One evening in February 2013, I chanced upon a copy of the ASLRB in a dingy little bookstore. That book opened to a new world of amazing friends and experiences. Ten years afterwards, it’s still the only game I play & you are still the best people I know! Thank YOU!
Thirty two squads of Imperial Japanese Army soldiers needed to pick their way through debris & rubble and clear three buildings of thirty squads of good ordered Chinese folks in eight turns. The Chinese had six fortified locations plus a 10-2 jedi knight. You can see the four target buildings marked off with a “V” in the maps.
To be honest, I had just finished reading Col Joseph H Alexander’s “Edson’s Raiders”. I hadn’t played PTO in a while and was determined to play the IJA like the IJA : bypass & flow behind your enemies: infiltrate, infiltrate, infiltrate!
I thought the Chinese were going to setup as close as possible to the IJA lines and hence lessen the possibility of them being hit by the initial IJA bombardment. Turns out the Chinese set themselves up very smartly in rubble so as to not get caught in a building collapse. My PreReg caught them quite well, but the Chinese survived the hit with only 1 broken unit. Our MMG & HMG teams climbed up two Level 2 buildings to provide overwatch. The IJA troop rushed on board where possible, with a focus on passing by Chinese flanks. The idea was to be audacious enough to compel Chinese units to unconceal and to fire (and for dummy units to look suspect). The IJA deployed where possible. It’s a HS rush with the backing of their “commissar” leaders!
The overwatch teams were now put on Opportunity Fire. The troops were then to get as much of the defenders to unconceal as possible, especially the Chinese overwatch teams that were now in place. The Chinese kept us away from Open Ground were possible so as to burn up our time. We kept flowing around defenders who are clearly outnumbered. A HIP IJA unit leaped up and ran down the left flank when the coast seemed clear. The troops in the middle met more of the opposition in the rubble. Assault Engineer’s ability to dump WP was useful in unconcealing (and even breaking) the defenders. Chinese reinforcements were coming in. They were largely conscripts so the demand on leadership was huge. Unfortunately I wasn’t in a position to interdict them, this would hurt me at the end game I was sure. The troops on the right was on their way around the right most target building.
IJA reinforcement entered from both flanks! The challenge would then be to put them in play as soon as possible. We rushed the left most target building, running into, rounding and therefore encircling the defenders. The troops in the middle made good progress as well as they cleared the middle target building. Troops rushed up the right flank with DC’s & FT’s. That’s the target building housing the dual HMG overwatch! The Chinese reinforcement arrived on that flank as well. The overwatch team on both sides were fully engaged with their B11 heavy weapons. We luckily caught their 10-2 and broke him! The shooting got more intense all over the streets! One target building cleared.
A Chinese counterattack pushed us back out of the target building at the lower half of the map (right flank). We needed to consolidate and keep the flanks going where possible! To that end, the reinforcements reached the rest of the team on the top of the map. They would need it as they ran into a pair of fortified hex in the target building on the top of the map. As it turns out, the defenders advanced upstairs to avoid IJA fire, got pinned and couldn’t get back into their fortified hexes again. The middle saw 1-3-7’s pushing through the rubble. A team of IJA reached the other end of Chinese deployments. Too slow to interdict Chinese reinforcements but good enough to mess with their routing. 
In our efforts to clear the target building on the top part of the map, a HS went Berserk and proceeded to run upstairs after a Chinese squad. We were ready to go after the third building. Prep Fire depressed the Chinese HMG nest, so I pushed harder in the center and on the right flank. Unfortunately, when prepping the right flank target building, both our flamethrowers went out of fuel! At least we pinned the rival flamethrower in the fortified hex. Time to get in there!
We rolled a “1″ on our secret banzai die roll, so now’s indeed the time, especially when his 10-2 hadn’t recovered. First, the left flank. We drew off some fire by threatening to bump scout, and we succeeded in getting real close. The gents in the middle continued towards the back so as to mess with Chinese routing. Over on the left, we opened with an assault engineering squad threatening WP grenades on the pinned flamethrower. Then a DC Hero gets generated to show others the good news (BOOM!)! While fire’s being drawn, an IJA leader stood up on the other side of the right flank target building, drew his sword and screamed “BAAAANNZZZAAAAAAAI!!!!”
Oh did we trampled through that building. Mixed results in CC but we were in the building and some of the brokies would never recover. The berserk squad on our left unfortunately walked into a Dare Death squad (“Those guys got broadswords!”). Things went medieval and our guys got thrown out the windows in chopped pieces. Urgh, Turn 6 and only one building cleared!
We broke and halved the Dare Death guy on our left flank (sooo thankful that we didn’t have to go HtH them!). Progress, but not enough! This scenario SSR declared “No Quarter”, so Mop Up was not an option here. The drama, however was on the right flank. A Dare Death squad went berserk, charged downstairs, killed my guys and freed a stairwell. A Chinese leader then stepped over, dropped a DC from up high on my folks (BOOM!) and snatched a flamethrower off a brokie!
We rolled a “5” on our secret banzai die roll, so we were limited to three. Since my opponent didn’t know how many banzai’s would take place, I did one on my left flank to push into that building and to draw fire off my right. Unfortunately, the boys quickly ran into two Fortified locations (where the staircases were). I then spend my subsequent banzai MFs crashing up the fortified hex to build up bodies for firepower (+flamethrower “crispy”) and to avoid having to run outside under a pair of HMGs.
Banzai’s on the right flank started with a one man Banzai executed by a wounded 7+1 leader. He tried to make as much noise as he could and both the defending squad and the MMG squad upstairs cowered! The third Banzai came from the other side of the building. My opponent’s horrible DRs worked hand in hand with my excellent ones. We passed MCs like nobody’s business. IJA were upstairs and allover the corridors.
My opponent conceded.
The Royal Scots (British) opened up with 3.5 squads, a 9-1plus a DC in the Grand Britannica Hotel (Netherlands). They also got a Smoke OBA in the building. The rest of the crew comes from the left of the map: 9.5 squads of fearsome quality plus a 9-2. They win if there were no Good Order German MMC inside the hotel in 5.5 turns. The Germans got a mix bag of units with a 20L AA Gun and some fortifications.
On Turn 1, the Scots popped a DC on one of my (Concealed) stacks inside the hotel. The Germans also chucked a DC into the biggest stack of Scots and broke a few of them. The rest of the Scots jumped off from the left. Their mortar fired its last Smoke round into my trench in the middle of the street on German left and they moved towards the stone wall. The Germans had their AA gun hiding in the Woods behind a line of Wire. The Bunker, the MMG and the panzershreck stationed on the right flank, daring the Scots to come through the open.
We got lucky on one of the CC’s but the other 2 in the Smoke turned into Melees. The Scots decided to all push up my left. The Germans shifted to that side to block the Scots hex by hex. Meanwhile the German left flank shifted to the back of the street to keep it dangerous, looking at covering the back of the hotel all the while. On the German right, the Germans in the pillbox prepared to move back into the hotel. We couldn’t afford to let the hotel Melees last too long, we needed to resolve them and free up troops for defence before their friends approached the hotel. The Scots were already pouring over the stone wall in front of our roll of wire in the woods. We moved a unit on top of the (still) HIP’d AA Gun just so it wouldn’t look suspiciously empty. I was just waiting for that 9-2 stack to brave the open and come to my right. Perhaps not, may be they were just overwatch.
The Brits filed to my left. With only 5.5 turns, they didn’t have time to “soften” the Germans up on the right. A lot of them popped over the wall and dove the Woods. When the first squads braved the Wires, my hidden AA opened up pointblank, breaking a lot of the intruders. A platoon of Scots went down the road on our left, banking on the Smoke round to protect them from fire. The Melees were still going on but we shifted what we could towards Hotel left.
Urgh – the Brits hit our lines again on our left. the AA gun crew broke and a Green squad picked it up. The idea was to fire it so much that we delay another British MPh and render the Gun useless for the Scots. We lucked out on the Melees. There’s a pinned Scottish squad left on the right of the hotel but we did not have a large British pretence in the Hotel Lobby yet. The LMG team that was guarding the German left returned to the hotel at the back. (In retrospect it would been more interesting had we scramble up the multistory, single hex house in J7, and shoot at the attacker’s right flank for a few turns.)
Both the Germans and the Scots fell back from initial contact! The Germans in particular deployed and concealed as much as we could.
The Germans kept deploying, concealing, spreading out while focusing on Stairwell control. It’s going to take time for the Scots to render all German MMC not “Good Order”. They would have to shoot/ close combat us one by one.
The Scots made another big push. They took one stairwell and went up to Level 1! Unfortunately the Germans had already spread themselves around the hotel rooms. It’s going to take a while kicking each door down, so the Scots conceded.
The Marines had 5.5 turns to attack up a couple of hills and capture 5 out of 7 “HDP” (Hilltop Defensive Perimeters) hexes. The KPA wins immediately if they could amass 13 CVPs or more.
It’s US Turn 2, after the Rout Phase. The Marines plodded through some rice paddies and reached the hills. The NK wasn’t shy about shooting at anyone who looked a bit too comfortable. The Marine overwatch however, shot and broke the NK MMG team. Thus taken out the most powerful gun in the NK arsenal. I actually expected the right portion of the HDP to be more vulnerable. Turns out it’s not the case. I had a unit on the bottom left desperately trying to dig a hole, just so the reinforcing Marines would have a tougher time flanking the left hill.
US Turn 3: some of the Marines got shot up on their initial approaches to both portions of the HDP. The broken NK MMG team (leader & squad) failed to rally on time and so the forward elements came back and tried to pick up the MMG. At around that time, we managed to get a proper foxhole on the left. Marines crowded the middle of the field, so my guards on the right flank came into reinforce the right hilltop. The North Koreans had to constantly make the correct choice between shooting or staying concealed for protection against Advanced Fire.
US Turn 4: my left hilltop got swamped by Marines! Everyone’s pretty much broken in the area with no aspect of rallying. The right hilltop was holding on, tried to keep the Marines off the backside even but the Marine 8-1 firebase is steadily taking its toll. Could we take a hex back?
NK Turn 4: my left hilltop was completely swamped. The Marines were now able to form a firebase against my right hilltop (that’s a trench I shouldn’t have put into hex BB27!). The right hilltop could only try to keep concealment and keep the Marines guessing. They had the advantage in that it would CX a Marine to CC three out of the four hexes on the right. The Marines only needed two more!
What could be broken were pretty much all broken. The Marines would be able to advance up at least 2 hexes on the right HDP with no opposition in their last MPh. The North Koreans were done.
Most of the fights in LFT Fight for Seoul involves forces with very asymmetrical capabilities. It’s an art that I have yet to even catch a glimpse of a steady toehold. As the North Koreans, how do I find the balance between hiding from the insane Marine firepower but yet take steady attrition of his smaller manpower? How do I take advantage of my ownership of the terrain but yet not get into standup firefights? Close combat seems to be the natural answer but how do you get close enough to execute?
The elusiveness of these questions is perhaps the key element that brings me back to the game time and time again.
The Marines started dispersed across the rice paddies and had to take at least 2 out of 3 HDP (“Hilltop Defensive Perimeters”) in 8.5 turns. In retrospect I might have thought about HDP’s wrongly. You don’t have to take all the HDP hexes to control a HDP. You only have to take most of a HDP’s hexes to take the whole thing down.
The Marines had a 81mm mortar and 2 HMGs (6-12) with a 9-2 posted on the hill on the top, giving 2 flat shots in most cases to the Korean positions. They also had a 60mm OBA which would be useful later in the game. The North Koreans had 2x82mm mortars, a 45L gun and a 76L gun. They also had 2 HMGs, 1 MMG and 6 LMGs covering their digs. The North Koreans win when they take 13 CVPs on KMC personnel or 40 CVP on UN personnel.
There was a group of South Korea Marines (1st Battalion, 1st Regiment) retreating at the start of the turn. The Marines were all deployed into fireteams and started moving towards the North Koreans. The going was brutal. Four fire teams and an 8-1 bought the farm early on. I should have the South Koreans withdraw slower and put their firepower in use a bit more. As it went, the North Koreans didn’t bother with the KMC at all.
The North Koreans malfunctioned both of their 82 mm mortars! The Marines kept their heads down and tried to move as quickly as possible through the rice paddies. Regrettably, they drew a red chit on their first call to Artillery, and then they broke their radio! Our 1-time OBA hit the 2nd HDF from the left but failed to do much.
During US Turn 3, the Marines on the right were almost at the village. You could almost hear a collective sigh of relief. That was of course, if you could ignore the bloody curling scream from one of the fireteam that went berserk! Folks on the left were in the open and running into 2 murderous HMGs. Good thing both guns were down and one of the 82mm mortars went dead. Not getting much cover from the HMGs, the fireteams spread out further to not be in the same CAs. Anyone carrying an MMG was hit particularly hard. Fireteams from both flanks were doing massive “amoeba” style Advance Fire groups as they move closer. The big old US mortar on the hill first went out of WP and then out of action.
US Turn 4 saw the pair of Pershings on. There being 5 antitank mine factors, the Pershings decided to go down the same path. The railroad takes 2 MP out of every hex, so the road got the vote. Marines in the village were bringing their firepower to bear. The Koreans tried to move forward to interdict them. Some of the Korean units were moving right, so we hoped we could get the tank machine guns in place to hinder the use of that road. The Marines on the left continued to get decimated in both our turn and the opponents. The good news was that they were in fireteams, but the bad news was that they were getting taken out at an alarming speed.
But hey, the 60mm OBA was back in play.
The 60mm OBA failed to suppress 1 of the 2 HMGs in US Turn 5. Fireteams on the left desperately tried to move to the houses on the far left corner, from which it might turn the Korean flank. One of the Pershings malfunctioned its gun on the first shot and was now trying to move as close as it dared to so as the other Pershing could get a better shot. The Marines on the right decided that it’s better to hit the HDP on the far right and shifted their people over. The Koreans moved back up their hills. The Korean mortar came to life and laid a smoke round on the path in front of the right most HDP to cover their retreat.
When we reached North Korean Turn 7, one of the Pershings is already gone because of a broken main gun. The remaining one popped off round after round and yet failed to make it’s 90L presence felt! It did, however, cut off the 2 HDPs on the right from the left. The 60mm OBA managed to bring down WP which helped a lot. The wind picked up and made things even better! The survivors on the left finally managed to get to the buildings on the far left and started to put up a more effective firefight. At least now the Korean HMG fire was halved as one of them was blocked. The Korean smoke round on the right that was now billowing down the road proved to be quite helpful. Marines pushed towards the right most HDP, just in time to greet the Korean reinforcements.
Two more US Movement phases to go. We might well be out of time.
Last US turn! The Koreans on the HDP on the left were broken but we didn’t have enough time to walk up. The Koreans on the rightmost HDP were taking a beating but put up a “human wall” that’s going to take a couple more turns to kill. The US conceded. My opponent revealed all his mine placements in this last picture.
The Marines needed more smoke rounds (than HE rounds) in order to be successful in this scenario. I did the right thing by moving everyone in fireteams. Some of the chaps on the right of course, recombined into squads when they reached the village. I was hoping the Pershings with the malfunctioned gun could navigate through the road (trail break through the AT mines) and get on the hill where we would promptly turn left and get around the back between the 2 HDPs on the right. That was not to be when the leading Pershing X’d out its repair. My opponent is a very tough one but I feel I am finally getting a glimpse into the proper way to play the Marines in this LFT Fight for Seoul package (we already played through all the Fight for Seoul scenarios, and are now doing the Smith’s Ridge ones.)
I notice there’s been quite a number of “new” players who are really “returnees” from Squad Leader or ASL decades ago. Invariably we talk about how they should join a tournament at least once, since tournaments are great places to learn and to meet the community that accelerates your learning and your enjoyment of the game exponentially. These folks do worry about their level of ASL knowledge and whether they will fit into an ASL community with characters who’s been around for decades. Before joining my first tournaments in 2014, I worried about putting up the expense only to suffer some form of hostility because I was (am) not up to par.
This is Von Marwitz’s perspective, carried with his permission:
Whether new or coming back to the hobby, I would not be worried about not being good enough.
Back in the days, before I attended my first tournament, I had played exactly one single, very small 4.5 Turn scenario of ASL against an opponent. Besides that, all I had done was playing solitaire and teaching the game to myself – with all that entails.
I believe that even very fast players acknowledge, that under such circumstances nothing else than slow play can be expected. My personal experience regarding my treatment back then and by observation later is, that almost all experienced guys (fast or slow) are willing and open to treat such a game more as a tutorial than a competitive game. Needless to say, I did not win a single scenario during my first tournament but yet I had so much fun, that I am still sticking to ASL 25 years later.
So, this goes out to any newbies out here, to those returning to the hobby, and to those who have never attended a tournament:
Don’t worry about not being good enough or not fast enough. Take the dive and give attending a tournament a try. Altogether, the vast majority of players (of all playing styles) I have met, are a jolly bunch and welcoming.
von Marwitz
(von Marwitz is associated with Grenadier 2023, which is going to be held in Gelsenkirchen Germany, 2 Nov-5 Nov)
Related Article: “Journey to a Tourney, Part 1: Decisions”
I am not sure why but it feels like it’s been a while since I last played a tournament sized scenario. This 4.5 turn scenario designed by Jeffrey D Myers is real nice one. The Americans win if there are no Good Order German MMC left below the red line on the map, unless the Germans amassed 8 CVPs.
The Germans setup in fox holes where they please along with 8 dummies. We started off in the middle of the field and decided to rush up to the hedge immediately. The potato field was strangely quiet. The plan was to hit the mass on the left, not let the Germans congregate and to not play house to house down the column of buildings on the right. Nothing moved. Surely there must be a real unit in the house in the middle, right? If there was one, they would find it hard to leave.
Turn 2 – we rushed his positions on the left, guns or no guns. The fact that most of his guys were at the dirt level behind hedges helped. Our hero stepped forth looking to start a fight and was promptly vaporised. Heros never get to grow old! In the middle we cleared the hedges for us to mount a final assault from. On the right, we came at the FH from its flank and sure enough, guys started shooting from it. There’s a concealed stack that was advancing down the side, it’s probably not real, we would ignore it for now.
On Turn 3 we were all over the left flank of the German position and were looking behind the group of FH’s on the right. I failed to shoot at a broken German stack who then managed to rally! A squad in the center popped over the hedge and got shot at by folks in FHs. I was hoping the Germans on the right would unconceal and play as well but no. The Baz team on the right fired off a lucky shot that vaporised a squad of Germans. The other para squad broke off and headed towards the graveyard in front of the right-side FH’s.
It’s Turn 4, this was the turn to setup up for the last MPh. Whichever squad could be deployed were deployed. We forced the German brokies on the left into the woods. In the middle, we put that MMG squad and the 9-1 to OpFire and bum rushed the FHs, forcing them to unconceal. Some of my HS broke and two of them would be taken prisoners, pushing my CVP to 7 at the end of this turn. On the far right, the Baz team took out the creeping concealed stack while the para squad ran off towards the FHs! 
There were only 2 Good Order German HS’s in those FHs but yet I was 1 CVP away from losing! We opened with some Prep Fire. We hoped to break the HS at the back and tie the other one in CC. That didn’t work unfortunately, the HS at the back was only pinned. Hope’s not lost though since we planned to run two units out from the Woods on the left and jump into CC (grey dotted lines). A HS advanced into the open to the other German HS. The Germans fired and KIA’d that para HS. The Germans got their 8 CVPs and the American paras lost!
This is a very fast paced scenario that offers multiple venues to both sides. I quite like the design (by Jeffrey D Meyers) and I suspect my opponent, someone’s who’s under 100 games enjoyed it too.
Re-reading Mark [Pitcavage’s] post while also going through the final rounds of quality-checking the [MMP Sword & Fire] Manila map.
One map-related quality thing that I don’t think Mark mentioned is the sheer amount of attention to detail that goes into making a map that doesn’t hinder play. Simply put, there are many ways that map artwork can get in the way of play, either by being hard to visually discern or by being confusing to interpret, rules-wise.
I thought I was good at this, just from my years of doing dozens of VASL maps, where every pixel has to be right, or at least not-wrong. But these last few months have shown me that Perry, Klas, and Chas are just impressive this way. Sure, the Manila map has over 8300 hexes, but I’ve strolled through that map dozens of times just looking for things to clarify or fix. And yet these MMP guys have caught a bunch of things I’d missed or never even thought of. And without those fixes, people would have questions about how to play what’s on the map. And that’s not good ASL.
Visual things like making sure hex IDs are easy to read and not obscured by the underlying terrain. Making sure Bypass Movement is obviously NA by having terrain touch the hexside (but not go over!) if possible. Making sure LOS is not messed up by having edges of LOS obstacles being obscured in some way. Even just making sure the text characteristics are consistent throughout the map – all water bodies are labeled in the same way, all buildings, all roads, etc.
And then the subtle things like making it obvious whether units can move from one hex to another of the same building while staying entirely within the building outline itself – not so easy when you’re trying to mimic historical buildings or buildings that are partially destroyed, like we have in Manila.
All of this painstaking effort means that people will spend less time fighting the map and more time playing ASL. And that attention to quality is what makes MMP a pleasure to work with and buy from.
– By Tuomo Repetti and posted with his permission, first posted on Gamesquad, 29 December 2021
Worldwide Prize #1: Bear Flag Republic and ALEA 35 Magazine (with Italia 44 & The Masters of Horizons). Quarterdeck gives a Shipping Allowance of $30, the winner will pay the difference to Quarterdeck before shipping.
Prize #1 Winner : Cole Mills (USA)
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A huge thanks to everyone for the overwhelming response! Thanks also to Jack Greene at Quarterdeck International for his generosity. Congratulations to the prize winners. Here’s to a happy and healthy 2021 to everyone, all the very best to you and yours.
@Prize Winners: I will be in touch today by email and will hook you up with Jack Greene for the prizes. If you don’t see an email from me within 6 hours of this post, please let me know.
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