Human Wave 2020: An Advanced Squad Leader tournament in the age of COVID

By David Garvin

Sorry, we’re closed…

is an annual tournament that began only in 2018. It is run by the , an ASL club based in the Washington, DC area. The initial two tournaments saw around 20 or so participants each time come together in Tysons Corner, Virginia to play a four-round tournament. This year was looking to be a bigger tournament in terms of participation when the Pandemic hit.

When the lockdowns and border closings began back in March, everything went into flux. We did not know how long this would last nor what the implications would be. Soon it was evident that it would be impossible to host a tournament in Northern Virginia at the end of June. But the tournament was not dead, thanks to a freeware program called , or VASL as it is more commonly referred to.

This program allows two people with a computer and an internet connection to play ASL live or by email. Once the lockdowns began, VASL use surged exponentially. In the month of June alone, 10, 517 players logged into VASL to play a game. To add to this use, some tournaments decided to go Virtual and to conduct their tournament using VASL, instead of canceling everything.

The first major tournament to do so was the , hosted by a group of ASL players in New England. It ran in real-time; that is, each round was given around seven or eight hours to complete a game. Most players ended up playing two games each day over the weekend.

The next major tournament was the , or CASLO. This annual tournament is typically held in a major city in Canada with the membership of the Canadian ASL Association voting on a proposal each year. This year, the 24^th Annual CASLO was to be hosted in Fredericton, New Brunswick by the D-Day Dodgers ASL Club of Southern New Brunswick. The Tournament Director, (me), proposed to host a virtual tournament and the membership voted to go ahead with the Virtual Tournament.  In the end, over 40 ASL Players from around the world participated, ranging from Sweden to Australia.

A little-known fact is that I am part of a committee in that Washington, DC-based ASL club, the DC Conscripts. Based on my experience playing in the Nor’Easter and in running CASLO 2020, I proposed that we should go ahead and conduct Human Wave virtually.  The committee agreed and we went ahead with the tournament on 24 to 28 June.

“A little-known fact…”

To get participants from around the world and to make the tournament a bit more user-friendly, we decided to go with each round taking a day. This would give participants in any time zone a chance to play at a decent time and to not have to play in the middle of the night, local time.

Human Wave saw 22 people participate in a four-round tournament. Each round had four choices of scenarios and participants were expected to submit their top three choices of scenario, to include their preferred side, ahead of the conduct of the tournament. This is standard for ASL and it allows for some interesting pre-game posturing.

The procedure goes like this: each player will list their preferred scenario in order as first, second and third choice.  With each scenario, each player will also list which side they prefer: Axis or Allies or in some cases, no preference. The most popular choice for each player is then selected to be played. If the players selected opposite sides, then they simply play as is. If not, then a die roll is made to see which player gets their preferred side. The losing player will get the opposite side but will also get balance.

Every scenario in ASL has an option to balance a scenario. As it says in the ASL Rule Book, “Each scenario contains a section entitled ‘Balance’ which proposes a variation to the basic scenario format which is advantageous for the stated side. Whenever both players wish to play the same side in a scenario, they decide the matter with a die roll and the loser of the die roll gets to claim the balance provision of the scenario for his side as a consolation.” As such, some players make their choices strategically, mainly to avoid having to play against the balance. Other shrewd players will choose the less-popular side with a hope of getting the balance.

Typical game of ASL underway using VASL

By collating the data submitted, I was able to make some in-depth analysis of the choices made and of the scenarios played.  In summary, of the 20 scenarios offered in the play list, 18 were played. The most popular scenario, in terms of being chosen as well as being played, was scenario 105 Going to Church from the ASL module For King and Country. It was chosen as one of four possible choices in the first round by 17 of the 20 players and was played six times.

Of note, this scenario is set on the 1^st of August 1944 and pits Canadians of up against elements of . In the , then-Major who would go on to be Canada’s top general long after the war, successfully took the objective; however, in the tournament, the German side ended up winning five of the six matches. In the tournament overall, the Allies won 21 and the Axis won 19 matches. Another interesting statistic is that the attacker in each scenario also won 21 times and the defender won 19 times. By the time the dust settled, a champion was named with one player going a perfect four and zero. There was a concurrent Starter Kit tournament was being run, with six players taking part.

A Canadian Soldier in St. Martin-de-Fontenay

By the time Sunday rolled around, 40 matches of ASL were played, and judging by the comments of the players, it was a success.  Playing by VASL is not ideal, but it sure is a damn-sight better than not playing at all. As such, it was thanks to this freeware program that saved not only this tournament but many other ASL tournaments as well.  With that, let’s hope that next year will see Human Wave return to Tysons Corner!

 

David Garvin is an avid ASL player based out of New Brunswick, Canada. Until last year he lived in Northern Virginia and as such was part of two ASL clubs: the DC Conscripts as well as the Fredericksburg Fire Eaters. He remains a member of both clubs, as well as the club he founded in Canada, the D-Day Dodgers.