From the ranks of the SoCalASL club came third party publishers such as Heat of Battle, Front Line Productions and Kinetic Energy, as well as many top-rank players.  The creator of VASL, Rodney Kinney, was a SoCalASler as well.  SoCalASL helped make southern California an ASL-friendly place, but the club was also devoted to helping the hobby as a whole, such as volunteering to host the 70+ freely downloadable English translations of Tactiques scenarios.

In 2003, SoCalASL released its first scenario pack, the innovative Melee Pack.  They followed it up the following year with another Melee Pack.  Hopefully these will be the first of a long series of packs from the SoCal folks.

Commentary:  The Southern California ASL Club, one of the better ASL groups, was also the publisher of Hit the Beach!, one of the better ASL newsletters.  It had both good articles and high production values (Matt Cicero in particular helped it step up a notch); it was similar in nature and quality to the Texas ASL newsletter Banzai!! 

In the pages of Hit the Beach!, ASLers could find product reviews, scenario analyses, scenario play aids, interviews, tactical tips, player profiles, historical articles, book reviews, rules variants, designers notes, AARs, tournament news and reports, articles about every aspect of the hobby from counter storage to play by e-mail. 

SoCalASL made Hit the Beach! available to ASLers everywhere on its Web site as freely downloadable PDF files.  Unfortunately, no issue of Hit the Beach! appears to have been published since late 2004; the newsletter seems to have finally gone the way of all ASL newsletters--to the great After Action Report in the sky.  It will be missed.

Commentary:  In 2003, the Southern California ASL Club released a small but innovative scenario pack, featuring 6 full-color scenarios, most of them tournament-sized.  One of the scenarios (MP1, The Wolves' Last Tooth), features Italians and Greeks fighting it out in Albania, a second scenario is a Bulge action, and the remaining four are all set in the Hürtgen Forest in November 1944.  One of the scenarios (MP2, Curtain Kall) uses the Nphum Ga map from the ASL Annual '97; the others all use geomorphic maps.

What makes the scenarios innovative is that all of them except MP1 feature partially choosable orders of battle.  For example, in MP3 (Holy Ground), the U.S. player must choose one of two different starting orders of battle.  He then chooses one of two different infantry reinforcement groups, and one of two different armor reinforcement groups.  The German player starts by choosing three set up groups from three different sets of two; he also chooses one of two Guns and three AFVs from among three pairs of two.  In MP5 (The Rats of Hamich), the German player has a specified starting force, but may choose three of five different fortification options, one of three different armor groups, and one of three different sets of guns.  The American player starts off with several leaders and must pick four infantry platoons from six choices, as well as one of four differently composed armor groups. 

These choosable OBs make the scenarios very replayable, even though most of them take place on small map areas, because the force compositions can vary so much.  Players will find themselves encouraged to try different combinations of forces.  It is a very innovative idea.

Several of the scenarios (including MP1 and MP5) are quite interesting and fun to play.  Unfortunately, with the exception of MP2, all of the scenarios in the pack are unbalanced to varying degrees--some of them very unbalanced.  Perhaps this type of scenario needed particularly heavy playtesting, or perhaps the Melee Pack playtesters had a somewhat unusual playing style (it is interesting to note that in all of the unbalanced scenarios, it is the defending force that has the advantage).

In addition to the scenarios, the pack also included "Scenario Cheat Sheets" for all but one of the scenarios.  Essentially, these "cheat sheets" just has counter and Chapter H information for all AFVs in the scenarios.  Most players will probably not use these, so they seem like an added expense without much benefit.

The Melee Pack was definitely a worthy experiment, and SoCalASL deserves full credit for creating innovative and attractive scenarios.  However, it would be nice if SoCalASL could release revised versions of the unbalanced scenarios.

Commentary:  The Southern California ASL Club followed up its Melee Pack I with a sequel the following year.  The second Melee Pack had much the same format and content (a small scenario pack with tournament-sized, full color scenarios and "Scenario Cheat Sheets" for most of the scenarios).  However, the scenarios were more varied in their subject material than in the first Melee Pack.  One scenario features U.S. vs. German combat in the Bulge, another features a British vs. German action in Normandy, three scenarios take place on the East Front, and one travels quite far afield to represent a 1941 border skirmish between Peruvian and Ecuadorian troops!  Also, the choosable Orders of Battle from the first Melee Pack didn't make it to the sequel.

Of the scenarios, five take place on geomorphic mapboards, while one, MP11 (Vulcan's Forge), uses the Red Barricades map.  The Normandy scenario (MP8, Crater Lake) features AVREs, while MP9 (No Crying in Crimea) uses desert boards to represent Steppe Terrain.  MP12 (A Worthy Adversary) features air support for both sides.  The Melee Pack II scenarios have not received as much play as their predecessors; the one exception is MP11 (Vulcan's Forge), which is quite popular, despite the Russians having something of an advantage. 

The pack also includes the allegedly "wildly popular" Scenario Cheat Sheets, which are really nothing more than counter and Chapter H information for the various guns and AFVs in the scenarios.  Perhaps they are "wildly popular" in southern California, but they seem to be little used elsewhere.  It would probably be better if these cheat sheets were made available as downloadable PDF files for those players who like them, without adding to the expense of the scenario pack itself.

Melee Pack II was a nice scenario pack--small but interesting, with a varied group of scenarios and situations. 

Commentary:  After an unexpectedly lengthy delay, the Southern California ASL Club released a third scenario pack in early 2008, some three and a half years afer the previous one.  Like its predecessors, Melee Pack III is a smallish scenario pack that focuses on tournament-playable scenarios.  The scenarios--designed by eight different people--are printed on thick cardstock in color, using VASL graphics for counter and map art.  Unlike its predecessors, it does not include any scenario play aid cards, which is no real loss, as the play aids did not seem to have been used much by players.

The seven scenarios represent a mix of actions.  Two are set in Burma (one in 1942, featuring British and Japanese, and the other in 1944 with Americans and Japanese), one in France 1945, one in Norway in 1944 (a German-Soviet scenario), and the rest are set in the Soviet Union (1941, 1942, 1943).  There is still a hint of the "choose your own OB" options that dominated the first Melee Pack in some of the scenarios.

The smallest scenario is the 4 1/2 turn MP13 (The Blue House), which uses a single DASL board and features 6 American squads against 3 1/2 Waffen SS squads.  Most of the other scenarios are small as well, though not that tiny.  The meatiest scenario is probably MP16 (Power Struggle), a snowy light urban action pitting 17 Soviet squads and 3 T-34/85s against 10 German squads and two Guns.  The scenario has an interesting victory condition; the Soviet player can win by successfully shutting off the power in the Power Station.

One scenario features OBA (with pre-set accuracy rolls that vary according to the turn), but in general, the scenarios are SSR-light.  One interesting exception is MP18 (Marsh Madness) has one interesting SSR:  prior to set up, the Soviet player decides where to place three Brush overlays (in addition, his entire force sets up HIP).

The scenarios are likely to see a fair amount of tournament play, given their size and subject matter.