MMP’s Action Pack #19, Roads to Rangoon, the latest in the long-running series of scenario/map packs, is the sequel to Action Pack #9: To The Bridge!, which debuted a decade earlier. That pack was a themed pack, with its scenarios focusing on tactical actions from the early days of the Japanese invasion of Burma in […]
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Action Pack #17: Oktoberfest XXXV
Action Pack #17 debuted in 2021 with a dual theme. Although called “Oktoberfest XXXV” because it was released for the 2021 Oktoberfest ASL tournament in Cleveland, Ohio, the largest ASL tournament in the world, and primarily designed and playtested by the veteran Cleveland ASL crew, it is also a unit study: the scenarios in this […]
Action Pack #16: From the Land Down Under
I remembered being a little disappointed when Action Pack #1 debuted in 1997, even though I was only dabbling with ASL at the time (I wouldn’t really start playing ASL until 2001). Sure, it had two geoboards, and some scenarios, but it didn’t have any new counters or rules and was a modest product, at […]
Action Pack #15: Swedish Volunteers
Action Pack #15: Swedish Volunteers (hereinafter SV2) is a scenario pack from MMP that is also the second edition of a 2009 third party product, Swedish Volunteers, now a collector’s item. Because in most respects, SV2 and Swedish Volunteers are similar or identical, readers should first read the Desperation Morale write-up for Swedish Volunteers before […]
Action Pack #14: Oktoberfest XXXIV
If you spot one monkey riding an elephant, it’s an occurrence. If you see a second monkey riding an elephant, it’s just a coincidence. But if you happen to run across a third monkey riding an elephant, then, friend, you have yourself a trend. That’s what we have here with the ASL Oktoberfest Action Packs. […]
Action Pack #13: Oktoberfest XXXII
Two years after the organizers of the ASLOK tournament and their Cleveland-area friends teamed with MMP to release Action Pack #12 at ASLOK 2015, this winning combo is back with another scenario pack that was released at ASLOK in 2017. This action pack comes with two new geoboards (78, 79). Board 78 is mostly a […]
Action Pack #12: Oktoberfest XXX
Action Pack #12 debuted in October 2015 at Oktoberfest, the world’s largest annual ASL tournament (9-10 days long and with 150+ attendees a year in recent years), held the first week of October in the enchanting city of Cleveland, Ohio. The debut of the pack did not “surprise” many, in that these Internetty days most […]
Action Pack #11: 29 Let’s Go!
The eleventh Action Pack from Multi-Man Publishing debuted in 2015. Unlike its immediate predecessor, which was an un-themed action pack, AP11 does have a theme: all of its scenarios involve the U.S. 29th Infantry Division, which landed on D-Day and fought its way across France and into Germany. This is MMP’s first unit-themed scenario pack […]
Action Pack #9: To the Bridge!
Action Pack #9: To the Bridge! (AP9) is both the latest Action Pack from MMP as well as the latest Action Pack designed by Gary Fortenberry and featuring his 11″ x 16″ two-sided geoboards. AP9 is themed with a very narrow theme: all of the scenarios included therein take place in (or, in one case, […]
Action Pack #10
The 10th Action Pack debuted in November 2014, some 14 years after the first. Fourteen years is not a round number, but 10 packs certainly is, which gives us an excuse not only to examine Action Pack #10, but to look at the Action Pack series to date as a whole. Though the first Action […]
Action Pack #8: Roads Through Rome
It is a pleasant thing, indeed, to reflect upon the fact that for the first 10 years in the history of the Action Pack (a small ASL product consisting of several new geomorphic boards and a collection of scenarios), the series numbered only two. For many years, indeed, it was assumed that this number would […]
Action Pack #7
Action Pack 7 (AP7) is the latest in what passes, in ASL terms, for a flood of Action Packs in recent years, bringing new boards and new life to a geomorphic map system that had been growing stale due to a map stagnation. Unlike several of its predecessors, AP7 is totally unthemed, hearkening back in […]
Action Pack #6: A Decade of War, 1936-1945
After a seven year drought of Action Packs, it seems that the series is definitely picking up the pace, averaging one new Action Pack a year for the past four years. Action Pack #6: A Decade of War (AP6) is not merely the latest in the Action Pack series, however. Rather, it represents that rare […]
Action Pack #5: East Front
The third in the revived Action Pack series takes ASLers back to the Eastern Front (some may have never left it in the first place). It features a dozen scenarios, all of which use one or more of three new (ASLSK-style unmounted) geomorphic mapboards. The release of new mapboards in Action Packs 4 & 5 […]
Action Pack #4: Normandy 1944
Normandy 1944 is the second, following 2007’s Few Returned, of MMP’s “new” Action Packs (the first two Action Packs were published back in the late 1990s). Unlike Few Returned, which re-issued several long out of print geomorphic mapboards, Normandy 1944’s major selling point is its three new geoboards, the first to be created since Armies […]
Action Pack #3: Few Returned
Few Returned is a bit of a novelty for MMP. It was their first Action Pack in eight years and their first ever themed Action Pack. However, though it has all original scenarios, unlike the first two Action Packs, it does not contain new mapboards. Instead, the 12 scenarios (50% more than previous Action Packs) […]
Action Pack #2
The second Action Pack saw print as one of the first ASL products printed by MMP after it received the ASL license from Hasbro. In content, Action Pack 2 is not really different from Action Pack 1, although it does include 2 sheets of overlays. Its overrun play aid was later included in the 2nd […]
Action Pack #1
The Action Pack began as an idea during the MMP era (1996-1998) at Avalon Hill, providing simple, straightforward content: more maps and more scenarios. Action Pack 1 (AP1) contained 2 geoboards and 8 scenarios, as well as an OBA play aid. Every scenario in the pack uses at least one of the included boards, but […]
Special Ops
Special Ops is the confusingly named successor to MMP’s former house magazines Operations and Operations Special Issues, which ended in 2008 and 2010, respectively. The new Special Ops basically resembles a significantly down-sized (at only 36 pages) Operations Special Issue. MMP announced its plan to make them twice-yearly, but in wargaming, most such plans falter. […]
Tournament Director’s Pack
The Tournament Director’s Pack is a large scenario pack with 16 scenarios, the first scenario pack published by Italian third party publisher Advancing Fire. The name of the pack may be a bit confusing–it’s not a pack necessarily aimed at tournament directors, nor are all the scenarios in it tournament-friendly. Rather, it is a pack […]
Little Saturn: Hold at All Costs
Little Saturn: Hold at All Costs is a scenario/map pack focusing on actions that ostensibly took place during Operation Little Saturn, the devastating Soviet attack in December 1942-January 1943 against the Hungarian and Italian armies north of Stalingrad, which sealed the fate of the German soldiers trapped in that city. Though the marketing copy for […]
Onslaught to Orsha 2
In 2002, ASL third party publisher Heat of Battle released the first “monster-sized” historical module, Onslaught to Orsha, which was in most respects considerably larger than any previous official or unofficial historical module for ASL, featuring a large map, many scenarios, and a lot more as well. Moreover, it was designed by Chas Smith, whose […]
Winter Offensive Bonus Pack #10
After a disappointing Bonus Pack in 2018–except for ASLers who love DASL–MMP returned to form in 2019, releasing its 10th “bonus pack” at the Winter Offensive tournament in January 2019. MMP’s “bonus packs” generally consist of 1-3 new geoboards and 2-4 new scenarios, making them mini-Action Packs. Bonus Pack 10 is a bit of a […]
Hatten in Flames
In 2018, MMP produced Hatten in Flames (hereinafter Hatten), its first historical module since Festung Budapest, published way back in 2012. It is a module that in no way resembles Festung Budapest, a module that–though very good–is also very large, very complex, and which features heavy urban combat. Hatten, in contrast, is small, with only […]
Winter Offensive Bonus Pack #9
Do you want the good news first or the bad news first? The good news is that in January 2018, MMP released its largest (in more ways than one) Bonus Pack ever. The bad news: it’s a DASL product. That’s right–DASL is back from the grave. Click here to skip the context/history/bitching about DASL and […]
“The Big Red One” / “29, Let’s Go!” (Operation Overlord)
In 2016, Battleschool debuted a new collection of themed precision dice for ASL players, a collection in the same vein as its earlier Stalingrad collection. One presumes that these collections presage a never-ending series of World War II unit-themed dice from Battleschool, with the only connection to ASL being the Rate of Fire emblems on […]
Nor’easter ASL Tourney XX Anniversary Scenario Pack
One of the pleasures of ASL is the opportunity to go to ASL tournaments around the United States–indeed, around the world–and to meet and socialize and play with/against a wide variety of other ASL enthusiasts. Many ASLers are so dedicated that some of these ASL tournaments have been around for decades and have become hallowed […]
China-Burma-India: The Lost Theater, Part I
One 2015 ASL release that was awaited with much interest and curiosity was the “Burma pack” being worked on by Jim Burris and the St. Louis ASL Club. This would be an inaugural release–the first product by these folks–and no one knew quite what to expect. Would it be a labor of love? A discombobulated […]
ASL Journal Issue Eleven
After a gap of more than three years, a new issue of the ASL Journal finally saw print again in early 2016 with its eleventh magazine (J11), bringing joy to those ASLers who wondered if they would ever see another issue again. Though J11 contains no extras such as counters, maps or boards, it certainly […]
Russian Rarities 2: Rockets’ Red Glare / Red Rarities II
One of the warning signs that a Critical Hit product may have rules problems is when CH founder Ray Tapio pre-emptively warns people about the possibility in the product’s rules itself. For example, in Russian Rarities 2, Tapio explains that this product requires players to have a “sense of expansive imagination” and that the counters […]
GWASL II: Blasted Woods
GWASL II: Blasted Woods, hereinafter simply GWASL II, is the second module in Critical Hit’s unfortunate attempt to use the Hot Tub Time Machine to take ASL back to World War I, a conflict for which ASL simply was not designed. Desperation Morale has written a very detailed write-up of the first module in the […]
Winter Offensive Bonus Pack #5
In what has now become something of a tradition, MMP releases a “bonus pack” each year at its annual January “Winter Offensive” ASL tournament. These bonus packs typically consist of 1-2 geoboards and 2-3 scenarios, sometimes with an overlay thrown in. Essentially, they are 1/3 to 1/4 of an Action Pack. In 2014, MMP released […]
Across the Aller II
Have you ever seen or heard something that so boggled your mind that you reacted by trying to say several things at once, with all of those things getting mixed up between your mind and your mouth to the point that you were rendered speechless? If so, you may have experienced something similar to the […]
Across the Aller I
Have you ever seen or heard something that so boggled your mind that you reacted by trying to say several things at once, with all of those things getting mixed up between your mind and your mouth to the point that you were rendered speechless? If so, you may have experienced something similar to the […]
Rally Point Volume 9: A Special Study of ASL Mapboards 7a/b, 8a/b and 9a/b
Rally Point Volume 9 (RP9) is the latest of Schwerpunkt’s line of themed scenario packs, though sometimes the themes are quite loose. This volume is itself an example; the theme is explained in the product’s subtitle: “A Special Study of ASL Mapboards 7a/b, 8a/b and 9a/b,” a title that could only be made less catchy […]
About the Desperation Morale Site
The Desperation Morale site is the ASL website of Mark Pitcavage, who created a bare-bones site in 2002 as a place to share ASL-related play aids and resources that he had originally designed for his own use. Over time, Pitcavage added a few other downloads and in 2003 he added a whole new section, the […]
Rising Sun
Rising Sun (RS) is the long-awaited reprint/new edition of ASL’s PTO rules, combining the contents of Code of Bushido and Gung Ho! as well as incorporating additional material from elsewhere, notably the Gavatu-Tanambogo mini-HASL that originally appeared in ASL Annual ’93b. For many years, these rules have been out of print, depriving newer ASLers of […]
Winter Offensive 2013 Pictures (Part II)
See Part I for the usual explanations and disclaimers. The new stuff available at Winter Offensive. You probably have all this by now. For those who have never tried a Friendly Fire pack, Best of Friends is something you should definitely get. Some big East Front action. I hope they realized that this scenario is […]
Major Upham Battle Pack
The Major Upham Battle Pack (MUB) is a scenario pack designed by Scott Holst, though he is not credited by name. Somehow, the “Major Upham” in the product’s title is supposed to be a sort of pseudonym for Holst, but the odd name of the pack has led to some criticism for being misleading. In […]
Bulge Pak 1
Bulge Pak 1 (BP1) is essentially a hasty reprint of the 1997 release Euro-Pack 2, with some other items thrown in. It was one of a large batch of Critical Hit reprints released in late 2011. Euro-Pack 2 itself was a quick reprint of scenarios originally printed in the ASL News and On All Fronts […]
ASLOK 2011 Pictures, Part III
Some damn scenario or another. I think it is a Crete scenario from the HOB module. This may be a playing of Men of the Mountains, which was quite popular JR Tracy playing, I think, Klas Malmstrom, if I can make out his face well enough This may be a shot from the Schwerpunkt scenario […]
Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit Expansion Pack #1
The Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit Expansion Pack #1 (whew, let’s just call it EP1) is an odd duck. It is called an Expansion Pack, but it is not actually an expansion pack at all. Rather, it is a complete de facto ASL Starter Kit #4. Not a single counter or map or chart from […]
Same Old Same Old? The Presence (or Lack) of Innovation in ASL
As I write this entry, postal employees around the world are delivering copies of MMP’s latest ASL release, Action Pack 6: A Decade of War, into the greedy little hands of ASLers. The thematic notion of the pack—essentially a scenario per year (not quite achieved) for ten different years of war—is not its appeal; the […]
Making Sausages
Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck once said, “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.” I think a good case could be made that the same is true for ASL scenario playtesting and development. Most of the time, most ASL players don’t give much thought to how the scenario in […]
Blood and Jungle
Because of the size of this product, this is a long review. To skip straight to the scenario discussion, click here. To go all the way to the concluding “bottom line,” click here. But try the whole thing. After being neglected by much of the ASL community for some years, the PTO certainly got some […]
2009: The Year in ASL
Today is January 1. The Old Year has exited the map and the New Year is on the board edge, waiting for the MPh so it can enter. A propitious time, then, to take a look back at the year 2009 as it pertains to the Advanced Squad Leader world and even to offer a […]
Beyond the Beaches: ASL Starter Kit Bonus Pack #1
Beyond the Beaches (BP1) is a small supplement for people who play the ASL Starter Kits, adding another map to the system and a few scenarios. It is small in size, but symbolically represents a point of departure that ASL players should perhaps consider seriously (click here to skip the “consider seriously” part and get […]
Schwerpunkt Volume 15
In the introduction to Schwerpunkt Volume 15 (SP15, the latest annual issue of Schwerpunkt, editor Evan Sherry takes advantage of the round-numberishness of the issue to reflect on Schwerpunkt’s accomplishments, which as of then included 180 scenarios (not to mention 40 more in the four Rally Point packs published to date). He proudly notes that […]
Swedish Volunteers
If the year 2009 had any unifying theme in terms of ASL products, it was specialty products, and perhaps the perfect example of this phenomenon is the product Swedish Volunteers (SV). Specialty ASL products tend to be on narrow subjects that are a particular interest to their creator(s), but which are likely to be of […]
Scenario File #1
Released early in 2008 with little fanfare or marketing by Stavka Archives (which is basically Swedish ASLer Melvin Falk), Scenario File #1 is an unusual publication. It is unusual in the sense that it appears to be rather derivative of official ASL products and scenarios. While any person or persons can produce ASL compatible material, […]