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Is anyone more prepared to go to war
than an ASL player? |
Mattias (left) made his trip from
Sweden worthwhile with second place laurels. |
Fog of War Experience
Attendance dropped to an all-time low as ASL moved
from the pre-con to the regular convention, but the fun factor
increased significantly due to the new format this year. Everyone
loved the brand new, limited intelligence scenarios featured
in every round. And why shouldn't they? How can you
beat brand new scenarios that are fun and balanced and in which
you don't know the other player's Order of Battle or the exact
VC? Additionally, players were informed what boards were
needed and that all scenarios would be east front, Russian vs.
German, so they could limit the amount of ASL equipment
they needed to bring.
OK, so maybe the scenario in Round 1, The End, was tough
on the Russians, but that was OK because the Russians were competing
against the other Russians (and the Germans against their comrades)
as only the four best of each nationality would advance. The
Russians got points for how soon they crossed the River Spree
on the way to the Reichstag, and for controlling certain buildings
across the river. Casualties lost and inflicted served as
the tiebreaker. Past champion JR Tracy just squeaked in
as fourth best German, while local boy Rob Schoenen edged out
world-traveler Ray Woloszyn on the tie breaker for fourth-best
Russian. The German player had 100 points with which to
buy his OB, and only 30 minutes to do so and set up a defense,
but everyone enjoyed the process despite the pressure.
The next three rounds were still limited intelligence, but
were now the standard single elimination format. The Round
2 scenario The Meatgrinder featured a small on-board German force
that was quickly reinforced. The Russians could achieve
an instant victory by crushing the on-board Germans or they could
hold out and keep the Germans from controlling buildings. This
scenario broke 50-50 with Germans Mattias Ronnblom and Joe Chacon
defeating Tom Morin and Jeff Evich respectively, and Russians
JR Tracy and Jim Mehl defeating Eric Givler and Rob Schoenen
respectively in some very close matches. From a GM perspective
it was fun to see several pairs of eliminated players from Round
1 matching up against each other in this scenario just for fun.
The semi-finals saw Russian victories by JR Tracy and Mattias
Ronnblom over Jim Mehl and Joe Chacon respectively in the Round
3 scenario 7 Graves for 7 Brothers. In both games the Germans
had exited enough VP to win (they knew what they needed) but
the Russians were able to exit a Lee in the last player turn
to snatch victory away by one point (the Germans knew the Russian
tanks were worth points but not how much). Lee counters
were provided by the GM, since they had not been announced as
part of the needed equipment.
The final round saw the consensus choice as top matchup of
the tourney, between JR Tracy and Mattias Ronnblom in The Far
Bank, a remake of an old SL scenario that featured a river crossing
in German assault boats in the face of minimal partisan resistance
and a Russian counterattack. JR won with the Germans by
one point, not knowing till the end if he had enough and actually
courting defeat by firing his flamethrower into a melee.
To quote the tournament champion:
"I give the format a big double thumbs up -- it was one
of the best tournament experiences I've ever enjoyed. The advancement
criteria of the opening round allowed the TD to accommodate a
wide range of players and still knock out the whole event in
a day and a half. The limited intel was a total hoot. I
can't say enough about the guys who tested these."
And I can't say enough about the good sports who graced this
tournament. Everyone seemed to have fun. Thanks to
our playtesters and thanks to Bruce Probst for updating The Far
Bank and preparing a cheat sheet for the boat rules. And
special thanks to Ken Dunn for his hard work as assistant GM. We
plan on doing this again in 2008 and hope to see fans flocking
to this format.
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