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ASL Starter Kit is showing surprising
legs for an introduction to the system but is still declining
every year. |
Less surprising for an introductory
product is that there has been only one repeat Laurelist in the
two years since its debut. |
The Rebirth : ASL Deja Vu
After a demo that saw around 15+ people come and go over the
course of two hours Thursday morning, at noon 22 players were
matched randomly depending on who had a copy of the game (as
they were throughout the event). Congratulations to Jim Munson
of Utah for going 5-0 to win the event this year. Jim had played
a lot of regular ASL up until five or six years ago when
he ran out of opponents in Utah, but had yet to crack open ASLSK.
While sometimes rusty on some of the rules, his overall tactical
skill was some of the best I have seen in three years of this
event. He took down Bill Thompson, the Squad Leader GM
in the Round 1 scenario S7 Prelude to Festung Brest while playing
the Germans. The general perception was that this scenario favored
the Americans a bit, as they won seven of the 11 games in the
first round. Another notable first round defeat was dispensed
by Matt Miller's Americans to last year's runner-up, Pete Pollard.
Matt dropped out, leaving us with an even ten players for
round two, and an unpublished scenario, Purple Heart Lane, where
Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment attacks
into Carentan. This scenario broke 3-2 in favor of the Germans.
Andrés Dunn beat Philip Yaure's Americans in the teen
vs. teen match this round. The Americans of Bob Runnicles (last
year's third place) ran into John Vasilakos (last year's fifth
Laurelist) and some bad luck-first in not getting smoke when
they needed it and second in failing several morale checks while
running through the 1 firepower residual attack left in the entrance
hex. Meanwhile, Jim Munson's Americans rolled over Gary Phillips,
and Scott Sirianna's Americans squeaked out a win against Forrest
Atterberry, with Forrest conceding as time ran down.
Forrest was kind enough to play the eliminator in Round 3,
which saw the ASLSK event's first ordnance scenario (using the
rules from ASL Starter Kit #2)-S18 Baking Bread. This bare-knuckle
Stalingrad scenario split 2-1 in favor of the Russians, with
Jim Munson again winning with the "underdogs" taking
down Scott Sirianna. Buck Markowitz beat Forrest, and John Vasilakos
beat Andrés Dunn. These players (minus Forrest) ended
up as the top five finishers, with Andrés as top teen.
These last two were the only scenarios that needed to be adjudicated
in the tournament. Between a slightly larger force composition
and the introduction of ordnance, this scenario ran a little
longer than the others did.
In Round 4 Andrés was "volunteered" into
being the eliminator in S8 Ad Hoc at Chef-du-Pont, taking the
Americans against Buck's Germans. Andrés got smacked hard
as he entered on Turn 1 and had trouble recovering. He got his
amoeba attack working on his left flank but never got the right
flank fully engaged. Although John Vasilakos had played this
scenario in last year's tourney, he was no match for Munson's
relentless American attack, as "Slim" Jim Gavin and
his paratroopers drove deep on the American left flank before
making a hard right at the board edge to exit in the center,
while Jim used his right flank to tie down the German forces
that John had covering the center.
Jim Munson and Buck Markowitz were left to square off in the
final round. A bigger difference in player history would be hard
to achieve, with Jim-the once veteran ASL player-against
Buck, who has just been learning the ASLSK ropes. Round 3 was
the first ordnance scenario Buck had ever played (Baking Bread).
He wanted to avoid making the final round his second-ever ordnance
scenario, so he was looking for an infantry-only bash. As traditional,
the two finalists get to pick their scenario and they chose S6
Released From The East, the only scenario from ASLSK #1 that
Buck had yet to play. It was getting pretty late, so I suggested
that they might want to hold the Final Friday morning or later,
but both were gung ho to go right then, so they diced for sides,
with Jim getting the defending Germans.
Jim set up a ferocious upfront defense that caused Buck to
try an extreme end-around with his elite Siberians. This would
have fared better if Buck had not missed the fact that Jim's
flank guard had LOS to the big stack of units that Buck was moving
in the open. As happened all day, Jim got the hot dice when he
needed them, inflicting a 1KIA-killing one squad and breaking
two other squads and the leader. Buck would have had an opportunity
to recover against a lesser opponent, or one with normal dice,
but against a superior opponent with continued hot dice he had
no chance. Two o'clock Friday morning saw Jim Munson claim the
championship and with his victory. Jim propelled his second round
opponent-Gary Phillips-into sixth place.
Thanks again to all 22 players for exhibiting non-stop good
sportsmanship throughout. I heard some minor whining about the
balance of the Round 1 scenario Prelude To Festung Brest, and
some higher grade whining about the balance for the Round 2 scenario
Purple Heart Lane. The only other complaint heard was from one
newbie who didn't like the rule that LOS can only be checked
after an attack is made. There was nothing I could do to help
him about that, but I probably disappointed him some more when
I ruled that stacks could not be inspected when out of LOS. (The
ASLSK rules are not so clear on that issue).
Thanks to Ken Dunn for helping so ably to assist. Thanks to
Forrest Atterberry and Andrés Dunn for agreeing to serve
as eliminators. Congrats again to Jim Munson. He may have had
hot dice through all five rounds, but he was clearly the best
player.
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Perry Cocke [3rd Year]
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