Clever ASLSK Game Design Elements

[Whiterook]

As I’ve delved deeper into the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit modules, I’ve found several series of counters and theories perplexing at first, until I dug a little deeper into what they are used for.

Honestly, the rules leave a lot to be desired, especially in the minutiae items, and I suspect that this is because the Starter Kits are an offshoot from the full ASL system… I’ve run into the same problem a lot, where a “common knowledge” aspect in rules and play are inadvertently “assumed to be known by newbies” by long term ASL veterans. I get it… the full system is so vast, and those that know it well are basically desensitized to simpler (to them) aspects and therefore, these things don’t even cross there minds!

I’ve noted this issue with the counters I’m about to show in the next two posts, and I’ll call out more as I run across them in both learning and playing the ASL/SK system.

This isn’t really a complaint, mind you — I figure it’s a rather unremarkable tradeoff for the privilege of the MMP/AH game company at the very least, making an incredibly complex wargame accessible to new players through the provision of the Starter Kits.

So back to the point here… there are some very clever wargame design elements worthy of shout out, and here they are…

[Whiterook]

Acquisition Counters



This one stumped me! While finishing up counter punching on ASLSK Decision At Elst module, I admit that I haven’t delved deeply into the game manual yet, but on a quick scan, I couldn’t discern why these acquisition counters are different colors.

Firstly, I understood that the 1/2” (smaller) counters are for Infantry and Vehicle target acquisition, which is from Fire from smaller boom-booms like crew manned Mortar, up to tank Main Guns; while the 5/8” (larger) counters are for Area target type acquisition, which is Fire from big boom-boom Ordnance (like a howitzer or German 88), But why the different colors?

The Answer…

Sometimes there's the same "ID" on different counters, such as a Tank "a" and a Gun"a", so you would want different colors to differentiate; in the example. The Tank’s target getting a blue “a” acquisition marker and the Gun’s target getting a yellow.

That’s pretty clever! I can’t say I’ve seen an this before, but it’s simple and gets the job done. The gameboard is a chaotic and sometimes densely counter-filled combat map, so it’s easy to loose track of what’s doing what. This is an elegant way of dealing with this.