Publisher/Date:
Struijf-Mazzei (2021)
Product Type:
Scenario Pack
Country of Origin:
Canada/Switzerland
Contents:
1 page rules (2 copies), 8 scenarios on glossy color cardstock.
Not One Step Back is a scenario pack created by the designing team of Peter Stuijf (of the Netherlands, but a Canadian resident) and Chris Mazzei (from Switzerland), and released at the 2021 ASLOK tournament in Cleveland, Ohio. It follows their previous scenario pack, Death to Fascism, although the designers have contributed scenarios elsewhere in the past, including to Friendly Fire and MMP.
Owners of the Death to Fascism pack will find this product extremely familiar; it has the same scenario card style and color scheme, the same number of “mixed bag” scenarios, and the same pack-wide special rules.
The pack-wide special rules (which come on two duplicate cards, one for each player) are what distinguish the Struijf-Mazzei scenario packs from other scenario packs. Having a whole page of additional rules for each scenario certainly adds to the complexity of the scenarios in this pack, and some of the rules add to the set-up time as well. The rules largely divide into three categories: 1) purchase rules, 2) setup rules, and 3) grudge rules.
The purchase rules provide each player with a certain number of Support Weapon Purchase Points for each scenario, with which they may buy SW (plus possibly an 81-82mm MTR and crew). Pretty much every type of SW is theoretically available (even items like a MOL-P and a 75 RCL), though in reality the scenario cards limit SW options and no individual SW may be purchased more than three times (four for LMG). Purchasable OBs can be very interesting, although they do add to set-up times for slow-shoppers. Also, most of the time there are one or two optimal purchase mixes for a particular scenario, so the options are not necessarily as wide-ranging as they first appear.
The Set-up rules apply “to the side that sets up first in a daytime scenario.” These include allowing units set up in concealment terrain to automatically get concealment, to give 1 squad-equivalent HIP to any non-Japanese force (which makes the Japanese inherent HIP capability proportionately less distinctive), to let all SMC set up HIP (if stacked with a MMC and in concealment terrain), and to allow all SW to be kept offboard, recorded on paper, and only placed on board under certain circumstances. Essentially, these rules collectively establish a different set-up regime than the official ASL rules do, which makes them seem akin to the grudge rules (below).
“Grudge” rules in ASL are SSRs added to ASL scenarios not because they help recreate the specific battle situation and context for the action portrayed on the scenario card (which is what SSRs are for), but rather because the scenario designer simply does not like some ASL rules and wishes to substitute their own rules for official rules. Not One Step Back includes a number of grudge rules, including:
- Greatly limiting the ability of vehicles or vehicular crews to control anything by treating them as SMC for control purposes.
- Mandating that crews must make repair attempts for broken MA.
- Prohibiting all Kindling.
- Treating rubbled building hexes as building hexes for control purposes.
- Requiring all HIP infantry and Guns to be placed on board (concealed) at the start of Game Turn 5.
In general, Desperation Morale takes a dim view to grudge rules, as they make players play by the personal preferences of the designer rather than by official rules. In general, it is better to offer such rules as optional/”house” rules that players can choose to use rather than requiring players to use them.
The “mixed-bag” nature of the scenario pack means that a variety of actions from different eras and campaigns are depicted. These include China 1939 (Chinese communist partisans vs. Japanese), Finland 1939 (Soviets vs. Finns), Greece 1941 (Greeks vs. Italians), Soviet Union 1942 (Soviets vs. Germans) and 1943 (Soviets vs. Germans), Guam 1944 (Americans vs. Japanese), Belgium 1944 (British vs. Germans), and the Netherlands 1944 (Americans/British vs. Germans).
The pack assumes that purchasers will have a large number of ASL products. The following geoboards are required to play all the scenarios in the pack: 2, 3, 4, 24, 37, 56, 57, 62, 67, 70, 74, and 79, and ASLSK geoboards v and x, plus the Red Barricades historical map, as well as geoboard FRFA from Friendly Fire Pack 6. Whew.
Two of the 8 scenarios are small in size; all the rest are large. Most of the scenarios are not really suitable for tournament play. None of the scenarios use OBA, Night Rules, or Air Support. For the most part, the scenarios do not have onerous SSRs (other than all the pack-wide special rules).
A number of the scenarios portray interesting situations. DTF9 (Mao’s Iron Army), depicting a mass Chinese communist guerrilla attack attack on a smaller but better Japanese force, features an alternating setup, in which part of the Japanese OB and the Chinese initial forces alternate with each other in placing one counter on the map at a time. It is not clear what this is supposed to represent, historically, but it is interesting. The Chinese communists have a total force of 34 partisan squads (are there even 34 partisan squads?). DTF12 (Not One Step Back!) features a mass Soviet combined arms force (including a KV1 and 3 early T-34s) against a much smaller German force with 2 AT guns. Eventually a Marder with a 9-2 armor leader shows up to try to kill some tanks.
DTF13 (The Living Dead) is basically a Red Barricades (or Red Factories) scenario, using the Red Barricades historical map. Once more, it features a mass Communist attack (apparently “Not One Step Back” means “a whole lot of steps forward). The Soviets have 28 squads and 5 leaders; they have to capture factories from a German force of 21 well-led squads aided by trenches and mines. DTF-15 (Storming Lommel) is interesting as one of the two tournament-suitable scenarios in the pack. Both sides have compact forces with infantry/AFV combinations. The attacking Germans, whose goal is to get close to a particular hex, ideally with the one DC in their OB, have 6 squads led by a 10-2, assisted by 6 assault guns. The defending British have 6.5 squads, plus a Sherman, a Stuart, and an armored car. They get another Sherman, an Achilles, and a Staghound as reinforcements. Unfortunately, it seems rather unbalanced in favor of the Germans, so players should consider giving the British the balance. DTF-16 (Panther Cull) is the the other small scenario in the pack, set during Operation Market-Garden. The scenario features a mini-attack by 5 well-led American paratroop squads and 6 British AFVs (with a 9-2 armor leader) against a German force of 6 squads, 2 Panthers, and a halftrack. As of this writing, it is one of the most-balanced scenarios in the pack.
If players are willing to deal with all the pack-wide rules, they might find some interesting play in some of these scenarios.
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