John Mundie - 09:04am Apr 20, 2002 PST (#11540 of 11585) Out of my friend's wrapper - Operation Watchtower, the latest for ASL from MMP. This is an "historical study." Why it isn't a historical module, I don't know, but it does come with a 12 page large font booklet about the battle. Well, this is handy enough, if you know NOTHING about the battle, but if you are moderately informed, its sort of thin in size and content. As this module is aimed at the ASL hardcore, I wonder about the usefulness of this addition. The box is in "the Gamers" brand style, which I don't like, as the other ASL boxes were uniform and bigger, and in my opinion, a bit sturdier. I could care less about things like cover art, but it does seem to me that the smaller box means the map has to has to be folded more times. This is important, as the map seems to be made on flimsier paper than other historical ASL modules. More map folds mean more folding back the map after storage. And ... a FINE map it is. REALLY NICE! And big. I hope usage doesn't start to fray the map. A sheet of counters with new units is provided. Gee, I'd like to think I could use all the thousands of units I already own, but there are new types of Marine Raiders and Paramarines with assault fire, and ASL counters are nothing if not exact. Counters are excellently die cut, excepting for one little miscue that has created the oddest inch long ASL squad I've ever seen ;-) It can be fixed with sharp scissors. The 16 scenarios are nice to see. I remember my dismay at the lowly 5 in KGPI. But ... while I play ASL a lot, I like the low road of ease of play. You know, mostly short games with moderate amounts of counters and, NO OVERLAYS. These scenarios are overlay city. 10 of the 16 scenarios use overlays, and three of those use the "not yet in a module" board 52. 2 nice scenarios have no overlays and there are 4 historical map scenarios. The historical scenarios have 3 smallish situations and one classic, the battle for Bloody Ridge. All historical modules seem to have one BIG scenario, like the Last Bid in RB or God Save the King in ABTF or the Beast in KGPII or Its About Time in PB, and while this one is no where near as big, Nippon only gets 26 squads, it looks great! These types of scenarios are very popular with our campaign game challenged group. Oh, and with any set of ASL scenarios, I have no doubt they are balanced and challenging. I just wish MMP could playest them quicker ;-) I've been following the MMP and ASL discussion ... many great ideas promised, little delivered, some stuff being pretty wacky. And I own almost everything AH/MMP has put out for the series. Bought it sight unseen! But, Op Watchtower may be my watershed. This is certainly a must have, even at the slightly high price, for the ASL grognard. I don't think newbies would feel comfortable with their purchase, though, especially with the need for and usage of overlays. Mind you, given all the ASL out there, if players were to only play the 4 historical scenarios, I'd sugget they may get their money's worth. Shame there aren't more. For me, this is where I jump off the "must have" wagon. I love the Annuals/Journals, as they have even more scenarios than ever before, and this is the life blood of the series. Being Canadian, Ortona (Canada's very little Stalingrad) looks great. These I'll probably get. Otherwise, this ASLer takes a pass. (Can't wait to play my friend's copy, tho ;-) John Mundie