However, Bounding Fire Productions was, in a sense, a casualty of the Copyright Wars of the late 1990s.  Chas Smith halted work on his next project, a Hermann Goering Panzer Division scenario pack, and offered the scenarios to MMP (many of which were later printed in early issues of the ASL Journal; 6 Hell on Wheels scenarios were also reprinted in the Journal).  However, Smith later became one of the driving hands behind Heat of Battle, producing stellar products like the Onslaught to Orsha historical module.

Bounding Fire Productions was dead for a number of years, but in 2007, Smith ended his association with Heat of Battle, taking his current projects with him, and re-started Bounding Fire Productions.  The new Bounding Fire still appears to be primarily the work of Chas Smith, although Sam Tyson and Bruce Kirkaldy, among others, have also been involved.  The first product for the revived Bounding Fire was a scenario/map pack, Into the Rubble, which had originally been announced as a Heat of Battle release. 

The mini-magazine (ostensibly 12 pages long, but really 28 pages, because all the scenarios are in it as well) featured a history article on the 2nd Armored Division by Chas Smith, an article on using armor in ASL by Matt Shostak, and examples of AFV combat in ASL by Chas Smith.  The unmounted DASL map is crudely done, but was for many years the only DASL map outside of Streets of Fire and Hedgerow Hell (there is now another, also created by Chas Smith, which appeared in Recon by Fire #2).  The battle pack also includes an SASL Mission (Get Me That Bridge!) and the unique appearance in ASLdom of a "guest scenario"--a scenario (GSTK8, Premature Evaluation) designed as a scenario for the Heat of Battle Arnhem historical module, God Save the King. 

The 13 other scenarios featured a range of actions, tending heavily towards large scenarios (there are 2 small scenarios, 3 medium-sized scenarios, and 8 large scenarios).  Not surprisingly, they tend to be armor heavy.  Three of the scenarios are DASL scenarios, all of which feature the included DASL board (HOW5, The Narrow Front; HOW6, From Bad to Wuerselen; HOW9, A Perfect Match).  Two of the scenarios have air support and six of them have OBA.  Some of the best scenarios from HoW included HOW1 (Guns of Naro), HOW8 (Merzenhausen Zoo), HOW11 (Inhumaine), and HOW12 (Lee's Charge).  The scenarios were well designed and well playtested, and this shows.

Commentary:  Into the Rubble, the inaugural publication of the "new" Bounding Fire Productions, is a collection of a variety of city-fighting scenario and map resources.  It features a number of components, all of which have a much higher production value than the "old" publication of BFP, the Hell on Wheels Battle Pack.

The title of this publication is a little misleading, insofar as Into the Rubble's main attraction is not rubble, but rather its two geomorphic mapboards, neither one of which contains rubble (an overlay does, however).  Both mapboards depict urban train stations.  Some sort of train station map or overlay was sorely needed in ASL, as many World War II tactical actions involved fighting to control such objectives.  However, two urban train station maps in the same pack seems slightly odd; perhaps it would have been better had one map been a smaller train station, fit for a town rather than a major city, or some other subject entirely.  The maps can be fit together lengthwise to depict a really large, long station as well.

The quality of the (computer-generated) map artwork is pretty high, as is the quality of the boards themselves. The terrain on the boards is reminiscent of the terrain and style of Board 45.  Large stone buildings, factories, etc., dot the map. 

Into the Rubble debuted at about the same time as Le Franc Tireur #11, which also featured an ASLSK-style geomorphic mapboard.  The growing acceptance of such boards in the ASL community, combined with their cost (far more reasonable than that for a mounted mapboard), suggests that these two products may be the harbinger of a renaissance in third party publisher geomorphic map design.  One can only hope. 

The only rubble in Into the Rubble appears in its large "rubbled city" overlay, RC1, which features typical urban center stone building terrain, some of which has been smashed into oblivion.  The overlay, about the size of a half map, includes 22 rubbled hexes, 18 debris hexes, and 9 shellhole hexes.  The second overlay, F1, features a large (4 hexes x 6 hexes) factory and is otherwise unremarkable.  Into the Rubble also includes a sheet of Debris overlays, all of which are single hex overlays, which actually makes them more suitable for a countersheet (given their inherent nature) than for an overlay sheet.  Of course, countersheets are expensive.  Multi-hex rubble and debris overlays would have been welcome, but are missing here.  Also missing are overlays through which holes could be cut which could transform specific mapboards, like board 22 or board 23, into rubbled terrain.  Still, this may be a somewhat petty complaint; the overlays are attractive and useful enough and are useful additions to the ASL system.

The two pages of rules, formatted as Chapter B rules, introduce storage tanks and towers, and explain how the railroads on the geomorphic maps interact with each other and with other terrain, such as walls.  They also explain the overlays.  There is nothing complicated or problematic about them.

The 8 scenarios in Into the Rubble feature a blend of times and locations, though they share two features:  all are very large and all are city fights.  Actions include Shanghai 1937, Spain 1938, Stalingrad 1942, Kursk 1943, Aachen 1944, Budapest 1945 (2 scenarios, one of which features Hungarians vs. Romanians), and West Prussia 1945.  The smallest scenario is ITR-1 (Debacle at Sung Kiang), a loosely-based Chinese-Japanese scenario set at the end of the Battle of Shanghai.  It features 18 Japanese squads and 3 armored cars attacking 16 Chinese squads, 2 guns, and 2 armored cars. 

More typical is ITR-3 (Tough as Nails), a Stalingrad scenario featuring 32 German squads and 8 AFVs (plus OBA and air support) attacking 28 Soviet squads and 3 guns, or ITR-5 (Fire Teams), depicting 22 American squads and 5 AFVs (plus OBA) attacking 18 German squads, 2 AFVs, and 2 guns.  There are no tournament sized scenarios here, which will disappoint many ASLers.  On the other hand, those ASLers who descry the paucity of "meaty" all-day scenarios that they can really sink their teeth into will no doubt be highly pleased at the offerings here.  It is a matter of individual preferences.

Of the 8 scenarios, 6 use one or more of the new boards provided in Into the Rubble.  The other 2 use Into the Rubble overlays. 

One of the scenarios, ITR-3 (Tough as Nails), uses captured Soviet tank counters that were published in Heat of Battle's Recon by Fire #4.   The layout and artwork styles of the ITR scenario cards themselves are very similar to Heat of Battle's.

Although the scenario size mix could perhaps have been more balanced, overall Into the Rubble is a quite a good "first product" for a revivified company; hopefully, it won't be the last. 

Commentary:  Beyond the Beachhead 2 (BtB2) is both a reprint and an expansion of the original Beyond the Beachhead published by Heat of Battle half a decade earlier.   The designer, Chas Smith, had been part of Heat of Battle when the original version was published and apparently retained the rights.  The 2nd Edition, published after Smith revived his earlier Bounding Fire Productions, is essentially double the size, in scenarios and maps, as the original, and as such, BtB2 represents a significant expansion over the first version.  Unfortunately, BtB2 does not come in a box or folder or baggie, so purchasers will have to find one of their own or risk losing components.

In terms of components, the maps are very well done, although many ASL players will dislike the fact that they all contain slopes, forcing players to use the slope rules from some HASL.  Map BFP-C depicts a stone-building village, with bocage on either side of it.  Map BFP-D contains mostly bocage-surrounded fields, with a tiny hill thrown in.  BFP-E is an odd mix of terrain, with three low hills, a cluster of bocage-surrounded fields and orchards, a fairly large swampy area, and a depression.   BFP-F is mostly open ground, with a few areas of bocage and four low hills.  Overlay H-2 is a two level hill overlay with a smattering of bocage; overlay V-2 is a 14 hex cluster of single hex stone buildings and orchards.  Overlay V-1, one of the large overlays, is a very densely-populated overlay with a stone-building village, a lot of bocage, and lot of orchards.  V-2, another large overlay, is a more open village.  Overlay H-1, also large, is a big two-level hill crammed with bocage and orchards.  The scenario cards are pretty nice, in full color (but printed on glossy cardstock).  The proofreading is pretty decent (something rare for a third party ASL product).  Sadly, the scenario cards buy into the "black SS counters are cool" notion.

BtB2 consists of 16 scenarios all set in Normandy in 1944.  The vast majority are designed by Chas Smith.  Every scenario has bocage or "light bocage."  Every scenario uses at least one BtB2 map (with the exception of one scenario which uses only a BtB2 overlay); the majority of scenarios in the pack use only BtB2 maps.  There are no Night scenarios and none with Air Support (although one uses it as a balance).  One scenario, BtB15 (Becker's Battery) is almost, though not quite, an all armor scenario.

The scenarios have a number of hallmarks of Chas Smith scenarios.  They tend towards the large (half of the 16 scenarios are large, the other half small or medium in size), they tend to have OBA (7 scenarios feature OBA, with many of them having multiple modules of OBA; there are also scenarios with bombardments), and they tend to have lots of support weapons.    This last point is worth a little more exploration.  The 16 scenarios of BtB2 have a total of 394 squad-equivalents (not including crews with Guns) in them, and a total of 230 SW (not including radios).  This results in a squad to SW ratio of only 1.7 to 1; in other words, more than half of the squads in these scenarios will be toting SW.  In comparison, the Friendly Fire Pack 1, picked at random, has a 3 to 1 squad to SW ratio.  Actions Pack 1 and 2, also chosen randomly, cumulatively have a squad to SW ratio of 2.4 to 1. 

Of the 8 new scenarios, several appear interesting.  BtB 10 (Unplanned Attack) could be an interesting tournament selection, if it proves balanced.  It features a heavily armed American force of indifferent quality attacking a small but elite German force holed up in a village.  By its nature, it may be a tad dicey, though.  Another possible tournament choice is BtB14 (Swatting a Hornet), which features 9 American squads clearing out a small but nasty German force from a village.  BtB11 (Bosq Barbecue, an awful title), features a large British combined arms assault across a scary amount of open ground and some nasty SS defenders.  The British do have a couple of Crocodiles; if any survive, they can put the hurt to the Germans.

Overall, BtB2 is an improvement over the original version, which itself was a pretty decent product. 

Commentary:  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, as a scenario pack.

As its name implies, OC is a collection of scenarios set around Operation Cobra, the American attempt to break out of the Normandy beachhead in late July 1944.  The timing of the release OC was perhaps not the best, as it appeared on the ASL scene in the midst of a flood of other official and unofficial ASL products that also dealt with the Normandy campaign--including one also released by Bounding Fire Productions simultaneously with OC, Beyond the Beachhead 2 (BtB2).  Because OC is unplayable without BtB2 (as every scenario refers to its rules, and all but one scenario use mapboards from BtB2), players wishing to play OC are forced to buy BtB2 as well.  Perhaps they should have been released as one larger product.

The unnamed magazine in OC is long but contains only four articles.  These include a long article on "Fighting in Bocage" (opening with the question, "What is so appealing, or for that matter, unappealing" about bocage; for many ASLers the former has a much shorter answer than the latter),  which is essentially an extended guided tour through the rules complexities and conundrums of ASL bocage.  A second article discusses a new counter introduced in this product, representing the Panzerfaust predecessor, the Raketenwerfer 43.  This is followed by extensive designer's notes for Operation Cobra and Beyond the Beachhead.  Last up is a lengthy historical article on Operation Cobra (which oddly calls it a "forgotten" operation).  The writing in the magazine is uninspired, but the magazine is in full color and profusely illustrated with examples. 

OC also somes with a small countersheet of 5/8" counters.  The majority of the counters represent Culin-equipped American tanks and American flamethrowing tanks.  Also included are counters for American fighter-bombers with rockets and for the German Raketenwerfer 43 (unfortunately, the latter are also included in "black SS" colors as well as standard German colors).  This is the first time that Bounding Fire released counters with one of their products; they are well done and greatly resemble recent HOB counters.

2011 Counter Update:  Apparently having received some criticism of the whitecore counters that appeared in OC and Blood and Jungle (which, it should be stressed, were really actually fine), in 2011 BFP reprinted the OC counters as greycore counters and included this complete counterset with their 2011 release Crucible of Steel.  It is not clear from their website whether or not these are available separately.

OC has no maps but does include an overlay, O-6a, which depicts a bocage-heavy crossroads.

The scenarios are printed on glossy cardstock in full color (unfortunately, SS units are depicted in black).  All have bocage.  Chas Smith-related products tend to have scenarios that veer towards the large; in this case, even though there were other designers than Smith involved in the project, the scenarios are overwhelmingly large.  There is only 1 small scenario and 2 medium-sized ones; the remaining 9 are all large, many with very large numbers of vehicles.  Tournament-suitable scenarios are thin on the ground here, while many of the scenarios will take very long to play because of the very large numbers of AFVs in them.  Three of the scenarios feature OBA (including multiple modules); 4 of the scenarios have Air Support.  There are no Night scenarios.

One scenario in the pack that looks interesting is BFP-15 (Cobra's Venom).  A 3-mapper, at first glance the scenario looks like an overwhelming American force will quickly crush a tiny set of German defenders.  However, a closer look at the scenario reveals that the German defenders also get 14 special concealment counters that actually represent random German MMC that are determined when American units come into contact with them.  The unit received could be a crew with an HMG or a squad of any German squad type.  Another innovative scenario is BFP-24 (Death Ride of Das Reich), which (like the old General Magazine scenario Timoshenko's Attack) forces both sides to divide their forces among three unconnected boards.

Two of the few scenarios in OC that might be suitable for tournament play are BFP-22 (Speed over Caution), featuring an American combined arms assault on a small German position buttressed by two Panthers, and BFP-23 (Prelim to Death Night), which portrays an 15-squad SS attack, supported by a 150mm motorized artillery piece, on an American-defended village.  The Americans are elite and very well armed.

Overall, the production values are high in this product, but perhaps the scenario mix could have been a little less heavy.  It would be nice to see Bounding Fire at some point release a scenario pack featuring smaller and faster-playing scenarios, without so much "heavy metal."  There's obviously talent here; perhaps the subject range can be expanded. 

This pack will appeal to people who like Normandy or bocage scenarios (if the latter class of people exist), and also to people who like armor intensive scenarios (vehicle totals for the scenarios:  0, 14, 10, 9, 15, 17, 0, 34, 8, 1, 35, 34, 28).  Because playing OC also involves purchasing BtB2, it requires a significant commitment of funds (some $94), and this high price might cause some people to pause before deciding to purchase.  It might have been better had Bounding Fire foregone the magazine so that the price could be reduced. 

For people who already had BtB2, purchasing Operation Cobra is an easier decision, as it will give them additional scenarios that use the attractive maps that came with BtB2.  People whose ASL play tends towards shorter and faster scenarios that can be played in an afternoon or a tournament setting will also find relatively few offerings here.   People who might be a bit weary from all the Normandy stuff released in 2008-2009 may not rush to purchase right away, but might come back to it later. 

Overall, it seems like a decent product and is not a bad complement to BtB2.

Commentary: 

Because of the size of this product, this is a long review.  To skip straight to the scenarios discussion, click here.  To go all the way to the concluding "bottom line," click here.

After being neglected by much of the ASL community for some years, the PTO certainly got some love in early 2010.  First to come out (though one should also recognize the Summer 2009 product The Long March, by Heat of Battle) was a PTO-themed issue of Le Franc Tireur, soon followed by this product, the massive Blood and Jungle (B&J).

And massive B&J certainly is, as well as costly (to date, it is not only the most expensive third party ASL product ever released, but at $125 direct is the most expensive ASL product of any sort released to date).  This alone might make some price-conscious ASLers wary of purchasing it, though it is not as if BFP fails to give the purchaser a lot for one's money (see contents, above). 

Its other record-breaking attribute is that it comes with 47 scenarios, which is more scenarios--by quite a large margin--than any other ASL product has ever contained.  A number like 47 scenarios is one that will have some people leaping for their wallets, but might make other people more cautious, as the amount of time needed adequately to playtest such a large number of scenarios is truly huge. 

Actually, not quite all of the 47 scenarios are original.  Three of the scenarios are reprints of scenarios designed by Derek Ward and published by Heat of Battle in Tropic Thunder.  One scenario is a reprint of a scenario by David Longworth that originally appeared in Heat of Battle's Recon by Fire #1.   Two scenarios are reprints of scenarios designed by Steven Swann that originally appeared in Critical Hit's Leatherneck.   Still, presuming that the other 41 scenarios are all original, that still represents a significant investment in playtesting.  Even assuming that no scenario was playtested more than 5 times, and even assuming no playtest took more than 4 hours (which is an underestimate, given how large most of the scenarios are), that is still over 800 hours of playtest time.  Only time will tell if B&J met this arduous playtest challenge.

What does one get for one's money?  The first thing many ASLers tend to look at when opening a new ASL product are the counters.  Here BFP does not stint.  B&J comes with 4 full counter sheets (3 sheets of 5/8" counters and 1 sheet of 1/2" counters).  The counters are well designed and well printed and are of good quality (some hypersensitive critics might point out that they are all of the "whitecore" variety, rather than the "greycore" variety used by official counters, and that this could possibly allow identification of certain counters among a stack of counters, but such people should really just get a life).  The countersheets provide additional counters for the American, British, Chinese, Japanese, and Dutch OBs, as well as counters that can be used to represent the Indian National Army, Thai forces, the Burmese National Army, and Indonesian rebels.  The countersheets also provide some useful markers, such as Light Jungle, Crag, Orchard, and Dense Jungle counters, which are more flexible than overlays (and allow Light Jungle hexes in Dense Jungle scenarios, or vice versa, for example).  Some other markers, such as Support Weapon First Fire markers and "No Smoke" markers, have previously appeared in other third party products. 

Many of the new counters represent "historical" ground support aircraft (rather than the more generic units provided in the official rules); a number of third party publishers try this from time to time.  Though air aficionados probably appreciate this, most ASLers seem to be ground-pounders, and it is still not clear how popular such counters really are (though it is not as if their inclusion is somehow harmful, in any case).  Other counters represent extensions to the Orders of Battle of various nationalities.  For example, various third party products have previously  provided counters for German partially armed paratroopers; B&J extends this to the Japanese.  Another example involves the Satan flamethrowing tank (a Stuart tank variant).  This AFV was primarily built from the M3A1 and is represented as such in the ASL rules.  That same rule notes that a mere handful of Satans were converted from the M5A1, but the system provides no counters for them.  B&J provides counters for all four of these tanks.  In some of these cases, the number of counters provided is somewhat padded.  For example, B&J introduces a flamethrowing Sherman variant, which it dubs the M4A2(L)F, but provides a full six counters for this AFV.  It is hard to imagine a scenario involving all six of these flame-belching monsters. 

2011 Counter Update:  Apparently having received some criticism of their whitecore counters (which, it should be stressed, were really actually fine), in 2011 BFP reprinted the Blood and Jungle counters as greycore counters and included this complete counterset with their 2011 release Crucible of Steel.  It is not clear from their website whether or not these are available separately.

The next component is the maps, of which there are three in B&J, all 8" x 22" cardstock geomorphic (although see below) maps, as is now standard.  The maps are of good quality, with nice artwork (one particularly good touch is the addition of skylights to some of the factory buildings, complete with missing planes of glass!).  One feature on one of the maps (BFP G) is not explained in the rules; these are Storage Tanks, which were introduced and explained in another BFP product, Into the Rubble.

Players will immediately notice, and no doubt be surprised by, the fact that the maps are all urban maps.  Map BFP G is a river board, with the river flanked by multi-story wooden buildings (probably to represent warehouses, etc.).  Maps DW1-a and DW1-b are quasi-geomorphic, in that they are geomorphic on three sides of each board, but not the fourth side.  The two fourth sides mate together so that the boards can combine to form a large urban mapboard.  This map is a mix of wooden and stone buildings, with most of the stone buildings being rowhouses or otherwise long and narrow multistory buildings.  The most obvious feature of this double-wide map is the inclusion of a great many hexes filled with multiple small wooden buildings (creating considerable clutter and often restricting bypass movement).  This is a useful bit of rendering which represents the cityscapes of a number of Chinese and southeast Asian cities more accurately than previous urban boards do. 

Incidentally, though the BFP Web site claims that this is the "first ever" double-wide map for ASL, it is actually the third such map.  The first was the large hill map that came with Heat of Battle's High Ground!   The second was the village map that appeared in MMP's Action Pack 5:  East Front.   Credit must also be given to Critical Hit for an extra-large quasi-geomorphic map that appeared in Critical Hit Magazine, Volume 6 Issue 4. 

So the maps that do come with B&J are well-rendered and a useful addition to the system.  Still, the lack of jungle/wilderness maps is a definite disappointment, especially considering how few such maps are currently available.  Chas Smith, who designed most of the scenarios, explained this absence by saying that because he primarily designed East Front scenarios, "the terrain and boards seemed new to me" and he felt no impetus to design new jungle boards.  Perhaps the boards did seem new to him, but they most certainly do not feel new to PTO veterans, who have seen the same limited number of boards used again and again.  Indeed, the scenarios in B&J themselves are hamstrung to a certain degree by this limitation.  B&J repeatedly has to use the same boards for its scenarios that are set in PTO terrain:

Some boards, it can be seen, get off relatively lightly.  But others are used over and over again.  Board 37 in particular is used an amazing 10 times in B&J.  Clearly, B&J would have benefited by the addition of a couple of new jungle compatible boards.

The rules and "Chapter H" pages in B&J are nicely done, in full color and with decent attention to detail.  As is frequently the case with such items, many ASLers will enjoy simply browsing through them and learning about new vehicles and weapons that were used in World War II.  The one fault that needs to be mentioned is that these pages are printed on a a very thin glossy paper that is not durable and will tear easily. 

Probably the weakest single component of B&J is the magazine (titled, apparently, Blood and Jungle) included in the project.  While it is printed in full color and lavishly illustrated, and is a full 60 pages long, the article content is rather weak.  One article, "Pacific Terrain: The Law of the Jungle," simply recapitulates PTO terrain rules.  This is a type of article that has been done before, and doesn't have much value over the rules themselves, in any case.  Perhaps the one exception to that is that it does provide a lengthy illustrated example of how these terrain effects work together in practice.  Another article provides a basic historical overview for some of the new forces introduced in the module, such as the Indian National Army and the Indonesian rebels. 

Another historical article introduces the Kachin guerrillas of Burma (typically referred to as the Kachin or Jingpaw Rangers), who are also given rules & scenarios in B&J.  This is a worthy force to represent in ASL, as the Kachins ended up being among the best jungle fighters in World War II (perhaps matched only by Fijian troops).  Unfortunately, the amount of research done on the subject was seemingly slight, and as a result, the article (and the Kachin rules) are marked by  inaccuracies.  For example, the article suggests that Kachin guerrillas were equipped with "ancient rifles" and were "usually not equipped with machineguns or heavy weapons."  The Kachin rules decree that Kachins cannot use any 5/8" counters at all. 

The reality was very different.  By the summer of 1943, the U.S. had already supplied over 1,000 Kachins with British and American weapons and this number greatly increased over time.  These included the M2 carbine; Thompson, Sten and Marlin submachineguns; Bren LMGs; 30-cal machineguns;  51mm and 60mm mortars; 81mm mortars, and even 4.2" chemical mortars, which they used as their "heavy artillery" (these mortars would be air-dropped for an operation, then destroyed by the Kachins as they were ready to move on).  Indeed, by the end of the war, the Kachins had been converted into what were in effect light-infantry battalions and were used in conventional warfare to cut off Japanese retreat routes from Burma.  Unfortunately, B&J does not reflect this.

Another historical article, on U.S. and Filipino armed forces in the Philippines in 1941-42, is also thinly researched; its bibliography misses basic works on the subject.  The one key work it does use is miscredited (its author was the military historian Louis Morton, not Orlando Ward, who was his boss).  The article also tends to focus on the PA's lack of training and equipment before the war and its poor performance in the early days of the campaign during the withdrawal to Bataan, while failing to acknowledge that the Filipinos learned quickly once in actual combat and that the US-Filipino force actually stopped the Japanese cold, forcing them to instead resort to a siege to starve out the defenders, before finally launching a second, much-reinforced attempt in April 1942.  The article does accurately relate the very impressive performance of the Philippine Scouts.  However, it oddly states that the American tank force (appr. 108 tanks in two battalions) was "quickly destroyed during the first ground battles early in the war."  In actual fact, half of the tanks successfully survived the fighting retreat into the Bataan peninsula and served throughout the campaign, performing valuable service all the way through the final battles in April 1942.

It is clear that the magazine included in B&J represented a considerable effort in time and expense to create, but the results do not seem to have been worth that effort.  It might be better to forego such an item in future products, reducing the expense to the consumer and concentrating instead on the scenarios.

The scenarios, of course, regardless of the other components, are the meat of B&J and what in the end will make or break the product.  The scenarios are all on full-color glossy cardstock cards.  With 47 scenarios, there is certainly a lot to choose from.  Thematically, the scenarios break down as follows:

As can be seen from the above, B&J gives one a great range of situations and nationalities to choose from.  From jungle fighting to urban combat, it can all be found here, and most of the nationalities that fought in the Asia/Pacific theaters are represented here at least a single time.  The situational variety is a real strength of the pack.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the variety of scenario sizes.  Perhaps the greatest single weakness of the scenario mix in B&J is that scenarios overwhelmingly tend to be large in size.  With nearly 50 scenarios, one would think that, even if sizes are skewed, there couldn't help but still being a substantial number of small, medium, and large scenarios alike.  However, that is not the case.  Of the 47 scenario of B&J, only 8 can be considered small or medium-sized.  The remaining 39 are all large.  Indeed, a considerable portion of the scenarios are not merely large, but very large:  of the large scenarios, fully 17 of them contain at least 20 squads on one side (not counting crews, guns, or AFVs).  Moreover, the bulk of scenarios also include AFVs:  though set in the infantry-centric Asian theaters, 39 of the 47 scenarios contain AFVs. 

The result is that this is a pack full of really big scenarios that will necessarily take a long time to play.  There are relatively few scenarios that are tournament suitable or can be easily played on a weekday evening.  Most are instead meaty, all-day scenarios.  And while such scenarios are often a welcome feast that one can really sink one's teeth into, they aren't what most ASLers play most of the time.  BFP releases tend to have a serious bias towards large scenarios and B&J reflects this trend.  This is unfortunate.   While large scenarios can be every bit as enjoyable as small or medium-sized scenarios (some might argue more so, because their very size makes them less dicey, and because they often allow players more options), they are simply not as playable.  And this is where the price consideration comes into play.  For a product costing well over a hundred dollars, many ASLers might prefer a selection of scenarios that they know they would have more opportunities to play.  One can only hope that future BFP products will have a more reasonable scenario size mix.

Five of the 47 scenarios have air support.  Fully 16 of them feature OBA.  No scenarios use Night rules.  One scenario, BFP-56 (White Beach 1) is a Seaborne Assault.  Two scenarios feature caves; two scenarios, BFP-39 (Langoan Airfield) and BFP-57 (Last Drop), feature airdrops.  Six scenarios are set in Dense Jungle.

One scenario, BFP-66 (Signal Hill) is a DASL scenario.  One scenario, BFP-26 (Armored Samurai) uses board BFP-B from Into the Rubble.  One scenario, BFP-49 (Just a Drive Along the Beach) uses the HASL map from Blood Reef Tarawa.  Two scenarios, BFP-35 (Mai Phu) and BFP-33 (Kunlungan) use maps (u and v, respectively) from Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit 3. 

It is important to note that 10 of the B&J scenarios use maps included in the product and 35 of the scenarios use B&J counters, so players must remember not ever to just bring the scenarios without the rest of the product, or they might find themselves unable to play the scenario they selected. 

A number of the scenarios represent novel actions that have not been featured before in ASL scenarios.  However, it should be noted that many of the scenarios depict actions that have already appeared in ASL scenarios, sometimes more than once.  For example, BFP-41 (Last Cavalry Charge) covers the same action as the more well known official scenario G28 (Ramsey's Charge).  BFP-28 (Marco Polo Bridge) depicts the same fight depicted in Friendly Fire's FrF17 (The Marco Polo Bridge Incident).  BFP-31 (Chinese Alamo) treaded over the same ground that the official scenario A110 (Shanghai in Flames) and the Le Franc Tireur scenario FT137 (300) covered, while BFP-29 (Hueishan Docks) features an action previously covered by East Side Gamers in ESG36 (Havoc in Shanghai) and ESG37 (Tsunami of Maniacs).  BFP-39 (Langoan Airfield) was earlier portrayed by the official scenario A85 (Airborne Samurai).  BFP-33 (Kunlungan) was also portrayed by Le Franc Tireur's FT139 (Ride of the 200th) and Fanatic Enterprises' FE42 (Assault on Kunlun Pass).  BFP-58 (San Manuel Melee) was previously depicted in the Critical Hit Platoon Leader campaign game Armored Stand, as well as Fanatic Enterprises' FE100 (San Manuel #1) and FE101 (San Manuel #2).  BFP-57 (Last Drop) was earlier covered by Critical Hit in RPII-7 (In the Samurai Tradition) and by Kinetic Energy in KE10/KE15 (Angels at the Airfield).  The firefight in BFP-35 Mai Phu previously saw coverage in the ASL Journal as J90 (The Time of Humiliations) and ASL News in ASLN-42 (Welcome to Vietnam).  BFP-37 (Debacle at Yeang Dang) features an action that previously had been depicted in the ASL Journal as J35 (Siam Sambal) and in the French ASL magazine Tactiques as TAC69 (Battan Bang Bang).

Recorded playings for third party ASL scenarios don't accumulate very quickly, especially for larger scenarios, so as of this writing, B&J is still in the "initial impressions" stage, though early word of mouth has been positive.  Some of the scenarios do look interesting.  BFP-55 (Used and Abused) had a good reputation in its earlier incarnation.  BFP-67 (Coke Hill) is a reasonable sized scenario featuring an Australian attack through difficult terrain against an entrenched Japanese force.  BFP-59 (Geki Cacti), an American attack against a small Japanese force, is interesting because of the unusual number of Japanese AFVs.  BFP-60 (Thrilla in Manila) is one of the few larger city-fights in the pack without OBA; it seems pretty playable, and both sides have lots of toys.  BFP-38 (Sugar Cane Shuffle) looks like it would be an interesting, casualty-intensive early Philippines action.  BFP-53 (Grant vs. Stuart) could be an interesting meeting engagement/king of the Orchard shootout between the British and Japanese.  And honorable mention goes to BFP-46 (The Shan Capital) for depicting an action from the rarely seen Japanese invasion of the Shan States during the 1942 Burma campaign.

The Bottom Line.  Blood and Jungle is big.  It is a big product with a big price tag coming with big components and filled with big scenarios.  Die hard ASLers, as well as committed fans of BFP, are likely to splurge on this without a second thought.  Some people, though, might be a little shy due either to the considerable cost (too bad it wasn't split into two products), the huge emphasis on large scenarios, or both.  There is a lot here to like, though.  The physical components are impressive (including counters and maps), while the scenarios cover an amazing breadth of the fighting that took place in China, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific War.  Many of the scenarios will no doubt provide meaty enjoyment for all-day scenario sessions.  On the other hand, the magazine has good physical quality but its content doesn't quite fare as well.  Moreover, there's a basic lack of "play in an afternoon"/"play in an evening" sized scenarios that form the bulk of what ASLers choose to play.  It is this considerable lack of small and medium-sized scenarios that is probably the product's most significant weakness.  As such, it may not get as much play as many other products that come with far less in terms of components.  This seems a shame, somehow.  Still, it is very satisfying to see the PTO finally get the respect it deserves.

Commentary:  Newer ASL players purchasing a copy of High Ground 2 (HG2) may be forgiven for trying to find High Ground 1 on Bounding Fire Production's Web site.  HG2 is not a sequel to an earlier BFP product; it is rather a reprint and expansion of another third party ASL product, High Ground!,  published in 2000 by Heat of Battle, to which BFP a decade later obtained the rights. 

The original High Ground! was the first third party product to include a professionally rendered (and mounted) geomorphic mapboard.  It was also one of the only such products, as printing such boards had by that time become prohibitively expensive.  High Ground! also broke ground by breaking the geomorphic barrier; the two maps in that product were geomorphic only on three sides.  The two fourth sides linked together so that the two maps could be used to represent a large massif.  Alternatively, they could be set next to each other with the non-geomorphic sides out, so as to represent a big valley.  The maps were quite nice; the scenarios were, however, not particularly popular.

The switch in the mid-2000s by MMP to using unmounted geomorphic mapboards in the style of the ASL Starter Kit gave third party publishers a new avenue for creating their own maps, as the unmounted maps were both cheaper to produce and less likely to suffer mistakes during the printing process.  BFP's decision to print a new version of High Ground! offers newer ASLers a chance to get the boards in that product (and then some) without having to track down an expensive and long out of print item.  Alas, for those who do own the earlier product, BFP provides no "expansion kit" that would allow them to get the new maps and scenarios without re-buying the old.

HG2 includes 7 of the original 8 High Ground! scenarios and adds 9 new ones.  It also adds a large overlay of a castle on a hill (for those Monty Python scenarios) and two new geomorphic mapboards with (surprise!) hills on them.  BFP-J depicts three hills (one smaller two-level hill and two larger three-level hills).  The two larger hills, separated by an unlikely stream, represent either twin hilltop villages or one odd single village.  It might be suitable for scenarios set in places like Greece, Yugoslavia, or Italy.  BFP-K also depicts two close three-level hills separated by a stream, though in this case there is more foliage and fewer buildings.  It's not quite clear what type of terrain this board is supposed to represent, as there are too many, and too large, buildings for wilderness terrain, but not enough to really represent a settlement.  The new maps are completely geomorphic and do not follow the non-geomorphic theme of the original maps.  It would have been nice to have continued in the vein of the original and used multiple maps to represent larger hill formations.  In any case, all four maps are well-rendered and attractive, as is the large overlay.  Only two paragraphs of the 4 pages of rules are relevant to HG2; the rest contain all the special rules for all BFP mapboards.  This is a nice touch that one hopes will be continued (some previous BFP products included maps with terrain features only defined in earlier BFP products).

The 16 scenarios are set in a variety of times and settings, including:  French vs. Italians (France 1940), Greeks vs. Italians (Albania 1940 & Greece 1940), Greeks vs. Germans (Greece 1941), New Zealanders vs. Germans (Greece 1941), Soviets vs. Waffen SS (Soviet Union 1942, Hungary 1945)), British vs. French (Madagascar 1942), Soviet partisans vs. Germans and Slovaks (Soviet Union 1942), Americans vs. Japanese (Guadalcanal 1943), Soviets vs. Germans (Soviet Union 1943 & 1944), British vs. Japanese (Burma 1944), Americans vs. Germans (France 1944, Belgium 1944), and Indians vs. Indian National Army (Burma 1945).  Several scenarios require unit counters or markers from BFP's Blood and Jungle, while another scenario, HG14 (Tigers on the Hill), calls for an aircraft counter from Operation Cobra.  The latter is a pretty gratuitous requirement that should have used ASL's generic aircraft counter instead.  Although it is nowhere specified on the packaging, one scenario also require Debris overlays that appeared in Into the Rubble.

As is typically the case with BFP products, the scenarios in HG2 are overwhelmingly large in size, with only a few suitable for tournament play.  Two scenarios are small, five are medium in size, while the remaining nine are large to very large.  Five of the scenarios use at least one module of OBA, two of the scenarios use Air Support.  No scenarios use Night rules.  Some of the scenarios are SSR-heavy.  Interestingly, only two of the newly-designed scenarios in the pack use any of the original High Ground! boards.

A number of the scenarios have interesting situations.  HG15 (King Darges), features a group of 15 Waffen SS squads, with three guns and 7 AFVs defending a perimeter around a castle on the hill from a Soviet attack from all sides.  The Soviets have 29 squads, 2 guns, and 18 vehicles (as well as some OBA and Panzerfausts).   Fans of large, "classic" East Front scenarios might like this one.  HG6 (Damned at Demyansk), designed by surprise "guest designer" Dave Lamb, is smaller, but in the same vein.  This scenario has a Soviet force of 23 squads and 7 vehicles, liberally supplied with SW, trying to force their way through a cordon of 13 Waffen SS squads, 2 guns, and 1 AFV (plus some air support).  The Soviet force is considerably stronger (and also elite), but the terrain they must traverse is wicked indeed, and Deep Snow doesn't make it any easier.

Another noteworthy situation occurs in HG2 (Konitsa Crackdown), which portrays a massive Greek drive down an Italian-defended valley.  The Greeks get VP for controlling buildings (down in the valley) as well as higher hill hexes, so actions will occur across the breadth of the playing area.  The Greeks have a whopping 30 squads, 8 crews (the scenario designer seems strongly to want MMG/HGM/MTR to be manned by crews, though he does not actually come out and require it), 7 leaders, and 4 guns.  The defending Italians include 15 first line and 5 conscript squads, 16 crews, 4 leaders, and 5 guns (as well as 10 MG and 6 SW MTRs). 

Possibly the most interesting scenario situation is also one of the only tournament-playable scenarios in the offering, HG7 (Bonny Nouvelle), designed by another "guest designer," Scott Holst.  In this scenario, depicting part of the Allied invasion of Madagascar in the spring of 1942 (a response to British concerns about Japanese intentions in the Indian Ocean), a group of 15 elite British squads, well led and accompanied by 5 mostly light AFVs, must  attack a Vichy French hill position.  The defending French have 12.5 squads and 5 MG, supported by 2 105mm artillery pieces and 3 venerable FT-17 tanks.  The British can score an immediate win through exiting, but they also face the possibility of an immediate loss through a CVP cap, so the scenario provides a fair amount of tension. 

However, one scenario's inclusion is of questionable taste:  HG8 (Perún's Thunder).  This scenario is loosely based on an atrocity committed by the Slovak Security Division operating in the Ukraine in 1942 following partisans briefly shooting at on some Slovak trucks.  Although the scenario card sets up a situation that suggests considerable fighting, what actually occurred seems to have been little more than a massacre of unarmed civilians. 

With the exception of the above-mentioned scenario, High Ground 2 seems like a pretty solid product, though its focus on large scenarios will limit the ability of many ASL players to play some of it.  For newer ASLers who never had an opportunity to get their hands on the original High Ground!, this is a chance to make things right, and then some.  For veteran ASLers who already have High Ground!, there is added value in this product, but they will be re-buying some stuff they already have.  Of course, if they bought High Ground! in the first place, they probably don't have the willpower to resist this product, either.

Commentary:  Crucible of Steel (CoS) is Bounding Fire Production's second exercise in gigantism, following the equally huge 2009 release Blood and Jungle.  It is one of three huge ASL-related products released or scheduled for release in 2011 (the others being Kampfgruppe Scherer and Festung Budapest, the latter not quite released at the time of this writing) that will cost consumers over $100 ($125 in this particular case).  That's a lot of money to lay out, especially during a recession.  Unlike the other two modules, though, CoS could have been split into two or more smaller and less expensive products, allowing people either to purchase the whole thing over time, or at least to purchase part of it even if they could not afford the whole thing.  Gigantic modules like this one offer a sort of prestige to their publisher, but they don't necessarily do favors to gamers on a budget.

Like Blood and Jungle, Crucible of Steel has a theme--in this case, the theme is the Battle of Kursk, or at least the southern shoulder of the battle (where the Germans were more successful than in the north).  It was on the southern shoulder that the famous tank battle of Prokhorovka took place.  Unfortunately, the timing of CoS's design was a bit off, as it came out too soon to take real advantage of the publication of the best and most detailed book in English on this subject, Valeriy Zamulin's Demolishing the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: An Operational Narrative, published in English in the summer of 2011.  However, reading that book will certainly whet players' appetites for CoS, and vice versa.

The least impressive part of CoS, but one that added to its cost, is the 42-page full-color magazine-style booklet that comes with the product.  The best article in the booklet is probably the first, "A Walk Through of Crucible of Steel," by Chas Smith (all of the articles are actually written by Smith), which is essentially an extended set of designer's notes for the module, focusing mostly on the new boards and counters in the game.  The second article is the rather self-explanatory "Slopes in ASL."  Unfortunately, though this is nowhere stated, this rules article is not original but is rather a revised version of a slopes rules article by Smith that appeared several years ago in Recon by Fire #4.  The next article is another rules article, this time on dug-in and entrenched AFVs.   The last article is yet a third rules article, this time on fortifications.  At this point is it really necessary to tell readers, as this article does, that it costs 1 MF to enter or exit a foxhole?  The people who need to know that are probably not the people spending $125 on a third party product on Kursk.   Given the high price of this product, it would probably have been better not to have included the booklet at all.

Of much more interest are the counters.  CoS provides a sheet and a half of 5/8" counters and a half-sheet of 1/2" counters, all of which are well-done and attractive.  Most of the 5/8" counters consist of German vehicles.  These include a few duplicates of existing vehicles, such as Pz IVHs, but a number of new vehicles as well, including Pz IIs modified to become APCs as well as captured T-34s in German colors.  Most of these counters are provided twice--an additional set is included that is colored black, to cater to ASLers fixated on the Waffen SS.  There are also a number of specific German aircraft types represented.  This is a somewhat polarizing feature, as there are some ASLers who love the idea of having a more specific and less generic Air Support system in ASL, but there are also many ASLers who are only interested in ground warfare and greatly prefer the simpler and more abstract Air Support rules in official ASL.   In addition to the German counters, there are a number of Soviet AFV and aircraft counters, though many of the Soviet AFV counters are merely duplicates of existing counter types (presumably for use with some of the larger scenarios).

The 1/2" counters include blue and black SS and German army counters for assault engineers (following in the footsteps of Valor of the Guards, which created special assault engineer counters that displayed a small DC on the counter), as well as a few Soviet assault engineer counters.  There is also a new type of crew, a 1-2-8 anti-tank crew that is mostly chrome and could probably have been represented by SSR and regular crews, and a new type of squad, a 4-2-8 "anti-mobility" squad, which surely is the most unusually named squad in all of ASL, beating even "dare death squads."  The only thing special about them is that they can place minefields.

About 60 informational markers are also included, which include some that many ASLers might find handy, including MA Fired markers, BMG Fired markers, CMG Fired markers, ALL MGs Fired markers, Dug-In CE markers, and VBM counters that indicate the hexside being bypassed (so that players do not actually have to squeeze an AFV directly above a hexside).

Unlike previous Bounding Fire Production counters, these counters are "grey-core" counters, which means that, like official ASL counters, they are printed on grey cardboard rather than white cardboard.  Apparently some people complained that with earlier BFP counters one could tell the BFP counters from the other counters because the color of the sides of the counter was white, not grey.  This is a complaint of the most niggling kind, especially considering the wide range of inconsistency in colors and shapes that ASL counters have been printed in over the years.  Nevertheless, BFP responded.

Actually, they did more than respond, because also included in CoS is a reprint of the complete countersets of Blood and Jungle and Operation Cobra, which had been printed with whitecore counters.  BFP has said that they did this at their own expense and that this did not add to the price of Crucible of Steel.  It is rather remarkable that BFP went to this effort, especially given how nice the Blood and Jungle and Operation Cobra counters were to begin with.  This was something they absolutely did not have to do, but it does show dedication on their part.  It is not clear from their website whether or not these are available separately.

The CoS rules and notes include 6 pages of aircraft rules, 4 pages of German vehicle notes, 2 pages of Soviet vehicle notes, and 4 pages of "historical battle rules."  These latter include rules for "Sparse Orchards," "European Hillocks," "Hexside Buildings," and the new counters mentioned above. 

CoS also comes with a bevy of geomorphic maps--9 of them, in fact, though 6 of them are designed to be used together as pairs (as they each include a non-geomorphic edge that mates to a similar edge on another board).   They are very slightly longer than official boards (see image below), though the hexgrids seem properly sized.  This can cause map match-up problems under certain (though not most) circumstances.  They should have been cut to the correct size.

The intent of these boards was apparently to try to represent the nature of the terrain in the vicinity of Kursk.  However, it is not necessarily clear that they succeeded.  If one uses Google Maps satellite photos to look at the vicinity of Prokhorovka, for example, or even reads descriptions of the terrain from books, one sees that it is dominated by very large farms, frequent stretches or patches of woods and/or brush (sometimes significant in size), a large number of gullies and streams, and various villages (including many examples of the stereotypical Russian village lining a road, with two rows of houses along the road, each house with family gardens immediately behind them and the larger fields behind that.  The CoS maps look nothing like that.  In particular, though fields dominated the terrain, there are few of them on most of the maps, which make it seem much more unsettled.  Gullies and streams are few and non-existent, respectively.  Woods and brush are almost non-existent.  Critical Hit actually did a better job in capturing the nature of the terrain in its 2010 Kursk: Devil's Domain module on Ponyri.  Of course, that was a historical map and not geo-boards.

The boards introduce several new terrain types, none complicated.  The first, the so-called "European hillock" (which has an air velocity much different from that of the African hillock), are basically just regular old hillocks with a bit of extra rules to take into account things like seeing over or through grain.  The second is the hexside building, which is simply a tiny building that straddles a hexside (basically as part of two adjacent building hexes, each consisting of more than one building).  All it does is prevent bypass (and, of course, block LOS).  The third is the Sparse Orchard, which is basically just an always out of season orchard.   Like other BFP geomorphic maps, some of these also have Slopes, which some players won't mind and others will dislike.  The same can be said for hillocks as well.  However, in this case, the argument for including slopes and hillocks can perhaps be made more easily than for other maps, because of the relatively flat nature of some of the terrain.

Board L is an unremarkable wooden-buildinged crossroads village board.  It's not clear how the inhabitants make a living, as there are only two fields in the vicinity.  It's not really different from a number of other official boards.  Board M is the one board that includes a number of fields, though only a few buildings.  It also includes a large, dominating bald hill (and one of the few gullies to appear on these maps).  Board N is an odd board, being mostly open ground, a few scattered sparse orchards, and two buildings, each near a single small field.  It's more like something out of the Old West, perhaps, than Kursk, which was a settled area. 

Boards 2a/2b, the first of the "double" boards, is also odd.  While it does include a large field (finally!), there is only a single building associated with it.  However, the large field is basically a loner (there are only a couple of other, scattered, much smaller fields on the map), and it is not clear who tills any of these fields, because there are no villages or collective farm settlements anywhere on the map.  Indeed, the entire double map only has 2 tiny buildings on it.  Most of it is wide open, punctuated by some slopes, some -1 terrain, some hillocks, and some level 1 hills.  There is also a single gully in the middle of the map.   It seems like, if anything, it would be more suited for terrain hundreds of miles to the southeast of the Kursk area.

Boards 3a/3b manage to come a bit closer to Kursk-like terrain.  They depict a small crossroads village surrounded by a number of medium-sized fields (though there is still far too much open terrain beyond them).  There is, though, a large 2-level bald hill that dominates the entire map area. 

Boards 4a/4b are essentially just a more open, flatter variant of Boards 3a/3b.  There's a small crossroads village, surrounded some scattered smallish fields, and a one-level hill mass.  Maybe all the open ground is actually somehow fields that are lying fallow.

In the end, one might be a bit disappointed by the maps in CoS, which, though attractive enough, mostly do not resemble the terrain they are ostensibly supposed to resemble.  BFP has been much better at their geomorphic maps in the past.

Of the 32 scenarios that come with CoS, the vast majority (all but seven) use the new maps.  In addition, some scenarios use maps that come from other BFP products.  Almost every one of the scenarios also use BFP counters (though there are a couple of these where the BFP counters are technically not necessary and other things--overlays or official counters--can be used instead).  The combination of the maps and counters means that one must pretty much always bring the entire product along if thinking about potentially playing a scenario.  It is not really possible to just grab a scenario to take to someone's house or to a tournament to play; other components are virtually always also required. 

Almost all of the CoS scenarios (all but five) are designed by Chas Smith.  These scenarios also mean that BFP has released almost 100 new scenarios (i.e., not including reprints) since 2009.  That's a lot of scenarios to adequately playtest in such a short time span (many groups take a full year to research, design, playtest and release a selection of only 10-16 scenarios) and it raises legitimate questions.  However, it must be admitted that the limited ROAR record since its release for the large Blood and Jungle  has not been troubling in terms of balance.  Time will tell, of course.

A scenario pack based on Kursk runs any number of theoretical risks.  Much of the battle was a bloody stalemate, even on the southern flank, and the battlefield was rife with multiple fortification lines, massive use of artillery, and airplanes covering the battlefield.  One could also imagine a product concentrating on the southern flank, as CoS does, ending up fixated on the Waffen SS units that fought there. 

Happily, CoS avoids many potential pitfalls.   It is true that the scenarios in this pack strongly tend towards the large.  There is really only one scenario (see below) that can be claimed as small, and even many of the medium scenarios are largish.  Designer Chas Smith loves large scenarios, so this was expected even before the pack came out.  However, in this case, BFP did make a determined effort to ensure that there were enough reasonably sized scenarios (i.e., suitable for tournament's play or an afternoon or evening's worth of play) in the pack to be able to provide some value to the ASLers who prefer or usually play such (they make up the bulk of ASL play overall).  As a result, a number of the medium-sized scenarios in the pack are quite tournament compatible.  It was nice to see CoS consisting of more than just massive all-day scenarios and it adds value to the product.

Nor are the scenarios loaded up with OBA and Air Support (which was a problem with Critical Hit's Kursk module Kursk: Devil's Domain).  There are many scenarios that have neither OBA nor Air Support, which will no doubt bring a sigh of relief to those ASLers who are not over-fond of such ASL elements.  Another thing that CoS is not overloaded with is the SS.  Chas Smith and company refreshingly chose to feature a wide variety of the German units that fought on the southern flank, not just the Waffen SS divisions.  There are no Night scenarios in the pack.

One thing it did not avoid, nor in all likelihood even try to avoid, was the heavy presence of fortifications.  A significant majority of the scenarios are what can be termed "fortifications-heavy," with significant numbers of trenches, pillboxes, wire counters, minefields, and the like.   As Chas Smith has in the past expressed a personal fondness for such scenarios, this was not unexpected.  Those who like crafting that "perfect defense" may be happy.  It does mean, however, that players who prefer more mobile scenarios to those where cracking prepared defensive positions is dominant may have a shortage of actions from which to choose.  Of course, someone who bought a Kursk module thinking there might not be a lot of fortifications would be foolish indeed, so it is hard to criticize BFP on this score.  Kursk was famous for its fortified lines.

The Germans are the attackers in the vast majority of scenarios, which is a bit odd considering the battle was one that featured some very famous Soviet counterattacks.  The scenarios have a wide range of SSR intensiveness, which is a welcome variety.   While the scenarios don't force players to use crews for their heavy SW, the OBs rather encourage them to do so, creating a somewhat camouflaged grudge rule.

The scenario mix include a number of potentially interesting actions.   BFP-76 (Trial of the Infantry) is a tournament-sized action that allows the Soviet defenders to purchase various fortifications.   BFP-77 (Burning Down the House) is a large combined arms German attack against a fortified Soviet village and is to some degree a tank vs AT gun battle.  The Germans get some OBA (needed for Smoke) to help them cross the open ground, something they don't have in a number of the scenarios in CoS.    BFP-78 (Operation Wheatfield) is nice because it uses 3 board halves (BFP M, 43, and 57) to create a reasonable approximation of what the terrain in the region actually looked like.  The scenario itself features a German combined arms attack (including tons of toys, from FTs to DCs to Tigers) against a highly-fortified Soviet position.  

Perhaps the most playable scenario in the mix, BFP-80 (Rathushniak's Sacrifice), features an attack by 11 Waffen SS squads and 7 tanks against a Soviet position held only by 6 squads, a 9-2 leader, some light AT assets, and 4 76mm artillery pieces.  BFP-84 (Kreida Station) uses board BFP B from Into the Rubble to depict a German infantry attack on a Soviet-held railroad station, the more built-up terrain giving a bit of a different feel than many of the other actions in the pack.   BFP-89 (Relentless Pressure) is interesting because it depicts a rare Soviet attack in this product, but also because the attack is against a raw and poorly trained German infantry division (represented by 4-4-7 and 4-3-6 squads). 

The excellently named BFP-91 (Death Roamed Freely) uses boards DW-1a/1b from Blood and Jungle as well as board 57 to depict a large "town" fight.  The attacking Germans have 30 squads of varying (mostly good) quality, heavily armed with toys (including 2 FT and 6 DC).  The defending Soviets have 21 squads (mostly elite), well armed, and two 76mm infantry guns.  The Germans win by controlling 7 key buildings.  The super-sized scenario in the pack is BFP-104 (Flying Turrets), which depicts a massive Soviet-Waffen SS armored clash.  The attacking Soviets have 35 squads, tons of SW, and 65 AFVs (including 40 T-34s of the M41 and M43 variety!).  They also get a lot of air support.  The defending Waffen SS have 20 squads, heavily armed, 7 guns, and 38 AFVs, including 5 Tigers.  They too get significant air support, as well as 150mm OBA.  Obviously, it is well suited for team play.

Crucible of Steel is a good product, though given its nature and subject matter, not everybody will be attracted to it.  The maps and the magazine are the only aspects of CoS that are disappointing, and the magazine doesn't affect play value.  The counters are good and there are a wealth of scenarios.  Though definitely expensive, certainly CoS offers a lot of play value, and fans of combined arms East Front actions in particular will find much to enjoy here, especially if they don't mind fortifications.  It will no doubt be popular.