Festung Budapest is showing SOLD-OUT on MMP’s site but we have a limited few copies left over. Get yours now before they are gone forever – and don’t forget that this purchase qualifies you for a free t-shirt too. Also, don’t forget your Festung Budapest series precision BattleDice (I only have one set left).
So you like to play with fire? Jump into the factories with your demo charges and flame throwers in the newest release from the good folks at Bounding Fire Productions. Here is a short video showing the contents of the package.
KG Scherer: The Shield of Cholm is en route from France in very limited quantities. Xavier tells me that these are the last units available as he is piecing together the individual components to scrape together a few copies before it is OOS and OOP. I am not putting them on pre-order, I am selling them on back-order. If interested you may purchase a copy now but it won’t ship for at least a week.
Possibly the greatest release from LFT including summer and winter maps for the campaign games and scenarios depicting the battle of Cholm.
I want to take a moment to thank the ASL community. You see, about three years ago I began a project to create some OBA cards. I invested some money that I didn’t really have into producing 500 sets of the cards. I didn’t know if they would be a flop or people would consider them useful and collectible. Well tonight I sold the last set. For anyone that has ever produced anything for this wonderful hobby, you know that it is a labor of love. Thanks to all of you.
Into The Rubble II – Now shipping to pre-orders. The good folks at BFP have started shipping to pre-orders and I am supposed to receive my stock this week so I am sending out the pre-order invoices now.
ITR: Into the Rubble
Into The Rubble offers players the opportunity to do cardboard battle in cities and railroad yards. The scenarios range from 1938 to 1945 with a variety of forces including American, Chinese, German/SS, Hungarian, Japanese, Nationalist Spanish, Republican Spanish, Romanian and Russian.
Into The Rubble 2 builds on BFP’s initial offering, adding 12 new and exciting scenarios in addition to the 8 which came in the original pack, in addition to new boards, overlays and counters. Everything from the original ITR is here, all known errata has been incorporated, and some of the original scenarios have been adjusted for play balance.
Into the Rubble 2 includes the following:
20 action-packed scenarios in full-color print
140 Full color, die cut 1/2″ counters
88 Full color, die cut 5/8″ counters
Two 8″x22″ geomorphic mapboards (BFP A and B) printed on heavy card stock, depicting city and railroad yard terrain. BFP B contains an errata update from the original ITR board
One 16″x22″ geomorphic double-wide mapboard (BFP DW-7) printed on heavy card stock, depicting dense city terrain
One 8″x12″ rubbled city overlay (BFP RC-1), 1 large factory overlay, 1 sheet of debris overlays, and 1 sheet of rubble/rubbled building overlays
Rules pages describing new terrain, including Railroad Factories, and new unit types.
The Rubbled City overlay (RC-1) fits on other official ASL (MMP) city boards: 1, 20, 21, 22, 45, 49, and 51.
OBA Cards – I have 5 sets left. These cards will almost certainly never be reprinted. If you want a set, this may be your last chance to buy them before they are gone forever.
Free t-shirts. Don’t forget to claim your free t-shirts. I am getting orders that hit the $150 mark and no free t-shirt added!?!
Episode #172 from The Two Half Squads:
Where the Iron Crosses Grow Team Tournament…
3rd Annual ‘Where the Iron Crosses Grow’ Team Tournament:
The Third Annual ‘Where the Iron Crosses Grow’ ASL Team Tournament will be held April 6th-9th, 2017. World renowned as being the best and oldest ASL Team Tournament in the entire Kernersville, NC Area.
Spirit Of The Event: This event is held for fun. If you are the type of player that never looks up from the table to make eye contact with your opponent, doesn’t make small talk or tell stories, will only play scenarios that you have mastered, or get’s offended by jokes about Ken’s mom, then you might not have a good time being here and we probably won’t have a good time having you here. Sorry to be so blunt but we take our lack of seriousness very seriously.
Format: Team Tournament. Each team is made up of 1 Veteran, 1 intermediate, and 1 Novice player. Each player plays round-robin games against the other players in their class gaining points for their team.
Location: 918 Maxine St. Kernersville, NC. 27284.
When: Saturday April 6th – 9th, 2017 (Carnage begins Thursday night but official tournament begins Saturday morning).
Cost: Free (but bring money for for Pizza. Also bring singles for Ken’s mom).
Accomodations: Ray Woloszyn and I may both have room for travelers to stay with us at our homes (Ray lives in the neighborhood next to mine) unless you are really creepy.
Scenario list: None. Play something that you would like to play not what I would like you to play. All scenarios choices are upon mutual agreement of the players.
Prizes: Too many to mention. Plus some participation awards so everyone feels like a winner.
Limited Space and Availability: There are 16 spots total for this event so register early as it always books up very early.
Festung Budapest – MMP has re-released this monster campaign in very limited quantities. The game pits the Germans and Hungarians against the Russians and Hungarians. MMP only sent me enough copies to cover my pre-orders so if you did not pre-order this from me, I do not have any to sell. If you did pre-order this from me, I sent you an invoice today (if you can’t find the invoice, check your junk folder). I will hold your copy in reserve until the 27th of January and then I will sell it to the people that are on the waiting list to buy one. I am so sorry that I can’t hold it longer but I have to sell the stock before the CC bill arrives 🙂
This product is not discounted to retailers which means that we lose money on every one that we sell so it will not hurt my feelings if you buy another item at the same time you purchase this 🙂
As mentioned in a previous post, we are offering a free t-shirt with any purchase of $150.00 or more . Just go to the Free T-shirt section under the product tab and add it to the cart. The design is subject to change without notice. Not applicable to pre-orders.
According to Luanne, Festung Budapest has begun shipping to MMP pre-orders. She told me that they have very few copies so I am halting the pre-orders on Ritterkrieg as she cannot guaranty how many, if any I will be receiving.
3rd Annual ‘Where the Iron Crosses Grow’ Team Tournament:
The Third Annual ‘Where the Iron Crosses Grow’ ASL Team Tournament will be held April 6th-9th, 2017. World renowned as being the best and oldest ASL Team Tournament in the entire Kernersville Area.
Spirit Of The Event: This event is held for fun. If you are the type of player that never looks up from the table to make eye contact with your opponent, doesn’t make small talk or tell stories, will only play scenarios that you have mastered, or get’s offended by jokes about Ken’s mom, then you might not have a good time being here and we probably won’t have a good time having you here. Sorry to be so blunt but we take our lack of seriousness very seriously.
Format: Team Tournament. Each team is made up of 1 Veteran, 1 intermediate, and 1 Novice player. Each player plays round-robin games against the other players in their class gaining points for their team.
Location: My house. 918 Maxine St. Kernersville, NC. 27284.
When: Saturday April 6th – 9th, 2017 (Carnage begins Thursday night but official tournament begins Saturday morning).
Cost: Free (but bring money to pitch in for Pizza. Also bring singles for Ken’s mom).
Accomodations: Ray Woloszyn and I may both have room for travelers to stay with us at our homes (Ray lives in the neighborhood next to mine) unless you are really creepy.
Scenario list: None. Play something that you would like to play not what I would like you to play. All scenarios choices are upon mutual agreement of the players.
Prizes: Too many to mention. Plus some participation awards so everyone feels like a winner.
Limited Space and Availability: There are 16 spots total for this event so register early as it always books up very early.
Tim Brieaddy and I are going to attempt a live video stream of ASL Scenario BtB11 Bosq Barbeque from BFP. We will go live at Saturday January 7th at 3:30 pm est. I think you have to be friends with me on FB to join in, watch, and comment. My FB identity is ‘Ritter’s War Table’.
Tim Brieaddy and I have finished another awful video replay. This time we take our massive production team all the way to the Pacific for a taste of the PTO. This scenario has the Japanese trying to take a hill against a totally HIP USMC OOB that includes 2 HMG’s, 2 MMG’s, and a 9-2 leader. In case Tim and I didn’t forever sour you from the PTO by watching this horrible video, Rising Sun can be purchased almost 25% off by using coupon code ‘Turkey’ ’till Monday.
In case you missed post #51, we are reminding you that everything (exc. pre-orders and pocket rulebook) are an additional 10% off until midnight on the 28th. As always, shipping is free.
I am hoping to start a series of video scenario replays that can be watched in an hour. The scenarios will have to be short and I will have to edit out the down time (Tim getting up to raid the liquor cabinet). Tim and I have discussed playing some Speed ASL again, and even Drunk ASL (one drink per turn). I just purchased a new Gopro so hopefully some of the issues with recording and sound quality will be addressed in the new series.
The Map Cases that were just put on pre-order are about 50% complete. Hopefully they will be ready by Christmas.
Sniper ELR cards are in limbo because of a lack of photos of snipers from various nationalities including the USMC, Chinese, French, Minors, and Japanese. There is the option to release the cards in two sets, with the first set including only the German, SS, Soviet, US Army, and Great Britain. I would be willing to give store credit to anyone who could provide 6 sniper photos from the missing nationalities.
MMP isn’t having a Black Friday Sale?!? No problem because we are. Use coupon code ‘Turkey’ to get an additional 10% off of your entire order (exc. Pocket Rulebook and Pre-orders). This is in addition to our already discounted prices (usually 10-20%) off retail and as always, shipping is free (ConUS only).
Coupon Code: ‘Turkey’
Into The Rubble 2 from Bounding Fire Productions is now on Pre-order for the ultra low price of $68.00* shipping included. Click on the image above for more information.
*The original price I posted was $65.00 but I was reminded by BFP that this was against BFP policy and cannot reduce the price lower than theirs. In accordance, I have raised the price to match their $68 pre-order price. My apologies for any confusion or trouble that this may have caused.
We will be giving away a free t-shirt with any order over $150. The t-shirts are courtesy of Tim Brieaddy at Redheaded T-shirts where you can choose from a large selection of ASL and WWII themed shirts. Each shirt will be in limited quantities and a collector’s item, soon to be worth more than the Virgin Mary toast on e-bay. This month’s shirt features a German sniper in dot camo with a Gewehr 43, with his spotter in the background on a black shirt.
This year I had the great privilege of riding up to Cleveland with my best friend Tim Brieaddy. It was Tim’s first time to ASLOK and he was so excited to be away from all of the rigors of everyday life, meet some friends whom he had made through his t-shirt business.
Derek (that’s me) setting up in the background with some of the Ritterkrieg store open for business.
We arrived Friday night where one of the first games in the USA vs. World was taking place between Wild Bill and George Tourmiere.
John Dober being photo bombed by Tim Brieaddy.
I started off Saturday with an all day marathon with my good friend John Dober. We managed to get in four games, all from Fanatic Enterprise. They were all quick firefights.
FE89 Crossing the Meuse – vs. John Dober
Oddly enough this is a battle on a mountain top with no water in sight. I played the Germans and and routed the French from the mountains with the help of some flame throwers and satchel charges.
The Germans (hiding beneath the trenches on the mountain top with some recently rallied stragglers following close behind.
FE112 Old Tactics – vs. John Dober
New Victims which pitted the Finns against the Ruskies. Being such a short scenario and having 4-2-6 conscripts, I wanted to fight it out at point blank range in the woods where those 4’s become an 8. If I can just slow him down for a turn or two, his Finnish supermen will run out of time and be unable to take the village.
Russian set-up. Note that all fortifications set up HIP until in LOS of the Finns.
The Finns advance and the Russians fall backAfter the final Finnish push, there isn’t enough left to grab the victory locations.
FE105 Reckless behavior – vs. John Dober
Definitely my least favorite scenario of the gang. My Japanese convoy sets up in convoy in plain view of a ton of US nastiness that gets to prep fire on turn 1 before I can even move out of the way. All I could do was wait for my turn to duck into alleys with what survived and unload and hunker down in stone buildings while the Yanks close in for the kill. I managed to hold off the Americans long enough but the whole thing was just too choreographed for my liking.
FE125 Lessons learned the hard way, where the SS (that’s me) defended against a slew of Bulgarian tanks.
Initial German set-up. Note that all units set up HIP.With the help of some timely ROF, the Germans manage to brew up the ‘borrowed’ enemy tanks.
J175 Bedburg Bite – vs. Tim Brieaddy
It looks like I drove all the way to Cleveland to play my next door neighbor Tim Brieaddy. I was the German player in this one.
Tim Brieaddy sporting a ‘Sgt. Steiner/Capt. Stransky’ t-shirt
Initial set-up and British entry areas.
This one swung back and forth several times and included snake eyes against my 9-1, 4-6-8, and mmg by his flamethrowing Badger followed by boxcars on the flame to kill table against my Jagdpanther thus recalling his most feared weapon. ASLOK giveth and ASLOK taketh away!
J180 The Hour Zero – vs. John Dober
I had heard about this odd little fight and had been meaning to play it since I bought Journal 11. This scenario features the Wehrmacht and British teaming up against some die hard SS that just won’t accept that the war is over. The SS are held up in the forest and have few men but lots of fire power. John chose to skulk his SS away instead of fighting it out with the attackers. I managed to catch up to him around turn 4 and close in from all sides. John admitted later that he probably should have just exchanged punches with me early on while he had the advantage of concealment, morale, a rout path, and firepower.
Turn 2, the SS are pulling back to the hill. Note the strange alliance of Germans and British.
J86 Frontal Assault – vs. Brian Martuzs
I always enjoy playing Brian as much for his stories of ASL past as for his great sportsmanship and kind friendship. Now, If there is one thing I love in life, it’s Panthers. If there is one thing that I hate in life, it’s Firefly’s. I feel so inadequate in my masculinity having 18 factor of frontal armor hiding out of sight. Truth be told, you have a good chance of surviving a hull hit, but it never seems to work out that way for me. Somehow in this one, I managed to pull off the win while only losing one Panther. Brian rolled one greater than the kill number on at least three occasions and one by one his Shermans brewed up leaving a permanent smokescreen for my advancing grenadiers. Without tank support, it turned into a one sided affair.
BOF1 The Marco Polo Bridge Incident – vs. Steve Pleva
I was really excited to get a chance to play Steve Pleva in a mini semi final game. Steve is ranked #1 on the ASL Area ranking and handed me my lunch the only other time I played him a few years ago at ASLOK. This was my title fight and I although I had him on the ropes early, his skill is something that is hard to explain and harder to overcome. As the match wore on, it became clear why he is ranked #1 in the world, cutting off every possible route to a comeback. I look forward to playing Steve again soon.
Steve, setting the machine in motion.
Game of Thrones:
Andy Beaton (left) and Jeff Wasserman (Right)
Friday night I managed to convince some friends to play Game of Thrones. Unfortunately, I got really sick with a headache so I missed most of the game. It drew a lot of attention from the ASL’ers, some of whom have played it before and really enjoy it.
Final Tally:
20 games in 8 days, including 2 four game days and I was…ready for more ASL! I ended up with a 15 and 5 record. At one point I was 11 and 1, but then the heavy hitters put me in my place. Regretfully, I didn’t get a chance to play Andy Beaton, whom I always look forward to matching up against. I did get to play Dan Stanhagen twice which is always on my ASLOK to do list. I look forward to next year and seeing all of my friends again.
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Dean and Sara Essig’s fight against pancreatic cancer.
Although I try to keep this page dedicated solely to ASL, I am making a worthy exception to make you aware and encourage you to give back to the Essig family for all they have given for our hobby. Both in some of the best games made but also opening their home in past years to host Homercon. Dean, the creator of the OCS, TCS, SCS, and countless other great systems and games is raising money to support Sara’s fight with pancreatic cancer. Please click on the photo above and you will be redirected to their Go Fund Me page.
In this blog, Jackson visits the War Museum in Bovington, UK. Panthers, and Tigers, and Lees, Oh my!
Inventory news:
We have received many sold out items and even some that were believed to be out of print.
We received very limited quantities of LFT’s Rat Chart, LFT’s KG Sherer, ASL 30th Anniversary German and Russian Battledice.
Woodworking:
I know you have heard this before but… I am resuming my woodworking products. I have already started a small batch (4 units) of Ammo Box/Map Cases. If interested in one, let me know ASAP as I won’t be making any more until I have made some tables and towers, so it could be a year before they become available again. You can contact me at dr******@*****.r.com.
The third annual ‘Where the Iron Crosses Grow’ team Tournament is less than 5 months away. I will release the date in the next post.
Off to ASLOK XXXI – Myself, Tim Brieaddy, Elly May & Granny have loaded the Opel Blitz and are heading to Cleveland. I will try to take lots of photos for you in the coming week.
Shipping delay 1st week of October: The entire staff of Ritterkrieg (that’s me) will be attending ASLOK from the September30th – October 8th. We will be unable to ship until we get back. Please excuse this inconvenience.
Tactics 101:
Not sure which board edge your opponent will chose to enter on? Why not set up facing one likely entry area while bore sighting a hex in a separate covered arc? The Panther is covering road hex on the southern tip of the hill but can swing the turret to cover the road on the north side of the hill and apply the Case M Bore sighting DRM for a -2 to the shot. There is no restriction in the ASLRB (C6.4) which states that the BS hex must be in the CA during set-up. This weeks sleaze is brought to you by Tim Brieaddy of Red Headed T-shirts.
Recently I discovered VASL’ing with Stew. I am including the links to his great detailed videos of some classic scenarios. I think they are a wonderful learning tool for new players looking to get a grasp on both game concepts and tactics. I will have links to all of his videos on the site but will headline one video per post. So here is episode 1 which recaps ‘Fighting Withdrawal’ from Beyond Valor.
Here is an interesting video clip showing what’s in the box for the new edition of Yanks.
I am a little embarrassed but apparently we have always accepted credit cards. There is an option on the Paypal screen to pay by CC.
I am so sorry for the infrequency of the Ritterkrieg updates. My wife and I have both failed our personal morale checks and now we are cleaning up the game board. I am thankful that there were many more two’s than twelve’s in our twenty years together. Things are slowly getting back to normal and I am looking forward to playing my first full scenario in over 5 months when I get to ASLOK next week. I am looking forward to seeing all of my old friends and meeting new ones that I only know up until now through Facebook and Ritterkrieg. Tim Brieaddy from Redheaded T-shirts is supposed to be coming with me as well, bringing his patches, t-shirts, coffee mugs, and bumper stickers with him. I will have a booth set up for the entire nine day convention with everything discounted below retail price. I am on Facebook as Ritter’s War Table. Please look me up and send me a friend request.
Don’t have Paypal? Good news… we are days away from being able to securely accept credit card payments when checking out. By the end of this week this feature should be up and running. Thanks so much for your patience in this regard.
Yanks is in stock and ready to ship. We have a special price of $102.40 which includes shipping. That is a savings of over $35 from the retail price when you include the cost of shipping. We also usually ship same/next day.
Pre-ordered Yanks at $96 and never got the invoice? We had a number of customers mention that their pre-order invoices were put in their junk mail folders. If you can’t find your invoice, simply buy it at regular price ($102.40) and send me a not that you had it on pre-order and I will refund the difference ($6.40).
Festung Budapest on Pre-order. I spoke will Luanne and she was not sure what the production run will be but I got the impression it will be small. The retail price is $176.00 and we are putting it on pre-order for $132.00 with free shipping.
Red October, the newest Stalingrad campaign game is on pre-order. This module combines with Red Barricades. ‘But I don’t own Red Barricades’ you say? No worries, instead of Red October, you can purchase Red Factories and get Red Barricades and Red October together for one super low price.
Red Factories, combining Red Barricades and Red October into one big package for one low price. If you thought ‘The Last Bid’ was just not meaty enough, now you can combine it with ‘Men of Steel”. The RB maps are new so some of you that already have the original RB maps may want to pick up the new version.
ASLOK XXXI –
Only days away now. Until last week I was still unsure if I would be attending but it looks like the ASL Gods have smiled upon me and I will be heading up to beautiful Cleveland for the entire nine day bonanza. I will be bringing as much ASL merchandise as I can fit in my car (yup, the ex-wife got the SUV ). Everything will be discounted to compensate for the shipping that I would have to be paying. I have gotten in new stock orders from BFP, LCP, Battleschool, Friendly Fire, and of course MMP. Unfortunately, with the separation I have not had the time or focus required to complete the much anticipated Sniper/ELR Cards. I will do all in my power to have them ready for ASLOK XXXII.
The 2 Half-Squads;
Episode #166 (Yanks & BFP interviews) is up and ready for your download
Missed the MMP Pre-order?!? You can still order it through us at pre-order price and as always, shipping is free.
After years of waiting, Yanks 2 is finally out. MMP is currently shipping to pre-orders, then to the retailers (including us) and finally will be available for retail purchase through their website. Even though MMP has stopped selling Yanks 2 at the pre-order price, we are extending the special until we receive our stock order and as always, shipping is included in the price. Click on the Yanks image above to order your copy.
Top 8 differences between Yanks and Yanks 2:
Counter art. Yanks 2 has the newer easier to read/larger font counter information.
Counter die cut. No more side fluff. (top Yanks 2, bottom Yanks with fluff. Photo courtesy of Paul Ybarrondo)
Map boards. Yanks 2 includes 8 mapboards instead of 4. Maps 24,40,41,46 were not available in the original version. Yanks 2 mapboards are in the new Starter Kit format.
Scenarios. 41 scenarios in Yanks 2 vs. 8 in Yanks. This is good news as I am getting bored of replaying the other 4,872 scenarios in the system. Seriously though, Some of these scenarios are updated from long out of print magazines and packs.
Countersheets. 6 vs 5. One extra counter sheet may not be significant to you but when Oli has to clip all 10 copies he will be buying, it makes a huge difference.
Handy-Dandy box with new box art from Ken Smith. While artistically impressive, get out of the friggin’ open ground you morons. Have we learned nothing in the 29 years since the original came out?
vs.
7. Chapter H. New entries that bring the U.S. up to date with all the changes of the past 3 decades.
8. Not out of print. This is clearly the most important difference between the two editions. Let’s hope this one stays on the shelves for many many years to come.
ASLOK 2016:
October 2nd thru 9th. Ritterkrieg will be there with everything on sale. Unfortunately, the sniper cards will not be released in time.
-John Dober is needing a roommate for ASLOK. His preference is for a blond in her 30’s but will consider all other applicants. Find him on Facebook in the ASL group or contact me for his contact info.
Coming soon…
-New ASL replay video. Tim defends the Tractor Works while his hordes of 5-2-7’s human wave to their rescue.
LFT Rat Charts
In case you missed post #51, we are reminding you that everything (exc. pre-orders and pocket rulebook) are an additional 10% off until midnight on the 28th. As always, shipping is free.
We arrived Friday night where one of the first games in the USA vs. World was taking place between Wild Bill and George Tourmiere.
The Germans (hiding beneath the trenches on the mountain top with some recently rallied stragglers following close behind.
Yanks
