ASL rules, tips, and tactics
I have been watching a couple of different discussions about Wall Advantage. In each instance, these Wall Advantage questions have been edge cases which will rarely come up in a game of ASL. You could probably safely ignore these instances and you probably wouldn’t ever come across them in a decade or more of ASL…
From time to time, people have asked that I write an article covering Fire Lanes. For players coming from ASL Starter Kit, I imagine the complex simplicity of Fire Lanes might be a little tough to understand. There is no concept of Fire Lanes in Starter Kit ASL. Yet many ASL Grognards will tell you…
Over the past weekend, I attended the Texas Team Tournament in Austin, Texas. I had a great time and I want to take a moment to tell you why I think you should attend this tournament. The Texas Team Tournament is perhaps my favorite ASL event, ranking right up there with ASLOk. I want to…
A recent discussion on the ASL forums delved into To Hit penalties incurred by a vehicle when changing Covered Arc to shoot enemy units. The discussion on the forums was short and I don’t believe it dug into the subject as deeply as it should. The discussion also highlighted the troubles new players have understanding…
Read More “Maintaining Covered Arcs and Determining To Hit DRM ” »
Hello again. I recently attended Bitter Ender in North Carolina and faced the same question three times over the course of the event: when does the +2 DRM apply to a Smoke Mortar? In particular, does it apply if it is the first thing my vehicle does in the Movement Phase? For a rule I…
I recently took part in a discussion on attacking partially armored vehicles. The discussion took place over several days with people chiming in on their understanding. I even spoke with a friend about his thoughts. All of this discussion led me to question my understanding of the rules. People were making good points. They were…
This article stems from a discussion taking place on social media. The roots of the original post sought clarity on a different topic but the discussion drifted into Fire Lanes. The topic drift led to an interesting discussion and a confounding rule which is seemingly at odds with existing Q&A and other rules. I took…
Twice in the past two weeks I was playing ASL when Subsequent First Fire (SFF) options for half squads came up. In both instances, my opponents pointed to a rule stating SFF can only attack Adjacent enemy units. Now for me, this is pretty frustrating. Not because they have read the rule wrong, but because…
A recent discussion took place in the Advanced Squad Leader Group on Facebook. A user asked an interesting question which proves to be difficult to answer with clarity. What follows is my answer to this question and how I think the answer has muddied over time. The Problem Refer to the image on the left….
I was at Winter Offensive at the end of last week, enjoying some ASL and spending time with friends, new and old alike. Inevitably discussions about ASL and tactics abound. I engaged in a discussion on when to split firepower from one large group into smaller groups. Everyone had an opinion. Some had even done…
Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all had a great holiday season and got to spend time with friends and family. I know I did. During the break, I spectated a game of ASL that had an interesting rout question. I hope you find it as interesting as I did. The Situation There were…
I have been playing more ASL recently. Many of my games have featured Americans on attack and defense. Playing and watching others play the Americans is a curious thing for me. I find the Americans the most fascinating nation to play in ASL. The dichotomy between overwhelming firepower backed by mediocre morale makes them challenging…
Snipers have not been covered much in ASL literature. Perhaps the most influential article is Mark Nixon’s Hyper Sniper: A SANe look at this threat in ASL. I have spent the last two days re-reading this article. I am going to summarize what I took from this article here. If you are looking for something…
This article is another in my series on Defending Against Sleaze. Like my last few articles, this article delves into Q&A. Like those previous Q&A, the Q&A highlighted here also provides a counter-intuitive answer. Still, the Q&A provides some great ammunition for defending against Sleaze Freeze so I want to highlight it here. Rules Dive…
Read More “Defending Against Sleaze Freeze: An Important Q&A” »
I first wrote about Control in this earlier article. Even as I wrote it, I was aware of some Q&A which were contrary to my understanding of the rules. I didn’t bring these up in that article because I didn’t want to confuse the issue. Even now, I hesitate to bring these up. At ASLOk…
Read More “Control Freaks: Edge Case And Being In The Minority” »
I have written a couple of articles covering Bounding First Fire (BFF) prior to this one. Those articles focused on the rules. This article will take a different approach. We will explore some of the Q&A pertaining to BFF and what they mean to AFV combat. I will also highlight how I think we should…
Read More “Mechanics Of Bounding First Fire—What Is And What Should Be” »
Today’s short article is yet another topic stemming from a discussion on the ASL Discord server. A user asked a question regarding MF/MP cost to enter a building hex. The hex in question was not only a building hex, but has a road depiction crossing the hexside. Such artwork is used to depict Vehicular Size…
There was a recent discussion about the 3rd Die Rate Of Fire (3DR, ROF) mechanic on the ASL Discord server. Players were discussing the merits of 3DR versus the normal color die ROF. As is usually the case, much of the pro-3DR argument is based on preference instead of math. There is nothing wrong with…
This article stems from a discussion with a reader. In my article on Mandatory Fire Groups a reader asserted that A7.55 as originally written did not apply to vehicles since they were not “Good Order.” I admit to being a little flabbergasted by this assertion as it seemed self evident to me that vehicles shared…
MMP changed the Mandatory Fire Group rule (A7.55) in ASL Journal 13. For ASL grognards, I doubt they even recognized the change since it codified the way we have been playing the game all along. Newer players probably didn’t notice it much either since we grognards probably taught you the “correct” way to play. It…
Read More “A Brief Examination Of Mandatory Fire Grouping” »