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RPT1 (Part 2) Ferenc Jozef Barracks – A View of Advanced Squad Leader Scenarios

Don and I waded a little into scenario RPT1 Ferenc Josef Barracks this week. The Romanians got on the board intact. Most of them manage to keep their concealment. I will need to rely on the buildings for cover going forward because I simply don’t have the time to retain concealment / to assault move. The only squad with smoke grenades is the one 4-4-7 holding the flamethrower and that’s only with a die roll of 1 (17% chance). As an attacker with a short schedule, I have to balance the urge to rip up the streets against taking stupid risks and losing the bulk the Romanian force before getting to the barracks. From the way Don was setup, the Hungarians are looking to do a fighting withdrawal back to the barracks. It’s therefore going to be a running street battle all the way back.

Guys with low firepower like the 3-4-7s are simply ineffective against defenders concealed in stone buildings. For my shooting to be effective, I need die rolls so low that will trigger the snipers in most cases. I only have 2 leaders in the pack so I need to avoid low probability shots.

Turn 1 Romanian

Turn 1 Romanian, end of MPh

What you are looking at here (blue marking) is two of the Hungarian squads who came out of concealment and took a shot at the Romanian 3-4-7 assaulting up into the road hex in Y10. I expected a good number of Hungarians to be staring at that road hex all day. They would open up and the residual fire would rip up anyone else coming after, pretty nasty on an open road hex! This Romanian squad got lucky though and no one else was going to come through.

On the other hand  the elite Romanian 4-4-7 squad in building F9 (orange marking – underneath the 1-3-7) was eager to unleash their flamethrower on the concealed Hungarians in DD8 they caught a glimpse of when they ran up. Unfortunately flamethrower FP is halved at 2 hexes and halved again versus concealed targets. FP 6 flat is still a good shot  though considering the alternative but the Hungarians escaped a fiery fate for now.

Turn 1 Hungarian

Turn 1 Hungarian MPh

Don executed the time-honored strategy of skulking. He assault-moved all of his squads from concealment territory to concealment territory and in most cases out of my line of sight.  (Note: this denied me the opportunity to fire at them in the Defensive Fire Phase and they would advance back into their original position at the end of this turn, ready to stop my next advance!)

The Romanians in EE10 decided to come out of concealment and took a FP4 +3 shot at the folks skulking off at DD7 (orange marking). The Romanians needed a die roll of 4 or below (17% chance) to have any effect but that was the one chance where they could disrupt the Hungarians in preparation for the coming Romanian Turn 2. Again, the Hungarians were well concealed and the stones protected them well – no effect.

Turn 2 Romanians

Turn 2 Romanians end of Defensive Fire Phase

It was time.

The Romanian management said it was time to go out there and do some business. The elite 4-4-7 squad decided to give their toy another try. They looked to roast the Hungarian squad that spotted them on the open ground coming over. Another FP6 flat shot across the street – and the big toy broke with a “clunk”. They carried their flamethrower all the way over and it spluttered on the second shot!

Anyway, it was time to reach out and touch someone. The Romanian squads and half squads assaulted out into the street, trying to spread out as much as they could. This is a picture of the Romanians in the street and getting fired on. The gods are with them as only 2 of the squads/half-squads were pinned and the rest were unscathed.

You can see also where the Romanians pushed two squads into GG7 and GG8 (orange markings on the right), running over open ground and risking -2 shots. They saw their compatriots before them being relatively unharmed and hence they took the chance to flank the Hungarians.

The Romanians piled into the concealed Hungarian positions in the buildings across the street (DD8, EE8, FF7) and on the left of the map, into V9 – the one concealed position that was blocking the way.

Turn 1 Romanian Close Combat Phase

SURPRISE!!!  All positions except DD8 (marked “CC”) came up empty. The good news was that the Romanians uncovered all the fake Hungarian positions. The bad news was that they failed to catch the bulk of the Hungarian forces.

The same Hungarian squad that survived two roasting attempts decided to hold their ground and fight. The Romanians weren’t going to let them get away this time either and so they went for a bloody hand to hand combat. It was over quickly with the Romanians taking some losses and the stubborn Hungarian squad finally eliminated.

Turn 2 opens for the Hungarians. Will they be able to retreat safely? Will they be able to delay the Romanian hordes?

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How about coming home everyday to 30 mins of PBeM game over VASL?

Whether you are a fellow newbie who would like to learn together or an experienced ASLer who don’t mind helping me up the curve. I play to enjoy and to learn. Please message me at jackson-dot-kwan-at-gmail-dot-com!!

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How To Play Advanced Squad Leader With Anyone Anytime Anywhere

Young Tibetan Buddhist monks smiling and happy...

Young Tibetan Buddhist monks smiling and happy, double dorje room, Sakya Lamdre, Tharlam Monastery, Boudha, Kathmandu, Nepal (Photo credit: Wonderlane)

Unless you already know someone who plays Advanced Squad Leader and assuming that I perked your interest so far, one question must have crossed your mind or have even smothered that fledgling spark of interest already:

Who am I going to play with?

The good thing about Advanced Squad Leader is that the user base is very strong. It’s a niche market but the user base is enthusiastic, sociable and thanks to the Internet, connected. The Hong Kong Society of Wargamers for example, meets and plays regularly.

This might be where you realize that your issue is not one of people, but of time. We got careers. We got families. We got obligations. It’s not easy to get together regularly for games. For me who’s a novice (read: n00b) at Advance Squad Leader, I need LOTS of play time if I am ever going to be any good.

VASL is a platform developed by Rodney Kinney that provides virtual map boards, counters and mean of communication so that two players anywhere in the world can play each other in real-time or NOT in real-time.

Playing VASL “live” via VASL servers allows two players to be location independent. VASL by email allows two players to be TIME independent.

Using VASL to play ASL by email is known as “PBeM” or really “ASL PBeM”.  Let me explain.  An Advanced Squad Leader turn is broken down by phases, some phases are interactive, others are not.

  • Rally Phase (Non interactive)
  • Prep Fire Phase (Non interactive)
  • Movement Phase (Interactive)
  • Defensive Fire Phase (Non Interactive)
  • Advance Fire Phase (Non Interactive)
  • Rout phase (Non Interactive)
  • Advance Phase (Non Interactive)
  • Close Combat Phase (Interactive)

The interactive phases like the Movement Phase and the Close Combat Phase are phases where control needs to be passed back and forth a couple of times between the two players (and these are best parts of the game). This is where the game takes time. However, the non interactive phases can be sequential – one player can complete what he/she needs to do before passing “control” off to the other player – which makes these other phases quicker in execution.

As you move your counters around the VASL map, VASL records all your moves in detail to a log file. At appropriate points in a turn, you stop your actions and send that log file to your opponent. Your opponent opens your log file on his/her VASL program and playback YOUR MOVES step by step and he/she can stop the playback at any point to interject his/her actions when needed.  Your opponent will have his/her actions recorded on another log file and will send it back to you and you will then playback his/her moves.  The interactivity of the game is essentially time-shifted, along with any commentary (and taunts) that each player elect to insert between his/her actions.

So here we go : the question “Who am I going to play with?” should no longer stop you from diving into the Advanced Squad Leader world.  

You can:

  • Bribe your friends to play with you.
  • Join the good people at The Hong Kong Society of Wargamers who runs ASL games and tournaments regularly
  • Play anyone in the world “live” via VASL (and the VASL server)
  • Play anyone in the world at anytime via VASL PBeM

Questions?  Please let me know!

How about coming home everyday to 30 mins of PBeM game over VASL?

Whether you are a fellow newbie who would like to learn together or an experienced ASLer who don’t mind helping me up the curve. I play to enjoy and to learn. Please message me at hongkongwargamer-at-disroot-dot-org!!

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Advanced Squad Leader Resources For You

2nd Cavalry Regiment counter-IED training

2nd Cavalry Regiment counter-IED training (Photo credit: U.S. Army Europe Images)

Happy weekend, folks!  Instead of putting out another post I figured I should build up the 2 resource pages on the site :

  • ASL Getting Started – where and how I got my Advanced Squad Leader modules and accessories together
  • ASL Resources – all the best Advanced Squad Leader related resources

This is certainly work in progress.  My wish is to put together something convenient and valuable for Advanced Squad Leader enthusiasts like myself!  Please let me know if there are sites that helped you in your development into a great Advanced Squad Leader player!

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Don’t Worry, You Can Always Find An Opponent For Advanced Squad Leader

pondering life

pondering life (Photo credit: Chimpr)

Let’s say you found this blog because you are looking for more information on Advanced Squad Leader.

Let’s also say instead of looking for rules forums or after action reports (“AARs”), you are trying to decide whether to take the plunge or not.

At some point you must wonder, with a game this sophisticated (and a rulebook this thick), who’s going to play with you?

If you are in Hong Kong, the first answer to that question is : the good people at the Hong Kong Society of Wargamers. They hold regular games and meetings on the weekends.

The second answer to that question is, and this one’s location independent, people around the world. You should know that there’s a (free) computer program that runs on Windows as well as Macs called VASSAL. VASSAL is a platform that allows people to play virtual adaptations of boardgames in real-time over the internet or “asynchronously” via email.  This is not a computer game per se.  It’s a computer hosted set of maps and counters (plus dice and charts) that facilitates the meeting of opponents around the world.

  • AdvancedSquadLeader.net has a section dedicated to VASL or Virtual Advanced Squad Leader.  This is where you download VASSAL and VASL, the module (“mod file”) for Advanced Squad Leader.
  • This is where you download the maps.  The number of maps available might be overwhelming but you will come to appreciate the comprehensiveness of it all.  You can really play most scenarios with this setup!
  • This is where you download the “extensions“. Extensions are useful widgets that helps with gameplay.

The Homefront Wargame Center gives you terrific instructions to the setup and the usage of VASL.  When you get around to trying an “asych” game of Advanced Squad Leader with someone in a different timezone, you should know there are certain protocols to follow – “The Joys of VASL PBEM” by Matt Romey.

So there is absolutely no reason to worry about finding opponents.  VASSAL and VASL open the world to you!

I hope this helps you and I look forward to any comments/questions.

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Protecting Your New Advanced Squad Leader Rulebook

IMG_6108The Advanced Squad Leader Rulebook 2nd edition (“ASLRB”) is finally in print again!

I got mine from a tiny store in Mongkok two months ago.  The Advanced Squad Leader Rulebook is massive: it’s a big box-file full of instructions to the best simulation in the history of board wargaming.

I have been working hard at learning it.  The punch holes in some of the pages are already showing tear.

To protect my ASL bible, I have two options:

  • Plastic punch hole ring reinforcement stickers
  • Plastic page protectors

Plastic punch hole ring reinforcement stickers

Unfortunately, the punch holes on the pages are too big.  I can’t find ring stickers that are the proper size.

Plastic page protectors

This is the pricier option but this is what I ended up doing.  Not only are the holes protected from frequent reference, entire pages are now protected from food stains and beer spills!

Since each page is thicker with the plastic page protectors, I split the rulebook into two box-files.  (I found a problem: I couldn’t get the holes in the plastic page protectors to work with the 3 rings in the original Advanced Squad Leader Rulebook binder.)

There are less than 250 pages in the rulebook – the standard set of rulebook sections plus sections F, G, Solitaire and a couple of Zs from ASL Journals.  I bought 5 packs of A4-s size Kokuyo”Clear Book” refills that has 50 plastic page protectors each and I got two double ring box files.  I put sections A to E in one box file and the rest in the second one.

Now I feel a lot more comfortable flipping through the protected pages in the less congested box-files!

To make the box-files look more authoritative,  I scanned the Rulebook cover and spine.  I want to get the images printed on A4 size stickers and put them on the front and spine of my box-files.  They will look pretty nice when I’m done.

What do you do to protect your Advanced Squad Leader Rulebook?

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Which Advanced Squad Leader Module Is Which And Which To Get Before Which

English: Signpost.

English: Signpost. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There’s a particular “dependency” between the Advanced Squad Leader Core Modules that dictates the order in which you acquire them.

Firstly, it’s important to know that most of the rules are in the Advanced Squad Leader Rulebook (2nd ed).  The reason I said “most” is that some of the chapters are contained in the modules.  There are also updates and corrections (errata) published periodically.  That’s why the Rulebook is not bound but housed in a 3 ring binder.

Secondly, the Core Modules do NOT standalone like the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kits.  They each contain:

  • Counter sheets that pertains to combatant countries in the Second World War.
  • Numbered maps depicting playable terrain that can be freely combined as each game scenario dictates.
  • Scenarios – situational setups with historical background, maps and counters involved, game turn limits that gives you three-hour games to campaigns that goes for days plus victory conditions. Quality of scenario design is a key element that makes Advanced Squad Leader fun.

Thirdly, this is where core module dependency comes in :

Scenarios contained in the modules, ASL magazines and 3rd party companies call for map combinations and combatant country counters that are sold in different modules.  

For example : You need at least the Japanese counters plus the US Marines and/or the British to play any PTO (Pacific theater of operations) scenarios.  That requires the ownership of a number of modules to play.

So here’s a brief description of the orders of battle provided by each Advanced Squad Leader Core Module:

  1. Beyond Valor : Russian & German units (“order of battle“) plus some Finnish units.  This is the first core module that anyone should get.  
  2. Yanks : US order of battle (European theater of operations)
  3. For King & Country : British order of battle.  This replaced West of Alamein as the provider of the British order of battle.
  4. Rising Sun (coming soon) : Japanese, Chinese and the US Marines.  This is the relaunched combination of Code of Bushido and Gung Ho.
  5. Croix de Guerre : French order of battle

Others :

  1. Doomed Battalions : Allied Minors
  2. Hollow Legions : Italian order of battle
  3. Armies of Oblivion : Axis Minors
  4. Partisans : well, partisans of various European countries

Top notched resources:

I hope this gives you a better idea of how to acquire your Advanced Squad Leader modules!  Please let me know if you have any questions!

How about coming home everyday to 30 mins of PBeM game over VASL?

Whether you are a fellow newbie who would like to learn together or an experienced ASLer who don’t mind helping me up the curve. I play to enjoy and to learn. Please message me at jackson-dot-kwan-at-gmail-dot-com!!

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The Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kits Are A Great Way To Start!

Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1

If you have seen the Advanced Squad Leader Rulebook, it looks pretty daunting.  It is housed in a box file – yes, it is big and it is heavy (Shipping weight : 6 lb according to Amazon).  However, a lot of wargamers also think it’s the best simulation/game of all time!  Knowing, learning and seeing the rules manifesting themselves during gameplay is part of what the grognards enjoy as well.

Personally I don’t know of another game system whose rulebook is sold separately from the rest of the game.  So if you are looking for some assurance before plunging in, I can understand.  I had the same thoughts not too long ago.

Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kits offer a rulebook that is much more palatable and a self-contained game set that is much more economical so you can make an informed decision.  Unlike the full Advanced Squad Leader modules, the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kits (ASLSK) stand alone, even from each other.

You do not need to buy all four.  

The rulebook for each builds on each other.  For example: the rulebook for ASLSK#3 is the rulebook for ASLSK#2 with more rules for tanks and armoured cars, with the additions highlighted in a different color.  So even though you probably won’t find ASLSK#1 and realise ASLSK#2 in short supply (although I just saw a copy selling at a bookstore in Kuala Lumpur last week), all you need is to get ASLSK#3.

Aids That Helped Me Get Started with ASLSK

There are of course a lot of tutorials on the internet as well, I rather enjoyed Eddy M. del Rio‘s (aka edelrio) ASLSK Tutorial Examples of Play which be found here.  There’s also Daniel F. Savarese’s ASL Starter Kit Explained.

There are actually a lot more top quality resources on the internet prepared by top notched wargamers.  I will tell you about more of them in my other posts.  The one thing you will find out about ASL wargamers is that they are a very sociable and helpful lot!

If you are an experienced ASL wargamer, please comment and let us know: what helped YOU?  Thanks!

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Having just arrived in the outskirts of Stalingrad, this was his second attempt

English: German troops moving through the stre...

English: German troops moving through the streets of Stalingrad (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Corporal Gruber saw the German squad breaking into the stone structure to the right of the post office where the Russians dug themselves in.  He grabbed the demolition pack and dashed out into the street.  How he ran through the bullet storm and across the street was beyond anyone’s guess, but the German squad must be keeping the Russian distracted.  Some of the Russians saw the lone figure coming and got off a few shots nonetheless.  Jaws were dropping all around as Gruber, still unscathed,  managed to place the demolition pack.

The Russian squad, already being shot up by the Germans dropping in from the right, was looking to run.  The blinding explosion that ensured took out half the Russians and made a firm decision for the rest : run!

(The action while playing “Advanced Squad Leader Scenario S2 : War of the Rats“)

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Key to the Advanced Squad Leader Modules Before You Buy Any

Advanced Squad Leader is also referred to as “ASL”.  You’ll notice a lot of different Advanced Squad Leader modules out there and it can get pretty confusing. It helps to know there are a few large categories:

  • Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit “ASLSK” : these are complete modules that provide low cost venues for new players to try and to learn the Advanced Squad Leader system.  
  • Advanced Squad Leader Core modules : these are modules, each containing all the counters (“orders of battle” or “OB”) for specific nationalities.  The modules are not complete games by themselves.  There are “dependencies” between modules which we will cover in another post and they require the purchase of the Advance Squad Leader Rulebook “ASLRB” (latest being 2nd edition 2nd print) to play.
  • Historical Advanced Squad Leader module “HASL” : these are modules that takes a deeper look at specific historical events.   Note that they too are not complete games and are dependent on ownership of specific Orders of Battle plus the Advanced Squad Leader Rulebook.
  • Advanced Squad Leader Action Packs “ASL Action Pack” : these are expansions to the ASL system that contains additional maps and scenarios that allow players to get right into the action.
  • Advanced Squad Leader Compatible “ASLCOMP” : these are Advanced Squad Leader variants and expansions published by companies other than Avalon Hill Game Company or Multi-Man Publishing.

I hope this provides a good framework from which you can plan your acquisitions.  Any thoughts, ideas or questions please feel free to comment!

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Why Do I Love Advanced Squad Leader?

Advanced Squad Leader

Advanced Squad Leader (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I see Advanced Squad Leader as a beautifully crafted set of rules that simulates World War 2 era combat.  It puts you in the boots of squad leaders of various nationalities, locations and situations, encapsulated by the use of well designed “scenarios”, played on beautiful sets of maps.

The first thing I learned from the game was that combat is certainly not about walking out into the courtyard with the biggest gun and blasting away on an endless belt of cartridges.  In fact, most times it’s not even about shooting.  It’s about moving.  It’s about the interplay of time and space.  It’s about getting into the right place at the right time.  It’s about achieving your objectives with limited time and resources.  It’s about looking your people, your leadership and your equipment, and figuring out how and where they can be the most effective in the given landscape.  It’s about reducing your opponent’s capacity to compete, and that doesn’t necessarily mean shooting all the time.

Some squads get shot at and ran but their leaders are quick to get them back into the game.  Other leaders panic at the worse moment and demoralise the people they are with as well.  Some leaders are great at making their people more effective, others are better off staying out of the way.

Machine guns might jam and tanks might get destroyed by lucky shots.  Winds might change and start to blow smoke in the other direction, making it now possible to cross the street.  Reinforcements might come, concealed enemies might appear behind your lines,and that one man might run through a hail of bullets unharmed and hand-deliver a demolition pack for his enemies.

Anything can happen.

This is why I love Advanced Squad Leader.

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