What is ASL?

This section is borrowed Dwayne's ASL page. I thought he did a great job of describing ASL so I asked to use his page here. Thanx Dwayne.

ASL is the acronym for Advanced Squad Leader, a game originally created by The Avalon Hill Game Company (TAHGC) which incidently is now owned by Hasbro. MMP who has negotiated the rights from Hasbro to produce ASL gear has announced that they will continue to support the ASL line...

ASL is composed of many parts. The start out you will need the ASL Rule Book and the Beyond Valor module to start playing the game. As for the rest if your interested in seeing all the game components, third party add-ons and various magazines about ASL take a look at my ASL description page

To assist ASL players in determining unit v/s terrain ratios, look here for that basic info

It is played using cardboard counters like the American Infantry counter to the left. Each of the digits means something. In the upper right corner is an E, this is the unit's quality number, in this case it is an "Elite" unit. The first number on the bottom (6) is the firepower of the unit. The small 3 is a smoke number, used to place smoke granades. The second number (6) is the range of the unit, in hexes, and the last number (7) is the unit's morale.

This is an example of a German leader counter. The 9 represents the leader's morale while the 2 is actually a -2 (a very good leader), and represents the leader's ability to rally troops and direct fire.

For those people who may have played wargames before, you may have noticed that there is no movement value. In ASL all infantry units, with minor exceptions, have a movement factor (MF) of 4. All leaders have a Movement Factor of 6 and can even increase the MF of infantry which move with them, to 6 as well.

	We also have Armoured Fighting Vehicles, like this SS Pz VIE Tiger Tank. The numbers on this counter also have meaning. For example at the top right is the vehicle's movement points in red. (the red movement number means you may have special movement penalties such as excessive speed breakdown and mechanical reliability dice roll modifyers that apply) Under that is the armour factor for the tank, the top number is for the front armour and the bottom number for the side armour. The number 88 on the lower left side tells us that the tank has a 88mm main gun, and the 1 with the box around it means it might be able to fire more than once in a phase.
	And to counter tanks there are always Anti-Tank Guns. This Russian Artillery piece is a 76mm Gun, as can be seen in the lower left corner. Once more there is a number in a box, which we call the Rate of Fire number.

The game is played on mapboards that are 10 hexes wide by 33 hexes long. These maps can be placed side by side to form larger playing areas, and can fit together in many configurations. There are also special maps which represent particular areas where battles were fought.

This is a graphic of ASL Map 1. It is a city map, and the grey buildings are stone and the brown buildings are wood. They have different defensive values, which in the game are called Terrain Effects Modifiers (TEM). A stone building is the best TEM available, without human intervention, of course.

The picture to the left is an example of a hex with a building in it. This building is a multi-story building and just one example of the terrain in ASL.

A sample of ASL map

Terrain Key

Clear

Orchard

Wood Building

Hedge

Stone Wall

Barbed Wire Fence

The portion of map above is from a third party supplied product called Baraque du Fraiture, the map depicts an area of France where Americans and Germans fought. This should give you a better idea of what a mapboard looks like.

More Counters

Well, if you got this far, I guess you might be a little interested (I hope). I've a couple more scanned counters to show off. Some support weapons, like a Heavy Machine Gun and 60mm Mortar.

	This is an American Heavy Machine Gun. The number in the box is that Rate of Fire number again. The numbers under the ROF box on an MG are (6) attack factor and (12) range in hexes. When a unit makes an attack with a weapon having a ROF number, there is a chance that the weapon may fire again. Attacks are made using 2 dice, one coloured and one white. When the number on the coloured die is less than or equal to the ROF number in the box then that weapon may fire again during that players firing phase.
	This is an American 60mm Mortar. This support weapon can be your friend in this game. Capable of firing smoke or high explosives, this support weapon can aid an attack. One of the problems with a mortar though is that it has a minimum range. The number under the ROF box [3-45] is the range of the unit. The 3 is the minimum range and 45 the maximum.
	This is an M4A3 Sherman Tank. As with the Tiger above, the numbers mean the same things. This tank has a 75mm main gun. Also, at the bottom right are some little number. These represent the different machine guns that the tank has. The first number is the bow machine gun . The second number is the coaxial machine gun. It is mounted in the mantle of the gun an usually was used to range for the main gun, but it could also rip Infantry up too, and the third number is the Anti Aircraft Machine gun. Not all tanks had one of these external MGs.
	And what a WWII game be without airpower. This counter represents a German Stuka. There are counters for Allied air power too, but they are an optional part of the game system and not necessary for most scenarios.

Back to the ASL Intro page

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