Post by Whiterook on Aug 14, 2022 10:50:13 GMT -5
A great article from Jay Richardson, which has been reprinted in the ASL newsletter View From The Trenches, Issue 69. A free PDF version of this issue can be found on their web site: www.vftt.co.uk
This article answered a few puzzling questions I’d had, which now makes sense. Perhaps the biggest for me was, Opportunity Fire… for the life of me, I couldn’t understand what they didn’t call Defensive First Fire, “Opportunity Fire” (like the mechanic generally is in many other systems); now I see it’s a Full System thing.
With the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kits enjoying great success, the ASL Rulebook back in print, and the imminent reprinting of the ASL core module "Beyond Valor," the question facing many starter kit owners is whether or not to move on up to the full ASL game. Moving to full ASL takes a lot more commitment, in both time and money, but what exactly is gained?
To provide one answer to this question, I thought I would try the following: MMP's web site has a list of all the differences between ASL and ASLSK #1... I'm going to take this list and comment on each item that ASL adds to the game, to give you an idea of how the game changes when played using the full ASL rules.
Here then are some of the goodies that you can look forward to if you decide to move up to the full ASL...
Rubble
Rubble adds an extra element of realism to city battles. Buildings can begin a scenario in rubbled form, streets can be filled with rubble, and during a game existing buildings can be turned into rubble with DC, and HE (high explosive) hits.
Rubble can be stone (+3 TEM) or wood (+2 TEM), is a half-level LOS Hindrance, slows or prohibits movement, and can cause tracked vehicles to become Bogged (temporarily immobilized).
Entrenching and Fortifications
This includes foxholes, trenches, barbed wire, minefields, roadblocks, and a variety of pillboxes... everything you need for battles where the defender has a prepared position. Infantry can also attempt to dig foxholes during a game, but there usually won't be enough time for this to occur (it may take several turns).
Flames and Blazes
Things that can burn in real life, especially vehicles and buildings, can burn in ASL. Some scenarios will allow you to intentionally start fires, but many prohibit this. Burning vehicles are fairly common, but otherwise Flames are not that common... unless, of course, you are playing with infantry flamethrowers or flamethrower tanks!
Wind and Weather
Wind can cause smoke to drift and Blazes to spread, and Heavy Wind can make smoke completely ineffective. Weather has the effects that one might expect: Fog, rain, and snow can reduce visibility, mud can slow movement, wet conditions make fires less likely, and units with winter camouflage gain a defensive benefit when snow is present. In the desert, you have to contend with sun blindness, heat haze, and dust, dust, dust.
More SW
DC can be thrown or set, as well as placed. You also get anti-tank rifles (ATR), light mortars, panzerschrecks (PSK), bazookas (BAZ), piats, infantry guns, and recoiless rifles. Panzerfausts (PF), the incredibly powerful German anti-tank weapon, were used in such numbers that they do not appear in counter form and are instead handled as inherent weapons.
Ordnance and Vehicles
The full ASL contains every major Gun and Vehicle that saw action in the war. Starter kits #2 and #3 will barely scratch the surface of what is available in the full game. Extensive historical notes are provided for each unit, including dates of usage and production numbers. Some of the more exotic vehicles can have a half-page or more of special rules pertaining to their use.
Random Selection Ties
It appears that in the starter kits, when, for example, a stack of three MMC receives a 1KIA result, you randomly select ONE of the three MMC to be eliminated...
Things are different in the full ASL: you do a dr for each of the three MMC, and the one with the highest dr is eliminated... but if two MMC both roll the high dr, they are BOTH eliminated, and if all three MMC roll the same, all three are eliminated!
In ASL, Random Selection can possibly select more than one unit, so any KIA result could potentially kill the entire stack.
Crews and Heroes
Crews are introduced in starter kits #2 and #3, so not much needs to be said of them here.
Heroes are SMC that can appear during the course of a game as a result of Heat of Battle rolls. Hero counters are 1-4-9, and are created from a MMC (which is not affected by the hero's creation), or by an existing leader becoming heroic (he retains his normal leadership capabilities).
A hero has a number of special abilities: he can fire and carry a SW as if he were a leader; he can use a SW normally requiring two men; he can fire a Gun that would normally require a crew; he can fire a tank's anti-aircraft MG (AAMG) while riding on top of that tank; his presence allows a FG to subtract one from its IFT/CC resolution DR (in addition to any leadership modifiers that the attack might have); and he is always stealthy.
Deploying and Recombining
During a Rally Phase, a leader has the ability to allow a squad to deploy into two HS; or to allow two identical HS to recombine into a full squad. In both cases, the deployment or the recombining is the sole activity of the leader and the affected units in that Rally Phase.
The benefit of combining two HS into a full squad is obvious: most full squads have more firepower or range than their two HS. The benefits of deploying squads into HS is not so obvious: HS make excellent search parties when you are facing an opponent with many concealed or hidden units... and losing a HS to a previously hidden HMG is much less painful than losing a full squad.
Minimum Move, Infantry Overrun, Bypass movement, late Double Time, and Dash
Minimum Move allows units to move at least one hex during their turn, even if they normally would not have enough MF/MP to enter that hex.
Infantry Overrun allows MMC to attempt to enter a hex containing only a single enemy SMC during the Movement Phase. This is nearly half a page of rarely used rules, the whole point of which is to prevent a single SMC from blocking the movement of a much larger enemy force. According to the footnotes in the rulebook, there was a lot of controversy as to whether this rule was really needed. I'm not sure that I've ever seen an infantry overrun occur in a game, but that could just indicate that the rule is doing its job: no one is sending out SMCs as blockers, because they would just get overrun.
Bypass movement allows units to move through hexes containing woods or buildings without actually entering those terrain features. That is, they move along the clear terrain in the hex, skirting the edges of the woods or building. It adds a nice bit of realism, but it can be a little difficult to understand at first.
Late Double Time allows you to declare a unit to be using Double Time even after it begins its move... but doing this only gains you one additional MF. This is more useful than you might expect.
Dash allows infantry to cross a road, starting from a non-Open Ground location and ending in a non-Open Ground location, with less vulnerability than if it had simply moved across the road normally. This rule addresses an unavoidable distortion in the maps: all roads are really much narrower than the width of a hex. As long as there is cover available on both sides of the road, dashing across a road is much less dangerous than simply running across open ground.
Infantry units in ASL have a surprisingly long list of movement options to choose from, and it does take a while to learn them all.
Overstacking and Recovery from broken unit
ASL allows you to exceed the normal stacking limits in a hex, but there are movement and combat penalties for doing so.
SMCs can attempt to recover a SW or Gun directly from a friendly broken unit.
Encirclement
Encirclement occurs when an infantry unit receives attacks from opposite directions, or when it is in an upper level of a building with no way to reach the ground level (for instance, the only stairwell is blocked by an enemy unit or a Blaze).
Units that are encircled drop one level in morale, must add +1 to their IFT/To Hit rolls, and pay more MF to move.
Encirclement rarely occurs in games... its main effect is to make players cautious about putting troops into the upper levels of buildings.
Opportunity Fire, Spraying Fire, Triple Point Blank Fire, Field of Fire, and Fire Lanes
During its Prep Fire Phase, a unit may declare that it will use Opportunity Fire. Such a unit cannot fire during Prep Fire, or move during the Movement Phase, but it can then fire at full strength (and with ROF possible) during the Advancing Fire Phase. In effect, an Opportunity firer is giving up its normal ability to shoot or move in order to attack later in the turn... in the hope that a good target will have appeared by then. This is only useful when facing enemy units that are concealed or hidden.
Spraying Fire can be used by MGs and infantry with an underlined range factor. Units using spraying fire can attack two adjacent hexes simultaneously, but the attacks are resolved as Area Fire (1/2 FP).
Triple Point Blank Fire (TPBF) occurs in the rare instances in which infantry units are allowed to enter an enemy-occupied location during the Movement Phase. Defensive fire against a target in the same location is always TPBF: tripled firepower.
Field of Fire limits the ability of a MMG/HMG located in woods, rubble, or building hexes to change its direction of fire ("covered arc" in ASL terms) when firing multiple times in a single phase. In these terrain types, you can't aim a MG in a different direction just by swiveling it... you would have to physically move the MG to another position, and there's no time to do that in a single phase.
Fire Lanes are created during the Movement Phase by the Defender's MGs. Each MG that creates a Fire Lane leaves a form of Residual FP all along a line of hexes extending out from the MG's position. Fire Lanes aren't used too often, but they can be quite effective.
Random SW Destruction and dismantled SW
There's a chance of a SW being destroyed whenever the unit possessing that SW suffers a KIA result on the IFT, or is eliminated in CC.
Some SW can be dismantled, making them easier to carry. An interesting note is that a German MMG/HMG, when dismantled, can still be fired as a LMG.
Voluntary Break
Units have the option to voluntarily break during the Rout Phase, even if they are pinned, so that they can move during that Rout Phase.
Withdrawal and Infiltration
At the start of the Close Combat Phase, units may declare that they will attempt to Withdraw from Melee. Units that attempt to withdraw may not attack, and attacks against them receive various special modifiers.
Infiltration occurs whenever an Original CC DR of 2/12 is made, and allows either the attacking unit (CC DR 2) or the defending units (CC DR 12) an option to immediately withdraw.
Concealment, Searching, and Mopping Up
In my opinion, the single biggest change in moving from ASLSK #1 to full ASL would have to be concealment. Concealed units and stacks are covered with a concealment counter, preventing the opposing player from seeing what they are and reducing the effectiveness of enemy attacks. Concealment counters can be provided as part of a side's starting forces, and can also be gained during a game by units that are not in the enemy's LOS. Some of the ways concealment can be lost include making an attack, moving in the open, or suffering at least a PTC as the result of an enemy attack.
Concealment counters (signified as: "?") provided by the scenario set up can be especially useful in confusing the enemy. For instance, let us assume that a side is given 3 MMC and 3 "?" counters. Here are some of the different ways that these could be set up:
* three stacks, each with 1 MMC covered by 1 "?"
* two stacks, one with 2 MMC + 1 "?" and the other with 1 MMC + 2 "?" - in this case the 2nd "?" serves as a dummy unit: the opposing player sees two stacks of three counters each, but he doesn't know which stack has 2 MMC and which stack has only 1 MMC.
* three stacks: 2 MMC, 1 MMC + 1 "?", 2 "?" - this creates a dummy stack containing nothing but concealment counters... there's no one there, but your opponent won't know that. He'll see two concealed stacks, but he won't know which one is real and which one is fake.
During the Movement Phase, units may expend MF to search adjacent hexes. A successful search removes any concealment counters in that hex, and causes any hidden units in that hex to appear on the map covered by a concealment counter (hidden units are not placed on the map until they lose their hidden status).
Mopping Up is a technique that allows infantry MMC to search and secure a multi-hex/multi-level building without having to move into or through every location in that building.
Cavalry, Snipers, Heat of Battle, and Battle Field Integrity
Horse counters are provided, and an infantry unit that is riding a horse is Cavalry. Cavalry are not vehicles: they move by expending MF, not MP. Horses have 12 MF normally, and 18 MF when they gallop. Cavalry can execute a charge to gallop into an enemy occupied hex and attack with TPBF... if they can survive all of the defensive fire, including the defending unit(s) TPBF.
Snipers do not appear on the map as SMCs. They are instead handled by a simple abstracted system in which each side has one Sniper Target Selection counter in play that can move anywhere on the map. Moving your target counter and attacking with your sniper is triggered by your opponent's die rolls. You will quickly learn to refer to weak attacks as "sniper bait" - an attack more likely to trigger your opponent's sniper than to actually harm the target. This actually speeds up the game a little bit, as players will no longer waste time making weak attacks that are unlikely to have any success.
Heat of Battle occurs whenever a unit rolls a DR of 2 for a MC or Rally attempt. Another DR is made on the Heat of Battle table to see what happens to that unit. There are four possible results for a Heat of Battle DR:
* Hero Creation: if the unit is a MMC, a Hero counter is added to the stack; if the unit is a leader, he becomes heroic.
* Battle Hardening: the unit is replaced with the next higher quality unit. For instance, a first line squad is replaced with an elite squad, or an 8-0 leader is replaced with an 8-1 leader. If no higher quality unit exists, the unit becomes fanatic, which increases its morale by one. It is possible for a Heat of Battle DR to result in BOTH Hero Creation and Battle Hardening!
* Berserk: the unit has a morale of 10, and 8 MF, and MUST charge the nearest known enemy unit during its Movement Phase. A Berserk unit is really an unpredictable wildcard... sometimes it will be mowed down in its charge, and sometimes it will be unstoppable and deal a shocking blow to the enemy. When a leader goes Berserk, he will attempt to make any other units he is stacked with go Berserk also.
* Surrender: The unit breaks and surrenders to an adjacent enemy unit; if no enemy unit is adjacent, it becomes disrupted. Some units, such as the Japanese, never surrender... they go Berserk instead.
Battle Field Integrity is an optional rule showing how a force can lose cohesion and its will to fight as its casualties mount. The net effect is that as a side's casualties increase, its ELR rating will decrease.
Disruption, Ammunition Shortage, Surrender, and Prisoners
Disruption is a unit status even more severe than being broken. Disrupted units cannot Self-Rally, will automatically surrender to an adjacent enemy personnel unit, will not rout unless they are in open ground, and will never use Low Crawl. It's a bad state to be in, but it does not occur very often.
When a side suffers from Ammunition Shortage, a DR of 12 on the IFT causes at least one of the firing MMCs to be replaced with a lesser quality unit. For example, if an elite squad rolled 12 when Ammunition Shortage was in effect, it would be replaced with a first line squad.
ASL includes rules to allow units to surrender to the enemy, who then has prisoner counters to guard and manage. Also included are rules for No Quarter (one or both sides refuse to take prisoners), massacres, escaping prisoners, and escaped prisoners who attempt to rearm themselves.
White Phosphorous
White Phosphorous is an American innovation: smoke that also attacks any unit in its hex, and can possibly start a fire in dry conditions. It can be fired by Guns and Off-Board Artillery, or used as smoke grenades by infantry. It is not as thick as regular smoke, but it rises much higher. It is used by all American units, and the British get it in 1944, but other nationalities use it only rarely (by scenario special rule).
Commissars, Human Wave (and other nationality distinctions besides those inherent in the counters)
There are many rules for nationality distinctions in ASL. Rather than try to describe them all, I'll just list a few of the major ones: German SS squads; Finnish leadership; Japanese tank-hunter heroes, Banzai charges, Hara-Kiri; Russian Commissars, Human Wave assaults; British Gurkhas; and Chinese Dare-Death squads.
Many of the historical modules also include additional nationality distinction rules specific to that one particular battle.
***
This survey of rules added by the full ASL system is by no means complete. The MMP document I worked from makes no mention of the special rules in Chapter E, which are used only when called for by a specific scenario (things like night battles and paratroop landings), nor does it talk about the special rules for the North African and Pacific theaters. But I hope that this has given you an interesting glimpse at the astonishing depth of the ASL system, and perhaps whetted your appetite for giving ASL a try.
An important thing to remember, however, is that the real attraction of ASL is not in the many rules it has... it is instead the hundreds of wonderful scenarios that have been created using those rules, that are just waiting for you to give them a try.
To provide one answer to this question, I thought I would try the following: MMP's web site has a list of all the differences between ASL and ASLSK #1... I'm going to take this list and comment on each item that ASL adds to the game, to give you an idea of how the game changes when played using the full ASL rules.
Here then are some of the goodies that you can look forward to if you decide to move up to the full ASL...
Rubble
Rubble adds an extra element of realism to city battles. Buildings can begin a scenario in rubbled form, streets can be filled with rubble, and during a game existing buildings can be turned into rubble with DC, and HE (high explosive) hits.
Rubble can be stone (+3 TEM) or wood (+2 TEM), is a half-level LOS Hindrance, slows or prohibits movement, and can cause tracked vehicles to become Bogged (temporarily immobilized).
Entrenching and Fortifications
This includes foxholes, trenches, barbed wire, minefields, roadblocks, and a variety of pillboxes... everything you need for battles where the defender has a prepared position. Infantry can also attempt to dig foxholes during a game, but there usually won't be enough time for this to occur (it may take several turns).
Flames and Blazes
Things that can burn in real life, especially vehicles and buildings, can burn in ASL. Some scenarios will allow you to intentionally start fires, but many prohibit this. Burning vehicles are fairly common, but otherwise Flames are not that common... unless, of course, you are playing with infantry flamethrowers or flamethrower tanks!
Wind and Weather
Wind can cause smoke to drift and Blazes to spread, and Heavy Wind can make smoke completely ineffective. Weather has the effects that one might expect: Fog, rain, and snow can reduce visibility, mud can slow movement, wet conditions make fires less likely, and units with winter camouflage gain a defensive benefit when snow is present. In the desert, you have to contend with sun blindness, heat haze, and dust, dust, dust.
More SW
DC can be thrown or set, as well as placed. You also get anti-tank rifles (ATR), light mortars, panzerschrecks (PSK), bazookas (BAZ), piats, infantry guns, and recoiless rifles. Panzerfausts (PF), the incredibly powerful German anti-tank weapon, were used in such numbers that they do not appear in counter form and are instead handled as inherent weapons.
Ordnance and Vehicles
The full ASL contains every major Gun and Vehicle that saw action in the war. Starter kits #2 and #3 will barely scratch the surface of what is available in the full game. Extensive historical notes are provided for each unit, including dates of usage and production numbers. Some of the more exotic vehicles can have a half-page or more of special rules pertaining to their use.
Random Selection Ties
It appears that in the starter kits, when, for example, a stack of three MMC receives a 1KIA result, you randomly select ONE of the three MMC to be eliminated...
Things are different in the full ASL: you do a dr for each of the three MMC, and the one with the highest dr is eliminated... but if two MMC both roll the high dr, they are BOTH eliminated, and if all three MMC roll the same, all three are eliminated!
In ASL, Random Selection can possibly select more than one unit, so any KIA result could potentially kill the entire stack.
Crews and Heroes
Crews are introduced in starter kits #2 and #3, so not much needs to be said of them here.
Heroes are SMC that can appear during the course of a game as a result of Heat of Battle rolls. Hero counters are 1-4-9, and are created from a MMC (which is not affected by the hero's creation), or by an existing leader becoming heroic (he retains his normal leadership capabilities).
A hero has a number of special abilities: he can fire and carry a SW as if he were a leader; he can use a SW normally requiring two men; he can fire a Gun that would normally require a crew; he can fire a tank's anti-aircraft MG (AAMG) while riding on top of that tank; his presence allows a FG to subtract one from its IFT/CC resolution DR (in addition to any leadership modifiers that the attack might have); and he is always stealthy.
Deploying and Recombining
During a Rally Phase, a leader has the ability to allow a squad to deploy into two HS; or to allow two identical HS to recombine into a full squad. In both cases, the deployment or the recombining is the sole activity of the leader and the affected units in that Rally Phase.
The benefit of combining two HS into a full squad is obvious: most full squads have more firepower or range than their two HS. The benefits of deploying squads into HS is not so obvious: HS make excellent search parties when you are facing an opponent with many concealed or hidden units... and losing a HS to a previously hidden HMG is much less painful than losing a full squad.
Minimum Move, Infantry Overrun, Bypass movement, late Double Time, and Dash
Minimum Move allows units to move at least one hex during their turn, even if they normally would not have enough MF/MP to enter that hex.
Infantry Overrun allows MMC to attempt to enter a hex containing only a single enemy SMC during the Movement Phase. This is nearly half a page of rarely used rules, the whole point of which is to prevent a single SMC from blocking the movement of a much larger enemy force. According to the footnotes in the rulebook, there was a lot of controversy as to whether this rule was really needed. I'm not sure that I've ever seen an infantry overrun occur in a game, but that could just indicate that the rule is doing its job: no one is sending out SMCs as blockers, because they would just get overrun.
Bypass movement allows units to move through hexes containing woods or buildings without actually entering those terrain features. That is, they move along the clear terrain in the hex, skirting the edges of the woods or building. It adds a nice bit of realism, but it can be a little difficult to understand at first.
Late Double Time allows you to declare a unit to be using Double Time even after it begins its move... but doing this only gains you one additional MF. This is more useful than you might expect.
Dash allows infantry to cross a road, starting from a non-Open Ground location and ending in a non-Open Ground location, with less vulnerability than if it had simply moved across the road normally. This rule addresses an unavoidable distortion in the maps: all roads are really much narrower than the width of a hex. As long as there is cover available on both sides of the road, dashing across a road is much less dangerous than simply running across open ground.
Infantry units in ASL have a surprisingly long list of movement options to choose from, and it does take a while to learn them all.
Overstacking and Recovery from broken unit
ASL allows you to exceed the normal stacking limits in a hex, but there are movement and combat penalties for doing so.
SMCs can attempt to recover a SW or Gun directly from a friendly broken unit.
Encirclement
Encirclement occurs when an infantry unit receives attacks from opposite directions, or when it is in an upper level of a building with no way to reach the ground level (for instance, the only stairwell is blocked by an enemy unit or a Blaze).
Units that are encircled drop one level in morale, must add +1 to their IFT/To Hit rolls, and pay more MF to move.
Encirclement rarely occurs in games... its main effect is to make players cautious about putting troops into the upper levels of buildings.
Opportunity Fire, Spraying Fire, Triple Point Blank Fire, Field of Fire, and Fire Lanes
During its Prep Fire Phase, a unit may declare that it will use Opportunity Fire. Such a unit cannot fire during Prep Fire, or move during the Movement Phase, but it can then fire at full strength (and with ROF possible) during the Advancing Fire Phase. In effect, an Opportunity firer is giving up its normal ability to shoot or move in order to attack later in the turn... in the hope that a good target will have appeared by then. This is only useful when facing enemy units that are concealed or hidden.
Spraying Fire can be used by MGs and infantry with an underlined range factor. Units using spraying fire can attack two adjacent hexes simultaneously, but the attacks are resolved as Area Fire (1/2 FP).
Triple Point Blank Fire (TPBF) occurs in the rare instances in which infantry units are allowed to enter an enemy-occupied location during the Movement Phase. Defensive fire against a target in the same location is always TPBF: tripled firepower.
Field of Fire limits the ability of a MMG/HMG located in woods, rubble, or building hexes to change its direction of fire ("covered arc" in ASL terms) when firing multiple times in a single phase. In these terrain types, you can't aim a MG in a different direction just by swiveling it... you would have to physically move the MG to another position, and there's no time to do that in a single phase.
Fire Lanes are created during the Movement Phase by the Defender's MGs. Each MG that creates a Fire Lane leaves a form of Residual FP all along a line of hexes extending out from the MG's position. Fire Lanes aren't used too often, but they can be quite effective.
Random SW Destruction and dismantled SW
There's a chance of a SW being destroyed whenever the unit possessing that SW suffers a KIA result on the IFT, or is eliminated in CC.
Some SW can be dismantled, making them easier to carry. An interesting note is that a German MMG/HMG, when dismantled, can still be fired as a LMG.
Voluntary Break
Units have the option to voluntarily break during the Rout Phase, even if they are pinned, so that they can move during that Rout Phase.
Withdrawal and Infiltration
At the start of the Close Combat Phase, units may declare that they will attempt to Withdraw from Melee. Units that attempt to withdraw may not attack, and attacks against them receive various special modifiers.
Infiltration occurs whenever an Original CC DR of 2/12 is made, and allows either the attacking unit (CC DR 2) or the defending units (CC DR 12) an option to immediately withdraw.
Concealment, Searching, and Mopping Up
In my opinion, the single biggest change in moving from ASLSK #1 to full ASL would have to be concealment. Concealed units and stacks are covered with a concealment counter, preventing the opposing player from seeing what they are and reducing the effectiveness of enemy attacks. Concealment counters can be provided as part of a side's starting forces, and can also be gained during a game by units that are not in the enemy's LOS. Some of the ways concealment can be lost include making an attack, moving in the open, or suffering at least a PTC as the result of an enemy attack.
Concealment counters (signified as: "?") provided by the scenario set up can be especially useful in confusing the enemy. For instance, let us assume that a side is given 3 MMC and 3 "?" counters. Here are some of the different ways that these could be set up:
* three stacks, each with 1 MMC covered by 1 "?"
* two stacks, one with 2 MMC + 1 "?" and the other with 1 MMC + 2 "?" - in this case the 2nd "?" serves as a dummy unit: the opposing player sees two stacks of three counters each, but he doesn't know which stack has 2 MMC and which stack has only 1 MMC.
* three stacks: 2 MMC, 1 MMC + 1 "?", 2 "?" - this creates a dummy stack containing nothing but concealment counters... there's no one there, but your opponent won't know that. He'll see two concealed stacks, but he won't know which one is real and which one is fake.
During the Movement Phase, units may expend MF to search adjacent hexes. A successful search removes any concealment counters in that hex, and causes any hidden units in that hex to appear on the map covered by a concealment counter (hidden units are not placed on the map until they lose their hidden status).
Mopping Up is a technique that allows infantry MMC to search and secure a multi-hex/multi-level building without having to move into or through every location in that building.
Cavalry, Snipers, Heat of Battle, and Battle Field Integrity
Horse counters are provided, and an infantry unit that is riding a horse is Cavalry. Cavalry are not vehicles: they move by expending MF, not MP. Horses have 12 MF normally, and 18 MF when they gallop. Cavalry can execute a charge to gallop into an enemy occupied hex and attack with TPBF... if they can survive all of the defensive fire, including the defending unit(s) TPBF.
Snipers do not appear on the map as SMCs. They are instead handled by a simple abstracted system in which each side has one Sniper Target Selection counter in play that can move anywhere on the map. Moving your target counter and attacking with your sniper is triggered by your opponent's die rolls. You will quickly learn to refer to weak attacks as "sniper bait" - an attack more likely to trigger your opponent's sniper than to actually harm the target. This actually speeds up the game a little bit, as players will no longer waste time making weak attacks that are unlikely to have any success.
Heat of Battle occurs whenever a unit rolls a DR of 2 for a MC or Rally attempt. Another DR is made on the Heat of Battle table to see what happens to that unit. There are four possible results for a Heat of Battle DR:
* Hero Creation: if the unit is a MMC, a Hero counter is added to the stack; if the unit is a leader, he becomes heroic.
* Battle Hardening: the unit is replaced with the next higher quality unit. For instance, a first line squad is replaced with an elite squad, or an 8-0 leader is replaced with an 8-1 leader. If no higher quality unit exists, the unit becomes fanatic, which increases its morale by one. It is possible for a Heat of Battle DR to result in BOTH Hero Creation and Battle Hardening!
* Berserk: the unit has a morale of 10, and 8 MF, and MUST charge the nearest known enemy unit during its Movement Phase. A Berserk unit is really an unpredictable wildcard... sometimes it will be mowed down in its charge, and sometimes it will be unstoppable and deal a shocking blow to the enemy. When a leader goes Berserk, he will attempt to make any other units he is stacked with go Berserk also.
* Surrender: The unit breaks and surrenders to an adjacent enemy unit; if no enemy unit is adjacent, it becomes disrupted. Some units, such as the Japanese, never surrender... they go Berserk instead.
Battle Field Integrity is an optional rule showing how a force can lose cohesion and its will to fight as its casualties mount. The net effect is that as a side's casualties increase, its ELR rating will decrease.
Disruption, Ammunition Shortage, Surrender, and Prisoners
Disruption is a unit status even more severe than being broken. Disrupted units cannot Self-Rally, will automatically surrender to an adjacent enemy personnel unit, will not rout unless they are in open ground, and will never use Low Crawl. It's a bad state to be in, but it does not occur very often.
When a side suffers from Ammunition Shortage, a DR of 12 on the IFT causes at least one of the firing MMCs to be replaced with a lesser quality unit. For example, if an elite squad rolled 12 when Ammunition Shortage was in effect, it would be replaced with a first line squad.
ASL includes rules to allow units to surrender to the enemy, who then has prisoner counters to guard and manage. Also included are rules for No Quarter (one or both sides refuse to take prisoners), massacres, escaping prisoners, and escaped prisoners who attempt to rearm themselves.
White Phosphorous
White Phosphorous is an American innovation: smoke that also attacks any unit in its hex, and can possibly start a fire in dry conditions. It can be fired by Guns and Off-Board Artillery, or used as smoke grenades by infantry. It is not as thick as regular smoke, but it rises much higher. It is used by all American units, and the British get it in 1944, but other nationalities use it only rarely (by scenario special rule).
Commissars, Human Wave (and other nationality distinctions besides those inherent in the counters)
There are many rules for nationality distinctions in ASL. Rather than try to describe them all, I'll just list a few of the major ones: German SS squads; Finnish leadership; Japanese tank-hunter heroes, Banzai charges, Hara-Kiri; Russian Commissars, Human Wave assaults; British Gurkhas; and Chinese Dare-Death squads.
Many of the historical modules also include additional nationality distinction rules specific to that one particular battle.
***
This survey of rules added by the full ASL system is by no means complete. The MMP document I worked from makes no mention of the special rules in Chapter E, which are used only when called for by a specific scenario (things like night battles and paratroop landings), nor does it talk about the special rules for the North African and Pacific theaters. But I hope that this has given you an interesting glimpse at the astonishing depth of the ASL system, and perhaps whetted your appetite for giving ASL a try.
An important thing to remember, however, is that the real attraction of ASL is not in the many rules it has... it is instead the hundreds of wonderful scenarios that have been created using those rules, that are just waiting for you to give them a try.
This article answered a few puzzling questions I’d had, which now makes sense. Perhaps the biggest for me was, Opportunity Fire… for the life of me, I couldn’t understand what they didn’t call Defensive First Fire, “Opportunity Fire” (like the mechanic generally is in many other systems); now I see it’s a Full System thing.