Alternative Titles/Edition History:
aka ASL Chapter H, Chapter H (Pocket Edition), Pocket Chapter H.
Publisher/Date:
Multi-Man Publishing (2022)
Product Type:
Rulebook
Country of Origin:
United States
Contents:
Combined Chapter H rules pages (as of January 2022) in one bound paperback volume (7.5" x 8.5").
At the same time MMP released a revised and expanded version of its Pocket ASL Rulebook in January 2022, they also for the first time released a companion volume, the long-awaited “pocket” version of the Chapter H rules. These two items can be purchased independently, though they are also sold as a bundle along with a spiral-bound version of the ASL charts and tables (originally printed on cardstock as chapter dividers and inserts for the three-ring binder version of the ASL Rulebook.
Pocket Chapter H looks very similar to Version 2 of the Pocket Rulebook, including the exact same cover; the only difference between the two is that this one reads “Chapter H” on the front cover and “ASL Chapter H” on the spine. Whereas the Pocket Rulebook is a full inch thick, the Chapter H volume comes in at slightly less than 7/8″ thick (for godless users of the metric system, this is equivalent to 2.2225 centimeters). The book is 7.5″ x 8.5″, which makes it smaller in size than the original binder rules, with the text correspondingly smaller as well, but this is not too much of a problem except when trying to read the smallest text on the counter depictions in the book. Here, 5/8″ counters are rendered as just over 1/2″ in size, which can make reading vehicle models and other very small type pretty tricky, though at least the vehicle models appear in much more readable form in the accompanying text for each vehicle. As with the Pocket Rulebook, the Chapter H pages here are printed on a paper that is not as high quality as that in the original binder version of the rulebook, but it is not poor quality either.
One thing Chapter H is missing are the gun and vehicle “counter examples” that appeared on the inside back cover of the original ASL binder. These examples provide the keys to all the vehicle and gun counter elements, making them necessary for newbies and occasionally handy even for grizzled veterans. MMP instead included these diagrams in its spiral-bound charts and table collection. It would have been better to have included them in both places.
Chapter H is also missing a table of contents, which is sorely needed. To find an Italian tank, one has to flip through the rulebook to find the Italians. Everybody knows where the Germans are; they come first. How many people know exactly where the Finns are, though? Chapter H is long enough that a simple table of contents would be extremely handy. It could even be printed on the back of the book. Currently, the back of the book contains a copy of the C3 To Hit Table and its DRMs. However, this is less useful than it sounds, because it does not contain the accompanying To Kill table, so assuming a player actually hits a target, they will still have to find a copy of the To Kill table to discover whether or not they destroyed it.
The pages have errata incorporated but are otherwise a straight reproduction of rulebook pages, so far as I can see, including a couple pages that are essentially blank on both sides. It also means that not all vehicles appear with their nationality pages. For example, the German Chapter H pages go from H9 to H27. However, way back in the book, on page H169, there is an additional page of German vehicles, which were added with Hakkaa Päälle! (and, for one vehicle, also Operation Veritable). It would have been nice to have these vehicles incorporated with the rest of the German vehicles. It also seems that the notes vehicle and guns added in the various historical modules have not been added to the Pocket Chapter H, except for those from a couple early modules, like Pegasus Bridge.
Having a bound version of Chapter H is extremely handy. Many ASLers have used professional bookbinders to make hardbound books out of their rules, while others have taken their rules to copy places to have them spiral-bound. Whether bound as a hardcover or softcover, or spiral-bound, rulebooks in book form are so much more portable, so much more convenient, so much easier to use (imagine flipping quickly through a book vs. laboriously leafing through page-protected sheets in a three-ring binder). And because the Pocket Chapter H rules are printed with print-on-demand technology, they can be much more easily updated and re-released (yes, that means purchasing them again, but they are not that expensive).
Bottom line? This product is well worth it.
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