The Rebirth : ASL Deja Vu
The tournament was preceeded the night before by a demonstration
using the enlarged boards and big foamboard counters. Designer
Ken Dunn and I had over 24 students for the first hour. About
half that many stayed for a second hour of instruction.
The tourney format was single elimination with one assigned
scenario per round that was only announced after match-ups were
made. Players were matched randomly (those with copies of the
game vs those without) using squad counters for chit pulls. I
reiterated my intentions for the ASL Starter Kit tournament:
it was NOT intended for players with any significant amount of
relatively recent ASL experience. It was intended for players
who had played (or were playing) Squad Leader or players
who had played some ASL in the past but had given it up a while
ago.
Once matched, players determined sides randomly ("1-3,
I'm the Germans"). Then, if both players wanted to switch
sides, they could. I seriously considered using the ASL Balance
mechanism in picking sides but decided that would be more trouble
than it was worth, especially if I was going to be the one explaining
it.
Round 1 saw 14 playings of S1 Retaking Vierville: nine American
wins vs five German, as alternating groups of reinforcement groups
(minus support weapons) battle it out for the board y village.
Several very close adjudications could have gone either way,
most notably against Andres Dunn (son of designer Ken), as his
game came down to the last dice roll to see if Alan Dickson could
pass a 1MC for the win (he could). Lots of newbie rules questions
the whole round kept me hopping.
Round 2 saw 6 playings of S2 War of the Rats, as two first-round
winners withdrew. Four Russian wins vs two German, as the Germans
have to cross a Stalingrad street to take three buildings from
the outnumbered Russians. Lots fewer questions.
Round 3 saw the top six players (above) advance into close
combat against each other in S5 Clearing Colleville. The Germans
won all three games, and the better player won all three games,
as the Americans could not take the heart of the board y village
from the Germans and their heavy machine gun. Andrew Maly beat
Matt Kirschenbaum with a rate of fire tear from the heavy, Allen
Hill beat Alan Dickson in a close game, and Kevin Boles beat
Nathan Hill. Andrew had things well in hand fairly earlier on,
as he had in the first two rounds as well. He was actually my
pick to win the whole thing, as I knew him to be an excellent
player of whatever he picked up. He had played his share of SL
and ASL back in the day, but hadn't picked up an ASL rulebook
in years and hadn't played any of the Starter Kit scenarios.
He fit the mold for one of the types of players I was hoping
to encourage into the tourney and perhaps back into ASL.
With three undefeated players left, it looked like we were
going to five rounds, meaning six more hours on top of the nine
already invested. I had said at the start of the third round
that I would play one of the winners, but I decided that that
would not be fair. How would it look if one of them beat me?
So I recruited the grognardiest guy in the Hunt room, none
other than Bruno Sinigaglio, to match with Andrew. I sat down
with the three winners to explain what was coming up, but before
I could Andrew asked Kevin and Allen how much ASL experience
they had. Kevin had only had the ASLSK for less than a month
but had been working real hard at it with an experienced player.
Allen had played some SL back in the 80s and a bit of Solitaire
ASL since then, and had been playing the Starter Kit with his
son. Andrew then said that those two should battle it out for
first place, as he had way more ASL experience than they did
and already had WBC wood, and there was no need to bring in a
fifth round. I assured Andrew that we could accommodate five
rounds and that there was no need for him to drop out, but he
insisted on letting Allen and Kevin play for the championship.
I was secretly glad, because I didn't want to go to five rounds,
but disappointed that Andrew would not be in the final. Of course,
when I told him that I had lined up Bruno to play, he was all
ready to go for another scenario off the books.
The final round saw Allen Hill set up the defending Americans
in S4 Welcome Back, with Kevin attacking with the Germans. (Kevin:
"The one side out of 16 possibilities that I was afraid
to play.") Andrew (with another heavy machine gun to man)
was also defending against Bruno's Germans, who have to punch
through board y the short way and exit through the middle half
of the map, with a chance that snow will fall to help hinder
attacks.
In both games the Germans split their forces with a big group
to the left and a smaller group to the right where the American
heavy machine gun threatened to shut things down. In both games
the German left flank made good progress at the cost of heavy
casualties. On the other side, Andrew conceded the middle (figuring
he could collapse on the Germans there), whereas Allen conceded
the American far left flank, knowing that the attackers would
have to move towards the middle to exit. In both games the Germans
had the upper hand entering the end game, only to be stymied
by the desperation self rally of a key American squad.
In Andrew's game, his self-rallied squad and flamethrower
were then able to toast the enemy surrounding them, leaving Bruno
without enough troops to exit. In Allen's game his key self rally
over on the German left flank was quickly offset by malfunctioning
his centrally-located heavy machine gun that was covering the
German right flank. Careful maneuvering and good dice rolling
saw Kevin able to exit just enough of his force to win in a very
close game.
A great end to a successful event. Tourney highlights include:
a father and son team making it to the semi-finals (runner up
Allen Hill and 12-year old Nathan); adjudicating a game against
Andres, the son of my good friend Ken Dunn-that will teach Andres
to beat me in a Euro; watching several relatively more experienced
players guide their opponents through the first round game (including
newbie Chris Palermo helping clueless newbie Mark Yoshikawa make
it through their match); and nominating Andrew Maly for the Sportsman
Award.
I was very encouraged by the turnout for the demo and the
Starter Kit tourney. I look forward to doing it again next year
with Starter Kit #2 in Lancaster.
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