What do you think are ASL's "signature" rules concepts/mechanisms?

[Rock SgtDan]

ASL started as a reconciliation of the SL module rules expansions, but grew into many new rules concepts for which mechanisms were created.

What are the most key, "signature" rules concepts that make ASL unique?

The first that comes to my mind is the concept that you shoot at someone more than once, one shot PER MF/MP. Not once per hex entered, or once per "expenditure" which might costs several MP/MF.

But it does surprise me that the concept is buried in A8.3. An SL player in 1986, would read A4.2 and then A8.1 and probably interpret the mechanism to be shooting once per "expenditure" (as the word is used in 4.2 & 8.1). Then he gets to A8.3 and there's a sentence saying "it works just like A8.1," followed by the "one shot per MF/MP" sentence which is completely contrary to his expectations. A reader without any SL experience would likely be very confused.

I wonder if there was an article in The General introducing the "one shot per MF/MP" concept. This is one of those concepts that requires tutoring to avoid struggles with connecting disparate rules sections.

 

[Sully]

VBM freeze, of course!

 

[Randy Strader]

The first that comes to my mind is the concept that you shoot at someone more than once, one shot PER MF/MP. Not once per hex entered, or once per "expenditure" which might costs several MP/MF.

That there was a shift, IMO, to an MF expenditure-based system for First Fire in the transition to ASL. In SL, one finds First Fire in Optional Rule 16.1 - 16.22, Residual in 16.3 - 16.5, Fire Lanes in 16.4, and MG CA in 16.6.. In all cases, the fire is triggered by a unit "entering a hex", not expending MF. 16.8 reads "...hex-by-hex movement at enemy units still within their LOS." But, there also were other additions and transitions in the movement system which made the hex-by-hex system no longer usable: up and out of a foxhole, around the building in bypass, into Crest status in the Gully.

 

[Rock SgtDan]

"I don't see the reference to A8.1 in A8.3, and the concept of MF expenditure is clearly defined in sentences 2 and 3 of A8.1."

8.3 says "Like Defensive First Fire, Subsequent First Fire options are MF/MP dependent;"
and DFF is first broached in 8.1:

"8.1 First Fire:

Defensive Fire is unique in that it can occur during the enemy MPh as well as during its own DFPh.
{which, they might have explained here, is Final Fire}

The portion occurring during the enemy MPh is called Defensive First Fire and can be used only vs a moving unit(s) - although it can also affect the terrain in the hex. "

When I read 4.2 and 8.1 from the perspective of knowing SL, the word "expend" says to me that when I enter a Woods hex, I expend 2MF, and can get shot at ONCE for that single "expenditure." And 8.3 says it operates the same way ("like DFF" which is 8.1) but then there is a sentence which changes that, without any explanation of this completely new concept in boardgaming.

 

[Randy Strader]

When I read 4.2 and 8.1 from the perspective of knowing SL, the word "expend" says to me that when I enter a Woods hex, I expend 2MF, and can get shot at ONCE for that single "expenditure."

If bright-line specifics and very tight word-smithing are your thing -- and I mean this with the best of intentions -- I would wholeheartedly suggest you look into OCS or Fighting Formations, both of which are games whose rulebooks are models of concision and clarity.

 

[Rock SgtDan]

That would be grist for another topic. Here I just want to find out what people think are the signature concepts in ASL.

 

[olli]

That would be grist for another topic. Here I just want to find out what people think are the signature concepts in ASL.

Best thing to do is NOT compare it to SL either play SL or ASL but do not compare.

 

[Paul M. Weir]

To me the Signature of ASL is a comprehensive set of rules in one book, however big that becomes. No more SL, CoI, CoD and GI rules books superseding and contradicting each other.

The second distinguishing feature, in my view, was the complete overhaul of the armour, TH and TK systems, though still not perfect, a vast improvement.

Of course the overhaul of the defensive fire, though in the fiddly details, quite changed defense vs attacker. There were lots of other things, the meaning of ROF changed from a certain number of shots to a theoretically unlimited die dependent streak. MGs got ROF. The Sniper ceased to be a unit and became more a SHN (Shït Happens Number). PF became inherent and thus potentially more of a threat.

 

[Randy Strader]

That would be grist for another topic. Here I just want to find out what people think are the signature concepts in ASL.

Then I will delete my post above as it will serve as misdirection, for I took your post to be another rules rant, in this case regarding the introduction of SFF and whether the expenditure of MF was properly explained when the RB author noted that another MF must be expended after DFF in order for SFF to become possible.

I will, however, just note that the option (for firing at infantry) during the opponent's MPh of either:
{DFF - SFF - FPF}
-or-
{DFF and then a pause until DFPh when final fire at adjacent becomes possible}

...seems wholly unique to ASL and obviously markedly different that the form of first fire found in the SL rules, and thus I would presume a "signature concept" of ASL.