boylermaker
Senior Member
I should kick this off by saying very clearly: I am not the target audience for this module. I don't have any particular interest in Korea, and I only started playing a few years ago, so I'm not one of these old guys too jaded to enjoy the Eastern Front any more. Of course, I bought the module anyway, on the principle of get-stuff-while-its-in-print-just-in-case. It also occurred to me that someday I might gain an interest in Korea, or lose an interest in playing Yet Another German Attack In Italy Wait A Minute Weren't The Allies On The Offensive Why Are The Germans The Attacker In Every One Of These Scenarios.
But having looked at the module, I don't intend on playing it any time soon. I'm not against it: if an opponent wants to play some Korea, I'm willing to wade into all the various extra rules, but I won't suggest it myself. For my taste, the chrome:content ratio is too high. The cognitive load required to learn about 1000 fiddly small-effect rules, and a handful of large-effect rules, just isn't worth it for me.
Now, I should reiterate: I'm not the intended audience. I barely have a handle on the Japanese, have never done an amphibious assault, and Valor of the Guards is the only campaign game under my belt. Someday, I hope, all the rules of ASL will be second nature to me, and learning the Korea rules won't seem like such a daunting task. But until then, Korea just won't capture my attention.
To be fair, the chrome:content ratio is high for two reasons:
1) As I've said already, there is a ludicrous amount of chrome. Imagine if the Germans or the British had been given this treatment: ASL would be completely unplayable, with a 300-page tome devoted to the Commonwealth alone (Co.12.3: Kenyan forces from 1939-1940; Co.12.4: Kenyan forces from 1941-1945; Co.12.41: Lend-lease armed Kenyan forces from 1941-1945; C.12.411: Lend-lease armed Kenyan forces from 1941-1945 in Burma; Co.12.5: Rhodesian forces, 1939-1943; and so on ad infinitum).
2) There is not a ton of content. There are 16 scenarios. Which is a good number for a core module, but remember that these have to be divided amongst the 37 different combatants in Korea. So, for instance, the offense-against-God-and-man-Blue-on-Green counters are used in only a single scenario!
Now, the intent of the designers, it seems, was not to try to cover the whole war, or take advantage of all the chrome they had constructed, but instead to kick off a sort of Golden Age of Korea Scenario Design. If this materializes, and all of a sudden I've got 50 Korea scenarios to play, then the chrome:content ratio will fall, and I'll be much more interested in learning the Korea rules. But to me, the value of this module really depends on that. I can definitely imagine that a slew of Korea content comes out, and this becomes an absolutely irreplaceable module. But currently it's down there with Hakkaa Paalle: get it if you have the money and are a completionist, or have a particular interest in Finland, but otherwise you can probably skip it, and you won't be losing out on too much. Until more Korea content comes out, this module is the same way.
I should also say that this module has a few things to annoy anyone with anal-retentive tendencies. Fortunately, there are none of those people among ASLers. However, just for the record:
1) TWO TONE COUNTERS ARE AN ABOMINATION THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SMOTHERED IN THEIR CRADLE AND WE ARE PAYING FOR IT NOW.
What is the problem with two-tone counters?
a) Aesthetically, they look like a ****ing dog's breakfast. I couldn't come up with nastier looking counters if I hired H.R. Giger.
b) They make the die cutting process into a high-stakes game of chance. If the die cutter is half a millimeter off from the counter design on a monotone counter, I would have literally no way of knowing, unless I took my counters and compared them with the identical counters from somebody else's kit. On the other hand, with two-tone counters, it screams at you, because now the left border is 3X thicker than the right border. And two of my counter sheets were substantially offset, so you can expect that some of yours will be too.
I know what you're already writing in the reply box: "Listen, IDIOT, the two-toned counters SERVE A PURPOSE!!!!1! They allow the ROK and OUNC-OUNC-OUNC to use US equipment without it being visible under concealment counters. Ditto for the Chinese and Russian equipment. SO SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE, JACK."
I have considered this. However, I have also looked through the FW scenarios, and I do not find any evidence for it. The closest I have come is that in two scenarios, the included counterset does not have enough two-toned counters to play the scenario. If you supplemented the two-tone counters with monotone counters, then you would have enough Russian LMGs, or whatever, to play using physical kit.
But since every kind of counter you need to play the scenarios is provided in two-tone form, this undercuts the idea that I'm going to spend a lot of time digging out American counters to supplement ROK forces, which in turn undermines the only reasonable argument I have encountered for two-tones counters.
(PS: even if I'm wrong about this, or if future scenarios require you to bust out your Russian OB, let's just remember that there are 40 counters devoted to duplicating Russian SMC, just with Korean surnames. I dig this, by the way, but let's also not pretend that counter space was at a premium in this module. So if MMP had made the ROK purple, or whatever, they could have also just printed off a few more purple duplicates of US SW).
I suppose there is another reasonable sounding argument for two-toners, which is that there aren't enough colors. Perhaps this was true for the KMT Chinese. But it simply isn't the case here: just reuse colors! Why can't the OUNC-OUNC-OUNC be Allied Minor Green? Is there really that much demand for hypothetical scenarios between the Turkish Korean Expeditionary Force and the 1940-era Norwegians? If they'll never fight each other, there is no reason not to reuse colors.
So should ASL do any further expansion, into the Arab-Israeli Wars or whatever, I beg you MMP, dispense with the two-tone counters. They serve no purpose and are aesthetically awful.
2) At the top of my counter sheets, the die cutting is a bit ragged. Those of you who like to slice your counters off the sprues with a razor blade will probably want to give these counters a bit of extra love.
3) Something is strange about the numbers on the counters. I'm not quite sure what it is, but the best I can describe it is that instead of using Helvetica (or whatever the previous font was), somebody made a raster-art copy of Helvetica numbers. You probably already have non-matching fonts in your counter collection, and so are inured to the annoyance, of course.
But having looked at the module, I don't intend on playing it any time soon. I'm not against it: if an opponent wants to play some Korea, I'm willing to wade into all the various extra rules, but I won't suggest it myself. For my taste, the chrome:content ratio is too high. The cognitive load required to learn about 1000 fiddly small-effect rules, and a handful of large-effect rules, just isn't worth it for me.
Now, I should reiterate: I'm not the intended audience. I barely have a handle on the Japanese, have never done an amphibious assault, and Valor of the Guards is the only campaign game under my belt. Someday, I hope, all the rules of ASL will be second nature to me, and learning the Korea rules won't seem like such a daunting task. But until then, Korea just won't capture my attention.
To be fair, the chrome:content ratio is high for two reasons:
1) As I've said already, there is a ludicrous amount of chrome. Imagine if the Germans or the British had been given this treatment: ASL would be completely unplayable, with a 300-page tome devoted to the Commonwealth alone (Co.12.3: Kenyan forces from 1939-1940; Co.12.4: Kenyan forces from 1941-1945; Co.12.41: Lend-lease armed Kenyan forces from 1941-1945; C.12.411: Lend-lease armed Kenyan forces from 1941-1945 in Burma; Co.12.5: Rhodesian forces, 1939-1943; and so on ad infinitum).
2) There is not a ton of content. There are 16 scenarios. Which is a good number for a core module, but remember that these have to be divided amongst the 37 different combatants in Korea. So, for instance, the offense-against-God-and-man-Blue-on-Green counters are used in only a single scenario!
Now, the intent of the designers, it seems, was not to try to cover the whole war, or take advantage of all the chrome they had constructed, but instead to kick off a sort of Golden Age of Korea Scenario Design. If this materializes, and all of a sudden I've got 50 Korea scenarios to play, then the chrome:content ratio will fall, and I'll be much more interested in learning the Korea rules. But to me, the value of this module really depends on that. I can definitely imagine that a slew of Korea content comes out, and this becomes an absolutely irreplaceable module. But currently it's down there with Hakkaa Paalle: get it if you have the money and are a completionist, or have a particular interest in Finland, but otherwise you can probably skip it, and you won't be losing out on too much. Until more Korea content comes out, this module is the same way.
I should also say that this module has a few things to annoy anyone with anal-retentive tendencies. Fortunately, there are none of those people among ASLers. However, just for the record:
1) TWO TONE COUNTERS ARE AN ABOMINATION THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SMOTHERED IN THEIR CRADLE AND WE ARE PAYING FOR IT NOW.
What is the problem with two-tone counters?
a) Aesthetically, they look like a ****ing dog's breakfast. I couldn't come up with nastier looking counters if I hired H.R. Giger.
b) They make the die cutting process into a high-stakes game of chance. If the die cutter is half a millimeter off from the counter design on a monotone counter, I would have literally no way of knowing, unless I took my counters and compared them with the identical counters from somebody else's kit. On the other hand, with two-tone counters, it screams at you, because now the left border is 3X thicker than the right border. And two of my counter sheets were substantially offset, so you can expect that some of yours will be too.
I know what you're already writing in the reply box: "Listen, IDIOT, the two-toned counters SERVE A PURPOSE!!!!1! They allow the ROK and OUNC-OUNC-OUNC to use US equipment without it being visible under concealment counters. Ditto for the Chinese and Russian equipment. SO SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE, JACK."
I have considered this. However, I have also looked through the FW scenarios, and I do not find any evidence for it. The closest I have come is that in two scenarios, the included counterset does not have enough two-toned counters to play the scenario. If you supplemented the two-tone counters with monotone counters, then you would have enough Russian LMGs, or whatever, to play using physical kit.
But since every kind of counter you need to play the scenarios is provided in two-tone form, this undercuts the idea that I'm going to spend a lot of time digging out American counters to supplement ROK forces, which in turn undermines the only reasonable argument I have encountered for two-tones counters.
(PS: even if I'm wrong about this, or if future scenarios require you to bust out your Russian OB, let's just remember that there are 40 counters devoted to duplicating Russian SMC, just with Korean surnames. I dig this, by the way, but let's also not pretend that counter space was at a premium in this module. So if MMP had made the ROK purple, or whatever, they could have also just printed off a few more purple duplicates of US SW).
I suppose there is another reasonable sounding argument for two-toners, which is that there aren't enough colors. Perhaps this was true for the KMT Chinese. But it simply isn't the case here: just reuse colors! Why can't the OUNC-OUNC-OUNC be Allied Minor Green? Is there really that much demand for hypothetical scenarios between the Turkish Korean Expeditionary Force and the 1940-era Norwegians? If they'll never fight each other, there is no reason not to reuse colors.
So should ASL do any further expansion, into the Arab-Israeli Wars or whatever, I beg you MMP, dispense with the two-tone counters. They serve no purpose and are aesthetically awful.
2) At the top of my counter sheets, the die cutting is a bit ragged. Those of you who like to slice your counters off the sprues with a razor blade will probably want to give these counters a bit of extra love.
3) Something is strange about the numbers on the counters. I'm not quite sure what it is, but the best I can describe it is that instead of using Helvetica (or whatever the previous font was), somebody made a raster-art copy of Helvetica numbers. You probably already have non-matching fonts in your counter collection, and so are inured to the annoyance, of course.