Happiness is not suffering a -2 for moving in the open

Submitted by Eric Daniel

In 1980, for the colossal sum of $25, I acquired the Holy Grail of board games –

Squad Leader.

For those not in the know, SL, developed by the now defunct Avalon Hill Game Company, came out in 1977 as a turn-based WWII infantry board game played on geomorphic boards with cardboard counters representing individual squads, tanks, leaders, and support weapons.

SL, and its successor Advanced Squad Leader, set the standard for accuracy and detail.  Weather, morale, seasons, troop quality, equipment reliability, fatigue, all are addressed.  There was mud, there were hills and cliffs, there was smoke, white phosphorus, barbed wire, snipers, paratroopers, foxholes and trenches, there were even donkeys and reindeer.  If it was in the war, it was in the game.

Squad Leader wasn’t a game you played, it was a game you lived.  To this day, I still get panic attacks waiting for Turn 1 of “The Tractor Works.”  Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers had nothing on that 10-3 harbinger of doom, Oberst Grup and his platoon of flamethrower and demo-charge packing 8-3-8 engineers.

The original SL evolved, through three expansion games, to encompass all of the major Axis and Allied powers as well as most of the terrain types.  What SL didn’t address Advanced Squad Leader did when it came out in 1985.  With ASL the rules got more advanced, the counters got more accurate, and the style of play completely changed (the only things that transferred from SL to ASL were the boards and the dice 9though you now needed four dice instead of two.)  ASL literally addresses everything.  ALL Axis and Allied major and minor powers (Finns, Gurkhas, Bulgarians and Belgians, Vichy and Free French, as well as conscripts, guerrillas, Marquis and the Home Guard, and finally, the Japanese and Chinese and U.S. Marines (though not a different race, per se., they were missing from the original SL.))

ASL was not a game for the timid or the faint of heart.  Its rules were lengthy and complex and you had to understand THEM ALL in order to play the game effectively.  Once mastered though, these rules made for a very exciting and challenging game (to date, my favorite scenario is “Climax at Nijmegen Bridge.”  Though one of the original GI. Anvil of Victory scenarios, it has always been a nail-biting bloodbath and I never pass up an opportunity to play it.)

Unfortunately, like all good things, SL went out of production when Avalon Hill was bought out by Hasbro in the late 90’s.  ASL’s death was short lived, however, as production rights for all things Squad Leader were acquired by Major League pitcher and ASL fanatic, Curt Schilling, who began reintroducing old material and publishing new under his production company, Multi-Man Publishing.

Get Advanced Squad Leader here

Comments

[Michael Johnson]

I grew up playing SL and ASL in the 80's! I still have the boxes and modules around somewhere. Thanks for the walk down memory lane. Now I have the urge to play. :)

[Eric Daniel]

To be perfectly honest, no sooner had I posted this article than I went out and ordered a new copy of the 2nd Edition ASL rules from MMP.

[bigfoot]

It may be 20 years, but I remember Lt. Stahler (9-2) as if he were an old friend.

Computer wargaming ruined ASL for me. Specifically, the ability to implement the Fog of War. Total battlefield awareness--i.e. seeing the German reconnaissance team in the level 1 building BEHIND the level 2 building because it's the only way the German player can keep track of his units--I just can't go back to that.

Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far was the best ASL experience I've ever found in a computer.

Anyone know if there any high-quality scans of the maps online anywhere. I'd love-love-love to use them as background pics.

[John Meyers]

If you're a bit taken back by the size of the full ASL rules, you can get the new starter kits. They are much smaller rules wise than full ASL. Check it out at MMPs site: http://www.multimanpublishing.com.

John

[Steve Eckhart]

Bigfoot,

We're now able to play ASL online against human opponents using a program called Virtual ASL (VASL). Check it out at www.VASL.org. You can download all of the maps there.

[Skye]

ASL is still played on a large scale and has a wide range of followers. New ASL products (most 3rd party) are releases on a monthly basis these days. In the computer age it is also possible to play face-2-face on a digital version of the game (called VASL) so you can always find an opponent. See http://www.cardboardwarriors.com/ if you like keeping an eye on how the ASL hobby develops.

[Craig]

I totally agree with you, bigfoot, on the fog of war thing, as well as Close Combat. It takes the careful balancing of all of those important variables and adds the slow "calm before the storm" as well as intense battles. An amazing game that I still play to this day.

Playing it when your forces can barely hold on, and using a sniper EXTRA tactfully to force a truce, is the greatest thing in life.

[Badfrog]

I played from high school through college. Stopped playing 20 years ago, but I still have two of the game boxes in my library. It influenced me to join the military, and I have no regrets. Fond memories.

[Bruce]

All the Avalon Hill games were fantastic two good ones were "Stalingrad" and "Kingmaker"
In Stalingrad you were either
Hitler or Stalin and the cool thing was the layout forced you to play the game as it was IE;
Hitler started out with overwhelming force(Lots O' Armor) but he got less reinforcements as time progressed Stalin started out with few units (but as rails brought reinforcements west from Siberia He could do more and more. The Hitler Player could win if He went "Blitzkreig" But The Stalin player could win if he played a"Waiting Game"
Kingmaker was a game about "the War of the Roses"(15th century England)rich Factions
used weak Royals as game pieces to attain power for themselves(5 royal pieces) so 5 factions are possible (As long as you can assassinate all royals who are before you in the line of succession)