|
Unofficial ASL Products | |
| Tactiques | ||
| Periodicals | ||
| On-Line Materials | ||
| World of ASL Main Page | ||
| Producer Name: Tactiques (1991-1995) |
| Still Active?: No |
| Commentary: Most ASLers today
know of "Tactiques" purely as a large set of freely downloadable scenarios
available from several places on the Web. Those downloads, however,
came from somewhere, and the place from where they came is far more
interesting: the French-language ASL magazine Tactiques, published
twice a year from 1991-1995. Tactiques was remarkable for being the
first third party ASL magazine, pre-dating American equivalents such as
Critical Hit Magazine, Backblast, Time on Target and others by a number of
years. For most of its run, it was the only ASL magazine
other than the ASL Annual.
Moreover, Tactiques was no mere newsletter, but a true magazine of impressive physical quality and substance. Upon its debut, and for several years afterwards, there were no other third party products of equivalent quality (although it was expensive). Its only disadvantage was that it was published in French only, so ASLers in most other countries could not enjoy its content (although often the scenarios were still playable despite the language barrier, as long as they had few SSRs). Tactiques was the creation of Théophile Monnier and Jean-Luc Bechennec, two Paris-area ASLers who began designing scenarios in late 1990 and decided to start an ASL fanzine. They tested the waters with a photocopied "Issue #0;" when the reception proved positive, they revised the issue and professionally printed the first issue of Tactiques. This cost $2,400 for a print run of 1,000 (subsequent issues had varying print runs of either 600 or 1,000); the initial funding came from a wargaming association, the Cercle de stratégie, and from Monnier, Sylvain Ferreira and Laurent Forest. Bechennec supplied the computer hardware. Each issue contained a variety of ASL-related articles and a number of ASL scenarios. The quality of the scenarios varied considerably; at first, most of the designers were still relative ASL novices. But the very success of Tactiques gave them more experience and also attracted other scenario designers. Tactiques, along with the ASL News, really helped to create the French-Belgian ASL community. Monnier served as the first editor, but he left to eventually create the wargaming magazine Vae Victis; as a result, Bechennec stepped up and became editor. Unfortunately, Tactiques ceased publication after their 9th issue. The work involved in creating such a publication, especially with its ambitious publishing schedule, was too much for the relatively few people involved in all the design, playtesting, and publishing work. However, Tactiques did leave two legacies. First, many of its readers and contributors would go on to further achievements in the ASL world; it is probably safe to say that the current ASL magazine Le Franc Tireur owes a debt to Tactiques. Second, it left behind 75 scenarios and numerous other ASL inventions, which did not become consigned to oblivion but rather gained widespread distribution around the ASL world as a result of their translation into English and conversion to a downloadable file format. As a result, far more people have been able to see, play, and enjoy the Tactiques scenarios than its creators had originally dreamt of. For a couple of issues, Tactiques also printed English translations of its magazine content. Issues #6 and #7 had this supplement; it is unclear if any subsequent issues did. These appear to have been fairly rare. |
| Title: Tactiques | |||||||||||||||||||
| Publisher/Date: Le Cercle de stratégie (1991-1993, Issues 1-4); SARL Multisim (Issues 5-6); Issues 7-9 were published by l'Association des Stratèges Ludiques and distributed by SARL Multisim. | Product Type: Magazine (published twice a year, in June and December) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Contents: Magazine, scenarios, occasional overlay insert | |||||||||||||||||||
| Commentary: Tactiques debuted in
December 1991, edited by Théophile Monnier, assisted by Jean-Luc Bechennec,
Laurent Forest, and Sylvain Ferreira. Published in black and white
throughout its run of 9 issues, it contained a mix of historical articles;
ASL related articles, news, and reviews; and ASL scenarios, campaign
games, and the like. It occasionally included color overlays of good
quality. All content, including scenario content, is in French. Each issue contained a number of scenarios, usually 8 or 10, which were done in "official" ASL format and used "official" ASL artwork. Issues
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Images:
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| Title: Tactiques Scenarios, English Translations | |||||
| Publisher/Date: Coastal Fortress Gaming Group (circa 2001) | Product Type: Downloadable scenarios in PDF format. | ||||
| Contents: Scenarios, campaign game, overlays | |||||
| Commentary: The Tactiques
scenarios might have been lost to obscurity, had it not been for the
(sadly now defunct) Coastal Fortress Web site, which embarked (with
permission) on a project to translate all of the Tactiques scenarios into
English and make them freely available. This had to involve a
tremendous amount of work, but their efforts have been much appreciated by
ASLers the whole world over.
The scenarios used scanned graphics from the original scenarios combined with new English text. The image quality of the scenarios is definitely poorer than the originals, but they are in English and free, so it is hard to complain. Coastal Fortress in no more, but there are several places where their translations can be found: SoCalASL Club Web Site. Includes all 74 scenarios, errata, the Stalnié Prostori campaign game, and the Reichstag mini-campaign game (including overlay). View from the Trenches. Massive Zip file. Includes all 74 scenarios, errata, and the Reichstag mini-campaign game. Histofig. Includes all 74 scenarios, errata, the Stalnié Prostori campaign game, the PBDYO system, and the Reichstag mini-campaign game (including overlay). |
|||||
Images:
|
|||||
Back to World of ASL Main Page
