ASL First FireTuesday, January 27, 2004
Out of the Wrapper
I reached a milestone two weeks ago. With my purchase of the Operation: Watchtower Historical Study several months ago, I now own all of the "official" ASL modules [EXC: For King and Country, since I already own West of Alamein]. I recently reorganized my Plano containers and in doing so finally finished punching out all of my counters [EXC: The counters from 2nd edition SASL and the purple German counters from KGP II]. Thus, for the first time since first buying the Rulebook and Beyond Valor in 1993, I have no counters or other components left to organize.
So what to do next (besides actually playing ASL)? Like any self-respecting ASL junkie, I immediately began looking for more product to buy. Until now, the only “Third Party” ASL products I’ve bought have been a couple of Critical Hit magazines, but no modules. However, I’ve generally heard good things about Heat of Battle (HoB)’s products and headed over to their website. What followed were two purchases over the next couple of days. Onslaught to Orsha and High Ground arrived yesterday. Recon By Fire and Firefights! are on the way.
High Ground - This module contains the first two boards HoB has produced. They are mostly geomorphic (on three sides) with the other ASL boards, but the fourth side of each board has a level 4 hill extending to the board edge. Put together they make a very large hill complex extending across the two boards. Eight scenarios utilizing the “High Ground” boards are contained, and this looks like a nice package to have. I felt even better about the purchase when the HoB people announced online that this product is now sold out. Phew!
Onslaught to Orsha - This is a historical module on Operation Bagration (aka, the destruction of Army Group Center). This is also a nice package, containing a historical map, a counter sheet in the format of the counters shown above, and a total of 22 scenarios, 2 SASL missions and a CG based on the battle. Also, the product contains a chapter of rules for the new terrain and pieces as well as the campaign game. A very nice looking product and almost equal in quality (based on the components) to the “official” historical modules put out by AH and MMP. The scenarios look nice, ranging from small low density scenarios to some real monsters. As with MMP’s Historical Studies, some of the scenarios are on the map while others use geomorphic boards. Based on Chas Smith’s track record, this should be a lot of fun.
Both of these look great and I look forward to organizing my rulebook, scanning the rules into my ongoing “eASLRB in html” project, and punching out and sorting the counters.
Oh yeah, maybe I’ll play a little too.
So what to do next (besides actually playing ASL)? Like any self-respecting ASL junkie, I immediately began looking for more product to buy. Until now, the only “Third Party” ASL products I’ve bought have been a couple of Critical Hit magazines, but no modules. However, I’ve generally heard good things about Heat of Battle (HoB)’s products and headed over to their website. What followed were two purchases over the next couple of days. Onslaught to Orsha and High Ground arrived yesterday. Recon By Fire and Firefights! are on the way.
High Ground - This module contains the first two boards HoB has produced. They are mostly geomorphic (on three sides) with the other ASL boards, but the fourth side of each board has a level 4 hill extending to the board edge. Put together they make a very large hill complex extending across the two boards. Eight scenarios utilizing the “High Ground” boards are contained, and this looks like a nice package to have. I felt even better about the purchase when the HoB people announced online that this product is now sold out. Phew!
Onslaught to Orsha - This is a historical module on Operation Bagration (aka, the destruction of Army Group Center). This is also a nice package, containing a historical map, a counter sheet in the format of the counters shown above, and a total of 22 scenarios, 2 SASL missions and a CG based on the battle. Also, the product contains a chapter of rules for the new terrain and pieces as well as the campaign game. A very nice looking product and almost equal in quality (based on the components) to the “official” historical modules put out by AH and MMP. The scenarios look nice, ranging from small low density scenarios to some real monsters. As with MMP’s Historical Studies, some of the scenarios are on the map while others use geomorphic boards. Based on Chas Smith’s track record, this should be a lot of fun.
Both of these look great and I look forward to organizing my rulebook, scanning the rules into my ongoing “eASLRB in html” project, and punching out and sorting the counters.
Oh yeah, maybe I’ll play a little too.
