Just a quick update based on notes I've been able to make during downtimes at work. Speaking of which, I'm at the end of my contract finally, finishing next Friday so hopefully I'll be able to get back into a groove of painting for the next couple of weeks.

Boardgaming:

Playing ASL PbeM is fun: it takes about 5 minutes to do a new log each day and with the smaller scenarios you can get quite a way in a very short space of time. What I've been hoping to do but have had little success is generate some live time on Virtual ASL or VASL. The biggest problem being scheduling mutually acceptable dates and times for play particularly when it comes to scenario choices.

Just as I found with playing John recently, the immersion in ASL can mean that one is always interested in new shiny ASL, and so it's proved. I've just ordered Critical Hit's Tigers to the Front, Sudden Full Contact (Sounds like a really bad Steven Seagal movie) and Devils in the Woods to go along with Hell's Bridgehead and Volume 6 nr 4.

Unfortunately Devils in the Woods is unavailable at this point in time but all the rest has been shipped just in time for the end of my contract with Studylink. Woot! hopefully I'll be able to see just how nice the Hell's Bridgehead Kursk maps are, particularly with the new style palette, plus it looks to be a really interesting situation, which is a departure from my usual interest level in things Kursk.

Miniatures gaming:

Nothing really comes to mind of late, particularly with the amount of unforeseen extra work I've had crop up over the last few weeks. I have managed to sort out the necessary mix of resene test colours to match the existing FJ bases Wayne T painted so that's a good 12 or so hours saved right there. As far as this year's Panzerschreck, I doubt very much that I'll be fielding anything other than Late War Brits (Cromwells mainly) with some minor infantry support (two - three platoons of motor infantry), purely because the Fjs aren't ready (still!) and the LW brits are as close to finished as I can get them without busting something important.

Online fora:

As always, I spent a fair bit of time each evening catching up with a few gaming fora - admittedly not to the same extent I once did with mailing lists (a peak of 70 such gaming lists at one point) but I've almost ceased bothering with some that I used to frequent on a daily basis or more. The Miniatures Page is basically a waste of space, and there are better discussions and links to real gaming material on more user-friendly boards and blogs. In fact I was surprised at just how informative trawling through a couple of 28 mm focused boards was in terms of quality articles on terrain module building.

Panzerschreck

Panzerschreck rapidly approaches, and I'm about to spend a little bit of time working on a quick wee websiite for it. I'm pretty sure I'll have my Late War Brits ready in time, I just hope I can get the terrain finished as well.

Boardgaming wise I pretty much just surf Consimworld these days amusing myself at the catfighting and general bitchiness. In fact the most informative place for boardgaming I find is not a bulletin board/discussion forum but a mailing list, Charles Vasey's Perfidious Albion. Other than that I hardly ever bother with the 'Geek or Webgrognards but the ASL forums are pretty much a decent enough haunt on a daily basis.

Just picked up the final hardcover edition of the six volume series from Arms and Armour Press (for less than 1/3 of the price I had considered spending for it!



Hard Cover, Published 1974 by Arms and Armour Press, 98 pages, includes many black and white photos and colour illustrations.

Over 100 superb colour profiles and views of tanks, and 90 black and white photos illustrate this detailed reference work. Described and pictured are the camouflage & markings of the armoured vehicles that fought in North Africa from the first Italian campaigns and the German advance to El Alamein to the final Allied victories that drove the Axis into the sea.

The contents are: comparative colour swatches; Italian armour camouflage & markings 1940-43; British armour camouflage & markings 1940-43; the birth of the DAK; German armour camouflage & markings 1941-43; American armour camouflage & markings 1942-43.

So now I have hardcovers of Panzer Colours, Blitzkrieg, British Tank Markings, The Eastern Front, D-Day to Berlin and North Africa to go laong with the various Histoire and Starmer titles. It's only taken me 25 years top get hold of all 6 but better late than never.

Hell's Bridgehead: Clash along the Psel River. July 1942

It had to happen, after years of avoiding Kursk as a subject to bother with (overrun as it is with the SS fanboys), I've finally bitten the bullet and grabbed Critical Hit's Hell's Bridgehead module and volume 6/4 that focuses on it. I think I may well have just put the game on the shelf as a conversation piece and not even thought about playing it until I actually read the designer's notes and most importantly Kurt Martin's irreverent and amusing piece on the playtest. Sure it was written back in 2002 but it's the type of off the wall commentary style that works for me, and I love the reference to the "Kursk Blues Cafe". I can see why HB has garnered so much praise and positive feedback and I'm glad I made the decision to buy it and the relevant issue. The best thing is that what map and rules errata has been corrected in the 2nd Edition and the new map style is ver' pretty indeed:



The scenarios are a good mix, not too small, not too big with at least three proper CGs. Plus there are the scenarios in the magazine that use the K2 map which is almost as pretty (no pic of K2 sorry). There's so much material here for great ASL games (especially once I look at playing some of the Schelling mini-CGs from the ASL journal on different aspects of Kursk. Thankfully I doubt I'll be spending gratuitous amounts on supplementary reading (mostly the KOSAVE , Glantz and Zetterling books) but I think I've found the necessary inspiration to actually do that Mid war Soviet army for Flames that I've been holding off on. Not sure I really want to build an army that has anything to do with Totenkopf or Das Reich however.

Lots of reading in 6/4 to take note of and some interesting additional scenarios outside the focus on Kursk - including a look at the Japanese airborne assault on Palembang airfield. Now to sort through all the existing errata and check 7/3 for additional material using the Kursk maps or even Tigers to the Front. The K2 mapsheet could well be used as the basis for some more non-HASL designs.

I'm glad in a way I took such a long time to look at CH stuff again - I'd lost the most severe of the negative pre-conceptions and so I've been very pleased with the advances in presentation and general feel. I may have to invest in a few destroyed tiggers and panthers for the tabletop anyway.

P-J

The bocage rules in ASL never held as much fear for me as they have for others. It's notable how my interest in the American actions behind the beaches on D-Day and afterwards has gradually increased. I can point to the series replay of an old SL-COI tourney scenario in the General magazine that first made me look at the airborne ops behind Utah and gradually I've developped more of an interest in the US sector of D-Day, although I still struggle to throw off the negativity of the Longest Day and SPR in terms of association with the worst kind of jingoistic pap.

Thankfully Balkoski and adnittedly BoB have helped a lot, but rather than focus on the beaches (particularly Omaha) it's the actions on D+1 to about D+8 that really hold my eye. Hence the easy decision to acquire the latest issue of Critical Hit magazine as it includes Busting the Bocage, a look at the fighting inland from Pointe du Hoc post the cliff assault. Now while the smaller ASL scenarios don't really appeal, there's a lot to be said for BtB as an accessible series of games particularly as the mapsheet is so much better in terms of rendering the Normandy countryside than any geomorphic collection of generic boards.

If anything doing this terrain for Flames of War would be very easy and useful for many games. I'm not fussed on the actual Bocage scenarios or tabletop area for FoW, but then I'm not one for typical FoW games. lots of potential for applying some decent scartchbuiling techniques here particularly if I can get hold of certain materials I've seen used and recommended for building proper looking bocage.

Here's a pic of the map (sorry it's not the best picture):



I'm sure I'll end up having to build some Rangers and US paras at some point.

P-J

Between the return to work and real life issues, I've just not had the chance to do anything other than play a little Pbem ASL and look at the pretty modules that have all arrived. Oh my there's some really nice stuff out there from Critical Hit and I'm still only catching up with stuff from 2002-2006!

The first lot to arrive was Tigers To the Front - a look at Soviet attacks on the "Panther" Line in Army Group North just as Bagration destroyed Army Group Centre (June 44) to the south. Talk about serious eye candy and potential for some excellent Face to Face play once I get to the Paddington Bears meetings. The cool thing is that there are enough scenarios that I can play via PBem on small suibset maps while I get my head around the new map which is very very nice. I'm not usually a real fan of Late War Eastern Front Heavy Metal but this has sold me on the idea - and it's Rural terrain - so much more a fan of that than urban terrain (after a diet of urban/ruined city terrain I definitely needed a change).

So here's the Tigers to the Front map:



I'd so love to do some generic terrain for Flames of War using this as a basis - but it's at least 3-4 six by four tables worth to get the right look - say a 16 by 6 area of 2feet by 4 feet modular terrain. Way too grandiose but it needs to be done and should be done. Speaking of terrain, I really need to think about spending way too much money again and picking up the Touching History books on terrain making ideas. Okay they're pretty eye candy and made for 28mm aficionados primarily but there are some very good formative ideas explained in layman's terms particularly well.

P-J

When it rains, it pours. Ended up going home early from work on the Monday after John left, having damaged my back shifting stuff around. As it was, I've had to take 7 days off work, undergo physiotherapy and generally have been unable to do much other than rest my back. Painting is a definite no-no at this time until I can arrange a proper seating arrangement, and even then I'm unable to paint for anything more than 15 minutes at a time.

John's last day before he headed off back to Taiwan and we managed to get two scenarios done in the day, a nice way to round out John's visit. Helps that I won a game or two towards the end which brought my win loss record for the week to 4 and 5. I can live with that, John's still a very good player, so anything better than a 33% win ratio is good as far as I'm concerned.

The end of the working week and things are just percolating along nicely...I'll probably start planning a much more focused attempt at getting some painting done in the evenings for the next few weeks as I get ready to end my current contract. I bought an el cheapo table for gaming with John which is pretty well perfect to use as a painting table in the evenings and is basically low maintenance. Played another scenario tonight with John: Monty's Mess from the Out of The Attic set. It must be just my familiarity with the subject matter and terrain that makes me view everyday type ASL scenarios set in Arnhem - Oosterbeek on geomorphic boards with a degree of scepticism and even a bit of a yawn.

Came home from work today to find my copy of the Critical Hit 1997 Special Edition had arrived from Canada. I bought this purely for the Dzerhezinsky Tractor Works content and I'm happy enough with the price I paid, given the issue is long out of print. It was interesting to see that there was some extra material for Platoon Leader 2.1 which I can easily retrofit into PL2.5a if needed.

My next order of business is to get hold of the actual module for the Tractor Works so I can go ahead and look at correcting the issues of play balance and clarifications that personified this particular era of Critical Hit. Now all I'm looking forward to is the arrival of Issue 7.3 and Stalin's Fury over the next few days - My copy of CH's Hell's Bridgehead is waiting on confirmation of the availability of Issue 6/4.

I'm pretty sure I'll be purchasing a few more products over trhe next few months, probably just to catch up with things again, but I may go nuts and get hold of the Berlin Module because I'm such a nut these days about Historical map sheets.

You'd think that a small module with only four scenarios would not be amongst my must buys, but Action at Carentan is definitely on my must buy to play list. That and Journal number 7 which has a lot of very enjoyable, smaller yet intriguing scenarios are probably going to feature a lot in any face to face games I get to play over the next few years, with the latter being probably the dominant series of scenario choices for VASL.