[ASLML] Product Review: ASL Starter Kit #1 (long)

[George Bates]

OK, kids, I've spent so much time the last 2 days wading through this baby
that I'm behind on 2 projects, my chores at home, AARs from last weekend and
my PBeM games (I have remembered to shower).  So I have something to show
for this "wasted time", as my wife calls it, I thought I'd share what I've
found with the rest of the class, particularly anybody who has held back
from acquiring it yet.  Some of these thoughts have already surfaced in
other posts as I've typed the last 36 hours.  Apologies in advance for
things repeated.

For those of you who want to hit "delete" and move on, I'll give the overall
grade first:  A-
This product succeeds at doing what has needed to be done since the curtain
came down on AHGC in '98.  We now have a self-contained introduction to the
hobby that the current generation of pimply-faced nerds & geeks born during
the '80s can both afford and understand.  The chrome is off, the rules are
bite-sized and we're back to a "beer (or Mountain Dew?  Diet Coke?) &
pretzels" game that can be learned _and_ played (twice!) in an afternoon.
More fun than a barrel o' monkeys for less than one Andrew and one Abe.
Then, if the crowd is hungry for more, they can dive deeper into the ASL
canon.

Now for the details.  I think I'll follow the handy parts list MMP sticks in
their products these days.

Box:
Serviceable and attractive.  Same construction as the recent historical
studies.  What I like best is this simple sentence on the front, "This game
contains everything you need to begin playing Advanced Squad Leader."  'nuff
said.

Mapboards:
I think we're seeing the wave of the future here folks, and it is cardstock.
It's the obvious middle-ground between cost & sturdiness.  I haven't taken
them down to Kinko's yet,  but having spent 7 years of my career there I
think I can safely say they're going to take laminate even better than the
unmounted maps because they're firm, not floppy.  Now, don't roll boxcars
and find they've been eaten by the rollers!!!  I'm a little disturbed that
my boards were trimmed a bit off center, with the top of hex number 1 grid
lines being shaved off while there is a little surplus on the end of the
number 10 hexes.  But this is a matter of +-1mm, and I can live with it.
Tom Repetti's question about the use of cookie-cutter buildings needs
answering.  A quick examination shows that yD8 & yo10 are perfect clones,
while zF5 appears to be a "Mini Me" of yM4.  I have to call this chintzy,
too, in spite of the need to keep costs under control.  Other terrain are
roads (paved & unpaved), woods (and woods road), orchard and grain.  All
level 0.  The ASL SK world is flatter than a classroom full of middle school
girls in Kobe.  Not much else of note here, except that the vast majority of
buildings are stone, so our newbies will be getting over-used to +3 mods.
BTW, there are no 10-3 leaders in the counter mix.

Countersheet:
Wow, look at that segue!  New Yorker, here I come...
The countersheet is of the same standard we have seen in the HSs and in
FKaC.  I love these sheets because MMP has finally got a printer with sharp,
accurate dies.  The cuts are center-on and clean.  No more stubble on the
counter sides, either.  All "hanging chads" have been relegated to the
corners, which our flocks of newbies will soon learn to trim.  I can hear
the hazing at the Dubuque Cornfield Wars 2004 now, "Hey, Meat, you've got
sloppy counters.  When you get to the Show, you can leave your counters
untrimmed, and the press will call you 'colorful'.  Here, it just means
you're a slob, so pick up a nail cutter at 7/11 and get to work."
Last year Will Fleming raised a question about spray-on fixative smearing
the counter ink.  I don't know if he ever got an answer to his concerns, and
I don't use the stuff myself.  Still it appears to be fairly common in the
community, so it might be helpful to see some follow-up.
Now for content.  Germans are in the majority, probably because they have
the greatest variety of squad types.  All but the 838 ubermenschen are
represented.  This makes the US 747 top dog on the ASL SK street.  Though
there is only one 667, there are 1st & 2nd line rifle and even greenies in
good numbers.  I was looking forward to seeing more Russian 447s and 426s to
fill gaps in my swarming Soviet masses, but there are only 5 & 6 of them,
respectively.  In addition, Ivan gets 14(!)x458 and 3x527, with no 628s in
the mix.  Ah well...  SW are limited to MGs, FTs & DCs.  The Soviets
(naturally) come out on the short end of the stick; no HMG, .50cal or FT,
and just one of those overweight, cantankerous Maxim guns plus 3 LMG.
Nazi's get a liberal supply of LMGs with 2 MMGs and an HMG.  Americans are
blessed with 2 MMGs and a .50 cal, but no water-cooled HMGs.

Rulebook:
Some have suggested that the Starter Kit is not Programmed Instruction, but
I would suggest that it is in a very broad sense.  Although new rules are
not added each scenario, what is presented to novices here is a very limited
amount of Chapters A & B that should penetrate the noggin by the time the 6
scenarios have concluded.  With any luck the Starter Kit #2 will be along
soon and our initiates will get a second dose of infantry rules and new
terrain plus EC.  Then there'll be #3 with another step.  Looks purt' near
like PI to me, Clem, but you can call it what you like.  It's _still_ good
for the hobby.
This is 12 pages of easy to read typeface with plenty of clear color
illustrations and examples.  Rules are explained according to their order in
the SoP, for the most part.  I like these rules in that they tell players
_what to do_, as opposed to the ASLRB which defines terms and establishes
the parameters of each rule.  In this sense, the SK rulebook is clearer and
more understandable than it's counterpart sections of Chapter A & B.  The
SKs together may end up making the ASLRB more of a "reference guide."
What's left out for next time?  Here's an unofficial, incomplete list:
spraying fire, snipers, underlined ELR, fire lanes, concealment, HtH CC,
cavalry, fires, EC and wind, bypass, HOB, prisoners, dm MGs...  How many of
us will instinctively roll for Wind Change at first and watch our new
students of the game say, "Huh?"
Adding another A3 or 11x17 sheet would create four additional pages of text.
Or if you shrank the cover illustration, credits, MMP ad and a few other
places you might get back two columns.  If you were at MMP, what would you
include in the extra space?  More on that later.

Scenarios:
Sam Belcher just did a great job of summarizing the scenario content, so
I'll bow to him and move on quickly.  One is a Pete Shelling opus so that
will serve to introduce our acolytes to the Master.
Can these scenarios be played fairly & enjoyably with all Chapter A rules?
Hellufino yet, but there's nothing wrong with trying.  Can't imagine it
would make that much difference.  We'll find out after they've been played
for a while.

A quick interlude here on all the text in the module.  I'm afraid I feel
that I still see far too many easily preventable errors for a commercial
product like this.  For example:
 - There is a glaring error involving DM removal in the Rally Example
(recently pointed out, I believe).  Bound to create newbie confusion.
 - Unnecessary use of passive voice abounds.  SVO.  KISS.
 - Easy ones like, "... the grenadiers ... haved to face ..." in a scenario
aftermath.  If my English Comp teacher were still alive...
 - Reference to 6te Armee commander as "Paulus", not "von Paulus".  May be
rejected at the borders by FRG customs just on principle.
My suggestion, hard though it may be on the bottom line, is that MMP's
proofreading and editing cadre is not up to the task.  A professional editor
is needed on every project to keep the text at an acceptable level of
quality.  I wouldn't put up with this in a product manual or a presentation,
and I think this is an equivalent case.  Anybody out there who writes for a
living want to volunteer to help?
This is the hardest thing I have to say about a product I like very, very
much.  I hope it will be taken in the spirit intended.

QRDC:
When this acronym pops up, I _really_ feel like we're back in SL.  Back to
one 8.5x11, too.  I see our tender young minds will be getting fed the
orthodox line as only the IFT is represented.  The addition of the MF/PP
chart from one of the earlier Journals (or was it an Annual?) is a very nice
touch.

Dice:
Not much to note here, but for some strange reason the colored die is a few
mm smaller across each side.  Probably doesn't matter statistically, but it
really feels odd.  Somebody trying to get rid of inventory?

What to leave out?
Overall, it's hard to argue with the choices that MMP has made for what
should constitute the "basic" infantry game.  Spraying fire wouldn't have
been that hard to include, nor would Snipers, but they are definitely not
core.  Still, I don't want to start seeing a lot of new guys get into the
bad habit of not consciously looking for a possible SAN on every die roll.
Bypass and fire lanes definitely belong in an "intermediate" game.  So does
concealment, although it is critical to successful play.  I think my vote
would go to a modified HOB w/o surrender.  Heroes, battle hardening and
berserk add a lot of spice to the game.  But perhaps that's too much
countersheet and rulebook space after all.  Sigh...

Acknowledgements:
It looks like Ken Dunn and Pete Phillips in particular were big contributors
to MMP's effort to create this product.  Goes without saying that without
MMP and the playtest crews nothing would have happened.  I'm curious also if
Robert Wolkey's iASL initiative from a while ago was part of what helped get
this off the ground.  I understand he had to abandon this effort for lack of
time, but if he was part of the inspiration, I hope he gets some
recognition.  Wolkster has always been very vocal about bringing new blood
into the hobby.

To summarize, this feels a lot like going back to Squad Leader again, and
I'm very happy to have it.  Personally, I made a very strange jump into ASL,
having owned the rulebook but nothing else for many years and with only a
few SL series experiences under my belt.  Then, I got lost in my career for
10 years.  I came back into it solitaire in '99 and found the smoke rising
from the ruins of AHGC.  Since then, with the generous help of Will Fleming
and Malcolm Rutledge, I've gradually found my legs, but many things still
don't come naturally to me.  This product may help me finally get the kinks
out of my basic game and start playing in a more fast-paced, coherent
manner.  I think my next six scenarios have just been picked!

Roll low every one!  I gotta go to bed.

George Bates
Yokohama, Japan

Now in progress:
J53 "Setting The Stage", German vs. David Olie
SASL M13 "Recon", Free French vs. German ENEMY