Brevity Assault Campaign Game Unboxing

Brevity Assault showed up fresh from Italy, and it’s unlike any Campaign Game I’ve seen for ASL. It’s the first release from Advancing Fire, an Italian publisher. It covers Operation Brevity, the British push on the Libya-Egypt border in May 1941. The big idea is an operational map. You move companies and platoons around the desert, and when they collide, you fight it out as a real ASL scenario. This was Scouting Report 06, plus a short follow-up video on the maps.

Getting It

I pre-ordered mine straight from Advancing Fire, along with Biazza Ridge. Today, Advancing Fire takes orders by email through their website. Ritterkrieg lists it at $110, but it shows as no longer available there. As usual, the links are at the bottom of the article.

Contents:

• Standalone scenarios, plus three Campaign Games of 5 to 18 operational turns
• 30 die-cut 1/2″ ASL counters
• 35 die-cut 5/8″ ASL counters
• 225 die-cut 5/8″ operational counters
• One 13.2″ x 10.2″ operational map of the Libya-Egypt border
• Two 31.3″ x 26.6″ HASL map sheets that combine into Halfaya Pass
• One 31.7″ x 23.2″ HASL map sheet of Sollum
• Rules pages for vehicles, ordnance, SSRs, map terrain and the Campaign Games
• A divider card for quick reference during play

It isn’t a complete game. You’ll need Beyond Valor, West of Alamein and Hollow Legions to play everything.

The History

Operation Brevity was a short, limited offensive. On May 15, 1941, a British and Commonwealth force struck the Axis positions on the frontier. The targets were Halfaya Pass, Sollum and Fort Capuzzo. The attack took Halfaya and briefly held Capuzzo, but a German counterattack drove the British back. By the end, they only held on to Halfaya Pass, and they lost that later in the month. The Commonwealth side is mostly British and Australian. The Axis is a mix of Germans and Italians.

1 of 5

Rules and Scenarios

The rules run about 24 pages. They have the familiar ASL historical layout, with numbered sections, examples of play, tables and an index. They aren’t hole-punched, so either punch them yourself or sleeve them in a binder. Most of the pages cover the operational Campaign Games. The rest cover terrain, SSRs and vehicle notes for both sides.

The scenarios stand on their own, apart from the operational game. Most run about eight turns, with one at nine and a half. They’re decent-sized fights, but none of them drag on. A few play on the historical maps, and others use stock desert boards with overlays. One looks like a straight armored shootout. You get six overlays in the box, including one for Fort Capuzzo. For the rest, you’ll need the desert overlays from your own collection.

The Maps

1 of 3

There are three historical maps. The two Halfaya maps, North and South, butt together into one big map with the road climbing through the pass. No scenario uses both at once, but it’s a cool sight. The Sollum map runs from the water up a ridge to the Sollum Barracks, with ten levels of elevation. Halfaya South has nine. In other words, these aren’t flat desert boards.

The printing and colors look good. My one gripe is the paper. It’s thinner than I expected, so be gentle when you fold them. Under Plexiglas, it won’t matter.

The Counters

There are about one and three-quarter sheets of counters. They have a glossy finish, which I don’t think I’ve seen before, and the colors and clarity are good. Some of them are punched backwards, but once they’re punched out and trimmed you’d never know.

Most of the counters are operational units, like companies, platoons and squadrons. You also get the informational markers for the operational game, like entry, refuel and combat markers. Mixed in are some regular ASL counters, such as German Assault Engineers.

The Operational Game

This is the heart of Brevity Assault. Forget the usual Campaign Game routine of dates, Refit Phases and Campaign Purchase Points. Instead, there’s a wargame-scale map of the whole frontier. It has 19 locations, connected by roads, good tracks and poor tracks. The Commonwealth stages in from the south, and the Axis holds the north. The big CG runs 18 operational turns over May 15 and 16.

Each turn, both sides move their operational units across the map. Every unit has operational movement points based on how it moves, wheeled, tracked, towed or on foot. Each stretch of road costs its own amount. A stack moves only as fast as its slowest unit. On top of that, there’s fuel availability and vehicle breakdowns to worry about.

When opposing units meet in a location, you mark it for combat. After all the movement, you resolve each combat. Victory points come from holding the key locations and from destroying enemy units.

How a Battle Happens

This is the clever part. Every one of the 19 locations has its own setup chart. It tells you which map to use, which overlays go where and where each side enters, depending on the road they came in on. Then conversion tables turn your operational units into ASL counters, air support included. Finally, you play it out as a normal scenario.

If you don’t want to play every fight, there’s also a quick resolution table. The rules don’t recommend it, though, since a full scenario is better balanced.

I’m a little worried about how many scenarios a full Campaign Game takes. It could be a long haul. Still, I think the time would pay off, and nobody else has published anything like this for ASL.

The Maps Update Video

The first video didn’t come out very clear, so I shot a short follow-up. It takes a closer look at the operational map, the counters and the three historical maps.

Where to Buy

Advancing Fire: Brevity Assault (orders by email through their site)

Advancing Fire: Support (errata, the VASL maps and extensions, and draggable overlays)

Ritterkrieg

Debriefing

Brevity Assault is the most innovative ASL product I’ve seen in a long time. The usual Campaign Game works fine, but it hasn’t changed in decades. Moving units on an operational map and then zooming in to fight real scenarios is a fresh take, and it’s laid out clearly.

My only gripe is the thin map paper. Otherwise, Advancing Fire did a great job on their first product. If you love the desert, this one’s for you. I’ve never played the desert before, but this might be what finally gets me there.

Academy Out!

GET TO THE CHOPPA…!!!

These Articles Might Interest You

Biazza Ridge Campaign Game Unboxing Hollow Legions Unboxing ASL Action Pack #16: From The Land Down Under Unpacking ASL Module 10a – Croix de Guerre Unboxing Bounding Fire Production’s Onslaught to Orsha 2 Unboxing Rising Sun Unboxing ASL Orsogna Unboxing Steel Fury At Zámoly I Unboxing