Merry ASL Christmas

Woek up this Christmas morning to see two new scenario packs had been released for Pre-order by MMP. Initially I thought it might have been Rising Sun as well.

I've ordered my usual two of each (one set for me, and one set for whoever locally wants one)

An interesting mix of scenarios from the first four packs by Friendly Fire, which given how many from those packs have already been publishedin the Journal, means I could have avoided ordering this. However we are talking about someone who owns about three versions of Dzerzhinski Tractor Works so restraint is not a realistic option. Maybe this way I can get John Knowles to broaden his ASL horizons from the older school Official  ASL scenarios.

I would have liked to see Wunderwaffe, Wunderwagen and Pavlov's Dogs included with a small half countersheet but perhaps the reprint of SV will include them as part of the countersheet.

ROAR Stats are as of December 25, AEST.

BoF1 The Marco Polo Bridge Incident  [FrF3-17] (Japanese vs Chinese, China, 1937)
ROAR: Chinese 35, Japanese 27
BoF2 A Polish Requiem [FrF3-26] (German vs Pole, Poland, 1939)
ROAR: German 32 Polish 26
BoF3 The Abbeville Bridgehead [FrF2-09] (French vs German, France, 1940)
ROAR: French 15, German 26
BoF4 About His Shadowy Sides [FrF3-19] (Russian vs German , Lithuania, 1941)
ROAR: German 47, Soviet 37
BoF5 Adolf’s Amateurs [FrF3-20] (German vs Russian, Finland, 1941)
ROAR: German 25, Soviet 24
BoF6 Cavalry Brigade Model [FrF3-21] (German vs Russian, Russia, 1942)
ROAR: German 10, Soviet 7
BoF7 The Fields Of Black Gold [FrF2-12] (German vs Russian, Russia, 1942)
ROAR: Soviet 43, German 24
BoF8 Sting Of The Italian Hornet [FrF4-29] (Canadian vs Italian, Sicily, 1943)
ROAR: Italian 34, Canadian 26
BoF9 Pursuing Frank [FrF4-31] (Russian vs German Poland, 1944)
ROAR: Soviet 6, German 12
BoF10 To Have And To Hold [FrF1-07] (American vs German, France, 1944)
ROAR: US 17, German 21
BoF11 Second Thoughts [FrF1-08] (German vs American France, 1945)
ROAR: German 23, US 19
BoF12 Forging Spetsnaz [FrF3-24] (Russian vs Japanese, Korea, 1945)
ROAR: Soviet 20, Japanese 19

Looking at the ROAR Stats, I can see why a couple or three will get tweaked, but there's a distinct feeling that these are the second wave rather than assault troops of Friendly Fire. However they are Friendly Fire designs so they generally make for great ASL. Marco Polo, Abbeville and Fields of Black Gold are my favourites from this selection.

Pretty standard fare, although the inclusion of the old GI overlays will be interesting especially as a pre-cursor to the Overlay bundle. The Breskens series are pretty much non-entities as far as scenarios go, encapsulating the worst excesses of SL-GI. There was niore than the obvious board reason they were released as part of the Rogue series by AH.

The Old ASLML

Years ago, on the old ASLML, I wrote some posts regarding fixing a few of the more notorious ASL Dogs. Unfortunately several computers and one lost box of CD Archives later, I cannot find my notes or the original posts. Shame really as I'm really keen on playing those scenarios again.

The scenarios were:

• A8 Agony of Doom
• A21 CounterAttack on the Vistula
• N Soldiers of Destruction

And yes I know there have been official MMP revisions for one or two of them, but the revisions didn't go far enough or missed the actual cause of the imbalance.

Critical MisHit

I've been burned before, and you'd think I'd have learned my lesson but CH's quality control is not even third world or emerging nations level.

Here's the current litany of incompetence:

Roman Glory, a well thought of and known to have been playtested scenario pack on an HASL mapsheet, arrived without the Nikitovka mapsheet but with a mapsheet coded as BG3,.

El Alamein Afrika Korps: This I expected to have problems, but it's actually hard to determine what is actually missing as there is no actual list of contents to check what overlays are missing, eother in the product or at the CH website.

In both cases an email was sent to CH's customer service rep as per their website. Except that I received an auto-response to the email advising me that I needed to resend to a new email address.

Frankly this is bush league company business practice. As for the various reprints and "upgrades", I'll obtain scans of the new scenarios and rules, the counter sheets I do not need, and restrict myself to playing them on VASL if I need the new maps.

No more from CH except for the final couple of older products I have played but yet to purchase.

And as for charging $299 for Omaha East, you just have to laugh at the sheer gall. I see that a couple of known GS denizens have plunked down the shekels already, but then one of them is not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer based on my knowledge of him from CSW and GS over the years, while the other is probably the most megalomaniacal collector I know in ASLdom, but he's cool about it, although I wish he would not try to corner the market in the OOP classics that do turn up from time to time.

Anyway, I think I will buy Gazala (hopefully with the correct amount  and type of overlays) despite the known overlay/map colouration mismatch and that will be it for CH newer releases. I have lost count of how many DTW map versions I have now...

At least I have a workable set of Oosterbeek and Third Bridge to be getting on with as the scenarios in there do not do any justice to the area portrayed.

An appreciation of the French way of ASL part 2

Volume 7 of Le Franc Tireur was the harbinger of the LFT new wave, the first issue to get more than minimal exposure outside the EC. Reaching back into my memory, 2003 was really a lean year for TPP: CH were only just starting to come out of their self induced dormant period; Heat of Battle were not doing much; and of the scenario producers, only Schwerpunkt was being its usual productive annual self, with George Kellnand Paul Kenny just starting or not raising their heads much above the horizon of ASL consciousness at that stage.

But returning to LFT #7; an entire issue devoted to the East Front, with a Borodino theme for 5 scenarios, all 5 of which saw subsequent wider exposure in the opages of Journal 7 and 8. It's these scenarios that I'm going to have a brief look at, purely because I really enjoyed them when I first played them and I reckon it's actually worth looking at the differences between the two iterations.

The scenarios are: 

• The Yelnya Bridge (FT31, J102)

•  Lenin's Sons (FT32, J103)

•  Flanking Flamethrowers (FT33, J104)

•  Borodino Train Station (FT34, J105)

•  Last push to Mozhaisk (FT35, J115)

Before we go any further, note that there are three Borodino SSRs that apply to all five FT scenarios :

1. All Buildings are wooden (except for FT34 Borodino Train Station)
2. German 838/338, 548/238s and Soviet 628/328 are Assault Engineers
3. Vehicular crews may not voluntarily abandon their vehicles.

Pretty much standard type SSRs and dutifully included as required by MMP

Let's look at the differences in each scenario:

•  The Yelnya Bridge: MMP did some minor mods of the SSRs, using non SS illos for the SS OB and therefore needing to specify SS capability in the SSRs. Actual OB changes were made to the Soviet Ob, with MMP dropping 1 447 squad but adding a 426  instead, plus adding an ATR. For the Germans, MMP added a 548 and an lmg. That's pretty much it.

• Lenin's Sons: As above, MMp just tided up the SSR wording, and added a single lmg to the post errata German OB  (NB LFT 1st ed errata: add 1 lmg and one DC to the German OB so they have two of each). The only real major change is MMP increased the game length to 6.5 turns and raised the German CVP cap from ≤14 to ≤16 or less. [NB: LFT errata: Map : instead of only hexrows D-U are playable, read hexrows D-Z]

• Flanking FTs: SSRs tidied and clarified as before. German OB changes are fairly major: upgrade 4 x 457 to 468, add a 247 hs, upgrade 1 x 8-0 ldr to 8-1 and the armour enters on Turn 1 as opposed to turn 2. Soviet OB change drops one of the Turn 4 Soviet 628s

•  Borodino Train Station: (The Compass Rose is incorrect in the FT version, North should be at the bottom). SSRs tidied but no other changes at all.

• Last Push to Mozhaisk: The only real change si a subtle one, decreasing the German CVP cap from 24 to 23.

Balance: (ROAR stats as of 21/11/2011) 

• The Yelnya Bridge: [FT31] German 17 vs Russian 19 [J102] German 38 Russian 29
• Lenin's Sons:   [FT32] German 5 vs Russian 11 [J103] German 57 vs Russian 69
• Flanking FTs:  [FT33] German 4 vs Russian 10 [J104] German 37 vs Russian 21    
• Borodino Train Station: [FT34] German 5 vs Russian 0 [J105] German 61 vs Russian 33    
• Last Push to Mozhaisk: [FT35] German 4 vs Russian 9 [J115] German 23 vs Russian 35

My thoughts, I've played all but Mozhaisk, but I'd play them all again. Brodino needs the most help and I'd disallow Boresighting based on the historical blurb or drop the AFV entry to turn 2 as a default with the balance being to incorporate both. Flanking Fts I think needs the German Armour also to enter on Turn 2 and add back the dropped 628. Yelnya, the Germans should lose 1 lmg and that's about it. Mozhaisk could probably do with increasing the German CVP up to around 26 or 27.

Jorunal 7 was a very good set of scenarios as far as I was concerned, quite a few don't like these five scenarios but as a linked set and theme, I like them. Plus they are really excellent fast play scenarios that only need a little tweaking, don't use a huge amount of outlandish SSRs and still force both sides to think slightly oustide the box and use all the various national characteristics. (okay so I'm biased and still reckon you can use a HW in Borodino successfully on turn 1).

Pete.
 
Currently listening to: Betty Blue soundtrack

Future Directions

I've been thinking about writing this post for a while, but kept procrastinating because I wanted to put all kind of fancy graphics and example throughout.In the end I've canned that idea because this is mostly an aide-memoire for later and the bells and whistles can be added later.

Also by putting this out here for public consumption, I get the benefit of feedback and additional input/approaches and ideas I haven't really considered.

To Do Lists:
Pretty simple, but there are a lot. I find I accomplish more if I have a definite plan, with the codicil that the planning never seems to match up with the execution or vice versa.

• A Playing to Do List - by default I'm playing against a couple of regular opponents in themed runs of scenarios, thereby knocking off their own to do lists, but it'd be nice to set out my own lists of themed playing lists, and after approximately 16 years of online ASL involvement and exposure to TPP, there are certainly a lot.

• The OCD CDO list - Organisation and acquisition - I really need to set down my targets in organising my ASL stuff, as it's taking over my study all on its own. This includes things like dice towers, a long distance travel set, a home set and local travel set: Plano, Raaco, Hozan and Box Box all get attention here. 12 months ago I spent way too much on a net book tablet in effect just for ASLOK.

• Designing and playtesting - I've a couple of ideas for scenarios that have been percolating around for years, but never got off my chuff to do anything about it. Time to change that.

• AARs and playing history - I've got archives of my playing history laying around on various defunct hard drives and media that I really should look at moving to modern VASL for AAR purposes, plus it may be quite instructive looking at how my play has developed since 1995 when I first started playing outside my limited opponent set. And there's the added impetus of knowing that the AARs posted this month have been the most read of anything on this blog.

In these four categories there's a lot more beneath the surface, so I don't really have much excuse for posting gaps on this blog. The downside is that some of these projects are not exactly image rich and I gather most wall of text blogs get rapidly ignored so I'm a tad loathe to go down that road.

Pete

Currently Listening to: Siouxsie & the Banshees: Juju (1981)

Making the most of what you have

Ian of Wall Advantage posted an excellent overview of the new Friendly Fire scenario pack on his blog today.

One point he raised about the use of counters from Blood and Jungle along with board FrFA got me thinking.  MMP obviously cannot really utilise TPP boards and counters in their scenario offerings, and so it really is up to the TPP scenario publishers to take advantage of the wider array of ASL resources at their immediate disposal. Sure some will grumble, as Ian points out, however in my experience BFP would be one of the more widely known and obtained of TPPs these days, particularly for those who are aware of Friendly Fire in the first place.

There are some excellent TPP boards and overlays out there that could be helpful in avoiding new mapboard overkill, as happened with board 10, Croix de Guerre and to a lesser extent Doomed Battalions and Armies of Oblivion. Now admittedly the pace of release of official boards from MMP has been quite astounding, and Action Packs looks to be continuing that ray of sunshine, but even Critical Hit has produced some excellent SK style boards in products such as Total Axis pack 1, Finland at War, 1st Ed/Boxed Ed Dien Bien Phu.

Personally I think it's been well overdue for at least one or two scenarios in a pack to go somewhat off the heavily trodden path of official mapboards and countermixes. Sure some won't have access to the products but in todays smaller active ASL community, the print runs are such that for the most part you're working with an audience and userbase who can now utilise more of their collection.

When I was last looking at some scenario designs, I tried to make use of the various Time On Target counters and rules, particularly those from ToT2 and ToT3. Maybe it's time to revisit this concept in the form of a ASL Grognards pack, targeted firmly at those who have access to most TPP materials. All I know is that for some TPPs, their strength of scenarios is derived from  the freshness of the designs rather than the actual tactical situation.

In The Mail

Back from a revitalising holiday to find that Mark Pitcavage's Scenario Designer's Guide was part of the accumulated mail waiting for me. First glance - nicely done. Lots of reading to do and a few notes to make before a fuller report is on the cards. Not sure that it'll be as useful as might have been suggested for non-ASL scenario designers but more later on that.  So much to do today and I haven't even typed up the updates.