Publisher/Date:
Multi-Man Publishing (2021)
Product Type:
Scenario/Map Pack
Country of Origin:
United States
Contents:
2 8" x 22" unmounted geoboards (i, j), 2 pages charts, 8 scenarios on cardstock.
The Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit Bonus Pack #2, released 15 years after the first ASLSK bonus pack, is more proof–if anyone needed it–that ASLSK is now not primarily an introduction to full ASL (though it can be used for that, its original intent) but a game system in its own right that actually competes with ASL for customers. As of this writing, in mid-2024, there are now 4 ASL Starter Kit modules, 2 Starter Kit Bonus Packs, 3 Starter Kit Expansion Packs, and a Starter Kit historical module (with at least one more on the way). Since they apparently sell–buttressed by all the ASL-only players who still buy them for the geoboards–this will apparently continue until ASLSK, ASL, and all other board wargaming systems collapse with the increasing deaths of their ever-aging audiences.
BP#2 is centered around two new 8″ x 22″ unmounted geoboards, numbered i and j (meaning that lower-case-letter-designated ASLSK geoboards that started with z and went backwards have more than criss-crossed with lower-case-letter-designated DASL geoboards that started with a and went forwards). Both have excellent artwork–an indicator as to how far the ASLSK geoboards have come since the much-cruder artwork in ASLSK #1. Unlike a lot of ASLSK geoboards that, because of rules limitations, are fairly uninteresting and mundane, the two boards in this product are more interesting and feel more like full ASL boards. Board i depicts a tiny crossroads village engulfed in large fields of grain, while board j is an urban board with plenty of large stone buildings. It even has a traffic circle like Board 10, albeit surrounding a circle of hedges rather than walls.
Eight scenarios accompany the two boards, making this “Bonus Pack” a full-sized scenario/map pack, unlike every other previously-published bonus pack, of whatever kind. The scenarios are of the mixed-bag variety, featuring actions from a variety of eras and theaters, including China 1938 (Chinese Nationalists vs. Japanese), Norway 1940 (Norwegians vs. Germans), Soviet Union 1941 (Soviets vs. Germans) and 1943 (Soviets vs. Germans), France 1944 (British/Americans vs. Germans), Netherlands 1944 (British/Americans vs. Germans), Germany 1944 (Americans vs. Germans) and the Philippines 1945 (Americans vs. Japanese).
To play all the scenario, players need boards i, j, m, p, r, s, v, and z. Every scenario uses boards i and/or j, and many scenarios use only i or j, which can be a little frustrating when trying to discern whether the tiny letter on the map layout on the scenario card is an i or a j–they look almost exactly alike.
The scenarios are a relatively even mix of small, medium and large-sized actions. Four of the scenarios have at least one very long SSR, designed to create rules for things like commissars, fortified building hexes, and city walls.
The pack also comes with two pages of standard ASLSK charts, though they are probably not needed, given that to play every scenario in this pack, one already needs to own almost every ASLSK product published through 2021.
That brings us to the audience for this product. Ironically, newbies who want to learn ASLSK are the last audience for this product. The first audience consists of the committed ASLSK players who buy every ASLSK product, because only they will have all the components needed to play these scenarios. The second audience consists of ASLers who may quite likely never play any of the scenarios but just buy the product for the geoboards. New ASLSK players simply won’t have the counters or, in some cases, also the maps or the rules, to play many of the scenarios here.
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