ASLSK Scenario Design
Contest
The
Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kits (ASLSK) were introduced by
Multi-Man Publishing as a way of creating new interest in the ASL
system. While the appeal of the kits to newcomers was obvious - each
kit was self-contained with a small introductory rules pamphlet,
complete counter-mix, set of mapboards, dice and charts, there was
also a (perhaps unexpected) popularity among existing ASL players,
many of whom also purchased the kits. There were reasons to do so;
additional mapboards and counters, for example, and the value of
having an introductory version on hand as a teaching version.
Discussion among veterans of the game posting at the Armchair
General/Strategy Zone Online (SZO) forums in 2005 led some to
surmise that the ASLSKs in many ways brought back the “feel” of the
original
Squad Leader, having just a handful of unit types, mapboards,
and rules necessary in order to play.
One of the controversial design aspects
of the original Squad Leader was the use of all four boards,
laid end-to-end, in the design of two of the twelve enclosed
scenarios.1 "The Road to Wiltz" portrayed a German attack
down a narrow corridor during the Battle of the Bulge, while "The
St. Goar Assault" depicted an American assault on a broad front in
the last days of the war in Europe.
The popularity of the ASLSKs has spawned
a series of scenarios in Operations Magazine (intended to be
to Multi-Man Productions what
The General
was to The Avalon Hill Game
Company). During discussion on the ACG/SZO (since renamed to
become gamesquad.com) forums, this renewed sense that the
“feel” of the original Squad Leader had been captured was
mentioned, with the flippant comment that all one had to do now was
to design two scenarios with all four boards laid end to end.
Subsequently, this contest was announced on November 29, 2005.
Pete Shelling took the prize from among
a talented field of contestants, including veteran gamer Murray
McCloskey, Tom Morin, editor for Dispatches from the Bunker
who has since seen his popular Valor of the Guards module
released by MMP, Ola Nygards, whose Eastern Front scenarios have
seen print in ASL Journal, Jean-Pascal Paoli, a regular
contributor to French ASL magazine Le Franc Tireur, and veteran
scenario designer Pete Shelling, who has had scenarios published in
The General and ASL Journal in addition to various
third party venues.
The scenario download
file can be found online at boardgamegeek.com at
this
page.
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JARAMA, Spain, 23 Febraury 1937.
World interest in the
conflict in Spain was high when fighting broke out in 1936,
and was perhaps best typified by the French artist Mirò, who
designed a postage stamp with the legend " Aidez l'Espagne! "
(Help Spain!) to summon volunteers to fight against Fascism in
the name of the Spanish people. The International Brigades
were used by the Nationalist army for several battles,
including the unsuccessful defence of the supply road between
Valencia and Madrid in the Jarama Valley from February to June
1937. When the Republicans launched a counterattack on the "Pingarron"
and Santa Maria de La Vega in an attempt to regain positions
they had lost in previous weeks, more than 30,000 Nationalists
faced sixteen international brigades, drawn from nations
around the world
RETHYMNON, Crete, 20 May 1941: The 2nd Fallschirmjäger
Regiment landed relatively intact and reformed its elite
companies for the assault on Rethymnon and its nearby airfield
and hills. But the paratroopers soon ran into tough resistance
from the Australian and Greek infantry of the 19th Brigade.
With the German regiment's command group captured soon after
landing, the paras had to use their initiative to capture the
objectives...
BREST-LITOVSK, RUSSIA, 26 June 1941: At a meeting of
senior officers of the 4th Army on 10 June it was stated that
neither the District command nor the High Command in Moscow'
thought that the Germans intended to break the 1939 Pact; the
object was, as they thought, to "strengthen their position
while deciding political questions with us". At this time the
Russian troops were scattered, like the 28th Rifle corps
(responsible for the Brest fortress and its area) with 9
rifle, 3 artillery and all engineer battalions at work on
defences. Meanwhile, in the old, historic crennellated
fortress of Brest, the Germans could see Soviet soldiers
carrying out their routine drills, complete with band.
Precisely what was passing on through Stalin's mind still
remains something of a mystery, but on 21 June Stalin sensed
greater danger. "Vozmozhno Napadenie Nemtzev", "The Germans
might attack" was the cryptic words he used to set some
precautionary moves. At 01:00 hours on 22 June the separate
German Army commands transmitted their call-signs indicating
full readiness. The officers were reading to their men the
Fuhrer's personal order, "To the soldiers of the Ostfront".
Obeying their own laws were the specialists of Regiment 800,
the "Brandenburgers", many of them Russian-speaking,
infiltrated - or dropped by parachute - behind Soviet lines.
Dressed in Red Army uniform, the 800 men were making for Brest
fortress or for the bridges over the Bug. A number of men,
smuggled in on Saturday in goods trains or hidden under loads
of gravel in rail trucks, had already been in the town of
Brest for many hours...
MATE ZUCHOWICZE, Soviet Union, 3 July 1941: The elite
Infantry Regiment “Großdeutschland” advanced into Russia with
orders to secure the flank of Panzer Group Guderian. Security
areas were created to stop local Russian breakout attempts by
small units of the estimated 80 enemy divisions trapped near
Novogrodek. Wild combats ensued, with the 1st Battalion at one
point doing battle from captured Russian trucks against enemy
soldiers fighting from captured German trucks. The 2nd
Battalion had a slightly easier time, with the regimental
historian commenting that “many small engagements resulted
from the battalion's active patrolling to all sides.” At 0900
on the 3rd of July, elements of the 2nd Battalion met with an
armoured car on the road to Mate Zuchowicze, claiming that the
village was not held by the enemy. The patrol moved on, taking
five prisoners after a brief combat, and eventually came under
fire from hills and farms to the east. Zuchowicze was only one
of several villages scheduled to be patrolled that day...
VELIKIYE LUKI, Russia, 15 November 1942: When the
Eastern Front stabilized in summer 1942, the Germans were left
in possession of Velikiye Luki. The town, both a solid ground
in the surrounding marshes and a bridgehead over the Lovat
River, was also a major regional rail crossroads. By mid
November, the Soviet Kalinin Front launched a major offensive
that surrounded and cutoff a large portion of the LIX Korps in
Velikiye Luki – only days before a similarly successful but
somewhat larger encirclement took place in Stalingrad. With
OKH attention and assets diverted on Stalingrad, the entrapped
men in Velikiye Luki were left alone to defend their perimeter
against repeated assault. With their back to the Lovat River,
General Von Der Chevallerie’s soldiers fortified their
positions, organized themselves in hedgehogs, and prepared
themselves to deny the Russians the strategic city as long as
they could...
VELIKIYE LUKI,
Russia, 14 January 1943.
With the Stalingrad disaster nearing its epic conclusion, Army
Group Center was suffering a siege of its own at the rail
center of Velikiye Luki. General Kurt von der Chevallerie
fortified his bridgehead along the Lovat River with the intent
of resuming offensive operations after another harsh Russian
winter. However, General Purkayaev of the Third Shock Army had
offensive plans of his own, and would need the bridgehead and
transportation facilities at Velikiye Luki. To accomplish
this, he encircled the city during the middle of November.
With Hitler’s stand-fast order in place, the siege was
resupplied during the month of December, and plans were made
to break the encirclement...
DRVAR, Yugoslavia, 25 May 1944: The German high command
devised a plan to eliminate Josef Broz Tito, the commander of
the Partisan forces in Yugoslavia. Code named Operation
Rösselsprung (Knight's Move), the plan involved a combined
paratroop and glider assault by an SS Parachute Battalion on
Tito's HQ located at Drvar. The main objective was to attack
Tito's cave and kill or capture him. Other objectives were to
eliminate the attached Allied Missions (American, British and
Soviet) located in Drvar, and to disrupt the Partisan
communication network by destroying the telephone exchange
building and the radio station. Upon completion of their
tasks, the SS Paratroops were to await relief by ground forces
that were to cordon off the area. The Partisan leadership had
been well informed ahead of time of the German plans for
ground operations around Drvar, but they were totally unaware
of the impending airborne assault.
GRONINGEN, The Netherlands, 15 April 1945: Groningen's
150,000 strong population, still feeling the effects of the
“Hunger Winter”, waited a long time for liberation before hope
was restored by the approach of the Second Canadian Division.
Salvation would not come easy; the city was the flank of the
German Westwall fortifications, and home to 21 batteries of
FlaK guns defending Emden and the Ems Estuary as well as a
garrison of over 7000 troops. The Canadian divisional
commander forbade the use of artillery fire in order to
protect the civil populace, then sent his three brigades to
attack from different directions... |
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Pete Shelling took first
prize after a vote by fellow gamers on the gamesquad.com forums over
the Christmas holidays.
Notes
-
James M Collier,
who published several articles on SL and ASL in various
magazines, went so far as to write in The General that
"...scenarios, commentaries, contests and replays have generally
favoured the use of US paratroops with (7 morale) and virtually
ignored the 6-6-6 (US squads). Part of this neglect may be due
to the design blunder in two of the original six US scenarios
which virtually required players to hunker on the floor like
children to play on four end-to-end boads, to the considerable
detriment of their more vulnerable backs." (Collier, J.M. "Glass
Anvil: A Dissenting View of G.I.: Anvil of Victory",
The General,
Vol 20, No. 1). Collier was described as an irritated playtester,
and developer Don Greenwood responded in the same issue that "I
would differ with Mr. Collier's terming of those scenarios which
use four end-to-end boards as a 'design blunder'. I point this
out only because it illustrates the wide variance of likes and
dislikes from one person to the next; in my opinion the
scenarios he alludes to are among my four favourites in the
entire system. This configuration allows for much more maneuver
along a wide frontage or through a long corridor than the
standard 3 x 3 (sic) configuration wherin piece densities are
invariably unrealistically high with men and guns behind every
bush and rock." ("The G.I. Design Team Replies", Ibid.)
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