Thread: RPG v FPS v ASL
View Single Post
  #10  
Old 01-10-2019, 08:36 PM
Adm.Lee Adm.Lee is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Columbus, OH
Posts: 1,379
Default

For me:
1. hex & counter wargames
1. RPGs

8. FPS

It's much easier to find players for tabletop RPGs, especially D&D or similar. Military ones like T2k, or even sci-fi, are much harder to recruit for.
FPS, or nearly any computer game, seem to require much more time than I'd like to give them, or money that I don't want to spend on a machine. I play Civilization about once a week, and little else.

I prefer operational or strategic level games to tactical ones like ASL, but I'll play them now and again. (I guess I'd rather be a general than a captain?) My brother and I played old Squad Leader, all 4 boxes, then bought ASL when it came out. We decided to stick with the old rules, rather than learn everything anew. I believe my brother sold the barely-used rulebook when I went to college, but we kept the Polish/minor Allies box, so we could use the counters & scenarios with the old rules. I remember when I interviewed for an ROTC scholarship and mentioned that I liked wargames, that was the one system they asked me about.

Some years ago, I joined a boardgaming club, and started hanging out with the wargaming clique. I found that I could play a game or two of ASL per year, and not have to commit to buying stuff or reading the "new" rules. Tactics is tactics, I could play the game and let the other guy work the rulebook.

Fast-forward a few years, and my new boss is both a packrat and a scavenger, and our job is sometimes cleaning up messy houses or estates. He hands me a Post Office box, saying, "Here, I think you play these games, right?" It's full of ASL, the 1986 rulebook, most of the late-80s modules, tons of counters, and only one scenario(!). So, I have it again. It even included some guy's Army enlistment papers from 1992 (I shredded those, 'cause there's some SSNs on them), I think I know where they came from.

I've sorted the counters, but my current regular wargaming group prefers big operational-level games like OCS, and so I haven't played ASL in about 10 years. It's still a great system.
__________________
My Twilight claim to fame: I ran "Allegheny Uprising" at Allegheny College, spring of 1988.
Reply With Quote