Klementi Voroshilov

THE EARLY VERSIONS OF THE JOURNALS ARE NOW AVAILABLE... https://www.wargamevault.com/ aLL THE FIRST JOUNALS AVAILABLE,,,SCENSRIOS AND ALL!

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As the shit hits the fan, at least everyone has plenty of toilet paper.  It is the golden age of VASL and there are tons of games from sequestered ASL players going on all the time. As such, the online magazine Dicebreaker features VASSAL as one of its top go-to locations for online boardgaming.  You have to scroll down a bit. Congrats to my ancient pal Rodney Kinney, inventer of VASSAL and the guy who won't get rich off of it.

The New York Post has interviews with three Red Army Veterans now living in New York's Brighton Beach.

If you know Martin Mayers, organizer of Bounding Fire in Blackpool and multi-award winning ASL trooper, you know of his band, the Mutha Luvin' Chimps .  (Everybody's on Medication is on my favorite list.) The MLC did a fundraiser to help the homeless but La Corona Virus has caused some complications. I will personally vouch for Mr. Mayers' integrity--he's really just a big teddy bear (filled with puke)--and if you can help out send some cash to help keep the less fortunate...  PAYPAL HIM.  Send me an email and I'll get you the info.

You probably know him as the guy who makes dice towers, but he also organizes the ASL Italia Summer and Winter Gatherings.  I heard from him and aside from being locked down he's doing fine.

Ugggg....  low production values.  The lowest.  But arriving home from ASL Scandinavian Open I found the long awaited Onslaught to Orsha 2 from Bounding Fire Productions. So I opened it up and filmed it for you!!!

The Black Death isn't exactly running wild here in my part of the world, but the weather is bad and there seems to be ample reason to self-isolate.  As long as I'm self-isolating, I might as well put together a video of my first impressions of Konigsberg: The Bear's Revenge , from Lone Canuck Publishing .

From the Anti-Defamation League Database : Following World War II, the SS bolts symbol was adopted by white supremacists and neo-Nazis worldwide. Most white supremacists use it in its Nazi form, as two bolt-like images with flattened ends. However, sometimes the symbol may have pointed bottom ends or pointed tops and bottoms. These variants of the SS bolts are most frequently associated with prison tattoos. It's time to stop poo-pooing this.  Neo-nazi symbols do not belong on ASL products. The SS, as an organization, was found by the Nuremberg court to be a criminal organization and any member of that organization were held to be war criminals . It's time for gamers of conscience to speak out and refuse to purchase game components with Nazi and Neo-Nazi symbols .

After a year absence, I took my wife on a week long vacation to visit relatives and see the sights of Copenhagen last week...oh, yeah, it just happened to be the weekend of the ASL Scandinavian Open.  (And, yes, she did know this...) Copenhagen from above...the Rundturm observatory. (Note the bridge to Sweden in the background)

You see a lot of Youtube programs on WWII tanks these days, but not a lot of modern analysts looking back on WWII vehicles.  So when I came across this National Interest take on Jagdtigers , I thought I would link it. ASL players won't be surprised to hear that the JT was HEAVY... but interesting details about what even short trips off road did to the sights is pretty interesting. This doesn't really impact much on the Jagdtiger's use in ASL, after all, we don't pay attention to things like mounting brackets and the torque on transmission during a stationary turn, but it will provide some information about why these monsters weren't the GREATEST TANKS OF WWII like many ASL players will make out.

Evil Hat Productions , creators of Fate of Cthulhu, has come out with a tweet acknowledging the racist past of H.P. Lovecraft . The reason I bring this up is that the ASLRB doesn't mention "Nazis" even once--despite having a prominent Swastika and numerous other Nazi symbols (including SS bolts).  It doesn't acknowledge Japanese war crimes--despite having the Rising Sun flag prominent as well. I'm not a huge fan of CH products, but I will say that they include an acknowledgement of Nazism in their Berlin CG.

I'm going to be working on a series of BT tank scenarios, going from their first use in the Spanish Civil War all the way to actions in Manchuria in 1945!

In the early 1930's, the US was in the throes of the Great Depression.  Military spending was a bare minimum.  Many in Congress and a majority in the US State Department felt that the arms trade had dragged the US into the Great War.  They were determined to prevent this from happening again.

Firepower is a unit factor in and of itself, however, it is also important to understand that true firepower is also a function of range.  This is because range modifies firepower by changing the amount of space in which it may be applied.  In other words, range affects the amount of firepower that can be applied within a given space on an ASL map.

Slate reports on Neo-Nazis using game platform Discord to organize on the web.  This has even resulted in a couple of arrests...

It proved to be the fasted tracked vehicle of WW2...  US Vehicle Note 24.  M18 GMC The M18 Hellcat tank destroyer was a remarkable vehicle, able to top out at 50mph/80kph.  With a Continental radial gasoline engine and a torquematic 3 speed transmission, it achieved 22.5 hp/ton, it willingly sacrificed armored protection for speed.  The high hp/ton ratio allowed it to sprint like a greyhound, jumping off at a high speed in a low gear. Greyhound in low gear.

Another grand weekend in Carimate with the lads from ASLItalia!  Last time, I worked with newbies, of whom there are many at Carimate.  Carimate is a "gathering," not a tournament and new players feel more comfortable attending.  This is not necessarily because they intend to compete, but because they can get help as they play, ensure that they are playing correctly and see more experienced players correcting each other in a playful atmosphere.

This is a far better film than the more famous T-34.

After turn 1 movement phase.  Offboard is the casualty pile.  This is his entire OB.  Now, to be fair, his attack was, how shall we say, a bit overly aggressive.  And he could not see my 9-2, MMG, 458 squad in P8 that had a sneaky LOS to S5.  I also continued movement after revealing my HIP squad because, well, why not. I re-started and rolled closer to my average, meaning that it will at least be somewhat reasonable...xc

One rule I miss in Squad Leader is the sniper.  Remember them?  The SMC that had a negative modifier, decent range but only 1FP?

Hungary was, arguably, the Axis nation with the most parallels with Germany leading up to WWII.  While Hungarians had a tradition of anti-German feeling reaching back to their forced marriage under the Austrian Empire, they somewhat justifiably felt unfairly treated by the treaties ending WWI.  Under the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary's Honved (Army) was subjected to similar restrictions as Germany--no armor or aircraft.