From the cover, which featured a 5+2 leader counter for "Cpl A. E. Neuman" to the letters section featuring faux letters (from Ray Tapio, Curt Schilling, and many others) to the fake rules Q&A and fake upcoming ASL products to the "tactical tips" ("Remember when rifling your opponent's stacks to go from the bottom up--when you run into that question mark counter in the middle, just look real innocent and say, 'Oh, gee, were the guys on the bottom of the stack Concealed?'"), no effort was left unspared to crucify, castigate, ridicule, and poke fun (sometimes more maliciously than others).  Some of it is even erudite, such as an article featuring ASL rules sections as if they had been written by St. Paul, Kipling, Marx, Derrida, Sartre, and others.  Rest assured, though, that most of the Mannual is closer to the level of fart jokes than Derrida jokes.

Much of the material would be entertaining even to new ASLers today, such as the faux scenario Gojira!!!, which pits Godzilla against the Japanese Army (supposedly some people have actually played this!).  Other material would be comprehensible mostly for someone familiar with the ASL as it was in the 1990s, such as references to the complex and detailed nature of Kinetic Energy products, and many references are in-jokes about specific ASL personalities, including Brian Youse, Terry Treadway, Steve Pleva, Carl Fago, and many others.   The only thing worse than being mentioned in the Mannual was not being mentioned in the Mannual.

There was never an ASL Mannual '99, because the creators of the original were all brought before a firing squad and relieved of our misery.

BdF was the creation of Nadir El Farra and Brian Abela, two southern California ASLers, and its physical quality is extremely impressive, from the attractive map to the beautiful scenario cards (every bit as nice as any "official" ASL scenario card).  At the time it was produced it had the best production values of any third party module, and its production values still hold up well today.

BdF had no campaign game, but included 9 scenarios, 2 of which used geomorphic mapboards instead of the included historical map.  The scenarios are a perfect mix (3/3/3) of small, medium, and large-sized actions.  One scenario is a Night scenario, several scenarios have OBA, many scenarios have Deep Snow, and many scenarios feature the super-scary M16 and M15A1 AA halftracks (sometimes even dug in!).  The scenarios have received a fair amount of play; particularly popular are BDF4 (Brief Breakfast) and BDF6 (The Gingerbread Men).  The two geomorphic map scenarios, BDF4 and BDF9 (Across the Aisne and into Freineux), were later reprinted as official scenarios in MMP's Out of the Attic. 

Unfortunately, Front Line Productions shut down after just one module.  However, their second project, a historical module featuring Edson's Ridge on Guadalcanal, was eventually published as an "official" ASL product, Operation Watchtower.  Still, the quality of Front Line's first module makes one wish that it had been the first of a series instead of a single child.

The scenarios are all desert scenarios featuring German, Italian, British, Indian, French and New Zealand units.  It is one of the few sources for multiple scenarios with Italian troops. 

These monster scenarios are probably more important as experiences than in winning or losing.  There is something just in the spectacle of seeing more than a dozen ASL players all playing the same scenario, just as it is more than impressive to see an entire Normandy invasion beach laid out on two long tables. 

Unfortunately, the innovativeness of the scenario pack is marred somewhat by the poor physical quality.  It is poorly edited and punctuated, and random words are capitalized throughout.  Much of the text is a Courier typewriter font (though, strangely, some of the text is in another font).  In some of the scenarios, historical accuracy is sacrified for "fun" (in the Kursk scenarios, for example, players may ignore rarity factors when purchasing their forces). 

The physical quality of the later edition, Monster Pack 2000, is even worse.  Although it cost more than the original, the scenarios are no longer printed on cardstock but rather on photocopy paper (except that, strangely, one or two random sheets ARE in fact printed on cardstock).  Moreover, while the original pack had one scenario per card, the photocopies are printed on both sides, but more or less randomly, so that some Gold Beach! pages, for example, appear on the backs of other scenario pages.  This is frustrating because some of the pages are not identified as to what scenario they go with (apparently the Berlin scenario).  The original pack had no counter artwork, but the Monster Pack 2000 uses strange counter artwork apparently derived from German World War II military symbology.  Since none of it will be familiar to most players, it aids counter identification not at all and might as well not have been included (since it also doesn't make them more attractive, either).  The enclosed "China Pack" teaser scenario does not appear to be playable, as it requires "China Pack overlays" which are not included.  Overall, the physical quality of Monster Pack 2000 is quite depressing.  No China Pack was ever published; the Monster Pack remains War-Oboe's only effort.

Some of the scenarios in the Monster Pack might be a fun way for an ASL club or group to spend a weekend; for individual ASLers, this pack is recommended only for completists.

The idea behind Retro ASL, as explained by its designer, is "to provide occasional players with easy and straight-forward rules that will allow them to use the game system's components and system modules to experience the 'feel' and fun of ASL without having to implement hundreds of pages of rules."  The extent to which Retro ASL actually duplicates the "feel" of ASL is highly debatable, because aspects of the Retro ASL rules are radically different.  For example, Retro ASL eliminates morale checks (the Retro IFT will automatically break all units of a certain morale, or eliminate units already broken).  Retro ASL's armor rules eliminates the To Hit DRs; instead, there is only a To Kill number.  Retro ASL also introduces a major new concept to ASL:  "hesitation."  During the course of movement, units may "hesitate" (i.e., stop) if moving in the open and in range of an enemy unit. 

The Retro ASL rulebook also contains Design Your Own information and a half-dozen scenarios.  Only 17 pages of the rulebook cover the Retro ASL rules; the remainder consists of DYO charts and 6 scenarios.  The 2nd Edition of Retro ASL was published primarily as a result of the Copyright Wars.  Retitled simply Retro, to remove any references to ASL, it does add some optional rules, a section of "National Armor Listings," and some improved graphics. 

Retro ASL has a high rating on Boardgamegeek from players who have tried it, but most people who want a simpler ASL experience that captures its feel may be more happy with the various ASL Starter Kits.

Retro ASL Scenarios/Supplements

Retro ASL Scenario A, Panzerschreck #2 (Spring 1999).
Retro ASL Scenario B, Panzerschreck #3 (Fall 1999).
Retro ASL Scenario Z, Panzerschreck #8 (Summer 2002).
Retro ASL Campaign Games, Panzerschreck #11 (Winter 2003-2004).

The greatest advantage this scenario pack has going for it is its colorfulness.  There are rules for the poorly armed Ethiopian Army (it even has some 2-3-7 squads), which can try to flip over the tiny Italian tankettes, as well as rules for terrain features such as Candelabra trees and for Eritrean (Italian colonial) troops.   The scenarios are an interesting mix, with most of them somewhat on the large size.  Six out of the eight scenarios use desert terrain.

The original Soldiers of the Negus, which was printed only in very small quantities, is very hard to find.  However, it was reprinted several years later by Critical Hit with a sheet of die-cut counters.  Although the Critical Hit version ostensibly contains some errors, the mounted counters make it more desirable than the original version.

Today they can be freely downloaded from Desperation Morale, thanks to the kindness of John Skillman.

While any person or persons can produce ASL compatible material, to use "official artwork" or to duplicate the "look and feel" of official products would violate copyright laws.  Despite this, there are third party publishers from time to time that do replicate the official artwork and "look and feel" of ASL scenario cards in their products.  This appears to happen more often overseas, where perhaps there is less fear of legal action.  Scenario File #1 is an example of this practice, essentially duplicating the layout and artwork of official ASL scenario cards.

However, this is where the similarities begin, not end.  In addition to the scenario cards, this product also includes a blatant photocopy of Overlay 6 from Action Pack #2.  And an observant ASLer soon discovered that the scenarios in Scenario File #1 bore eerie similarities to previously published scenarios.

To wit:

Most of the scenarios in Scenario File #1 are essentially old Streets of Fire scenarios converted to standard geomorphic mapboards, often with numerous additional SSRs added.  The result appears to be a collection of scenarios that are neither original nor necessarily even very playable (one scenario features 75 Soviet squads, for example).