shirts!

We can’t remember what made us think anyone would want to admit — let alone advertise — they listen to this podcast, but here they are, and to tell the truth, they’re pretty darn nice shirts. If you want one, here’s how to order.

1. Send us an email stating how many and what size(s) you want and your shipping address.
2. We’ll email you back to let you know if your shirt(s) is available.
3. Make a donation on this site ($20 for each shirt in the continental USA, $30 everywhere else).
4. We’ll email you when your shirt(s) ship.
5. Go to your front door and start watching for the mail man.

We also have a little conversation with Keith Dalton from MultiMan Publishing to see what’s up in 2009 for ASL.

There’s also a “What’s in the Box” segment, covering Action Pack 5: Eastern Front.

Dig it!

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ASL Extra #6: Mayhem In Manila

Join us for a great game of scenario A103 MAYHEM IN MANILA. Two excellent and well respected players give us a glimpse of their thought and strategies as Bob Holmstrom’s Japanese try to defend a stone building or two from Bob Miller’s attacking Americans. You need deluxe boards a-d to follow along (or just a good imagination, or go on VASL and look at the boards there). Addendum: Click on the link on Will’s name in the comments section. It is a link to the board set up.

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Episode 14: The Spilky Way

Happy New Year to all from The 2 Half-Squads! It’s going to be a great year for ASL, thanks in part to the efforts of our guest today, Rich Spilky. Rich is a long-time ASLer with a passion for finding better ways to play the game. And to him that means simplifying the decoding of complicated rules and complex circumstances. Available for download at the link below, Rich has created a variety of tables and charts that clearly present results for common situations that might otherwise cause lengthy and abstruse delving into The Rule Book.

So download Rich’s Player Aid Pack and read along as Rich discusses the utility of these great player aids. It’s ASL smarter, faster, better. It’s ASL The Spilky Way. (Rich Spilky’s email address is richspilky@comcast.net)

We also have a great book report from Dave, who just finished reading not one, but TWO ASL scenario builders handbooks (generously donated to us by a listener from Anchorage, Alaska). There’s also listener feedback AND we announce the soon-to-be-available T2HS t-shirts.

Oh yeah. It’s going to be a GREAT year for ASL!

Links for this episode

• Rich Spilky’s Player Aid pack
• The Official War Journal of the Philippines Historical Boardgamers Club
• Scenario Designer’s Handbook by Michael Dorosh
• Scenario Designer’s Guide by Mark Pitcavage
• Mark Pitcavage’s Desperation Morale web site
• Dave King’s C4 Corner Cutter

Jay Richardson’s excellent ASL Starter Kit tutorials, parts 1 through 5 on BoardGameGeek.com

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

Triple Point Blank Fire

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