GJK

I'm finishing up a little pbem ASLSK S9 with Michael Dorosh and am reminded of just how fun this game is (even the "lite" SK). Can't wait for "Tanks" to come out (finally armor!) and then I'm going to study up for VOTG, I want to do some battle on that map!

Oh yeah, no doubt. RB or KGPI? Not even a choice.

I disagree. It's 25 years strong and growing. With the release of the ASL Starter Kits, there's a new generation that is learning the system. It may never have it's heyday of 1985 but it isn't going to die - not anytime soon if ever. It still has the largest and most gaming conventions held around the world and the largest following of any board wargame.

It sounds like you played a lot of ASL. I had only moderate play time with it before moving on to CM. Now that I'm burned out on CM, I'm glad that there's ASL. Hopefully you wont get to the point that you're searching for ASL material on ebay and other locations because you're burned out on CM and back into ASL.

To me, that explains why computer wargames are deficient. I'll explain. MMP decided to tweak two rules in the recently released Journal 7 (those are rules that have been the way that they were for 25+ years). The good thing is that if mutually agreed upon by both players, you can either adopt the errata or ignore it. If this were a computer wargame, you'd be stuck with whatever the coding team decided to do.

I'd grab that collection and bring it to your home before he notices how much some of those modules go for on ebay.

Got it pre-ordered. Catching up on the rules so that I can play the thing. Beauty of a map, can't wait to have a look at it.

I think that a perfect comparison of SL to ASL is CMBO to CMAK. SL/CMBO are fun games for being the first in the genre, ASL/CMAK refine a lot of what wasn't done right in the initial offering. I think Peter hit on a good point with ASL - once you learn the basics; Chapter A and B stuff, then it becomes like riding a bike. If you play a scenario that offers a terrain piece or a SW that you haven't used before, then you quickly read how those are handled and you play. No way that you learn all of the rules and you don't need to. It's really a brilliant game system.

Good post DerBlitzer. Try the SK's, you wont be dissapointed. The rules are very easy to digest and each of the scenarios have a high replay value. Install VASL and Skype (voice) and then meet up with others and play online or arrange for a pbem game. Very enjoyable. I attempted to pbm a game of ViTP once. I was 15 I think, and the guy that I was gaming against was much older (I gathered) when after turn two his letter rattled off a list of boo-boo's that I had made in my previous turn and then concluded with a simple "you haven't read the rules, have you?". Ugh.

I've got the 1st ed RB, the new 2nd ed RB and several modules. I was getting pretty deep into regular ASL with a buddy until he was shipped off to Iraq and then my interest waned. So, going back through the SK's (aren't those things great? Like little refresher courses) and then I'll work up to full ASL again. Actually looking forward to SK#3 (tankz!). I've never used any type of vehicle in ASL before, so that will be fun. That's funny, I said the exact same thing in a thread on the GDF here just last week. I thought that I wanted a "computer ASL" game, I can see now that it would quickly become yet another computer wargame that I would rarely play. The fun factor with ASL is the social interaction and the actual squad management.

Peter, Dorosh and me just started up a pbem of an ASLSK scenario. I haven't played in a few months either but had been itching to. FWIW, I also hadn't played CM for several months until the other night, I did a quick battle just to get it out of my system. Both of these games will be ones that I'll always go back to as none does it better (each in their own way). I have also transitioned from playing computer wargames to primarily playing board wargames (via VASSAL albeit). My brother, whom I was playing "Fire in the Sky" with tonight summed it up when he said that with boardgames, "You do everything. You know every piece and their status in the game. You're much more involved.". Some say that the benefit of computer wargames is that the computer handles the mundane tasks for you, supply checks, rules enforcement, etc. I'm finding that to be a liability though. I much prefer having that complete control; call it micro-management if you will (and yes, I know that in *some* computer wargames you can micro-manage, but they all still do *some* things for you that sometimes you'd rather it not of done). My thoughts on this old but classic thread.

I assume that we're all speculating as to how it works in this game as I haven't seen an "official" post yet about it, but I would think that a gentlemans agreement as to when a pause would occur would work best - but then you're getting into what CM does already. I'll be most curious to see how the demo works, provided that there will be a demo - any word on that yet (obviously I haven't gone through all the posts here)? Edit: Just searched and saw Madmatt's reference to a demo, so that answers that.

Sounds like a cluster-f*** to me. Me: [pause] You: (after 10 seconds) ok, you're done [unpause] Me: Uh, no I'm not! [pause] You: (after 10 seconds) Come on already! [unpause] Granted, I haven't played a Paradox RTS game online so I'm not a first hand witness as to how it works, but if it's as you describe, yech!

Simple request I hope: add HTML and bold lettering to the thread titles for this forum to make it like the CM and GDF forums. Thanks!

Nope, sounds good. My last purchase from you all was CMAK (pre-eLicense) so I wasn't familar with how it worked. Sounds like it's pretty painless - as long as it isn't another "Starforce".

Is it memory resident or can I fully shut it down and/or only run it when I want (and not at startup) like STEAM? The FAQ doesn't say (I don't think).

Grumblings already on the newsgroups about the likelyhood that the game will use it. See eLicense FAQ

Per the website: "Multiplayer support (Internet/LAN)"

It has, see LINK

DAK rolls towards Tobruk:

That's a broad brush to paint with when there's over 3500 members of the sites. FWIW, I only play opponents that I've met there and have never had one drop out on me.

The Proving Grounds and The Scenario Depot II both have opponent finder sections.

CMBO will run (sluggishly though) because it can run using software mode for the video. CMBB and CMAK wont work at all using it because it wont run in software renderer mode (all that VirtualPC offers for video unless it's changed recently). Someone correct me if my facts are incorrect, but I believe this to be true.

Pbem helper has an automatic zipping feature built in. Just set the preference for that game to use .zip instead of "as is" and it will zip it and then mail it. Alternatively, if both you and your opponent use Pbem Helper, you can set it to use the propriety ".pbm" format meaning that all you have to do is double click on the attachment and pbem helper will launch and load the turn in one gesture - or you could have it load your turn automatically upon arrival. Some neat features inside of that program. And yes, CM should have Pbem Helper built in.

Will pbem helper work with a Hotmail address? It should. Switch to pbem helper and then you don't have to worry about setting up a new email account somewhere else.