I should start by saying that I avoided diving into ASL for a long time. I strongly prefer low to moderate complexity wargames, and I already own several tactical WWII games like Combat Commander, Tide of Iron, Lock n’ Load Band of Heroes, Basic Advanced Tobruk, and Panzer Grenadier. Not only that, but I’m a rather obsessive person (as my 100+ game collection built in 18 months attests) and a full fledged ASL addiction can get pretty expensive. And finally, I already played regular Squad Leader way back in the day. So getting into ASL was pretty far down my list.
Well, a few weeks ago a fellow BGGer and long time ASLer offered to teach me Starter Kit #1 of ASL, and who am I to refuse a wargame? And, since its just rude not to read the rules ahead of time, I of course bought a copy (nice rationalization, yes?)
If you’re still with me after that lengthy preamble, and any part of my story strikes a chord (i.e. you are hesitating to get into the ASL Starter Kits) let me skip ahead and say, “Stop waiting! This is REAL gaming goodness!”
Components
I was pretty underwhelmed when I opened the box. The counters sport barely adequate simple black artwork on small half inch counters. I knew the maps were no longer mounted, but I expected something sturdier- perhaps like the maps in Twilight Struggle or Bitter Woods, 4th edition. Instead, these maps are pretty flimsy, though still tougher than paper maps. The rulebook was something of a bright spot, its color and chock full of graphic examples…something I didn’t expect but really appreciated.
In summary, these are basically old school wargame components, without today’s generally larger and more colorful counters. Not too impressive, but certainly serviceable.
Rules
Probably in an attempt to cater to an audience of non-wargamers, Starter Kit #1’s rules are written in a narrative, conversational style without the bullet pointed lists and extreme numeration commonly found in a wargame rulebook. This is BAD. While it may be easier to digest on the first read through, with rules this dense its much harder to find a specific rule when you have a question. And, I assume to keep their length down, the rules refrain from repeating anything, even when warranted. 52
For example, there is no summary of the benefits of a leader, rather a leader's benefits are scattered throughout the Rally, Movement, Fire, and Ambush rules, invariably buried in the middle of a paragraph.
In some places the rules were hard to digest, particularly the Rout rules. It seems like the designers tried to cram as much as they could into a fixed upper limit of 12 pages.
Thankfully, the rulebook is full of detailed examples for every major section of the rules. The examples really saved the day and make the game playable with no SL or ASL experience, though previous wargame experience is a huge help.
Mechanics
One interesting thing about ASL is that, while revolutionary when it first came out, it seems somewhat old fashioned today. Yet it still works very well. For example, the concept of a squad breaking under fire and hiding rather than simply becoming KIA is far more realistic, and was a revolutionary concept when SL was introduced. Nowadays its pretty standard for tactical level wargames.
Also, most tactical level games today opt for an impulse or chit activation mechanic to simulate the simultaneity of the events depicted. In Tide of Iron, for example, each player alternates moving three units. In both Combat Commander and Lock n’ Load, each player activates a single unit or leader. At a high level ASL is, by contrast, basically an I-Go, You-Go, turn sequence. But as usual, the devil is in the details, and ASL’s turn sequence is actually pretty complicated in order to model simultaneous actions. Each player gets several opportunities to react during the opponents’ turn. The sequence is as follows:
1) Rally Phase – Both sides try to rally ‘broken’ squads in hexes with a leader.
2) Prep Fire Phase – The ‘Attacker’ (the person whose turn it is) fires any of his units he wishes. Units that Prep Fire cannot move or fire later in the turn.
3) Movement – Units that did not prep fire can move. Critically, anytime a unit moves into a ‘Defending’ units’ Line of Sight (LOS), the Defender can stop the moving unit to take a shot (i.e. opportunity fire).
4) Defensive Fire – Defending units that haven’t already fired during movement can fire at stationary Attacking units. 100