Advanced Squad Leader Scenarios

[Beltran Mathews]

ASLmaps are based on a hex grids with each hex nominally 40 metres across. An ASL board is 10 hexes tall and 32 hexes wide so, at 40m per hex, a board is 400 metres by 1280 metres. Of course this results in some anomalies, for example, European village streets are not 40 meters across, but Crossfire faces the same challenges on ground scale.

The basic premise in ASL is that a squad of 10-12 bolt-action riflemen rates a Fire Power of 4 in the game. Poor quality troops (some conscripts, Chinese, etc.) will lose a FP factor down to a 3. Troops with automatic weapons usually get a boost of 1 or 2 FP to a 5 or a 6 and gain assault fire. US squads, with Garand and BAR get a FP of 6.

A Russian 5-2-7 squad has a range of only 2 hexes because it is equipped with submachine guns, which have a much shorter range than rifles. An American paratrooper squad, 7-4-7, uses a mixture of carbines and submachine guns, so it gets an intermediate range of 4 hexes. The presence of submachine guns boosts the FP of both of these squads as compared to the equivalent rifle squads of those nations.

Morale is the third of the large numbers at the bottom of an ASL squad. High is good. A 6-6-7 rifle squad has a Morale of 7, which is average. A Morale Level of 8 is excellent, and a Morale Level of 6 is poor.

The two values for ASL leaders are Morale and Leadership. A scenario will assign a number of leaders to a side based upon how well the tactical leadership of that country performed in real life. Germans usually get the most leaders, followed the Americans and the British, with the Russians and the Italians getting relatively few leaders.

Where ASL uses the number of leader counts to reflect the command and control of a nationality, Crossfire models this explicitly with the Command & Control rating. Germans are good, American and Commonwealth are okay and Russians and Italians poor.

Steve Burt suggests awarding a +2 commander for excellent Squad Leader leaders (9-1, 10-2). I suggest other ASL commanders become a +1 commander in Crossfire. Any other Crossfire commanders will have a rating of 0.

One of the many reasons I play Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) is because I am a self-professed amateur historian. The history of the Second World War is not only fascinating but is rich and has even to this day many surprises awaiting anyone who wants to dig deep enough. I intend to do a blog post on how ASL is part history teacher.

For example, it is through ASL that I learned of a battle in early 1942 to the west of Moscow, The Battle of the Kholm Pocket. I discovered this epic battle through the purchase of a Historical ASL (HASL) product from a 3rd party producer, le franc tireur. Based in France, this HASL was designed by Andrew Hershey of Virginia. Before doing a blog post about learning history through gaming, I reached out to him and interviewed him. That interview follows now.

Besides beautiful color plates, the book is data packed, and in the age before wiki, it effectively held all the stats and brief blurbs on all combat and non-combat aircraft of WW2. I decided to look up the DFS230 German glider, having known of their role in the air assault on Eben Emael, and of course Crete.

This is shown not only in the map, and through the intros and aftermaths to scenarios, but likewise by set up instructions (he knows in good detail where certain weapons were located, that is why you the player are not free to put them wherever you want) or in Scenario Special Rules (SSR), which impart additional details.

We not only share the game, and foster newbs along the road to tactical viability in the game, but we know about each other and care about each other, and mourn the loss of those who have passed on. An example of this is when Paul M. Weir passed away. He for those of you who may not know was an Irish ASLer, but played the game mostly solo, but he was an ASL community leader and giant though his presence on Game Squad. Where his knowledge of WW2 vehicles, aircraft, and weapons was second to none, and he was a source many designers, including myself, often consulted with.

Try to find more than 1 source about your battle. Try to find out as much about the terrain as you can, and do not be afraid to use overlays to achieve your battle-scape. Should you be lucky to have 3-4 sources and excellent details, perhaps say about the number of machine guns on each side, be wary of this- exact orders of battle do not universally translate into ASL game design. Why?

Thank you. Dr Hershey is a fine example of the type of people producing the scenarios and other products in ASL. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes and there is definitely pride in the work involved.

Hi Mark

Thank you for that. Andrew is a humble and prolific designer. He has had his hand in many ASL products for producers from Avalon Hill and MMP to 3rd Party Producers such as HoB and lft. His stuff is all top notch!

The quality of his scenarios should demonstrate that Andy is a great researcher. Was pleased to interact with him during the design of Forgotten War, and I believe the Modern ASL group that Frank Meier had been running on Yahoo years ago. Andy would be a great project manager as he has a gift for coordination, communication and organization. Nice to see his work given some recognition here. I get the feeling scenario and campaign design is often a lone-wolf activity but Andy has always gone the extra mile of tracking down arcane details in order to get them right.

Recently I was looking for a challenging tactical game to play. A game-savvy friend suggested we dive in the deep end and play Advanced Squad Leader (ASL). I said "sure" and started learning the rules.

I chose to dive straight into the full system rather than the ASL Starter Kit (ASLSK), but the starter kits may be exactly the right thing for you. Either way, my suggested resources will be relevant.

While my friend and I chose to go full ASL rules, we are flattening the learning curve by starting with just the infantry rules and playing just infantry scenarios. Later, as we gain confidence, we'll add ordnance and perhaps armor.

First, you're going to need some rules. I recommend the Electronic Advanced Squad Leader Rulebook (eASLRB). It's the full rules with all the latest errata incorporated in a searchable, indexed PDF. Rules references in the text link directly to the referenced rule. You can full-text search. As a new, learning player I'm constantly referencing the eASLRB and being able to quickly find the relevant term or rule has been extremely helpful.

Neal Ulen's Advanced Squad Leader Academy Boot Camp - Advanced Squad Leader Tutorials on YouTube are an incredible resource for new players. I cannot overstate how critical these were to helping me wrap my head around the rules.

My suggestion for new new players is to read ASLRB chapters A and B without getting too caught up in the details. Just get the words in your head. Watch Neal's Boot Camp tutorials. Then go back and read chapter A more closely. Having seen the tutorials, the rules will make more sense.

From there I'd say start playing. I've alternated playing with my friend and playing solo games, referring back to the rules and play aids as necessary. I own several of the initial ASL modules including Beyond Valor module, but I mostly play on the computer using the Vassal hex game engine and VASL module for ASL. Neal has a terrific playlist of VASL 101 - Virtual Advanced Squad Leader Tutorials to help you get started.

You'll need some scenarios to play. I found the Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) Beginner Scenario List on the Itinerant Hobbyist blog, who credits the list from a poster on Boardgame Geek, via Gamesquad. I've seen this list on other sites as well. The beginner and infantry-only scenarios are a good place to start.

1. The Munchkin prefers combat to all other forms of problem-solving.2. The Munchkin neglects character development in favor of chart and number crunching to enhance his character's combat abilities.3. The Munchkin is more concerned with tactical expertise than "artsy-fartsy" narrative-centered role-playing.4. The Munchkin "Lives by the Dice, and Dies by the Dice."

Now, given the conventional wisdom circulating in the post-WoD role-playing community, one would think that these Munchkins would be much better served by playing Spacecraft, Doom, or Quake. However, said conventional wisdom overlooks a core facet of the Munchkin's personality: an inherent need for social interaction and a connection with his/her fellow gamers. Now, you may disagree with this conclusion, but the fact is that yelling "Boo-yah! Eat Natural Twenty, Sucka!" is not nearly as satisfying when shouted at a defenseless CRT device.

This brings us to my proposed therapy for those lonely Munchkins who are longing for a meaningful, combat-centered gaming relationship: Traditional Wargaming, and lots of it! At this point, you are probably thinking, "The dude already plays Warhammer 40K, but it doesn't seem to have helped any." This is because games like WH40K simply don't supply the quantity of simulationist minutia that a serious Munchkin needs. Which brings me to my primary criteria for successful therapy: Charts and Tables; and lots of 'em!

I have selected the Advanced Squad Leader system as the perfect form of Munchkin diversion therapy. Originally released by Avalon Hill, but now well-supported by Multiman Publishing, ASL is a squad and company level wargame of WWII combined arms combat. The initial rules contain 115 pages and 4 foldout chart-covered chapter dividers consisting of Chapters A (Infantry Combat), B (Terrain), C (Ordnance), and D (Vehicular Combat). The rules are clearly written, yet dense with rules (and charts) to cover every possible occasion, from setting fires, to dropping entire city blocks on your opponents.

The game is played on a series of beautifully rendered geomorphic mapboards which represent urban, desert or typical European rural terrain. The basic playing pieces are cardboard counters representing a squad or fire team of soldiers, individual leaders, support weapons, or individual combat vehicles. Each counter is covered with the given unit's game information, which is also summarized (for vehicles and ordnance anyway) in Chapter H of the rulebook.

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