Publisher/Date:
Multi-Man Publishing (2023)
Product Type:
Scenario/Map Pack
Country of Origin:
United States
Contents:
2 8" x 22" unmounted geoboards (g, h), 4 pages charts, 4 pages rules, 1 countersheet with 220 1/2" and 32 5/8" die-cut counters, 8 scenarios on cardstock.
The Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit Expansion Pack #3, released three years after the series’ second iteration, looks a lot like its predecessor, as well as ASLSK Bonus Pack #2. All three products provide 8 new scenarios for ASLSK, along with new geoboards. The Expansion Packs, however, contain counters as well (and rules for any new vehicles). All require ownership of most previously-published ASL products in order to play the scenarios within.
EP3 introduces two new geoboards to the ASLSK system (and, by extension, to the ASL system as well). Board g is the more interesting of the two. It features a thin, spread out roadside village adjacent to the World’s Largest Field. It’s a field so large that you know there are Children of the Corn lurking in it. If you hate counting movement expenditures by halves or counting hindrance hexes, this is definitely not the geoboard for you. Board h is more mundane. Its dominant feature is a large 1-level hill with grain fields and orchards on it. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Board 11.
The pack also includes a single sheet of counter.s The 32 5/8″ counters include 10 German AFVs, 7 German Guns, 9 Soviet AFVs, and 6 British AFVs. There are 4 pages of Chapter H “lite” rules for using these with ASLSK. Most of the 220 1/2″ counters are concealment counters, concealment “lite” rules having been introduced in ASLSK #4. There are also some Waffen SS personnel counters, Italian personnel counters, American personnel counters, British and Allied Minor ATRs, and various extra game markers. Included with everything else are 4 pages of charts and tables, though probably the only stuff on it that ASLSK players won’t already have is the To Hit information for any new vehicles.
The 8 scenarios follow the “mixed-bag” style, depicting actions from a variety of theaters. Situations include Poland 1939 (Poles vs. Germans), Soviet Union 1941 (Soviets vs. Germans [2 scenarios]), the Gilbert Islands 1943 (Americans vs. Japanese), Sicily 1943 (British vs. Italians), Italy 1943 (Americans vs. Germans), France 1944 (British vs. Germans), and the Marianas Islands 1944 (Americans vs. Japanese).
Four of the scenarios are small actions, one is medium-sized, and three are large in size. To play all the included scenarios, players must have ASLSK geoboards g, h, l, m, and v.
In terms of rules alone, every scenario requires players to have mastered the rules for all four ASLSK modules, primarily because regardless of whether they have Guns or AFVs, the scenarios all use the concealment (lite) rules introduced in ASLSK #4. This is something for ASLSK players who haven’t “advanced” that far up to consider.
That brings us to the audience for this product. Ironically, newbies who want to learn ASLSK are the last audience for this product. The first audience consists of the committed ASLSK players who buy every ASLSK product, because only they will have all the components needed to play these scenarios. The second audience consists of ASLers, who may possibly never play any of the scenarios but simply buy the product for the geoboards. New ASLSK players just won’t have the needed counters or, in some cases, also the maps or the rules, to play many of the scenarios here.
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