ASL First FireWednesday, February 25, 2004
Out of the Wrapper, II
My second order from Heat of Battle arrived this weekend. Unfortunately, that means that I have no new products to look forward to... at least for a few weeks. MMP has stated that the materials for the Starter Kit have gone off to the printer and they are determined to meet their March dealine, mainly due to wanting to have this ready in time for the GAMA trade show March 15-18. So not too long to wait.
Firefights! - Firefights! is a pack of six scenarios, all fairly small in size and only 4-5 turns in length. They also have some variable elements to their OBs, making them a little more replayable. What's really different though is that the package also includes a map for each scenario, all about 1/2 board size (on an 8-1/2 x 11 page). Theoretically, these can be used as overlays for existing boards, although none of the included scenarios use them in this way. The scenarios look good and offer a nice variety of actions, including a PTO scenario (New Zealand-Japanese) and an early-war German-Polish scenario. Should be optimal for short duration scenarios. This was released in early 2003 and there is a moderate amount of results listed on ROAR. There is a "Teaser" available on the HoB website, which is a pdf file of an additional Firefight scenario with matching map if you want to try this out. Should be fun.
Recon By Fire - This is a Journal-style publication issued in late 1999 (and listed as "Issue #1"). This contains eight scenarios with a series of articles. Some of it focuses on the then-recent release of Blood Reef: Tarawa, including a terrain-chart applicable to that product. There is a "Crossfire" article examining "Blazin' Chariots" (from West of Alamein) by Rich Summers and Rob Banozic (who've done a number of similar articles in the ASL Annuals). The scenarios again look like a nice collection and while some of the material is more of historical interest at this point (more than four years later), overall this is a nice product. Does anyone know if there are any plans to release issue #2 at any point?
A couple of nice products and I look forward to trying them out, especially the Firefights.
Firefights! - Firefights! is a pack of six scenarios, all fairly small in size and only 4-5 turns in length. They also have some variable elements to their OBs, making them a little more replayable. What's really different though is that the package also includes a map for each scenario, all about 1/2 board size (on an 8-1/2 x 11 page). Theoretically, these can be used as overlays for existing boards, although none of the included scenarios use them in this way. The scenarios look good and offer a nice variety of actions, including a PTO scenario (New Zealand-Japanese) and an early-war German-Polish scenario. Should be optimal for short duration scenarios. This was released in early 2003 and there is a moderate amount of results listed on ROAR. There is a "Teaser" available on the HoB website, which is a pdf file of an additional Firefight scenario with matching map if you want to try this out. Should be fun.
Recon By Fire - This is a Journal-style publication issued in late 1999 (and listed as "Issue #1"). This contains eight scenarios with a series of articles. Some of it focuses on the then-recent release of Blood Reef: Tarawa, including a terrain-chart applicable to that product. There is a "Crossfire" article examining "Blazin' Chariots" (from West of Alamein) by Rich Summers and Rob Banozic (who've done a number of similar articles in the ASL Annuals). The scenarios again look like a nice collection and while some of the material is more of historical interest at this point (more than four years later), overall this is a nice product. Does anyone know if there are any plans to release issue #2 at any point?
A couple of nice products and I look forward to trying them out, especially the Firefights.
