Does ASL have too many maps or not enough?

Dr Zaius

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thebigbad said:
I think that AoO should be the last of it's kind. I don't need any more boards, and I think if you people were honest with yourselves, you'd realize you don't need any more boards either. If a designer can't get the kind of terrain he wants with with 50+ geomorphic boards and all the overlays, give it up.
You really think so? I know that carrying around all the ASL boards is certainly a chore, but do you really need to carry them everywhere? As a wargamer, I admit I'm a map junkie. :bandit: I love maps and can never get enough. Now I will freely admit this philosophy is not based on anything other than personal preference. I can't really say that ASL "needs" more maps, but I don't see how it hurts either.
 

Tork

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More Maps!

I agree, more maps the merrier.

From the standpoint of a scenario designer/playtester, how many times can you attack bds 10 or 17?

One of my best ideas ever was to buy the mounted boards supposed to come out in AoO when they were first offered separately. Since then, I've gotten in a number of games on bd 48, plus hours of laughter about people waiting for them... :)

But HASL is really where I've been trying to go, witness the battle for Betio. When VotG is finally in print, that will be a happy day.
 

Roy

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Absolutely I think there are enough maps......I didn't say we had too many.;)

I already know I have a very minority view, but I have it nonetheless. You ask the question "how many times can you attack across boards 10 or 17?" Well, I've got close to 250 games (not icluding campaigns) and it's not getting old for me. Plus I believe you can take board 10 or 17 and make them very different with a few overlays or even a single terrain modifier. Want a good example of a basic change that is easy to remember and alters a board drastically? Play Deluxe A12 Tussle at Thomashof. It's on the bocage deluxe boards and one sentence in the AAR's changes the board incredibly.... "All hedges are barbed wire". By the way, it's a great little scenario too.

I understand things will not change because of my POV.

I would be satisfied with scenario packs and HASLs (W/O counters!) to keep things fresh, which could be developed, playtested and submitted to MMP by the rest of us hobbyists so they (MMP) could better concentrate on making the basic components of play available.

I do not begrudge you packrats the right to demand more boards.... believe me when I tell you I understand your affliction. :nuts:
 

da priest

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Vague recall that Evan Sherry was begging for more maps...

Let's see one of the Hobby's best TPP says more maps please...

Case closed.. :dead:
 

The Purist

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I have always felt that we need, perhaps, two or three maps that are bocage terrain. One map could have primarily typical bocage country with enclosed fields of 50 x 100 metres (1 x 2 hexes) with few larger fields and sunken roads, brush and woods. The others might be less dense bocage terrain with a farm or two along with more woods, streams, marsh, low hills, etc.

Using the traditional board design, one half could be denser, more enclosed terrain while the other is less so. This would allow use for non-bocage terrain battles as well. These maps would really round out the game.

Just a thought.
 

Reepicheep

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Are the light-bocage mapboards in Heat of Battle's "Beyond the Beachhead" what you're looking for? Or something different?
 

The Purist

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Not sure. I don't have any HoB material (ahem,..."The Purist"? :D ) but even so, I think the official AH/MMP map makers could do up a pair/trio (maybe for a future AP).
 

sgtono

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Since the new maps are supposed to be so cost effective. Maybe we could get maps that have the major terrain changes needed for certain scenarios. For instance broken terrain, winter, all sorts of PTO, etc.

Keith
 

Chris Milne

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I'm in complete agreement with Don Petros that the system needs more specialised maps to reflect terrain that currently cannot be represented by the existing selection. Bocage and steppe terrain are the two biggies, but BtB has gone some way to introducing Bocage terrain (and perhaps that's one of the reasons why that pack is so much damn fun!)

I'd also like to see some more PTO boards for the really thickly forested/jungled fights, but that's pretty low on the need-meter. I think the existing ones rank high on the deja vu meter because of the way in which the streams feature so heavily.

And I'm with Keith. I'd love to see some special prints of PTO terrain. The number of times I've seen them played on only for someone suddenly to realise that that innocent marsh hex is in fact swamp blocking key lines of sight...
 

Brian W

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Don Maddox said:
I don't see how it hurts either.
The main reason not to have more maps is that it increases the expense for new players, as well as making them think that ASL is more like a collectable card game than a war game. This is especially true now that the boards are difficult to get.
 

Reepicheep

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I don't see how it necessarily increases the expense for new players... I would never tell a new player to go out and buy everything, so adding a few more maps on to the end of the system shouldn't affect them at all, much the same as adding a new HASL, or a new journal, or a new scenario/action pack, etc... doesn't increase the expense for a new player.

Unless, of course, they actually want those products. But if they want them, and they're worth buying, that isn't going to be a problem.
 

cujo8-1

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I think I'll have enough mapboards after I buy both AOO and HP. I don't think I have played scenarios on all the boards I currently own, but I'm willing to try.
 

Bryan Holtby

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One of the best solutions, IMO, to the question of new boards is large overlays. Half-board overlays that drastically alter an existing board, much like the escarpment overlay in WoA. These overlays could be used to modify board 7 and 8 for instance, make a new town on board 12, alter the hills on no's 9 and 15, or change the uninspiring board 19.

Large overlays would be much cheaper to produce than new boards and would accomplish the same thing.

Personally, I dont think there is enough variation in terrain. After playing the game (asl and sl) on and off since 85, the boards get kinda stale. Too many LOS 'sharks' out there :D
 

M Faulkner

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The Purist said:
I have always felt that we need, perhaps, two or three maps that are bocage terrain. One map could have primarily typical bocage country with enclosed fields of 50 x 100 metres (1 x 2 hexes) with few larger fields and sunken roads, brush and woods. The others might be less dense bocage terrain with a farm or two along with more woods, streams, marsh, low hills, etc.

Using the traditional board design, one half could be denser, more enclosed terrain while the other is less so. This would allow use for non-bocage terrain battles as well. These maps would really round out the game.

Just a thought.
I know MMP is in the production stage for two Action Packs (I just playtested a scenario for one). One of them is supposed to be a Normandy pack and the two boards will have lots of hedges/bocage on them.
 

Carl

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Bryan Holtby said:
One of the best solutions, IMO, to the question of new boards is large overlays.
The real advantage to the large overlays is that they bring new life to existing mounted boards without the production expense of the mounted boards.

Personally, I am not a fan of mixing mounted and cardboard maps but I do want more maps (or at least additional terrain variation.) Large overlays solves this problem.

Carl
 

Chris Milne

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Give me both! I want to have my cake and eat it :)

I think overlays are a very valid solution for spicing up those jaded old maps, but I don't think they can help with the steppe/bocage/Italy/Balkans shortage. Well, perhaps the latter two, but the former really deserve some maps of their own. Of course, if we only get a few, we'll be clamouring for more before long... <shrug>
 

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Me, I'm a retired (effectively speaking) cabinetmaker. I have no trouble storing the stuff.

As for carting it around, well sure if you have a car, no sweat.

But I always decide what I am going to want BEFORE I go. I never carry the collection around.

Ok picture this, you are on your way to an event or just a buddy's place. You get in an accident.

You could lose the whole collection!!!

To risky transporting the whole thing around like that eh :)
 

Brian W

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Carl said:
Large overlays solves this problem.
I am an overlay proponant. When you add three or four overlays to older boards, they can take on a whole new charactor.
 
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Larry

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Just for the modules, a new player is into ASL for over $730, not including WOA or Gung Ho, but including the RB, BV, and AOO on retail list price. Throw in Red Barricades and a couple of other historical modules and studies and a new player is into ASL for over $1000. :eek: Collecting Red Barricades, KGP, and other OOP stuff and the price skyrockets. A few more maps should not prove a daunting exercise for someone appropriately bitten by the ASL bug.

As an aside, ASL is still cheaper than playing golf. :nuts:
 
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