I'm like you. I'm an ASL player who bought a TCS game to see what it was about. I read the rules and decided that it was the stupidest POS tactical game possible. Command and Control is the only redeeming feature.
So many things are missing from the game that should be in a grand tactical wargame. The armour systems are just plain wrong. Artillery is grossly overpowered. Defending guns aren't hidden so they are easy to avoid or kill.
As an ASL player, I think you will find the TCS series lacking. Save your money.
Funny; I first got interested in TCS way back in the day when ASL was foundering in neglect from AH. With prospects grim for new ASL, a review of GD '41 in
The General picqued my interest enough to pick it up.
I was aware that the scale was a level up from ASL and that much of our beloved tactical minutea was going to be abstracted out or within the games' mechanics, so I did not expect it to be platoon-level ASL. The C&C rules were an eye-opener, as were the comparatively simpler artillery rules (as a disclaimer, I don't find ASL OBA too terribly odious). Certainly, the armour treatment was nowhere near the level of detail of ASL, but I accepted, and still do, it for what it was.
I do not play TCS, or unfortunately, much other in the way of wargames presently, but I
am fond of TCS. It is a playable system with just enough chrome to prevent it from being a reheated version of PB/PL/AIW. In the end, you play the game, it does not play you.
In some ways, I find it superior to ASL: C&C in particular, as you cannot always react as The Omniscient Player to events on the board. Sometimes that Command Prep Rating is going to bite you on your arse when your opponent slips a flank unexpectedly or hits you where you are unprepared. This is a hallmark many of the The Gamers lines and a big attraction of them as well.
I'd always recommend picking up an inexpensive copy of any of these games when you can to at least give them a try and judge for yourself. In the case of a $15 Matanikau, I'd think the investment a good one, even if you decide you don't care for the system yourself. Me, I really don't like the NATO symbology, preferring the icons, but what 'cha gonna do?
