The ASL HereticI have been playing ASL since it was just SL and I know the rules fairly well (at least I know where to look for a rule), and I am of the belief that ASL can be a pretty good simulation of small unit combat. But the player omniscience bothers me...so I took a game that allows practically no player omniscience, Up Front, and wedded it to ASL as a command control / fog of war tool. I like the feel of reality ("realizm" to some) that ASL achieves with this tool in place...now you never know if you are going to be able to move the troops you need each turn. You are forced to keep leaders near the troops to keep the impetus of the advance going...stragglers get left behind because you don't want to "waste" that Move card to bring up that one slow-poke squad.
If play balance is a huge concern for you, you might not enjoy these rules very much. But if you enjoy the thrill of trying to lead your cardboard troops against realistic obstacles give this a try. If you like tough choices, this has them by the bucket-load!
ASL - Up Front combo...play ASL with the Up
Front deck as a command control tool!
pdf versions (updated 1-23-08) Up Front ASL
National Card Hands
Campaign Game System for the really
hardcore! Use the Up Front cards to prepare for each scenario in a
campaign game. Divides the campaign days up into 20-minute
increments.
Campaign System pdf Daily Purchase Planner pdf
If you are using these rules you should probably extend the game by half
again its normal length (5 turns becomes 7.5, etc), otherwise the attacker may not have enough time to do whatever it is he needs to do.
Richard's Incremental IFT (RIFT) (Excel
spreadsheet) This is the normal IIFT (with two extra columns for 1/2 &
1/4 FP) with one major difference, instead of the clunky, semi-half-assed, way
of dealing with Cowering, it has a printed Cower value. Just shift to the
column listed as the Cower column (and then again if using Inexperienced
Troops).
The Cower value
was simply arrived at by figuring the average amount that Cowering reduces FP
over the whole IFT. I then multiplied each column on the RIFT by that
percentage and came up with a number. I think it's mathematically
sound...but then again I'm a history major. It has worked without hitch
for several years now, so it seems to be alright. If you don't like the
IIFT already, or barely accept it cuz it's in the new rule book...spare yourself
and don't even look...
Here's a pdf
version in case you can't use Excel.
Aircraft in ASL (pdf) Version 2!! I have tried working out realistic values for individual aircraft for ASL. I'm happy with the MG and bomb FP values, and after fiddling with the TK DRM's I'm happy with those as well. For the planes with a TK DRM greater than +4 I gave them a number of Damage Points (like landing craft). The bombers should probably never make point attacks, rather making their attack from high altitude where only heavy AA can reach them. Here is a sample counter (and the reverse side) I cobbled together, I made about 3/4 of the planes on the list.
ASL (and Up Front) are owned by Multiman Publishing, which is a
subsidiary of Hasbro Inc.
(If this isn't enough legalese let me know and I'll put what is needed here)
|
|
Multiman Publishing's web page |
Heretical communiqués
