Comments on: Monday’s Guilty Pleasure: Squad Leader

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 04:33:09 +0000

ASL is fantastic. Period.

By: Simon Millar

Simon Millar — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:59:53 +0000

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.

By: Mag

Mag — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 01:19:25 +0000

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.

By: David Campbell

David Campbell — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 22:21:58 +0000

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.

By: H

Tue, 26 Apr 2005 17:14:02 +0000

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?

By: David Oakes

David Oakes — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:50:30 +0000

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.)