Fresh—well, semi-fresh—from the fine fellows at Multi-Man Publishing, a trio of Action Packs, numbers 20, 21, and 22, for Advanced Squad Leader, everyone’s favorite tactical combat simulation, to fill out the collection. I say “semi-fresh” because two of these three map-and-scenario packs were first unveiled back at ASLOK in October of 2025 some seven months back, but the latest is genuinely hot off the presses this week.
These packs serve a useful function in the ASL ecosystem, adding a drip-feed of new boards—and a veritable torrent of new scenarios—for the system to tide gamers over between the larger boxed module releases. As has been noted, the last thing the system really needs is new counters, but we all still want new product, so Action Packs fit the bill perfectly, filling up the map-and-scenario binders while leaving the Planos untouched, and the three latest offer a range of experiences with something for everyone, even picky gamers like myself. All three feature now-standard, yet still striking, cover artwork by Nicolás Eskubi.
ASL Action Pack #20 wears its pedigree on its sleeve (er, sub-title), “ASL Oktoberfest XXXIX,” not just released at the venerable tournament but produced in cooperation with it, featuring a dozen scenarios, spread across seven double-sided cards, by Pete Shelling, David Lamb, and Matt Zajac, plus a single new mapboard, 98. These actions run the gamut, with no particular theme tying them together. Aside from a smattering of near-obligatory East Front battles we get a few set in the Philippines, one in Burma, one in Luxembourg, and, as is becoming a welcome tradition, a pair of Korean War scenarios by Pete Shelling, including one with UN Forces. He’s doing more to keep Korean War ASL alive than anyone else at present. Most of the cards come in around six-seven turns, with reasonable force sizes, as befits a tournament-centric pack, though there are a few actions that will take either fast play or a very long session in a tourney setting.
Board 98, designed by Tom Repetti and painted by Jean-Marc Palmier (his first for the system?), is a welter of brown, tan, and green, with a dirt road leading over and through wooded hills. Cliffs and a stone bridge over a dry gully add to the fun, and a smattering of crags makes an appearance, because why not? It’s a busy, busy map, sadly only used by three of the scenarios in the pack. In addition to 98, boards 6, 16, 35, 36, 37, 49, 58, 62, 68, 71, 75, 87, 88, 90, 5a, 7a, 8b, and deluxe boards b, c, and i are required, plus a handful of overlays. German, Russian, American, Axis Minor, Japanese, Nationalist and Communist Chinese, UN, and North and South Korean counters come into play across the scenarios.
The other ASLOK Action Pack release, ASL Action Pack #21, takes as its theme “Blitzkrieg to Paris,” a tightly focused compilation of four maps and ten scenarios all by Gary Fortenberry, centered on actions in May, 1940, in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. The counters needed, commensurately, come in as a very tidy list: German, Allied Minor, and French (plus Partisans). Stretching across six double-sided cards, these actions are anything but tiny—the substantive scenarios draw on many dusty parts of the Plano for counters not frequently seen, always a treat. Perhaps understandably, the Germans take the initiative in all but one of the scenarios, a French counterattack, but the Allies are not without ample tools to resist. For fans of early-war situations, this pack is a must.
The four new boards here, all in the double-sided “Fortenberry” style—23a/b, 24a/b, 25a/b, and 26a/b—come from the able hand of Charlie Kibler. They read as very “European” in feel, not strikingly unique at first glance but also not without their charms. 23a/b features a pair of stone buildings nestled behind stone walls, a nice redoubt for the defender, while 24a/b hosts a two hex wide river built up with a village on one side. 25a/b portrays a stream and road intersection amidst a forest, and 26a/b depicts a tiny town complete with church, steeple, and graveyard. Boards 17, 39, 38, 46, 63 65, 1a, 9b, 10a, and 19b come into play alongside the new boards, which are used in six of the scenarios on offer here, a good use of the fresh cartography (and certainly made easier by a single designer for the scenarios and maps in this product). A few overlays also get the call from the bullpen.
Newly released ASL Action Pack #22 takes a diffuse approach, living up to its sub-title of “A World at War” with a nice mix of combatants and theaters. Featuring three new maps and a dozen scenarios by Jim Bishop and Gary Fortenberry as co-designers, spanning six double-sided cards, gamers are treated to a very rare action set in Ethiopia, with an additional appearance by the Italians in Ukraine, plus three PTO scenarios and several on the West Front. The size of the scenarios tends towards the dense, even though none runs longer than six and a half turns. The back cover blurb suggests these are “tournament” scenarios, but the tourney director had best keep a firm eye on the clock, and known slow-pokes, given some of the force rosters in some of them. (Full disclosure: I know Jim Bishop from my time gaming with the Washington, DC, ASL crowd.)
The three maps introduced in AP #22—27a/b, 28a/b, and 29a/b—are, again, in the “Fortenberry” style, with art by Charlie Kibler once more. They seem to be intended to work together, as each portrays a small bit of village surrounded by open ground and light tree cover. As with the AP#21 maps, they’re not maps you’ll remember, necessarily, but they look to have some devious lines of sight and multiple avenues for approaching the building complexes. And, to be fair, with well north of a hundred and twenty five maps in the system, it’s not easy to devise completely bespoke geometric boards. The new maps feature in a good seven scenarios, a quite fine ratio; other boards needed are 7, 35, 42, 55, 86, 1a, 2a, 4a, 5b, 9b, 10a, 11b, 12a, 20a, 21b, and deluxe boards a, h, and l. A fair number of overlays, including for the deluxe maps, will see service. You’ll need American, German, Ethiopian, Italian, Russian, Free French, Axis Minor, Japanese, Chinese, and British/Commonwealth counters to play all the scenarios.
There are some great scenarios in this trio of Action Packs. From AP #20, I’d call out AP217 Laager Time by David Lamb, a nighttime jungle assault by Japanese forces on a combined Chinese and American laager in Burma defended by a a scant infantry force stiffened by tanks, carriers, and, um, a bulldozer; and AP226 Bargaining Chip by Pete Shelling, with Turkish UN forces engaged in a desperate back-and-forth against Chinese troops dug in atop a hill as the war winds down. AP#21 standouts include AP227 Disaster at Ypenburg, a German paradrop and air landing on a Dutch airfield defended, in part, by Dutch police (represented by Partisan squads); and AP235 Gallic Counterpunch, the aforementioned French counterattack that sees a whopping twenty-one French AFVs trundling into action against, gulp, an 88 pressed into anti-tank service. Heavy metal the Panhard armored cars ain’t.
Narrowing down the picks of the litter in AP #22 is tough, but how can I not hold up AP237 Andiamo for attention, given the presence of Ethiopian forces attempting to ambush an Italian convoy with delightfully puny armored vehicles? The other appearance by the Italians in this pack, AP238 Italian Crescendo, also looks a treat, with a horse-drawn AT gun and lots of conscripts on the Soviet side and cavalry, plus tiny tanks, on the Italian side. Honorable mention must go to AP242 Seton Block, a clash between Nationalist Chinese and Japanese troops in mud, jungle, and heavy rain—doing anything in those conditions is not a task for the rules-averse!
In all seriousness, I don’t think anyone needs new scenarios at this point—you could play a card a day and not run out of actions for a few years, and that’s just the official stuff. But the state of the art evolves, as designers come up with new tricks and techniques, ferreting out ever more obscure clashes to model; throw in maps you haven’t thrown dice over a dozen times and there’s something quite refreshing about these Action Packs. Newer players will probably be best served filling the holes in their module collections before dipping into the APs, though of course they’re also not likely to be reprinted. Existing players will be drawn, or not, to the specific actions being portrayed, though the need to keep the map collection up to date also serves as a real purchase incentive. As a big fan of tin-can tanks, AP #21 is a no-brainer for me in that regard, though the breadth of actions in AP #20 and AP #22 have their appeal, especially because they’re not overwhelmingly filled with boring Soviet-German slugfests. To that end, these are, as ever, worthwhile, though not strictly mandatory, purchases for the Squad Leader aficionado looking for a fresh experience.