Converting ASL scenarios to CM

When converting Advanced Squad Leader scenarios to Combat Mission I follow a philosophy in which I attempt to make as true a conversion as I can within the limitations of the differences between the two games.  The key for me is whether the converted scenario "feels" the same as the ASL original.  When evaluating a conversion some things such as maps and force pools are obvious; however, some things such as leaders and snipers are a little less obvious.  I will categorize all these differences and explain how I deal with them when making my conversions.

Maps

I have an example of a six hex cluster here.  Once you have gained the ability to visualize the CM world of squares as ASL mapboard hexes, converting the map hex by hex becomes a very simple matter.  The only problem then becomes one of dealing with the terrain types that are in ASL but are not represented in CM.  In CMBO I generally used scattered trees for orchard hexes and rough for cemetery hexes.  The new terrain selections in CMBB have made things a little easier, but there are still some terrain types that are not represented.  I try to use woods hexes in ASL as a straight conversion to woods in CM whenever possible, but it can be much easier to see through woods hexes in CM during certain times of the year and sometimes tall pines must be used instead if it is critical to establish the proper "feel" for the scenario.  Gullies are also not represented in CM, and in some cases they are crucial to getting a scenario properly converted.  About the only option available is to make an area of lower elevation that is one "square" wide and create a huge trench for infantry to move in.  They derive no cover benefits from being in this trench, but hopefully it can give troops sufficient concealment that they will not be fired upon.  Elevation changes can be converted straight across, and you can use the standard 2.5-meter elevation that is the default in the CM editor.  Elevation changes in ASL are 5 meters in height, but using the 2.5 meter default you can just adjust the elevations by two in CM and get some good looking hills.  If you master hill making you can use the 1.25 meter elevations to really make some smooth looking hills.  I"ve found that the one or two level hills in ASL are best converted over using the 1.25 meter elevation changes.  The thing that really makes the hills look natural using the 1.25 meter elevations is to expand the base of the hills several squares beyond where the hill would technically end on the ASL maps.  This can be justified since the basic maps show no elevations that are 2.5 meters or less.  I take that as an invitation to freely add 1.25 and 2.5 meter hills and depressions on all maps to reduce the "flat" map conversion effect.  You can then expand the base of each elevation change on the ASL maps using the 1.25 meter elevation changes and the effect can be very nice.  Hills located near roads or buildings can be tricky at times, so you still need to do a little fudging and manual terrain smoothing to make things look right.  I am especially picky about roadsides running up the sides of hills.  You will generally want to smooth out "points" where higher elevation "square clusters" are placed adjacent to lower level roads or your roads will be half flat and half on the hillside.  This looks very odd as a vehicle travelling such a road would have a difficult time of it!!    

Buildings, roads, walls, and hedges are some of the most difficult items to convert from ASL to CM.  Most of the one hex buildings in ASL are fairly large and fill most of the hex while the small buildings in CM don"t even fill the 20 meter square they are in.  There is also no way to really simulate multihex buildings that have no second level.  The only solution I have come up with is to simply use the two story buildings in CM for all multihex ASL buildings whether they have a second floor or not.  Using these buildings for all multihex buildings isn"t as much of a compromise as it may seem since the multihex buildings automatically contains a level one location in ASL.  Since the individual single story buildings are so small in CM, I also include any buildings and sub buildings that are present in an ASL hex containing a one hex building regardless of the size difference in ASL.  I may also include multiple small CM buildings in locations where the single hex building in ASL looks particularly large.  This helps add "density" to the various boards and makes the boards look more interesting.  For some of the more complicated large stone buildings on the city boards, I will fill each "square cluster hex" in CM with four full buildings then trim the "extra" buildings off in CM until the desired building shape is achieved.  This is a fairly time consuming process, but it helps to keep your buildings looking like the ASL buildings and located in the right place on the map.  If you lose your place even by one hex your whole map could be ruined.

I convert road hexes the same way I convert large building hexes.  I will fill every CM "square cluster hex" with four "crossroads" squares until all road hexes have been placed on my map.  Once I have done that, I trim off the "extra" road squares and you have your road converted "hex by hex" from the ASL map to the CM map.  Walls and hedges can be converted hexside by hexside as well, but you just need to determine which CM "hex" to put your hedge or wall into.  After that it is a fairly simple (but time consuming) matter to follow along the ASL hexsides using the "angled" hedge or wall squares in CM.  

Units

When converting units from ASL to CM a few decisions need to be made.  The type of squad to use, the experience level, leaders, snipers, and support weapons all need to be determined.  Squad type is seemingly obvious, although once you really start putting your conversion together this does become an issue.  One example would be the vast selection of SS squads available in CM as opposed to ASL.  Are those ASL squads motorized?  Are they Panzergrenadiers?  Are they standard SS squads?  All of these squad types are slightly different from each other in CM which will require a decision to be made.  I generally look at the unit that is being represented per the scenario card and compare that to the scenario OB to decide which squad type to use.  A scenario that calls for nine 4-4-7 German squads could represent any number of different squad types, but if the scenario card identifies these troops as "elements of the 99^th Volksgrenadier Division" it becomes clear that these are Volksgrenadier infantry.  Since nine squads would be the size of a Volksgrenadier company, I would simply choose one Volksgrenadier company.  A Volksgrenadier company in CM will consist of two platoons of SMG and Heavy SMG squads and one "Volksgrenadier" platoon.  These squad types are very different, but in the spirit of the scenario they could all equate as 4-4-7s since the ASL scenario is attempting to represent a Volksgrenadier company.  I always purchase companies rather than platoons when possible, even if it means I need to delete some extra support weapons.  The only drawback to using Companies is the addition of all those "extra" leaders to the OB.  You must also take into consideration the effect on playbalance of the firepower of the various squads in CM.  Some squads have so much firepower in CM that using them upsets the delicate balance of the conversion.  I would categorize "2 LMG" squads as balance buster items.  These deserve special consideration in your conversion and should probably only be used in conjunction with the "extra" LMGs that are present on the ASL scenario card.  However, in CMBB and CMAK the double LMG squads don"t seem as powerful as they were in CMBO, so this rule of thumb may be obsolete.  The trick is to substitute and swap out the various squad types until you balance the scenario the way you want to.    

Leaders in ASL cannot be converted directly into leaders in CM.  Not only are leaders in CM "command groups", but they have different modifiers as well.  You will also have a few more of them in CM than you may have in ASL since every ASL platoon doesn"t necessarily have a leader attached.  However, leaders can be converted after a fashion.  ASL leadership modifiers are fairly straightforward and are represented as a number that is subtracted from nearly every dice or die roll that the leader participates in.  This number ranges from zero to three.  CM has four categories where a leader can influence his troops: stealth, combat, morale, and command.  Each of these areas can also have a modifier that ranges from zero to two.  The most effective means of converting leaders would be to simply double the ASL leader modifier and apply that doubled modifier to a CM leader.  For example, a 10-3 in ASL would have his 3 modifier doubled to a 6.  You could then select a leader from your CM conversion and supply him with a two modifier in Combat, a two modifier in Morale, a one modifier in Stealth, and a one modifier in Command.  This leader would then become your "converted" 10-3.  All "extra" CM leaders would have no modifiers given to them in order to minimize their impact on the converted scenario.  I"ve found that the best way to implement leader conversion this way is to heavily use the modifiers given as defaults by the CM scenario editor.  This gives you some randomness in how your leaders are assigned to the troops.  In other words, you will look through the leaders in the editor, find the leader with the most modifiers and make him your 10-3.  I allow all the "extra" leaders to keep one modifier if the editor gave it to them and I will manually add or subtract modifiers to leaders if necessary.  Usually the editor does a decent enough job of assigning modifiers that you won"t need to do too much tweaking in this department.    

The next area that needs to be addressed is in the area of experience.  CM has a scale that includes Conscript, Green, Regular, Veteran, Crack, and Elite.  ASL has a scale that includes Conscript, Green, Standard, and Elite troop types.  However, squads are only separated by three morale levels: six, seven, and eight.  Leaders are always considered Elite, but they are separated by five morale levels: six, seven, eight, nine, and ten.  With this in mind, I generally just assign all German and British squads with a morale of eight (regardless of type) as "Veteran" and any with a morale of seven as "Regular" or if they are second line "Green".  All British or German squads with morale six would then be "Green" or "Conscript" as appropriate.  Since American squads have a base morale of six, their morale six squads in ASL would be converted to "Regular" while all their morale seven squads would be converted to "Veteran".  This choice is made because there is no way to simulate the "easy to break, easy to rally" Albatross that ASL hangs around the neck of American fighting men.  However, making standard American squads "Green" due to their six morale would penalize them too much in CM.  Soviet and Axis minor squads can be converted the same way as German and British squads, although since the Soviets have no Green squads in ASL you may want to use them as "play balancers" if necessary.  If it is known that certain squads are fanatic in a scenario, you can also just raise their experience level by one to account for that.  Leader experience is a simple conversion to CM.  Any leader with morale ten would be "Elite", morale nine would be "Crack", morale eight would be "Veteran", morale seven would be "Regular", and morale six would be "Green".  Armor Leaders can also be added to a CM scenario by making any Armor Leader with morale eight Veteran, morale nine Crack, and morale ten Elite, although armor experience levels are more sensitive to play balance issues and you want to use discretion here.

SAN and support weapons are the last areas of concern when making conversions.  SAN as represented in ASL should be converted into snipers in CM.  I have not come up with any hard and fast method of converting SAN into snipers other than through how the scenario "feels".  A straight conversion of SAN level into snipers probably overstates their effect on the CM battlefield unless the map is a particularly large one.  I think you may wish to start out with a one sniper for every two SAN, but if the map area is particularly large, you may wish to increase the number of snipers in the OB.  Their experience level is also a bit tricky and you should probably use the SAN level itself as a guideline for how experienced your snipers will be.  You don"t need to be too careful with snipers though as their effects in CM are not as dramatic as they can be in ASL with the exception of their effect on CE tank crews.  Most support weapons can be converted easily enough.  The only weapon that really requires a decision to be made is the LMG.  ASL adds LMGs as separate support weapons to the OB, while squads in CM already contain one or more LMGs within the squad itself.  I have decided to leave out the "extra" German LMGs as separate units unless the scenario doesn"t "feel" right without them.  A better method of adding the "extra" LMGs is to give the German player Motorized Infantry squads that have the "extra" LMG inherent to the squad.  They can also be added in order to adjust the play balance for a particular conversion.  The British also do not have the "extra" LMGs to choose from in CM so to add separate German LMG units without the ability to add British LMG units may favor the German side.

Fortifications

Fortifications is another area that is deceptively straightforward to convert.  This would include bunkers, trenches, wire, mines, and roadblocks.  Bunkers force you to make a choice that the player would normally have.  In general I make the +3 bunkers wooden ones and I make the +5 bunkers concrete ones.  You then have to subtract the appropriate weapons from the ASL force pool and "place" them inside the bunker for the player.  This sometimes forces you to make a choice when there are both MGs and AT guns that can be placed in a bunker.  Trenches and wire are pretty straightforward too.  Just give a player who has wire obstacles or trenches 2 CM wire or trenches for every one wire and trench counter alloted to the ASL player.  Roadblocks should only be assigned on a one for one basis though, as one roadblock is generally sufficient in CM to block a road if it is well placed.  Giving two road blocks also allows the owning player to split the roadblocks up and block more avenues of attack than would normally be allowed.  Mines are the trickiest items to convert since they are usually given a numerical factor that is equivalent to firepower in ASL.  The best way to convert AP mines is to take every six factors allotted in ASL and assign two CM AP minefields.  This allows the owning player to cover 40 meters of terrain with mines, but reduces the depth of the minefield to only 20 meters.  This is a necessary compromise though as assigning four CM minefields per 6 factors would give the owning player the opportunity to spread them across 80 meters of front rather than the intended 40 meters of front.  The six ASL factors is used for the conversion because that is the minimum number of mine factors that can make up an ASL minefield.  AP minefields are a very tricky animal and must be handled with discretion.  I would recommend a ratio of One AT minefield per 4 AT mine factors.  If not converted with discretion AT minefields can be ?balance busters? and ruin your scenario conversion.

Reinforcements

Some of the limitations placed on reinforcements in CM are that the player cannot deploy them and the scenario converter cannot allow for an increasing probability of reinforcement arrival.  With this in mind, it is generally preferable to place all reinforcements or forces that enter on turn one on the map from the very beginning.  I generally give the player a strip forty meters deep along the appropriate edge or edges and allow the player to deploy these forces as he sees fit.  Forces that enter with having spent movement points should enter halfway through your ?turn conversion?.  In other words, if you are using a four minute per ASL turn ratio and your reinforcements enter on turn 1 having expended 2 MF, then you would have them enter on turn 2 or 3.  I always attempt to place reinforcements in areas that will hopefully be covered from enemy fire or observation when the reinforcements are scheduled to arrive.  This gives the player an opportunity to organize his forces and bring them into battle at his own pace.  It also helps to reduce frustration on the part of both players when reinforcements arrive in the midst of enemy forces.  Scenarios where reinforcements arrive in odd locations or in areas that the enemy can camp upon are problematic to convert.  In ASL the player entering may have a whole board edge to enter on, but in CM you must select a suitable location that may only be the size of a single hex.

Time

Time is one of the most difficult, yet one of the most important, conversions you can make.  One turn in ASL is supposed to represent two minutes of "real" time, although when pinned down the designers of ASL always admit that this conversion of time is just an approximation.  When conducting movement tests in CM it was found that a regular infantry squad traveled 160 meters in two minutes when using the move command.  When converting that to ASL that would seem to confirm that a two CM turn for each ASL turn is appropriate since 160 meters would be four ASL hexes.  However, in CM this 160 meter movement for a squad in two minutes is the maximum that a squad can move within a two minute time period.  In ASL a movement rate of four hexes per turn for a standard squad is increased by one hex for the Advance Phase ? a form of movement not available to a squad in CM.  A squad in ASL may also have it"s movement increased by two if that squad is stacked with a leader.  These two additions mean that a squad with a leader could easily travel seven hexes in ASL and if this stack was moving down a road their movement could be increased a further hex in ASL for a maximum of eight hexes.  This means that a squad in ASL could move as much as twice as far as the equivalent squad could move in CM.  Using this calculation, a conversion rate of between 3.5 and 4 CM turns per ASL turn would seem to be more appropriate.  The speed of a running squad in CM is also different than a running squad in ASL.  A squad in CM can run the equivalent of ten ASL hexes in two minutes.  This would seem to overstate the movement rate for a squad in CM as a squad in ASL can run only six hexes.  Add a leader, advance phase, and a road bonus to that squad though and we see that a squad in ASL can achieve a running rate of ten hexes per turn.

Straight movement rate conversions are not the only concern for the ASL to CM converter though.  Most ASL scenarios do not have hidden units in them.  In CM, all units have the equivalent of HIP status throughout the entire length of the scenario.  The ASL player knows where all enemy units are at all times throughout the entire battle while the CM player does not know this.  This will generally create an advantage for the defender as the attacker will need to advance a little more cautiously in CM than he would need to advance in ASL.  Weapons effectiveness is one more concern.  It seems a little more difficult to "break" defenders in CM using rifle fire than it does in ASL which adds one more time consuming factor in favor of the defender.  I recommend an initial conversion of 4 CM turns for each ASL turn that would then be modified up or down after play testing the scenario until the proper "feel" of the scenario is finally achieved.  This is by far the simplest areas for play balancing and should be the most flexible part of your conversion.

Victory Conditions

Victory conditions are very difficult to convert since your ability to set victory conditions in CM are limited to three things: exit points, victory flags, and casualty VPs.  Some ASL scenarios have such complicated victory conditions that they are impossible to convert.  This is one area that the converter will need to use his own judgement since only extensive playtesting will show whether a scenario is balanced or not.  I have found that casualty victory points seems to be the dominant factor in CM and that the use of victory flags needs to be fairly liberal if they are to counter balance those VPs gained from casualties.  This is especially true for scenarios where the ASL victory conditions do not call for CVPs.  The only downside to the use of victory flags is that the defender must actually be occupying a location to gain points for it.  ASL does not require this continuous occupation for the defender to gain these VPs so this tends to disperse the defender if the flags are scattered over the length of a whole "board".

Converting scenarios from ASL to CM can be a lot of fun, and a good conversion can bring back fond memories to all ASL fanatics.  The challenge is making a conversion that is playable, true to the original, and something you can be proud of.  Careful consideration of all the factors involved in creating a conversion will allow you to achieve a playable, true conversion that even the hardest of hardcore ASL player will enjoy.

Special thanks to Jon "ASL Veteran" for allowing me to post this information to the site.