The 2 Half-Squads

What a treasure trove of an interview! We've got it right here for ya brothers and sisters.  It is the legendary and lyrical Robert Banozic.  He is joined by Will Forg, and Zach Emberton,  Together they reminisce and pontificate on all things ASL.  Robert was one of the first names that early Advanced Squad Leader players recognize from his days in the early Chicago scene and his writings in many prominent publications, Backblast, The General and the Annual among others.

We forgot our ads in this one so thanks to our sponsors, Bounding Fire Productions, Ritterkrieg and Broken Ground Designs.

SHOW TIMES

1:00:15 Total Running Time

Helllooooo Listeners!

Dave, Jeff and guess who? Listener Mark Kraatz at Gen Con

Did you know at Gen Con we were just walking down the street and someone yelled "Is that Dave and Jeff?"  Would you believe it was listener Mark Kratz? We also discuss the longest ASL scenario ever played. MMP's Messenger Boys. It took well over a year and a half. Lets see you take that long to play a scenario.  In the box is Winter Offensive Pack #9 .  We snagged a nice interview at the ASL Open with Wes Vaughn and Doug Kirk. Cople of real great guys.  Two finer gentlemen you could not meet.

Wes Vaughn and Doug Kirk watch a game at the ASL Open

1:00 Banter

12:25 What Have You Been Playin' Lately

27:00 What's in the Box?

39:30 ASL Open Interviews

1:23:10 Total Running Time

Fall is fast approaching and so is the next episode. 

We just can't believe how fast time flies. Or how long this episode is.  It seems like only yesterday we were celebrating #200 together. In this show Dave confesses his big mistake in tracking what we have covered and have not covered in the rules so far, he apologizes for covering the infantry fire rules again.    Therefore, we cover the rules from opportunity fire to rule 7.32.  Our goal is to cover the entire Advanced Squad Leader rule book before we conclude this show. After that Dave presents the first eight or so of the scenarios from the Forgotten War module. Boy, they look neat! To steal a pun from Donovon.  They ROK!

How about that opening song? The lyrics were provided by Rob Banozic and the song was performed by The 2 Half Squad Singers. 

SHOWTIMES

00:01 Song: He's Got Really Hot Snake Eyes

04:00 Banter

16:10 The Rules

51:25 Half of The Forgotten War Scenarios 

1:27:25 Total Running Time

REALLY HOT SNAKE-EYES

(to the tune of "Bette Davis Eyes"

Lyrics by Rob Banozic)

His rolls are always low

I've never seen 'em high

His dice are never cold

He's got really hot snake-eyes

He'll turn the MGs on you

You won't pass a check twice

It's cold as East Front snow

He's got really hot snake-eyes

And they'll break you, they'll crit-hit you

They're the bones that will defeat you

They're atrocious, 'cause he always gets the

Rolls that make the stacks crush

God! why do I always roll so high, he's got really hot snake-eyes

You like your +3 stone

The place to stand and fight

But all you do is moan

He's got really hot snake-eyes

He'll take a '1' shot on you

And roll those wicked dice

Until you give up, too

He's got really hot snake-eyes

They'll DM you, when he plays you

Trash your plan with the dice he loans you

They're ferocious 'cause he always gets the

Rolls that make the stacks crush

All the boys think it's just fine, to get really hot snake-eyes

And they'll break you, they'll crit-hit you

They're the bones that will defeat you

They're atrocious, 'cause he always gets the

Rolls that make the stacks crush

All the boys think it's just fine, to get really hot snake-eyes

What a great opening song! Check out the lyrics below and enjoy the brilliance of the Donovan Studios as they continue to produce marvelous ASL songs.  Lay out your boards and follow along as Rick Hollander and Dave Kleinschmidt present their After Action Report of Bounding Fire Productions scenario ITR 12 Sosabowski Slapdown that appeared in Into the Rubble 2. We delve into the Critical Hit product Hot Stove 1 in the What's in the Box segment to wrap things up until next time.

CONTEST: If you would like to win the copy of Hot Stove #1 by Critical Hit simply send us an email with the subject line "Hot Stove" by September 15th, and we will enter you into a drawing for the fine product.

Sosabowski Slapdown: end game.

0:1 Song DC HERO

4:00  Interesting Chat

18:00  After Action Report

45:00 What's in the Box?

57:10 Total Running Time

This summer has been extremely hot

Dave's Russians push against Mark's Germans

 and so is this episode. Why? Because we get back to the grind and continue our coverage of the Advanced Squad Leader rules, 7.0, Fire Attacks. When is that fire doubled? Halved? Tripled (oh yeah)? Do you even know?  Of course you do.But you may not know the more advanced concept from this rules section. Match your wits and ASL knowledge against Jeff as he is quizzed while we discuss the rules on Fire Attacks.  If you think the rules are boring, then take a listen to our interview with Bob Bendis from the ASL Open. 

Jeff, otherwise known as the Black Belt of Death, reveals his humble beginnings in the wonderful art of Karate. He also tells us what chicks used to "dig" back in the day.  We get some nice letters from listeners, very nice letters.  Everyone's a hero in the re-issue of the Hero Pax from Critical Hit.  They have been updated and have art added, as well as a few new scenarios.To finish off the program we have an interview with the very famous Brian Martuzas from the ASL Open.  He has worked on Armies of Oblivion and Pointe du Hoc, and loves the new counters coming from Broken Ground Designs. We also interview Magnus who came all the way from Sweden, and tells us of the European ASL world.

Hello,

It's been a while since we have published an ASL Extra. This one has been recorded in a play by play style, where we follow every move and roll of an exciting game between Mike Ryzy's Germans and Eric Ortega's Russian defenders, as they try to hold onto some required buildings in Shklov, Russia. Hopefully you will enjoy listening along while the game is played, rules are recalled and strategy discussed. We had trouble posting photos to flikr so we put them all here.

Sorry HAL 9000, it had to be done.....and we had a lot of fun doing it.  

Do you think a HAL  unit would have it's line of sight blocked to the interior of the ship if you held the ASL rulebook up over it's little red eye?  You will learn the answer to that question as we explore rule 6, LOS. It is a bit of a "quiz show" so sharpen your mind and prepare to listen.  See if you can beat Jeff to the right answers. 

You new ASLer's can learn alot about the history of the game from our interview with the very famous and most wise, Dave Ginnard.  You older players will enjoy hearing about the good old days. He hails from Ohio and was there at the Genesis of Advanced Squad Leader.  He's also a lot of fun to listen to in his own right. So give it a listen. Rich Spilky connected us at the ASL Open. Thanks Rich.

Remember to not run into any trees everyone.

Boy, that number 200 does look odd in the title.  We hope you don't have your hopes up too much this one. Doing that almost always guarantees disappointment and we give you enough disappointment even without our listeners having an unusually high expectation for this podcast.

Following the usual format Jeff presents a look at BFP-78 Operation Wheatfield from Bounding Fire's Crucible of Steel, after the usual banter of course. If you didn't know that Dave went to Ireland, well, you will after this show.

Episode 200 is saved from its own banality by the marvelous interviews that we snagged at the ASL Open, right here in Chicagoland. You will learn some history of the game while you get to meet some of these wonderful people in the ASL community.  ENJOY!

SHOWTIMES

0:02 MASH Parody Song (lyrics by D. Donovan, Performed by The 2 Half-Squads Singers

3:34 Greetings and a conversation about dummies and concealment

10:00 Wonderful, Glorious, Banter (hey, it's 200, let us dream)

13:00 Pathetic Request for Support

14:00 Good Ideas for Life

16:00 Not More Banter!.....Please No!

25:00 What's The Plan for the Next 30 Shows?

27:00 What Have You Been Playing Lately?

44:30 Dave Goldman and Zach Emberton interviews

1:03 John McDermot and Chris Edwards interviews

1:26:30 Callers (Larry, Alan and Jackson)

1:30:28 Total Running Time

Welcome back our friends to the show that never ends!  Well, maybe never ends.  Well, of course it will end. BUT IT WILL GO BEYOND EPISODE 200.  Sorry to be the bearers of bad news.  Anyway, we open with quite a bit of boring banter, then many rather interesting letters, a detailed look at Scenario 176: The Only Way Out, then finish up with a look at Critical Hit's Dutch Trucks III. This product has some limited use for existing ASL scenarios but is a lot of fun.