Why Memorise a Table in ASL?

Tables & charts, they are everywhere in ASL. That’s what makes this game so rich in historical details … and so very complex sometimes.

Now why would you memorise a table? After all they are there to aid your memory so you don’t have to memorise anything, right?

Then Why?

To Increase Your Speed Of Play

This is useful. It can add some more flow to the game as instead of having to stop start all the time to check some charts, you can just be considering your moves and taking actions.

Knowing the movement factors for various terrains is a perfect example of this.

It’s useful but for some, it may not really make it worth the effort involved.

To Initimidate Your Opponents

I think this post in gamesquad says it all: What constitutes being an ASL Player? 🙂

Enjoyable, but for some, it may also not make it really worth the effort.

To Determine Your Risk Beforehand

This! This is the most important reason for memorising the IFT and TK tables.

Not so you can determine the effect after something happens to you, but for determining the likihood of an effect happening before you take the action. You can use your knowledge of the odds and probability to evaluate your risk ahead of time.

“If I move here, my squad has a 42% chance of being hit, but if it moves there and does that, it has a 17% of being hit“.

Which would you choose?

Levels of Risk

The level of detail people may need to make informed decisions in the game may vary. The level of detail is relevant only to your own personal risk tolerance and your desire for precision. Consider the following thoughts that could go through a players head.

“Bah, don’t think he will stop me to shoot.“

“Bah, he needs a low number.“

“Bah, he needs to roll a 5 or less.“

“Bah, he a 28% chance.”

Some people are just “roll the die and will work it out” types and some people are doing intensive math in their head.

Some Die Roll Tables and Their Usefulness

What tables have we got and how useful are they for helping us predict and evaluate courses of action?

Table	Usage	Predictive Usefulness
IFT – Infantry Fire Table	Always	High – Predicting Risk
CCT – Close Combat Table	Often	High – Predicting Risk
TH – To Hit	Often	High – Predicting Risk
TK – To Kill	Often	High – Predicting Risk
HoB – Heat of Battle	Always	Low – Keeping score
Leader Creation – Leader Creation	Rarely	Low – Keeping score
Other DR tables	Often/Rarely	Low – Keeping score

Really the aim is to remember the absolute minimum you need for your own style of play, and for the level of detail that you feel you need to work out risk and probabilities. No more than that.

My recommendation? IFT, CCT, TH and TK in that order.

How to Memorise a Table?

One way is by osmosis. Play alot and it will happen. Thats one approach, and it does work. There is nothing like repetition to reinforce something in your memory.

The other approach is to use some kind of mnemoic device and going out of your way to learn the tables that can help you play a better game.

Is there value it learning a table? Definately, it will improve your game.

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