Onslaught to Orsha second edition (2020)

In 2002, ASL third party publisher Heat of Battle released the first “monster-sized” historical module, Onslaught to Orsha, which was in most respects considerably larger than any previous official or unofficial historical module for ASL, featuring a large map, many scenarios, and a lot more as well.  Moreover, it was designed by Chas Smith, whose previous scenarios in the Hell on Wheels pack and ASL Journal Issue Two were quite popular.  With its East Front theme, Orsha quickly became a popular (and eventually much sought after) ASL product.

Second Edition (Bounding Fire Productions) contents:  Historical map composed of two 22" x 27" and one 28" x 27" map sections, 32 scenarios on cardstock, 1 campaign game, 2 SASL missions, 3.5 sheets of die-cut 1/2" and 5/8" counters,  4 8" x 22" unmounted geoboards (DW-8a, DW-8b, DW-9a, DW-9b), 42 pages of rules, play aids/charts.

OtO depicts fighting near Orsha during Operation Bagration, i.e., the 1944 Soviet summer offensive that destroyed the German Army Group Center. The core to OtO, in whatever version, is its historical map–a very long, rectangular map with generously large hexes, depicting an East Front railway and the terrain to either side of it. The original Orsha map had okay graphics (reasonable for 2002, somewhat dated in 2020) but was printed on one long, too-hard-to-manage sheet of paper.  The revised Orsha map comes in three sections, which is a distinct improvement, although the maps all have a lot of folds, some inconvenient.  The map graphics have also been updated.  While retaining the same basic style (including the distractingly off-kilter brush hexes), they lime green of the original map has been replaced by more muted tones.  The map is not spectacular to look at, but that’s probably more the fault of the terrain than of the map art.

In addition to the historical map, OtO2 comes with something that the original OtO did not:  geoboards.  Although the original OtO featured both historical map scenarios and geoboard scenarios, the geoboards used were official ones.  But OtO2 features four new 8″ x 22″ unmounted geoboards, DW8a and DW8b plus DW9a and DW9b, which are only partially geomorphic.  DW8a and DW8b can be combined to form a larger, “doublewide” board, and DW9a and DW9b do the same thing.  Boards 8a and 8b combine to form a 16″ x 22″ board featuring a two-hex wide river meandering diagonally from the upper right of the board down towards the lower left.  The left bank of the river has a few buildings and a few low hills, but is pretty open.  The east bank of the river features a large but low hill, a few more buildings, and a large number of grain fields. The board set is not very exciting, but the diagonal river is certainly a contribution to ASL geomorphia.

The original OtO came with one countersheet, mostly of vehicles. At the time, the countersheet was rather “revolutionary” in that it marked a return to functional third party counters after a period of time in which MMP used copyright claims to bully third party publishers not to include counter artwork.  The OtO counters used recognizable ASL counter formats while maintaining their own look and feel by including a company logo on each counter–something that third party publishers have done ever since.  The 2020 version of OTO comes with three and a half countersheets instead of the one in the original. There’s a half-sheet of mixed 5/8″ and 1/2″ counters (markers, captured German SW in Soviet colors, and German Guns, Vehicles, and Planes), a full sheet of 1/2″ counters with extra Soviet and German Infantry and SW, a full sheet of 5/8″ counters featuring Soviet AFVs and Guns, and various markers, and a full sheet of 5/8″ counters featuring Soviet vehicles and planes, and a small number of German vehicles.  All are handsomely rendered with typical high-quality BFP artwork and production values.

The original OtO contained 22 scenarios; the new version has expanded the number of included scenarios to 32, with all of the additional scenarios being geoboard scenarios rather than historical map scenarios. They depict other actions during Operation Bagration. Only 8 of the 32 scenarios use the included historical map. The original version of OtO used two scenario numbering systems–one for historical map scenarios and a second one for geoboard scenarios.  OtO2 drops that in favor of a single 1-32 numbering system, which is much simpler.

To play all of the included scenarios, players need boards 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 32, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49, 57, 69, 70, 71, 6a, and 9b.  Additionally, players will need the following third party boards made by Bounding Fire Productions: BFP-A (from Into the Rubble 2), BFP-L (from Crucible of Steel), BFP-M (from CoS), BFP-P (from Poland in Flames), BFP-Q (from PiF), and BFP-R (from PiF), as well as DW-8a, DW-8b, DW-9a, and DW-9b (the latter four included in the product). Thus playing the geoboard scenarios in this module requires a substantial investment in Bounding Fires Production products.

The scenarios are overwhelmingly large or extra large in size; there are also a handful of medium-sized scenarios.  Almost half of the scenarios have OBA and 7 use Air Support.  None have Night Rules.  Close to half of the scenarios feature extensive fortifications.

OtO2 comes with a lot of rules, including the more or less standard rules chapter for OtO, 28 pages long. Almost all of these deal with the included campaign game, On Track to Orsha, a large but short campaign game. A couple of additional pages cover slopes and counterbattery fire.

In addition to these pages, there are another six pages using the exact same chapter header graphics and colors but which are dubbed “Aircraft of Operation Bagration,” providing extensive air rules for those ASLers willing to put up with them.  Finally, there are 8 pages of scanty Chapter H style gun and vehicle notes for OtO2, with a yellow chapter header but confusingly starting with page 5.

OtO2 also contains the same 2 SASL missions included with the original, a nice nod to the people who love SASL (the solitaire ASL system).

(The above description is an edited version of that found on the Desperation Morale website)