10.2022 Covered

Publisher/Date:
Broken Ground Design (2022)

Product Type:
Scenario/Map Pack

Country of Origin:
Canada

Contents:
13 scenarios on color cardstock, 1 8" x 22" unmounted geoboard (BG1).

Commentary:

Covered is a scenario/map pack published in late 2022 by Broken Ground Design.  Featuring 13 mixed-bag scenarios and a single 8″ x 22″ geoboard (BG1), it marks a departure for Broken Ground design, which previously was known primarily for accessories such as alternative countersheets and overlays.  Its only previous venture into scenario publication was an odd little product, the Map Pad Pack, which featured four scenarios and a tiny map printed on a mousepad.  Covered, however, is an actual full-fledged scenario pack, plus a new board to boot.  Why Covered is called Covered is an open question.  It may have something to do with the fact that the scenario pack boasts that all of the scenarios use overlays, so maybe the boards used are “covered” with new terrain?  That’s just a wild-assed guess.  Why anyone would use the fact that lots of overlays are necessary as a marketing tool is anybody’s guess, given that most ASLers view overlays at best as a necessary evil.  It’s a little bit like an advertisement reading “High School!  Now with Acne!”

All 13 scenarios use the BG1 board, so players better be able to tolerate it.  The good news is that it is well-made and seemingly accurately cut.  The artwork is good and acceptably close to “official” geoboard artwork, though the wooden buildings are a shade too dark.  The board does have an odd hex number style.  Whereas official geoboards use black hex numbering on most terrain types, and white hex numbering on dark terrain types such as woods, BG1 has no fewer than four styles of hex numbering. The “standard” style, used on open ground and brush hexes, is black numbering with a white outline.  The second style, used over grain and road depictions, is pure black numbering. The third style, pure white, is used with woods hexes. The fourth style, used for a single hex (and thus possibly a mistake), is white with a black outline. Most players would probably not even notice all of this.

The contents of the board are a little more disappointing, as BG1 consists of a mundane mix of grain, orchards, woods, and brush, long tiny village hugging one side of the board.  The whole thing seems rather generic, with nothing that particularly distinguishes itself from other run-of-the-mill boards.

About half the scenarios are designed by Alan Findlay, the person behind Broken Ground Design, and a first-time scenario designer (according to the ASL Scenario Archive), and the remainder are designed by several different scenario designers, most of them veteran designers. Collectively, they represent quite a mixed bag. Four of the scenarios are not even set in World War II but rather the Russo-Polish War (two scenarios), the Spanish Civil War, and the Korean War.  Of the WWII scenarios, three are set in the 1939 Polish campaign.  There are also both East Front and West Front scenarios, but no PTO scenarios.

All of the scenario cards use Broken Ground’s alternative artwork for counters, which is a little irritating, because there is nothing that explains differences between the alternative artwork and real artwork.  So, for example, BG4 (Wild, Irregular Gunfight) gives the Polish side 3-3-7 1st-line squad counters that are green (I think, though they may be blue) with a brown outline.  Are these Chinese counters?  Counters that only appear in some Broken Ground counter pack?  Partisans (despite the 1st-line indicator)? I think they are intended to be partisan counters, but I’m just not sure. There’s another scenario, BG9 (Testing Minenknackers), which features a partisan force that use counters with a brown-on-brown two-tone color scheme. The force overall is identified as partisans, so presumably the 3-3-7 squads in this force are partisans, despite the 1st-line indicator. However, there are also 4-4-7 squads, also marked as 1st-line, but which have an underlined morale factor. Are these Soviet 1st-line squads intended to be used as partisans? Do they have a lower back morale? If a third party company is going to use alternative counter artwork for OOBs, they need to make sure every little element is fully explained. Two of the scenarios actually require Broken Ground counters for the OOBs, though this is only mentioned on the card that serves as the back of the product. This is not mentioned on the scenario cards, so players may not even notice this requirement. Even if they do, the scenario cards don’t specify which counters are actually needed, so players will have to figure this out on their own as well.  Finally, the vehicle and gun IDs on the scenario card artwork are often simply too small for me to read them without a magnifying glass, even though there was plenty of room to make them bigger.

The first two scenarios are set during the Russo-Polish War of 1920, as the young Soviet Union and the young Poland fought over what their border would be. BG1 (A New Kind of Cavalry) is interesting primarily because the Poles get 5 FT-17s, and any scenario with FT-17s is a fun scenario because if you can do anything with them you feel a great sense of accomplishment. However, both sides are restricted by an SSR that can greatly limit movement.  BG2 (First Horse Army) features a cavalry vs. cavalry action, with the “Bolsheviks” having 17 5-2-7 squads, 4 leaders, and no SW, and the Poles having 18 4-3-7 squads, 5 leaders, and no SW. As both sides have no SW and very short ranges, they will have no choice but to close with each other. An SSR gives players incentive not to dismount, so units will mostly be staying on their horses.  All of these factors really limit tactical options.

BG3 (Ebro Tide) is a large Spanish Civil War scenario, with 21 Republican squads attacking 15 Nationalist squads. With no AFVs and very limited SW, it will play pretty quickly despite the size.  BG4 (Wild, Irregular Gunfight) is a Polish 1939 scenario featuring an early war Ss attack on a mixed Polish infantry force that gets partisan reinforcements through an irritating mechanism that requires a deck of cards.  BG5 (Fraustadt Frolic), another Polish scenario, features a clash between two light forces (infantry and motorcyclists on one side, and infantry, cavalry, and light tanks on the other), with the Poles on the attack. The final Polish scenario, BG6 (Last Hurra!! [yes, there are two exclamation points]), is another clash between light forces–Polish infantry and cavalry, and German infantry and two wagon-drawn Guns.

BG7 (Suxy Riders) is a France 1940 scenario featuring a German motorized infantry attack on a French position. Both sides get a secret random reinforcement.  BG8 (Germans in Gherman) takes players to the early days of Operation Barbarossa, featuring a “classic” East Front-style of action with 18 1st-line and Conscript Soviet squads, supported by 6 tin-can AFVs, attacking a German force of 12 squads with two AT guns. Fast forward a couple of years and we get BG9 (Testing Minenknackers), depicting a German attempt (using 2nd-line squads and crappy AFVs) to eliminate a large partisan force that ostensibly also had a tank.

BG10 (Muselmanen Mutiny) switches back to France in late 1943, when a Muslim SS unit revolted against its German keepers, forcing them to put down the mutiny.  I believe a Schwerpunkt scenario previously covered this action as well. It has the novelty value of pitting German against “German,” but requires black SS counters. BG11 (Just Another Day) is set in Germany in 1945, pitting a small force of British against a small force of Germans.

BG12 (All the Blue Bonnets) is a seemingly very similar small scenario, also set in Germany in 1945, using the same board, and also featuring British and Germans.  However, there’s a confusing error on the scenario card, as the German force is ostensibly misidentified and the set up instructions are wrong.  Instead of what is on the scenario card, those elements should supposedly read:

GERMAN Elements of 84th Infanterie Division (ELR 2) Set up on board BG1 on/north of hexrow 8. [errata found here]

This errata brings with it its own question, as the 84th Infanterie Division now replaces what was originally described as the Räber Garrison. However, that is also the description for the German force in scenario BG11 (Just Another Day). But this seems unlikely, as the town of Räber appears in BG12, not BG11. So it is still not clear which German unit(s) is fighting in BG11 or BG12. Hopefully, the set up errata is correct, even if the unit ID is not.

There is no errata slip in the product, nor–so far as I could find–is there any errata at all for Covered on the Broken Ground website.  I only discovered this ID and set-up errata purely by accident, when trying to find out when Covered was released. It is mentioned only in a thread on an ASL discussion forum. Obviously, this is not how errata should be handled.  There needs to be an errata section on the Broken Ground website, at the very least. Some producers of ASL material would also make available for download a fixed version of the scenario, or “sticky errata” that people could print out onto a sheet of sticker paper and apply to the scenario card.

BG132 (Wonmun Whippin’), the final scenario, is set in Korea in 1950,  pitting South Korean Marines, such as they are, against a North Korean force.

The scenarios collectively have a nice blend of small, medium and large-sized actions. No scenarios use OBA, Air Support, or Night rules. To play all the scenarios, one needs BG1, obviously, as well as geoboards 3, 16, 18, 56, 57, 58, 70, and 85.

As of this writing, the scenarios of Covered have not received enough play to be able to determine from ROAR results if there are any particularly popular or well-balanced scenarios.

Covered is an interesting departure for Broken Ground Design. It certainly proved that it can design and produce a nice-looking geoboard. For its next scenario pack venture, though, it may need to pay more attention to editing and clarity on scenario cards.

 

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