Forgotten War Commentary Table of Contents Introduction History Counters Geoboards Rules Scenarios Bottom Line Introduction Welcome to Korea. Americans fought both a war and a sitcom there. You may not remember the war; according to MMP, Korea was “the forgotten war.” MMP is very sure of this; it even gave the name “Forgotten […]
Search Results for: forgotten war
ASL March Madness 2024: The Korean War Pack
ASL March Madness 2024: The Korean War Pack (hereinafter MM24; you’re welcome) is the latest scenario pack to come from Encircled Productions (formerly the Kansas City Irregular ASLers). These themed scenario packs have typically been released at the March Madness ASL Tournament held in Kansas City each year, although this year’s release only arrived months […]
MMP and the Stewardship of ASL: A 25(+) Year Perspective
An interesting thing happened earlier this year. This past January was the 25th anniversary of the announcement in 1999 by MMP that they had secured a license for ASL and would be continuing the ASL line of games, thus ensuring its future. For the ASL community, disheartened by the sudden collapse of the game system’s […]
Rally Point Volume 17: Special Study II of the Korean War
That game of life is hard to play I’m gonna lose it anyway The losing card I’ll someday lay So this is all I have to say (from “Suicide is Painless,” Theme song to M.A.S.H.) The game of life is not the only game hard to play; so too is ASL, whether playing a scenario […]
Rally Point Volume 15: Special Study I of the Korean War
The fifteenth Rally Point scenario pack focuses on the early months of the Korean War and is intended as a supplement to Forgotten War, MMP’s ASL module providing rules and components for using ASL to simulate Korean War tactical actions. At its name suggests, this pack is the first of two such products, the second […]
Pusan Perimeter: The Korean War
Pusan Perimeter is an expansion of the Korean War materials (rules, geoboards, counters) found in CH Annual Issue 4, which is required to play the scenarios here. That product provided some rudimentary rules for part of the Korean War (essentially, US vs North Korean actions in the early months of the war), as well as […]
Lion of Judah / Warriors of the Negus
Note #1: This product has been given a Desperation Morale CONSUMER ALERT warning and DO NOT BUY recommendation. Note #2: this write-up is especially lengthy because it investigates at length the relationship between Lion of Judah and an earlier ASL third party product, Soldiers of the Negus, for which Critical Hit has no reprint rights. […]
Genesis II: The Arab-Israeli Wars / Genesis III: Arab-Israeli Wars, 1948-67
Click here to skip the Genesis II write-up and go straight to the Genesis III write-up. Genesis II is a sort of mutant new edition of the 2001 release Genesis ’48, a historical module that looked at the 1948 Arab-Israeli Wars and the Battle for Jerusalem. However, Genesis II, despite its name, is so different […]
Rally Point Volume 21: Volksgrenadiers 1944-1945
Rally Point Volume 21: Volksgrenadiers 1944-1945, released at ASLOK in October 2024, is the latest iteration of the long-running themed scenario pack series (the first one debuted in 2006). For those folks slower on the uptake, the theme of this volume focuses on the troops of Nazi Germany’s volksgrenadier divisions, a type of infantry formation […]
Twilight of the Reich
Twilight of the Reich is a strange product: it comes in a fat box and is dubbed “ASL Module 16,” but it is not a historical module, nor is it a core module. It has the subtitle “Endgame in the European Theater 1944-45,” but it is not even that. It seems like a scenario/map pack, […]
March Madness 2023: 10th Mountain Pack
The 10th Mountain Pack is the latest in the series of themed scenario packs published by Kansas City-area ASLers to promote the annual March Madness ASL tournament in that city. As its title suggests, the theme of this pack is the U.S. 10th Mountain Division, the only mountain division created by the United States in […]
Le Franc Tireur No. 15
A full five years after the last issue, the spring of 2023 finally saw the release of the 15th issue of the French-published (but English language) ASL magazine Le Franc Tireur. The release was an expensive one, with the magazine costing around $100, but it does contain a lot of content, including article content, a […]
ASL Journal Issue Thirteen
After a long absence, MMP’s ASL Journal reappeared in 2023, providing ASLers with new articles to read, a new geoboard (77), and a whopping 34 new scenarios–more than in any previous issue of the ASL Journal. It’s not clear if the long delay in publishing allowed the inclusion of more scenarios or if a decision […]
Sword and Flame: Manila
Sword and Flame: Manila, a historical module released by MMP in 2022 that depicts the month-long battle between the U.S. and Japanese for the city of Manila in February 1945, is an ASL product with an almost famously long gestation time–over 20 years. It’s not clear exactly when primary designer Dave Roth started research for […]
ASL Pocket Charts
In early 2022, MMP released a spiral-bound 42-page (inc. covers) collection of reproductions of the charts and tables for ASL that originally were printed on chapter dividers and other cardstock inserts for the ASL rules binder. This release accompanied a new version of its Pocket Rulebook and a similar softbound version of the Chapter H […]
Operation Neptune: British Crossing of the Seine
Operation Neptune is a smallish historical module from Bounding Fire Productions (and designed by David Lamb) depicting the British seizure of a bridgehead across the Seine River in late August 1944 following the breakout from Normandy. This seizure allowed for the rapid advance of the 21st Army Group to the northwest, resulting in the subsequent […]
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 […]
From the Cellar Pack 10
Look, it’s not easy maintaining an ASL website. Buying tons of products, cataloguing them, chasing down publication dates or scenario records, fighting off hordes of adoring fangirls–it’s not just glamour, it’s real work. Which is why Desperation Morale officially deplores when ASL publishers make uncategorizable products. You invented an edible ASL scenario? GTFOH. Which brings […]
Yankee ASL Nor’easter Pack II
The Yankee ASL Nor’easter Pack II is a scenario/map pack designed and playtested by members of the Yankee ASL Club, and released in conjunction with their Nor’easter Tournament (run virtually in 2021 because coronavirus). In 2016, many of the same people released a “20th anniversary pack” for Nor’easter, publishing it themselves, but for this second […]
Advanced Squad Leader Rule Book: Electronic Edition
Promises, promises, promises. In the second edition of the ASL Rulebook, published in 2001, MMP promised a forthcoming electronic edition of the ASL rules, which would be published on CD-ROM. Now, a mere 20 years later, MMP has actually made good on its promise of an electronic ASL rulebook–though aficionados of CD-ROMs are doomed to […]
ASL Roma 2020
ASL Roma 2020 is a mini-scenario/map pack from MMP that is similar in nature to its Winter Offensive Bonus Pack series, in that it contains a new official geoboard and a small number of scenarios (in this case, four). The pack was a joint effort between MMP on one hand and, on the other, the […]
The Fight For Seoul
The Fight for Seoul (FfS) is a Korean War historical module published by Le Franc Tireur and designed by Andrew Hershey. It is not the first Korean War ASL historical module–Critical Hit has published several–but it is the first to be published using the “official” Korea rules and components from MMP’s Forgotten War: Korea, 1950-1953 […]
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. […]
From the Cellar Pack 9
From the Cellar Pack 9 continues a change started in From the Cellar Pack 8, which changed what had been a series of scenario packs into a series of magazines accompanied by scenarios (much like the flagship Le Franc Tireur magazine that the company already produces). This is despite the mental anguish that such a […]
ASL March Madness 2019: The Close Combat Pack
If it is March, the time is nigh for the busy little ASL bees of Kansas City to deliver a March Madness scenario pack in time for the ASL tournament that takes place in that city each March. The offering for March 2019 is the Close Combat Pack, which has hand-to-hand close combat as the […]
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 […]
Death to Fascism: The Struijf-Mazzei ASL Scenario Pack
Veteran designers Peter Struijf and Christian Mazzei, after designing numerous scenarios for Friendly Fire and MMP over the years, decided in 2017 to design and release a pack of their own, which they did, releasing it at ASLOK 2018. In feel, the pack very much resembles a Friendly Fire scenario pack, with 8 scenarios featuring […]
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 […]
Broken Ground ASL Counter Sets
Beginning in 2018, Canadian third party publisher Broken Ground Design (aka Alan Findlay) began releasing variant-art ASL counter sets for various ASL nationalities and forces, much like Critical Hit had similarly begun doing in 2017. As with that series, Desperation Morale here includes all counter sets sold by Broken Ground design here in one entry, […]
CH Annual Issue 4
CH Annual Issue 4 is the fourth iteration of its re-imagined house mag for ASL players. Magazines pose a particular problem for Critical Hit as a publisher. Ray Tapio himself is neither a good writer nor editor, nor has he been able to find someone else to edit his magazine products for some years. For […]
Rat Pocket Charts
Note: the DM High Recommendation Tag applies to the 2nd Edition, 3rd Edition and later booklets, not the 1st Edition booklet. Go Straight to the Most Recent (3rd Edition) Comments LFT surprised the ASL world in the summer of 2013 by venturing into the world of play aids. This is a realm of ASL that […]
Kampfgruppe Scherer Player’s Guide
In 2011, Le Franc Tireur published Kampfgruppe Scherer, an East Front HASL focusing on the battles for Cholm that became highly regarded for its production values (it has not had very many recorded playings on the ROAR website, but that is not atypical for third-party HASLs). With two high-quality maps (featuring the same terrain, but […]
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 […]
Red Banner
Red Banner is an ASL newsletter created by and largely for members of the DC Conscripts, a Washington, D.C., area ASL club. That club had a previous newsletter, ‘Scripts, which faded into oblivion, as hobby newsletters tend to do. Red Banner began in early 2017 with the promise of appearing quarterly, a schedule that may […]
Westerplatte: Case White 1939
Westerplatte is an ASL historical module dealing with one of the first actions of World War II: the fighting between German and Polish forces on the Westerplatte peninsula at Danzig (Gdansk) in early September 1939. Although a “new” product, Westerplatte is at the same time a retread, as its history dates back close to 20 […]
Betrayed by General Winter
Betrayed by General Winter (BGW) contains 8 scenarios set in Finland during the period 1939-1941. It is a rather cynical recycling attempt by Critical Hit–none of the scenarios here are original. The scenarios here were originally designed in Jatkosota, an early (1996) Critical Hit product featuring Finnish troops, and Finland at War, a 2004 CH […]
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 […]
Le Franc Tireur No. 13
Le Franc Tireur reaches a baker’s dozen worth of issues with Le Franc Tireur No. 13 (LFT13), released in early 2013 and focusing on the East Front actions in the Crimea on the Black Sea. At 100 pages, LFT13 is the largest issue of the magazine yet published (and more than twice the length of […]
From the Cellar Pack 6
From the Cellar Pack 6 (FtC6) is a “mixed bag” scenario pack featuring actions from a variety of periods and theaters. Scenarios depict actions in France 1940 (French vs. Germans), West Africa 1940 (Free French vs. Vichy French), the Soviet Union 1941 (Soviets vs. Partisans) & 1942 (Soviets vs. Waffen SS), Iran 1941 (British vs. […]
Schwerpunkt Volume 16
Schwerpunkt Volume 16 (SP16) is the latest in the venerable series of magazine/scenario combo packs designed and published by Evan Sherry and his Tampa-based crew of grognards. Some things, it seems, are inevitable, including death, taxes, and another issue of Schwerpunkt. Luckily, Schwerpunkt is typically far more welcome than the others. As always, this issue […]
Operations Special Issue #3
Operations Magazine had been the long running house magazine for The Gamers, and after it was acquired by MMP in 2002, became that company’s house magazine, though dominated by Gamers content for some time. In 2008, MMP announced that it would soon debut the first planned annual “Special Issue” of Operations, which would not only […]
ASL March Madness Irregular Forces Pack
The March Madness ASL Tournament held every year in Kansas City is one of the only tournaments out there that actually provides a unique new scenario pack to attendees. Usually around 75 or so copies are produced; about a third go to attendees and the rest seem to be auctioned off at E-bay (although a […]
Operation Cobra
Operation Cobra (OC) is a difficult product to categorize. Theoretically, it should appear in a publications section, as it does include a substantial magazine, but the magazine is not only stand-alone, as opposed to a periodical, but it does not even have a name. As a result, it is being classified, perhaps not quite accurately, […]
Dispatches from the Bunker
Dispatches from the Bunker is a long-running ASL newsletter from New England. Indeed, it is the longest continuously published ASL newsletter that has scenarios in every issue. Dispatches has a high reputation, largely due to its long history of consistently good scenarios. Dispatches is edited and published by Vic Provost, with help and assistance from […]
Tactiques #5
The fifth issue of Tactiques provides a focus on Kursk and the Red Army, with several articles on these subjects. It even includes an impressive campaign game, Stalnié Prostori, using geomorphic maps (essentially three sets of 6 maps, which overlap, representing the continuing campaign). In addition, there is a lengthy article on assaulting fixed defenses. […]
ASL News (Newsletter, Issues 1-26)
ASL News began as an ASL newsletter of Belgian origin, eventually turning itself into a full-fledged magazine. It lasted for 31 issues before expiring in 1996. During this early era, along with Tactiques, ASL News was one of the most important third party publishers of ASL material. On this website, ASL News is covered in […]
The General
The General was the long-running house magazine published by Avalon Hill to promote and supplement its line of board wargames. Issues of The General included articles on game strategy, history, variants, game replays, and more. Occasionally variant counters or other game materials would see print. Ostensibly published 6 times a year, it fell farther and […]