Using VASL/ASL maps to Play
 

Brought up in the Advanced Squad Leader facebook group was the fact how the maps in the series can be used for other games. Someone mentioned Twilight 2000 and I thought that was a great idea. The map hexes are 40m across and cover lots of different terrain.

I will post a link to the Vasl (computerized Advanced Squad Leader) if anyone is interested.

http://vasl.info/download.htm

I played SL a lot in the Army, so I have lot of map boards from modules and from rooting around in used bookstores. And they are eminently useful for Last Battle, and I used them quite a bit. I even drew new counters by hand on posterboard (covered in scotch tape) to fit the smaller hex size -- a really tedious process.

I remember using my SL maps at least a few times in my Merc game back in the '90s. I think most of the players found it useful, as I could round off ranges for most of their weapons: 1 hex = short range, 2 for medium, and so on.

It didn't help, in that a lot of characters could be concentrated in 1 hex, yet still pretty far apart, at a 40 m scale.

I was thinking more for travelling and encounters then switching to a more detail scale.

btw Vassal is the main site for hundreds of old board games. I used the maps from the Ambush module for man to man combat.

http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Category:Modules

That works, too. Might work very well, thinking about it, for pre-encounter stuff. "You see some vehicles about 500m away. They're not headed right at you. Evade/engage/wait?"

I used the ASL maps for larger, Last Battle-type engagements, or encounters taking place over large distances. For a closeup on a single hex or group of adjacent hexes, I switched to maps from the old SPI RPG/wargame Commando, or from other RPGs or wargames, or hand-drawn maps (the problem with that is that I'm definitely no artist).