Thunder at Cassino: Revisiting an Old Friend

 

On December 13th, five veteran members of Madrid's Dragón Club decided to dust off and display on on a table one of the most venerable games : the legendary Thunder at Cassino by Avalon Hill, published back in 1987.

The move was challenging: how well stood the test of time? Would the happy memories of games played in our youth forty years ago turn into disappointment with this revival?

 As it turned out, nothing could have been more satisfying. All five  agreed that the game could be reprinted exactly as it was then, perhaps with updating the arts, although those ASL-looking unit counters certainly have their own charm.

 

The session began at 10:00 a.m. and ended close to 9:00 p.m. (stopping as usual for lunch). Three Allied players faced off against two Germans in hard-fought battles, especially around the town of Cassino. There, the Green Devils mounted a stubborn defence
, clawing their teeth and hands to the rubble, ambushing men and tanks, and exacting a heavy toll in casualties (both their own and those of the Commonwealth troops) for every inch of ground gained by the attackers.

On the slopes of the hill crowned by the Abbey fighting was less intense due to the Allies’ timid advance. The Germans took advantage of this to thin their lines and send reinforcements to the real hotspot: the town and its surroundings.

With only two turns remaining, the swords are still drawn. The Allies do not have yet enough victory points; but the stretching German “thin field grey line” is tenuously holding a big bag of critical victory locations… and any breach in the line could allow the Allies to turn tide in a very short time span.

End of Turn 7 - Red line marks the Commonwealth troops advance

 We hope to return to the battlefield during the Christmas holidays… so stay tuned for future newss.

The Last Hundred Yards Reviewed: The Ultimate WWII Tactical Game

The Last Hundred Yards (LHY) is a series of tactical board wargames in a Second World War environment designed by Mike Denson and published by GMT Games. The LHY system has recently  become my number #1 tactical game of choice in detriment of Advanced Squad Leader (ASL). The LHY cover small mostly infantry-based skirmish actions at company/platoon level, with an innovative sequence of play resulting in fun, fast paced and furious engagements.

The terrain scale is 1 hex = 50 yards and the time-scale is variable, each "turn" or combat cycle representing between  2 and 5 minutes. Counters represents squads and sections (half squads), platoon leaders, support weapons (HMG/MMG, flamethrowers or light antitank weapons squads) and individual vehicles. 

Additionally there's a myriad of auxiliary counters to keep a record of activated units, fire effects (more on this later), heroic units, etc  as well as other counters representing minefields, foxholes, smoke of fortified positions among others.

The quality of production is high as usual in GMT: units counters are large  9/16 of an inch squares (3/4 of an inch for auxiliary counters) and maps are very nicely printed giving a sense of "3d" depth; the maps are generic geomorphic, double sided printed and can be arranged in almost infinite combinations. 

When compared to ASL, there are a few aspects that are worth taking into consideration:

The first is the length and complexity of rules: you got everything you need to play in a 34-pages long publication (the current rules book version 3.1). There's also a complementary "playbook" with extended illustrated examples of play of the different rules sections. And the scenarios (or "Missions" in LHY parlance) can include some (very few) special rules applicable to that particular situation. 

Second, the game is played using the historical orders of battle. The forces are organised in companies of three platoons, each led by a platoon commander and depicting three squads and potentially some support weapons. You can argue that these were "paper-strength" orbats; but missions (based on historical real engagements) take into consideration the real manpower of the units involved, adjusting the forces accordingly.

Third you play against the clock and the casualties. Missions may set some objectives, but you must accomplish the mission in a fixed timeframe (and time passed is variable in each turn) and not incurring excessive casualties. Unlike ASL for example, where you can win a scenario even with only one suqad left on the table, in LHY the depletion of your manpower counts against you. 

Finally, the very innovative game system based on an action/reaction chain of the players' units, reflecting the combat friction typically found in the battlefield.

 

 

 

Overview of the Playing System

How the system works? The sequence of play is structured in 7 phases or steps. 

Phase 1 (initiative) is to determine initiative rolling a dice and winning the side with the higher outcome. Note however that there is no full randomness. Usually the attacking side owns the initiative at the start and will have a positive DRM to the die roll in subsequent turns. 

Once initiative is resolved we entre into Phase 2 (activation), the nitty-gritty  of the system, based on an action-reaction chain. Activation is made by company and then by platoon within a company. Two platoons of the same active company  may coordinate actions with a die roll, but usually you go platoon by platoon  (To clarify: as the attacker, I declare that Able will be my active company; from there I activate platoon by platoon).

The selected platoon may undertake different possible actions: move, fire, withdraw, assault, call for mortars, recover from disruption or just stay put. Once the player declares the end of its platoon activations, the opposing player can react with the units that saw an action (i.e.: in LOS of an activated enemy undertaking an action). When the opposing player declares the end of the reaction, the player with the initiative may react to the enemy reactions or else conclude that platoon activation and activate a second platoon. Reactions do not need to be just shooting someone getting into LOS, but players can move units to get a position of advantage or to avoid being assaulted.

As you see the system creates a cascade of action/reaction moves. Interesting, shooting is not resolved automatically in this phase; therefore you decide your actions/reaction without any knowledge of what effect shooting had on the enemy unit. This adds another layer of friction to the game.

Introducing shooting, the system rewards proximity to the target which basically implies that little harm is made when shooting at three hexes or more. Fire effect is calculated as a "dice roll modifier" ranging from -4 to +3. The base number is the firepower of the unit shooting and the distance to the target, then adjusted by a list of modifiers (cover, hindrances, concealment, density of manpower in the target hex...) to get the final fire modifier.  

One example to illustrate the mechanics. 

• A German rifle squad with a firepower of 1 and fire range of 10 hexes, shots at a US squad in a forest at 4 hexes distance. 
• Crossing range (10) with the distance (4) in the Small Arms Fire Table, the German squad will have a base number of 0 (+1 for firepower less -1 modifier for distance).
•  As the target unit is under cover of some woods, there's an additional -1 penalty to the shot, resulting a total fire modifier on -1 

 Note: should the Germans have fired at 3 hexes or closer, the modifier for distance for a 10 fire range squad would have been 0 and therefore the final fire modifier  would have been 0: +1 fire power + 0 distance modifier -1 for woods).

At this stage of phase 2, the target unit under fire will be marked with a "-1" Small Arms Fire Die Roll Modifier (SADRM) counter, but the actual effect of the fire will not be resolved yet. 

Once the active player concluded activating all the platoons and both players finished their respective reactions,  the play sequence moves to Phase 3 of Fire Resolution. As explained, the units under fire are marked in Phase 2 with the SADRM modifier. Firer rolls a 10-sided die, adds the modifier and compares the final result to the unit cohesion level: if lower, no effect; greater, the unit disrupts; if 10 or higher, the units suffers a casualty.

Assaults resolution is done in Phase 4 (after firing). Like shooting, assaults take place in Phase 2 as part of the units activations, but the effect of the melee is unknown until later in the sequence of play.

Phase 5 relates to mortars: now it's the time to extend fire missions called in the current turn; or to attempt  contacting the battery for the following turn. 

In Phase 6 (Time Lapse)  the active player rolls for time spent in the turn, which is variable between 2 and 5 minutes

And the final Phase 7 is a clean up phase in which players remove different game markers, the smoke counters placed in Phase 2, or place conceal markers on units out of LOS, etc

This is a nutshell how the system works, being very unique and distinctive compared to other tactical systems in the market. The rules book of course have many other chapters dealing with vehicles, anti-tank fire, airborne troops, special national characteristics (applicable to Russian and Japanese units), night fights, etc. 

If I have to summarise the game, the system rewards the player gaining and keeping the initiative. Having the initiative is in fact a key driver to win a game: as an attacker, getting the initiative allows great flexibility of action, with the defender only able react to your moves. If on the contrary, the defender gets the initiative, he'd be able to slow down the attacker, only having to decide how much time for space he's willing to trade.

Current product line and future releases

The LHY series currently has four game boxes (or "volumes") and one "mission pack" (set of scenarios)

Volume 1 ("The Last Hundred Yards") covered the US and the German army in the European Western Front during 1944 and 1945

Volume 2 ("Airborne Over Europe") introduced US and German paratroop units as well as British armour units (representing the XXX Corps assets for the US side Market Garden) 

Volume 3 ("The Solomon Islands") introduced the Japanese Imperial Army and the US Marines in Guadalcanal.

Volume 4 ("The Russian Front") very recently released (December 2023) covers the Eastern Front battles confronting the Red Army and the Germans between 1943 and 1945.

Mission Pack 1 provides some new maps and mission cards to play in the European Western Front.

In relation to future releases, the only confirmed addition to the series will be Volume 5 ("For King & Country"), introducing the British Forces in Western Europe during 1944 (Normandy and Market Garden). Vol 5 is currently in GMT's P500 page and likely to be released in late 2024

In a recent thread in BGG, Mike Denson announced he's taking a step back after the release of Volume 5  but will leave a committed and experienced team in place to ensure continuity of the system. After Vol 5 the team seems inclined to return to the Eastern Front battles but focused on the earlier war period (1941-43); no official release date yet, but sometime in 2025 likely.    

Convinced to jump-in? Some important considerations

So you have been convinced and want to play LHY? You must then consider the following:

Vol 1 and Vol 2 are core acquisitions that you need to have. These are needed to play the Russian Front volume, the Mission pack and the future British volume. 

Volume 3 (The Solomons) on the other hand, is a self-contained game; if your focus in the Pacific, don't need to buy the rest of the boxes. 

The designer is continuously updating the rules and support materials (playbook, tables)  with the the introduction of new armies and suggestions from players across the world. For that reason,  all the booklets and support tables coming in the different game boxes are outdated.

The GMT website posts the most recent versions of the rules, tables, etc. Check regularly for new version, to uploading and eventually printing. The latest version of the rules (as I'm writing this) is 3.1 The changes versus version 3.0 (included in the latest Russian Front game) are minimal but I suggest checking v 3.1and marking the amended paragraphs in the 3.0 printed booklet.

This also applies to the missions or scenarios: GMT has released last December the amended missions in downloadable pdf format for all the different volumes (including Russian Front!.. I wonder who is in charge of quality control at the firm). There's lots of small but nonetheless significant, changes that you should be aware of before playing any mission. 

Finally, if you haven't done it yet I strongly advise to sign in to the LHY's BGG website page. There you'll find a very active and supportive community of players, with tons of reviews, videos and other downloadable materials. My experience requesting clarifications and questions couldn't have been better indeed. Designer Mike Denson is also quite active in the forums.  

 

GBoH and LHY - Two of my favourite rules systems

 

Why SPQR? Dissecting of the Ancient-era Wargame

In previous posts, I commented my growing interest in board wargaming. In fact, this is a return to my origins, as I seriously started  playing wargames with Panzerblitz, a Christmas present from my father to both, my broher and me in 1980.

The shift to tabletop games with minis came later around 1983-84, when we founded Club Dragon in Madrid and got in contact with that world. Fast forward to early 2019:  I approached a group of boardgamers in the club playing Simonitch's Holland 44: being a Market Garden related game, I couldn't resist giving it a try. The lockdown in 2020 and  VASSAL (an Internet based application to play boardgames live) explains the rest.

 

What is SPQR

SPQR is one of the titles in which I'm investing more playing time (and money) since early last year. The game is part of a series called The Great Battles of History (GBoH) produced by GMT Games,  focused in the Ancient period (from Late Bronze to the early Dark Age). The series was designed by two heavyweights of the industry: Mark Hermann and the late Richard Berg. I currently own four titles of this series (SPQR, Caesar Deluxe, Cataphract and Chariots of Fire) but there's a fifth title looming in the horizon for me in 2023 (Great Battles of Alexander Deluxe currently in P500 "made to cut" phase) 

SPQR is the module focused in the emergence of the Roman Republic. The game covers the Punic Wars and the wars with other Macedonian-style armies, until Mario's reforms. SPQR enable players to fight two classical tactical visions: the Roman flexible manipular armies vs. the combined-arms phalanx-based used by Carthage and Greek peoples in the Mediterranean.

Content

SPQR was initially launched in 1992. The SPQR Deluxe is the latest release (2018), including a an in-depth revision of the original rules (4th edition updtaed in october 2022) and a large number of the scenarios published since 1990 in different publications (mostly in C3i magazine issues) 

SPQR cames in a HUGE heavy box, that contains 3 scenario booklets, 6 two-sided large unmounted maps, two sets of 3 player-aid cards, five and a half counter sheets with units and different playing-aid counters, and two 10-sided dice (note: there are several "unboxing" videos in YouTube, should you be interested in taking a closer look to the materials).

The Playing System Described

Armies have two type of counters: commanders and fighting unit (see illustration below). Commanders are critical to the game as they enable activation of units, either in groups ("line commands") or in a case-by-case basis ("individual orders"). 

Armies have army commanders ("overall commanders"), the most experienced and with better attributes; and "subordinated commanders",  leading groups of units on differents parts of the battlefield line. Within a range, the commanders have the ability to active units. The number of possible sequential activations with the same commander is variable, depending on his level of seniority, and the ability to react of the enemy commanders, that can potentially interfere in thise subsequent activations, stealing the initiative to the enemy.

Units are of many different types: slingers, light/medium/heavy infantry and cavalry, elephants and phalanxes, with also different abilities and attributes aligned with their hisorical roles in the battlefield.

The sequence of play of a typical game is organized in turns that are subdivided in phases. 

In each phase, a commander is activated (based on their rating, first the lowest rated and then sequentially from low to the highest rated leader) enabling them to order troops to move, fire and finally undertake the close combat fighting. 

As a result of fire or melee, units accumulate "cohesion points" equivalent to shocks; when these cohesion points equal or exceed the unit's cohesion level (= moral), that unit breaks. When all the melees are over, broken units retreat 2 hexes and the winners move forward to ocuppy the position. 

In their activation phase, commanders can also attempt to rally broken units or to reduce the cohesion or shock points accumulated of good-order units but in risk of breaking in subsequent turns. 

Once all  commanders have been activated, the turn moves in another phase where non-rallied routed units must expend their full movement allowance towards their tactical edge. If leaving the board, then they are considered destroyed. 

This is followed by an administrative phase in which units low on missiles (archers, slingers or javeliniers) can resupply; commander counters are returned to their active side and some markerts ("moved" for example) are also removed. Victory points are accounted, and if both sides remain undefeated, a new turn is played.

This is a basic explanation of how the game develops. There is a lot of additional aspects to consider in each phase of a turn that exceeds the scope of this post: for example missile units can use harrassment and dispersal tactics instead of clashing in close combat; routing elephants can create havoc both among friends and foes; light units can refuse combat and retreat when heavier units approach; cavalry winning melees can go out of control, etc 

Games are won by forcing the enemy to withdraw from the battlefield. This is achieved by causing the enemy enough "cohesion points" to erode the overall army's morale. It is possible that both sides reach their own break point levels simultaneously, in which case the game is a draw.

What I Like the Most of SPQR

First and more important, it's an Ancients era game which is a period I love. Each unit has its own features and arguably you can (and actually must!) use historical tactics in order to have a chance to win. 

For example: Cartaghinian tactics should rely on the mobility and quality of its cavalry to outflank the Romans and to disorganize their lines, while the phlanxes in the centre should be used to fix the Roman front. The cavalry and the light infantry are the hammer, the phalanxes are the anvil in the Carthaginian tactics book.

Romans on the other hand. must attempt to move fast into close combat along all the line to avoid the outflanking of the cavalry, to leverage on their superior close combat ability.

 

Second, the importance of command in this game. In this sense the game is not just line your troops, activate leaders and ordering charge forward, losing control of the battle, but significantly more subtle: through the command mechanics, players can shift reserves between flanks, take advantage of gaps in the enemy line to explot a penetration, control the cavalry, assess the best timing and place to hit the enemy, arrange a tactical retreat to reorganize your lines, etc

In this sense, it draws paralells with the approach to design of Too Fat Lardies rulesets, that stresses the importance of command in the battle and how to make the best use of the available assets, over the pure technical aspects of the hardware (weapons) or software (men) in combat. 

Two important notes: 

1. The players do not have infinite command resources. A general plan for the battle must be drawn before the game begins; but players will need to make decisions, assess alternatives and decide between different options at each turn, based on the prevailing conditions in the battlefield. 

2. Friction is fully embedded in the game mechanics, of course through the combat and moral checking resolution die rolls; but also on the fact that leaders activations not always succed and enemy leaders have the option to "trump" (literal rules terminology) your own activation, but also with risks if failing to do so. The leader activation phases create a very dynamic game environment, distancing SPQR from the old traditional IGYG designs. 

Again, this draws significant paralells with the design philosophy of Richard Clarke and Nick Skinner at Too Fat Lardies.

Finally, the importance of morale in the games.  As explained above, units have morale levels (called "Troop Quality"), accumulate "Cohesion Hits" (equivalent to shock points) and when are equal or higher than its TQ, the units break and rout.

In each game, armies are assigned an overall force morale level or "army withdrawal" threshold. When the sum of accumulated cohesion hits (from individual units routed out of the map or destroyed in combat) reach this threshold, the army is considered demoralized and must abandon the battlefield.

This has important implications for players. Commanders have the ability to rally units,  therefore stopping them from routing out of the table and enabling returning to fight, albeit with a lower combat efficiency. As the battle progresses, casualties mount and the number of broken units increases. 

There's a point in which commanders must take decisions: should they keep control of the battle front to cause cohesion hits and break the enemy's army morale? Or alternatively, should they move to the rearguard, to regroup and rally fleeing units to avoid their own army collapsing? 

Again, remember you have finite command resources, and decisions are not easy. The calculus should be based on the likelihood to cause more cohesion hits to the enemy relative to your own potential casualties; and if these will be enough to reach the army withdrawal threshold.

This is another paralell design development to that used by Too Fat Lardies with the concepts of "shock" and "Force Moral", introduced in many of their more recent rulesets, like Chain of Command, Sharp Practice, Infamy! Infamy! or O'Group (the latter authored by Dave Brown).

The goal to win a game is not the physical destruction of the enemy forces, but to cause enough erosion in their overall morale level, as to force abandoning the battlefield.

Conclusions  

A well designed game recreating the environment of the Ancient 300-200 BC period battles in a very efficient way. The games are very dynamic, and as commented above, introduced a series of design elements  (command control, morale, friction) particularly nice to my taste after many years playing with Too Fat Lardies rulesets.

It is not a very complex set of rules at all, but I won't use SPQR to introduce someone new to the hobby. The reason is the amount of small details (like special rules for specific units or exceptions) that you need to be aware of and need to learn to play the scenarios.  

Another positive aspect is that, although the GBoH system covers a wide historical period,  each volume of the series focuses on a subperiod. All games share the general mechanics but with significant changes and adaptations to the specific aspects of the covered subperiod.

Many may wonder if I did not find any negative aspects in the rules. I'd say that the main "con" is the structure and writing of the manual, not a best-practice at all. It's gone throiugh several updates (the 4th edition is the latest release) but the potential to improve is still substantial. In any case, Mark Hermann and particularly the late Richard Berg both had a reputation among aficionados, so no surprise here.

 

Useful Resources    

The official GMT SPQR page where you can download the lastes revised version of the rules, tables and errata documents. It is also a gateway to other interesting links (articles, videos, etc)   

The C3i GOBH Center is a trove af articles on tactcis, scenarios and other related materials covering the whole GBOH series (not only SPQR)

The SPQR Boardgame Geek page is anogther must-have bookmark. Lots of videos, files to download, and critcial, a forum to clarify any type of questions curated by a lot of nice knowledgeable participants.

Finally, the site to download the VASSAL file if you fancy to play live online with international gamers. 

  

 

 

Board Wargaming Projects for 2021

 

As COVID 19 will unlikely go away so easily (or anytime soon), my gaming group and I will continue meeting by VASSAL over the weekends and almost daily during the Christmas break. In fact,  some new boardgaming projects are being planned already during the early part of 2021.

One game to be extensively played next year is GMT's Empire of The Sun. This is a game to become very popular in the Spanish-speaking world, following the recent publication in our native tongue by the nice people of Devir Iberia.

The game was released almost coinciding with the Pearl Harbour Anniversary last week. The Spanish version can be considered a deluxe variant of the English original, with mounted boards, high quality cards and some extras like the mini-scenario publsihed in the C3i magazine issue 30. I ordered my copy the release day last week and it is now on its way home. It will have a distinctive place under the Christmas tree on the 25th.

For those of you not familiar with the game, Empire of the Sun (EotS) was designed by Mark Herman, also the father of the monstergame The Pacific War. Unsurprsingly considering who is the designer, EotS is a very robust game despite being card-driven, profitting from Herman's deep reserarch and knowledge of the Pacific Theare of Operations. 

The game takes an strategic view of the conflict, in which the Japanese player is doomed over time when confronting the industrial, demographic and economic power of the United States. Japan's only hope is eroding the social and political support of the American public, enough to force a negotiated truce before becoming too weak to resist the almighty US military force.

I'm fairly familiar with the game, as I had the opportunity to play three long campaign games during the summer via VASL and to attend as an observer a a few other played by my gaming group. This past summer I also read two tomes of the Pacific Crucible trilogy by Ian W. Toll. These are books that I cannot recommend more if you are interested in the topic, covering not just the military aspects but also the political and economic; the content is also well balanced, describing the internal situation at both sides (Japan and the Allies) with good level of depth.

The second major boardgaming project for next year is the Battles from the Age Reason (BAR)system, published by Clash of Arms.  This is a battalion level wargame covering most of the XVIII century period, from the Wars of Spanish Succession to the American War of Independence.

The system currently covers 10 battles, of which 3 is in the period of the Austrian Succession War (Fontenoy, Mollwitz, Chotusitz), 3 from the AWI (Monmoth, Brandywine and Germantown)  and 4 related to the SYW period ( Kolin, Lobositz, Prague and Zorndorf).

I have always been attracted by the period to play with miniatures, but I have been scared about the complexity of painting the uniforms of that age. The boardgame will hopefully allow me to recreate the period reallistically withouth having to make a major investment (and painting effort).  

One important dimension for me in the hobby is to study the history of the period. I have been doiung some research and bought a few interesting books, including a "classical" tome The Armies of Frederick the Great by the well known military historian Christopher Duffy. This is an out of print work but you can find second hand copies at very reasonable prices in eBay among other sites. Nonetheless, to get a high level and quick view of the period, I decided to buy the conrresponding Osprey book  about the conflict.

BAR is no a light set of rules. The system is very detailed in many aspects (from movement, to fire and close combat, to changes in formations) and takes into consideration the very different tactical features of each nation in conflict, as awell as specific factors affecting each battle within the system.

Some people argue that the level of complexity equals that of Advanced Squad Leader. It is no an easy system but it's far less complex than the ASL system. I am just getting myself introduced into the system through some videos in the YouTube channel of the Spanish wargamer celebrity Agustí Barrio, and reading the rules and the primer manual (available in pdf from the Wargames Vault site). 

Last but not least: Caesar- Rome vs Gaul. This is a recently released title by GMT Games by one of my favourite designers Mark Simonitch. The system is very similar to Hannibal Rome vs Carthage  This is

a pure card driven boardgame (very different to Empire of the Sun in all aspects), based on a system designed to be fairly asymmetrical at the beginning and the end of the game.

Caesar's campaigns in Gaul are very dear to me and no doubt I was going to be hooked by the game as soon as it was announced; a plus in my interest is of course the designer. For some reason copies of the game have not yet arrived to our local stores in Spain (or they arrived in limited numbers and flew away in just a few days) so I'm in a waiting list with my usual supplier of games.

As you can see an exciting wargaming year ahead. In addition to these three new sets, I plan to continue with my regular weekend ASL games on VASSAL. And if the pandemic allows it, I plan to return to my miniature games specially with Infamy!Infamy! and Chain of Command. It's a shame that I heavily playtested the former and when the book was finally released, the club was shutdown I haven't had the opportunity to display my minis yet!!!  

Tell me about your plans in 2021 in the comments section of this blog.

 

    

 

 

 

 

How (and Why) I Did Get Back to Squad Leader

 

If 2019 marked my return to boardgaming, 2020 marked a rendez-vous with my old friend Advanced Squad Leader (ASL). The image above is a photo of my venerable copy of the binder book acquired in the late 80s to the Avalon Hill Game Company incarnation pre-Hasbro.

I have had a sort of a love-hate relationship with this game over the yeas. Love, because I've always been attracted by tactical games in a Second World War context. Actually my very first wargame was Panzerblitz in 1980, and naturally I moved to the original Squad Leader (SL) system as soon as it was released.

Hate because, after gradually learning the different original SL modules, I went into shock with the ASL binder book: how on earth I was supposed to play a game whose rules book was closer to lawyer's manual than a typical wargame? 

Over time I decided to give up on the system; not much later, I discovered the world of miniature wargaming, first fantasy related games (Warhammer Fantasy), followed by Ancients, Napoleonics and finally Second World War.   Boardgames were abandoned and my hobby time was since then dedicated to researching, painting and collecting miniatures. 

So how and why the return? The how was simple: a dedicated group or boardgamers at the club invited me to join a Holland ´44 game last year and I got immediately hooked to it. The why even simpler: being Market Garden one of my favourite periods, I realized that boardgames were a superior and more efficient means to explore the campaign.

The COVID arrival and the long-enforced lockdown (from March to June) made the rest: with the club shutting down sine die and the impossibility of playing miniature games, my boardgame group planned a busy calendar of weekly VASSAL games, extending from Friday evenings to Sunday afternoons.

Longing for playing some tactical games, one of the members introduced us to ASL around May and almost eight months later I have become a proficient player of the game. True, I have invested a lot of time in playing the game (the only realistic way to learn the rules). But believe me if I tell you,  the monster is less fearsome that it may look at first glance, juts by planning a little bit your steps into the game and setting some realistic targets.

What follows are some of my personal lessons learnt, shared now with all of you potentially interested in the game.

1.  Find a sherpa

 ASL is one of the most popular wargames in the planet. Try finding someone in your gaming circle that already plays the game and train with him. For many of ASLers this game is like a religion and attracting new souls to the congregation is like a spiritual mission, they will never reject your call for help.

If you are unlucky enough to find a ASLers near you, then find online assistance in one of the many hundreds of ASL forums on Internet. There you'll find all kinds of support and advice for newbies.

2. Watch videos

Another silly advice. Browse YouTube and find introductory videos to the system. I cannot recommend any in English unfortunately because I was lucky enough to have a long series of introductory materials by one of Spain's most active and reputed wargame youtubers (Agustí Barrio). But I'm sure there are similar characters in every single language and specially in English.