Now that we have explained the numbers on the counter now we will see how that applies to the Advanced Squad Leader battlefield. This is a typical advanced squad leader board, The green hexes are open ground. The dark green curls are woods. The brown buildings are wooden buildings and the gray buildings are made of stone. They give their occupants different levels of defense when they get shot at. We will show that later. For now we are going to review the range and firepower changes that occur during an advanced squad leader game. IN the picture below we see the 467 german squad from the previous page and we see their most common opponent the Russian 447 squad.
Effects of range and firepower
The Russian squad is holed up in a building 5 hexes away from the German squad. Both squads have a firepower of 4 but the Germans have a range of 6 hexes and the Russians have a range of 4 as shown by the second numbers underneath each squad. If the German shoots at the Russian squad it will fire with its full fire power of 4. If the Russian squad shoots at the German squad its firepower would be cut in half to 2 since it is beyond the range of 4 for the squad. We will deal with the terrain differences later for now just keep the range and its affects on the firepower of the squads. Now lets see what happens when the ranges change between these 2 combatants. In this picture the squads are right next to each other.
Point blank range
In Advanced Squad leader terms they are point blank range. What this means is that the firepower of these combatants are double. Each Squad has a firepower of 4 normally, as seen in the circle, but if they shoot at each other it is doubled to 8. Now there is one more condition that can affect a squad’s firepower and that is if they are in the same hex. In the picture below both squads are in the same hex.
triple point blank fire
Both these squads have a fire power of 12 which is triple the 4 firepower they would normally have. You will see how these numbers work on the infantry fire power table or in Advanced Squad leader terms the IFT. Below is the basic IFT used in ASL to determine firepower and effects.
Infantry Firepower table known as the IFT
The firepower we referred to in the pictures above are represented by the dark black numbers above the columns. The first column we will address is the 2 column
2 fire power column
The first column on the far left shows the final dice roll consisting of 2 six sided dice, after all modifications for terrain, target activity etc. and the column in the box corresponds to the 2 firepower exerted by the Russian squad in our first picture. In order for the Russian squad to affect a target at a range of 5-8 hexes the final modified dice roll with 2 six sided dice would have to be a 6 or less. Not an easy feat. Now let’s compare that to the German squad at the same 5 hex range we saw in the same picture.
4 firepower column
In order for the German Squad to affect an infantry target at 5 hex range it would have to have a final modified dice roll with 2 six sided dice of 7 or less. As you can see the German squad has a better chance of affecting its infantry target than the Russian squad at 5 hex range. Now lets see what happens when the squads are point blank to each other.
8 firepower table
As you can see both squads need a final modified dice roll with 2 six sided dice of 9 or less to affect and infantry target. Now the last affect for the firepower of squads is the triple point blank fire power which is tripled. In this case because the squads have a firepower of 4 as shown by the 4 in the circle they each have a firepower of 12. This is the column that would apply to the triple point blank fire of both the Germans and the Russians.
12 fire power column
As you can see either squad would need a final modified dice roll using 2 six sided dice of 10 or less to affect an infantry target. We have covered the affects of range on firepower in advanced squad leader. In our future pages we will be dealing with terrain affects as well as the affects of what the targets are doing. If you want to try this game feel free to contact us at bob@table-top-war-games.com. We have a large selection of all the Advanced Squad leader products at good prices. Contact us at bob@table-top-war-games.com with all your advanced squad leader orders and questions. Don’t forget to check out our You tube channel J and D hobbies for more tutorial information on Advanced Squad leader and the rest of our games. Also let us know what you think about our web site in the comments section.