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Dutch Trucks: Doomed Battalions 4th Edition (MMP) Released

December 25, 2024September 7, 2024 by Chris Baer

Back in 1998, as Avalon Hill prepared to meet that great creditor in the sky, they published a few final titles, among them Doomed Battalions, a core module for Advanced Squad Leader bringing Allied Minor guns and vehicles to the tactical World War II conflict simulation system. The fabled “Dutch trucks” made it out the garage just before the doors closed and Avalon Hill became nothing more than a memory and a convenient brand name for new owners Hasbro to slap on games with a military/conflict theme. For fans of ASL, they were uncertain times, with real concerns that Doomed Battalions would be the last product ever officially produced for the system.

Fast-forward a quarter century and the current ASL license holders, Multi-Man Publishing, have just released Doomed Battalions 4th Edition, proving that their stewardship of the game system has put those fears from the late ’90s to rest.

A quick chronology and overview of the various editions of Doomed Battalions might be helpful. The First (1998) edition contains three map boards (44, 45, and the long-missing “rogue” 9), eight scenarios (83-90), plus overlays (introducing railroads to ASL), counters, and supporting rulebook pages for all the new toys; the Second (1999) edition is identical save for the company logo on the box, being a straight reprint by MMP as one of their very first projects.

For the Third (2009) edition, MMP folds the contents of The Last Hurrah into the box, providing a single module source for Allied Minor troop, gun, and vehicle counters. All prior Doomed Battalions content appears, with boards 11 and 33 added along with updated rulebook pages from both earlier modules, the scenarios from The Last Hurrah (43-50), and eight additional scenarios (137-144), all featuring Allied Minors and previously published in other AH/MMP products.

This new Fourth (2024) edition takes everything from the Third edition and turns it up to eleven (Module Eleven, that is!), adding eight more previously published (and renumbered) scenarios (307-314), with known errata incorporated in all thirty-two scenarios included in the box. The counter artwork also comes up to the current standard, with new infantry types introduced for the Poles, added in conjunction with MMP’s forthcoming Polish Eagles project on Polish forces throughout the war. (A new Chapter A footnote indicates that testing for Polish Eagles revealed a need for slightly more robust Polish troops.) Rules for those troops—which are not retrofitted to earlier scenarios but enter the system officially for future use—plus additional rules added to the system in Twilight of the Reich, and some new charts, round out the updated components.

So, for those keeping track at home, Doomed Battalions Fourth Edition comes with five geomorphic maps in the now-standard “Starter Kit” cardstock style (9, 11, 33, 44, 45); thirty-two scenarios (43-50; 83-90; 137-144; 307-314); four countersheets featuring half-inch and five-eighth inch counters with updated artwork; three sheets of terrain overlays; updated rule pages for Chapters A, B, and H; and two updated charts (Ch. B and National Characteristics) thrown in for good measure. Good thing it’s a decently big (2.5″ deep) box, with cover artwork of a wee tankette under fire by Ken Smith.

Just examining the fresh additions to this edition, the new countersheets, featuring the last of the core system counters to receive the new, crisper artwork and printing, look quite sharp. I do worry slightly about new Polish infantry counters, with a tiny white eagle on a red field in the top left corner to differentiate them from other Allied Minor counters. The standard ASL counter is a model of spatial efficiency, and the insignia feels ever so close to the corner’s edges; as ever, MMP’s printing is top notch, so there’s no danger of the insignia falling into the die cut gutter, but for those who consider counter corner rounding to be amongst the noblest of arts, there’s a danger that the practice might snip the eagle’s wings, so to speak. Also of note on the new countersheets are some errata counters for misprints in Twilight of the Reich and a few revised Axis Minor counters.

The fresh scenario additions reach beyond the usual assortment of reprinted cards from The General and various Annuals/Journals, picking up some long out-of-print gems from packs like Out of the Bunker and Out of the Attic 2, which are notable themselves for bringing some third-party scenarios into the official fold. All thirty-two cards here, on standard cardstock, have, as noted, received errata and balance passes. The pick of the actions include 43 Into the Fray (starring a baker’s dozen Polish Uhlan squads on horseback against German armor); 90 Pride and Joy (with possibly the largest cavalry charge in the game as twenty-four Greek squads ride against dug-in Italians); 137 Italian Brothers (a rare-for-its-time Spanish Civil War scenario pitting Italians on the Nationalist and Republican sides against each other); and 313 Airborne Samurai (Dutch defenders in the Celebes holding off a Japanese air drop with air support).

Indeed, Doomed Battalions provides a wealth of early-war scenarios, full of tin-can tanks and more than a bit of valor from soldiers fighting against against more numerous, better equipped foes. If you’re tired of Shermans slugging against StuGs and Tigers taking on T-34s, if you enjoy digging through Chapter H to see just why there are port and starboard turret counters in the mix, this is a mandatory module. Ownership of much of the rest of the ASL system is, as ever, needed to play all of the scenarios included, just by dint of the number of boards and overlays represented on the cards. But with only two PTO scenarios (one of which features the sole British appearance), one featuring Axis Minors, and none with the Americans, you can probably get by, counter-wise, with just Beyond Valor and Hollow Legions—boards and overlays, of course, notwithstanding.

For owners of the first two editions of Doomed Battalions, this new edition is pretty much an automatic upgrade, featuring everything you already love and lots more of it. The value calculus for Third edition owners is perhaps more complex. It’s been fifteen years since the Third edition came out, and the state of the art has improved, so for the updated counter artwork alone, I would recommend a purchase—they just look better. The revamped Polish troops, too, will certainly find their way into new scenarios, though one expects the forthcoming Polish Eagles module will also contain them. The new charts, as up to date as can be, also add to the appeal, and the additional scenarios feel a welcome addition to the binder. It’s certainly not a cheap upgrade at US$172 retail, but the contents justify the price. Still, there’s nothing here that invalidates the Third edition in any real way, and one assumes that the refreshed rules pages will make their way to the electronic version of the ASL Rule Book in due time.

It’s nice to have Doomed Battalions back in print. One must wonder, indeed, after four editions, if more Dutch trucks and Belgian tanks and Greek field guns exist in cardboard form than ever did in real life…

Burma Shave: ASL Action Pack #19 (MMP) Released

July 26, 2024July 26, 2024 by Chris Baer

Just in time for the week-long gaming bacchanal known variously as AvalonCon, DonCon, or the more quotidian World Boardgaming Championships, Multi-Man Publishing has released the latest in their long-running series of map-and-scenario compilations for Advanced Squad Leader, Action Pack #19: Roads to Rangoon. With three double-sided maps and ten scenarios on cardstock designed by Gary Fortenberry, and featuring a cover sheet illustrated by Nicolas Eskubi, this bagged expansion centers on actions between March and April 1942 in Burma, pitting British, Commonwealth, and Chinese forces against Japanese troops and their allies in the Burmese Independence movement.

Something of a sequel to Action Pack #9: To the Bridge!, also by Fortenberry, which mostly concentrated on combats in Burma in February 1942, this new Action Pack provides a number of small-scale encounters; only two cards have more than fifteen squads per side and just four run longer than six turns, making these strong candidates for tournament or single-session club play.

The three double-sided geomorphic maps (20a/b, 21a/b, 22a/b) in the style known colloquially as “Fortenberry” maps come in the familiar “Starter Kit”-type thick cardstock finish. The two sides of each map look mostly the same, having different map-edge woods hexes to enable them to mesh seamlessly with other boards. With crisp art by the inestimable Charlie Kibler, they make a solid addition to the jam-packed ASL map inventory, most notably bringing a pair of new river boards (20a/b, 22a/b) to the game system as well as a hill-festooned forest/grain explosion (21a/b) with a small stream, chapel, and graveyard tucked in for good measure. 22a/b is the pick of the crop, featuring a two-hex river running against a built-up village; walls guard one side of the water feature and imposing stone buildings run along an orchard-lined road, making for a very difficult riparian crossing under fire…

Bowie Bundle: Two New ASL Products from MMP Released

February 4, 2024January 25, 2024 by Chris Baer

As inevitable as snow in winter (well, most years), January means Winter Offensive, the East Coast’s premier Advanced Squad Leader tournament, held annually by Multi-Man Publishing in bucolic Bowie, Maryland. This year’s tourney saw the release of two new ASL products, the fifteenth edition of the Winter Offensive Bonus Pack and the somewhat uncategorizable Twilight of the Reich. Is it a core module, a sort-of-historical module, an Action Pack gone mad? It’s big, that’s for sure.

Taking the simpler, but by no means unremarkable, Winter Offensive Bonus Pack #15 first, this scenario-and-map bundle comes, as ever, in a loose cellophane bag with a cover sheet depicting flame-lit street fighting in Stalingrad by Nicolás Eskubi, a tantalizing hint of the actions on offer within. Two of the four scenarios feature rather large engagements set in that ruined city, with each side cramming upwards of thirty squads each onto three deluxe boards. For yes, Bonus Pack #15 follows in the footsteps of Bonus Packs #9 and #13 by including deluxe sized maps, all on the now-standard “Starter Kit” cardstock, likely accounting for much of the $32 retail price. (All of MMP’s proceeds from this, and all the WO Bonus Packs, go to the WWII Foundation, so it’s a reasonable price by any standard.)

The new scenarios number WO46-WO49, with Pete Shelling supplying two of them (one of the Stalingrad actions and another US vs German tiff set in April ’45 with a trademark Shelling force purchase matrix). Tom Morin contributes the other Stalingrad scenario and Kevin Meyer brings us an action featuring the Canadians in Operation Goodwood. The back of the cover sheet provides a nice overview of the factory rules to accompany the three factory-festooned new maps (Dp/Dq/Dr). Dq and Dr are essentially a matched pair, as they split two giant factories across one of their long sides, making these some of the first “non-geomorphic” Deluxe maps, if not the first, in terms of not matching to other boards along those edges. (No, I’m not digging my Deluxe maps out to check.) It makes for a quite striking factory complex. As the kids today say, you can fit so many squads in these bad boys…

Ohiofest: ASL Action Pack #18 (MMP) Released

April 6, 2026October 14, 2023 by Chris Baer

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…

Taking a Gander: TCS Goose Green (MMP) Released

September 24, 2023September 23, 2023 by Chris Baer

Though best known for their prodigious output as the current benevolent custodians of Advanced Squad Leader, Multi-Man Publishing also shepherds various other wargame series, including the Tactical Combat Series (TCS) pioneered by Dean Essig (and previously released under the aegis of The Gamers, now folded into MMP). The most recent TCS title is Goose Green, designed by Carl Fung, focusing on the initial ground combat between British and Argentinian forces in and around Goose Green and Darwin on the Falkland Islands in May 1982.

As with the last TCS entry, Ariete, Goose Green comes as a ziplocked, rather than boxed, presentation, with a single standard 22″ x 34″ map on glossy paper; half a countersheet of die cut 1/2″ counters; series and special rules on glossy paper; some charts on relatively thin, glossy stock; and thick front and back cover sheets. It’s a tidy package at an agreeable price. TCS has never seemed to be as big a seller for MMP (or The Gamers previously) as the other series in their stables, so it’s good to see the series continuing in a format that gets the games out to players at a price that is as close to “impulse buy” as wargames tend to get.

Goodness knows I’ve bounced off of TCS more than once in the past, having owned (and sold and owned and sold) several titles in the series over the past two decades. What has thrown me off—and others, I would wager—is the innovation at the heart of TCS: written orders. Like ASL, TCS focuses on tactical battles, highlighting small unit engagements, typically at the platoon level as opposed to ASL’s focus on the squad. TCS, however, requires written instructions for units to act, orders that must pass through the chain of command. No telepathic, instantaneous communication between units here—orders are orders, and just because the player wants to react to an opportunity (or mishap) in one area, the written orders take precedence until new orders can be cut.

For gamers used to pushing counters at will, it’s a difficult, or at the very least different, mindset to adopt, particularly at the tactical level, and while most TCS series games have small scenarios, the thought of orchestrating a major offensive in writing can be daunting. The relatively small focus of Goose Green feels like an ideal setting to try to come to grips with TCS; even the full campaign for Goose Green should be within the realm of the possible, given that there are a grand total of 140 counters in the game, fewer than half of which are actual units. The game contains a total of five scenarios, ranging from five to forty turns, each turn representing between twenty minutes to an hour duration, depending on light conditions.

Too, with the fortieth anniversary of the conflict in the Falklands just past, Goose Green feels a somewhat timely addition to the relatively thin conflict simulation corpus surrounding that clash in the South Atlantic. Designer Carl Fung goes to significant lengths via the special rules and scenarios to portray the difficulties facing the British as they attempt to conduct a rapid assault against numerically superior Argentine defenders, themselves well dug-in but on the receiving end of an advanced combined arms fusillade. Both sides need to make tough decisions about when to press and when to yield, decisions compounded and complicated by the TCS orders process. Besides, any game with counters for that lovely homegrown Argentinian close air support aircraft, the Pucara, deserves a place in my collection.

The components themselves are up to the usual handsome MMP standards, the maps hewing broadly to the standard Gamers style, with graphics work by Nicolas Eskubi. Love them or (more likely) hate them, the trademark Gamers’ “every five hexes” printed map coordinate system rears its head here, as does TCS’ legendarily finicky line-of-sight process, but those are small quibbles to bear for a fairly unique take on one of the most important, and overlooked, land battles of the late 20th century. Goose Green promises to be worth the effort involved in finally coming to terms with TCS, in order to examine this signal moment in military history.

Aussie Annual: ASL Journal #14 (MMP) Released

May 30, 2023May 25, 2023 by Chris Baer

In what promises to be a banner year for Advanced Squad Leader products, Multi-Man Publishing has just released their latest installment in the ASL Journal range, ASL Journal #14. It’s a good thing that MMP long since stopped calling the ASL support periodical the Annual, as the last one, Journal #13, came out a scant five months back—and the one before it five years prior….

Subtitled the “Aussie Special Edition,” this magazine’s contents focus not just on actions conducted by troops from Australia and New Zealand but also collects articles and scenarios written by contributors from the same regions. It’s an interesting and salutary approach to the publication, which often feels like a grab-bag of whatever has come over the transom in Millersville. While I’m not typically an avid consumer of historical articles in gaming magazines, the focus on the Oceanic experience, frequently underrepresented in accounts of World War II presented through a British and American lens, comes across as an agreeable corrective to the typical fare.

Articles in support of Hatten in Flames and the included Sparrow Force mini-CG, plus scenario analysis of AP161 ANZAC Boys and AP163 Dingos at Damour from the Australian-themed Action Pack #16, round out the bound magazine content, which comes in at 56 pages (including front and back covers) with a satin matte finish. The cover artwork by James Flett, Crossing Daoe River, Morotai, evocatively depicts slouch-hatted Australian soldiers crossing a river.

As ever, the stars of every issue of the ASL Journal are the scenarios, printed separately as usual on thick cardstock. Twenty-four scenarios appear in this installment, and while a good number do center on forces from Australia and New Zealand against various foes, the full gamut of participants appears on these cards, including a French vs. Italian affair at the very start of hostilities between those two adversaries and five actions set after D-Day pitting American and Canadian forces against German troops. Of note, there are very few scenario cards with much in the way of armor support, the late war scenarios seeing the bulk of the actions that will require digging into Chapter D.

As for the scenarios featuring troops from Australia and New Zealand, many of the actions focus on battles against Japanese forces in the Pacific theater—which certainly explains the relative lack of armor-heavy scenarios—and several take fresh looks at the fighting over Crete against German paratroopers.

Three of the scenarios, all by Andy Rogers, form the basis for the included mini-CG, Sparrow Force, set in late February 1942 on West Timor. The Australians of 2/40th Battalion, part of the Sparrow Force of Australian and Dutch troops, attempt to hold against elements of the Japanese Special Naval Landing Force tasked with taking the island. Rather than a traditional campaign game structure, the scenarios are designed to be played chronologically, with an interesting in-scenario force purchase system and a highly modified Refit phase between the scenarios. (In effect, VPs carry over, and wrecks/fortifications remain on map, but otherwise the map is cleared after each scenario.) The scenarios can also be played independently as stand-alone actions.

Two rules pages, with American-standard hole-punches and, most notably, a 22.25″ x 32″ map on glossy paper accompany the Sparrow Force mini-CG. The map comes with slightly over-sized hexes, measuring roughly 1″ across, hexside-to-hexside, as opposed to the standard .75″ width. At 26 hexes wide by 30 hexes long, it’s a reasonable solution to a map that would be awkwardly sized at the smaller dimensions, just in terms of folding, and should fit most gaming tables (and plexiglass) with no fuss. It’s good to see MMP’s willingness to tinker with sizing like this in service of a good product, especially since historical maps do not need to match up with existing maps at the usual standard size.

As ever, ownership of pretty much the entire Advanced Squad Leader system is required for play of all of the scenarios in Journal #14, mostly due to the maps and overlays used by the scenarios, quite a few of which draw on maps released outside the core modules.

Those ASL players looking for an East Front armor fix might be disappointed in the offerings here, but there’s more than plenty of product out there to fill that need. Players interested in the breadth and depth of experiences across the entirety of the Second World War will find much to appreciate here, and the bespoke attention paid to the Australian and New Zealand effort in particular makes ASL Journal #14 an eminently worthwhile purchase.