ASL: March Madness 2019 Scenario Pack (Close Combat)

This years pack has the theme Close Combat. Seven of the eight scenarios allow for hand-to-hand close combat and the last scenario, close combat is likely and may include some Italian prisoners. The scenario pack starts with Stalingrad and goes across Europe to the Warsaw Ghetto, the mountains of southern France, the Kuban, Sicily and into the jungle for some PTO action. There are four designers this year including the return of Keven Adams who designed The Brickworks in last years pack. This year he returns to his favorite battlefield…Stalingrad with another design. Two designs come from K. Scott Mullins (a.k.a. Grumble Jones) who puts in a great pair of scenarios including the first of three PTO actions. Paul Works submits a para on para action in Sicily and Dan Best has four scenarios including two PTO battles on Angaur Island. All these scenarios feature close combat as part of the scenario.

Many players shy away from close combat preferring to shoot it out at long range. This is due to the harsh odds of close combat and the unpredictable dice, which lead to high casualties in that phase. However, in many scenarios including those in this pack, it is a key tactic to winning for both the attacker and defender. In fact, in one scenario it is key to the defender winning the scenario. The Kansas City ASL Club’s saying for causing high casualties during close combat is ”bailing hay”. This is taken from the ASL Jargon webpage (https://www.texas-asl.com/download/Jargon.html) and is used liberally during Kansas City Club game days, particularly when the scenario includes Russian, Japanese, and the Chinese Peoples Volunteer Army from the Korean War module. It is not uncommon for games to be decided in a single brutal close combat phase where someone bailed some hay and won a scenario.

We hope you find these scenario enjoyable and you bail some hay on your own. As always we thank our team of dedicated play testers who run through our designs and refine the contest to something playable and winnable by both sides.