ASLOK XXIX - 2014 RECAP Wood TD AAR Attendee AARs Pics  Scenarios  T-Shirt Artwork Thanks to all 142 ASLOK XXIX attendees...   Grofaz First Place:  Steve Pleva [CT] (7-0) Second Place:  Gary Fortenberry [VA] (6-1) Third Place:  Jim Bishop [VA] (5-1) Fourth Place:  Bob Bendis [IL] (5-1) Fifth Place:  Randy Rossi [NY/PA] (4-1) Sixth Place:  Derek Pulhamus [NY] (4-1) Seventh Place:  Alan Saltzman [NC] (4-2)   USA vs World Cup Overall: World 32 to US 21 World MVP:  Hennie van der Salm (6-1) US MVP:  Derek Ritter (3-0) Wednesday "Mark Nixon" Minis Theme Winner Godzilla King of the Monsters:   Godzilla King of the Monsters #2:   Blazing Saddles:   Blood on the Plow:   Rumble in the Jungle:   AARP ASLers:   AARP ASLers #2:   Flame On! Sponsored by Zippo:     Thursday Theme Tourneys Theme Winner Night:   Deluxe:   Deluxe #2:   Pacific:   Rumble in the Rubble:   Bocage Busting:   Enemy at Gates:   Street Smarts:   Wolverine!:     Friday "Mark Nixon" Minis Theme Winner Best of the Best (Grofaz mini):   Rookie of the Year (Grofaz mini):   Schwerpunkt 14:   Take No Prisoners:   Industrial Revolution:   King of the Jungle:   Red Guards into the Fray:   Red Guards into the Fray #2:   Big Cat Diary:   Ruins of the Reich:     Saturday Theme Winner Best New Artist:   Best New Artist #2:   The Emperor's Finest:   Rain on the Scarecrow:   Shell-Shocked:   Shell-Shocked #2:   Attack of the ANZACs:   Attack of the ANZACs #2:   Terraforming 101:   ASL Starter Kit:   Mini Scenario Lists Gor-Gor Heretical Variant SSRs A Question of Balance Mini ABS Lists

T-Shirt Artwork

TD AAR

ASLOK XXIX Live AAR

Saturday Update:

Made my first pilgrimage to the ASLOK hotel this afternoon. Low 20's in attendance with around 8 to 10 games going amongst the early arrivers. Didn't sound like too much World Cup action had transpired as of yet, although I believe Hennie had knocked off local Jim Mackey who was setting up a 2nd one with the newest Swede to grace ASLOK, Håkan Isaksson. Will Willow & Gunny Waldon were playing a big River Crossing from the Rivers to the Reich pack. Peter Palmer & Mark Pitcavage were kicking off some PTO. Stan Jackson & "Big Bad" John Stadick were playing what looked like a play test from Vincent Maresca but they weren't even sure where it came from. Doug Sheppard & Derek Ritter were Gunning it up in the Desert with DB07. Wild Bill was teaching Mark Humphries all about planes in Hill 253.5 although it looked like Mark was teaching Bill a few lessons of his own...

Wild Bill noted that after having 12 in on Friday last year, we were down to "only" 11 this year. Such a slow start...

128 pre-registers so far. Still time to make it in for some top notch ASL...

Sunday's big event is the Dave Ginnard picnic slated for around 6. Dave has commandeered some tents for this year which likely guarantees lots of sunshine...

Sunday Update:

Somewhere in the 40-something-range in by Sunday night it seemed. Most made it over to Dave Ginnard's for his top notch picnic which had the typical array of American cookout offerings. A touch on the cold side this year, but still a nice turnout and that just made the fire all the more popular. This year Dave upped it a notch with some "Shrimp on the Barbie" which went fast.

Pre-regs have inched up to 131...

Monday Update:

World Cup Update...

Tuesday Update:

Wednesday Update:

Wednesday Mini Update:

• Godzilla King of the Monsters: Gary Fortenberry triumphs yet again downing Peter Struijf in Hill 621 in the Finals.
• Gor-Gor Heretical Variant: Wai Kwong-Wong avenges his World Cup loss to Derek Ritter in the finals.
• Rocket to Russia: The Italian Stallion Andrea Pagni garners his first wood of 2014 over Rob Loper playing the finals as a "Double Jeopardy" game in the Thursday first round game.
• Rocket to Russia #2: Neil Stanhagen downs Jeff Wasserman in Friendly Fire's new Pulling Out as the Germans.
• Rumble in the Jungle: Rich Domovic overcomes Stan Jackson to take home the Wednesday PTO mini.
• AARP ASLers: Danny Stanhagen and Jeff Coyle are postponing their showdown until a suitable buffet menu becomes available...
• Candygram!: Mattias Ronnblom knocks off Marty Snow in the finals as Marty became too distracted repeating "Candygram for Mongo!" to stop Mattias' forces...
• Rocket to Russia #3: Doyle Motes downs James Taylor in a late night battle royal.

Wednesday "Mark Nixon" Mini Results

• Godzilla King of the Monsters: Gary Fortenberry triumphs yet again downing Peter Struijf in Hill 621 in the Finals.
• Gor-Gor Heretical Variant: Wai Kwong-Wong avenges his World Cup loss to Derek Ritter in the finals.
• Rocket to Russia: The Italian Stallion Andrea Pagni garners his first wood of 2014 over Rob Loper playing the finals as a "Double Jeopardy" game in the Thursday first round game.
• Rocket to Russia #2: Neil Stanhagen downs Jeff Wasserman in Friendly Fire's new Pulling Out as the Germans.
• Rumble in the Jungle: Rich Domovic overcomes Stan Jackson to take home the Wednesday PTO mini.
• AARP ASLers: Jeff Coyle wins over Danny Stanhagen...
• Candygram!: Mattias Ronnblom knocks off Marty Snow in the finals as Marty became too distracted repeating "Candygram for Mongo!" to stop Mattias' forces...
• Rocket to Russia #3: Doyle Motes downs James Taylor in a late night battle royal.

Thursday Update:

• Night: Randy Rossi shows his apprentice, Derek Pulhamus, he's still the master as he regains his night title after a one year absence claiming his 4th Night title in the last 5 years.
• Blitzkrieg Bop: Andrea Pagni wins his 2nd Mini crushing the hopes and dreams of Al Kirkpatrick in Maczek Fire Brigade.
• Pacific: Stan Jackson collects the wood in this PTO mini final downing Hank Wit.
• A Score of Schwerpunkt: Jack Daniels KOs Neil Stanhagen in the final to take home the Wood.
• Blitzkrieg Bop #2: Steve Pleva downed Ken Mioduski in ESG109 Backs to the Wall.
• Pacific #2: Jim Bishop overcomes Danny Stanhagen to claim his 2nd lifetime plaque.
• Paddington Bears: Dave Ginnard defeats JR Tracy in Children of the Kunai.
• Fire Your Guns: Doug Kirby, the unknown Montana Cardboard-Slinger knocks off Dave Reenstra in the finals.
• Cross That Bridge!: Derek Cox proves himself the head troll at controlling bridges when downing Alan Saltzman.
• Heavy Metal Poisoning: Ray Vincent downs Indy's Finest, Tommy Cvetinovich to become the new King of the Big AFVs...
• Blitzkrieg Bop #3: In an all ESG showdown, Eric Safran & Glenn "Glennbo" Houseman are currently dueling in FrF's "Fields of Black Gold". There is no truth to the rumor that the losers in this mini were seen rolling in a lifetime supply of Dezign Paks...No truth at all...

Action Burk Interlude (from Gamesquad Post #45) from Darryl "Action Burk":

On Thursday made the annual pilgrimage to ASLOk. The Sgt. Conner counter was in my shirt pocket. Ever since we quit ASLOk we rode up together and I like having him along for the ride, even as a SMC. I believe Fish's spirit is always at ASLOk but I like to think he sneaks out for a while to accompany me.

Arrived around five and made my way to the TD's table and saw Bret. Spoke with him for a while and saw some familiar faces and many more that I should know, but as stated elsewhere I suck at names and faces. Apologies to all those that I should know but don't. It really is a charecter fault.

Finally a name and face I hope never to forget showed up at the table, the legendary Mark Nixon. I had wanted to speak to him, not just for old times sake, but to discuss a few ASL related matters.

The first was what was he going to do with all his old ASL paperwork ( playtest material, drafts of articles, letters ). I wanted to know because I have boxes of the stuff, mine and Fish's ( when I was helping his brother clear out his gaming stuff Mike kindly allowed me to take all the paperwork). Mark said he had a couple filing cabinet drawers full of the stuff and wasn't sure what to do with it. We both agreed that some of it might have some interest but I think we both also agreed that interest would be minimal.

The second thing I had wanted to discuss was reprinting the Series Replay of Guryev's Headquarters. We had communicated briefly in the spring about doing it in Fish's memory but it never got off the ground. Mark couldn't find his original draft and the wind had gone out of my sails. We both agreed to let the matter rest.

After that serious stuff was out of the way we had a great time telling tales of the old days and driting off topic to baseball, Cleveland's sucking at sports etc. All in all a great time. That's the spirit that Fish wanted for ASLOk, you don't have to play to enjoy it.

My sincerest thanks to Bret and Wild Bill for carrying on and making ASLOk better than. Hope to see you all at ASLOk XXX. Damn, we are getting old. Good luck and good gunnin' to you all.

Thursday "Mark Nixon" Mini Results

• Night: Randy Rossi shows his apprentice, Derek Pulhamus, he's still the master as he regains his night title after a one year absence claiming his 4th Night title in the last 5 years.
• Blitzkrieg Bop: Andrea Pagni wins his 2nd Mini crushing the hopes and dreams of Al Kirkpatrick in Maczek Fire Brigade.
• Pacific: Stan Jackson collects the wood in this PTO mini final downing Hank Wit.
• A Score of Schwerpunkt: Jack Daniels KOs Neil Stanhagen in the final to take home the Wood.
• Blitzkrieg Bop #2: Steve Pleva downed Ken Mioduski in ESG109 Backs to the Wall.
• Pacific #2: Jim Bishop overcomes Danny Stanhagen to claim his 2nd lifetime plaque.
• Paddington Bears: Dave Ginnard defeats JR Tracy in Children of the Kunai.
• Fire Your Guns: Doug Kirby, the unknown Montana Cardboard-Slinger knocks off Dave Reenstra in the finals.
• Cross That Bridge!: Derek Cox proves himself the head troll at controlling bridges when downing Alan Saltzman.
• Heavy Metal Poisoning: Ray Vincent downs Indy's Finest, Tommy Cvetinovich to become the new King of the Big AFVs...
• Blitzkrieg Bop #3: In an all ESG showdown, Eric Safran KOs Glenn "Glennbo" Houseman in FrF's "Fields of Black Gold" on some sweet 3D Maps.

Friday Update:

Friday Final Mini Results:

• Best of the Best (Grofaz): Jim Bishop dices Randy Rossi in 3rd RTR in the Rain to push himself to 5-0 in the Grofaz.
• Best of 2014 (Grofaz): Gary Fortenberry turns Derek Pulhamus's Grofaz dreams into a Smoking Wreck...
• The Emperor's Finest: Mark Pitcavage rules the PTO at the expense of Hennie van der Salm.
• Partake to Publish: Jeff Coyle triumphs over Ed Beekman to win Pete Shelling's playtest mini. Look for these new specialized board overlays in AP near you soon...
• Schwerpunkt #20: Philippe Briaux triumphs over Derek Cox to take home his first wood of the weekend...
• A Decade of Dezign Decadence: Wes Vaughn downs Kevin Killeen to take home the gold and a bonus ESG T-Shirt generously donated by Glennbo & Eric for winning their "Lifetime Achievement" mini.
• Biggest Loser No More: Jamey Cribbs takes home his first mini win ever after crushing the hopes and dreams of Jeremy Shields in the finals. Some objected to Jeremy dropping in the non-mini winners mini in his first go at ASLOK, but he dropped his first 7 at ASLOK to prove he belonged before making his run to the finals only to miss by "that much" at the final prize...
• Ma Deuce: Larry Zoet betters Rich Fulcher to take home the first run of the .50 Cal mini...
• Schwerpunkt #20 #2: Steve Flicker tops Doyle Motes for the wood.
• Ma Deuce #2: James Taylor eases past Rodney Callen for the win...

Saturday Update:

The final day of ASLOK minis sees 9 minis with 52 ASLers pursuing a final shot at ASLOK glory...

Saturday Mini Results:

• Best New Artist: Wes Vaughn triumphs over Stan Jackson.
• Back in Black: Hank Withaar downs Doug Kirby for the SS prize.
• Land War in Asia: Rich Domovic overcomes Will Willow to take home yet another PTO plaque.
• Rain on the Scarecrow: Philippe Briaux beats Kevin Killeen to win his 2nd mini in a matter of hours as he played the Friday final just prior to this one...
• Squad Bleeder IV: Andrea Pagni & Bill Cirillo have a date to play this final at ASLOK XXX on Tuesday as unfortunately Bill took forever to play his game. I blame the scenario designer...
• Deluxe: Jeremy "Like a Boss" Maciejewski wins his 3rd lifetime plaque in an epic struggle on the big boards to down Ray Vincent.
• Best New Artist #2: Joe Celebuski triumphs over Steve Flicker for the prize.
• Squad Bleeder IV #2: Paul Haseler & Dave Reenstra are locked in mortal combat for bocage supremacy in Normandy as FireFly duels Panther...
• Start Me Up: Vincent Maresca triumphs over Mark Shryock in a giant SK Stalingrad battle.
• Rock Boy*: In the epic battle of "To the Last Man" James "Holder of Rock Boy" Taylor & Wes Vaughn win again, thwarting the evil Nazi plans of Pete "Flame On" Mudge & "Machine Gun" Tommy Cvetinovich. [*More a drinking tradition than a mini]

Grofaz Update:

Best of the Best Grofaz Mini:

• Peter Struijf's Americans overcome Neil Stanhagen in Rocket's Red Glare in perhaps the longest game of this scenario in ASL recorded history.
• Randy Rossi downs Hakan Isaksson in Totsugeki! to move to 3-0.
• Andrea Pagni defeats Al Kirkpatrick in Totsugeki!
• Jim Bishop beats Danny Stanhagen to move to 3-0.
• Jim Bishop stops the "Italian Stallion" Andrea Pagni's Grofaz run early this year to push to 4-0 and earn a slot in the Grofaz Mini final.
• Randy Rossi overcomes the last "World" contender for the Grofaz as Peter Struijf falls in a 13.5 hour battle of "Battlin' Buckeyes". Randy won with the IJA.
• Jim Bishop pushes to 5-0 with a win over Randy Rossi in 3rd RTR in the Rain to claim the "Best of the Best" Grofaz mini.

Best of 2014 Mini:

• Derek Pulhamus overcomes the last local hope in the Grofaz, Dave Ginnard to move to 3-0.
• Doug Kirby, mystery man from Montana beats Dave Reenstra to push to 3-0 in the Grofaz in his first ASLOK visit.
• Ray Vincent beats Tom Cvetinovich.
• In the only early matchup of former Grofazes (remember there are only 12), defending Champ Gary Fortenberry KOs ASLOK XX champ JR Tracy.
• Derek Pulhamus moves to 4-0 by beating Doug Kirby.
• Gary Fortenberry continues his run to 4-0 by downing Ray Vincent.
• Gary Fortenberry steamrolls Derek Pulhamus to garner the "Best of 2014" mini title.

Grofaz Open Play:

• Alan Saltzman beats Earl Schultz to push to 3-0.
• Mattias Ronnblom downs Danny Stanhagen.
• Bob Bendis overcomes Ken Mioduski.
• Steve Pleva knocks off David Goldman for 3-0.
• Alan Saltzman upsets the Swedish Terminator, Mattias Ronnblom to push to 4-0.
• Bob Bendis then beats Mattias playing a spoiler role pushing Bob to 4-0.
• Steve Pleva downs Doug Kirby to move to 4-0.
• Steve Pleva beats Alan Saltzman in Pesky Pachyderms to push to 5-0.

Our Final 4 in the Grofaz ended up being Jim Bishop (5-0), Gary Fortenberry (5-0), Steven Pleva (5-0) & Bob Bendis (4-0). 3 Former multi-time Grofazes & a Bishop. The only major issue was that Bob Bendis was a game behind which if he continued to win could really make the TD's life difficult which is never a good thing.

Steve Pleva & Jim Bishop played a new Friendly Fire "Pain in the Neck". Steve had the Germans with captured Shermans and beat Jim's Russians to advance into the Finals at 6-0. Jim places 3rd at 5-1.

Gary Fortenberry & Bob Bendis decided to battle in the heavy metal classic "Valhalla Bound". Gary got the balance (extra PSK) and the Germans. Bob opted for the exit VC and pushed hard early, but ran into Gary's ambush which cost him several of his prime 122 gun tubes. And then the Panthers arrived and picked off the rest of the 122L's forcing the concession, pushing Gary into the finals for a chance to defend his crown & most importantly, making the TD's job far easier.

Bob Bendis & Alan Saltzman then played Rocket's Red Glare this morning for the 4th place plaque & $50 while Randy Rossi whined about not having the chance to play for 4th while sipping scotch as Derek Pulhamus looked on and was amused by one of Randy's epic rants...

Bob won to claim 4th...

Here are the Grofaz Standings as we await a winner between Steve & Gary...

1. TBD
2. TBD
3. Jim Bishop [VA] (5-1)
4. Bob Bendis [IL] (5-1)
5. Randy Rossi [NY/PA] (4-1)
6. Derek Pulhamus [NY] (4-1)
7. Alan Saltzman [NC] (4-2)

Pleva & Fort are playing "Out of Their Elements" from Friendly Fire's latest. Steve is defending with the Russians while Gary gave up half balance for the privilege of attacking. Latest reports had Steve with a reasonable edge, with 2 turns to go and a lot of ground for Fort's Germans to cover, but obviously in ASL the game is far from over until the last snakes are rolled...

Here are the Final Grofaz Standings for ASLOK XXIX...

1. Steve Pleva [CT] (7-0)
2. Gary Fortenberry [VA] (6-1)
3. Jim Bishop [VA] (5-1)
4. Bob Bendis [IL] (5-1)
5. Randy Rossi [NY/PA] (4-1)
6. Derek Pulhamus [NY] (4-1)
7. Alan Saltzman [NC] (4-2)

Steve's Russians hung on in enough force for the win in "Out of Their Element". Steve wins his 8th Grofaz title tying for most ever with Mike McGrath. Kind of amazing that in a "dice game" those 2 guys have over half the Grofaz Titles ever and if we add in Gary's 4 they combine for just over 2/3 of the titles all time...

Thanks to all that attended - 142 officially. We have 1 mini to finish and around 6 games currently ongoing...

Start making your plans now for ASLOK XXX in 2015...

Attendee AARs

ASLOK XXVIII in Pictures:

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