04.2024 Le Franc Tireur No. 16

Publisher/Date:
Le Franc Tireur (2024)

Product Type:
Periodical

Country of Origin:
France

Contents:
80-page magazine, 15 scenarios on glossy color cardstock, 7 sheets of overlays (unauthorized duplicate "official" overlays with alternative artwork), 12 unmounted 8" x 22" double-sided geoboards (all unauthorized versions of "official geoboards" with alternative artwork (the duplicated boards are 32, 33, 34, 35, 36. 37, 38, 39, 47, 62, 67, 75).

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Copies of this product sold by U.S. retailers do not contain the geoboards or overlays.  If buying this product on the secondary market, make sure you know which version you are getting.

Commentary:

The year 2024 saw the release of the 16th issue of Le Franc Tireur, the long-running French ASL magazine, which grew from humble beginnings in 1996 to become one of the major publishers of ASL material. Issues of LFT are typically thematic in nature; the theme of LFT16 is the PTO and the magazine’s contents and accessories are related to that theater.  The nature of some of those accessories have made LFT16 a rather controversial product, with some ASLers declining to purchase it.

The magazine itself is 80 pages long, though unfortunately for long-term readers four of its articles are not original but rather reprints of articles that originally appeared in Le Franc Tireur No. 12.  Among the contents are a “10 questions” interview with veteran ASLer Oliver Gray, an AAR of a team playing of the combined The Last Bid/Men of Steel monster scenarios of Red Factories, a historical article on the Japanese 3rd Tank Division (a good idea in theory, but in practice the article contained only about a page on the unit’s operational history), a historical article on the Chinese Army in 1944, a basic PTO rules article and Banzai Charge example (and including, unbelievably, a racist illustration)*, Landing Craft-related flowcharts, a simple article on Japanese defensive tips, an article on amphibious landings*, an amphibious landing scenario replay*, and a PTO scenario short replay* (articles in this paragraph marked with a * are reprinted articles).

In addition to the magazine itself, LFT16 includes scenarios (discussed below) and 12 unmounted geoboards.  The geoboards are perhaps the product’s main draw, as well as its primary source of controversy.  The idea behind the geoboards was to create board artwork that visually seemed more like the tropical terrain of (much of) the PTO than do the standard ASL geoboards, the terrain artwork on which was originally intended to represent European geography.  So the artwork for jungle, kunai, bamboo, palm trees, and so forth, is designed, at least theoretically, with a greater resemblance to those types of terrain.  Moreover, the included boards are double-printed, making them both the first third-party geoboards to be double-printed as well as the first 8″ x 22″ geoboards by any publisher to be double-sided.  The reverse sides of the geoboards are the same as the primary side, except that the artwork is altered to represent dense jungle, with the jungle artwork extending throughout the entire hex (to represent its inherent terrain aspect). Given how few ASL scenarios actually use dense jungle, it’s a reasonable question as to whether or not it was worth the expense, but it certainly has novelty value, at least.

Had LFT created 12 new PTO-friendly geoboards, they would have represented a significant new addition to the ASL geoboard universe.  However, that is not what LFT did.  Instead, rather than creating original board designs and applying their new artwork to those boards, LFT created the dozen boards here by taking previously published boards from AH/MMP and re-doing them with the alternative artwork.  Moreover, they apparently did not secure the permission of MMP before doing so.  The boards duplicated by LFT are 32-39, 47, 62, 67, and 75.  In addition, LFT provides 7 sheets of overlays that duplicate official overlays, but with new artwork. This situation is essentially unprecedented in ASL history. In 2013, Critical Hit released a product that included 16 geoboards deliberately designed to be very similar to official ASL geoboards 1-16, but even that product did not outright duplicate the official geoboards. In 2017, Broken Ground Design released an odd little product that included a mini-map printed on a mousepad. The map artwork in that product was a near-duplicate of part of an official geoboard. This was problematic, but the duplication was not exact and it was only part of a single geoboard. In this product, however, LFT duplicated the exact design of 12 official geoboards, just replacing the artwork with alternative artwork. It’s hard to understand what LFT was thinking here. Whether or not this legally constitutes copyright violation is hard to say (your Humble Author is not a copyright attorney), though it may well. It certainly is arguably an ethical violation. Needless to say, MMP was reportedly not happy about the boards, and that may be an understatement. As a result, LFT  removed the geoboards and overlays from copies of LFT16 that it sold to North American retailers (which reduced the price by about half).  ASLers in the United States who wanted the geoboards had to order them directly from LFT (either boards+magazine or just the boards by themselves) or get them from a European retailer.

It’s pretty hard to condone the decision to copy official geoboard design. Moreover, it also means that people purchasing the boards will be re-buying boards they in all likelihood already own. The geoboards here do not add any new designs to the ASL geoboard family.  In that sense, they are essentially the equivalent of the countersheets sold by Critical Hit that reproduce the Soviet OB but in red rather than brown. The differences are only cosmetic (moreover, the ASL world generally accepts third party counters, even when not entirely new to the system).

Leaving aside all these issues, there is also the question of whether or not the artwork is any good.  In this respect, the boards have been a little polarizing, with some people embracing the new look and others disliking the alternative artwork. This is perhaps not surprising, as it substantially a matter of taste.  However, there is no greater arbiter of ASL taste on this planet than Desperation Morale, so perhaps it is appropriate to put this artwork to the test here.  There are two main questions regarding the artwork:  1) taken individually, how good or bad is the artwork for the various different terrain types represented, and 2) how do all these terrain types look together on a board?

It turns out that, with regard to the first question, there is considerable variety in how successful the artwork is for different terrain types, as these examples illustrate:

• Jungle:  the original woods artwork (derived from old Letratone transfers from the 1970s) has been replaced with artwork designed to look more like a mass of individual trees and vegetation as viewed from above. It certainly provides a PTO vibe and also looks more realistic, but it is also much busier. The busier terrain also makes it more difficult to distinguish hex numbers against that busy background.
• Roads/Paths: The roads of traditional ASL boards are gone, replaced with grayish artwork similar to the artwork also used for paths (the latter is a bit thinner, so it is still possible to distinguish between the two, which is important, as many PTO scenarios still have roads).
• Bamboo:  Brush hexes are now replaced by inherent terrain stretching all the way to the hexside. It doesn’t really resemble anything; it’s a brownish mash. The black hex numbering doesn’t always show up well.
• Kunai:  Grain artwork has been replaced by a heavily textured yellow that doesn’t look very good.
• Palm Trees:  The four green circles have been replaced by individual palm trees covering the entire hex. More on this below. The palm trees often obscure the hex numbers, which are printed in black on this terrain type rather than white.
• Buildings/Huts:  The non-hut building artwork resembles that of standard boards, looking like vector illustrations stuck in the middle of bitmap artwork. The hut artwork, with thatched roofs, looks more like other terrain representations than they do the buildings.
• Marsh/Swamp:  The artwork for both these terrain types is kind of weird and it’s not clear what the artist was going for here.
• Streams: The stream artwork seems very wide, making LOS rather easy down streams.
• Hills: The hill depictions on these boards is probably the one terrain type that is superior to “official” artwork. They have attractive, slightly shifting hues, as well as nice double-lined crestlines.

 

The next question is what the cumulative effect of all this new art is, and the answer seems clear: it makes the geoboards far more cluttered-looking, busy, and full than standard artwork does. This is largely due to three factors: 1) the imposition of full-hexside inherent terrain on terrain types that do not have such artwork on the standard versions (dense jungle, bamboo), 2) four-object inherent terrain (palm trees, crags) changed to full-hexside inherent terrain, and 3) busier or more obtrusive terrain artwork (jungle, kunai, marsh/swamp).

The creation of full-hexside inherent terrain (bamboo on both sides, and dense jungle on the reverse sides) fills entire hexes with terrain, with no “green space” around it, making the terrain on the board much more crowded. The replacement of four-object terrain increases that problem considerably.  The original ASL orchard and crag artwork had its original four-object (four palm trees, four crags) design for a reason: so that the entire hex would not be cluttered, but instead would be more open.  The new artwork entirely dispenses with this original intent, creating even more hexes filled with hexside-to-hexside artwork and greatly increasing the density and clutter on the map.  The fact that many terrain types, from jungle to kunai, also have graphics that are more eye-catching and obtrusive, adds to the problem.  The result is that the LFT-designed maps appear far noisier and more cluttered than the original map artwork.  Many hex numbers are harder to read, while players must find paths tracking their way through myriad individual palm trees (as on board 35). While individual new terrain types may be better, worse, or about the same as the original artwork, their combined effect makes the boards far less clean than the original artwork.  Overall, the original artwork, even if it seems a bit less PTO-ish than the boards here, simply seems to work better.

In addition to the geoboards and overlays, LFT16 comes with 15 scenarios, all having a PTO theme, including actions set in Thailand 1941 (Thais vs. Japanese), British Borneo 1941 (Indians vs. Japanese), the Philippines 1941-42 (U.S. vs. Japanese, U.S./Filipino vs. Japanese [2 scenarios], Filipino vs. Japanese), Goodenough Island 1942 (Australians vs. Japanese), New Guinea 1944 (New Zealanders vs. Japanese [3 scenarios]), China 1944 (Chinese Nationalists vs. Japanese), Guam 1944 (U.S. vs. Japanese), the Philippines 1945 (Americans vs. Japanese), and Indochina 1946 (Chinese Nationalists vs. French, Viet Minh/Japanese vs. French).

The scenarios skew towards smaller actions, though there are four larger scenarios.  Two of the scenarios use OBA, two use Night rules, and one uses Air Support.  Three scenarios–FT327 (Thai Beaches), FT333 (Goodenough?), and FT336 (Fourteen Paddles)–involve Seaborne Assaults/Evacuations.  Surprisingly, three scenarios also feature New Zealanders in the Pacific.  They all feature actions in the Green Islands off New Guinea in February 1944 by the 14th Brigade, which was one of two brigades in the under-strength 3rd New Zealand Division, a unit that served primarily as a garrison force and saw very little action before it was disbanded a few months after the actions here. The Green Islands had only a tiny Japanese garrison of around 120 total and the New Zealanders dispatched them with ease while sustaining only 13 KIA. Le Franc Tireur really had to struggle to squeeze three whole scenarios out of this inconsequential fracas (in fact, in one scenario the Japanese force has only 4 squads and a crew, and in another the Japanese have only 3.5 squads).

To play all the scenarios included players need geoboards 9, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 43, 47, 62, 67, 72, 75, 76, and 88, as well as Le Franc Tireur geoboard LFT1 from Le Franc Tireur No. 11, LFT2 from Le Franc Tireur No. 12,  and Hazardous Movement geoboard Hz1 from Hazardous Movement Scenario Pack 4: Making the Grade. Neither the scenario cards nor the LFT wepbage for this product explain where boards LFT1, LFT2, and Hz1 can be found–in particular, many ASLers might be puzzled about what the heck “Hz1” is.

Although some of the actions included here have been previously covered by official and/or third party scenarios, several of the scenarios pose interesting situations.  FT336 (Fourteen Paddles), one of the New Zealander scenarios, may be smaller than many people would like, but it does feature the rather unusual situation of the New Zealanders conducting a Seaborne Assault while the Japanese are also conducting a Seaborne Evacuation. FT337 (Not So Ichi-Go) is a rare scenario indeed, giving the Chinese player a significant amount of on-board artillery to play with, as well as Air Support.  The Japanese, meanwhile, have a veritable Panzerarmee, as well as air support of their own. FT328 (Punjabi Tenacity) depicts a rather meaty action with 24 Japanese squads coming from different directions to attack a well-armed Indian force, including a 152mm gun. The Japanese may have to brave a lot of “down” shots. FT341 (Harvesting Opium), set at Dien Bien Phu (but in 1946!), features some unusual combatants:  Chinese Nationalists fighting the French. The conflict was made possible because at the end of the war, Chinese troops moved into the northern region of Vietnam to accept the Japanese surrender.  FT340 (Spring Cleaning) is another Indochina action set in the wake of World War II, but this teeny-tiny scenario pits a handful of French squads against a handful of Vietminh squads aided by some Japanese defectors.

Finally, FT338 (RJ177) is not just a scenario but a “micro-campaign game” consisting of three very small USMC-Japanese scenarios set on Guam in 1944 that are intended to be played sequentially as a toy-sized geoboard-based linked-scenario campaign game. There’s a simplified Refit Phase between scenarios, while both sides even get a miniature form of purchasing, by being able to choose from among 6 Reinforcement Groups to add one group each per scenario.  It’s a very interesting idea.

If LFT16 had only come with the magazine and scenarios (which is, indeed, the way most U.S. ASLers will encounter it unless they go to extra effort and expense), it would have been received very positively.  The addition of the duplicated maps, however, complicates the situation considerably. It is a shame the boards were not simply original designs.

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