Beyond Valor Unboxing

On September 2, 1941, the Soviet 131st Border Battalion was the rearguard in Terijoki, on the road to Leningrad. The Finns were coming back for what they’d lost in the Winter War. At 3:30 in the afternoon, the order finally came to save themselves, if they could. The bakery was on fire, the town hall was burning, and the ammunition was running out.

That’s Fighting Withdrawal, scenario 1 in Beyond Valor. For a lot of us, it was the very first ASL scenario we ever played. Beyond Valor is the first and most important ASL module, so it’s an oldie but a goodie. It’s probably been unboxed a hundred times, but I wanted one on my channel for completeness.

Getting It

My copy came from Todd, a fellow YouTuber who plays everything from miniatures to grand strategy. He’s trimming his ASL down to the Starter Kits, so I got Beyond Valor and For King and Country from him at a very fair price. It was partially punched but otherwise brand new. Thanks, Todd.

MMP still sells it for $145, and Ritterkrieg has it in stock at $125. As usual, the links are at the bottom of the article.

Contents:

• Ten 8″ x 22″ mapboards, boards 1 to 5, 8 and 20 to 23
• 14 counter sheets
• 24 scenarios, 1 to 10 and 123 to 136
• Four six-sided dice

It isn’t a complete game. You’ll need the ASL Rulebook. With the rulebook, though, everything in the box is playable, because every scenario uses only these ten boards and these counters.

Which Edition Is This?

Todd’s sticky note on the box says “2nd Edition,” and that’s what I called it in the video. The scenarios say otherwise. The second edition had the original ten plus a different set of extras. Scenarios 123 to 136 only joined Beyond Valor in the third edition, which is the one MMP still sells.

One more fun discrepancy. The back of the box says 13 counter sheets. Mine has 14, and they’re numbered 1 to 14. Thirteen full sheets and a half sheet, so I guess the half sheet doesn’t count. Nobody tell MMP I’m complaining about free counters.

The Counters

This is the module that brings the German and Russian orders of battle into ASL. That’s infantry, ordnance, AFVs, trucks and half-tracks for both sides, from 1939 to 1945. You also get the informational counters you need to play, plus fortifications, cavalry, wagons, motorcycles, bicycles, air support, night counters and skis.

There’s a smattering of Finnish infantry and support weapons, too. For the full Finnish army, vehicles and all, you’ll want Hakkaa Päälle!

Counter trimmers, rejoice. On this printing, the little nubs that hold each counter to the sprue sit on the corners instead of the sides. Nip the corners and you’ve got a nice smooth counter. The four dice are generic, about 12 millimeters, one per color. They work, and I’m sure we all have plenty of dice anyway.

Why is Beyond Valor the most important module? If you want to play on a real table with real counters, it’s where you start. It covers most of Europe until 1944. Add Yanks for the Americans and For King and Country for the British, and you’ve got the major combatants in Europe. For the Pacific, Rising Sun brings the Japanese, the Marines and the Chinese.

From the Arctic to the Volga

The 24 scenarios run from the Winter War in 1939 to the outskirts of Berlin in 1945. Four are in Warsaw and two are in Stalingrad, so the map gives those cities their own insets. The numbers match the scenario table right under it.

Gray markers are fights where the Germans or Finns attack, and red ones are where the Soviets or Poles do. It’s almost all German against Russian, which is the whole point of the module.

The Original Ten

Scenarios 1 to 10 are the classic Beyond Valor set, updated a little over the years. Fighting Withdrawal kicks things off, and there’s an AAR of it here on the site, plus a replay by Stew. Four of the ten are in Warsaw. Mila 18 is the Warsaw Ghetto in January 1943, when the ZOB fought back against the SS roundups for the first time. The Czerniakow Bridgehead is September 1944, with Polish troops clinging to the west bank of the Vistula.

Stalingrad gets two. The Commissar’s House is a popular one, with German pioneers clawing through the Barrikady gun factory district in November 1942. In Sight of the Volga is the September push into the city center, toward the main ferry landing. Red Packets and The Citadel are both June 1941 around Brest-Litovsk, as Barbarossa rolls over the border.

Dash for the Bridge has a Polish recon troop hunting a route to Warsaw’s Most Slaski bridge in September 1944, and there’s an AAR of that one too.

To the Square is the liberation of Warsaw in January 1945. The Fugitives closes out the war with the last of Panzer Division Müncheberg trying to break out of Berlin in the first days of May 1945. That one has an AAR on the site as well.

That’s the Polish 1st Army marching through what was left of Warsaw two days after To the Square.

Fourteen From the Archives

Scenarios 123 to 136 came from out-of-print ASL Annuals, The General and the ASL Journal. MMP renumbered and rebalanced them, then folded in all the errata. A card will even tell you a scenario was previously published as, say, A10.

The Finns finally get some work here. The Borders are Burning and On the Borderline are both November 30, 1939, the first day of the Winter War. In the second one, a Finnish cavalry lieutenant was celebrating his 45th birthday when the Soviet artillery opened up. Happy birthday, here’s a war.

The rest is mostly 1941, and it’s a tour of Barbarossa. First Crisis at Army Group North throws the new KV heavy tanks at the 1st Panzer Division near Raseiniai, when German guns couldn’t punch through them. Commando Schenke is a popular fight for the Latvian port of Liepaja, and I’ve got an AAR of Commando Schenke on the site. Land Leviathans is almost all armor and armor leaders, with T-34s and KV-2s near Borisov. Armor is polarizing. I happen to like it, especially when it’s mixed with infantry.

That’s a KV-2 the Germans found abandoned in June 1941. Up close, you can see why they called them land leviathans.

The Defense of Luga and Slamming of the Door are both the fight for the Luga line south of Leningrad. Debacle at Korosten has Soviet cavalry drawing sabers and charging a German supply depot, Cossack style. Then the dates move on. The Penetration of Rostov is street fighting against the NKVD in July 1942, and Hill 253.5 is Kursk in July 1943. Joey Sabin wrote up an AAR of Hill 253.5 for the site, so check it out.

Block Busting in Bokruisk is Bobruisk, a German “fortified locality” during Bagration in June 1944. Counterattack on the Vistula is another popular one, with the Hermann Göring Division hitting a Soviet bridgehead in August 1944. There’s an AAR of that too. Acts of Defiance is besieged Breslau in February 1945, and The Agony of Doom is Müncheberg in April, on the road to Berlin. By then, both sides have their biggest toys out.

Ten Boards

The boards are lightweight and sturdy, in the Starter Kit style, and MMP repainted them all so the colors match. I sold my old mounted boards and switched to these. Mixing mounted and unmounted boards never lined up well.

Everyone knows board 1. If you’ve played Guards Counterattack, you’ve seen it many times, and you probably know every line of sight from building to building. Boards 2 and 3 are the classic hill boards from the original Squad Leader. Board 3 is where I lost Gavin Take miserably on a D-Day anniversary, and you can relive it in my Gavin Take AAR. Then there’s open country on board 4 and the big woods on board 5.

Board 8 is the river board, with updated artwork. Then come the city boards. Number 20 is another dense town, and 21 has a massive cemetery right in the middle. The suburb on 22 has lots of buildings but is much less dense, and a canal runs through 23. A couple of those could pass for factory districts in the right scenario.

Where to Buy

MMP: Beyond Valor, 3rd Edition

Ritterkrieg

Debriefing

Beyond Valor is the foundation. It’s the German and Russian orders of battle, most of the system’s markers, ten boards and 24 scenarios that need nothing else but the rulebook. That’s a lot of ASL in a single box.

If you’re just starting, play Fighting Withdrawal first, like the rest of us did. Then try one of the Warsaw scenarios. They’re small, and street fighting teaches you the rules fast.

Academy Out!

GET TO THE CHOPPA…!!!

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