Sunday, January 6, 2013

SS Nederlander Pack on Track!

Well, we've hit the halfway mark! At last!!!!! How we made it to this point, I will never comprehend :-)

SSND1  " Tooth and Nail" is done in all its glory.
SSND2: " Concerted Efforts" is into several playtests with the old and new VCs being tested.
SSND3 " Hitler's Violins" is into 3 different playtests at this time. If you are planning on starting a playtest of the current version, please contact me via email for the pending SSR change.
SSND7: " A Rude Surprise" is also into several playtests at this time.

SSND4: " The Lionhearted" is in layout into a scenario card for playtesters.

SSND5: - The Narva Breakout scenario is almost ready for layout to a scenario card at this time
SSND6 - The Kurland Defense =OoBs are complete, working on the maps for this one.
SSND8 - Oder River Line - Map is complete, OoBs are still being researched for historical authenticity.
SSND9- pretty much unchanged for now... Did get confimation that the 3 Panther Gs were all immobile at the time of the battle commencement.

Looking forward to 2013!!! 

As always, if you're interested in joining in to help, we can always use playtesters and proofreaders!

Keep Rollin ' Low

Friday, January 4, 2013

Nov- Dec Point Blank! out on the Streets!!!

 Here it is for anyone and everyone! Happy 2013!!!!!

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/Nov-%20Dec%202012%20Final%20Copy.pdf

KRL!

Monday, December 10, 2012

SS ND Nederlander Design updates

Thanks to our Club's own Zoltan Grose ( Texas ASL Club's loss being our gain there :-)....); the Nederlander scenario cards are now converted to pdf formats in a standard layout that is very sharply done, indeed. Wih a bit of assistance from Jim Traver and a couple of progam templates we received from the GS Forumites, Zoltan is doing a bang - up job on these for our playtesters.

SSND1  " Tooth and Nail" is about finished, the last 3 playtests winding their way to the end, and we are complete with it.

SSND2  " Concerted Efforts" has begun some serious proofing, and is scheduled for 2 separate playtests now after the initial play - through and struggles it created by our intrepid playtesters Steve Bowen and Andrew Kerekes. Their advice in the original deciveness of the OBA led to many changes, and also identified some map problems which then went to Neil Andrews for comment and markups. I just got Neil's file back last night, and these will be incorporated in our next version pdf of the scenario, which should also be the signal to begin general playtesting of it.

SSND 3 " Hitler's Violins" has gone into Zoltan this week for conversion to pdf format, after its initial proofing errors were corrected. This should also result in a scen card ready for an initial play - through by a pair of playtesters for obvious problems.

SSND4 " Heart of a Lion" ( Kuban Breakout scenario, working title with most votes) This one has finally finished out the various historical accuracy of the OoB issues in its AFVs, and is going to have a rough layout made for it before Christmas, to go to the proofers for some in depth review of the SSRs before being laid out to pdf.

SSND7 " A Rude Surprise" is ready for pdf layout, and will be going to Zoltan this week, thence is in the same boat as Hitler's Violins , needing the initial rough it out play through for any major issues.

SSND5 , the Narva Bridgehead scenario , is without a title, and still in formulation of the various matters of the OoB, specifically the structure of the MMCs involved.

SSND 6 , the Courland  ATG vs Russian AFV scenario , is still in research stages, with only a geo map ready so far, and about 2/3rd of the OoBs laid out.

SSND8 will be the Oder Scenario. I am still deciding if there is an HASL map that will work well with a few minor changes to suit this one, with the new HASL releases, I think it will definitely be possible to incorporate one. If not, we will be formatting this scenario with almost 100% BFP or the a/b series boards from the APs. I want to maintain a non - standard geo board set for this scenario, so it needs some map design work ,yet.

SSND9- the last scenario, the North Berlin suburbs. This one actually has a working OoB for the Russians involved, still need to finalize the germans. Still working on the mapset here  but it is using a fair amount of previous damage to the buildings, to be sure. those BFP overlays from ITR will see some use here if the players prefer to avoid the rubble counters.

So there's our progress to date. As always, I need to thank all working on this with me. Without their volunteer efforts to tie down everything floating away on me, I'd never get anywhere!

So thanks everyone and keep up the good work! We might see the light at the end of this tunnel by Christmas 2013!! ;-)


KRL, Jon H

Friday, October 26, 2012

The September- October issue of Point Blank! has arrived!!!


https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/Point%20Blank%21%20Sep%20-%20Oct%202012.pdf

Thanks to all for  the help to date!

Keep Rollin Low,

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Trials and Tribulations of Designing ASL Pt 1:

The SSND design project plods along , at times like a racehorse, and at other times like a 3 legged elephant wearing blinders. :-)

To date: SSND1 "Tooth and Nail" Has finished all playtesting, and revisions were made that forced another round of playtesting to check their effects on balance, with 2 games already started on this. ( I cannot believe we've gotten to revision #7 already!). With the help of 1 benefactor and 2 volunteers ( 3 if you count the wife who's actually doing all the heavy work, LOL); we have a layout team in place for designing the scenario layouts in a standardized and easy to read format. This should in the end ease the problems of not identifying the AFVs and Guns by ASL name on the scenario card, as well as the different fonts , and finally allowing inclusion of SSRs onto the scenario card.

SSND2  " A Concerted Effort" finished its initial playtest, waiting for the final reports from the playtesters on that one. There are some questions on the availability of AFVs at this location, and some historical data on these AFVs that may result in an OoB change of the models of the various Pz IIIs in the scenario as it now stands. This will of course send it back to playtest square #2.  The initial proofreads are all in , and revisions made therein to incorporate the changes to date. This one should be feeding into the playtesters by Thanksgiving. for full platesting and proofreading by all, then to the layout team by Christmas I am hoping.

SSND3 " A Rude Surprise" has just finished final design and has come back with a few changes from the initial proofreaders that will need to be incorporated still before it goes off for initial playtesting. These revisions should be done before Thanksgiving, so it is ready to feed into the playtest group on the heels of SSND2.

SSND4: " Hitler's Violins" is still in design stages, with suggestions on wording having been made by the proofreaders that will need to be incorporated before playtesting, and a possible map swap for a better representation of the terrain as well. All of that will need be finished before this one is ready for the playtest pipeline, but still should be done in time to avoid delys in getting to the playtesters as they are ready for it.

SSND5 and SSND6 are in need of some good titles , and the scen card mock ups will be going out the proofreaders for title suggestions and their initial blind read throughs. These are the Narva Bridgehead and Korsun Pocket scens. Design is still a ways off on firming up the OoBs and terrain here.

SSND7 "Kurland, Round Three" ( a working title, would like something better) is in initial terrain research, the OoBs havig been finally firmed up. Now we need to get the map put together for everyone to view :-)

SSND8 - the north Berlin destruction scenrio. This one is having difficulties in getting the OoBs representative of the confused times here. So far, we are aware of at least 1 Panther Ausf A that had been towed into position for the battle so it will be starting the game as a dug in tank. Then there is representing the panzergrenadier alarm units that were bicycle mounted troops riding specially designed cycles with racks capable of holding 6 panzerfauste and 4 ATMM in order to respond to the AFV breakthroughs and go into combat against them as a mobile AT team. This one is a long way from ready, but will probably take advantage of some of the overlays from ITR from BFP for sure :-).


KRL, and look for more updates on the project here!

Jon H

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Finally got all the back issues up on Dropbox!!! here they are:


2010:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/Sept%20-%20Oct%202010%20Point%20Blank.pdf
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/Point%20Blank%20Nov-Dec%20issue.pdf

2011:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/Jan%20-%20Feb%202011%20issue.pdf
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/Mar-Apr%202011%20errata%20corrected%20copy.pdf
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/SASL%202.0%20%E2%82%AC%C2%A0%C2%A0%E2%80%99%C2%B6%20Tiger%20Ace%20-%20Otto%20Carius%20Campaign.pdf
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/May-Jun%202011%20final%20copy.pdf
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/Jul-%20Aug%202011%20final%20copy.pdf
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/Sep-%20Oct%202011%20final%20copy%20ready.pdf
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/Nov-%20Dec%202011%20Final%20copy.pdf

2012:

Note Jan - Feb 2012 was not published due to my house fire.....
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/Point%20Blank%21%20Final%20Copy%20Mar%20-%20Apr%202012.pdf
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/Point%20Blank%21%20final%20copy%20May-Jun%202012.pdf

Older issues you're gonna have to check everyone's old rabbit and parakeet cage bottoms for ;-)

KRL, Jon H
Point Blank! is finally UP and running on the wEb in a true "free of charge" pdf downloadable file format for everyone to access without "subscribing" in any way :-)

I want to thank Zoltan Grose, our new arrival from Texas; and Steve Bowen for their efforts in assisting me with getting this up and online. Without further ado, lets drop in the link for the last issues Jul - Aug 2012:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/101815939/Point%20Blank%21%20%20Jul-%20Aug%202012%20final%20copy.pdf

The guys found Dropbox, and the cloud storage size is perfect for us, so I am in process of feeding the back issues into Dropbox, and will add the links as they get uploaded ( it takes some time from my ancient CPU) LOL!!!

The next issue in the works already, with a nice in person interview of our commanders at the recent Market  - Garden reenactment event my place of work hosted on the weekend of Sept 15-16th scheduled to be inside, along with more AARs, and our "Back to the Basics" will be running down the right ( and wrong) ways to plan glider and paratroop landings and defenses. September / October issue should be interesting indeed.


On the Nederlander scenario front; our effortrs continue, but the summer doldrums are working their way around and the upcoming returns to school; work; and ASL events of the Fall are eating into time, so the project is still ticking along. We've got 3 playtests underway so far still on the first scenarios, and a full  edit job pending for yours truly to the scens overall to incorporate all of the various items our proofreaders have found so far. :-) Thanks to eveyone who has been involved in this project! I cannot believe how far it has gotten this last summer with the additional efforts of the group assisting me with all manner of design items. We still have a long Way to go before its all ready, but its nice to see the "end of the beginning" at least!

Just chatted with Ian Willey this day, and he is working on a rather unique sniper reminder clix base we came up with. He thinks it will be arriving soon and he plans to have it ready as he manages to squeeze it into his miniature painting schedule, but it should hopefully be a grand exhibit for all! I must recommend visiting walladvantage.blogspot.com to anyone ASL related. Ian  runs a first rate ASL blog.

KeepRollinLow,
Jon H