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.