Saka Light Cavalry

Saka Light Cavalry

Wednesday 5 March 2014

Twelve Hours Till Heroes

Well in just twelve hours I will be packing the last items into the car ready to get off to Blackpool for Heroes, a Advanced Squad Leader Tournament that pulls around sixty players of the old Avalon Hill boardgame. Not everyone though joins in the tournament, they either play monster scenarios that will take four days to play or lots of smaller friendly games. Not that the tournament tends to be played in a less than friendly manor most ASL'ers are an amiable group with laughter coming from all sides.

I will look like this on Sunday!!

I am one of those none tournament types and plan on playing smaller catch games all weekend and given that my nephew is also doing the same as well as Martin or swearbox as he is known in our house I won't be short of opponents.

So as I packed the car earlier I considered the amount of kit I was loading and thought it might be worth listing here.

Over 100 boards, the playing area is made up of these 8x22" boards can be as little as half a board or upto and beyond five of them

Eight paper historical map sheets that cover such places as Stalingrad to Normandy, I have a lot more but only taking what I need.

Thirteen boxes of counters, or shall we say THOUSANDS of counters, all punched and none clipped.

About Fifty scenarios selected from over three thousand which made picking the scenarios fun in itself

Sixteen precision dice, these are Backgammon Professional dice costing about £5+ each but are almost perfectly square and balanced, ASL'ers are precious about such things.

Three sheets of plexi glass to put over the boards so the maps are fully flat (each sheet for different numbers of boards)

Devils Sperm to hold boards, plexi and overlays in place. Actually it's Museum Gel, specially made for holding exhibits in place and not leaving marks but my name is cooler

Custom made dice tower to add to the random effect of expensive dice

Every official overlay to change the board layouts (that's a lot)

Four Binders of Rules and lots of charts, boy does the game need rules!

Cotton thread for LOS checks (two spools as you never know)

Tweezers for getting counters out (Guns and Vehicles) again two pair

Pack of cards for off board artillery chits, yep that would be two packs (miniature)

Sniper Reminders as they are fun (and I hope to sell some as well as supply some for the winners)

Then I have to drive over to pick up James and he has to add the same again (well most items)

So are we crazy or what?

11 comments:

  1. I love the fact that ASL makes us regular mini gamers seem sane by comparison. Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Have a nice and entertaining prolonged weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's is some amount of ASL to take.. Enjoy yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I will now go downstairs and gaze longingly at my purple box edition of Squad Leader, the granddaddy to this madness.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Have at it Ian. Keep that Steeler Pride rolling.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Have a great weekend Ian and say hi to everyone from me. I will make it back one year if I can remember how to play! I keep looking at the huge piles of ASL in my game room/attic and thinking it can't be long before I crack and start playing again!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lists are great, right up to the point when you realise that you have omitted something! Have a great weekend, really looking forward to hearing how it all went.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Have you taken the beers and precels?
    Have a nice weekend and roll low.

    ReplyDelete
  9. @ Thomas, your not wrong! I think in the playing area we must have had well over £50,000 of cardboard!!!

    @ Fran, thank's and I think I got spades of the luck LOL

    @ Moiterei, cheers, been back two hours it was a load of fun :-)

    @ Dave, I still left a big pile at home, of course I did not use a lot of it but it was there in case

    @ Kris, I got into it at 3rd edition, in all honesty SL/Cross of Iron I think was the best of the game though it would have died out if not for the move to ASL

    @ Tim, wore my Sweed shirt (yes what an investment LOL) on day one and my Kirkland one on day four, just so they know I'm a real fan ;-)

    @ Stu, the pain is packing it into the car before you set off home, especially when you counter dump a whole box in the car park!!!

    @ Andy, you would be very welcome and the old sweets said Hi, would be good to get revenge LOL

    @ The Kiwi, yes it is though my storage is very good (when it's not sliding out of the carry cases

    @ Michael, I was lucky enough to have packed everything I needed though I was lending stuff to those that did not bring bits

    @ Jose, No beer but plenty of snacks, got to keep going you know. Not that eating whilst playing is allowed of course. Part of me wishes I was joking but most of me is happy

    Ian

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.