korean war

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.

Read more

Not unlike some hackneyed box of chocolates, one never knows quite what will appear in an issue of Multi-Man Publishing‘s ASL Journal, that irregularly released magazine-and-scenario product dedicated to the Advanced Squad Leader tactical warfare system. Sporting a cover of a random Eastern Front tank on tank encounter by Ken Smith, just released ASL Journal #15 promises lots of (typically bland) German vs Soviet scenarios, but the actual contents prove a welcome surprise, all caramels and cremes and no sour quince logs…

Coming in at a brisk thirty-six pages, including the extra-glossy cover, ASL Journal #15 provides several articles, mostly of a practical and/or tactical nature; replacement overlay sheets for Doomed Battalions 4th Edition; and eleven scenarios, J247-257, on six standard thick, back printed cardstock sheets, one of the scenarios stretching to a second page. Unlike several recent issues of the Journal, ASL Journal #15 does not come with either a HASL map or a selection of geomorphic maps, so the price is commensurately more slender as a result.

I’m on record as being rather uninterested in the vast majority of articles in contemporary hobbyist gaming periodicals, seeing them as a necessary evil in getting the scenarios that I’m really buying the product for, but a few of the articles in ASL Journal #15 strike me as a welcome return to the glory days of the gaming magazine, when tactics and analysis predominated over potted amateur histories and glorified product advertisements. In particular, Johnathan Kay’s exploration of the nuances of lines of sight and Jim Bishop’s mathematically dense overview of offensive tank operations seem well worth the ink. (Full disclosure: I know Jim from way back, when I used to game with the Washington, DC, ASL crowd.) I can see both articles being pored over and referenced frequently, much like Ole Boe’s “Stop and Go Traffic” and Steve Petersen’s “Run for the Money,” two practical classics from the ’96 Annual. Finally, a magazine you really do buy for the articles!

The three included sheets of overlays replace those in Doomed Battalions 4th Edition, adding the center hex dots that were missing from those in the revised module. Only some copies of DB4, shipped early in the release process, have the wonky overlay sheets, so double check yours before shelling out here just for replacements. These “new” versions are the same as those found in the ASL Overlay Bundle and Doomed Battalions 3rd Edition, so if you have either of those products, or one of the later shipped DB4 copies, you’re set.

The scenarios are the real draw for ASL Journal #15, and blessedly there’s not a single Eastern Front action in the bunch. Instead, we’re treated to a refreshing spin through the Plano, with scenarios covering the invasion of Poland in ’39, seeing the first official use of the “super” Polish squads introduced in Doomed Battalions 4th Edition; an attack on Danish positions in ’40, with the Danes using automatic anti-tank cannons; several actions pitting the US against Vichy French troops in North Africa; a few late war affairs between the Germans and, in various combinations, the Americans, Brits, and Free French; a hefty card featuring American troops defending against North Koreans in ’50; plus, so far as I can tell, the first official scenario set in South America, a border clash between Peru and Ecuador in ’41, with the Peruvians presented in Axis Minor greens and the Ecuadorians donning Italian grey. No night or PTO scenarios in this one, but you can’t have everything! Most scenarios do involve combined arms and clock in between 4.5 and 7 turns. They all look playable in a tournament setting or a club game session, with solid but not overwhelming force counts.

As ever with ASL, to play it all you need to own it all. The scenarios use boards from both core modules and various other subsidiary products, including one Starter Kit board, a trend I’m not enamored of. The boards needed are: 4, 14, 16, 19, 33, 43, 46, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 70, 71, 81, 83, 84, 1a, 5b, and x. A smattering of overlays also come into play.

For someone who greatly appreciates scenarios that focus on under-exposed theaters and involve under-utilized rules and counters, ASL Journal #15 is an easy purchase. With cards bringing into play motorcycles, minefields, gliders, air support, and, yes, even a Sturmtiger, there are plenty of obscure rules to look up and counters to dust off. But if you’re like me, MMP had already earned a sale the second they mentioned Ecuador…

To most people, Oktoberfest conjures up notions of Bavaria, beer halls, and bratwurst, and all fine contributions to human culture they are. To aficionados of Advanced Squad Leader, however, Oktoberfest means a week-long celebration of wargaming in some nondescript hotel in and around Cleveland, Ohio, the longest running (and arguably finest) ASL tournament going. In celebration of this carnival of camaraderie and competition, Multi-Man Publishing, stewards of ASL, just released their fifth scenario-and-map Action Pack in conjunction with ASL Oktoberfest.

ASL Action Pack #18: Oktoberfest XXXVII features two geomorphic mapboards (91 and 92) in the now-standard “Starter Kit” style of thick cardstock plus fourteen ASL scenarios, AP191-204, all on traditional cardstock, sandwiched between front and end sheets on glossy stock with cover art depicting a Crocodile blazing away by Nicolas Eskubi. In keeping with the general “tournament” nature of this Action Pack, the scenarios tend towards the compact, with only two clocking in at seven or more turns and three at a mere four-and-a-half turns. Unit density likewise reflects an emphasis on the manageable, and all should be playable within a six hour span, assuming reasonably punctual players.

The new maps, 91 and 92, hail from the talented Charlie Kibler. Board 91 is a riot of greens, with woods and brush everywhere and a long Level -1 Valley that runs the length of the map. It’s a striking board, one of the strongest in recent years. Board 92 depicts a more normal crossroads village, though curiously dominated by stone row houses more often seen in purely urban settings. Two roadside hills offer intriguing defensive opportunities.

All fourteen scenarios were designed Pete Shelling and the late Bill Sisler, both hailing from the Buckeye State, making this an all-Ohio affair. The Germans appear on quite a few of the cards, against American, Russian, Partisan, and British opposition, with a single scenario set in the Pacific and, pleasingly, four actions taking place during the Korean War with the North Koreans facing American troops from the 1st Cavalry. The latter quartet might be considered a continuation of sorts from Action Pack #17, the entirety of which covered the actions of the First Team in World War II and the Korean War. It’s good to see MMP continuing to support the Korean War module with additional scenarios. That conflict represents the furthest extent the ASL system can really cover, chronologically, being so close to World War II as it was in terms of weapons and tactics. Hopefully more gamers will give those scenarios a try.

My personal picks from the scenarios include AP191 East Wind by Bill Sisler, with its rarely seen Extreme Winter conditions making life miserable for Russian and German alike; Pete Shelling’s AP194 Not Fade Away, pitting a German defense on the two new boards against American infantry backed up by some Shermans; and AP204 Southside Seesaw, also by Shelling, with a thin force of North Korean defenders holding against a mass of US 1st Cavalry infantry lugging a recoilless rifle up Alpine Hills on Deluxe maps, not something you see every day. Honorable mention goes to Sisler’s AP197 Killer Cats & Easy Eights, an all-AFV affair in the snow that gives 11th Armored’s CCB a total of sixteen up-gunned Sherman variants against half as many German tanks and tank destroyers.

As ever, to play it all you need to own it all when it comes to Advanced Squad Leader, and Action Pack #18 proves no exception. For the player with everything, though, or at least close enough thereunto, Action Pack #18 is yet another automatic purchase. The two new maps, particularly 91, give scenario designers even more options, and the scenarios avoid being big, tedious slugfests, the time, space, and force constraints that are inherent to “tournament” scenarios forcing players to use what they have to the best of their abilities, while still having room for a beer and another scenario right afterwards—which, if we’re honest, is the whole point of a tournament anyway…

ASL Oktoberfest, or ASLOK, is the centerpiece of the Advanced Squad Leader convention calendar, despite taking place in Cleveland. It’s the Masters Tournament of ASL, if you will, and while I’ll always prefer the more casual confines of Winter Offensive, in bucolic Bowie, Maryland, the cachet of ASLOK cannot be denied. It’s just pure ASL, morning to night.

Every few years, Multi-Man Publishing, caretakers and publishers of the venerable ASL tactical wargame system, release an Action Pack in conjunction with ASLOK, and they have just unveiled ASL Action Pack #17: Oktoberfest XXXV to go along with this year’s edition of the tournament. This new expansion for ASL contains two new geomorphic maps (87 and 88) and sixteen scenarios (AP175-AP190) by Kevin Meyer and Pete Shelling centering on the US 1st Cavalry Division, known as The First Team.

The actions depicted take place in the Pacific theater during World War II, with three scenarios against the Japanese in 1944, and then in the Korean War, host to a whopping thirteen scenarios pitting the 1st Cavalry against North Korean and Communist Chinese forces in 1950 and 1951. Despite the singular focus on a particular division, the scenarios manage to cover a varied set of actions, from assault boat landings in a reservoir against Chinese forces hunkered in bunkers (AP189 Bona Fide Effort) and a joint American/Greek assault on a minefield complex (AP190 We Are Sparta) through to an armor slugfest against North Korean T-34s (AP183 Patton’s Ghost) and a river crossing under fire (AP181 No Dunkirk).

The situations tend towards the fulsome, with none that, at first glance, fall into the quick-playing tournament scenario mold; these cards are, broadly, six to eight turns with a dozen or more squads per side, plus interesting special rules and counters that don’t often get fished out of the Plano.

As for the two new maps, designed by Tom Repetti and Don Petros, with art by the inestimable Charlie Kibler, they both feature a multi-level hill running along one long map edge, which, if set together, form one large hill mass. Board 87 hosts a small village abutting the hill, while board 88 has gullies leading down off the hill into a valley, with more crags than you’ve probably ever seen on an ASL map.

Because most of the scenarios are set in the Korean War, which for some reason has not been overly popular in ASL circles since the release of the Forgotten War Korean War ASL module some years back, this Action Pack might not get as much interest as usual for an official ASL product. That would be a shame, as the pack as a whole stretches the ASL rulebook—how often do you use river Ford counters?—and features interesting actions by some of the best scenario designers working today. These might not be scenarios to knock out in a quick sitting at a club meeting on a Saturday, but they’ll reward extended play.