Medieval Warfare

Uploaded by: Rousseau Burton. Viewed 1257 times.

One of the nice things about ASL is the wide variety of situations that can be simulated, each scenario can be so unique as to essentially be a mini-game onto itself. The scenario "Medieval Warfare" from HoB's The Long March is one example, I've never seen anything like it in ASL. Set in early 1930s China during the Mao's Communist uprising, it involves storming a medieval wall of a Chinese city with scaling ladders. To make it even more unique, the maps are from DASL (one each from Streets of Fire and Hedgerow Hell). The unusual time period, setting and map requirements make it exotic. As of this writing, no one has recorded a single playing on ROAR. Yet it's a fast playing and easy all-infantry scenario with only two SW's that can played in a few hours - if your able to look past the shortcomings, it's a change of atmosphere.

The scenario comes with brief SSR's for the medieval wall (represented by road aA3 to aG1). The rules cover things such as LOS along the wall, where units are placed on the map to be on level 0 and level 1 (and front of wall versus rear of wall), stairwells and TEM's. Some things work well and make sense, other things are illogical and while consistent with ASL rules beg for immediate house rules to be more realistic. LOS for example can be incredible in certain locations. Stairwells need further explanation to understand how and when units moving through them can be fired upon, if at all. The rules for scaling ladders (represented by footbridge counters that really do look like scaling ladders) are workable and easy. There are also "Porridge Cauldrons" which are medieval weapons of pots of hot oil poured down on climbing troops with 12FP.

As with the other four scenarios I've played in this series it is out of balance, the Reds have the advantage. I don't know if this was intentional on Jay Long's part, perhaps to be historically accurate, or more current concerns, but it's something to keep in mind - the Communists seem designed to win. I may find other scenarios where that is not true, it's my experience so far. But it shouldn't detract from the fun of playing, and the challenge of figuring out how the weaker side can crack the puzzle of a win.