ASL Areas Yet to Be Covered

paulkenny

Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2003
Messages
3,848
Reaction score
54
Location
USA
Ok with the expected releases of Few Returned and the CH Italian stuff covering Italian NON desert, what other areas have yet to be tapped for coverage in ASL. In other words areas ripe for coverage cause the existing ASL coverage is lacking and there is lots to be covered.

ie. Imphal/Kohima, Axis Minor CG, China/Japan, Russia/Japan
 

Calimero

a.k.a "jp"
Joined
Oct 11, 2005
Messages
551
Reaction score
52
Location
France
Country
llFrance
Spanish civil war (covered in FT, wink wink nudge nudge)
Somalia - Ethiopia
Lebanon Brit+FFrench vs Vichy French
Irak
Liberation of Britany and numerous 'pockets' like StNazaire, Royan etc.
Kurland 44-45
Finns vs. German 1944
Holland winter 44, with clearing of the Schledt (sp?) and numerous Commando-led seaborn assault

So much to do, so little time.
 

countermanCX

Mennonite Jihadi
Joined
Sep 4, 2004
Messages
2,432
Reaction score
51
Location
sadlyno.com
Country
llMalta
For (H)ASL, i could wish for an Okinawa CG.

For ASL in general, i'd like a CG such as Kampgruppe Commander, using strategic-level maps & O/B possibilities to create tactical-level scenarios.
 

tenebre

Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
278
Reaction score
2
Location
Kiev
Country
llUkraine
I would really like to see a Kahlkin Gol CG ...

of course im probably one of 3 people...
 

paulkenny

Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2003
Messages
3,848
Reaction score
54
Location
USA
Spanish civil war (covered in FT, wink wink nudge nudge)
Somalia - Ethiopia
Lebanon Brit+FFrench vs Vichy French
Irak
Liberation of Britany and numerous 'pockets' like StNazaire, Royan etc.
Kurland 44-45
Finns vs. German 1944
Holland winter 44, with clearing of the Schledt (sp?) and numerous Commando-led seaborn assault

So much to do, so little time.
Spanish Civil War is being handled by Fanatic Enterprises pretty substantially.

I also have a scenario covering Fallujah scheduled for a future Son of Oblivion Pack.

The Horn of Africa is definitely ripe for scenarios.
 

Ray Woloszyn

"Fire and Movement"
Joined
Aug 20, 2003
Messages
4,080
Reaction score
1,215
Location
Kernersville, NC
First name
Ray
Country
llUnited States
Baltics

Jeep covered Kurland and if I make it to retirement look for "Estonia at War" which is my working title from two years of research on site. Battles of Tartu, Tallinn and Narva as well as partisan actions.

"Zadra"

PS: Of course, some would consider the Baltics the Russian Front but don't say that to the Lithuanians, Latvians or Estonians.
 

Michael Dorosh

der Spieß des Forums
Joined
Feb 6, 2004
Messages
15,733
Reaction score
2,765
Location
Calgary, AB
First name
Michael
Country
llCanada
South Beveland, North Beveland, Groningen, Doetinchem, The Walcheren Causeway, Albert Canal, Dieppe, Ortona (*wink*), Verrieres Ridge-Tilly la Campagne, Dunkirk 1944, Boulogne, Cape Griz Nez, Merville Battery, Antwerp-Turnhout Canal, Xanten, the Breskens Pocket, Bergen op Zoom, Hoogerheide, the Coffin, Woensdrecht, Goes, Twente Canal, Buron, Juno Beach, Antwerp, in other words, just about every single major Canadian action of the war, particularly in NW Europe - Italy seems to have been covered partially by Lone Canuck.
 

peterk1

Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2003
Messages
1,170
Reaction score
36
Location
Montreal, Canada
Country
llCanada
just about every single major Canadian action of the war
Now, now - no need to get testy . We have Veritable and Ortona in the works. Some nationalities aren't so lucky.

After Ortona comes out people are going to start whining that Canadians are taking over the game, with 2 HASLS so close together. :)
 

Michael Dorosh

der Spieß des Forums
Joined
Feb 6, 2004
Messages
15,733
Reaction score
2,765
Location
Calgary, AB
First name
Michael
Country
llCanada
Now, now - no need to get testy . We have Veritable and Ortona in the works. Some nationalities aren't so lucky.

After Ortona comes out people are going to start whining that Canadians are taking over the game, with 2 HASLS so close together. :)
No, no, don't misunderstand - no testiness there at all. It's actually kind of exciting to think that even with 3,800 published scenarios and counting, there is still so much ground left to cover.

I would love to see a grand campaign layer added to ASL some day - the South Beveland fighting would be a natural for such treatment. Kind of a CM:C for ASL.

So this is not bitterness; rather, excitement at how much we still have to look forward to.
 

D Petros

Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
131
Reaction score
0
Location
SAN DIEGO
Country
llUnited States
My thought is that the Russian front is not properly covered.

Given the vast number of forces, battles, and time period, and compared to the few number of ASL scenarios covering the Russian front relative to the vast number for the Western front, there is much more ground to cover here.

There are reasons for this disparity. The amount and type of historical documentation for the Russian front is scarce. Secondly, the ASL boards don't adequately represent Russian terrain. Hence, designers have not covered the Russian front adequately. :mad:
 

Michael Dorosh

der Spieß des Forums
Joined
Feb 6, 2004
Messages
15,733
Reaction score
2,765
Location
Calgary, AB
First name
Michael
Country
llCanada
My thought is that the Russian front is not properly covered.

Given the vast number of forces, battles, and time period, and compared to the few number of ASL scenarios covering the Russian front relative to the vast number for the Western front, there is much more ground to cover here.

There are reasons for this disparity. The amount and type of historical documentation for the Russian front is scarce.
That doesn't hold water. Seen the Leaping Horseman books lately? There are simply a lot of lazy researchers who unfortunately can't quit their day jobs, learn to read Russian and German, and live in Europe to have access to the archives... ;)

Secondly, the ASL boards don't adequately represent Russian terrain. Hence, designers have not covered the Russian front adequately.
They don't adequately represent any terrain on the planet Earth from 1939-1945, really; they're no more inappropriate for Russia than anywhere else IMO. :) In the end it is "just" a game.
 

Bryan Holtby

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2003
Messages
1,220
Reaction score
103
Location
Ontario, Canada
Country
llCanada
I think Operation Mars is an ideal candidate for more Russian Front action.

The 'other' attack which was to coincide with Operation Uranus (Stalingrad) and break the back of the Nazi invaders failed horribly. Massive soviet casualties, almost 2 tank corps wiped out. This was Zhukov's plan and followed his tactical preaching.....keep attacking.....more men....keep grinding until you run out of men/vehicles or succeed. Attacking straight into a well entrenched but sparse infantry defence line, the Russians poured Cavalry and tanks through holes in the line, only to have the Germans hold their 'hedgehogs' and have a couple of handy German Pz divisions come in and clean up most of the mess.

Seelow Heights would be another possibility. This would be a heavy meatgrinder similiar to OtO, but with hills and limitless pzfausts.

Perhaps one of these could be done with a dual mapboard like another thread is discussing :)
 

daniel zucker

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2005
Messages
1,196
Reaction score
439
Location
new jersey
Country
llUnited States
......MADAGASCAR!!!!!!!

only one MMP and one CH scenario covering this back water


Daniel :headbang:
 

Dave Lamb

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2004
Messages
1,984
Reaction score
180
Location
Michigan
Country
llUnited States
dont get me started, I was thinking about a Madagascar Scenario Pack!!!!
Good luck with that. When I did 'A Fizzled Assault' some years back, that was one of the most difficult scenarios I've ever researched. I began research in early '90s and didn't get it finished and published until the late '90s (IIRC). Maybe things have changed since then, but the Madagascar campaign was not well covered in literature at all.
 

rcornwell

Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2005
Messages
281
Reaction score
16
Location
Australia
Country
llAustralia
I agree with Don that there are still lots of gaps in the coverage of the Eastern Front.
Barbarossa is still covered thinly, there was lots of intense fighting and big Russian counterattacks that haven’t been done.

The whole of 1942 except for Stalingrad. Even at Stalingrad the Russian counterattacks aren't well covered. I can only think of a couple of scenarios in the Caucasus. A few Operation Mars scenarios have turned up.

1943 except for Kursk - even for Kursk, I can't remember any scenarios covering the Russian counterattack after the German attack stalled.

1944 except for Operation Bagration, although CH's Tigers to the Front covers the neglected fighting along the Panther Line.

1945 is covered not too badly.
 

wrongway149

Forum Guru
Joined
Aug 25, 2005
Messages
9,403
Reaction score
2,099
Location
Willoughby, Ohio
Country
llUnited States
1943 except for Kursk - even for Kursk, I can't remember any scenarios covering the Russian counterattack after the German attack stalled.
SP's 'The Mius Trap and 'To No Avail'

The Journal's "Kampfgruppe at Karachev.'

You are correct, though- there is a lot that can be done here, and even parts of the German attack as well.
 

D Petros

Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
131
Reaction score
0
Location
SAN DIEGO
Country
llUnited States
Righto. Micheal, I disagree with your comments about research. The book you mention is very new, and there have been other recent books in the past few years by Glantz, Beevor, etc., which do add to the materials available, but again, this is new stuff and isn't at all as widespread in scope as we have in our libraries here in the West. Stalingrad has been covered deeply, but you can't say that about most of the rest of the Russian front. Kursk is covered relatively well, but even it lacks depth in terms of available material.

As for the geoboards, well, we can do a better job depicting real terrain, and there is a great difference in typical Russian terrain and Western European terrain which our board mix more closely resembles. :(

If ASL has a green pasture ahead, a lot of it is Russian front stuff.
 

Michael Dorosh

der Spieß des Forums
Joined
Feb 6, 2004
Messages
15,733
Reaction score
2,765
Location
Calgary, AB
First name
Michael
Country
llCanada
Righto. Micheal, I disagree with your comments about research. The book you mention is very new, and there have been other recent books in the past few years by Glantz, Beevor, etc., which do add to the materials available, but again, this is new stuff and isn't at all as widespread in scope as we have in our libraries here in the West.
No disrespect intended, but you miss the point, Don. Where did those "new" books get researched? The material has always been there, there just haven't been any researchers willing or able (or both) to dig into them. I'm glad they've gotten a start. You can't tell me that those "new" Stalingrad books are based on material that was somehow created out of thin air in the last ten years. It just took good historical sleuthing. To a degree, that can be done with other areas as well. I just started researching a book on the 2nd Canadian Division - it has been 60 years and Canada has not produced a single divisional history despite deploying five of them to Europe. Tons of research to be done yet on all fronts.

Stalingrad has been covered deeply, but you can't say that about most of the rest of the Russian front. Kursk is covered relatively well, but even it lacks depth in terms of available material.
This is from personal experience? I'm not talking about secondary sources - I suspect you are. As far as primary references, there are gaps in the coverage on both sides - I believe the Germans destroyed a lot of documents in the last years of the war as well as had them destroyed via bombing - but I am willing to bet the Bundesarchiv holds millions of cubic feet of paper that would be invaluable given someone with the German language skills, researching experience, and know how to convert them into readable books or playabe scenarios. Ditto the Soviet archives. Is this stuff easily accessible? No, which is why Leaping Horseman is going to clean up. Anyone brave enough to follow in their footsteps deserves to as well.

As for the geoboards, well, we can do a better job depicting real terrain, and there is a great difference in typical Russian terrain and Western European terrain which our board mix more closely resembles. :(
You can do that now by SSRing away the roads and buildings. I take your point, but the boards never seemed all that European to me, either, with the 40 metre wide boulevards down all the streeets, etc. Then again, I've never been to the Soviet Union and my time on the European continent is limited to an hour long stopover at an RAF base in West Germany.

If ASL has a green pasture ahead, a lot of it is Russian front stuff.
I agree - given that there must be more researchers aside from Leaping Horseman who will see the potential for telling these stories. I have just about every English-language book published on the Großdeutschland Division and there is little detail good enough to base a scenario on - I thought Canadian historians were bad for not really caring which enemy units were involved on any front on any given day, but German historians seem to have the same tunnel vision. The official histories - all three volumes, covering several divisions since the GD was expanded to a corps in November 1944 - are long on heroic sacrifice and short on basic details like what kind of tanks they used, much less identification of their enemies. Their histories simply weren't written with that stuff in mind.

Then again, so did Ambrose and some of the better US historians also have the same tunnel vision. Who cares how many platoons defended Carentan or how many mortars the 6th FJR had? Ambrose wanted you to know that the war was won by apple pie and white bread - how it happened is a bit beside the point, right? :D

In that regard, the Russian Front is covered no better and no worse than the war in Italy or in North-West Europe. As I posted earlier, there is tons left to be done, written and simulated about 21st Army Group in NW Europe also. The Russian Front is only different due to the greater size of the forces involved.

In the end, I think we both agree that there could easily be 3,800 more scenarios see the light of day in the next few years without repeating the actions of any sub-units.
 
Last edited:
Top