Any future for ASL outside WWII

[Damezzi]

I've seen a thread with harsh critics to a Korea (or Vietnam, don't really remember) war module.
I'm still a beginner playing ASLSK, so I can't really judge those modules. But I also play TOAW and the thing I like the most about it is it's flexibility. Being able to try any conflict on the 20th century is great.
The question I want to place is if you think that ASL has a future outside the scope of WWII. Notice that I'm not asking if you would like it to have, but if you think that this is the way it will go.
Any further comments are also welcome. Is there any module being planned by any designer with good reputation?

 

[JR Brackin]

I chose some since i doubt that it will ever touch all a high degree of the possible conflicts.

 

[Jay White]

A Korea module that's been in development with MMP for a long time now. I think Mike Reed is someone who knows about it. Last I heard, the designers hadn't looked at it for a while. (I could be wrong about all of this, just posting from memory.)

I think you're far more likely to see a Korea module come out through a Third Party publisher before MMP ever gets theirs done.

 

[Kevin Kenneally]

The Korean War module is moving along very well.

Last I heard, the factions were going to have a "Perry Sez" on a few things.

About 20 scenarios in PT at the moment.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

A Korea module that's been in development with MMP for a long time now. I think Mike Reed is someone who knows about it. Last I heard, the designers hadn't looked at it for a while. (I could be wrong about all of this, just posting from memory.)

I think you're far more likely to see a Korea module come out through a Third Party publisher before MMP ever gets theirs done.

So many things wrong with this post I don't even know where to begin. Aside from the fact that there are two different TPP Korean War modules currently in print, the third Korean War project you are probably referring to is, as Kevin notes, very active and has been for some time.

 

[Tork]

The French in Indochina certainly works for ASL. Dien Bien Phu fits ASL nicely.

I think that the US in Vietnam is on the edge of what the system can handle.

 

[Count_Zero]

Not that I PERSONALLY want it to expand past WWII, but with the Korea Module and DienBien Phu (sp?), I think that someone, somewhere will expand it. I don't forsee it expanding to the degree it has in the WWII era.

 

[Kenneth P. Katz]

I am the project manager for the development of the module to which Kevin and Michael are referring. This is an active project in the home project. We anticipate submitting it to MMP soon.

I think that it will be a spectacularly good product, although I am not objective. The most interesting aspects will be the mapboards, the Korean terrain rules, and the Chinese nationality characteristics.

 

[Kevin Kenneally]

I am the project manager for the development of the module to which Kevin and Michael are referring. This is an active project in the home project. We anticipate submitting it to MMP soon.

I think that it will be a spectacularly good product, although I am not objective. The most interesting aspects will be the mapboards, the Korean terrain rules, and the Chinese nationality characteristics.

Oh GREAT.

Now the boss is pissed with me & my "boasting".... :crosseye:

I'm gonna be put on "time-out" AGAIN.... :clown:

 

[footsteps]

The question I want to place is if you think that ASL has a future outside the scope of WWII.

One could argue that as WW2 ended in 1945, and ASL is still being played today, that the game definitely has a future beyond WW2. Just sayin'.

:sneak:

PS I look forward to Korea, SCW, Arab-Israeli Wars and if I can scrounge up the pennies, the latest RCW package.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Incidentally, I've been tagging all the threads on this topic with the tag 'ASL: alternate eras' - if you want to see past conversations on this theme, just click the tag at the bottom of the page.

 

[L'Emperor]

Would love to see a version for 1967. Using the M51 Isherman and the Israeli Centurions vs. T-55s and Jordanian M-48s would be cool. Not sure moving any later would be worth it; I shudder to think of what the TOW and Sagger Missile rules would look like

 

[Cpl Uhl]

I think that the reason the ASL system works so well is precisely that it is WWII. WWII (and conflicts around that period using similar technology) tactics involved just enough personal and small unit initiative to be fun in a game (unlike WWI or before) and a technology level that is high enough to be fun in a game but low enough enough to be manageable.

Many other twentieth century conflicts are either: too asymetrical to offer much breadth of scenario possibility (essentially modern army vs insurgent - French in Algeria, British in Malaysia, various colonial wars) or get into too much "off-board" technology (helos, beyond LOS weapons systems, etc).

I feel too that WWII offers the cultural/political context to make scenarios and certainly modules highly interesting, not to mention that most ASL players are "occidental", ie North American/European. This makes conflicts that may be technologically appropriate, like India-Pakistan war (1947 and 1965) or the Chaco War (Bolivia-Paraguay 1932) for instance not very interesting to the average ASLer. What were their equivalents of Bastogne, Kursk, Tarawa??

That said, there are conflicts that haven't been well covered by the ASL system that deserve some attention. The Franc Tireur From the Cellar 4 treatment of the Russian Civil War shows how this can be done, with creative use of nationality counters, TTP maps and scenario design. Others might be the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922, the various Arab-Israeli conflicts as mentioned, Italians in Ethiopia and Libya, ???

But I don't think that these conflicts offer enough to justify "modules" or even much in the way of scenario breadth - they didn't last long enough, didn't have the variety of engagements and didn't have the variety of technology to make them interesting.

I would happy to be proven wrong, of course - more ASL!!

 

['Ol Fezziwig]

Yes, of course; the only impediment being the Neanderthalic tow-headedness of the stereotypical charlatans who believe ASL should stick myopically to WWII.


...JMHuO, of course...

 

[Michael Dorosh]

There is nothing about combat in the Second World War that makes it more, or less, appropriate for ASL. Having seen some of the planning going on in various groups dedicated to Korea, Vietnam, the Falklands and modern conflict, I can honestly say what I've said in the other multiple threads on this topic - any conflict in which the squad was the basic unit of maneuver can be portrayed well by ASL. All you've done is demonstrate a lack of understanding of how the First World War was actually fought from 1917 onwards.

And since the squad first came to be used as a basic unit of maneuver during the First World War, there is no reason to think that the later stages of that conflict couldnt' be portrayed in ASL terms either. It's amazing how many people will actively lobby about how inappropriate something is based solely on a superficial understanding of what it is they are objecting to.

 

[Honza]

You've just demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of how the First World War was actually fought from 1917 onwards.

Careful Michael, you are slowly starting to fill Pitmans shoes.... :hush:

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Double post .

 

[dude163]

Im awaiting the Rogue Trooper "Nords vs southers pack"

 

[MrP]

Im awaiting the Rogue Trooper "Nords vs southers pack"

Or the "Vampires Of The Eastern Front" pack from the ESG if we're going off on a 2000AD kick. Vampires in Stalingrad, what could be better?

How would a vampire be represented in ASL terms anyway?

 

[Psycho]

Or the "Vampires Of The Eastern Front" pack from the ESG if we're going off on a 2000AD kick. Vampires in Stalingrad, what could be better?

How would a vampire be represented in ASL terms anyway?

Same as a zombie. I used them as a basis for my From Dusk Till Dawn scenario. :thumup: