Hollow Legions reprint, Will you play the desert?

[pensatl1962]

Absolutely will play DTO. I want to commend MMP for the quality of the latest Hollow Legions counters - so nice to have counters without those little side nibs. But it's hard to part with my old friends of almost 30 years. They've given me such good service since the mid-90s. I just couldn't bear to toss them away, like their early AH ASL counterparts. So I found them a home where I was sure they'd be comfortable and at-home in a familiar setting.

 

[daniel zucker]

Absolutely will play DTO. I want to commend MMP for the quality of the latest Hollow Legions counters - so nice to have counters without those little side nibs. But it's hard to part with my old friends of almost 30 years. They've given me such good service since the mid-90s. I just couldn't bear to toss them away, like their early AH ASL counterparts. So I found them a home where I was sure they'd be comfortable and at-home in a familiar setting.View attachment 20100

it looks like you have the counters in there own little prison of war camp

 

[pensatl1962]

it looks like you have the counters in there own little prison of war camp

Indeed!

 

[Old Noob]

Did they march in voluntarily?

 

[pensatl1962]

Of course! In formation and in step.

 

[johnl]

Looks like everybody's in good order. Very compassionate!

 

[Evan Sherry]

Well, it has been a couple of years since the release of Hollow Legions. I have not heard much about anyone playing desert scenarios or even a scenario with Italians in it. Are you using your new Hollow Legions or not?

 

[Evan Sherry]

Are you asking to gather feedback because you are debating whether or not to release a desert scenario pack?

Hey, now that's an idea!

 

[asloser]

I play desert on a regular basis. Next up is the Line in the Sand GC as revised in Hollow Legions.

 

[von Marwitz]

Well, it has been a couple of years since the release of Hollow Legions. I have not heard much about anyone playing desert scenarios or even a scenario with Italians in it. Are you using your new Hollow Legions or not?

In fact, I have not even punched and clipped the new counters to replace the old set. This is because of the extra Eritreans, everything is difficult to integrate into my storage system - I am dreading the implications.

During the past two years, I have not played much ASL at all for various reasons. But generally, DTO and Night are the two areas of rules that I find most interesting to expand upon.

von Marwitz

 

[Michael R]

I just finished a playing of J47 THEY’RE HERE! REVERSE! I won with the Italians. My opponent, who does not have HL2, picked it, and I forgot there was a newer version in HL2.

 

[Hutch]

Absolutely will play DTO. I want to commend MMP for the quality of the latest Hollow Legions counters - so nice to have counters without those little side nibs. But it's hard to part with my old friends of almost 30 years. They've given me such good service since the mid-90s. I just couldn't bear to toss them away, like their early AH ASL counterparts. So I found them a home where I was sure they'd be comfortable and at-home in a familiar setting.View attachment 20100

S31 Going to New York! (Ops Special Issue #1)

 

[L Bunny Niyori]

At the risk of sounding mean, but Italians are one of the few nations I'm not in a hurry to replace. Had them once in my then collection. But I'm not in a hurry to do the Desert or the Pacific as well. Don't mind the boards.

 

[Tesgora]

I've started playing the Italo-Ethiopian War scenarios that came with the latest Hollow Legions module. They have a unique flavour you don't get in other ASL scenarios except, perhaps, some early Sino-Japanese War scenarios. I also play a fair amount of scenarios from the Franc-Tireur special issue on the Italians. In terms, of scenarios specifically set in the desert of North Africa, I rarely play them.

 

[Vic Provost]

Winning with the Italians, no matter what the scenario, is often an occasion to pop a Champaign cork, they suck that bad! In an even fight against any major power, they need really good dice to have a decent chance. I guess the appeal with them is the challenge of having them do anything positive, they just don't do very well when I'm in charge of them. I do desert once in awhile but almost always the Germans as the main nationality, if the Italians help, great but don't depend on them. The British had their way with them until Rommel showed up, that's when it gets interesting for me.

 

[Vic Provost]

At the risk of sounding mean, but Italians are one of the few nations I'm not in a hurry to replace. Had them once in my then collection. But I'm not in a hurry to do the Desert or the Pacific as well. Don't mind the boards.

The PTO is a hell of a lot more fun than anything with the Italians in it, for me, give me the Japanese in a Jungle environment and good luck dealing with them, way more of a challenge that the Italians, who try but just are what they are. The Japanese on attack in 1941 - 1943 are a nightmare to deal with, after that they just hide in caves and pillboxes and try to stay away from all that Allied firepower. Not as much fun as earlier in the campaign. Try the PTO sometime, it is very different than ETO and a ton of fun in its own way.

 

[Eagle4ty]

At the risk of sounding mean, but Italians are one of the few nations I'm not in a hurry to replace. Had them once in my then collection. But I'm not in a hurry to do the Desert or the Pacific as well. Don't mind the boards.

Really missing out on the PTO. The Desert though I find myself somewhat torn between really liking it with dust and all (if I've got the time to really get into a scenario and some rarely used rules) and shying away from it because of the additional time spent in the rules.

 

[von Marwitz]

Really missing out on the PTO. The Desert though I find myself somewhat torn between really liking it with dust and all (if I've got the time to really get into a scenario and some rarely used rules) and shying away from it because of the additional time spent in the rules.

This is the point. To learn DTO, I reckon you would have to play half a dozen to a dozen scenarios in a row in that theater to get the knack of it. And if you don't play DTO sometimes later, you will forget the desert rules again.

von Marwitz

 

[Actionjick]

Repetition is how you can really learn something. I would say at least a dozen DTO in a row.

When we decided to really grok Night we vowed to play fifty Night scenarios in a row. I think we got to around twenty five or thirty. It works.

 

[Evan Sherry]

I must agree that playing a series of DTO and or Italian scenarios helps ASLers become more proficient in the use of those rules and more importantly, become more familiar with the proper employment of Italian forces given their unique characteristics. I recently had the pleasure of designing/playing a lot of Italian scenarios. I say that if you learn to play Italians well, you should be successful with nearly any other nationality you have the opportunity to play. The value of these types of gaming experiences only sharpens your overall skill. Anyone can do well with a company of 6-5-8 SS squads. But, if you can successfully attack in a well-balanced scenario with a company of 3-4-7 Bersaglieri, you have truly made an accomplishment.