Going to visit the in-laws in a bit. But until then…
I listened to a German podcast episode…
Wir versuchen, unsere Begeisterung zu transportieren und das Spiel auch ungelernten nahezubringen, damit ihr zumindest auf ner Party mitreden könnt. Wir sprechen ein wenig über die Geschichte, die Grundregeln, was das mit Rollenspiel zu tun hat und warum Rhythmusgefühl wichtig ist. – Episode 42: Advanced Squad Leader
Episode 42: Advanced Squad Leader
I feel like every ten years, I contact my friend Sektat again and ask him about Advanced Squad Leader. And that’s exactly what I did after listening to the podcast episode. And we’re going to meet up in a few days to play some Advanced Squad Leader!
What I like most of all are historical scenarios.
Drop Zone: Sainte-Mère-Église is a Historical Advanced Squad Leader (HASL) module covering the first two days of the battles around the important Norman town of Sainte-Mère-Église. Each side attacks and defends in an effort to do better than their historical counterpart. – Drop Zone: Sainte-Mère-Église
Sword and Fire: Manila is a Historical Advanced Squad Leader (HASL) module covering the month-long American effort to wrest control of “The Pearl” from the Japanese. – Sword and Fire: Manila
And a few more. I love this idea.
What I find shocking, however, is postage from the US to Switzerland. Take these two items, for example:
I have two options for shipping:
Wow. I really need to find somebody here in Switzerland who imports these games.
I got a copy of the rules from Wargamer Vault.
I’m going to play a few scenarios with Sektat before buying a historic campaign, for sure. 😄
Or it’ll go like it went in previous decades: I take a beating and stop playing for ten years. Hopefully not, but who knows.
Currently going through chapter K of the rule book, an introduction, and also maybe looking at some videos, like these: Advanced Squad Leader Tutorial.
Advanced Squad Leader Tutorial
I have also downloaded VASSAL and VASL to have boards and counters!
VASL is that adaptation of the VASSAL engine to the ASL game system
VASSAL is written in Java and VASL is the module you need to load.
I just noticed that Ritter Krieg has a $80 flat rate shipping to Switzerland, plus better deals… Ah, but I also found UGG in Germany!
+------------------------+------+--------+------+ | Product | MMP | RK | UGG | +------------------------+------+--------+------+ | Sword and Fire: Manila | $132 | $117 | €124 | | Rising Sun | $225 | $185 | €212 | | Pocket Rulebook | $50 | $52.00 | €48 | | Shipping | $96 | $80 | €19 | | Total | $503 | $434 | €403 | +------------------------+------+--------+------+
Perfect! (Plus some VAT at the border, of course!)
I ordered from UGG. The benefit: they know that they don’t need to add VAT, the Swiss will add it later.
+--------------------------------+----------+ | Artikel | Betrag | +--------------------------------+----------+ | ASL Rulebook: Pocket Edition | 47,87 € | | V2 | | | ASL Rising Sun | 212,14 € | | ASL Sword and Fire: Manila | 124,44 € | | Summe (netto) | 384,45 € | | zzgl. 0% MwSt. | 0,00 € | | Versandkosten | 18,50 € | | Total | 402,95 € | +--------------------------------+----------+
Sadly, VAT is actually lower in Switzerland than in Germany, but there’s a fixed fee they add for *collecting* VAT. This is what UPS is charging me.
+--------------------+-------+ | Import Charges | CHF | +--------------------+-------+ | Government Charges | 30.80 | | Brokerage Charges | 21.50 | | VAT | 1.65 | | Freight Charges | 0.00 | | Total | 53.95 | +--------------------+-------+
#ASL #Games
(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)
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I was feeling the itch to pick up ASL in the last few months as well, but I also ran into availability issues.
What’s the electronic version like? Is it properly bookmarked and hyperlinked? Even though I’m craving for the crunch, I’m not sure I could handle such a tome without these tools.
– Ynas Midgard 2022-11-05 12:30 UTC
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Yes, as far as I can tell, it’s great.
– Alex 2022-11-05 12:38 UTC
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Now @settembrini tells me that *Beyond Valor* is a requirement for all Advanced Squad Leader gaming. How annoying.
– Alex 2022-11-24 16:06 UTC
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To play online, you need:
Don’t worry about the maps, you can download them from within the game as you set it up.
For quick starts, check the VASL scenarios, e.g. S 001 Retaking Vierville - Enhanced (a saved game).
S 001 Retaking Vierville - Enhanced
I also created a file called `/home/alex/.local/share/applications/VASSAL.desktop` with the following content:
[Desktop Entry] Version=1.0 Exec=/home/alex/Applications/VASSAL/VASSAL-3.6.19/VASSAL.sh Name=VASSAL GenericName=VASSAL Comment=Start VASSAL Terminal=false Type=Application Categories=Game; X-Desktop-File-Ienstall-Version=0.23 Icon=/home/alex/Applications/VASSAL/VASSAL-256x256.png
I’m not sure where I got the icon from. Pick anything. 🙂
With the desktop file in place, you should be able to start using regular search. It takes a while, then it presents you with a list of modules. Pick the VASL module you downloaded. It then asks whether you want to start a new game offline, look for a game online, or load a saved game. If you downloaded a scenario, pick “load a saved game” and follow the prompts: select the `.vsav` file you downloaded and load it.
– Alex 2023-07-30 11:34 UTC
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If the game you load tells you that it couldn’t find extensions, you can download them from VASL Extensions. I put them in `~/Application/VASSAL/extensions`.
This is what I’m currently getting:
I possibly downloaded the extensions previously? Not sure what the LOS part means. No software support for determining line-of-sight, I guess. No big loss. You just have to look at the pixels yourself instead of relying on the engine telling you.
– Alex 2023-07-30 11:59 UTC
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