Break Contact packs tend to feature small (sometimes very small) scenarios, often featuring Australian troops.

In 2010, McCloskey branched out into other areas of wargaming design, self-publishing a point-to-point system wargame on the fighting on the Kokoda Trail in 1942 called Soldiers of the Rising Sun.

Commentary:  Break Contact came onto the ASL scene like found money:  unlooked for and unexpected, but appreciated.  However, like found money, many may consider it hard to find.  It is basically only available from one source, the Australian games e-tailer Warchest. 

It turns out that "Break Contact" is Straylian for "tournament sized scenarios," because that is what is in this small scenario pack (billed as an "Aussie Tournament Pack"):  a baker's half dozen of smallish scenarios, all of which follow the exploits of various Australians in Crete, Syria, New Guinea and Bougainville.  There is no doubting the size here; these scenarios hearken back to the style of the very first issue of Schwerpunkt:  8.5 squads vs. 5 squads, 11 squads vs. 7.5 squads, 8.5 squads vs. 6.5 squads, 6 squads vs. 1.5 squads, 9.5 squads vs. 7 squads, 9 squads vs. 6 squads, and the "monster" scenario featuring 15 squads vs. 8 squads, with a few odd vehicles thrown in here and there. 

The scenarios are reasonably attractive, although they have no photograph or drawing on them, as is customary.  One interesting touch is that SSR's are color coded (so terrain notes have a green stripe next to them, artillery related SSRs have a blue stripe next to them, etc.).  One of the scenarios is a night scenario, one scenarios has OBA and a Bombardment, one scenario has booby traps, one scenario lets one side voluntarily go beserk, and one scenario features bulldozers. 

Some of the scenarios are a little quirky.  For example, one of them has an SSR that says hedges do not exist, but uses an orchard overlay to replace an orchard surrounded by a hedge--exactly the same effect either way, with the only likely result that the player will be confused and wonder if an open ground overlay was what was really intended. 

In 2007, Break Contact created a slightly revised version of the scenario pack.  The new version has the same scenarios, but a completely new layout.  The new layout--which includes original counter artwork--is superior to the original layout.  In addition, some changes have been made to some of the scenarios.   However, this 2nd edition was not produced for sale but only in very limited quantities for tournament prizes, etc. 

Commentary:  Break Contact's sophomore effort is quite similar to its first, containing 7 mostly tournament-sized scenarios, many of them featuring Australian troops.  However, the scenarios cards contain a different (and much improved) layout, including original counter artwork. 

The title of the pack is a tad misleading, as only some of the scenarios have any AFVs at all.  Like its predecessor, it contains a healthy helping of PTO scenarios (4 of 7), making Break Contact one of the few ASL publishers exhibiting a true commitment to the PTO.  Three of the PTO scenarios are set in New Guinea and one on Bougainville.  Other scenarios are set in Syria 1941, Italy 1943 and even South Korea 1950. 

Most of the scenarios are small in size; it is not unusual for both sides in a Break Contact scenario to have fewer than 10 squads per side.  The big exception is BC12 (Itson), also the most unusual scenario in the pack.  This Australian-Japanese scenario, set on Bougainville in 1945, uses an area slightly less than a half-board, but features 44 Japanese squads (yes, you read that correctly) attacking a fortified position defended by 16 elite Australian squads and 3 Matilda tanks.  Those ASLers who dared tackle this mini-monster scenario at ASLOK 2007 enjoyed it.

Another scenario that might draw the eyes of ASLers looking for something different is BC10 (Groff's Grief), set in Seoul, Korea, in 1950, in the wake of the Inchon landings.  This DASL scenario features city fighting between USMC and North Korean forces (the latter using Russian counters).  The USMC use 7-6-8 squads and are loaded with SW.  If that weren't enough, they are accompanied by 2 Pershing tanks.  The North Koreans get both Tank Hunter Heroes and Dare-Death Squads.

Commentary:  In early 2011, Break Contact emerged from a period of relative inactivity to release two new items, one of which is this product, the Razorback Pack (RP) mini-pack.  Designed originally as a special item for tournament directors to give out as a prize, it was not initially intended for general release (following in the tradition of George Kelln's tournament-only packs Panzer Aces, Combat History of Schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung 653, and The Battle for the Abbaye de Ardennes).  However, designer Murray McCloskey eventually decided to give the ASL community at large a chance to own it as well (though circumstances are not clear, the initial impetus behind this decision may have been an inquiry by this Web site as to the nature of the Razorback Pack).  

Because of its origins, the pack is quite idiosyncratic, designed as an opportunity to do something a bit different.  The scenarios are all very small, and most include individual soldier counters (14 of which, Australian and Japanese, appear in the countermix).  These are not leaders or heroes, but rather normal individual soldiers, and rules are included for deploying half-squads into such soldiers.   They are treated essentially as substandard heroes.  The RP rules also include instructions for a "Gun Bunker" with two separate CAs, as well as rules for razorback ridges, the sharp terrain features that played an important role in much of the fighting on New Guinea.  Though razorback ridge rules are needed for ASL, these particular rules would not be suitable for adoption in general, because they are dependent upon the Soldier rules.

All four scenarios are set in the so-called Shaggy Ridge area of New Guinea in late 1943/early 1944 (for a good book on this fighting, see Phillip Bradley's On Shaggy Ridge).  BC23 (Kill 'Em) represents a platoon-sized Australian attack (4 squads, 2 crews) against a tiny Japanese force (3 half squads, 7 Soldiers, 2 leaders).  BC24 (Shaggy Shootout) depicts an Australian attack (11 squads) against a Japanese gun position defended by 2 crews, 2 half squads, 4 Soldiers, and 2 leaders.  BC25 (Tommy Tarzan) simulates another Australian attack, by 2 squads, 3 half squads, 1 hero, and 4 leaders, well armed with DCs, against 3 Japanese pillboxes defended by 1 squad, 1 half squad, 6 soldiers, and 2 leaders.    BC26 (Two Man Front), the smallest scenario, depicts an Australian attack by 2 half squads, 1 hero, and one leader, against 3 Japanese Soldiers and a leader in two pillboxes. 

Obviously, this is an unusual pack and its "popcorn shrimp" scenarios will not be appealing to everybody.  That is one reason why the RP was originally intended only as a prize.  However, its newly-wider availability allows people to decide for themselves whether they might want to try it.  Certainly collectors and PTO enthusiasts ought to give it a look.

Commentary:  In early 2011, Break Contact emerged from a period of relative inactivity to release two new items, one of which is this product, The Aussie Battler Pack (ABP), a scenario pack very much in the mold of Break Contact! and The Armoured Aussie Pack.   It has an emphasis on actions involving Australian troops, with a few trips further afield. 

The settings for actions with Australian troops include the Australian Army's mopping up actions on the island of Bougainville in 1945 (2 scenarios) , the duel for "Shaggy Ridge" on New Guinea in late 1943, and fighting north of the Kokoda track on New Guinea in late 1942. 

Other actions depicted include American mopping-up actions in the Philippines in 1945, a Chinese-Japanese clash at Nanking in 1937, a British (Arab Legion)-Vichy French action in Syria in 1941, and even a Soviet-German action at Kursk, the latter of which almost seems out of character for Break Contact.  Because of the too-expansive layout of the scenarios, which uses up considerable space, almost every scenario takes two pages to display.

Unlike all previous Break Contact products, the scenarios in the ABP are overwhelmingly large in size; only a couple of the scenarios could be considered small or medium-sized.  Two of the scenarios use Night rules, two scenarios use OBA, one scenario uses Air Support, and one scenario, BC20 (On the Beach), is a Seaborne Evacuation.

The ABP is, in general, an imaginative pack, with interesting scenario situations. Two in particular are worth mentioning.  BC17 (Forlorn Fury), the Chinese-Japanese Nanking scenario, is an interesting way to deal with a perennial problem that designers of scenarios set in China face:  how to represent city walls in ASL.   Many older cities in China have a pre-gunpowder-era city wall around what is now the inner city; these walls were sometimes more than 20 feet high (and thick).  Though they cannot withstand artillery, they nevertheless represent knotty tactical problems while still standing, and the Japanese had to find ways to overcome these substantial obstacles.  BC17 uses Board 23, the "canal" board, with the canal representing the city walls and the bridges over the canal as gatehouses.  The Japanese must assault through one or more of these gatehouses, or a breach in the wall that is created through a novel and imaginative mechanism.  Prior to setup, the Japanese player records three potential rubbled wall hexes.  After Chinese set up, rubble counters are placed in those hexes.  Each player must then remove a rubble counter, starting with the Chinese player, so that there is one rubbled wall hex left, which is the one used.  Smart.

BC18 (Ghosts in the Machine) also has an interesting mechanism.   This scenario, a rare East Front Night scenario, has two bridges (a two-lane stone bridge and a foot bridge) across the Board 7 river.  However, in a sort of ASL representation of Schrödinger's cat, until a player is in a position to observe the two bridges, they are both everywhere and nowhere.  When one of the players first sees one of the potential bridge hexes, both bridges are randomly placed at two of three potential crossing sites.  Thus which site will have which bridge, or no bridge at all, not only will vary in each playing of the scenario, but will also be unknown until a point during the playing of the scenario.  Nice.

The Aussie Battler Pack looks good; it has some interesting situations and some intelligent scenario mechanisms.  If it could put more of the scenarios on single scenario cards, it would be even better, but even with this flaw, the pack appears well worth getting.