Advanced Squad Leader
Advanced Squad Leader is a tactical-level board wargame, originally marketed by Avalon Hill Games, that simulates actions of squad sized units in World War II. It is a detailed game system for two or more players. Components include the ASL Rulebook and various games called modules. ASL modules provide the standard equipment for playing ASL, including geomorphic mapboards and counters. The mapboards are divided into hexagons to regulate fire and movement, and depict generic terrain that can represent different historical locations. The counters are cardboard pieces that depict squads of soldiers, crews, individual leaders, support weapons, heavy weapons, and vehicles.
Combined with the sales of the original Squad Leader, Advanced Squad Leader sold over 1 million copies by 1997.
Introduction
Fifteen core modules provide representations of nearly every troop type, vehicle, and weapon to see combat action from any nationality involved in World War II. Each module comes with 6 to 20 researched scenarios depicting historical battles. These scenarios are printed on card stock with specifications of game length, map board configuration, counters involved, special rules for the conditions of the particular battle such as weather, and victory conditions. In addition to the scenarios published in the modules, there are numerous other sources for scenarios, both official and unofficial. There is also a detailed set of instructions in the ASL Rulebook for Design Your Own scenarios based on a point-purchase system.Additional variations on ASL include Deluxe ASL, which was a short-lived experiment in fusing miniature wargaming with ASL; Historical ASL, which used historically accurate maps, usually in a campaign setting where the outcome of one scenario affected the setup of following scenarios; Solitaire ASL with many rules changes for fog of war and command to enhance solitaire play; and the ASL Starter Kits, a series of stand-alone introductory kits.
The game was first published by Avalon Hill in 1985 as a successor to the award-winning Squad Leader series, on which the game is based and from which the rules and components were directly developed. By the time the fourth and final installment of Squad Leader debuted, there were four separate rulebooks in existence with poorly integrated and sometimes contradictory rules. For example, U.S. forces had lower morale and were therefore disadvantaged by the use of morale ratings to determine the ability to push ordnance through snow or mud, even though there is no real reason for morale to affect such an attempt. It was clear that the system had grown in ways never dreamed of in 1977; large amounts of "nutmail" to Avalon Hill convinced the developers of the need to streamline the rules.
ASL
Avalon Hill had originally promised a new rulebook streamlining procedures, eliminating redundancies, and possibly revising the "To Hit/To Kill" system used to simulate armor protection and penetration in tank combat. Instead, by the time it debuted, Advanced Squad Leader had become a complete replacement of the games of the original SL series. As an example, the original SL has only twelve different tank and assault gun types, and only five different armor ratings, from -2 to +2. By contrast, ASL has separate counters for 56 different types of tanks and assault guns for the Germans alone, with armor values from 0 to 26, based on actual thickness and degree of slope. Beyond Valor includes 99 separate German vehicles simulated in the game, including halftracks, armored cars, anti-aircraft vehicles, and soft skins.Many fans of the original Squad Leader game who had looked forward to improvements to the system with the release of Advanced Squad Leader were taken aback by the need to replace the four modules they had bought; only the map boards of the earlier series were compatible with the new game.
The new game requires at least two products, the [|Advanced Squad Leader Rulebook] and an initial module, either Beyond Valor, which contains a brand new counter mix for the German, Russian and Finnish armies, as well as all necessary system counters, or else Paratrooper, which contains a limited counter mix for system markers, US paratrooper units and their German opponents in Normandy. Either initial module also requires ownership of boards from SL in order to play the included scenarios.
The new game does not feature programmed instruction, instead of requiring a thorough reading of at least four chapters of the ASL Rulebook to play a game with ordnance and/or vehicles in it. Even the most basic ASL components were no longer introductory in nature, although Paratrooper masqueraded as such. . Avalon Hill actually suggested that anyone wishing to play ASL also purchase the original Squad Leader and gain experience with that system first, and kept the original SL and three gamettes in print. The necessity of owning boards from these modules in order to play printed scenarios in the core modules of ASL may also have been a factor in this decision. So while ASL was intended to replace SL, there was a certain ambiguity for many years about the status of SL's replacement; the original game was still necessary as a stepping stone to learning ASL, and a source for needed map boards.
ASL was the first of Avalon Hill's 'advanced' games.
In 1998 Monarch Avalon, Inc. sold its entire line of games to Hasbro. On January 15, 1999, Multi-Man Publishing, LLC announced an exclusive association with Hasbro, Inc. "to develop, produce, and distribute games and other products for Avalon Hill's Advanced Squad Leader game system." MMP is a gaming company founded in 1994 by Perry Cocke and Brian Youse, and later co-partner Curt Schilling, to preserve ASL and other Avalon Hill games. Multi-Man Publishing made many changes to the new system; a decision not to reprint the earlier Squad Leader games resulted in reorganization and 2nd editions of many ASL core modules in order to include boards from the earlier games, necessary for play of the printed scenarios in those core modules.
Playtester Jon Mishcon described the new game rather more succinctly in Volume 21, Number 5 of The General Magazine, in relation to Squad Leader; he wrote that the game was "Closely akin to SL but NOT the same." ASL took longer to play, punished use of "cheats" that worked in the old game system, and emphasized realism over playability. He clarified that while playability had in many cases increased with the organization of the new rules, there were still many "special" circumstances that called for special rules. The new rules did, however, have a very strong systemic approach whereby, in his words, you could
In that same issue of The General, Don Greenwood - developer of ASL and also editor of the magazine - responded to harsh criticism by consumers who felt that the redesign of the system was a cash-grab, or worse, a betrayal.
Despite the price tag and the expensive lists of prerequisites for each new module, the game system caught on and new modules continued to be produced twenty-five years after the original release - joining Dungeons & Dragons and Star Fleet Battles as one of what were known as "The Big Three" games of the hobbyist game industry. A large and active worldwide hobby community thrives around ASL, including tournaments, community websites, clubs, and fanzines. An active trading and auction community enables participants to buy and sell used ASL modules. ASL can be played over the Internet using a system called Virtual Advanced Squad Leader, using the "Vassal" game engine designed by Rodney Kinney. This is a Java-based application that allows for real-time input by one or more participants/observers who can manipulate graphical representations of map boards and counters, including random dice rolls, LOS checking, chart consultation and all the necessary administrative tasks to play a full game of ASL.
A number of third-party developers also continue to publish modules and scenarios for ASL.
ASL rulebook
The ASL Rulebook was reformatted away from the traditional Avalon Hill format used in their smaller games. The ASL Rulebook was modeled after Amarillo Design Bureau's Star Fleet Battles rulebook, a format that better supported the "massive" game that ASL had become. Based on military field manuals, the rule book was contained in a three-ring binder. Each chapter was color-coded along the top of the page, with brightly colored section dividers of heavy cardboard stock reproducing charts and diagrams associated with that chapter. Errata would be provided on a regular basis, and coupons in the back of the rulebook could be exchanged by mail for the initial updates to the rulebook. The errata would come in the form of altered pages, with page numbers annotated with the date of any changes; old pages were simply removed from the binder and discarded and the new page inserted. The two largest updates were the '87 and '89 sections that came with many pages. The first edition rules shipped with Chapter A, B, C, D, H, J, and N. Chapter N was a visual inventory of all game pieces included in Beyond Valor and several follow up modules but was not fully supported. While early modules did contain the appropriate Chapter N pages, some modules did not have the pages included immediately. HASL modules did not have associated Chapter N pages, and neither did Doomed Battalions.The rules themselves were heavily streamlined, as promised, though many more procedures were introduced to the game, increasing complexity and playing time. The modelling of infantry weapons was overhauled to prevent unrealistic tactics, and machineguns and ordnance were given variable rates of fire. Squads equipped only with small arms now had many options to reflect weapons types; semi-automatic and automatic weapons could be simulated with rules for Spraying Fire or Assault Fire, for example.
Above all, the use of standardized abbreviations and jargon made the rules very technical in outlook; this language is known as "legalese" and is in contrast to more "conversational" types of rules. The debate of the merits of both approaches went as far back as the original Squad Leader rulebook written by John Hill and Don Greenwood. ASL came down firmly on the side of "legalese", though not coincidentally Don Greenwood was the driving force behind ASL with John Hill having moved on to other projects after the original SL.
A 2nd Edition Rulebook was introduced by Multi-Man Publishing in early 2001, combining all previous errata and including updates to Chapters A, B, C, D, H, and J as well as Chapter E and Chapter K Days 1-8, Pegasus Bridge HASL Module and ASL Journal #2 ).
All Historical ASL Module rules associated with Historical Study Modules and the ASL Journal were incorporated into a new Chapter Z.
Chapter N is no longer supported in the 2nd Edition ASL Rulebook, and all Chapter N pages have been deleted from reprinted modules. The new rulebook also includes material not covered in any previous issue of errata, making ownership of the 2nd Edition essential for compatibility with new products or other players who use the 2nd Edition. The 2nd Edition does reflect most, but not all, previous changes to the rules via an issue of replacement pages. There are also cosmetic differences such as larger typeface and improved layout.