Advanced Squad Leader‘s long-time custodians, Multi-Man Publishing, have in recent years come very close to releasing their flagship product’s support magazine, the ASL Journal, on a near-annual basis, something that was seldom accomplished when it was titled the ASL Annual. (Though in fairness, Avalon Hill, the original publishers of ASL, started that title and themselves never quite lived up to the promised schedule either.) The most recent issue, ASL Journal #17, came out in late July of this year in conjunction with the grandiosely titled World Boardgaming Championships in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, only nine months after they unveiled Journal #16.
A hallmark of recent issues of the Journal has been an excruciatingly glossy cover, and this most recent offering, featuring artwork by Steve Noon showing American GIs advancing down a ruined street behind a Sherman, ramps the gloss up even higher. You will smudge the cover and festoon it with fingerprints, should you decide to give the articles within more than a cursory glance. I hope a reconsideration of the cover stock is in the offing.
At forty-two pages, Journal #17 comes in slightly longer than prior issues, and pleasingly most of the articles are, continuing the recent pattern, focused on gameplay, including an examination of dashing and street fighting rules by Sean Deller and a deep dive into roadblocks by Carl Nogueira. John Slotwinski, a long-time gaming buddy of mine, contributes an article on one of several monster scenarios in this issue, accompanying a handful of “Pre-Combat Check” articles by Deller that seem to have become a fixture, providing a “things to remember” checklist for various scenarios. A potted history article, of the type I’m long on record as believing has no place in gameplay-focused magazines such as this, also takes up some space.
ASL Journals tend to come with an assortment of maps, and Journal #17 obliges, but in a rather different manner. Instead of one or more cardstock maps, a paper map for a single scenario, J282 Paths of Vengeance, accompanies this issue. At almost 20″ by 28″, it’s a substantial bit of cartography, nearly the size of a standard wargaming map, with oversized hexes and a nice, restrained satin matte finish. Featuring built-up city terrain (the scenario is set in Berlin), with stone buildings interlaced by streets and railroad tracks, the map by itself makes a compelling case for the playing the linked scenario.
And what a scenario it is: J282 Paths of Vengeance, by Bill Cirillo, Sean Deller, and Steven Pleva, is a three-player scenario whose details span four separate cards. The scenario leverages the three-faction conceit introduced in Twilight of the Reich, with two Soviet forces fighting each other (for the glory of taking Berlin) and the Germans simultaneously. Each side receives points to spend as they please for weapons and fortifications as in ToTR, a conceit repeated through many of the Journal’s fourteen new scenarios (J270-J283), spread over eleven double-sided cardstock cards.
It’s here I must note that all the included scenarios are set in the European Theater of Operations, all involve the Germans, and over half (8 of 14) involve the Russians. As a die-hard aficionado of scenarios that feature, well, none of the above, Journal #17 is a hard sell for me. Our Planos fairly groan with counters that never get used, and though there are some interesting scenarios in this bunch, it’s very much more of the same from my admittedly biased perspective.
Still, standouts in Journal #17 include J273 Rail War by Ted Wilcox, featuring Russian partisans attacking a rail depot filled with boxcars loaded to the gills with ammunition (and accompanying SSRs for blowing them up) against a very stout German defense; J275 Banana Flambé by Walt McWilliams, starring a pair of everyone’s favorite flame tanks, the Crocodile, backing up British troops confronting a hodgepodge of German defenders, from elites to conscripts, holed up behind a minefield and pillbox; and J278 Twilight’s Last Gleaming by Mark Neukom, with well-equipped, tank-supported Americans looking to roll up a handful of second-line Germans…except for the little matter of a Sturmtiger waiting for them.
As noted, Journal #17 is not an ASL Journal for everyone. It’s more a Twilight of the Reich support magazine rather than a more general ASL support magazine. The desire to put out themed, or highly focused, periodicals makes some sense—there’s an admittedly pleasing coherence here, and it’s MMP’s right to supplement their product line with offerings like this. I’m certain this Journal will sell more than a few (quite pricey) copies of Twilight of the Reich for them. And, of course, one can never say no to new three-player scenarios. Playing the few that exist have been some of the highlights of my ASL career, such as it is. But you may well find that there’s simply nothing here for you, a tower of chits that looks quite formidable and turns out to be a dummy stack of German concealment counters.