10.2024 ASL Arnhem 2024

Publisher/Date:
Multi-Man Publishing (2024)

Product Type:
Mini-Scenario Pack

Country of Origin:
United States

Contents:
4 scenarios on cardstock

Commentary:

ASL Arnhem 2024 is a mini-scenario pack published by MMP that contains 4 scenarios depicting fighting by units of the British 1st Airborne Division near (but oddly not in) Arnhem in September 1944 during Operation Market-Garden.  MMP has never published a mini-scenario pack before this one, although in 2020 it did publish ASL Roma 2020, a mini-scenario/map pack (a mini-scenario/map pack is a product that contains four or fewer scenarios and at least one new geoboard; a mini-scenario pack is a product that contains four or fewer scenarios).  Like the Roma product, ASL Arnhem 2024 was created in conjunction with a European ASL tournament; in this case, the recent revival of the ASL Arnhem tournament.  In previous eras, scenarios designed for a tournament might subsequently have been included in an issue of the ASL Journal, rather than as a stand-alone product. However, MMP announced that the proceeds from the sale of this product will go to the Airborne museums commemorating the battle, which may explain its separate release.  The pack sells for $10 (as of this writing); $2.50/scenario is not a bad price point, although a board-less pack with only 4 scenarios is not exactly a huge draw. The pack will appeal most to Market-Garden enthusiasts, people who want to support the museum, and die-hard completists. The pack also makes a cheap gift for a friend or relative. Maybe not a wife.

Two of the scenarios were designed by MMP’s Brian Youse, while the other two were created by Swedish ASLer Jens Thomander (the Arnhem tournament, originally run by Dutch ASLers, was resurrected by Swedish ones).  The scenarios include:

• AR1 (Broken Column). Oosterbeek. British vs. Germans. Boards 38, 42, 67 (and 7 overlays). A dozen British squads escorting three jeeps pulling AT guns must exist at east one of them, plus some EVP, off a board edge. Ten German squads and an AT gun are there to stop them.
• AR2 (Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing). Ginkel Heath. British vs. Germans. Board 62 and ASLSK board l (and 3 overlays). Thirteen British squads, well-led and well (but lightly) armed, have to clear a board section of 14 low-quality and not-so-well-led SS and conscript Germans.
• AR3 (Bricks in Flames). Renkum. British vs. Germans. Boards 20 and 70 (and 4 overlays). Sixteen German squads and 4 flame-throwing ex-French tanks (!) must eliminate all Good Order British MMC from a building. The defending British have only 4.5 squads and 1 leader, though they do have an HMG and 3 Guns.
• AR4 (The Overlook). Oosterbeek. Jack Nicholson vs. Shelley Duvall.  Board 84 (and 3 overlays). In this scenario, the Germans have to smoosh British forces on a hill. The Germans have 16 squads and 2 flame-throwing ex-French tanks, while the British have 10 squads and a hero.

Given that there are only 4 scenarios in the pack, it would have added a bit of extra value to include a linked-scenario campaign game that involved playing all 4. Perhaps some ASLer will come up with one.

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