Counter storage. The bane of the ASL mailing list. The icing on the ASL cake. The ultimate measure of an ASL player.
So how do you store your counters?
Here's one way. It's not the best way, cuz there is no best way. It's a start. Counter Storage is a journey, Grasshopper, not a goal.
There are not as many counter storage systems as ASL players, but there's an amazing variety. Some people use an assortment of Ziplock bags in various sizes. All the Americans go in one gallon-sized bag, which opens up to reveal several quart-sized bags (one each for infantry, armor, guns, etc.), inside of which are many pint-sized bags (one for each squad type, one for leaders, etc), ad infinitum. Some people use matchboxes. Some people use those thin plastic counter trays that Avalon Hill makes.
I use Plano. It's available in the Fishing Tackle section of your local Wal*Mart or Wal*Mart-wannabe.
What you got here, son, is the Plano Model 3701, the Finest Piece of All-Plastic Counter Storage Mechanism that your good ol' Uncle Sam could buy. It slices, it dices. Its top is clear so's you can see what's inside. Its top is hinged so's you can open it easily. Its top detaches so's you can stack 'em.
Inside the Plano Model 3701 you will find five rows and seven columns of approximately 2"x2"x1.5" cubical compartments of air. Extremely fine for storing counters, yew betcha. At $4 a pop, one of the best values in the ASL universe, gar-on-teed.
You will want to affix small dollops of airplane glue onto each of the spots where the insertable dividers are, uh, inserted. That will stick 'em in place so's you can avoid the ugly trauma of Counter Hopping, aka Slumming, ie, where your 838's slide under the divider to visit the 447's to talk tough and pick fights. Very embarassing. Alternatively, for those of you who are trusted with heat sources, the intersections can be fused shut with a soldering iron.
OK. How many do you need. I need 8. It would be pretty hard to get 'em all into 7, and 9 would feel unnecessary. Eight is a nice number, evenly divisible by all kinds of smaller numbers, so you need 8.
As the inestimable Rodney Kinney once noted, one's counter storage system can be optimized for varying purposes. Travel, ease of setup, ease of breakdown, etc. Me, I got it optimized for a tournament, cuz then you've got people all over the room judging you on your counter storage system and you want to be looking your best.
So we break it down thusly:
Box 1 - The Main Box. Stuff you're gonna be using every single turn; the box you're gonna have open on the table next to your game. Looking at it from the top, we've got this (there's only six compartments in the front row):
| Dice & Turn Markers | Acquisition A/AA | Acquisition B/BB | Acquisition C/CC | Acquisition D/DD | Acquisition E/EE | Acquisition F/FF |
| Out of Special Ammo | Starshells & IR | No Move | Blaze/ Flame | Blaze/ Collapsed Hut | Crest/ Roadblock | Level 1,2,3 |
| Prisoners | OBA | OBA | Trail Break Covered Arc Intensive Fire | Foxhole Roadblock Trench | Motion Rev Motion | Gun/MG Malf. |
| TI | Berserk Fanatic Hero Wound | Infantry Smoke | 5/8" Smoke | White Phosphorous | BU/CE Turrets | Stun UK |
| DM | Prep Fire | Residual FP & Firelanes | First/ Final Fire | Pin | CC/HtH Melee |
The idea is that the most-used system counters are in the front row within easy reach. The rest of the tray contains the system counters that you're most likely to use during a game. Sure, some of the Fortification counters could also be put in a separate Fortification box (and in fact, we have one of those), but just a few of these counters in the Main Box will keep you from having to hunt through the Fortification Box later on. Note that Acquisition counters are grouped by letter, regardless of size (1/2" or 5/8") or color. The "Out of Special Ammo" bin contains homemade counters that I find tremendously useful. Counters like "No Smoke", "No WP", "No APCR", etc, for when a unit depletes a Special Ammo type. If you can find a mini-deck of cards, they fit great in the double-wide OBA slot.
The rest of the boxes are done according to the theory that while you're playing, you want to have the fewest boxes on the table as you can get away with. At a tourney, other people are gonna be asking to borrow your stuff, and it's no fun if you have to lend them six boxes, including the ones you're using for your own scenario. Heck, even if you're not at a tourney, who wants to have the table cluttered up with Plano boxes?
During a scenario, all you really need at hand is the Main Box with the informational stuff and the boxes with the infantry for both sides. If an AFV dies, you just flip it to its wrecked side, so you don't need to have the AFV's at hand. Support Weapons rarely get created during a scenario (unless you Scrounge), so they can go in their own box that you use when you set up but then can put away or loan to somebody else. Fortifications naturally go in their own box. But Infantry tend to ELR, create Heroes, Deploy/Recombine, etc, so you'll want the infantry box close at hand.
Box 2 - The Fortification Box. We're a little thin here, not enough separate Fortification types to completely fill a 34-bin box, but what the hey. Since it doesn't much matter which counters go in what bin, I'll just list the separate bins here:
Box 3 - The Support Weapon Box. I like to lump all of a particular type of SW together, regardless of nationality. You want an MMG, you go to the MMG bin and look for the right color. It's pretty easy. You get separate bins for:
So with the Main Box, the Fortification Box, and the Support Weapon Box, you've got 5 Plano boxes left for your infantry and armor. Like I said, I like to have infantry separated from armor because you probably won't need the armor box once you set up and you can get it out of your hair.
Box Alpha - German and US infantry. Both nationalities have so many different kinds of infantry ("E", "box-E", "circle-E", "SS", "SS Engineers", "Early War Marines", "Late War Marines", etc) that it's easy to fill up 34 bins here.
Box Beta - IJA, Russian, and British infantry.
Box Victor Bravo - Finnish, Chinese, French, Italian, Allied & Axis Minor infantry.
For infantry of most nationalities, I try to separate 'em like this:
For the Vehicle/Gun boxes, I like to separate each Nationality's Guns into 1 or 2 bins. Then I get more careful with the vehicles. There are many many ways to separate vehicles: by MA caliber, Movement Points, vehicle type, even Chapter H note number. This is the most unsettled part of my storage system, so take this with the biggest grain of salt and improve on it as you will.
Box X-11 - German, Chinese, IJA, and Italian Guns 'N Vehicles
* Russkies separate AFV's by MA - 45L's, 76/76*, 76L, greater than 76The US vehicles are currently ingloriously occupying the back half of the SW box. Halftracks seem to be in one bin, Guns in another, and I apparently had no scheme for the other bins, cuz I've got the box right in front of me and there seems to be no rhyme or reason.
* Brits separate AFV's by MP - less than 13, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17/18, 19-24, 25-32, greater than 32The French are all strewn about in whatever order they damn well please. I think they like it that way. They wanted their own Plano Box all to themselves, but I forced them into a union with the other nationalities and it's really fun to bend them to my will.
So there you have it. It's not perfect, it's kinda Byzantine, and I can't believe I took however long it took to explain it. But it's mine, and in this crazy world we live in, that may just be all that matters.