Vietnam: More time was spent on the Mang Yang Pass map. Hopefully I will have this finished for the weekend. I'll post some screenshots of it when I am finished detailing.

Vietnam: Most of the evening was spent on the Mang Yang Pass map. I am nearly have 90% of the road network, hydrology and towns complete and have started adding the contours. The ability to have 19 elevation levels now is extremely useful in this mountainous terrain.

I never knew you could put a price on a season, but clearly you can.

This has been one of the most remarkable summers ever. So far, the New York region has endured five 90 degree plus heat waves, with a sixth heat wave underway as I write this! As I’ve written before, this is highly unusual for Long Island. If we get one – maybe two – heat waves during the course of the summer, it is remarkable. Heck, last summer never even heated up until the last week of July, and even then it didn’t break 90 degrees once. And, of course, it was all over by the third week of August.

But here I sit, hot and sweaty on the last day of August, for a sixth session of unrelenting heat. Incredible. If it was the 1990’s, something like this might have persuaded me that all the global warming talk was on to something.

Anyway, back to the $63 dollar price tag.

I just received my electric bill. Now, this bill is budgeted according to actual energy usage the previous year, along with current usage and estimated usage until the end of the budget calendar. Yeah…it can be little more than a lot of inaccurate guesswork based on past experiences (I once was hit with an $83 dollar full year increase, but when challenged, they backed down :rolleyes:), but nonetheless here’s the interesting part: according the last bill, this summer we have used $63 dollars of additional electricity versus last year (actual, not estimated). That additional usage could have only been used to power the (almost ceaseless) running of fans, a single air conditioner (last used two years ago for a day!) and a pool pump that has seen an absolutely exhausting season (must remind myself to have it overhauled next spring). No doubt that figure is somewhat inflated due to last year's cool summer, but still!

What an epic season!

I am actually looking forward to the fall like never before. I am sick of being hot! I am sick of humidity! And I am sick of being eaten alive by gigantic bugs that are thriving in the hot and humid temperatures! I am sick of buzzing fans!

I am also sick of very little rain. Until last week, we were averaging almost five inches short in rainfall. When it did rain last week, I recall it felt like a mystical experience to have drops of water falling from the sky (Dune. Arrakis. Desert planet). Now we're only three inches below normal.

Of course, the summer isn't done with us yet. You need rain? Here you go!

Meet Earl:

And yes, he’s coming my way and could add act as a multiplier to that $63 dollars. :OHNO:

What a summer….

Vietnam: I continued working on the Mang Yang Pass map. I really like the looks of the Vietnam maps, the terrain is rather visually appealing. As I have mentioned before, this map is rather large. To tackle a large map such as I this I will usually start by figuring out the extents of the area I am interested and then, using a high elevation hex, I will split the map into a 20x20 hex grid. I will lay out the road network, the hydrology and the towns (labeling the towns as I go). The contours and significant vegetation cover will follow. Afterwards, detailing the map in an effort to portray the landscape as accurately as possible based on the base maps and photographs.

Middle East: Spent a little while working on the Jerusalem order of battle for 1948.

Vietnam: I spent the remainder of my weekend working on the Mang Yang Pass map. I have expanded the map 80 hexes (20 km) to the west, essentially to the outskirts of Pleiku. As this is a large map, it will take awhile to complete.

Middle East: Caught up on my playtest turns and offered some assistance to one of the BETA BRIGADE members on how to create a LCG. While incomplete, I hope the document provides relatively useful as it will be included in the manual.

More information to follow. Stay tuned.

General: I have had to go out of town to attend a funeral, so my time spent has been limited. I have had the opportunity to spend some time doing some reading and research for a couple coming scenarios. In particular, ones that deal with the battle of Jerusalem in 1948 and 1967. I drive back to Calgary tomorrow, so will be back to my usual schedule tomorrow night.

Few Returned AP17

So we’re going to play this action pack in chronological order, we decided I’ll play the Russians and JM will play the Axis, balance will be granted to the losing player of the prior scenario.

The Axis force is about to attempt a breakout of Arbuzov, their objective is to be rid of the hill entrenched Russians overlooking the town. Setup forces the Russians to thin out as they have four hills that must include one squad and one of the 7S’s of foxholes. Setup restricts the Russians to the hills or adjacent. The Russians have a mix of 1st liners and conscripts, as well as a few toys in the form of a 76L ART and an 82mm Mortar. We have snow on the ground and snow falling from the sky. The Axis has a large force mostly of 1st line Italians with a good ratio of leaders. They have toys in the form of a German support platoon of a StuG III, Panzer IIIJ, an 8.1cm mortar and an early AA 2cm gun.

To win the Axis must have only one MMC on any hill while the Russians having no good order MMC’s on any hill.


My evil plot for victory:

The level 1 hills being mostly small blotches 99% open ground, will be a tall order to defend. For ease of reference I will call the hills from east to west, 1, 2, 3, and 4. On 1 and 3, I will place the required foxhole and conscript all but conceding them. Hill 4 I will place my Alamo, four 1S foxholes one containing the 82mm mortar. I figured it would be a lightning rod of fire and had a fair chance to survive a turn or two, while forcing the time pressed axis to use caution in movement. The ART gun was a challenge for me to place. I considered that it should be hidden the entire scenario unless a really juicy target or immediate threat posed itself. I placed it on the north side of 4 in the woods covering the back half of my lines. My logic was that if it remains hidden it has a useful psychological effect of the attacker’s movement, which in a 5½ turn game is useful. Also its crew is a MMC so in the event of 4 being overrun there was that glint of hope. Hill 2 I knew would be a lost cause as well. However, I would give it a token fight if not more. This hill had a building and woods adjacent to one another. I thought to trip up my opponent by placing both my MMG and HMG on and next to this hill. Also there was a nice set of woods behind this hill that let me use my MG’s to erect board cutting fire-lanes if needed. I thought this hills token resistance was the key to victory, as it would force the axis to divide assets. I assumed if I committed all my eggs onto hill four I would fall as this would let the Axis have maximum commitment on one hill.

Morale high and the men singing ( Гимн Советского Союза, Gimn Sovyetskogo Soyuza).


The Axis plan:

Much to my delight my opponent went for attack en masse from east to west, and not over committing to knocking my mortar out on the level two hill. He opted for using spotting as he hid his tube in the gully. His plan was simple. Knock out the mortar with his mortar and swing like a hinge sweeping me from the hills.
A distant yelling voice, “Beginnen Sie Panzer”! “Javol”! And the marching sounds of snow crunching while Giovinezza is echoed.


Jeff overrun hill one with ease as the conscript there disrupted “мы передаем” the conscripts shouted. This would be the first such of many. By scenario end Jeff would have captured half my OOB. During his turn one I managed a sniper to get a semi-Yatzee and break two squads. His mortar fire missed my mortar as well his AA left a few targets unharmed. By turn two hill 3 was firmly his. His advance on hill 2 was met a bit stiffer. The conscript in the building there was the “lil script that refused to leave” This sucked a bit of fire. However his en masse movements would still place many men on the hill. Just when this speed bump was thought to be clear his 9-2 and a few squads me the sounds of a chugging maxim. ~Tat tat tat tat atat~. Snakeyes! POW! Dead guys and a wounded leader.

I was poised to really make a show of it and delay him enough for no-chance of a win. However, I got some of his sniper loving, and guess who? That’s right, my HMG guys that ruined his day. Hell! Just like that Jeff’s morale went up 10 points. By turn four hill 2 was all his but, I has left the MMG in the woods behind it as a fire lane threat and/or a last dash to get back on a hill for end game. By the time the axis were sorted he was faced with my Alamo. His last turn was a Banzi charge to try and push my nice commies off hill 4. Too little to late as time was the axis’ enemy.

A good fun scenario. Nice to have the weather and snow camo in action. It’s really cool to assault move in open ground while concealed. I’m on the attack next week. Let’s hope the streak of attacker losing ends.

Vietnam: Last night was spent on a new map of the Mang Yang Pass area. The map will depict a 40 km section of Route 19 between An Khe and Pleiku. The map will be for a larger scenario that will represent GM 100's march to Pleiku. Historically, the engagements along the route didn't turn out so well for the French.

Middle East: Playtesting continues. I noticed that the Egyptian camel platoon has the wrong 2D graphic and will need to be remedied. While the game is functioning well, it will be the little things like that that I have to pay attention to and correct. Attention to detail.

I sent Wyatt the latest and greatest version of the game. He should receive it Thursday or Friday.

Vietnam: This weekend, I created a French in Indochina scenario that deals with the Battle of Tu Vu on December 9, 1951. It is a short night battle that pits a couple of Moroccan rifle companies, supported by a handful of tanks, against a plethora of Viet Minh.

Middle East: Playtesting continues.

Vietnam: Spent the evening creating a scenario that portrays the Battle of Mao Khé on March 27, 1951. While designed as a H2H scenario it can also be played as the French.

Middle East: Playtesting the scenarios continue. Daily turn rate is always appreciated!

For Vietnam: Well, last night was more productive than I anticipated. I completed updating all the remaining order of battles and they are now Battle Generator ready.

For Middle East: Not sure what happened, but the large game I had going is now working. I presume I uploaded the wrong .bte file. Playtesting scenarios continue. The three battles deal with: 1. the French in Algeria 2. the Egyptians vs Israeli's in the central Sinai and 3. the Israeli's advance through the southern Sinai.

For the weekend, I will clean up the two games and prepare to send them to Wyatt to ensure we are both using the same versions. Additionally, I will start on a set of scenarios for Vietnam dealing with the First and Third Indochina Wars.

So my new dice arrived today along with a neat "Dice Boot" From Chessex. This puppy is clear and YOU can actually see the results. I nabbed my pal Jeff an assortment of dice as well. He likes them with numbers where I prefer pips. Hey! It is easier to count dots you know. Damn that addition on his dice... I mean I can count a 3 pip and a 1 pip and get four! But complex addition problems his number 1 and number 3, I consider 13! :)


Well Anyways I need to Google some pagan cursing rituals for his dice. Any suggestions?

For Vietnam: The evening was rather productive and the Vietnamese order of battles are complete from the company21.oob --> corps21.oob files. They are also Battle Generator ready. Tonight's goal is to revise the Chinese order of battles to make them Battle Generator ready. As they have been rebuilt, the process should painless and be done tonight. The Americans will be a little more challenging and I look forward to completely rebuilding them for Modern Wars: Volume II.

For Middle East: Playtesting continues although, for the first time, one of the large & long scenarios has stopped functioning without explanation. I will restart it tonight and see how it progresses.

For Vietnam: The Vietnamese battalion oob file is complete; restructured and renumbered... with various organizations available from 1948 to 1985. Moving on to the regiments --> corps oobs.

For Vietnam: All the new platoons that needed to be added are now added and functional. The Vietnamese company file is now ready to go with companies complete from 1948 - 1985 and numbered according to the new organization structure. I will work on the battalion through corp files this evening. I did leave Jorge's order of battles in the at the bottom of the files for those who would prefer to use them.

For Middle East: Playtesting three scenarios.

As some of you know, I take MMA (mixed marshal arts) classes with the local Gracie Barre Brazilian Jujitsu school. I'm currently doing a lot of work in Muay Thai techniques, and my striking abilities and conditioning have improved dramatically. My hand and elbow striking is coming along nicely, while my kicking is slowly getting better. This kind of training is very hard and I felt beat and battered for a long time, but overall I'm fairly pleased with my progress so far and I'm having a ton of fun.

Until now.

Last night we were practicing fighting from the clinch, knee strikes from the clinch, and takedown defense. As usual, I was training with the biggest guy in the class since I'm 6'1" and 205 pounds while my training partner is about 6'3" and about 250. We were in the clinch and I stepped back to get a better position and my left knee blew out, toppling me onto my back. The next few minutes are a bit of a haze as I was in a lot of pain, but the guys eventually got me up and the knee isolated and iced.

It does come in handy being married to a doctor! Radbabe examined my knee and it looks like I may have ruptured the Pettellar or tore the knee cartilage. There was a loud pop when it happened, which isn't good, but the swelling is only moderate and there is no pain at the back of the knee or the side. I'll be going in for consult with an Orthopedic specialist and getting an MRI tomorrow -- at least I hope it's tomorrow -- to see how bad the damage is.

It may sound silly to those who don't do this kind of training, but I'm finding this really hard to deal with. There's a good chance I'll need surgery and will be out of commission for at least 3 months. It's kind of hard to explain but . . . I've rarely felt like such a loser. It wasn't my training partner's fault at all, he's just a big strong guy and this kind of thing can be expected in something as rough as MMA-style Muay Thai fighting. Still, I'm thoroughly disgusted with myself right now and just really disappointed. I thought I was tougher than that. But I guess I've learned a valuable lesson about what a knee injury can do to even the toughest fighter.

I'm hopeful the MRI will show this is just some torn cartilage or something and I will be able to heal up within a few weeks without surgery. Wish me luck.

Continued working on the Vietnamese company file. I found myself restructuring the order of the platoon file to assist in locating particular unit types. I also renamed some of the infantry type platoons for a couple of reasons: 1. to ensure they fit in the display and 2. Main Force VC are not identified as so, but Local Force as noted with "BDDP".

Hopefully I will have the Vietnamese Battle Generator oob's ready in the next couple days and can work on the others.

I also worked on the manual. Section 2.0

The Vietnamese revisions continue. I have also started renaming the various organizations using Vietnamese naming conventions. While I am in confident in most of what I have written, some guidance once the series is released would be appreciated.

The new units have been added.

Playtesting continues for a few of the Middle East scenarios.

For Vietnam:

As I go back between the First and Second Indochina wars, I am finding I am missing some units for the Vietnamese army. Including the PAK-40, Soviet 57mm AT Gun, M8 Armoured Car, etc. I am adding these to the order of battles. This means that Vietnam will have completely new order of battles in addition to the ones created by Jorge.

I did not restructure, using the new platoon numbering system, the major players of the Vietnam game(USA, French, North and South Vietnam) . The primary reason was for compatability with the hundreds of existing Vietnam scenarios. In all fairness, many of those will need to be edited/rebalanced to fit within the updated system and features. I did rebuild the company through corp files though using the new oob numbering system.

The Chinese use the new platoon and oob numbering system.

The Americans will be getting a complete rebuild for Modern Wars: Volume II -- platoon and oob.

Modern Wars: Volume II includes a NATO vs Warsaw Pact game.

...back to building!

Spent most of the evening working on the North Vietnamese company file between 1956 and 1974. Most of these organizations are following the new coding scheme, which I have created a section in the manual that describes how to do it yourself, should someone be interested.

Most of the evening last night was spent on the North Vietnamese, building company level units to use in the campaign order of battles. This will require a few days to complete.

I'd like to thank everyone who came out to the first ASL Game Night at The Gamer's Armory. We had a good turnout for the first night with 5 guys showing. It was a lot of fun to get to meet everyone and even get in a game. I wish we'd had 6 so we could have had 3 games going, but sometimes that's the way it'll end up unfortunately.

I was lucky enough to play against a great opponent who, like me, is taking the leap into the ASL tomes. We gamed a whole 5 minutes before diving into the rulebook for answers. We decided to play the obscure gem "The Guards Counterattack."

I got to play as the Russians and try out the human wave. We learned a lot about Close Combat and overstacking limits which was awesome because both Human Wave and Close Combat have a number of rules that both Jamey and I were unclear about. A big thanks goes to Ed who walked us through the finer points like the excellent tutor he has been.

Ultimately the Russians won, but it was incredibly close and I even conceded the game to Jamey before I was corrected on building possession rules by Ed. So, in a sense, Jamey and I both had our moments of victory. I think the most important thing I took away from the game as a new player is...

Play fast. Play often. Realize you're going to miss some rules.

Some of the rules that Jamey and I missed:

• Forgot our SAN a few times
• Didn't enforce ELR until halfway through the scenario
• Mishandled voluntary routing opportunities
• Broken units, even if out of LOS, can't become concealed
• ...and many more :)

Luckily most of the main rules for the we understood and were able to play pretty quickly. It was very nice to have an opponent who was learning because we both made big mistakes tactically and based on our understanding of the rules. We both (I hope) had a good time playing though and that's the most important part of this.

One of the things I was really impressed with was after the game I went home and continued reading Stalingrad by Antony Beevor. In the book he talks quite a bit about what tenacious fighters the Russians were and how they'd never give up until the end. I felt like ASL did a nice job capturing the German's superior firepower and resiliency vs. the Russian grit and fight to the last man attitude. I won the game during the Russian attacker phase on turn 5 by winning CCPh knocking out the Germans from the final building I needed to win. It felt like a desperate struggle and the Russians were in no way capable of dislodging the Germans with mere firepower vs. firepower. It took some very lucky dice rolls (I had 3 HOB rolls in the same DFPh which created a beserk unit and a hero) along with a Commisar who only broke once during the game in the face of a 24FP FG in defense of my most vulnerable starting stone building. After all the luck rolls and casualty reductions the Russians had just enough to take the last building on the last turn.

Color me impressed with how ASL kept the historical feel at least this time around. It was a nice combination of cinematic and historical. In my book, it doesn't get much better than that.

Until next time...roll low!

A few more hours were spent on working on the campaign order of battles - for Vietnam and working on the manual.

Is it too early for a New Year's resolution?

and...

Just saying....

Long live Pustulio!!!!! :D

Finished off the French last night, so all the Middle East order of battles are now Battle Generator ready. Released a patch today for the BETA team. Dates have been coded now so that the Early, Middle and Late versions of vehicles is available.

I don't support Blizzard on this at all.

Originally Posted by ars technica

StarCraft 2 comes with a powerful set of tools for making your own maps and game modifications, but there is no local storage; you have to upload your content to Battle.net and let users grab that content from Blizzard's servers.

I don't like the idea of giving players access to map editors, scenario editors, and mod tools, but then gimping the programs so that the only way they will work is if the files are uploaded to official servers. Publishers already hold almost all the cards, but this gives them 100 percent control even over the very ideas gamer come up with! In essence, they own everything they create and everything you create as well. EULAs often try to take advantage of this by making it clear publishers can take any or all of your content, change it, and sell it at their sole discretion.

But this isn't about money. It's about taking control out of the hands of players and consolidating everything under the control of publishers. Increasingly, we're seeing publishers attempt to consolidate everything -- EVERYTHING -- under their own control so they can control the game, the press, and now even the community.

There was a time when publishers enthusiastically worked with independent game sites, liberally granting interviews, providing press kits and advance demos, and going out of their way to support the community after games were released with SDKs and editing tools. At times, developers would even respond directly to modders seeking help with user-created content. But those days are coming to a close as more and more publishers seek to clamp down and control any and everything associated with their games. Official forums used to be for tech support while the vast majority of players hung out on independent game sites so that discussions could take place in an environment free of publisher interference. But not any more. These days publishers don't offer support like they used to and often ignore all but the largest corporate game sites (where they spend millions on lucrative advertising contracts). Clearly,the goal here seems to be the ability to control the message. Sadly, as a lot of the smaller independent game sites have died off (or been killed off) and there has been a move toward consolidating everything under the banner of a few huge corporate game sites, it seems the press has simply allowed this trend to continue without comment.

I'm the first one to congratulate publishers and developers on great games and successful designs. And I also support publishers when they endeavor to provide players with better communities and more support on their sites. But I do not support them when they attempt to control the community itself, user-created content, and at times, even the press. It's subtle, but to many of us who have been covering games for a long time, the trend toward more control is obvious.

Sorry, no thanks, Blizzard.

The British campaign order of battles are complete and a good start on the French campaign order of battles are under way. These should be ready for tonight, meaning that the Middle East order of battles are nearly completion for the Battle Generator. Exciting times indeed!

For damn near every week the attacker in our weekly FTF has lost since June.

AP61 some mud and panthers in the mist. Despite a spilled Plano of cardboard and waiting for the pizza, we finally got it started. I had conceded this one by turn 3 because I was rattled from phone calls of my father’s health and trip to the hospital. I do fully believe that regardless of all the out of game confusion. My attack was toast anyways, I went entirely too aggressive and jammed up too much on the road getting past the roadblock. I should have used the Bison to blow the damned thing up or try to, then send a wall of 3 panthers across to deal with the hidden tanks. I do believe I would have taken the Americans out of the town, but not have enough time to get the exit VP's.

One of the things I've been trying to wrap my head around is when the many different types of status counters go away in ASL. The way the rules are written, it's often tricky to track down exactly how each one is treated so I'm including them here in this post to help folks out with a reference to the section so you can refer to it when needed.

While there may be many more status counters, I'm focusing on the ones I've encountered so far. Likewise, if you see any errors in this, please let me know so I can correct them.

• Prep Fire (?) - Start of the next player turn. [NOTE: I couldn't find a reference for this, but it makes sense given the nature of the Prep Fire counter and what it limits the attacking player from doing.]
• First Fire (A8.2) - Start of the next player turn.
• Final Fire (A8.4) - Start of the next player turn.
• CX (A4.51) - 1) Unit Breaks 2) Start of the next player turn.
• TI (A4.8) - 1) Unit Breaks 2) Start of the next player turn.
• PIN (A7.8) - 1) End of the current player turn 2) Unit breaks, goes beserk, becomes battle hardened, or becomes heroic
• DM (A10.62) - End of the next RPh
• MELEE - (A11.15) - Elimination of enemy units in melee location (A11.2) Withdrawal from melee location of enemy units
• Fire Lane (A9.22) - Next DFPh
• Concealment (A12) - See Concealment Gain/Loss chart ;)
• 1/2" Smoke (A24.11) - End of Attackers MPh

I hope this helps you out! I know it was something that was worthwhile as a new player to go back and review!!! It tricky enough remembering all the types and timings for Defensive Fire as a new guy let alone when each of the status markers expires.

Until next time...Roll Low!