Is CH defunct?

[Nineteen Kilo]

I don't have the product to go look, but around its inception, everyone who was anyone creating scenarios and writing articles was doing so for CH.


Late 90's I believe. I know if you look around the settlement was a matter of public record.

Edit to add: https://www.vftt.co.uk/vfttpdf/vftt16.pdf

See page 3. I think you can look up the complete finding if you really wish to. Also see pages 5 - 6.

Wow 1997 was earlier than I recall it being. If I had guessed, I would have put the lawsuit closer to 2000.

<edit> It's funny on Page 3 there's an Order from the Court naming the specific items CH is banned from selling. Then on Page 4 there's an advert from a vendor in Britain selling those very items! I believe that's referred to as chutzpah!

 

[Sparafucil3]

Wow 1997 was earlier than I recall it being. If I had guessed, I would have put the lawsuit closer to 2000.

I didn't follow it much then, don't care much about it now.

 

[von Marwitz]

I find this question hard to answer. So this is from my own opinion and I have ZERO real insight.

• Early on, some of ASL'doms heavy hitters were were writing for CH. You read the early authors and there are names you would recognize. At some point, they drifted away.
• Early on, some of ASL'doms best scenario designers were sending things through CH. Some of the older packs from CH are truly worth the money. The Euro packs. The Paddington Bears packs. Some of the others.
• The spat with MMP strikes. This drives a wedge between CH and ASL in some way. I think at this point, ASL takes somewhat of a back seat to CH's own line of products.
• Even at this point, CH produces some quality work, but it is erratic and fully dependent upon who is doing the work. Dave Lamb and his fellow Michiganders in particular.
• Eventually Dave leaves which is a real blow.
• More and more work appears of dubious value.
• More and more, CH begins to re-release products under a different name. This causes confusion among the player base.
• This is more my own observation: more and more, as other people announce their intention to work on a project, CH seems to rush a competing product covering the same subject to market. I don't know if this was a real strategy or something that seemed to be real to me. I recommend you give CH some benefit of the doubt here.

At some point, trust REALLY broke down between customers and seller. At that point, the vitriol really kicked in. I don't know if you could put a finger on the exact moment, but IMO, the rift was blown wide open when CH and MMP ended up in court. The fall of CH was really a slow motion train wreck. Even today, I will consider their products based ONLY on the opinion of someone I trust. If a friend says the product is worthwhile, I will take a look. Elsewise, I have no interest.

What I don't do is talk bad about CH generally. Their products aren't for me but I can see where others might like them. I really wish their Desert packs had been better executed because I REALLY wanted to like them. Same for Ruwiesat Ridge.

Excellent post.

This mirrors my observations.

I credit CH for doing well in some of their early scenario packs, namely the ones pointed out by @Sparafucil3
I also credit CH for publishing stuff at a time when nothing much was forthcoming from AH/MMP for some time - during that "dry period", CH's stuff helped the hobby.
I further credit CH for doing some nice map artwork (not always, there were horrible maps by CH as well, early Cassino for example...).
Finally, I credit CH for covering stuff that no one else covers.

I criticize CH for starting to "rehash" things at some point repeatedly and partly in an intransparent manner.
I criticize CH because many publications lack proper playtesting and for it being often difficult to find out who actually authored a scenario and who were the playtesters (if any).
I criticize, that while CH does cover some stuff no one else covers, the value of this coverage might be doubtful because thourough research and playtesting stands in question.

In a recent post, someone had provided numbers of ASL scenarios published by publisher. It turned out that CH alone churned out almost as much as AH, MMP, and the most prominent other TPP combined. At some point, this prolific "churning out" became so obvious and the impossibility of thorough playtesting for that number of scenarios along with it, that "trust" in CH broke down. You might still find a gem in the haystack somewhere nowadays, but there's a lot of hay. So people moved on to where there's less hay around the gems.

von Marwitz

 

[Actionjick]

I don't have the product to go look, but around its inception, everyone who was anyone creating scenarios and writing articles was doing so for CH.


Late 90's I believe. I know if you look around the settlement was a matter of public record.

Edit to add: https://www.vftt.co.uk/vfttpdf/vftt16.pdf

See page 3. I think you can look up the complete finding if you really wish to. Also see pages 5 - 6.

Can't say anything about CH from personal experience. We were bailing when TPPs first came out. Well excluding On All Fronts and the fanzines.

 

[von Marwitz]

I don't have the product to go look, but around its inception, everyone who was anyone creating scenarios and writing articles was doing so for CH.


Late 90's I believe. I know if you look around the settlement was a matter of public record.

Edit to add: https://www.vftt.co.uk/vfttpdf/vftt16.pdf

See page 3. I think you can look up the complete finding if you really wish to. Also see pages 5 - 6.

In fact, I have never read details about this before.

von Marwitz

 

[Yuri0352]

I really wish their Desert packs had been better executed because I REALLY wanted to like them. Same for Ruwiesat Ridge.

That about sums it up for me as well regarding Critical Hit's portrayal of the North African campaign.
Although I am extremely skeptical about the idea of purchasing CH products anymore, I have to confess that I would like to buy a gently used copy of Maxim Gorky.

 

[micalex]

I find this question hard to answer. So this is from my own opinion and I have ZERO real insight.

• Early on, some of ASL'doms heavy hitters were were writing for CH. You read the early authors and there are names you would recognize. At some point, they drifted away.
• Early on, some of ASL'doms best scenario designers were sending things through CH. Some of the older packs from CH are truly worth the money. The Euro packs. The Paddington Bears packs. Some of the others.
• The spat with MMP strikes. This drives a wedge between CH and ASL in some way. I think at this point, ASL takes somewhat of a back seat to CH's own line of products.
• Even at this point, CH produces some quality work, but it is erratic and fully dependent upon who is doing the work. Dave Lamb and his fellow Michiganders in particular.
• Eventually Dave leaves which is a real blow.
• More and more work appears of dubious value.
• More and more, CH begins to re-release products under a different name. This causes confusion among the player base.
• This is more my own observation: more and more, as other people announce their intention to work on a project, CH seems to rush a competing product covering the same subject to market. I don't know if this was a real strategy or something that seemed to be real to me. I recommend you give CH some benefit of the doubt here.

At some point, trust REALLY broke down between customers and seller. At that point, the vitriol really kicked in. I don't know if you could put a finger on the exact moment, but IMO, the rift was blown wide open when CH and MMP ended up in court. The fall of CH was really a slow motion train wreck. Even today, I will consider their products based ONLY on the opinion of someone I trust. If a friend says the product is worthwhile, I will take a look. Elsewise, I have no interest.

What I don't do is talk bad about CH generally. Their products aren't for me but I can see where others might like them. I really wish their Desert packs had been better executed because I REALLY wanted to like them. Same for Ruwiesat Ridge.

I think I can add more information that might have happened later.

To sort through the pile of low-priced products I received and resell the rename reprints, I did spend some time figuring out CH as a company. As far as I discover, the lawsuit unexpectedly brought CH a successful product line (evolving from an expedient measures system called Squad&Leader/Combat! then later to a good impulse style Advanced Tobruk System aka ATS), and for the next ten years, CH released some good/ok products using a way of conversion (ASL -> ATS, ATS -> ASL).

Around 2009-2012, CH modified the ATS product line, destroying the brand's core value (all components were in the box, the system was already stable, and the counter were large), CH launched the so-called ATS TT system: requiring a separate rulebook purchase like ASL but only a minor changes; the new rule modifying the game SOP to be similar to ASL for easier ASL conversion but makes game lost its own feature; reducing the counter size to match ASL to save costs so incompatible counter size with all previous products.

After losing the support of the ATS community (they're not only play ATS, so they just walked away), CH was in a large number of reprints and rename plays of ASL product, maybe because the strong purchasing power and loyalty of ASL community. And I compare the designers print on these products, after Kurt Martin, Pedro Ramis, David Lamb, and Steven Swann disappeared from CH products, the owner of CH clearly doesn't have enough design and development capabilities.

Ironically, while CH messed up ATS, wargames experienced a revival. The retail model changed a lot, designers can sell their own works online instead of losing control from the publishers, and new publisher are also pushing hard for digitalization. New tactical wargame systems entered the market, such as Band of Brothers (2011), Old School Tactical (2016), The Last Hundred Yards (2019). Even WWI has In the Trenches (2015) / Modern War has 65'(2016), 85' (2024) and Modern Tactics #1: Afghanistan (2025) / American Civil War has Blind Swords System (2013) , that incomplete ASL WWI/Modern/ACW from CH simply can't compete it. Making it almost impossible for CH to revive ATS or compete anyone outside of ASL.

 

[Blaze]

I would throw those products into the recycle bin.
Spreading a curse is worse than contributing to the health of our Planet.

I literally set fire to mine. For real... That's how pissed off CH got me.

 

[william.stoppel]

I literally set fire to mine. For real... That's how pissed off CH got me.

. Wow! That goes to the extreme. Probably missed some good scenarios though

 

[von Marwitz]

Probably missed some good scenarios though

On the other hand, he might just have burned through them...

von Marwitz

 

[Robin Reeve]

I literally set fire to mine. For real... That's how pissed off CH got me.

The recycle bin is more eco-friendly...
But I hear your frustration.
I tend to be quite conservative with my stuff, so I destroyed nothing – except that I did recycle many of the empty official modules boxes, because I had to move (but I asked my wife to do it, as it was difficult for me to commit the... crime).

 

[pensatl1962]

I have to confess that a long time ago in days of less wisdom I purchased a bunch of North Africa stuff from CH, because hey, we all love DTO and M3 Lees and not many scenarios were published for Kasserine, etc. I got a boatload of overlays and counters and many scenarios, even one that was 3 turns long!, IIRC. Of course nobody would play any of these with me and strangely (or perhaps not?), after years most of these scenarios had less than a handful of playings on ROAR. In the meantime many other reputable TPP scenarios came out, along with all the official stuff, so the North African ziplock bags got relegated to the tertiary storage area. I thought maybe I’d eBay it or better yet give it away. But I couldn’t bring myself to encumber anyone else with these treasures, for profit or for charity, so they were Marie Kondo’d to recycling. A good friend who has been playing ASL for as long as it’s been around gave me wise advice: “friends don’t let friends play CH”. But as always, YMMV.

 

[Nineteen Kilo]

I literally set fire to mine. For real... That's how pissed off CH got me.

I would expect nothing less from a guy whose handle is "Blaze".

 

[FJCruiser]

Wow. There is something wrong with you people. Send them to me. I'll give them a home.

 

[Sparafucil3]

I have to confess that a long time ago in days of less wisdom I purchased a bunch of North Africa stuff from CH, because hey, we all love DTO and M3 Lees and not many scenarios were published for Kasserine, etc. I got a boatload of overlays and counters and many scenarios, even one that was 3 turns long!, IIRC. Of course nobody would play any of these with me and strangely (or perhaps not?), after years most of these scenarios had less than a handful of playings on ROAR. In the meantime many other reputable TPP scenarios came out, along with all the official stuff, so the North African ziplock bags got relegated to the tertiary storage area. I thought maybe I’d eBay it or better yet give it away. But I couldn’t bring myself to encumber anyone else with these treasures, for profit or for charity, so they were Marie Kondo’d to recycling. A good friend who has been playing ASL for as long as it’s been around gave me wise advice: “friends don’t let friends play CH”. But as always, YMMV.

I kind of wish I still had these. I REALLY wanted to like them.

 

[pensatl1962]

I kind of wish I still had these. I REALLY wanted to like them.

As did I. But sometimes you can’t squeeze water from a rock.

 

[Vinnie]

There were a couple of good scenarios in the AK series. The Saucer for one. But there were so many that were simply terrible. Frasers Black Line Dash was a stand out. Even numbers of squads on both sides with the defending Germans having HMG and 2 81mm Mortars. The Brits come on from off board so no chance of smoke turn 1.

 

[Dave Lamb]

I cross-posted this from elsewhere. For those interested in (now Oop) Afrika Korps.

As a reference (because I'm frequently asked this question) the following list are the scenarios I and my regular desert opponent have been choosing from (taste may vary, but my preference leans towards combined arms actions). I'm just giving scenario numbers from the first six AK Packs: 7, 12, 14, 15, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, and 47.

Here are the scenario numbers from the last six AK Packs: 59, 61, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 79, 81, 85, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 98, and 99.

I haven't bought the reissued packs (which inevitably have been significantly altered), but I stand by these.

DL

 

[william.stoppel]

I would also say you can’t go wrong with Dave’s Hero Pax. I’ve played most of them and they are well done and balanced.

 

[von Marwitz]

I would also say you can’t go wrong with Dave’s Hero Pax. I’ve played most of them and they are well done and balanced.

I have played some scenarios of those packs and enjoyed them.

von Marwitz