AH Philosophy Part 121 Those of you who were present at this of a Texan defender on each side, representing ORIGINS past and who had a chance to drop by both men at full strength and one man at half- when the designers and developers of The Avalon strength. The game board is a detailed interpre- Hill Game Company were demonstrating some tation of what the mission looked like, and is of their new projects might want to skip this divided into areas for regulating movement. Units column. But, for the many readers who were not can be eliminated in either melee or in fire com- there, I'd like to bring you up to date on some bat by the attacker rolling required numbers on of the games now being playtested and due to a six-sided die. The Mexican player wins by either be released soon. As usual, I'll let the others tell eliminating all Texan units or by getting a suffi- you what they are working on; they are much ciently large number of his own units inside the better at whetting your appetites than I. fort. The Texan player wins by having at least one of his units survive three assaults. A draw is possible if the Mexicans fullfill their victory con- The Alamo is the first of a proposed series of ditions but lose too many units in the process. low complexity games with recognizable titles in- The two-player version of The Alamo is being tended to appeal to a wider audience. The game playtested while work continues on making the recreates the dawn assault of March 6, 1836 in game playable solitaire by either side. Besides the a scale where each Mexican unit represents ap- historical assault, additional scenarios are being proximately 20 men and each Texan unit rep- resents two men. The Texan units have the name Continued on Page 32, Column I GOING ALL OUT 5 Design Your Own (My Way) By G. Schmittgens and C. Kibler SERIES REPLAY 10 STREETS OF FIRE, Scenario 1 By D. Burk, B. Conner, M. Nixon SQUAD LEADER CLINIC 19 Night Moves By Jon Mishcon THE STEPPES: KEY TO VICTORY 21 Playing the German in THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN By Paul Morrison THE PACT 23 Central European Conflict and FIREPOWER By James Werbaneth ACROSS THE YEARS 31 New Scenarios for SIXTH FLEET By James Meldrum BEYOND THE PALE 33 Expanded NATO By James Meldrum EAST WALL 36 The Russian First Turn By Rick Miller DESIGN ANALYSIS 39 Complete RUSSIAN FRONT Errata By S. Craig Taylor A SECOND STALINGRAD 42 A Soviet Victory in PANZERGRUPPE GUDERZAN By Mark Green h, 1942. a five-foot searchlight u. revealing in its floodlit glare the Wectacle of two columns of ships moving in &lent formation over the black mirror that is the sea, broken only at 18 bows and sterns by the white foam of craft gaining speed. German signal stations blink out an instant challenge. The lead vessel replies in kind. Silence. The distance narrows as the flotilla moves ever closer to the great docks. How long will the ruse prevent the assed fire of the shore batteries from slamming the ranks of the 611 men of the Royal Navy Army Commandos who are now penetrating rpentiers Channel with a bravado reminiscent I1 not be immortalized by Tennyson but will netheless win five Victoria Crosses this night d cancel forever the Nazi threat of a Bismarck- RAID ON ST. NAZAIRE is a solitaire simulation of the daring British raid on the German-occupied French port that recaptures the combat, adventure and hero. ism of one of history's most gallant military actions. Using a unique blend of Area movement to depict the naval action and a Point-to-Point system to simulate the land battle, the player is able to command the British forces in a re-creation of the historical action (or in several "what if" style scenarios) against a programmed German defense that varies every game* with the whim of the dice. Relive the histotical raid or plan your own by varying the primary targets of your individual Demolition squads and torpedo boats. If you're feeling especially bold, you can even make a try for the "impregnable" German subpens. But beware . the German shore guns may play havoc with your best laid plans and scatter your boats before they can land their Commandos. Once ashore, your Assault and Demo teams can still be shot up by Flak Towers, ships in harbor, or Stosstruppen which seem- ingly appear at the most inconvenient times and places just as you are about to slap your charges on their assigned targets. Ignore losses . press on- the German resistance grows ever stronger-the Swing Bridge mukt be blown to cut off the German reinforcements and the Power Station hit to blacken the Searchlights. Too late . they are across in strength. Fall back to the Landing Zones. - GOING ALL OUT Design Your Own (My Way) By Greg Schmittgens and Charles Kibler ADVANCED SQUAD LEADER!! I knew my ELR and that I wouldn't General Rules break to Green with another SL purchase. Then I heard some vague Requirements for Building Control (A26.3), Casualty Victory Points rumblings that "The System" had been restructured, clarified, and other- (A26.12) and Exit Victory Points (A26.2) are as defined in ASL unless wise improved-but that the scenarios developed for BEYOND VALOR, specifically noted otherwise. the first module, were less than marvelous. Not to worry though, a com- The terms "Primary Objective" and "Secondary Objective" are used plete point system for "Design Your Own" (DYO) scenarios was included. to refer to the buildings on each mapboard of the selected Board Con- So I bought The System, worked my way carefully through PTCs, TPBFs figuration which contain the hexes detailed in Table 11. For instance, the and FFNAMs. Finally I found the golden section near the end. But I gasped Primary Objective on Board 1 encompasses all locations of building X3. when I first read the words, "the players must first agree on the 'current' Rule HI. 14 applies to use of the term "player" throughout this article. historical month and year. They then mutually agree on their respective All buildings on a player's set-up board are considered Controlled by total BPV allotment, the board configuration, and Victory Conditions." that player at the start of play. All buildings on non-occupied boards after Now, I'm just as creative and imaginative as the next gamer. This free- set-up are considered uncontrolled at game start. form approach doesn't really bother me, although it's sometimes hard to Any reinforcements entering play (as per H 1.7) can enter on any single decide whether eight or nine squads exited should constitute a victory east or west board edge (whichever is an outer edge, of course) of the without an awful lot of playtesting. But I also must deal with a regular mapboard which that side intitially set up or entered on unless otherwise opponent (and friend) who is convinced that, a) all the ideas I come up specified by the scenario in play. with are inherently unbalanced and that b) any random event is weighted The following restrictions on purchase of units should be observed for in my favor. a more historic and realistic scenario: So, for all of you ASLers who would like to be thrust into a combat situation not necessarily of your choosing and unaware of what you face, 1) SAN Purchase Points: A side with an Attack Initiative may not I'd like to offer my ADVANCED SQUAD LEADER DYO Generation spend points to increase its SAN (HI .29) by more than one; a side Addendum. with a Recon Initiative may not spend points to increase its SAN by more than three. A side with a Defend Initiative is not restricted in purchasing SAN. 2) Fortifications: Only a side with a Defend Initiative may purchase fortifications (H1.6). [EXC: Any side mypurchase additional "?" Sequence of Scenario Design counters.] 3) Airdrops: Only a side with an Attack Initiative may purchase Follow this step-by-stepdetermination process to define the parameters Paradrop or Glider capability (E9. or El). of your ASL DYO scenario. According to the following system, players now have a methodology to determine a scenario's time frame, weather, 1. Theater of Operations basic point values, mapboard configuration, victory conditions, and more. The numbered steps of this process reflect the order of determinationlselec- Players are urged to determine the specific Theater of War that the tion. These should be followed in the order given. As in any DYO system, scenario is to take place in by mutual consent, since the countermix avail- players are ever free to decide amiably on any parameter(s) they do not able must of necessity limit this. If unwilling or unable to make a mutual want to leave to chance, but the following allows them to determine all decision, roll a single die and consult the following table. Continue to roll this randomly if agreement cannot be reached (and the parameters will until a Theater for which counters are available results. be based on the strategic situation of the time). TABLE 1 1. Theater of Operations 2. Optional Rules dr Theater 3. Date 4. Weather 5. Game Length 6. Basic Point Value 7. Select Nationality 8. Initiative 6 East Front 9. Final Point Value 10. Board Configuration For purposes of simplicity, the "East Front" is defined as any action talc- 11. Select Preferred Terrain ing place in the Soviet Union, Finland, Poland, or eastern Germany.