How (and Why) I Did Get Back to Squad Leader

 

If 2019 marked my return to boardgaming, 2020 marked a rendez-vous with my old friend Advanced Squad Leader (ASL). The image above is a photo of my venerable copy of the binder book acquired in the late 80s to the Avalon Hill Game Company incarnation pre-Hasbro.

I have had a sort of a love-hate relationship with this game over the yeas. Love, because I've always been attracted by tactical games in a Second World War context. Actually my very first wargame was Panzerblitz in 1980, and naturally I moved to the original Squad Leader (SL) system as soon as it was released.

Hate because, after gradually learning the different original SL modules, I went into shock with the ASL binder book: how on earth I was supposed to play a game whose rules book was closer to lawyer's manual than a typical wargame? 

Over time I decided to give up on the system; not much later, I discovered the world of miniature wargaming, first fantasy related games (Warhammer Fantasy), followed by Ancients, Napoleonics and finally Second World War.   Boardgames were abandoned and my hobby time was since then dedicated to researching, painting and collecting miniatures. 

So how and why the return? The how was simple: a dedicated group or boardgamers at the club invited me to join a Holland ´44 game last year and I got immediately hooked to it. The why even simpler: being Market Garden one of my favourite periods, I realized that boardgames were a superior and more efficient means to explore the campaign.

The COVID arrival and the long-enforced lockdown (from March to June) made the rest: with the club shutting down sine die and the impossibility of playing miniature games, my boardgame group planned a busy calendar of weekly VASSAL games, extending from Friday evenings to Sunday afternoons.

Longing for playing some tactical games, one of the members introduced us to ASL around May and almost eight months later I have become a proficient player of the game. True, I have invested a lot of time in playing the game (the only realistic way to learn the rules). But believe me if I tell you,  the monster is less fearsome that it may look at first glance, juts by planning a little bit your steps into the game and setting some realistic targets.

What follows are some of my personal lessons learnt, shared now with all of you potentially interested in the game.

1.  Find a sherpa

 ASL is one of the most popular wargames in the planet. Try finding someone in your gaming circle that already plays the game and train with him. For many of ASLers this game is like a religion and attracting new souls to the congregation is like a spiritual mission, they will never reject your call for help.

If you are unlucky enough to find a ASLers near you, then find online assistance in one of the many hundreds of ASL forums on Internet. There you'll find all kinds of support and advice for newbies.

2. Watch videos

Another silly advice. Browse YouTube and find introductory videos to the system. I cannot recommend any in English unfortunately because I was lucky enough to have a long series of introductory materials by one of Spain's most active and reputed wargame youtubers (Agustí Barrio). But I'm sure there are similar characters in every single language and specially in English.

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