HUMAN WAVE 2026

Mike McGrath defeated Guy Chaney to win the 2026 version of Human Wave. Mike and Guy selected Italian Crescendo for the final. It is a complex scenario with Guy falling behind a little early. One more bad turn and Guy threw in the towel. The beautiful trophy was provided by Juan Santa Cruz.

Curt Schilling and Brian Youse from MMP showed up and focused on the forthcoming Rotterdam. Curt solicited input from anyone walking by as they seek to dial in that offering. The map looks gorgeous and the rules are very interesting. I think most ASL’ers will like this offering when it is released.

Scenario Records:

Scenario	W/L Axis—Allied	Rating(average)	Player notes
R1 Heavy Metal Noise	3—5	7.7	delete last sentence of VC
R1 Moreh Melee	3—3	8
R3 Black Devils of Bure	6—7	8.7	VC should specify ‘German MMC”
R2 Villains at Ville-sur-Illon	6—4	7.1	SSR 5, 1st sentence: delete “AFV”
R4 Seton Block	2—1	7.4
R4 The Army It Had	2—2	6.8
R4 Italian Crescendo	1—2	8.2

Heavy Metal Noise seemed pro defender. We think with time this will settle out over time but it may also be a case of playtester learning biasing the “first look” balance. There was also some errata creeping into Villains at Ville-sur-Illon. The fix for that is noted on the above chart. Since we had MMP in the room and shipping doesn’t start until Monday, shipped packs should have a slip of paper explaining the fixes included.

We are already discussing next year’s tournament. Stay tuned for more information. Thanks to everyone who attended and made this a success. See you guys at ASLOk.

Playtesting has ended and the pack has been submitted for publication. The pack has not been named yet but the text and scenarios are set.

XXNAMEXX
ASL Action Pack #22

XXNAMEXX, the 22nd ‘action pack’ for Advanced Squad Leader, contains an eclectic mix of small unit actions from 1941 to 1945 and ranging across many theaters of WWII. Scenarios span the globe from the forested highlands of Ethiopia to the jungles of Papua New Guinea and steppes of the Soviet Union to the snowy forests of the Ardennes. These 12 scenarios were designed by Jim ‘The Bishop Sez’ Bishop and Gary “Fort’ Fortenberry for first release to the public at a ‘blind’ tournament where participants had never before seen the scenarios prior to the round in which they are presented, and to meet the desired goal of play times fit for a typical tournament round; the largest being best used for a ‘last round of the day’ situation. These scenarios offer tough choices for both sides; a player won’t be relegated to his side sitting and awaiting the enemy onslaught. Three double-sided 11” x 16” maps, designed by Gary Fortenberry and painted by Charlie Kibler, round out the package. Two of these boards are designed to match up with terrain features of previous double-sided boards to make for previously unavailable and slightly different ‘geomorphic’ configurations. Each board is completely geomorphic and compatible with previous ASL mapboards.

ACTION PACK #22: XXNAMEXX contains:

• Three 11” x 16” double-sided geomorphic mapboards (27a/b, 28a/b, 29a/b)
• 12 ASL scenarios
• AP237 ANDIAMO – 6½ turns, Chakara River, near Dembacha Ethiopia, 4 March 1941, (Ethiopian vs Italian)
• AP238 ITALIAN CRESCENDO – 6 turns, PETRYKIVKA, UKRAINE, 28 September 1941 (Russian vs Italian)
• AP239 BUNA MISSION – 6½ turns Buna Mission, Buna, Papua New Guinea, 31 December 1942 (Allied vs Japan)
• AP240 THE ARMY IT HAD – 6½ turns, Sevsk, Bryansk Oblast, Russia, 1 March 1943 (Russian vs Hungary/RONA)
• AP241 MOREH MELEE – 6½ turns, Moreh, Northwest Frontier, India, 22 March 1944 (Commonwealth vs Japan)
• AP242 SETON BLOCK – 5½ turns, South of Kamaing, Mogaung Valley, Burma, June 2 1944 (KMT vs Japan)
• AP243 HELL’S COMIN’ – 6½ turns, Hauts Vents, France, 10 July 1944 (American vs German)
• AP244 HEAVY METAL NOISE – 5½ turns, Oględów, Poland 13 August 1944 (Russian vs German)
• AP245 VILLAINS AT VILLE-SUR-ILLON – 6½ turns, Ville-sur-Illon, France, 13 September 1944 (Fre French vs German)
• AP246 STUMBLING IN PLACE – 6½ turns, Apweiler, Germany, 19 November 1944 (American vs German)
• AP247 GENERAL’S ORDERS – 5½ turns, Stoumont, Belgium, 22 December 1944 (American vs German)
• AP248 BLACK DEVILS OF BURE – 5½ turns, Bure, Belgium, 6 January 1945 (Canadian vs German)

Designed for the afficionado, ACTION PACK #22: XXNAMEXX is not a complete product and assumes the buyer owns the core Advanced Squad Leader game system.​

Hello again! I want to take a moment to provide an update on where we stand. As of today, playtesting is coming to a close. We have finalized a few of the tournament scenarios and are close to completing the rest. For the remainder of the pack scenarios, we have expanded the playtesting pool to some other people who are not likely to attend the tournament. Given Jim’s health issues, we deemed this necessary to get the pack completed.

If the pack is completed timely fashion, which we believe we will do, MMP believes they will be able to print the pack in time to have finished packs available at the tournament. We will keep you updated on this as we get closer to the tournament. Right now it looks like this will be 10 – 12 scenarios and 3 “Fort-style” boards.

We are also working with Broken Ground Design to see if we can get some counter made for tournament attendees. We don’t want to disclose the actual contents but there are so few counters needed that it probably isn’t worth adding official sheets to the system. The counters we have in mind are mostly counters existing in the game already but the colors are confusing in the games we are designing. We will keep you updated on this. We aren’t sure if there is enough time to get this sorted out but we’ll let you know if we can.

Finally, we realize there is some confusion about what exactly is on offer, with some possible attendees suggesting people not playing in the main tournament are not welcome. This could not be further from the truth. If you want to come play an open game, you’re welcome to come. We have some smaller 2-round (one day) and 3-round (one or two day) tournaments in mind. Of course, we would love to have you participate in the main tournament, but not everyone can commit to that timeline. Also, keep in mind the main tournament is designed to place 32 players into four brackets by win/loss records at the end of round 2. Beginning in round three, each player will be paired with another player of similar record (2 -0 v. 2 – 0, 1 – 1 v. 1 – 1, 0 – 2 v. 0 – 2). The top five positions in the tournament will be determined by these brackets.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Gary or Jim if you have ANY questions. We will do our level best to get back to you with an answer.

Hey everyone! Playtesting continues. We believe we are VERY close on the first six scenarios. This gives us the chance to have six rounds if this first iterations succeeds beyond our initial expectations. There are also four more scenarios to round out the pack.

Guy Chaney has stepped into the breach to help playtest the four scenarios not in the tournament. Given Jim’s health issues, we don’t know how available Jim will be for the next couple of months. We have to finish all playtesting before the end of April to have any chance of a published pack at the tournament. We are working hard to make that happen. Stay tuned for additional details.

Thanks for all the support to this point. Look for a release of the boards sometime in the next couple of weeks. We want to give people a chance to look them over and get a feel for them before the tournament.

Look for more updates now as the tournament comes closer. We hope to see you all there.

We have received the first round of play test feedback from our external group. This after playing the first scenario:

• I also really like the scenario a lot; quality vs quantity, a complex VC, an interesting board.
• Interesting choices for the Germans too, How much to allocate to the flanking force…if any, and where to attack.
• Looking forward to playing this one again, and the rest that follow.
• First thoughts are that this is a VERY interesting scenario.
• There are some tough decisions to make. The choice for the Brits is very damn tough…
• We were really excited to play the scenario. It is a very interesting map and forces combination.
• We would both definitely play it again – we have already agreed to a replay next week switching sides.
• As the defender I found it very challenging to defend broadly with so few leaders.
• Our impression so far is that the quality of the scenarios surpasses the ones we playtested for the WBC 

The play testers have also received the first three scenarios for review and are providing great feedback on clarifying the scenario cards and making sure the new boards are good.

We have seven more scenarios in various states of internal play testing. Two of those are nearly ready for movement to external play testing. The remaining scenarios are close to ready but need to have the latest round changes verified before sending them off. We are on track to have all ten scenarios off to Europe for final play testing.

Things are shaping up. If you aren’t registered, there is still time.

We have finished the first round of playtesting on two scenarios and have sent them off for external playtesting. Fortunately, the first round of back and forth has identified a few typos and mistakes which have been corrected. It is always interesting when a fresh pair of eyes examines the card for the first time. I also allows us to take notes for later for round presentations.

Speaking of round presentations, at the tournament, we intend to do a quick presentation at the beginning of each scenario to quickly go over terrain questions, card details, or specific rules that may effect the upcoming scenario. We promise to be short on the rules, but there are some mistakes that completely change the scenario that we don’t want to see happen. Us covering these in advance, as well as covering the VC and other map questions, will help us ensure everyone is playing the same game.

We have heard from people trying to register that we did not have a registration link. We spoke with the hotel and have a registration link now. You can register for the hotel here. For the moment, this link will register for a single occupancy, king-sized bed. We are working with the hotel to see if we can get a double occupancy, two queen-sized bed room. Look for updates if we can. Sorry for the inconvenience.

We are pleased to announce registration for the 2026 edition of the Human Wave ASL tournament is open. If you have any questions about the tournament, the links above should answer all of your questions. You will find topics covering the the venue, rules, and details.

To register, please use this link. If you are paying via PayPal please pay via the Friends and Family method.