[Aslml] Complete Beginner

[ptd]

Hi Charles, welcome to the brotherhood.

You seem to have had some pretty good answers to most of your questions. If
some of the comments from other listers on your cowering question seem a
little harsh please forgive them, they are mainly cranky old men who don't
get out enough. I used to miss cowering a lot when I was first playing but
it is an important rule. As well as the most obvious effect of reducing the
impact of a fire attack cowering has some more subtle effects that are easy
to miss when you are starting out. The drop in firepower can completely
negate a 1 firepower shot, residual firepower placed by a cower shot is
reduced (but note attacks by residual already in place never cower) and most
importantly one unit (determined by random selection) AND all of its
possessed support weapons from a firegroup that cowers is marked as final
fire. This can be a real pain as the defender when you first fire a squads
inherent firepower at a moving enemy secure in the knowlege that you have a
machinegun and your subsequent fire options to protect you later in the
movement phase and you then cower. You are marked as final fire and your
defensive fire options are dramatically reduced. Oh and if you cower on a
shot when you have declared a firelane placement you loose the firelane. So
as you see cowering can have a big impact on the game. This is why the Brits
are so cool, not are we the most handsome people on the planet but our ASL
dudes don't cower.

Hope this is of some use and that enjoy your time playing the one game that
counts, IMHO :)

Cheers
Phil
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Aslml-bounces at asl-forums.net [mailto:Aslml-bounces at asl-forums.net]On
Behalf Of CHam628781 at aol.com
  Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 6:50 PM
  To: Aslml at asl-forums.net
  Subject: [Aslml] Complete Beginner


  Hi all,

  I originally sent this to the old list but I don't think it ever got
through :(

  I'm a complete newbie to ASL (something of a rarity these days I believe)
and will be pestering the list for questions to dumb questions on a regular
basis.

  First off what is the best scenario for two absolute beginners to play in
order to begin to get a working grasp of the rules?

  Secondly could someone explain infantry smoke placement in simple terms to
me. I'm OK with the MF involved and the fact it takes place in the MPh but
I'm mightly confused by the "exponent" part of A24.1. To me exponent means
"raise to the power of" but that makes little sense in the context the rule
uses it since, if I'm reading it correctly, only a single die is rolled and
for the MMC I have raising their firepower to the power of the exponent
results in numbers well above six. Thus MMC can always place smoke but ends
its MPh if it rolls a six. Is that true or have I completely misunderstood?

  Thirdly do people tend to use the IFT or IIFT? Personally I lean towards
the IFT at the moment due to its simplicity but if the IIFT is in common use
I guess we should use that.

  Fourthly is the "cowering" rule widely enforced or do folks tend to ignore
it?

  Just in case it's helpful I have ASL v2, Beyond Valour, Yanks, Paratrooper
and Solitaire and will be PBEM using VASL (at least until we get a better
grasp of the rules - then we might venture onto the server)

  I look forward to your suggestions and answers.

  Cheers

  Charles

  Ima Gen Ri Ryu instructions on the use of the spear: "Place pointy end in
opponent. Repeat as necessary."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://pegasus.lunarpages.com/pipermail/aslml_asl-forums.net/attachments/20031031/79094bae/attachment.htm