Alternative Titles/Edition History:
aka Basic Training: ASL Starter Kit Magazine Issue One
Publisher/Date:
Multi-Man Publishing (2025)
Product Type:
Periodical
Country of Origin:
United States
Contents:
48-page magazine, 12 scenarios on cardstock, 3 ASLSK player aid cards, 1 half-sheet of die-cut counters (90 1/2" counters and 32 5/8" counters, for a total of 122 counters).
Basic Training Issue One is the debut issue of a new irregular periodical published by MMP, the undisputed champion of “we’ll put one out whenever we get around to it” magazines (this is at least the 5th schedule-less magazine MMP is currently producing, to say nothing of past ventures). Basic Training is strictly–and we mean strictly–limited to ASLSK-related content. According to MMP, they had been “thinking about” doing an ASLSK publication for a decade, and apparently finally got around to doing one.
The magazine is full color, with a thick cover (thank goodness) and semi-gloss pages of decent stock. The physical production is quite good, including copious diagrams and illustrations.
Patterned after the ASL Journal, Basic Training includes various ASLSK-related articles, as well as a passel of scenarios (and a small number of counters, as well as player aid charts, but no geoboards). The first article, by Craig Renier is “Guides to Learning SK: For Players New and Old,” which is a bit ironic, given that ASLSK began with the goal of helping people learn ASL and, as such, is a fairly simple game (especially if limited to ASLSK #1 rules). Apparently, though, people need help in learning it. This is as good a time as any to announce Desperation Morale’s new product, the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit Starter Kit, or ASLSKSK, which will be the first in a series of modules, expansion packs, bonus packs and magazines designed to help people learn ASLSK. Wish us well.
The bulk of the magazine, though, consists of a single (very) long game replay of ASLSK scenario S2 (War of the Rats), with Greg Schmittgens as the German player, Andrew Maly as the Soviet player, and Perry Cocke offering “neutral” commentary. Game replays can be very interesting, both for beginning and veteran players (for somewhat different reasons), and War of the Rats is a scenario almost all ASLSK players will have played. However, this replay is 22 pages long, which is a lot, taking up basically half of the entire magazine. Though there are illustrations as well as action logs, it is the very extensive commentary that takes up most of the space. Editing this down would have freed up the publication for more articles. Additionally, there is a supplementary “Behind the Numbers” article that analyzes the dice results of the replay, which effectively means that the replay is a full 24 pages long. It’s a good replay, but that’s simply too long.
The magazine also includes an article by ASLSK creator Ken Dunn on routing, as well as an article by Neal Ulen and Stephen Stewart on, um, well, it’s also on routing. Vincent Maresca contributes an article on the employment of half-squads, while Neal Ulen returns, with the help of Scott Rowland, to provide a lengthy “tactical perspective” of the ASLSK HASL Decision at Elst. Finally, there is a very short piece by Mark Stevens on “Solo ASL Starter Kit,” which is possibly not necessary, as the majority of wargamers do the majority of their wargaming in solo play, and this very likely includes ASLSK players as well.
Of course, as with purchasers of the ASL Journal, most people buying this product are likely primarily interested in the scenario content. Basic Training comes with 12 scenarios on 7 scenario cards. The reason there is an extra scenario card is because 5 of the 12 scenarios take up more than a full page, primarily because they have large numbers of SSRs. This is an appearance in ASLSK of a negative trend that has been occurring in full official ASL for a while now: MMP’s seeming difficulties in fitting scenarios on a single page. More and more, MMP scenarios use 2 scenario cards. While this is a frustrating trend even in full ASL (especially because MMP does not continue card overruns on the back of the card but rather puts them on other cards entirely), its appearance in ASLSK–a game system designed to be easy and quick to play–should certainly give one pause. It should be a rare ASLSK scenario that cannot fit on a single page of a scenario card.
The scenarios themselves are a “mixed-bag” selection, featuring actions from a variety of times and places. These include Crete 1941 (New Zealanders vs. Germans); Soviet Union 1942 (Soviets vs. Romanians/Germans and Soviets vs. Germans), 1943 (Soviets vs. Germans), and 1944 (Soviets vs. Finns and Germans); Tunisia 1943 (French and British vs. Italians and Germans); Italy 1943 (Italians vs. Germans) and 1944 (Americans vs. Germans); France 1944 (British vs. Germans [2]); Belgium 1944 (Americans vs. Germans; and Germany 1945 (Americans vs. Germans).
Eight of the 12 scenarios include extensive SSRs, making them not so “starterish.” MMP says that the Basic Training scenarios were designed to “stretch the players’…muscles” and warns that they are “not intended for the Starter Kit player just starting out.” So, essentially, the scenarios in this product are Advanced Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit (AASLSK) scenarios. What primarily makes them complicated is the insertion of many ASL concepts into the scenarios, which can only be done in ASLSK by adding SSRs designed to approximate the effects of the ASL rules. While doing so may add additional flavor into the generally bland ASLSK mix, it does come at the expense of ease and playability. This is mitigated somewhat by the fact that 7 of the 12 scenarios are small in size, while only 1 is medium-sized and 4 are large.
Most of the scenarios are more or less standard tactical combat fare, but one of them definitely is not normal. It’s a very strange scenario: S109 (Checking out of Gran Sasso). This tiny scenario (only 3.5 turns long, and taking place on a miniscule part of a geoboard) represents Otto Skorzeny’s attempt, using gliders, to “rescue” Mussolini after his overthrow in September 1943. As such, there is actually a counter explicitly to represent Mussolini, as well as one that clearly represents Skorzeny. This scenario is problematic for several reasons. The first is the matter of historicity; in the actual event, there was no combat. The Italian security forces guarding Mussolini offered no resistance to the Germans. Neither side fired any shots. So how is this an ASLSK scenario? The second is the matter of taste: simply put, major Nazi/fascist leaders (Hitler, Himmler, Goering, Mussolini, etc.) should not appear in ASL or ASLSK. That’s taking ASL(SK) to a place it shouldn’t go. Including this scenario was a very questionable decision.
To play all the scenarios in Basic Training, one needs to have ASLSK geoboards p, q, t, u, v, w, x, y and z. Players will also need American, Soviet, German, Finnish, French, British, and Italian counters. Essentially, players will need to own or have access to ASLSK #1, ASLSK #2, ASLSK #3, and ASLSK Expansion Pack #1 (2nd Edition). These do not provide all the counters needed for the scenario, so MMP also includes a half-sheet of counters, with 40 German counters (primarily SS counters, plus 10 vehicles and guns), 46 Axis Minor counters, 2 British counters, 4 American counters, 1 Italian counter, and 19 markers. The magazine also comes with 3 player aid cards, which can presumably be considered the most complete and up-to-date version of the ASLSK charts and tables (from terrain effects to AFV listings).
One final note is worth making. ASLSK was created in order to help people learn and play ASL. Now, its early success propelled MMP to decide to continue ASLSK as a product line of its own, beyond what was needed for introducing people to ASL. However, it’s pretty clear that MMP would benefit from ASLSK players “graduating” to full ASL, because if they did so, they would buy ASL products, which exist in far greater number than ASLSK products and are typically much higher-priced, providing more money with their sales than ASLSK products do (MMP gets more money, for example, from selling a copy of Beyond Valor than it does from selling a copy of ASLSK #1). An ideal progression for MMP would be for someone to get into ASLSK, buy a whole lot of ASLSK stuff, then get into ASL and buy a whole lot more ASL stuff: lots of products sold [insert cash register sound here]. However, Basic Training contains no material, not a single article, about helping people move from ASLSK to ASL. It would be so easy to include such material, but MMP whiffed on the opportunity. They did not even include any promotional/marketing materials to entice people to ASL. MMP instead seems to want to segregate the two product lines, ASLSK and ASL, rather than integrate them and produce some needed synergy to benefit themselves and the ASL community as a whole. It’s something to think about.
Leave A Reply