Customer Emails (click here for a large list of emails):

"I am very impressed by number and the quality of the components of my newly arrived Advanced Tobruk. The large hexes are superb, the overlays are gorgeous."

"Thanks for the extra map - in the local club it will help to bring rookies to PTO by playing a Peleliu scenario with your counters while the elders will compete on the same with Puller, the CH art and so on, in order to comparate the two sessions..."

"Ray, this is yet another example of why your Friday emailers are totally worth my effort in trying to get. . . because they are a fantastic read - with interesting history and great humor - let alone all the product info, details, offers, and answers to questions I had about shipping schedules! Once again, I really appreciate you sending this to me directly."

Critical Hit is the proud publisher of the first edition of Bob Murphy's NO BETTER PLACE TO DIE, the story of the Battle of La Fiere. Bob is gone but the words and story of this true American hero, confirmed to be the 'first man in' on D-Day, live on. The contest for the crucial Merderet River crossing following the 82nd Airborne's D-Day paradrop is now being made into a movie and Bob was an important consultant in the making of the ATS title AGAINST ALL ODDS.

Click HERE for the Bob Murphy interview - conducted while he was assisting the work on the La Fiere module.

In our 29th year of publishing YOUR labors of love and counting! Founded in 1994, Critical Hit coined the phrase "Enthusiast Media" to describe the firm's approach to bringing together the publisher and the hobbyist/designer via voluntary submissions in a unique method of cooperation that strips away everything but a mutual effort to bring labors of love to the fore. This approach has proven successful in the form of many tactical-level wargames in print, and many more currently being prepared for publication.

The ADVANCED TOBRUK SYSTEM (ATS) was launched in 2002 following the nomination of ADVANCED TOBRUK for "Board Wargame of the Year" that year. Since then, the system has undergone development with the faithful assistance of a group of stalwarts known as 'the Battalion' and after a period of growth, things settled into a realistic depiction of tactical-level action that allows you to depict almost anything without the rules overhead of competing systems. That said. ATS is for smart people, and requires commitment. It is NOT a 16-page system that you can learn overnight and tire of quickly. Nor does it require the need for a rules lawyer approach The aim is that place known as a SWEET SPOT and based on the support for the system, as incarnated in the ATS RULEBOOK 2014 - the work is there, while noting our aim is to always seek to improve.

DO NOT BE FRIGHTENED nor doubt your intellectual horsepower! Unlike competing systems that present substantial rules overhead, the core systems of ATS can be learned in minutes. And this domain was launched in 2019 to support the system as it enters its third decade of publication, with the end of its second beckconing on the horizon.

The newcomer to ATS will find more historical battlefield-based modules than any competing system - READY AND WAITING NOW for your personal discovery.

During 2018 a new presentation of OVERHEAD color counters was created for ATS. On those sheets are also included a new collection of the finest renditions of the Light Weapons to date, see above for some samples.

The use of OVR counters is OPT., along the same lines as the material found in the OPTIONAL RULES APPENDIX. The use of GF-Range-Morale is provided on the Personnel counters in the longstanding 'Z Read' format - upper left > upper right > lower left.

The publishers are aware that an elite cadre of board gamers embraces change - and that some are mildly allergic to any change at all. We get it, and there are no plans to eliminate the silhouettes found in most ATS counters. That said, there are upcoming FACING rules that will make for the most realistic presentation of the ability of the combat infantryman to see, and be seen, on the tactical-level battlefield. Needless to say, these rules will require a Personnal counter that has the ability to depict a covered arc - noting that the suggestion by some that the 'tops of their heads' are used as a facing - that latter just too incongruous for the overhead presentation.

Another point on the OVR presentation - ALL other system counters use overhead views, so one can peruse their game battlefield in a manner similar to Miniatures. The OVR Personnel presentation brings the entire system into ONE perspective: Overhead views. In color, of course, with detailed blueprint-sytle lineart.

>> VIRTUAL ATS 3.11 HAS BEEN DEPLOYED to owners of the ATS RULEBOOK 2014 (the latest edition > a year has been given for adoption) and the established user-base is: 1) TRUE BLUE ATS SUPPORTERS; 2) About to get VATS 3.11 and rulebook updates FREE -- via email. We need YOU to support YOUR system - and that cannot be accomplished without owning the current rulebook. Over a decade in the works > if you are holding out ... it is TIME. Needless to say > but saying it ... older versions of VATS, extensions, and e-books have been provided, literally, by the thousands ... we've done our part and will be stepping up the support -- check your In Box in the next 2-3 days. VATS 3.11 and new editions will be available to owners of the ATS Rulebook 2014 and subsequent editions as an additional benefit > in addition to the FREE ATS E Rulebook you also receive with the printed edition, a $69.95 value ...

In 2006 the popular Japanese wargame magazine COMMAND published ATS Basic Game II, a system best-seller, in a Japanese language edition. It's popularity paved the way for a fully licensed edition of ADVANCED TOBRUK in that country.
 

The ATS RULEBOOK 2014 has been a strong seller and is only available direct from our site. In this way, the entire user base is known, can be reached at any time with 100% 'radio communications' taking place.

It is hard to believe that the launch of the ADVANCED TOBRUK SYSTEM took place nearly 18 years ago, in 2002. It is said "time flies", but in the case of ATS, it wheels, half-tracks, and clanks with fully tracked AFVs prowling the battlefields of World War II and beyond.

We are taking feedback for a new, 15th Anniversary Edition of the ATS Rulebook NOW. Rest assured, like the currrent edition, the new one will be 100% backwards compatible. And with a full connection to the user base, we can reach one and all with a special offer to get the new rulebook - and of course, your ownership rights will include E RULES and play aids.

This is a call to arms, for any and all feedback, nothing too minor, for the upcoming new ATS Rulebook We have a completely controlled established user base for this, a best selling publication here > since it has ONLY been sold direct. So, as the new book will be 100% backwards compatible with past titles, and we can reach EACH and every member of the user base – look for a special roll out that will include Electronic Edition materials, the works.

But that’s not going to happen until we exhaust every opportunity to exhort YOU, the ATS rules owner, to pick any nits, pipe up, and let your voice be heard. Around here, no one speaks “from the mount” now or ever – we’re a blue collar shop, spent years rolling up sleeves, inking up and repairing our own presses > YOUR influence counts, use it.

Short version: We’d love to hear from you!

If you're looking for 3000 of your fellow hobbyists and what is widely recognized in wargame circles as the friendliest and most informative message board on the internet you can sign up for the CH Message Board. It's a free service provided by Critical Hit and has attracted over 100,000 posts to date and counting.

PLEASE NOTE: You will need to register for a free membership to be able to access the CHMB.

 Three years and multiple research trips to Normandy in the making, OMAHA EAST WEST MONSTER breaks all limits and is shipping RIGHT NOW. It depicts the landings on ALL of Omaha Beach in unprecedented detail and scope at this scale.

OMAHA EAST WEST MONSTER includes all NEW art created especially for this game as well as American soldier types never before used. Each counter is highly detailed and drawn by renowned military artist Alan Archambault and include Shore Fire Control Party personnel, Wire Cutting Teams, Medics, Bazooka Teams, and an expanded command structure with counters depicting officers such as Norman 'Dutch' Cota down to individual NCOs.

Not only are the soldiers treated to new art. A complete collection of new landing craft counters are provided for LCVP, LCA, and LCM use the standard vehicle counter while larger ships, including LCI(L), the destroyer Frankford, and LCTs, use new watercraft counters.

The defenders of Hitler's Fortress Europa are depicted in ultimate detail. Ground-breaking research conducted for this game places each and every weapon found in Widerstandsnester (Resistance Nest) Wn65 through Wn 73 in its exact location. New emplacement counters were created depicting various casemate types, with their unique fields-of-fire. Also included are counters for Tobruks, open flak platforms, and Panzerstellung, the latter coupled with accurate turret counters which can be realistically pivoted during play. You also receive the 5cm pedestal gun, Goliath counters, and 320mm Wurfgerat rockets, all part of the Omaha Beach defensive network.

At the heart of each and every ASLComp release is a historical map and OMAHA MONSTER is no exception. The game includes the largest historical map published in any system release to date. Measuring a whopping 12 FEET long by three feet wide, the detail included will provide hours of enjoyment before the first game piece is placed. It's all there on the map, Belgian Gates, anti-tank walls and ditches, minefields, trench networks, hedgerows, paths, the Chateau de Vermicel, Vierville church, St. Laurent sur Mer, and of course the infamous seawall. Each and every detail is faithfully recreated at this scale.