Great Scenarios (in no particular order)
TOT36 Balkan Barbeque: A great one from Time on Target Volume 3. What better way to attack partisans than with a flamethrower mounted on an ex-French Char 1b! It was so fun the first time that we switched sides and played it again right away.
A98 Crossing the Gniloi Tikitsh: A very tense bridge-crossing scenario. The Germans are powerful, but the Russians can really stick it to them as they try to clear the roadblock and get across the bridge. Both sides need to squeeze every ounce of value from their units.
TOT44 A Dish Best Served Cold: Sturmtigers. What more can you say? The terrified look on your opponent's face when he realizes that you're about to fire a 380mm rocket his way is priceless. But the Americans get enough fun toys and the tactical situation is interesting and challenging enough to make this one a great mini-CG for both sides.
G34 The Liberators: Very cool variable OB for both sides introduces some fog-of-war (but the Russian best-choices are plainly obvious). Huge combined-arms battle where both sides need to have good armor-infantry coordination. Both sides will have to make the most out of each and every unit, as well as having to dig pretty deeply into Chapter D to keep AFV alive (I don't think I've ever had to rely so heavily on motion attempts, smoke discharchers, and bounding fire).
TOT42 Thunderbolts: A nice variety of AFV and a wide selection of choices on the offence and defense makes this one really interesting. The M16 Meatchopper the US gets is always fun. The Germans can really dish out some punishment, but need to conserve their force as the US attack develops. This one is likely to go down to the last turn or so.
SP15 Tobacchificio Fioche: This scenario gave me the most fun ASL experience I've had in quite a while. A flexible German defense provides more fun for the Defenders than in many scenarios. Both sides really need to make things happen and move around. German infantry without PF or PSK really changes the feel, but 4 tanks and 2 ATG makes it scary for the US armor. Both sides need to make use of every last drop of firepower...there are no throw-aways (soak-up-first-fire-by-death units) in this one.
TAC53 Phyrric Victory: Certainly the best scenario I played in 2000. I have a penchant for combined-arms scenarios. Typically these come in the form of late-war heavy metal actions with Panthers, Tigers, ISUs, or swarms of Shermans and T34s. This is a fresh change of pace, as the Brits get a mix of various crappy early war tanks (the ROF-2 40L MA is a beut, though) and the Germans get a mix of various crappy early war AFV too. A truely even tank duel is likely to break out, coupled with a lot of strategic moves in the infantry struggle. Since the Germans can win in two ways there is flexibility and fog of war, and there are no irrelevent actions or units.
Crappy Scenarios (in no particular order)
AP4 L'Abbaye Blanche: Simply put: Americans kindle the woods, they win. If they don't, they lose. Why even set it up? Just make a couple of kindling DRs on Turn 1 and declare the winner.
A114 Hamlet's Demise: The only way the French MIGHT win this one is by running and hiding. That's not exactly something that makes a scenario fun. Unbalanced AND boring. YAWN.
A120 Uncommon Valor: A perfect example of how a balanced scenario can be crappy. This one is so boring as the Russians that I read the newspaper while playing...the Finns can keep the Russians under No Move counters and out of NVR for so long that this one is best played solitaire.
TOT40 Ring of Fire: Sit there as the Brits and watch helplessly as the Germans drive over your line. A good German player will make sure that your only 2 AT weapons are dealt with and then will swoop in with his flamethrower tanks. Or maybe he'll just ignore your pathetic AT weapons and pound you anyway. It just doesn't matter.
BRT6 A Legend is Born: Took me an entire weekend to set up as the IJA, and then we played only a couple of turns before it was over. This one is boring (for the IJA) as well as unballanced. The IJA can't kill many Marines on the beaches, since they've got 9ML and plenty of TEM/hindrances. And they can't kill them when they're off the beaches since the Marine firepower is overwhelming. And in the end, they just sit there trapped in their trenches and bunkers as the Marines swarm them. This one is so bad that it leaves me questioning the quality of the rest of the module.
Well, there you have it. If you don't agree, that's ok. Email me and the List and we can start a discussion (imagine that, a scenario discussion the Mailing List!).
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