Publisher/Date:
Multi-Man Publishing (2022)
Product Type:
Accessory
Country of Origin:
United States
Contents:
Spiral-bound 42-page (inc. covers) booklet of reproductions of ASL charts and tables.
In early 2022, MMP released a spiral-bound 42-page (inc. covers) collection of reproductions of the charts and tables for ASL that originally were printed on chapter dividers and other cardstock inserts for the ASL rules binder. This release accompanied a new version of its Pocket Rulebook and a similar softbound version of the Chapter H rules. The three products can be purchased independently or as a set, typically known as the “Pocket Bundle.”
First, the dirty deets. The cost of the Pocket Charts, as of this writing, is $20.00, which is relatively low. That’s useful because with wear and tear this item might have to be replaced from time to time. The booklet is 7.5″ x 9.5″, the same size as the softbound Pocket rules volumes, although it itself is not softbound but spiral-bound with a plastic spiral. This means that it is not easy to rearrange the pages to suit your own personal needs, but it also makes it less likely that pages will come out of their own volition. They can, however, tear out through use, which would not happen with a softbound booklet.
The front and back cover seem to use a light cardstock. The covers are not laminated and are vulnerable to wear and tear. The inside front and back covers contain the 1/2″ and 5/8″ counter keys that originally appeared on the inside covers of the 3-ring binder for the binder version of the rulebook. Interior pages are, unfortunately, paper rather than cardstock, which means the binder comes with a certain fragility.
The charts are ordered by chapter, with infantry charts first, followed by terrain, etc. The exceptions are the back cover, which has the basic infantry combat charts: IFT & DRMs, Close Combat, Heat of Battle, Ambush, etc., and the last pages before the back cover, which contain the most common armor and ordnance charts. There’s no explanation for why this is so. It would have been very useful 1) to have the pages numbered and 2) to have at the front of the book a chart/table index which lists what tables are on what pages. This was not really possible with the original system of charts and tables, printed on independent dividers and inserts that would be in an unpredictable order, but it is certainly possible here–and needed.
So far as can be seen, the charts and tables include only the “basic” charts and tables from the original rulebook, plus those from later core modules (like PTO charts) and the Korea module Forgotten War. This means that useful charts and tables printed in other products are not included. Most regrettable is the absence of the halftrack play aids that appeared in Special Ops Issue #3 (Summer 2012), which are about the only thing that make understandable the removal of MG & SW from various American and German halftracks. It should be part of the core ASL charts and tables package.
The charts and tables seem to be printed “as is,” rather than reconfigured, re-arranged, or changed to better fit the smaller-sized booklet pages. This is unfortunate, because the small print that accompanies some of the charts and tables is now even smaller–in some cases, too small to be easily read. For example, the FP or DR Modifiers subsection of the IFT is printed in really tiny type that is difficult to read. So too is most of the type on the Heat of Battle table. A lot of the charts and tables with small type should have been enlarged, even if it meant adding a few pages to the booklet. There’s a lack of user-friendliness to this product because of the small size of much of the text–smaller than the text in the Pocket Rulebook itself.
Taken on its own merits, the Pocket Charts has value–it is small, lightweight and portable. It’s certainly less cumbersome than all the big folding sheets of cardstock on which the original charts and tables were printed. Having said that, the flaws are also clear: all pages should be cardstock, the pages need to be numbered, there needs to be a chart index, some of the charts need to be enlarged so that the text is easier to read, and useful charts like the halftracks charts should be included. If future iterations of this product can include those features, this can be a really valuable accessory. If they do not, then a the product will be less useful.
Up to this point, there has been no comparison between the ASL Pocket Charts and their obvious competitor, the Rat Pocket Charts published by Le Franc Tireur since 2013. The Rat Pocket charts are also a collection of charts and tables for ASL. Moreover, they have gone through several different editions and versions over the years as errors have been correct and LFT have incorporated a ton of user feedback. One might have thought that MMP would have cast an interested eye at the Rat Pocket Charts to see what useful features they could borrow, but it appears they did not.
When one compares MMP’s ASL Pocket Charts to the Rat Pocket Charts (or at least the 3rd Edition, Premium Version #2 set), the ASL Pocket Charts come in second in most categories. Let’s make the comparisons:
- Cost. Here the ASL Pocket Charts come out a winner, as they are considerably cheaper than the Rat Pocket Charts (which also have to be shipped from Europe, either directly or to retailers).
- Size: If one aligns the spines of the booklets vertically for comparison, the Rat Pocket Charts are taller (at 11.75″, compared to 9.5″) but narrower (at 4.75″, compared to 7.5″). The pages turn vertically on the Rat Charts, horizontally on the ASL Pocket Charts. The Rat Charts take up less space on the table. The ASL Pocket Charts can often fit on one page what takes two pages for the Rat Charts. Overall, though, they are probably equally handy. Perhaps the Rat Charts have a very slight edge here, but that may be a matter of taste.
- Durability: MMP’s ASL Pocket Charts are not laminated at all and only the covers are cardstock. The Rat Pocket charts are all cardstock; moreover, the outer covers and the first two interior pages (which will get the most use) are also laminated for extra protection. Where the ASL Pocket Charts are spiral-bound (also known as coil binding), the Rat Charts are bound using double writing/Wire O twin loop binding. It would take a printing expert to say which is better, but they seem relatively equivalent. Overall, the Rat Pocket Charts win this comparison hands down.
- Readability: Overall, the Rat Pocket Charts have fewer readability issues than the ASL Pocket Charts do, primarily because the Rat Charts generally avoid extra-tiny type.
- Usability: The lack of page numbers and a chart/table index makes it hard to find charts in the ASL Pocket Charts. The Rat Pocket Charts also lack a chart/table index (though they do have page numbers), but they partially make up for it by having labeled and color-coded tabs that can usually get you to at least the vicinity of the chart you are looking for. Both products have color-coded pages. Overall, the Rat Pocket Charts have the edge here.
- Reliability: The ASL Pocket Charts are official charts, most of which have been around for many years, more than long enough to get most mistakes out (though there are still a couple of mistakes of omission). The initial versions of the Rat Pocket Charts had a fair number of errors creep in, which is perhaps to be expected when one is trying to recreate dozens of often very complicated charts. However, most of those were discovered and removed in subsequent editions. Still, there are some odd omissions, such as the absence of the FP and DR modifier subsections of the IFT, which is kind of important. Overall, MMP’s product gets the nod here.
- Comprehensiveness: There are more charts and tables in the ASL Pocket Charts than in the Rat Pocket Charts, though both have all the important ones.
- Innovation: The ASL Pocket Charts are straight reprints of the original charts and tables, so zero innovation here (even the concept is not an innovation, since LFT came up with it a decade earlier). In contrast, LFT assiduously listened to consumer feedback to make improvements in their charts and tables. For example, on the IFT they do not have the Vehicle row and and the FP row adjacent to each other (where they can often be confused with each other). They separate them and visually distinguish them in multiple ways, making confusion almost an impossibility. Another example is the Terrain Chart. The designers of the original Terrain Chart made a big mistake when they decided to order the terrain types by their order of appearance in the ASL Rulebook rather than alphabetically. No one memorizes the terrain type order of appearance, though, so players constantly have to scan through the Terrain Chart to find the specific type of terrain about which they are seeking information. Avalon Hill and MMP have stuck with this bad decision for nearly 40 years. LFT, in contrast, reordered the Terrain Chart alphabetically, so finding any type of terrain is a breeze. This is the sort of innovation that MMP should also be seeking (or at least aping when others think of it first).
- Attractiveness: Perhaps the least important quality, but nevertheless something that is appreciated. The ASL Pocket Charts are bare-boned and functional. The Rat Pocket Charts were designed to be attractive as well as functional and succeed in both.
At this point, the Rat Pocket Charts seem to offer a number of advantages that the ASL Pocket Charts can’t easily match as is (except cost). However, if the ASL Pocket Charts are improved in future iterations, it might be a much closer race.
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