Blackpool: Selecting a Tournament
If you are looking for one of those "I played this and then I played that" tournament reviews, turn the page. In this post I'm going to look at what you need to look for when selecting an ASL tournament you want to attend.
The Call of the Wild
The most important thing to remember about attending a tournament is that you are going to spend three, maybe four days with your fellow attendees. But most of the tournaments have anonymous attendance lists and, even if you find out who plans on attending, you don't exactly have Yelp reviews of ASL players.
However, there are some guides that can help you figure things out.
First, and foremost, its best to have a personal relationship with the tournament director. Or, at least, a professional ASL relationship. I'll be honest, the best way to do this is to take a stab in the dark and just attend once on a trial basis. At Blackpool, for Bounding Fire, I knew Martin Mayers and Simon from attending Double One in years past. Even though I knew them, I decided to attend.
Next, you may wish to check online forums about what people are saying about the tournament. Gamesquad has a special forum for tournaments and events, as does Boardgamegeek. Maybe a tournament isn't for you and you just want to show up for a gathering. This is especially a good idea if you can't turn up for the entire tournament. Gatherings in Paris and Carimata (Italy) I have found especially satisfying. The Paris game weekend is cool because it takes place at the Ecole Militaire (France's premier Military Academy in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. It is especially important to check your local forum for tournaments. I would say it is especially important to attend local tournaments because it keeps the hobby going.
On the other hand, I would tend to avoid massive gaming get togethers where ASL is just one of many games that will be played. I don't know any ASL players that attend these and while it is sometimes nice to broaden your horizons and act as an ambassador to get new people into the game, generally ASL wise these are simply a waste of time. Not speaking from experience here as I haven't attended any of these broad gaming conventions (who wants to hang out with a bunch of nerds?)
These online forums also let you in on the drama that surrounds certain tournaments. You can get a lot of insight from these forums generally and if you are unfamiliar with them, you need to check it out. There has recently been a dustup in European tournaments concerning which dice are to be used. This kind of crap drives me nuts and really raises a red flag about tournaments and who is going to attend. If people are that freaked out about cheating, invoke A.1 and watch them shit themselves. Keep in mind there is one in every crowd (I'm usually that one) and that one rotten review does not a tournament make. Mostly, you are looking for someplace where the participants seem fun. Maybe, you want a tournament where people are really good to try to sharpen your game. Maybe you want a bunch of stiffs so you can actually go and win the tournament.
Most tournaments have a website. You should check the website out thoroughly. Usually, they will have a history so you can see who attended in years past (especially the top finishers.) If you know someone on the list of prior attendees, you should talk to them about what it's like. It is also somewhat normal for them to talk about or even list the scenarios you can expect to play. As you may have surmised, I am not a PTO fan, so the ability to avoid PTO is important for me. Keep in mind, too, that if scenarios are listed for the tournament, you should expect that everyone you play will have played through all of those scenarios at least once. I'm not a fan of this system, because I don't like tournament directors dictating the scenarios I play for months in advance of the tournament. If you haven't played through the scenarios in the packet, you will be at a huge disadvantage. This isn't a big deal if (like me) you aren't expecting to go and compete in the finals, but if you want to be competitive, and the scenarios are listed ahead of time, you will be at a huge disadvantage if you don't go through all the scenarios at least once.
Every tournament has a different system for selecting scenarios. Generally, it doesn't matter who and how the scenarios are chosen. You just want them to be balanced and fun to play. However, in Denver there used to be a DYO tournament and this is one tournament format that I wouldn't care to repeat (more below.)
Regardless, for every tournament you need to be aware of the scenarios that are available and look through them carefully. You want to get your hands on all the scenarios beforehand--even though they will be provided when you get to the tournament. You'll want to look at each one on ROAR and the ASL Scenario Archive. If you are averse to certain kinds of scenarios (I don't like the East Coast Gamers scenarios with Swastikas emblazoned on them), this is your chance to get to know what the scenarios are going to be like and how balanced they are. Check also to see the playing time. You don't want to be rushed and if you are like me, 6 hour play times are very off-putting. When you get to bidding on scenarios (more below), you simply have to know this information.
Finally, it is important to have an idea about the accommodations. This is going to be the bulk of your costs at a tournament. Mostly, the room is not very relevant--you won't be spending a lot of time there anyway. However, you do want it to be clean and privacy may be important to you. ASL players tend to snore. Sometimes, if you are late, you will need to look for overflow sleeping arrangements. Sometimes these can be located very far from the gaming and you need to be aware of this.
Where is the tournament? ASLOK is successful because there is virtually no other reason to go to Cleveland. Nice cities and tourist destinations (apart from those off season) are bad places for ASL tournaments. This will only increase the cost. When we were looking for a place to hold ASL Wild West Fest, we selected Salt Lake City because it was central and such a shithole town that no one in their right mind would go there unless they absolutely had to. Most ASL tournament destinations do not have an appeal outside the tournament. Saumur, in France, does have a tournament that coincides nicely with the French armor museum. The ASL Scandinavian Open is in Copenhagen, where you can take the train to Christiania where you can buy pot and hash more or less legally on the street. A little tourism with your ASL can be fun. At ASL Conscripts, we were near Bayreuth, the capital of German Wagnerian Opera. This is every bit as scary as it sounds. Carimate, in Italy, is near Lake Como and is stunningly beautiful and the food is absolutely remarkable. This is a personal call. Do you want to go and scout around a bit or are you going to be in the game room the entire time?
Blackpool is a place that lends itself to hardcore gaming. Most of the town is devoted to tawdry gambling casinos and boardwalk gaming. The weather is so foul you will suspect that the Irish Sea is about to bring forth the Deep Ones at any moment. So it is the perfect place if you want to show up on Thursday, check out on Sunday and do nothing but play ASL.
Food is another consideration. You will have to eat and, if you are like me, ordering pizza for every meal is not an option. A Google Maps search will let you know whether it is feasible to get to a decent restaurant within walking distance. The food at Blackpool was fairly good and cheap in the The Headlands Hotel. At Carimate, people make a big deal about everyone taking an ASL break and going out for lunch and dinner at one of the exquisite dining facilities in the neighborhood. At Salt Lake City, you couldn't get a beer without ordering an item of food, leading to a massive uptick in the amount of french onion soup served and left uneaten. Food at the ASL Scandinavian Open is also pretty good and included in the price. Food is your second biggest cost and variety and availability is important to keep in mind. The last thing about food: Don't miss out on local delicacies. OK, maybe miss out on Danish delicacies. But you don't want to go to Chicago and not have a Chicago Hot Dog or Pizza. The Curry Fest at Double One in Writtle is a major reason to go to the tournament!
Last thing: how easy is it to get there? Usually, you will find that tournament directors are willing to do pick ups from the nearest train station or airport. That may be less true in areas where there is good public transportation. Grenadier, in the Eiffel region of Germany and Conscripts are really, really difficult to get there without driving. Virtually impossible.
So, now you have the best possible information on the tournament and who is going to be attending. This is the bare minimum of information you need to decide whether or not you are going to attend.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles...
OK, this part I have to accept the blame for myself. I live in an ASL wasteland. There are no ASL players near me (within 100km, or, as we say in France, within 2 hours drive.)
Blackpool is, in a USA, context an easy drive. However, in Europe, everything is more complicated. I had to drive to Geneva (the exact wrong direction.) Then I park at a friend's house and get a ride to the airport. Geneva's airport has two entrances, one French, one Swiss. It's supposed to make it so that French travelers don't have to go through Swiss customs. In reality, I've never flown out of Geneva on a flight through the French gates so I always have to go through customs anyway. Worse, I cross the border twice before I get to the airport. This isn't a big deal, really, but it is a pain in the ass as the Swiss are real bastards and have no sense of humor.
Another consideration is flying. I hate flying. It seems uncouth of me to to drastically increase my carbon footprint simply to go to a gaming tournament. Also, because I have a severe brain disease and PTSD, I have a real phobia about dealing with rent a cop wannabes that you generally find in airports. EXCEPTION: Danish air marshals are, as far as I can tell, are recruited straight out of Victoria's Secret catalogs. Seriously, they are all freaking hot and I will fly to ASLSO just on the off chance that a couple of them will strip search me.
Flying also drastically limits the amount of ASL gear you can bring. At Blackpool I had a rulebook, a pair of dice, a dice pad and a tweezers. I forgot my rat charts. I flew Easy Jet for less than 100 euros, but that comes at the price of living through three of the most uncomfortable hours of my life. Unfortunately, while jets can get you a long way, they aren't always close to the ASL venue. ASLSO has great train service to the hotel from the airport. Double One has British Rail Service.
Blackpool forced me to land in Manchester and take a two hour train ride to the city and another twenty minute trolley ride to the Headlands. Two hours in the car, a half an hour to the airport, an hour going through the airport, two hours on the plane, a half an hour going through an increasingly Brexit-oriented British customs service, another half an hour going through the train ticket process (which was, fortunately at the Manchester airport), a two hour train ride from the airport to Blackpool, a half an hour walk to the tram, another half an hour on the tram--all to get to the hotel--you do the math. Next, when you bring stuff home you have to factor that in to your luggage restrictions--and for those trophies you win!
In Europe, taking the train is another option. Trains go everywhere except to Grenadier and Conscripts. As stated previously, it was two hours from Manchester to Blackpool on the train. That's also the time from Besancon to Paris on the TGV. Less than that to Lyon. If you are going direct, trains are generally the way to go. In the US, trains are things that old people take to travel as they slowly fade into oblivion. When you train, you can take more gaming stuff as well.
My wife likes to travel with me when I go to keep all those ASL groupies away, so when she comes along I like to drive. One year I drove to Copenhagen in my 1988 BMW 316i, a feat which dumbfounds and amazes my mechanic. When you have a couple of passengers, driving is the cleanest, cheapest and fastest way to get to a tournament. You'll get to see more and experience more. You also don't have to worry about room for your gaming kit.
I enjoy my time at the ASL tournament and I like the guys in Blackpool and in Writtle, but the travel completely blows. It seems unlikely that I will ever fly to another ASL tournament. It's just too stressful and too much of a pain in the ass. To be honest, if I think too much about the travel part, I'm not likely to attend unless my wife makes me. And yes, that's how lucky I am, the little woman actually says: "When is your next ASL tournament. Well of course you should go..."
Getting through the Tournament
Now you have decided to go and gone through the process of getting there. What can you expect?
Packing your ASL kit is an important aspect of preparing for a tournament. Not as important as knowing the scenarios, but important nonetheless. If you know what scenarios you will be playing, it is important to pack as light and compact as possible. Even if you are driving, you don't want to haul everything you own to a tournament. It's cumbersome and hard to keep track of. Some players even have a "travel kit" so they can bring only the counters they need.
You will only need scenario cards if you have notes on them. I have my scenarios digitized and accessible on line, so I don't have to carry them to the tournament. However, in many cases tournament directors will add Australian Balance System (ABS) rules or make other changes to the scenario for balance. So you NEED to be familiar with the official SSR's for the tournament--which you may not have on your personal copies.
You generally check in normally and then head to the conference rooms to begin gaming or kibitzing. Sometimes, it is best to keep your gaming stuff in the gaming room. It is generally locked at night and there are almost always people around to keep an eye on stuff. Finally, virtually no one at the hotel will have any idea of the value of the stuff, assuming it is all a bunch of paper. Who steals paper?
In my experience, ASL players are not thieves and all of your ASL kit is safe in the gaming area. Of course, I never lock my house or my car, so there you go.
Next, you'll pay your ASL fines and get your scenario packet. Hopefully, you've had a chance to look through them already if they were made available beforehand, but if you couldn't lay your hands on a scenario beforehand you'll want to look at these carefully. If you are serious about contending, go through the scenarios carefully and know each one.
Different tournaments have different scenario selection processes. You may have to play the hand that is dealt you or you may have some very important choices to make. You may not care very much, but you will run into players that have very strong opinions about scenarios and you need to be prepared by knowing the ins and outs of all of the scenarios under consideration.
Blackpool had the advantage of having a pack of unpublished scenarios from Bounding Fire Productions that no one had seen. There will be grumbles that such scenarios are "in playtest," but I'll disagree. No reputable publisher would "playtest" scenarios through participation in a tournament. It would undermine future sales if everyone came back and said their scenarios were unbalanced dogs. At any rate, this system allows you to avoid playing through all the scenarios selected by the tournament director.
There is also the "Swiss" system where three scenarios are offered per round and you get to prefer one and exclude one. If both players prefer a scenario, that's the one you play. Neither player is forced to play his/her excluded scenario. (I'm not being politically correct here, there is one tournament I attended where a woman plays.) Next, you select sides. Sometimes Australian balance is used, other times, if both players select the same side then you dice for it and the loser gets the balance.
There is also an open gaming format, where you chose your opponents and the scenario and just play and the final results are based on your win and lost records and the opponents' ladder rank. Usually, there is an early day for you to play scenarios you want to play so you will want to know this in advance and be ready with scenarios and kit for what you want to play. Almost always, you need to be in communication with the tournament director in order to plan opponents for these pick up games. It is a bad idea to show up and just expect to play. It may work out. You may also be sitting around waiting for an opponent that doesn't show up.
When I lived in Colorado, there were a lot of special tournament formats. We had Jitter Fire, where two man teams competed for the best overall record playing the same scenarios. There was also a DYO tournament, where players played "blind." So you had to buy some portion of your OB.
There are also different ways of pairing players off.
Generally, tournaments also have "minis" for the first day. These are smaller, themed groups of scenarios usually for one day of playing. These, too, allow more people to win. If winning is important to you, check which players are playing in which minis and look for one in which you will be competitive. Not that this will help you much. Sometimes a player with a poor overall record may excel at one part of the game which encompasses a mini. There may be an eastern front, PTO or other specialty type of mini. There may also be a mini with a special type of vehicle or nationality.
Double One has a unique system of putting people in groups of four based on their rankings according to the UK ladder. This gives more people a chance to win. Heck, I even won my group one year.
Most tournaments pair people off by some kind of ladder ranking. This generally assures that the best players will meet in the later rounds. It also places people in winners and losers brackets, making it harder for people to recover from a loss to compete for titles.
However, think also of attending a "gathering," where there is drop in gaming but no prizes. These can also have themes. In Colorado, we used to do a "giant" scenario every year, where each player had a section of the battlefield, from D-Day to Stalingrad to Berlin. In these cases, you'll be paired off by the tournament/event director. However, most of the time these gatherings have open gaming.
Ask yourself how serious you are about winning very early on. Generally, I try to be a good sport, but mostly you should expect no quarter. I've twice talked an opponent on the brink of throwing in the towel to go on with the scenario only to lose the scenario.
Sleep and Eats
Blackpool had a nice hotel. Not fancy. But clean and cozy. With great service. This, in my experience, is somewhat rare. It was also reasonably inexpensive. This is also somewhat rare. The food (especially the full English breakfast (beans, yuck) is top notch.
Writtle College provides nice accommodations in student dorms. It is also reasonably priced and the food is generally included in the price, though much of the eating is done in quaint English pubs off site, offering a decent amount of walking in the English countryside.
The ASL Scandinavian Open takes place in Copenhagen, which is a very nice city to explore when you need a break from ASL'ing or before or after the tourney. The gaming takes place at a hostel, which keeps costs within reason, but still a little pricey. The food is generally included, good and plentiful. I'd recommend getting out into the city, but the hostel is a little far from the center town.
In Germany, the accommodations tend to be more spartan. The food, however, is pretty good. In France, the accommodations tend to be more rough and the food, as you would expect, is excellent. Food in France is taken very seriously and the gaming stops for everyone at meal time. Everyone eats together as a group. It is much the same in Italy, but the food is also excellent.
In the US, the food is generally not part of the tournament experience and people snatch food as the can. Generally, hotel food is expensive and poor. More likely, people will grab fast food if there is something near.
Experiences
Tournaments and gatherings offer all kinds of experiences for ASL players, aside from winning. They also offer you a tremendous opportunity to make friends. The online community is extensive and VASL offers you an opportunity to get to know a lot of people, but meeting people face to face and giving you the time to relax, joke, have a beer and "take a piss" is something you can't get on line.
My foray to ASLOK included me getting off the plane and asking at the desk for directions to the Holiday Inn where I could find the convention with a bunch of freaks and weirdos. I was directed to a shuttle that took me 45 minutes away to a Horror Film convention.
The DYO tournaments were eventually dropped, as because it was double blind there was rampant cheating. It was only after the scenario when all the rules and buying conventions were disclosed and it was impossible to determine if your opponent followed the rules. Twice I found that my opponents had broken the conventions and made illegal purchases after the scenario and it seemed awkward to make a big deal out of it.
I was supposed to attend a tournament in France and learned that they were planning a memorial visit to the grave of a Nazi War Criminal. Good thing I found out about that before attending.
At more than one tournament, my opponents played so slowly that I honestly lost interest in the scenario. When I expressed dissatisfaction, he only played more slowly.
Another tournament the gaming took place miles from the hotel and I got stuck waiting for the carpool to get back to the hotel while two slowpokes played until 3am.
At Blackpool, there was a leak in the ceiling which, evidently, was the result of a problem with the shower in Martin Mayers' room. I helped the bartender put out a bucket to catch the drip. Since there were a couple of slowpokes still playing, we told them that they could call it off or the loser would have to drink Martin's shower water...
But mostly, ASL tournaments are loads of fun and a great opportunity to meet some good folks. If you haven't yet, I'd recommend attending one. Or a gathering.
The Call of the Wild
The most important thing to remember about attending a tournament is that you are going to spend three, maybe four days with your fellow attendees. But most of the tournaments have anonymous attendance lists and, even if you find out who plans on attending, you don't exactly have Yelp reviews of ASL players.
However, there are some guides that can help you figure things out.
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| If you have a problem, ask your friendly Tournament Director, not Bo, Micheal... |
First, and foremost, its best to have a personal relationship with the tournament director. Or, at least, a professional ASL relationship. I'll be honest, the best way to do this is to take a stab in the dark and just attend once on a trial basis. At Blackpool, for Bounding Fire, I knew Martin Mayers and Simon from attending Double One in years past. Even though I knew them, I decided to attend.
Next, you may wish to check online forums about what people are saying about the tournament. Gamesquad has a special forum for tournaments and events, as does Boardgamegeek. Maybe a tournament isn't for you and you just want to show up for a gathering. This is especially a good idea if you can't turn up for the entire tournament. Gatherings in Paris and Carimata (Italy) I have found especially satisfying. The Paris game weekend is cool because it takes place at the Ecole Militaire (France's premier Military Academy in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. It is especially important to check your local forum for tournaments. I would say it is especially important to attend local tournaments because it keeps the hobby going.
On the other hand, I would tend to avoid massive gaming get togethers where ASL is just one of many games that will be played. I don't know any ASL players that attend these and while it is sometimes nice to broaden your horizons and act as an ambassador to get new people into the game, generally ASL wise these are simply a waste of time. Not speaking from experience here as I haven't attended any of these broad gaming conventions (who wants to hang out with a bunch of nerds?)
These online forums also let you in on the drama that surrounds certain tournaments. You can get a lot of insight from these forums generally and if you are unfamiliar with them, you need to check it out. There has recently been a dustup in European tournaments concerning which dice are to be used. This kind of crap drives me nuts and really raises a red flag about tournaments and who is going to attend. If people are that freaked out about cheating, invoke A.1 and watch them shit themselves. Keep in mind there is one in every crowd (I'm usually that one) and that one rotten review does not a tournament make. Mostly, you are looking for someplace where the participants seem fun. Maybe, you want a tournament where people are really good to try to sharpen your game. Maybe you want a bunch of stiffs so you can actually go and win the tournament.
Most tournaments have a website. You should check the website out thoroughly. Usually, they will have a history so you can see who attended in years past (especially the top finishers.) If you know someone on the list of prior attendees, you should talk to them about what it's like. It is also somewhat normal for them to talk about or even list the scenarios you can expect to play. As you may have surmised, I am not a PTO fan, so the ability to avoid PTO is important for me. Keep in mind, too, that if scenarios are listed for the tournament, you should expect that everyone you play will have played through all of those scenarios at least once. I'm not a fan of this system, because I don't like tournament directors dictating the scenarios I play for months in advance of the tournament. If you haven't played through the scenarios in the packet, you will be at a huge disadvantage. This isn't a big deal if (like me) you aren't expecting to go and compete in the finals, but if you want to be competitive, and the scenarios are listed ahead of time, you will be at a huge disadvantage if you don't go through all the scenarios at least once.
Every tournament has a different system for selecting scenarios. Generally, it doesn't matter who and how the scenarios are chosen. You just want them to be balanced and fun to play. However, in Denver there used to be a DYO tournament and this is one tournament format that I wouldn't care to repeat (more below.)
Regardless, for every tournament you need to be aware of the scenarios that are available and look through them carefully. You want to get your hands on all the scenarios beforehand--even though they will be provided when you get to the tournament. You'll want to look at each one on ROAR and the ASL Scenario Archive. If you are averse to certain kinds of scenarios (I don't like the East Coast Gamers scenarios with Swastikas emblazoned on them), this is your chance to get to know what the scenarios are going to be like and how balanced they are. Check also to see the playing time. You don't want to be rushed and if you are like me, 6 hour play times are very off-putting. When you get to bidding on scenarios (more below), you simply have to know this information.
Finally, it is important to have an idea about the accommodations. This is going to be the bulk of your costs at a tournament. Mostly, the room is not very relevant--you won't be spending a lot of time there anyway. However, you do want it to be clean and privacy may be important to you. ASL players tend to snore. Sometimes, if you are late, you will need to look for overflow sleeping arrangements. Sometimes these can be located very far from the gaming and you need to be aware of this.
Where is the tournament? ASLOK is successful because there is virtually no other reason to go to Cleveland. Nice cities and tourist destinations (apart from those off season) are bad places for ASL tournaments. This will only increase the cost. When we were looking for a place to hold ASL Wild West Fest, we selected Salt Lake City because it was central and such a shithole town that no one in their right mind would go there unless they absolutely had to. Most ASL tournament destinations do not have an appeal outside the tournament. Saumur, in France, does have a tournament that coincides nicely with the French armor museum. The ASL Scandinavian Open is in Copenhagen, where you can take the train to Christiania where you can buy pot and hash more or less legally on the street. A little tourism with your ASL can be fun. At ASL Conscripts, we were near Bayreuth, the capital of German Wagnerian Opera. This is every bit as scary as it sounds. Carimate, in Italy, is near Lake Como and is stunningly beautiful and the food is absolutely remarkable. This is a personal call. Do you want to go and scout around a bit or are you going to be in the game room the entire time?
Blackpool is a place that lends itself to hardcore gaming. Most of the town is devoted to tawdry gambling casinos and boardwalk gaming. The weather is so foul you will suspect that the Irish Sea is about to bring forth the Deep Ones at any moment. So it is the perfect place if you want to show up on Thursday, check out on Sunday and do nothing but play ASL.
Food is another consideration. You will have to eat and, if you are like me, ordering pizza for every meal is not an option. A Google Maps search will let you know whether it is feasible to get to a decent restaurant within walking distance. The food at Blackpool was fairly good and cheap in the The Headlands Hotel. At Carimate, people make a big deal about everyone taking an ASL break and going out for lunch and dinner at one of the exquisite dining facilities in the neighborhood. At Salt Lake City, you couldn't get a beer without ordering an item of food, leading to a massive uptick in the amount of french onion soup served and left uneaten. Food at the ASL Scandinavian Open is also pretty good and included in the price. Food is your second biggest cost and variety and availability is important to keep in mind. The last thing about food: Don't miss out on local delicacies. OK, maybe miss out on Danish delicacies. But you don't want to go to Chicago and not have a Chicago Hot Dog or Pizza. The Curry Fest at Double One in Writtle is a major reason to go to the tournament!
Last thing: how easy is it to get there? Usually, you will find that tournament directors are willing to do pick ups from the nearest train station or airport. That may be less true in areas where there is good public transportation. Grenadier, in the Eiffel region of Germany and Conscripts are really, really difficult to get there without driving. Virtually impossible.
So, now you have the best possible information on the tournament and who is going to be attending. This is the bare minimum of information you need to decide whether or not you are going to attend.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles...
OK, this part I have to accept the blame for myself. I live in an ASL wasteland. There are no ASL players near me (within 100km, or, as we say in France, within 2 hours drive.)
Blackpool is, in a USA, context an easy drive. However, in Europe, everything is more complicated. I had to drive to Geneva (the exact wrong direction.) Then I park at a friend's house and get a ride to the airport. Geneva's airport has two entrances, one French, one Swiss. It's supposed to make it so that French travelers don't have to go through Swiss customs. In reality, I've never flown out of Geneva on a flight through the French gates so I always have to go through customs anyway. Worse, I cross the border twice before I get to the airport. This isn't a big deal, really, but it is a pain in the ass as the Swiss are real bastards and have no sense of humor.
Another consideration is flying. I hate flying. It seems uncouth of me to to drastically increase my carbon footprint simply to go to a gaming tournament. Also, because I have a severe brain disease and PTSD, I have a real phobia about dealing with rent a cop wannabes that you generally find in airports. EXCEPTION: Danish air marshals are, as far as I can tell, are recruited straight out of Victoria's Secret catalogs. Seriously, they are all freaking hot and I will fly to ASLSO just on the off chance that a couple of them will strip search me.
Flying also drastically limits the amount of ASL gear you can bring. At Blackpool I had a rulebook, a pair of dice, a dice pad and a tweezers. I forgot my rat charts. I flew Easy Jet for less than 100 euros, but that comes at the price of living through three of the most uncomfortable hours of my life. Unfortunately, while jets can get you a long way, they aren't always close to the ASL venue. ASLSO has great train service to the hotel from the airport. Double One has British Rail Service.
Blackpool forced me to land in Manchester and take a two hour train ride to the city and another twenty minute trolley ride to the Headlands. Two hours in the car, a half an hour to the airport, an hour going through the airport, two hours on the plane, a half an hour going through an increasingly Brexit-oriented British customs service, another half an hour going through the train ticket process (which was, fortunately at the Manchester airport), a two hour train ride from the airport to Blackpool, a half an hour walk to the tram, another half an hour on the tram--all to get to the hotel--you do the math. Next, when you bring stuff home you have to factor that in to your luggage restrictions--and for those trophies you win!
In Europe, taking the train is another option. Trains go everywhere except to Grenadier and Conscripts. As stated previously, it was two hours from Manchester to Blackpool on the train. That's also the time from Besancon to Paris on the TGV. Less than that to Lyon. If you are going direct, trains are generally the way to go. In the US, trains are things that old people take to travel as they slowly fade into oblivion. When you train, you can take more gaming stuff as well.
My wife likes to travel with me when I go to keep all those ASL groupies away, so when she comes along I like to drive. One year I drove to Copenhagen in my 1988 BMW 316i, a feat which dumbfounds and amazes my mechanic. When you have a couple of passengers, driving is the cleanest, cheapest and fastest way to get to a tournament. You'll get to see more and experience more. You also don't have to worry about room for your gaming kit.
I enjoy my time at the ASL tournament and I like the guys in Blackpool and in Writtle, but the travel completely blows. It seems unlikely that I will ever fly to another ASL tournament. It's just too stressful and too much of a pain in the ass. To be honest, if I think too much about the travel part, I'm not likely to attend unless my wife makes me. And yes, that's how lucky I am, the little woman actually says: "When is your next ASL tournament. Well of course you should go..."
Getting through the Tournament
Now you have decided to go and gone through the process of getting there. What can you expect?
Packing your ASL kit is an important aspect of preparing for a tournament. Not as important as knowing the scenarios, but important nonetheless. If you know what scenarios you will be playing, it is important to pack as light and compact as possible. Even if you are driving, you don't want to haul everything you own to a tournament. It's cumbersome and hard to keep track of. Some players even have a "travel kit" so they can bring only the counters they need.
You will only need scenario cards if you have notes on them. I have my scenarios digitized and accessible on line, so I don't have to carry them to the tournament. However, in many cases tournament directors will add Australian Balance System (ABS) rules or make other changes to the scenario for balance. So you NEED to be familiar with the official SSR's for the tournament--which you may not have on your personal copies.
You generally check in normally and then head to the conference rooms to begin gaming or kibitzing. Sometimes, it is best to keep your gaming stuff in the gaming room. It is generally locked at night and there are almost always people around to keep an eye on stuff. Finally, virtually no one at the hotel will have any idea of the value of the stuff, assuming it is all a bunch of paper. Who steals paper?
In my experience, ASL players are not thieves and all of your ASL kit is safe in the gaming area. Of course, I never lock my house or my car, so there you go.
Next, you'll pay your ASL fines and get your scenario packet. Hopefully, you've had a chance to look through them already if they were made available beforehand, but if you couldn't lay your hands on a scenario beforehand you'll want to look at these carefully. If you are serious about contending, go through the scenarios carefully and know each one.
Different tournaments have different scenario selection processes. You may have to play the hand that is dealt you or you may have some very important choices to make. You may not care very much, but you will run into players that have very strong opinions about scenarios and you need to be prepared by knowing the ins and outs of all of the scenarios under consideration.
Blackpool had the advantage of having a pack of unpublished scenarios from Bounding Fire Productions that no one had seen. There will be grumbles that such scenarios are "in playtest," but I'll disagree. No reputable publisher would "playtest" scenarios through participation in a tournament. It would undermine future sales if everyone came back and said their scenarios were unbalanced dogs. At any rate, this system allows you to avoid playing through all the scenarios selected by the tournament director.
There is also the "Swiss" system where three scenarios are offered per round and you get to prefer one and exclude one. If both players prefer a scenario, that's the one you play. Neither player is forced to play his/her excluded scenario. (I'm not being politically correct here, there is one tournament I attended where a woman plays.) Next, you select sides. Sometimes Australian balance is used, other times, if both players select the same side then you dice for it and the loser gets the balance.
There is also an open gaming format, where you chose your opponents and the scenario and just play and the final results are based on your win and lost records and the opponents' ladder rank. Usually, there is an early day for you to play scenarios you want to play so you will want to know this in advance and be ready with scenarios and kit for what you want to play. Almost always, you need to be in communication with the tournament director in order to plan opponents for these pick up games. It is a bad idea to show up and just expect to play. It may work out. You may also be sitting around waiting for an opponent that doesn't show up.
When I lived in Colorado, there were a lot of special tournament formats. We had Jitter Fire, where two man teams competed for the best overall record playing the same scenarios. There was also a DYO tournament, where players played "blind." So you had to buy some portion of your OB.
There are also different ways of pairing players off.
Generally, tournaments also have "minis" for the first day. These are smaller, themed groups of scenarios usually for one day of playing. These, too, allow more people to win. If winning is important to you, check which players are playing in which minis and look for one in which you will be competitive. Not that this will help you much. Sometimes a player with a poor overall record may excel at one part of the game which encompasses a mini. There may be an eastern front, PTO or other specialty type of mini. There may also be a mini with a special type of vehicle or nationality.
Double One has a unique system of putting people in groups of four based on their rankings according to the UK ladder. This gives more people a chance to win. Heck, I even won my group one year.
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| The lads... |
Most tournaments pair people off by some kind of ladder ranking. This generally assures that the best players will meet in the later rounds. It also places people in winners and losers brackets, making it harder for people to recover from a loss to compete for titles.
However, think also of attending a "gathering," where there is drop in gaming but no prizes. These can also have themes. In Colorado, we used to do a "giant" scenario every year, where each player had a section of the battlefield, from D-Day to Stalingrad to Berlin. In these cases, you'll be paired off by the tournament/event director. However, most of the time these gatherings have open gaming.
Ask yourself how serious you are about winning very early on. Generally, I try to be a good sport, but mostly you should expect no quarter. I've twice talked an opponent on the brink of throwing in the towel to go on with the scenario only to lose the scenario.
Sleep and Eats
Blackpool had a nice hotel. Not fancy. But clean and cozy. With great service. This, in my experience, is somewhat rare. It was also reasonably inexpensive. This is also somewhat rare. The food (especially the full English breakfast (beans, yuck) is top notch.
Writtle College provides nice accommodations in student dorms. It is also reasonably priced and the food is generally included in the price, though much of the eating is done in quaint English pubs off site, offering a decent amount of walking in the English countryside.
The ASL Scandinavian Open takes place in Copenhagen, which is a very nice city to explore when you need a break from ASL'ing or before or after the tourney. The gaming takes place at a hostel, which keeps costs within reason, but still a little pricey. The food is generally included, good and plentiful. I'd recommend getting out into the city, but the hostel is a little far from the center town.
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| Copenhagen in February... |
In Germany, the accommodations tend to be more spartan. The food, however, is pretty good. In France, the accommodations tend to be more rough and the food, as you would expect, is excellent. Food in France is taken very seriously and the gaming stops for everyone at meal time. Everyone eats together as a group. It is much the same in Italy, but the food is also excellent.
In the US, the food is generally not part of the tournament experience and people snatch food as the can. Generally, hotel food is expensive and poor. More likely, people will grab fast food if there is something near.
Experiences
Tournaments and gatherings offer all kinds of experiences for ASL players, aside from winning. They also offer you a tremendous opportunity to make friends. The online community is extensive and VASL offers you an opportunity to get to know a lot of people, but meeting people face to face and giving you the time to relax, joke, have a beer and "take a piss" is something you can't get on line.
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| Cocked dice. |
The DYO tournaments were eventually dropped, as because it was double blind there was rampant cheating. It was only after the scenario when all the rules and buying conventions were disclosed and it was impossible to determine if your opponent followed the rules. Twice I found that my opponents had broken the conventions and made illegal purchases after the scenario and it seemed awkward to make a big deal out of it.
I was supposed to attend a tournament in France and learned that they were planning a memorial visit to the grave of a Nazi War Criminal. Good thing I found out about that before attending.
At more than one tournament, my opponents played so slowly that I honestly lost interest in the scenario. When I expressed dissatisfaction, he only played more slowly.
Another tournament the gaming took place miles from the hotel and I got stuck waiting for the carpool to get back to the hotel while two slowpokes played until 3am.
At Blackpool, there was a leak in the ceiling which, evidently, was the result of a problem with the shower in Martin Mayers' room. I helped the bartender put out a bucket to catch the drip. Since there were a couple of slowpokes still playing, we told them that they could call it off or the loser would have to drink Martin's shower water...
But mostly, ASL tournaments are loads of fun and a great opportunity to meet some good folks. If you haven't yet, I'd recommend attending one. Or a gathering.
Comments
Sorry to hear that Blackpool might be your last time in the UK.