Monday’s Guilty Pleasure: Squad Leader

April 25th, 2005

Filed under: General

Squad LeaderThe Holy Grail of war games when I was growing up was Squad Leader. Four game boards, hundreds of cardboard counters of varying colors and a rule book that made the Bible seem like a light read. Then there were the many expansions packs up to and including Advanced Squad Leader, a war game whose rules actually required a three-inch thick three-ring binder.

I think my friends and I managed to sit down and play Squad Leader all of three times, and actually finished two of those games. The game was fascinating and fun, but took a large amount of dedicated time to play (and frankly, being freshman in high school, we had just discovered girls). Still, Squad Leader sits proudly on my shelf, waiting for the day when I will find the time to play it again.

I’d love to say that playing Squad Leader and similar games led me to develop to a fine sense of strategy. I’d love to say it, but it wouldn’t be true. Despite years of war gaming I still can’t develop brilliant strategies or worthwhile (or even competent) tactics. Over the years I’ve discovered that cleverness just doesn’t work for me in this arena, so I’ve learned to be blunt: Hit ‘em hard and hit ‘em fast, that’s my rule (or if that doesn’t work: hide in Australia until everyone else is done fighting).

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6 Responses to “ Monday’s Guilty Pleasure: Squad Leader ”

  1. David Oakes
    April 26th, 2005 at 11:50 am

    Yep, that proves it – you are the Evil Twin. I limited my wargaming to Car Wars and The Fantasy Trip.

    You do know that there is Virtual Advanced Squad Leader, so you can play on-line, right?

    (Finding ways to make Evil waste even more time with a computer makes me the Good Twin.)

  2. H
    April 26th, 2005 at 12:14 pm

    Scott:

    Mag and I are old Avalon Hill fans. We spent some time dusting off the cobwebs on Advanced Squad Leader a couple of years back. The virtual ASL is an awesome invention. In the end though, the game is just too
    complicated for casual play and neither of us had the time to commit for anything more than casual play.

    Did you know that Curt Schilling is a tremendous fan of the game and actually runs the company that is licensed to produce it these days?

  3. David Campbell
    April 26th, 2005 at 5:21 pm

    I loved me the Squad Leader and its brother game Panzer Leader! …Although I probably never played a full game of either… I was seduced by the simple brutality of Axis and Allies.

  4. Mag
    April 26th, 2005 at 8:19 pm

    Squad Leader and Advanced Squad Leader sum up the best and worst of Avalon Hill. The original was great because it took wargames to a new level of complexity (not counting SPI’s obscene Campaign for North Africa, which, I am convinced, was a joke taken too far) and was relatively playable.

    While I have a few fond memories of playing Squad Leader, Advanced Squad Leader is a different beast. It’s full of great ideas and interesting scenarios, but when push comes to shove, the game is too much like work to be fun, at least for me. There’s something wrong with a game that requires at least one binder for the rules, a complete storage system (says the guy with a bunch of comics boxes around the house), thread, tweezers to move stacks of counters, and the ability to sit still for six or seven hours. ASL is one of those things that is actually better to read, talk, and think about rather than actually playing it.

    And, given all that, virtual ASL is an amazing creation. Dedicated hobbyists, those ASLers.

  5. Simon Millar
    January 25th, 2007 at 6:59 pm

    For years I had a copy of ASL sitting on my shelf then after splitting with my long term partner I decide to learn how to play it. It is difficult to learn to say the least and it was by joining a club that I trully began to master the rules, but what a game. I am now totally addicted and rarely play anything else. There is enough depth in ASL to last a lifetime plus one you get over the initial hurdles it is just brilliant to play. Now with starter kits being published its is now also realivily easy to learn.

  6. Craig
    June 14th, 2009 at 11:33 pm

    ASL is fantastic. Period.

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