ibncalb
Elder Member
ASL Modules are like wine. Sometimes you buy it for now, sometimes you buy it for later.
Full Disclosure
I was a play tester and received my copy for free.
Overview
The Trials of Task Force Faith (TFF) is a shrink wrapped package containing 11 scenario cards, a short (14 page) magazine style rule section and two map sheets. It’s designed by Andrew H. Hershey and published by Le Franc Tireur. The cost is 45€. The pack covers the actions of, or rather the inaction and destruction of, Task Force Faith during the Chosin Reservoir Campaign.
The Box
There is no box. There, I said it.
The Maps
The maps are slightly longer and wider than a RB map, but not overly so. The hexes are standard geoboard size.
The maps joined, together show a portion of the reservoir and the railroad and road that run next to it. The low ground is the base of a valley surrounded by hills that raise up to level 9, with steep hills being in effect in certain areas.
The map is 46 hexes wide by 58 hexes long giving a play area of 2668 hexes. In contrast RB is 1620 hexes and Ponyri is 2800. It’s a sizeable map.
The main features of the map are the hills. There are a few scattered buildings, a little brush and very few woods. There are some new, very low overhead terrain types. There are a couple of hexes of tents. Hillside Light Scrub covers most of the higher ground, this basically serves to extend the concealment properties of Steep Terrain to non-steep hills hexes. This ensures that the CPVA are not running around naked, as it were.
The railroad was historically raised enough to provide some cover, but not raised enough to be considered raised, so there are no hillocks. I repeat, no hillocks.
There are however many slopes. If the phrase “many slopes” makes you groan, then stop reading now. Really, go find a mirror and take some time to consider how as an ASL player you can learn the intricacies of chapter C and D but can’t bring yourself to learn the slope rules.
Slopes are fantastic, they add another dimension to the battlefield as well as forming defensive terrain making a map study much more interesting.
(Two things I would ask from MMP though is to please add the slope rules to the RB so publishers don’t have to copy pasta the slope rules into every single publication. The second request to MMP is to produce transparent slope overlays. The ability to add slopes to a geoboard would really open up some interesting possibilities).
So, no hillocks but lots of slopes. Aside from that it’s basic Korean War terrain, in the snow. Now it’s a challenge to represent so many elevations (-1 to 9) in snow covered ground. The map artist has gone for white at level 0 and then darkening shades of blue as the elevation increases. It works well. Whilst it’s not as pretty as the Fox Hill map (different artists) it is clearer and more “regular” ASL.
The map had a number of printed, colour coded Perimeter Defence Positions. These are, as far as I can tell, pretty much identical to the PDPs in FFS and Fox Hill.
I remember in FFS there was some negativity towards the PDPs as being too restrictive of player choice. I don’t feel that way, they are the positions which were historically held, so we have a historical map with historical setup positions. It’s possible to leave the positions – indeed for Love Company it’s preferable to leave them. I like the PDPs, especially at night - stay in your hole.
As mentioned upstream the hexes are regular size. This, combined with the Chinese penchant for close combat and the fortifications and PDP restrictions can lead to some congestion, however if you’re all plexi’d up and keep your stacks aligned like a real gamer you’ll be fine. Good luck to the French players with their cultural propensity to play without plexiglass. Besides the massive casualties cause the congestion to be, ahem, short lived.
The Forces
The American force is poor. Mainly second line, the few first line and Elite squads degrade over time so by the final scenario the ELR has dropped from 3 to 2 and the force is overwhelmingly second line with a large proportion of Green.
The American force, although low quality has a lot of fire power in the shape of MGs and RR as well as two batteries of artillery pieces and mortars. Extreme winter is in effect at night so the effectiveness of these weapons, especially when firelaning is limited.
The 60mm company mortars are well represented. The designer removed the 3 mortars per company and reduced them to a “mortar pit” which functions, in combination with a field telephone as purely a 60mm OBA module. This removes a massive number of TH rolls, reduces counters as the 3 mortars and crew are simply replaced with a 3S FH counter doubling as a “mortar pit”. It also increases the longevity of the mortars as there is no risk of breakdown. The only (slight) issue is that each mortar pit requires its own draw pile and another draw pile for IR usage.
It’s an elegant solution/innovation and the rules are better worded/constructed than in the Fox Hill pack.
Pressganged
The KATUSA also make an appearance, their 336 figure is hardly studly. Their ELR of two (one at night) does not inspire confidence, and as conscripts they can’t even be trusted to man an MG. Finally, they’re treated as allied troops so American leaders are even less effective trying to rally them. But they can still sniper check, reinforce melees and cause a little pain to the Chinese. At at least one point in a scenario they can just disappear, like the Georgians in SME. From memory in one scenario if they survive past a certain point they BH to 446s who, as second line, are significantly better. Don’t discount them though because as the (Doomed) Americans you’ll need every bit of force you can muster.
Boyhood 14
The US leadership is very average, a few 9-1s are the pinnacle. I don’t believe Maclean or Faith are represented. Captain Edward P. Stamford, a marine, is represented in a unique way. It’s his story that drew me originally to this Campaign and his actions over this battle were nothing less than MoH worthy.
The Car Park
There are a lot of American vehicles in some of the scenarios. There are the AA vehicles that held the Chinese off, but the vehicles are mainly trucks and jeeps. Wisely, by SSR these are not allowed to move in most scenarios and serve only as wreck cover, illumination and CVP for the Chinese. I think it’s an excellent decision to disallow movement, I know if it was allowed I for one would be treating them very ahistorically. In all the reading I’ve done on this battle I don’t remember a single truck overrun.
Besides, when they are finally allowed to move it’s an excellent illustration of why trucks are not combat vehicles.
The Beast from The East (actually, The Beast from the The North, The East and The South, and Later, The West)
The Chinese force is purely infantry, with light support weapons. They are well led, mainly initial intervention troops with a smattering of 527s. There are only a few Chinese MMG throughout the pack and a sole 60mm mortar. In a few scenarios their heavy weapons are represented by a random amount of kind of but not really OBA shots.
Although only light infantry, The Chinese have all the advantages, and all factors mitigate in their favour.
When defending in the day they step reduce thus increasing their staying power and the open ground maximises their low firepower.
When attacking at night. Well, wow, then they play as they were designed, which is historically how they performed.
Their IPM allows them to traverse the battlefield faster than any other nationality. Protected by darkness they can exploit the holes left by the task force’s paucity and poor planning. As early war CPVA it’s hard to strip their concealment even if they’re moving in an illuminated area. With winter camouflage and the abundance of concealment terrain they can regain concealment very easily, even when in an illuminated area.
Both sides can only use starshells from leaders, so the night’s embrace is firmer for the Chinese than normal.
By SSR units may not entrench, so half squad overruns, once the Americans are initially pushed back become much easier.
The only traditional advantage that the CPVA do not possess is that American are normal MST, not lax.
No Clipping
I believe that from the beginning, possibly from pre-publication of Fox Hill, that these packs were designed to be counter free. There have been some shortcuts taken to facilitate this. Although shortcut is probably the wrong word.
In Fox hill the designer represented older shallower foxholes by using shell hole counters, here he represents the mortar pits by using a 3S FH counter (which cannot appear otherwise). There are other counters missing also. I think I’m short one Katusa 336 – but this might just have been misplaced, I used a 336 green American instead.
There are not enough 2-7 CPVA LMGs in the counter mix – I used WW2 Chinese counters instead. There are not enough CPVA 6+1s – I used a Russian instead.
I’m happy that Fox Hill and TFF are counter free. From a price point of view, 45€ is extremely reasonable. I would have been complaining if I had had to have spent more dollars just for a few missing counters.
For comparison, looking at the latest ASL offerings (all prices converted to Euros and as if purchased in country of origin, no postage/tarifs included).
To avoid that expense I am more than happy to sub in a few Russian leaders and a couple of Chinese LMGs. Well done LFT.
The Scenarios
There are eleven scenarios, the scenario cards are LFT’s normal full colour standard. There are 11 scenario cards, double printed so on average a scenario requires two pages although there are some one pagers and some three pagers.
Red Dragon Stalking Polar Bears
Large Chinese night attack against TFF at its strongest, 11 turns.
Shaking off The Shockwave
Very small daytime American counterattack to recover howitzers, 5.5 turns.
Taking Back Vital Ground
Small daytime American counterattack to take back the dominant ridgeline 6.5 turns.
Return of The Dragon
Medium Chinese night attack to take assault the above-mentioned ridge, 9 turns.
Triple A to The Rescue
Large Chinese night attack running into the AA vehicles, 8 turns.
The Assumption of Faith
A large daytime scenario with the US trying to break through Chinese blocking forces to link up, 8 turns.
Growing Pains
Small daytime American attack where the US try to clear CPVA with direct fire artillery support and the CPVA try to kill said guns or their supporting trucks, 6 turns.
Firemen vs Icemen
Medium Chinese night attack versus increasingly weak Americans, 5 turns.
Bridges of Sorrow
Small Chinese dusk attack, 6 turns.
Hold Out, One More Night
Large Chinese night attack, like the first scenario but with a much-weakened US force facing stronger CPVA units, 7.5 turns
The First Station on Faith’s Via Dolorosa
Large American day time attack to breakout. Not the end of TFF, but near enough, 7.5 turns. Heartbreaking.
As you can see, the scenarios range from 1.5 hours of play to 1.5 days. If you’re an experienced player I recommend playing them in order as they do tell a story.
None of the scenarios are complex, if one presumes good knowledge of the ASLRB. If you struggle with night, haven’t yet played FW then of course the difficulty increases. These aren’t scenarios that you can pick up and be playing 5 minutes later, but they are also not Advancing Fire scenarios that require a large investment to play.
With 5 night scenarios there will undoubtedly be some players that shy away. But, really, get back to that mirror and ask yourself why you’re not playing night, it’s not difficult, it features in many products and CGs. It’s like not playing PTO because it’s a bit hard to learn.
The night scenarios herein are possibly a great place to start learning night if you need to. The rules are “night lite” so a lot of the fiddly, labour-intensive rules sections are not in play, similar to Fox Hill. So, there is no cloaking or No Move counters, no nighttime BS firelanes, straying or jitter fire.
I don’t know why the designer chose this approach. I can guess that because of the ground snow, open terrain and the high NVR (5, 5, 6, 7 and 8) in those scenarios cloaking would be lost quite easily, so one would spend a lot of time to setup No Move and cloaked stacks only to, a turn later, undo all of that work.
I don’t know if I like this approach, as I spent a long-time learning night and I like the full rules set, but I understand why it was done.
However, this night lite approach makes learning the night rules very easy, so if you’ve played FW but not touched night yet then this would be the perfect place to start.
One interesting side insight that this pack gives is how limiting geoboards can be. With limited room to manoeuvre and artificially constrained terrain the CPVA can feel hard to handle on a geo board. Only here and on the Fox Hill map can they perform as they did historically.
The rules magazine that comes with the pack is, as are the scenario cards, up to LFT’s normal standard. The magazine is 14 pages long, but only 10 pages are for rules, and one of those is solely to repeat the slope rules, another is just to give visual examples of the terrain and elevations. So, eight pages of well-illustrated, large print rules. There is nothing unusual or difficult to grok. What is a pleasure is 4.5 pages of footnotes giving insights into the aforementioned rules. The English is excellent throughout.
What I Don’t I Like
Very minor things, the map is not as beautiful as Fox Hill, but it is more functional. Whilst there is no CG. I’m not a designer or historian so I trust Andrew when he says the action was not appropriate for a CG. However, personally, I really like the CGs which highlight force preservation. I like the challenge of Day 1 Germans in OVHS or Day 1 VOTG Russians.
I would have liked to repeat the challenge of managing TFF from beginning to end. I would also have liked to see the action progress off the map to where TFF really went to die. Who knows what the future will hold. For now I’ll have to content myself with running Love Company off that stupid hill.
Should I Buy This?
Should you buy this? The product is well made and cheap. Even if you think you’re not ready to play it yet, you will be in the future when I’m sure it will be out of print, buy it and put it in the wine cellar.
I think also that we’re running out of counters that we need. I don’t want to buy yet another counter tray. I think the future of ASL will rest heavily on packs like this, HASL lite as it were, might as well support it.
The reason I eagerly waited for my copy was because of how well the designer brings to life these battles. He did a very similar thing in Fox hill. There are some excellent books on this campaign which vividly describe the actions and the maps, scenarios and SSRs work together to evoke, through little counters and dice rolls, the desperate situations both frozen sides found themselves in.
I don’t make little noises when I fire my guns or move my tanks. ASL does not tell a story for me, I don’t imagine war films as I’m playing, but Fox Hill and TFF bring to life the heroism of Cafferata and Benson, the pure badassery of Stamford and the endurance of the CPVA.
I don’t think any other ASL product has linked me as well to the history as this and Fox Hill.
Full Disclosure
I was a play tester and received my copy for free.
Overview
The Trials of Task Force Faith (TFF) is a shrink wrapped package containing 11 scenario cards, a short (14 page) magazine style rule section and two map sheets. It’s designed by Andrew H. Hershey and published by Le Franc Tireur. The cost is 45€. The pack covers the actions of, or rather the inaction and destruction of, Task Force Faith during the Chosin Reservoir Campaign.
The Box
There is no box. There, I said it.
The Maps
The maps are slightly longer and wider than a RB map, but not overly so. The hexes are standard geoboard size.
The maps joined, together show a portion of the reservoir and the railroad and road that run next to it. The low ground is the base of a valley surrounded by hills that raise up to level 9, with steep hills being in effect in certain areas.
The map is 46 hexes wide by 58 hexes long giving a play area of 2668 hexes. In contrast RB is 1620 hexes and Ponyri is 2800. It’s a sizeable map.
The main features of the map are the hills. There are a few scattered buildings, a little brush and very few woods. There are some new, very low overhead terrain types. There are a couple of hexes of tents. Hillside Light Scrub covers most of the higher ground, this basically serves to extend the concealment properties of Steep Terrain to non-steep hills hexes. This ensures that the CPVA are not running around naked, as it were.
The railroad was historically raised enough to provide some cover, but not raised enough to be considered raised, so there are no hillocks. I repeat, no hillocks.
There are however many slopes. If the phrase “many slopes” makes you groan, then stop reading now. Really, go find a mirror and take some time to consider how as an ASL player you can learn the intricacies of chapter C and D but can’t bring yourself to learn the slope rules.
Slopes are fantastic, they add another dimension to the battlefield as well as forming defensive terrain making a map study much more interesting.
(Two things I would ask from MMP though is to please add the slope rules to the RB so publishers don’t have to copy pasta the slope rules into every single publication. The second request to MMP is to produce transparent slope overlays. The ability to add slopes to a geoboard would really open up some interesting possibilities).
So, no hillocks but lots of slopes. Aside from that it’s basic Korean War terrain, in the snow. Now it’s a challenge to represent so many elevations (-1 to 9) in snow covered ground. The map artist has gone for white at level 0 and then darkening shades of blue as the elevation increases. It works well. Whilst it’s not as pretty as the Fox Hill map (different artists) it is clearer and more “regular” ASL.
The map had a number of printed, colour coded Perimeter Defence Positions. These are, as far as I can tell, pretty much identical to the PDPs in FFS and Fox Hill.
I remember in FFS there was some negativity towards the PDPs as being too restrictive of player choice. I don’t feel that way, they are the positions which were historically held, so we have a historical map with historical setup positions. It’s possible to leave the positions – indeed for Love Company it’s preferable to leave them. I like the PDPs, especially at night - stay in your hole.
As mentioned upstream the hexes are regular size. This, combined with the Chinese penchant for close combat and the fortifications and PDP restrictions can lead to some congestion, however if you’re all plexi’d up and keep your stacks aligned like a real gamer you’ll be fine. Good luck to the French players with their cultural propensity to play without plexiglass. Besides the massive casualties cause the congestion to be, ahem, short lived.
The Forces
The American force is poor. Mainly second line, the few first line and Elite squads degrade over time so by the final scenario the ELR has dropped from 3 to 2 and the force is overwhelmingly second line with a large proportion of Green.
The American force, although low quality has a lot of fire power in the shape of MGs and RR as well as two batteries of artillery pieces and mortars. Extreme winter is in effect at night so the effectiveness of these weapons, especially when firelaning is limited.
The 60mm company mortars are well represented. The designer removed the 3 mortars per company and reduced them to a “mortar pit” which functions, in combination with a field telephone as purely a 60mm OBA module. This removes a massive number of TH rolls, reduces counters as the 3 mortars and crew are simply replaced with a 3S FH counter doubling as a “mortar pit”. It also increases the longevity of the mortars as there is no risk of breakdown. The only (slight) issue is that each mortar pit requires its own draw pile and another draw pile for IR usage.
It’s an elegant solution/innovation and the rules are better worded/constructed than in the Fox Hill pack.
Pressganged
The KATUSA also make an appearance, their 336 figure is hardly studly. Their ELR of two (one at night) does not inspire confidence, and as conscripts they can’t even be trusted to man an MG. Finally, they’re treated as allied troops so American leaders are even less effective trying to rally them. But they can still sniper check, reinforce melees and cause a little pain to the Chinese. At at least one point in a scenario they can just disappear, like the Georgians in SME. From memory in one scenario if they survive past a certain point they BH to 446s who, as second line, are significantly better. Don’t discount them though because as the (Doomed) Americans you’ll need every bit of force you can muster.
Boyhood 14
The US leadership is very average, a few 9-1s are the pinnacle. I don’t believe Maclean or Faith are represented. Captain Edward P. Stamford, a marine, is represented in a unique way. It’s his story that drew me originally to this Campaign and his actions over this battle were nothing less than MoH worthy.
The Car Park
There are a lot of American vehicles in some of the scenarios. There are the AA vehicles that held the Chinese off, but the vehicles are mainly trucks and jeeps. Wisely, by SSR these are not allowed to move in most scenarios and serve only as wreck cover, illumination and CVP for the Chinese. I think it’s an excellent decision to disallow movement, I know if it was allowed I for one would be treating them very ahistorically. In all the reading I’ve done on this battle I don’t remember a single truck overrun.
Besides, when they are finally allowed to move it’s an excellent illustration of why trucks are not combat vehicles.
The Beast from The East (actually, The Beast from the The North, The East and The South, and Later, The West)
The Chinese force is purely infantry, with light support weapons. They are well led, mainly initial intervention troops with a smattering of 527s. There are only a few Chinese MMG throughout the pack and a sole 60mm mortar. In a few scenarios their heavy weapons are represented by a random amount of kind of but not really OBA shots.
Although only light infantry, The Chinese have all the advantages, and all factors mitigate in their favour.
When defending in the day they step reduce thus increasing their staying power and the open ground maximises their low firepower.
When attacking at night. Well, wow, then they play as they were designed, which is historically how they performed.
Their IPM allows them to traverse the battlefield faster than any other nationality. Protected by darkness they can exploit the holes left by the task force’s paucity and poor planning. As early war CPVA it’s hard to strip their concealment even if they’re moving in an illuminated area. With winter camouflage and the abundance of concealment terrain they can regain concealment very easily, even when in an illuminated area.
Both sides can only use starshells from leaders, so the night’s embrace is firmer for the Chinese than normal.
By SSR units may not entrench, so half squad overruns, once the Americans are initially pushed back become much easier.
The only traditional advantage that the CPVA do not possess is that American are normal MST, not lax.
No Clipping
I believe that from the beginning, possibly from pre-publication of Fox Hill, that these packs were designed to be counter free. There have been some shortcuts taken to facilitate this. Although shortcut is probably the wrong word.
In Fox hill the designer represented older shallower foxholes by using shell hole counters, here he represents the mortar pits by using a 3S FH counter (which cannot appear otherwise). There are other counters missing also. I think I’m short one Katusa 336 – but this might just have been misplaced, I used a 336 green American instead.
There are not enough 2-7 CPVA LMGs in the counter mix – I used WW2 Chinese counters instead. There are not enough CPVA 6+1s – I used a Russian instead.
I’m happy that Fox Hill and TFF are counter free. From a price point of view, 45€ is extremely reasonable. I would have been complaining if I had had to have spent more dollars just for a few missing counters.
For comparison, looking at the latest ASL offerings (all prices converted to Euros and as if purchased in country of origin, no postage/tarifs included).
- Basic Training (12 scenarios) 41€
- Ponyri (12 Scenarios + Counters) 153€
- Action Pack 19 (10 scenarios) 38€.
- Hazmo 5 (10 scenarios) 38€
- Mannerheim Cross (44 scenarios + counters) 169€
To avoid that expense I am more than happy to sub in a few Russian leaders and a couple of Chinese LMGs. Well done LFT.
The Scenarios
There are eleven scenarios, the scenario cards are LFT’s normal full colour standard. There are 11 scenario cards, double printed so on average a scenario requires two pages although there are some one pagers and some three pagers.
Red Dragon Stalking Polar Bears
Large Chinese night attack against TFF at its strongest, 11 turns.
Shaking off The Shockwave
Very small daytime American counterattack to recover howitzers, 5.5 turns.
Taking Back Vital Ground
Small daytime American counterattack to take back the dominant ridgeline 6.5 turns.
Return of The Dragon
Medium Chinese night attack to take assault the above-mentioned ridge, 9 turns.
Triple A to The Rescue
Large Chinese night attack running into the AA vehicles, 8 turns.
The Assumption of Faith
A large daytime scenario with the US trying to break through Chinese blocking forces to link up, 8 turns.
Growing Pains
Small daytime American attack where the US try to clear CPVA with direct fire artillery support and the CPVA try to kill said guns or their supporting trucks, 6 turns.
Firemen vs Icemen
Medium Chinese night attack versus increasingly weak Americans, 5 turns.
Bridges of Sorrow
Small Chinese dusk attack, 6 turns.
Hold Out, One More Night
Large Chinese night attack, like the first scenario but with a much-weakened US force facing stronger CPVA units, 7.5 turns
The First Station on Faith’s Via Dolorosa
Large American day time attack to breakout. Not the end of TFF, but near enough, 7.5 turns. Heartbreaking.
As you can see, the scenarios range from 1.5 hours of play to 1.5 days. If you’re an experienced player I recommend playing them in order as they do tell a story.
None of the scenarios are complex, if one presumes good knowledge of the ASLRB. If you struggle with night, haven’t yet played FW then of course the difficulty increases. These aren’t scenarios that you can pick up and be playing 5 minutes later, but they are also not Advancing Fire scenarios that require a large investment to play.
With 5 night scenarios there will undoubtedly be some players that shy away. But, really, get back to that mirror and ask yourself why you’re not playing night, it’s not difficult, it features in many products and CGs. It’s like not playing PTO because it’s a bit hard to learn.
The night scenarios herein are possibly a great place to start learning night if you need to. The rules are “night lite” so a lot of the fiddly, labour-intensive rules sections are not in play, similar to Fox Hill. So, there is no cloaking or No Move counters, no nighttime BS firelanes, straying or jitter fire.
I don’t know why the designer chose this approach. I can guess that because of the ground snow, open terrain and the high NVR (5, 5, 6, 7 and 8) in those scenarios cloaking would be lost quite easily, so one would spend a lot of time to setup No Move and cloaked stacks only to, a turn later, undo all of that work.
I don’t know if I like this approach, as I spent a long-time learning night and I like the full rules set, but I understand why it was done.
However, this night lite approach makes learning the night rules very easy, so if you’ve played FW but not touched night yet then this would be the perfect place to start.
One interesting side insight that this pack gives is how limiting geoboards can be. With limited room to manoeuvre and artificially constrained terrain the CPVA can feel hard to handle on a geo board. Only here and on the Fox Hill map can they perform as they did historically.
The rules magazine that comes with the pack is, as are the scenario cards, up to LFT’s normal standard. The magazine is 14 pages long, but only 10 pages are for rules, and one of those is solely to repeat the slope rules, another is just to give visual examples of the terrain and elevations. So, eight pages of well-illustrated, large print rules. There is nothing unusual or difficult to grok. What is a pleasure is 4.5 pages of footnotes giving insights into the aforementioned rules. The English is excellent throughout.
What I Don’t I Like
Very minor things, the map is not as beautiful as Fox Hill, but it is more functional. Whilst there is no CG. I’m not a designer or historian so I trust Andrew when he says the action was not appropriate for a CG. However, personally, I really like the CGs which highlight force preservation. I like the challenge of Day 1 Germans in OVHS or Day 1 VOTG Russians.
I would have liked to repeat the challenge of managing TFF from beginning to end. I would also have liked to see the action progress off the map to where TFF really went to die. Who knows what the future will hold. For now I’ll have to content myself with running Love Company off that stupid hill.
Should I Buy This?
Should you buy this? The product is well made and cheap. Even if you think you’re not ready to play it yet, you will be in the future when I’m sure it will be out of print, buy it and put it in the wine cellar.
I think also that we’re running out of counters that we need. I don’t want to buy yet another counter tray. I think the future of ASL will rest heavily on packs like this, HASL lite as it were, might as well support it.
The reason I eagerly waited for my copy was because of how well the designer brings to life these battles. He did a very similar thing in Fox hill. There are some excellent books on this campaign which vividly describe the actions and the maps, scenarios and SSRs work together to evoke, through little counters and dice rolls, the desperate situations both frozen sides found themselves in.
I don’t make little noises when I fire my guns or move my tanks. ASL does not tell a story for me, I don’t imagine war films as I’m playing, but Fox Hill and TFF bring to life the heroism of Cafferata and Benson, the pure badassery of Stamford and the endurance of the CPVA.
I don’t think any other ASL product has linked me as well to the history as this and Fox Hill.
