ASL Module Bargain

I don't want to be guilty of "counting my chickens," but I think that I've found a treasure chest of Advanced Squad Leader modules on the St. Louis Craiglist. ASL "modules" are expansions to the base game that include new scenarios, along with the maps and counters to play them.

I noticed the posting at Craigslist last night. The poster was listing about 20 old Avalon Hill games for sale. We exchanged emails, and five of the games were Advanced Squad Leader modules: Yanks (which includes mostly American units and scenarios from the Western front in 1944), West of Alamein (which mostly includes British units and scenarios from the North Africa campaigns), The Last Hurrah (which mostly includes minor Allied units and scenarios from the opening of the war), Code of Bushido (which mostly includes Japanese units and scenarios from the Pacific Theater) and Croix de Guerre (which mostly includes French units and scenarios from the war's opening). Of these five, only The Last Hurrah is currently in print. They all regularly sell for between $50 and $100 apiece on eBay.

The other game was Hedgerow Hell, an ASL Deluxe module. The Deluxe modules didn't include any counters, but they included scenarios with extra-large map boards -- designed to be used with miniatures. This sells online for about $75.

I originally offered the seller $120 for the six games. She counter-offered $180, including shipping, which I accepted. I plan to mail a check on Tuesday. The deal is good enough that the thought crossed my mind that it's not as advertised. The seller indicates that five of the six are never-played. I keep remembering the Seinfeld episode with "Mom and Pop" stealing Jerry's shoes.

The other irony (and if you're an ASL player, you're probably already thinking about this) is that I can't currently play any of these modules since I don't currently own the core rulebook or the core module -- Beyond Valor. In other words, I'll need to spend another $200 on other ASL games before I can actually use any of these games. The picture above is a "flowchart" from the Wikipedia that summarizes which ASL modules are needed in order to play other modules.

So what am I thinking in spending this money? First, Andrew and I had enough fun yesterday that I'm confident that Andrew, Al and I will be playing these modules twenty years from now. And, if we ever want to play these modules, this is by far the cheapest that I could ever hope to obtain them. This is the type of "score" that becomes almost legendary at BoardGameGeek. But, if worse comes to worse, I am confident that I could sell any of these games on eBay or BoardGameGeek for far more than $30 each.

The seller had a number of other old Avalon Hill games, but I didn't want to spend more than I did. I did ask her to contact me in a few weeks if she still had any leftovers from the list. There are a few that I'd consider making an offer for.