ASL DIGEST 7.7

July 31, 1997
Prep FireTerry Ford
Product Review: Critical Hit Vol. 4, No.1Terry Ford
Product Review: VFTT Issue 13Terry Ford
Product Review: ASL Annual '97Terry Ford
Scenario Replay: CH 53 At the CrossroadsDamon Norko vs. Terry Ford
Final FireTerry Ford
Copyright, 1997, Authors listed above

Prep Fire

 First, I want to thank John Slotwinski for the very fine work he has done on the DIGEST during the last six months and for trusting me to handle the helm of what I feel has become a tradition to the ASL Community and as such I am dedicated to trying to keep it alive.

I really had to wrestle with coming out with an issue for July. I was totally unprepared and have really thrown together this issue.

"Without reader feedback I fear that the Digest will eventually become stagnant." To quote John when he started and it is a very real concern to me also. John sent to me responses he had received to his original survey request and they so far amount to 1/10th of the listed readership. I urge everyone to send in their thoughts about the DIGEST along with what kind of products you would like to see in ASL, etc. I will tally the results and have them for September's issue

In this issue we have a review of 3 publications that have come out recently in support of ASL; Vol. 4 No. 1 of Critical Hit magazine, (more proof of a shift to the table top mini market.), View From The Trenches, Britain's Premier ASL Journal and Avalon Hill's MMP produced ASL Annual '97. I have included a Replay of a game between myself Damon Norko. This is the second game Damon and I have played and we are 1-1 against each other.

Hope you Enjoy!

Terry Ford

Product Review: Critical Hit Vol. 4, No.1

 Terry Ford

What hits you first from Critical Hit's latest piece of ASL meat and potatoes is the bright yellow front cover. "Gembloux is here!" it shouts. Have you not caught Gembloux fever yet?

There are some subtle changes on the cover of the very latest offering from CH. "The Independent Journal of the ASL Hobby" slogan is nowhere to be seen on the cover, also "Tactical Level Gaming" replaces the customary "ASL Magazine" that has been on the cover. You can really see that CH has made an effort to attract another market of gamers, mainly the WWII mini guys. It has a full color slick paper cover and slick paper inside with high quality black and white printing inside. I can't help but get the feeling from looking at the clues here, but something is up at CH. This magazine has presentation, looks like they may have plans, maybe plans of world domination.

Well, on to the contents that you get for $15.95 (manufactures' suggested retail price).You get 6 feature stories. This issue contains the usual CH column stuff along with new counters to put together: Weapon pits and a German armor variant counter in color camo scheme!

First, an informative article on para-drops tactics by M. Puccio is first, this also has a scenario to go with it, CH 77 Drop Zone A; British and German Paratroopers clash in this late war 5 turn scenario.

Then we have Canadian Army Regular G. Kelln with his designer notes on his scenario CH 75 The Big Cat's Den. This is an 8 turn number with a mix of SS, Fallschirmjaeger and 2nd line infantry (the last two have an ELR of 0) vs. elite Canadians. Also German tanks over 5:1. But the Canadians must control tow brides.

And next a scenario Replay of Baraque de Fraiture's Cold Reception (BdF8) with R. Kinney as the Germans and D. Gibson playing the Americans.

You want more? Van Mechlen has a piece on the math behind ASL tactics, a real heavy bit o' meat for you old ASL grognards.

It also has an article on the variants of support weapon teams and MG crews by J. McLeod. This article has variant rules for the use of 127, 228 MG crews. This has two scenarios to go with it: CH 76 Hurtgen Hell; Americans must control 13 or more level 4 hill hexes. The Americans get a good mix of bunker bustin' tools, but the Germans get a whoppin' 36 minefield factors. And CH 74 Troteval Farm, More Canadians must try and kick the Germans off the farm in 7 turns.

Also J. "Gunny" Thompson, a 23 year military vet., gives his views on ASL OBA in an in-depth article that has some rule suggestions.

Here are the rest of the scenarios, eight of them (three sheets are loose and one sheet is attached in the magazine). These scenarios do look better than the last issue.

Over all I'd give this issue a 8.95 on my scale, since there is no big article on Gembloux inside, I feel the front cover is just a big ad, also there are many typos and index number mistakes starting on page 1. Having scenarios go with the articles is great, but the issue lacks a theme or main focus. The magazine is great looking and worth the money, the content could be better organized. One thing concerns me is the number of variant rules. Things like this could get out of hand. May be some day ASL will have to have a Rule book convention and all members can vote on the rules and the ASLRB can be redone. How's that for a lumberjack brawl.

Product Review: View From The Trenches, Issue 13

 Terry Ford

In a year that saw the end of some more ASL Fanzines, Britain comes to the rescue. View From The Trenches, Britain's Premier ASL Journal Issue 13 is out and dedicated to the theme of Pegasus Bridge.

A photo of the bridge on the Canal du Caen decorates the cover of this Fanzine. I have been inpressed with this homemade British ASL magazine.

This issue also has some counters to paste up. Unarmed German Paratroopers (squads and half-squads) with generic Ice Hole counters to round it out. Now I don't know if it is because of the metric system or the new EC standards or what but these counters don't paste up exactly at 1/2 inch for MMC size counters, just a tad to big. I put mine on AH blank white 5/8" counters and trimmed down. So the counters come out to somewhere between 1/2 and 5/8 inch size.

There are some good charts for Cemetery Hill and Pegasus Bridge in this issue, more photos. This Fanzine looks a lot better than On All Fronts ever did, well worth the $3.

Hope to see more issues come out of this baby, overall I give this a 4.6 on a 1 to 5 point Fanzine scale.

Product Review: ASL Annual '97

 Terry Ford

Avalon Hill has recently released the long awaited ASL Annual 97. The ASL Internet community has really been talking up this annual more than any other ASL publication. From price to scenarios a lot of opinions have come out, both pro and con.

Many felt that the price of $24.95 was a bit steep for the 64 four color pages with 16 scenarios and Nhpum Ga, mini-HASL, map.

The printing is the standard Monarch quality printing that one has come to expect from AH and the front cover art is from ASL Module 6; The Last Hurrah, and is the main theme of the work: "Cavalry" with a primer by M. Puccio and a Series Replay of ASL G28 Ramsey's Charge. C. Fago comments on the action between J. Coyle's Americans and M. Noah's Japanese. And to go with the primer, two scenarios featuring Cavalry and wagons.

There is ASL AREA news by R. Gifford, he states that some months he is "getting as many as 200 chits," That takes real dedication to a hobby, to organize that much information.

The biggest bonus is the mini-HASL Nhpum Ga, with background article by C. Powers. It features a 20 « x 16 3/4 four color map with 4 scenarios. Good white hex ID numbers in the wood hexes, they do stand out now, I'm still working on the number of elevations. Jungle terrain is always interesting.

I think MMP is trying to get more mini-HASLs done, ones with few to no new counters or rules. Basically a historical map and some scenarios. A good idea if you want to keep your printing costs down and your profit margin up and get a lot of ASL material out for the same printing costs. I look forward to giving it a try.

M. Nixon continues his review of the scenarios in ASL Module 10: Croix de Guerre.

The annual ends with a bit from T. Rogers on early WWII anti-tank tactics when you have no opposing armor, Guns, or LATW

This annual has some good points like, good quality printing with great graphics, no out of focus map shots like '95 annual. the Debriefing '97 page you can use to add on to the Comprehensive ASL Q&A /errata. One thing this annual does not have is any promises like others have had. Overall I'd give this one a 9.1. I got mine direct from the Hill using a $5 off coupon from PB module and an Elite Club 10% off coupon for a little more than $21, If you can't do that try Discount mail order for a better price.

Scenario Replay: CH 53 At the Crossroads

 Terry Ford as the Soviet side vs. Damon Norko as the Polish side.

Happened to be on AOL one evening checking the mail and up pops Damon and asks for a short game, ok, and we settle on this scenario. I found it interesting because of the early war date, August 1920, and the combatants; Poles vs. Russians. The Russians have to grab a 7 hex rosette centered on 38Z5 and bust the Pole out and keep them off in 4 « turns. The Poles have 1 higher ELR but are outnumbered nearly 2:1 by the Russians, who use Chinese MMC counters for this scenario. There is some HOB SSR chrome rules but the main SSR is: if the Russian 9-0 Commissar is killed all Russian units within LOS to his location must take a immediate PTC. Now that could hurt the timing of a major assault!

Final Fire

 Well, that's it. Really hoped to get this baby out sooner, but my wife's Buick has really been working against me of late. In a little more than two weeks we will have an article on Confusion Reigns that first appeared in the Austin ASL Club's newsletter, Banzai, version 2.5 by Matt Shostak. I hope to have a bit on tactics based on the US Army's manual 7-7 and a scenario, unless someone submits one.

Send your stuff in, if the reposnses do not inprove, I'll report the survey in a couple of weeks.

Copyright is retained by original authors. Contact the author before making any use of any of the articles contained in the Digest.

Terry Ford
Editor, ASL Digest