#advancedsquadleader

Unforgiving Russian DFF cuts short German’s attack in his last half turn #advancedsquadleader #advancedsquadleaderstarterkit #starterkit #S2 #waroftherats (presso Ferrara, Italy) https://www.instagram.com/p/B87I78yocKE/?igshid=1uc4wy9wf0hin

ASL night. Bullets for Breakfast from The Forgotten War. I very rarely play bigger scenarios, but we had two nights we could set aside so went for this significantly larger scenario. Newly-arrived American units try to hold the Busan perimeter and turn back the North Korean offensive. With so many men and so much hardware trained on a relatively small area, the battlefield is super-deadly and the North Koreans have a lot of open ground to get across. I was feeling pretty good after a devastating opening barrage from mortars, machineguns, and captured recoilless rifles, but the Americans quickly recovered (as they do), started opening up, and my North Koreans were not quite as hardy as advertised, quickly failing a bunch of morale checks. As always, ASL can be a game of personal morale and not getting rattled by a run of bad luck. It’s a crazy, crazy game and a lot can happen. This size is probably a bit large for me these days (almost 3 companies on both sides), but looking forward to seeing how it goes in part 2 later this week. I really hope we see more scenarios set in Korea - the recent scenario packs have had surprisingly few Korea scenarios. Instead the latest ASLOK pack had another bajillion Normandy scenarios, which the system absolutely in no way needs. Lots to explore in this module, which I’ve been really impressed with in general, and the Korean War is not a well-understood conflict so that presents a real opportunity. Plus as of now we have embarrassingly few scenarios featuring the actual South Koreans, who after all did most of the fighting, while module focuses on American and other western combatants who in some cases had extremely minor roles (the French are featured in almost as many scenarios as the ROK). #bgg #boardgamegeek #advancedsquadleader #aslkorea https://www.instagram.com/p/B5Gmqc5A90w/?igshid=jpxd3z4x47z0

ASL Day! It’s been a while since I played so it was good to get back into it. A Line Too Thinly Held (209) from Korea. This is one of a number of night scenarios in the module, which is cool - I like the night rules quite a bit but without a little bit of routine play it’s hard to keep them fresh. The lynchpin of this undermanned US defensive line is a couple of halftracks mounting quad-.50cals. In general I think ASL underrates the effectiveness of many heavy weapons - particularly heavy machineguns - in order to keep its focus on leadership and squad-level maneuver. I think that’s a good compromise, but it is a thing the game does. But wow, these halftracks are really brutal, able to really tear apart unprotected infantry, and since the KPA lacks armor or decent handheld anti-tank weaponry they are much more devastating than they were in WWII. The other interesting thing about this scenario is that the NVR is quite high, 6 hexes (more typically 1-3). Makes for a quite different feel. Fun scenario. #bgg #boardgamegeek #boardgames #advancedsquadleader #theforgottenwar (at Game Kastle - Santa Clara)

First prep fire of the game, ROF kept for three shots, crew KIA... nice start #advancedsquadleader #ASL #simencethatgun #iononrisiko #iogiocoacasa #iplayathome #sologame (presso Perugia, Italy) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGKRkrIldk1/?igshid=1qcfklduss752

Uhm... hope this is the right defense #asl #advancedsquadleader #silencethatgun #iplayathome #wargames #normandy (presso Ferrara, Italy) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGC4rCjlWNY/?igshid=bgbdfetjsmr6

#iononrisiko #iogiocoacasa #advancedsquadleader #play #modenaplay https://www.instagram.com/p/B-Z8giBFx1Q/?igshid=tfgjlwqd6bsh

Another view on LFT’s Battle for Seoul map. So, I’ve been finding ASL’s interpretation of the Korean War quite interesting in The Forgotten War module. Then I read Mark Pitcavage’s really interesting critique of it on his excellent Desperation Morale site, and I think he makes really good points - particularly about how Chinese forces are portrayed, as well as several “grudge” rules additions (bayonet charges, HEAT ammo deflection). I haven’t been totally sold yet on the Infantry Platoon Movement rules just as a game mechanism, but Mark points out that they are also highly suspect historically (as is the nerfed Chinese leadership structure) as the CPVA units that intervened in Korea were battle-hardened and capable units; certainly more tactically proficient than many early Soviet or Rumanian or late-war Japanese units which suffer no similar penalty in ASL. Now, I get that it’s a game and you make choices to evoke a historical flavor and that means by necessity heightening contrasts. The baseline 6 morale for US units has always been a choice that was maybe hard to defend on strictly modeling grounds, but when combined with their 6 firepower rating made US units play differently and in a way that did heighten different approaches to small unit tactics that could easily have been lost if the had been rated more “realistically”. The CVPA and the US, ROK, and other UN forces did fight quite differently in the Korean War, and the design does portray that quite well by exaggerating differences in a similar way. But I do suspect that extra restrictive rules like IPM probably went too far, and the game would have been better off without them. Anyway, if you play ASL, go read Mark’s writeup on desperationmorale.com, as well as the designers’ response in the comments. I like the module and am glad to have it; but Mark makes excellent points. #advancedsquadleader #boardgamegeek #boardgames #consimworld #aslkorea (at Game Kastle - Santa Clara) https://www.instagram.com/p/B85BJTVBrv0/?igshid=13sg19tn8x1d5

Trying out the latest historical module from Le Franc Tireur, The Battle for Seoul. US Marines tackle NKPA rear-area forces. Great historical map that is fun to play on - I love the ancient citadel walls, and Seoul just a different feel from the European cities ASL has primarily been concerned with. I’m always drawn to LFT’s stuff for their topics, but I *really* hate the way they redesign core ASL systems that they don’t like to suit their tastes and are generally incredibly cavalier about adding gratuitous complexity to an already too-complex game. In this case, they’ve redesigned ASL’s 7-6-8 Marine squads. Historically, these squads were divided into 3 4-person fire teams, each built around a BAR (the crummy US squad automatic weapon of the time). This tactical flexibility doesn’t quite fit literally into ASL’s mechanics (which are built around half-squads, not third-squads, for very good gameplay-related reasons), so the original designers decided to model the Marines somewhat abstractly but in a way that works to get at the key thing, the slightly greater tactical flexibility. Well, LFT didn’t like those quite sensible choices, so they completely rebuilt the rules for the Marine squads with just an absurd amount of complexity and in a way that actually changes how the game plays pretty significantly. This is just silly. ASL has a problematic number of rules already. I would love it if someone could revisit some recent incarnations of core ASL (Gung Ho, Festung Budapest, and Forgotten War primarily) and strip out 10-25% of the complexity as the design discipline has broken down over the years. #advancedsquadleader #bgg #boardgamegeek https://www.instagram.com/p/B848SkAhjdz/?igshid=1phzoi2yqpzoz