Publisher/Date:
North Texas ASL (2024)
Product Type:
Scenario Pack
Country of Origin:
United States
Contents:
6 scenarios on cardstock
For a Few Scenarios More is a small scenario pack from North Texas ASL, appearing four years after their inaugural effort, A Fistful of Scenarios, which was much the same in nature. A small pack, it contains only six scenarios, though one of those scenarios appears in two different versions.
Like its predecessor, FFSM features scenario cards using the same layout that appears in the March Madness scenario packs. It’s a fairly low-effort style of layout. The cards sport no color where it is useful (board and unit representations), while they don’t have unit graphics, represent squads with a bare 4-6-7 (not including any superscripts, underlines, or squad types), identify vehicles only by vehicle name (not vehicle ID, gun type, MP allowance, MGs, etc.), and so forth. One can’t compare it to the scenario cards for a product from Bounding Fire Productions, Le Franc Tireur, or even Schwerpunkt.
The scenarios are mixed-bag in nature, featuring a variety of actions, including Albania 1939 (Albanians vs. Italians) & 1941 (Greeks vs. Italians), the Soviet Union 1941 (Soviets vs. Germans), Libya 1942 (British vs. Germans), Mongolia 1944 (Americans & “Mongolians” vs. Japanese, or Americans vs. “Mongolians” vs. Japanese), and China 1944 (Nationalist Chinese vs. Japanese). Obviously, the nature of most of these actions means that the pack will appeal primarily to lovers of obscure actions and situations and not as much to other ASLers.
- NTX07 (And Then There Was One Nation) depicts the over-before-you-know-it Italian invasion of Albania in the spring of 1939, an action also depicted earlier in the official ASL scenario J195 (Such Faith) from ASL Journal #13. The Albanians seem to be represented by Allied Minor units, though this is not specified.
- NTX08 (On to Kleisoura) is also set in Albania, but under very different conditions: the Italo-Greek War of 1940-1941. The initial Italian invasion of Greece ended in disaster and a Greek counteroffensive that pushed the Italians back into Albania before the harsh mountain winter shut down most of the fighting. In the spring, the Italians tried again; this scenario depicts a slice of that action with the battle for Hill 731. Here, too, this action has been portrayed before, this time by Dispatches from the Bunker. This version is bigger, probably too big for tournament play.
- NTX09 (Frozen to the Corps) switches scenes to the Eastern Front, depicting a large assault by a Soviet ski battalion against a German corps headquarters. Both sides get to partially choose their OB. Oddly, Steppe terrain is in effect on one of the boards in this scenario (set in the wooded region northwest of Moscow).
- NTX10 (Breaking out of the Cauldron) provides another major scene (and climatic) shift, as it depicts part of the battle of Gazala in Libya in the summer of 1942. Designed by Mike Seningen, it appears to be a re-do of a scenario he originally created some 30+ years ago.
- NTX11a (McHale’s Navy) is one of the two versions of the most unusual scenario in this pack, a tiny 4.5 turn scenario featuring the US Navy crew of a radar station in (Inner?) Mongolia trying to make it to China while being helped by local tribesmen. Japanese “ad hoc patrols” try to stop them. The Navy personnel are represented by a leader, a “4-4-7” and a “3-4-7.” The 3-4-7 is a bit mystifying, but seems to be a half-squad, judging by the amount of horses the U.S. force is given (something that would be easy to figure out if the scenario cards were better). One presumes that the “4-4-7” is an early war U.S. squad (though the scenario is set in 1944). The “Mongolians” appear to be represented by 6 partisan squads (this is not explicitly stated, but they are referred to as “partisan forces”). The Japanese have 3 2nd-line and 3 conscript squads; like the partisans and sailors, they are mounted. There are no SW in the scenario. To win, the US/Mongolian player must exit most Americans while not losing too many Mongolians. The scenario seems a bit dodgy.
- NTX11b (McHale’s Navy) is another version of the scenario described above, featuring the same situation but turning it into a three player scenario. It seems strange to make such a small scenario a three-player scenario, the more so when there aren’t really three sides. This version also seems a bit dodgy. For instance, the Mongolians win if “2 or more Americans” successfully exit. What does “2 or more Americans” mean in ASL terms? Is a half-squad “2 or more Americans?” Or did they mean 2EVP? Or two MMC? Or two units? It’s confusing. Americans who become unmounted have two choices: they can a) prep fire or b) “move towards the South Board Edge, as if Routing.” But the rule does not explain what “moving as if Routing” actually means, and questions certainly come to mind. Does it mean they can’t advance, for example?
- NTX12 (Cliff ‘Em All) moves from north of China to southern China, depicting an action from the Battle of Hengyang, the stoutest example of Chinese resistance during the 1944 Japanese Ichi-Go offensive, designed to capture U.S. airbases in China. For weeks, the Chinese 10th Army desperately withstood Japanese attacks with superior forces designed to take the strategic city of Hengyang. This under-covered battle provides a lot of grist for scenarios, both in the fighting to take the city as well as the Chinese efforts to relieve the cut-off 10th Army. Depicting some of the cliff-dominated terrain near Hengyang is a bit difficult, however. The scenario simulates the terrain by turning all crestlines into cliff hexsides and including a very dense rule for Japanese scaling ladders.
To play all 6+ scenarios in the pack, players need geoboards 2, 8, 25, 26, 31, 45, 70, and 78, as well as ASLSK geoboards t and v.
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