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94-732: Squad Leader is a tactical level board war game originally published by Avalon Hill in 1977. It was designed by John Hill and simulates on infantry combat in Europe during World War II . One of the most complex war games of its time, Squad Leader is the natural extension of the trend towards greater realism (and hence complexity) initiated by several earlier games, including Avalon Hill's own PanzerBlitz and Panzer Leader . Those two earlier games were slightly larger in scope, with counters representing platoons and map hexes measuring 250 metres across, compared to Squad Leader's 40 meter hexes and squad sized units. The original Squad Leader

188-627: A "design your own" system where forces are selected by drawing playing cards from a standard 52 card deck and comparing the result to a table where different forces were described. There is also a point purchase system for "buying" opposing forces. New scenarios were published in Avalon Hill's gaming magazine, The General , as well as additional scenario packs (the rogue scenarios, for example, see below). Third parties also produced scores of SL scenarios. Squad Leader attempted to simulate many types of battlefield phenomena not addressed before in

282-545: A capacity by the government. He believes that since a battle is primarily a clash of technology, it can be measured. Proving ground data is his bible. Armor actions can be studied by careful study of "projectile penetration" vs. armor....The artist responds that this shell vs. armor test does not always hold true in the battlefield environment...The artist concludes...that when shell hits armor, anything (such as hits on vision ports, slung equipment, oblique angles, variable metal quality of cast armor, etc.) can happen and that only

376-427: A complete replacement of the games of the original SL series. Some fans were much taken aback by the need to replace the four modules they had spent so much money on; only the mapboards of the earlier series would be compatible (indeed, necessary) to play the new games. Squad Leader alone has 520 + 1 ⁄ 2 -inch (1,322 cm) counters and 192 + 5 ⁄ 8 -inch (489 cm) counters rendered obsolete by

470-410: A distinctly less dynamic counter art). Many AFVs had to be retrofitted with new parameters, but without counters (the player had to remember which changes applied to which vehicle). Many of the parameters chosen for US components proved to be controversial. The outcome was that GI was a very disorganized game, difficult to play "correctly". Trying to synthesize all the many rules into a coherent whole

564-482: A flame weapon, a grenade, a machine gun, or an artillery shell, there could only be three outcomes; the squad would be eliminated by killing or wounding the men in it; the squad would be "discomfited" to some degree (i.e. they must check for morale - if they fail they run for cover until rallied by a leader, and if they fail a second morale roll while "broken" the counter is removed as the men are assumed to have run away); or there would be no effect. Using this principle, he

658-404: A leader fails a morale check the squads stacked with him must check for morale a second time. Most scenarios give each player, generally speaking, enough simulated men to make up a company, though order of battle is not precise and most scenarios only give a flavor of what the real life battles were like rather than a direct simulation. One aspect of the game that adds greatly to its popularity are

752-456: 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. Future modules also make use of mapboards previously released only with SL. The new game does not feature Programmed Instruction, requiring a thorough reading of at least four chapters of

846-730: A little opportunity fire thrown in. In situations like the Battle of Kursk in Panzer Blitz confronting the enemy meant possible extinction. The hardest part to accept was the situation where three German tanks block a pass and cannot be seen by the T-34s on their combat phase. On the Russian move they move up to the Mark IVs and have to stop. The T-34 move might have taken only a two-hex advance (500 metres) and then they idle their engines for

940-680: A major publishing event greater than any of the previous gamette releases." Greenwood's prediction was correct as far as time frame; in 1985 the Advanced Squad Leader system debuted. Greenwood had stated the following in the Introduction to the GI: Anvil of Victory rulebook: During the past two years in which G.I. has been under design, I have been simultaneously making copious notes for the project which must ultimately follow it: THE ADVANCED SQUAD LEADER RULEBOOK. Don't let

1034-516: A misnomer, as in most ways the player assumes the role of a company commander (i.e. gives orders to platoons and squads). The squad leaders in Squad Leader are actually "factored in" to the squad counters, and only exceptional leaders - officers and NCOs - are portrayed separately, by their own counters. Leaders can exert a favorable influence on the firing of support weapons, or the morale rolls of squads with whom they are stacked, although if

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1128-642: A modern tactical game in MBT , only superficially similar to Squad Leader as it simulated a different era of tactical combat. Another game, IDF , appeared in 1993 that used the same rules as MBT, changing the setting from a fictional World War Three in Germany to the Middle East and the Arab–Israeli conflicts. Panzer Command by Victory Games in 1984 tried to address some of the problems Bird had mentioned in

1222-504: A modern urban setting. No one could play them if they had to get any plowing done." Squad Leader was chosen for inclusion in the 2007 book Hobby Games: The 100 Best . Game designer Ray Winninger explained: "Hill's design recreates World War II combat in the same way that a great caricaturist recreates a face — by exaggerating the important bits and abstracting everything else. Many of the game's individual concepts are decidedly 'unrealistic.' Players possess almost omniscient knowledge of

1316-403: A modern version may be in the offing, other sources suggest more Historical Advanced Squad Leader modules will be the future direction. The long rumoured World War I expansion module appears to have been cancelled, however it may eventually be produced by a third-party manufacturer. Critical Hit has however recently produced several unofficial expansion modules, introducing the system to cover

1410-716: A most generalized statement of probability can be made. Nonetheless, while Squad Leader progressed into Advanced Squad Leader (" ASL ") in 1985, other titles also appeared, none of whom managed to gain the popularity that Squad Leader/ASL had gained. Perhaps the downturn in the wargaming industry is also to blame for that, as videogame consoles and computer games became more sophisticated and offered greater appeal than previously to those who enjoyed board wargaming as an intellectual challenge. West End Games introduced Eastern Front Tank Leader (also designed by John Hill) in 1986, followed by Western Front Tank Leader in 1987 and Desert Steel in 1989. The same year, Avalon Hill offered up

1504-452: A needlessly complex combat system, leadership rules that would be more appropriate for 18th Century combat and ridiculously simplistic casualty rules...The wargame industry has basically ignored the more accurate portrayal of company level combat in S&;D for the more glamorous version portrayed in Squad Leader . Even the developers of Squad Leader admitted that "our troops assault with

1598-758: A rule whereby American troops were not subject to "Desperation Morale" penalties, for example, while GI dispensed with this.) And the Italian forces promised as early as autumn 1979 did not materialize (indeed, would not, until the Hollow Legions module for Advanced Squad Leader was released in 1989.) Nonetheless, the game system did go forward in many ways; according to James Collier in his history of Squad Leader printed in Issue 34 of The Grenadier : Like (Crescendo of Doom) before it, GI brought mostly rules changes, including some rather drastic revisions of some of

1692-445: A solitaire version, and hundreds of third party add-ons and variants. Squad Leader , released in 1977, used a semi-simultaneous system as well, focusing on infantry combat. The physical components for the game were unmatched in terms of quality, using full color painted mapboards on rigid mountings that had the added advantage of being geomorphic. As the Squad Leader game system grew and more boards were added, they could be set up in

1786-443: A source for needed mapboards. However, the original Squad Leader went out of print after Hasbro purchased Avalon Hill . Nonetheless, there are still many aficionadoes of the original SL system, who prefer the simplicity of the earlier design to its much more complicated offspring. There are also projects similar to Virtual Advanced Squad Leader (VASL) for the original game system, which allow for live online play of Squad Leader in

1880-400: A tactical board game, and enjoyed a cosmetic treatment unmatched then and afterwards. Some of these strengths include: Some of the weaknesses that keep Squad Leader from being a true simulation of the decisions that a World War II commander would make are well known and attempts have been made to address them; others were simply ignored for the sake of "playability". Some of these include

1974-679: A tenacity that would make Kelly's Heroes proud." The Tobruk game released by Avalon Hill prior to Squad Leader got little support from gamers or AH. "With the exception of a few articles and scenarios in The General , there was never a follow-on game or expansion product for Tobruk enthusiasts. We now have the benefit of hindsight to point to the years between the release of Squad Leader and its progeny Cross of Iron through GI: Anvil of Victory represented AH's commitment to tactical-level World War II gaming. As most readers are aware, that series led to ASL, followed by its own progeny over

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2068-438: A variety of configurations and used to represent a wide array of units, as the infantry counters were generic and did not portray specific units. Some innovative rules for such things as leadership and "penetrating fire" (to simulate the ability of automatic weapons on the battlefield to engage more than just one target) were introduced. Some observers felt Squad Leader was too romantic a view of infantry combat. Bird felt that

2162-457: A virtual environment, like Virtual Squad Leader (VSQL) for the VASAL game engine. At least one programmer is working on an Artificial Intelligence (or AI ) for the virtual version of SL. As home publishing software and hardware get more sophisticated, it is possible to produce high quality "unofficial" game components from scenario cards to custom sized mapboard to personalized leader counters. In

2256-432: A weapon's value, if the soldier wielding it has confidence in his handling of the weapon and its overall effectiveness, his performance will be greatly enhanced. He subscribes to the opinion in vogue these days in battlefield research that technical differences of weapons is not nearly as important as the psychological perception of the individual using the weapon... Hock is the scientist and indeed has been employed in such

2350-426: Is determined by sighting between the dots in the center of each hex. String can be used to check LOS, and the printed terrain depictions on the photo-realistic maps are used to determine blockages (hexes are not considered automatically filled by terrain therein). These LOS rules were innovative for board games when introduced in the 1970s. The original game contains mapboards mounted on heavy durable cardboard, which

2444-620: Is generally accepted as the first true miniatures game. Commercially available miniatures, however, only became popular at the start of the 20th century. Jane's published several sets of rules for naval games in the early to mid-20th century. The number of land-based tactical miniatures games produced for the commercial market increased exponentially following the Second World War as interest in that conflict and disposable income increased. The genesis of tactical board wargaming goes back to 1969. Up until that time, wargaming—which in

2538-437: Is not unplayably long and does reward the time spent learning the rules. It seems to be that rare bird: an instant success with staying power." R. B. McArthur for Washingtonian in 1980 said that "It is incredible that anyone actually plays these monsters, but the use of programmed rules lets the player start Squad Leader, for instance, by reading seven pages and then working his way up. Certainly such games could exist only in

2632-508: Is probable that privately made scenarios number in the hundreds if not thousands. Avalon Hill also released "official" additions to the Squad Leader system. Three sets of "official" scenarios were released by Avalon Hill directly. Series 100 was designed for Cross of Iron and released Series in 1979, consisting of ten new scenarios designed by Courtney Allen (SL playtester and designer of Storm Over Arnhem). Series 200 (scenarios 201-210)

2726-408: Is the artistic approach akin to the impressionistic school of painting where subjects are abstracted until the overall effect on the viewer is such that the artist can will his impressions upon the viewer. Hence, an artistic designer studies history with concern for the overall battlefield environment and how each specific weapon relates to it, as opposed to proving ground statistics. Regardless of

2820-452: Is virtually unique among WWII board games by being a game in evolution. The succeeding gamettes have not been mere additions to the original, but instead have introduced substantial revisions to the original parameters. This is even more true with GI where the bulk of both components and rules represent revisions rather than new material. There are, for example, only 300 more counters than provided with CRESCENDO OF DOOM , and well over half

2914-491: The ASL Rulebook in order to play a game with ordnance and/or vehicles in it. Even the most basic ASL components are no longer introductory in nature, though Paratrooper , masquerades as such. (This would be redressed in 2005 by the introduction of ASL Starter Kits ). 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

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3008-485: The American Civil War . AH issued a wide range of similar games in the years that followed, and established itself as the market leader in board wargames. However, most of these games were at the army , brigade , battalion , or regiment level. Few were at the more tactical levels. Tactical Game 3 was introduced by Strategy & Tactics magazine as a platoon/company level game focusing on tactics on

3102-869: The First World War , primarily focusing on the appearance of tanks during the later years on the Western Front . Subsequent expansions moved the system to cover the Russian Civil War and CofA intends to move the series up to 1939, covering the Chaco War , the Spanish Civil War and the German invasion of Poland in World War II. Other producers have also produced small unit tactical board wargames covering earlier eras such as

3196-455: The GI counters represent replacements for counters previously introduced (only a handful of the original SL counters are still usuable (sic) in their printed form)... Though one must pay the price of forfeiting obsolete materials above and beyond the purchase price, the loss can be accepted as the cost of progress. There are few who would quibble with the appropriateness of the added dimensions of

3290-565: The Spanish Civil War , the Arab–Israeli wars of 1948 and 1956 and the French–Vietnamese war during the 1950s . Several game manufacturers have produced tactical wargames covering naval warfare. Due to the scales of these battles, most games tend to be miniatures-based without boards, and several popular rules systems have appeared. However, several board versions have been produced over the past 40 years, with most games focusing either on

3384-405: The 1970s . While the game was successful, Dunnigan was disappointed with it, citing difficulties in realistically portraying tactical combat in a tabletop board game. Dunnigan tried to take tactical games into a new direction in 1973 with KampfPanzer and Desert War , which featured simultaneous movement, expanding on an optional rule for PanzerBlitz. Unfortunately, the quest for greater realism

3478-535: The 1980 book The Complete Book of Wargames , game designer Jon Freeman noted that "The game is exciting, colorful, and almost endless in its variations and scenario possibilities. While the play sequence (complicated as it is) is geared more to fun than to an accurate representation of a squad-level firefight, the game does give the players a remarkable feel for close-tactical combat." Freeman gave this game an Overall Evaluation of "Very Good", concluding, "Although clearly intended only for advanced players, Squad Leader

3572-592: The Browning Automatic Rifle - unlike other nationalities who have separate counters for light machine guns), but with slightly lower base morale than German or Soviet troops, representing the supposed greater tendency of more individualistic Americans to break from their orders or the group under fire - however, American troops are easier to rally under fire, as they were exempt from the usual penalty ("desperation morale") paid by broken squads in these circumstances. British troops, when eventually added to

3666-535: The Campaign article mentioned above. Robert Kern reported (in Fire & Movement Number 49 (Jul/Aug 1986)) that: "Experimentation is the main reason why our games have been so successful. Not only do we try to simplify game systems as much as possible, but we also tear systems apart to see if something new can be created from them. Panzer Command , for example, does not use a strict sequence of play; rather, portions of

3760-490: The ELR restrictions were almost always applied to American forces and not to other nationalities as a rule. (ASL would remedy this by applying the restriction to all forces of all nationalities). Point values for US forces were also omitted from the game, restricting DYO (Design Your Own) scenarios to non-American forces. Other restrictions on US troops not present in the earlier SL game also angered some players (the original SL had

3854-477: The Eastern Front. In 1970, that game's designer, the legendary James F. Dunnigan , sold the rights to the game to Avalon Hill, who quickly released PanzerBlitz . This was the start of the so-called "Second Generation" of wargaming. PanzerBlitz eventually sold 250,000 copies, though it was not without critics (including Dunnigan himself). In the early 1970s, several tactical games made their way onto

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3948-706: The German and Soviet orders of battle, including also Axis Minor infantry types. COD provides blanket coverage to the Western Front of 1939–1941. This gamette provides expanded coverage to American forces, as well as US-manufactured equipment as used by the British in the last half of the war, as well as certain British equipment like the PIAT that was not included in COD. The rulebook for Crescendo of Doom suggested that this game would not be available before February 1981; Squad Leader fans still recall awaiting this next game, which

4042-410: The German, Russian and American armies. Russian troops are portrayed as poorly armed (and with poor quality radios, making it very difficult for them to summon artillery support) and with relatively fewer leaders, but with the capacity to become "berserk" in combat (a capacity shared in later expansions by SS troops). US troops are shown as having unusually high firepower (representing larger squads, using

4136-530: The Internet, including the option of spectators. A large proportion of published board games have been converted for play in this manner, extending the lives of old boardgames (to avoid copyright infringement, it is expected that players of these games provide their own rulebooks and other physical components only obtainable by purchasing the games.) Some companies are now releasing games meant solely for play via this medium, such as Dan Verssen's Special Forces ,

4230-591: The Napoleonic Era or the first half of the 20th century. Pre-1750 Napoleonic Era (1750–1850) American Civil War/Industrialized Era (1850–1898) World War I Era (1898–1930) World War II Era (1930–1945) Post-war Era (1945–Present) Several board-based tactical wargames have also appeared for aerial warfare, although popularity for this genre is low due to the amount of rules and plotting required. An additional category of tactical wargames would be direct translation of board wargames for play on

4324-602: The Roman Empire, the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War. However, with the exception of Avalon Hill's The Siege of Jerusalem , none of these games have met with much success. Note however, grand tactical board war games have extraordinary followings, especially The Gamers ' series of games covering the American Civil War and CofA's La Bataille series covering the Napoleonic Wars and

4418-583: The Seven Years' War. GMT Games has also had considerable success with its Great Battles of History series. These series though use larger units, usually at the battalion or regimental level. In 2002, Advanced Tobruk was released by game manufacturer Critical Hit, Inc. This game was a makeover from the original, and Raymond J. Tapio, who had been designing third party ASL add-ons for sale by his company Critical Hit, conversed with original designer Hal Hock in 1998 and decided, with Kurt Martin, to re-release

4512-603: The Spanish Civil War through the Korean War, with rumors of a World War I expansion, and even a version of the American Civil War. In 2006, the final component for Advanced Squad Leader , Armies of Oblivion , went to press, completing the last of twelve essential "core modules" covering every major combatant army, vehicle and ordnance type of the Second World War. It is unclear which direction new projects will take ASL, although there are some indications are that

4606-571: The Tiger can decimate the Shermans in no time flat without any "defensive" fire by the M-4s at all, and then move off....While Panzer Blitz , Panzer Leader and Arab-Israeli Wars are wonderful games, and demand a high degree of tactical ability to play, victory can be obtained in a manner very often that runs contrary to reason and a player's intelligence... This much anticipated sequel to PanzerBlitz

4700-601: The Western Front 1944-45 . The problems with true tactical (company/battalion level) games were all too apparent. According to Lorrin Bird, writing in Special Issue #2 of Campaign Magazine : The major disappointment with the three major Avalon Hill games ( Panzer Leader , PanzerBlitz and Arab-Israeli Wars ) was the obvious sequential nature of the whole situation. A shoots, A moves. B shoots, B moves. With

4794-459: The battlefield, cardboard soldiers are all too eager to fight to the last man, key weapon systems and environmental effects are vastly oversimplified. Yet, added together, these details produce an end result that somehow feels real. By exaggerating, oversimplifying, and abstracting, Hill provides a decent primer on World War II infantry tactics — the importance of covering fire and maneuver, the use of machine guns to prevent movement across open spaces,

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4888-556: The computer, but with manual input by players. The Vassal game engine designed by Rodney Kinney, as well as Aide-de-Camp , Cyberboard , ZunTzu , and Battlegrounds Gaming Engine are five examples of this. Using Java or similar technology, graphical versions of boards and counters can be manipulated in cyberspace as if a manual version of the game was being played. Dice rolling, chit drawing, and other game functions are all recreated in these "virtual tabletop" systems, which can be played solo, by email, or live multi-player over

4982-652: The design decisions which restricted game play. At this point, Avalon Hill approached developer John Hill to "do a game like Tank! (but) a squad level game...." Hill was well known, and had recently written an article in Moves entitled "Designing for Playability." He had recently published BarLev and Battle for Hue . The result was Squad Leader , which went on to become the best selling tactical wargame ever, spawning three add-ons (called "gamettes" by Avalon Hill) and an Advanced version which produced twelve "official" core modules, several historically based modules,

5076-410: The developer admits that this is also inexact and that each game turn should be considered a "module of time, such that the (game's) events can occur and interact with one another." The semi-simultaneous system of play developed in the mid-1970s can be seen in Squad Leader' s sequence of play. Each turn consists of two player turns, each of which have eight "phases": The name of the game is actually

5170-584: The expanding wargaming market, including Grunt (1971) featuring platoon-level warfare in Vietnam and Combat Command: Platoon-Company Combat, France, 1944 (1972) billed as a western front sequel to PanzerBlitz , and Soldiers (1972) about World War I, all by Dunnigan/SPI. Dunnigan then crossed another boundary and became the first publisher to release a game on the then-ongoing Cold War, called Red Star/White Star: Tactical Combat in Western Europe in

5264-465: The fact that morale ratings were used to determine at random the ability to push ordnance through snow or mud. Logically, morale should not have an effect on such an effort. James Collier, in a piece entitled "Glass Anvil: A Dissenting View of GI: Anvil of Victory", presented in Volume 20, Number 1 of The General , described the situation: By now it should be recognized that the Squad Leader series

5358-540: The following: Nick Stasnopolis, writing in Fire & Movement magazine (Number 73, May/June 1991) made the following assessment: Few tactical games during this period (mid 1970s) are comparable to Squad Leader,...which is quite popular and is of a similar scale (to Search & Destroy and Firefight), but has a needlessly complex combat system, leadership rules that would be more appropriate for 18th century combat and ridiculously simplistic casualty rules. It also displays

5452-406: The game "completely sidesteps the effect of widespread panic and morale breakdowns (contagious hysteria), and treats every soldier as if he were totally dedicated to the cause..." Others felt that games like Search & Destroy received short shrift. Few tactical games during (the 1970s) are comparable to Squad Leader ... which is quite popular and is of a similar scale (to S&D), but has

5546-754: The game system had come, it was clear that much of the foundation on which it was resting had to be redone and/or reorganized. In fact, GI: Anvil of Victory had already reached a point where most of the counters from the original Squad Leader game had been made obsolete, as German, British, French and American infantry counters were redone (with controversial "static" artwork depicting soldiers at rest rather than in action poses) with new information for smoke-making capability, and special weapons and morale characteristics (these characteristics would carry over to Advanced Squad Leader .) Additional products by John Hill include Across A Deadly Field and Johnny Reb. Many third-party products were produced for Squad Leader, and it

5640-490: The game system, are shown as largely similar to the Germans, albeit with somewhat inferior equipment. The mapboards are divided into hexagonal grids with each hex said to represent 40 metres of terrain, the result of the designer being asked what the ground scale was, rolling a die and it coming up 'four'. In reality, European village streets are not 40 meters across, for example. Time was said to be two minutes per turn, though

5734-526: The game turn are on chits which are drawn at random." Other significant product lines appeared by producers GDW and Clash of Arms Games ("CofA") . GDW focused on the Cold War or World War III period with Team Yankee , the first product of its First Battle Series line of games. Later offerings moved this system to cover several post-Cold war scenarios, such as Desert Storm , and also back to Second World War . CofA produced Landships! which covers

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5828-421: The game. Tobruk was expanded into a system covering the entire Second World War at the tactical level, with a game scale similar to Squad Leader , 50 metres per hex and counters depicting individual squads and vehicles. The Advanced Tobruk System ("ATS") proved to be very popular, with several expansion modules being produced. Graphic quality of the components was high. The system has gone on to cover battles from

5922-426: The generic geomorphic mapboards , each of which can be aligned to any edge of the same length to any other mapboard (except river boards). This allows for an almost unlimited number of combinations to create any terrain situation, including player designed scenarios. Printed overlays, first introduced in the gamette GI: Anvil of Victory , enable additional terrain types to be added to mapboards. Line of sight (LOS)

6016-471: The key differences between German and Russian combatants, and so forth." Tactical wargames The games are designed so that a knowledge of military tactics will facilitate good gameplay. Tactical wargames offer more of a challenge to the designer, as fewer variables or characteristics inherent in the units being simulated are directly quantifiable. Modern commercial board wargaming avoided tactical subjects for many years, but since initial attempts at

6110-399: The modern, recreational form only dated back to 1958—tended to concentrate on operational and strategic subjects. Charles S. Roberts of Avalon Hill had developed a wide range of strategic wargames based upon historical battles—the first of these being the 1961 releases of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville , issued to coincide with the beginning of the centennial celebration of

6204-423: The most fundamental system mechanics. For example, in COD a provision was made to allow whole squads to be deployed into half-squads, but without providing special half-squad counters...GI brought a profusion of half-squad counters and also provided a mechanism where a squad could take half-squad casualties... Some of these changes required a reissue of many of the original infantry counters with new parameters (and

6298-886: The new rulebook as not being available before 1985, and thought it would be followed by a gamette featuring the fighting in North Africa (and allowing a redo of the German armour counters while also introducing the Italians), followed by a Russian Front gamette redoing the Russians, and a final gamette featuring the Far East, with Chinese and Japanese troops. After that, it was expected to release historical offerings with maps modelled after actual locations. In Volume 20, Number 1 of The General , he also anticipated "the Advanced SQUAD LEADER Rulebook will be

6392-462: The new system (in fact, many had already been made obsolete by the time GI was introduced). GI: Anvil of Victory has 1568 counters all of which are rendered useless by anyone wishing to continue on with the Advanced version. Greenwood's predictions on future gamettes were also inaccurate given the need to redo every counter in the system from scratch; twelve "core" modules would be needed to introduce

6486-402: The next 5 minutes. On the next German move, the Mark IVs cleverly dart away, in and out of cover and take position again. The T-34s...move a few hexes, stop and idle, awaiting the German movement which frees up the next few hexes for them. Another funny situation is where a Tiger unit sits in the open and a Sherman comes out of nowhere and ends up adjacent to the Germans. With ideal conditions,

6580-431: The next project as being a hardcover or loose-leaf version of the rules, with the "entire game system ... rewritten and revised where necessary" to make one combined "advanced" version. Greenwood also, in one of the replies to Collier in the Volume 20, Number 1 issue of The General , described this project as "...a rewritten, succinct and complete compilation of the entire game system in one rulebook." Greenwood envisioned

6674-407: 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

6768-514: The revised vehicle and ordnance counters presented in CROSS OF IRON . That process is, of course, carried forward in COD and GI to include the relevant nationalities. Now GI introduces a similar order of revision for the infantry counters in addition to a number of new maneuvers and capabilities. As this evolution continues, one is eventually compelled to ask where it is going and why? It

6862-566: The same format as The General , with no outside advertising, and full of articles, variants, and scenarios for all incarnations of ASL. SL-themed content seems to have disappeared from the MMP-produced ASL Journal. Other third party offerings have also declined in the years since the release of ASL. By 1983 and the release of GI, there were four separate rulebooks with sometimes contradictory or poorly integrated rules. For example, US forces with lower morale were penalized by

6956-434: The subject appeared, it has remained a favourite topic among wargamers. Perhaps the most successful board wargaming system ever designed, Advanced Squad Leader , is set at the tactical level. Tactical wargame rules have appeared for every period of human history and even into the future. The first true "miniatures" games may have developed in antiquity, though Kriegsspiel , a command study invented in 18th century Prussia,

7050-562: The three new boards along with the Squad Leader series boards (specifically boards 1-8), but Scenario R220 requires access to two copies each of boards 4 and 6-10. Aside from regular features in the house organ of Avalon Hill, The General , AH also produced a series of magazines focused on Advanced Squad Leader called ASL Annual beginning in 1989; these contained some original SL content also. When Multiman Publishing (MMP) took over publication of ASL components, they started to produce ASL Journal on an irregular basis. Both magazines were in

7144-501: The title fool you. It will not be an even more complex version of what you already have, bound together between two covers. Rather it will improve the final game system by simplifying, cutting, and rewriting. The end result will be both a more comprehensive and a much shorter set of rules. However, the Advanced Squad Leader Rulebook became much more than just a simple rewrite of the rules, it in fact became

7238-424: The two game systems were quite different, and as time passed it was clear which game Avalon Hill preferred to support. In July 1987, as alluded to above, Avalon Hill sold the rights to Tobruk back to Hal Hock. Some of the challenges facing designers of tactical wargames were also made clear in that article, which contrasted Hill's "design for effect" philosophy with the more data-driven philosophy of Hock: Hill's

7332-453: The typical American fascination with gadgets while ignoring war's social, political, and logistical aspects. The war-game industry has basically ignored the more accurate portrayal of company level combat in (Search & Destroy) for the more glamorous version portrayed in Squad Leader. Three expansions (called gamettes by the publisher) were produced, Cross of Iron (COI), Crescendo of Doom (COD) and GI: Anvil of Victory (GI). COI expands

7426-431: The weapon was broken, jammed, or was simply reloading with fresh ammunition. Squad Leader is a game system by design rather than just one game. The game itself comes with 12 different scenarios , each one introducing more complicated rules in a system called "programmed instruction". Each scenario card includes historical information, victory conditions and play balancers for each side. However, Squad Leader also has

7520-497: The wide range of nationalities. The historical gamettes (called "modules" now) did evolve as predicted. The new game is also a minimum purchase of two components, 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

7614-460: The years. Thus, one should not be the least bit surprised that Tobruk appeared to be expendable circa 1987, a year that happened to be the height of the ASL craze." In fact, Hal Hock (developer of Tobruk ) and Don Greenwood and John Hill (developers of Squad Leader ) compared the merits of the two games shortly after the release of the latter in the pages of The General . It was made clear that

7708-420: Was (and remains) expensive but a design feature long associated with Avalon Hill games. Each mapboard measures 10 columns of hexes high by 32 hexes wide, numbered from hex A1 in the top left corner to hex GG10 in the lower right. The design philosophy that John Hill brought to Squad Leader was "design for effect". He hypothesized that no matter what kind of fire might be brought on a squad of infantry, be it

7802-415: Was able to employ a single table to create combat results of the various weapons systems used in the game. A similar principle is employed in dealing with support weapons - rolling a certain number might cause a weapon (e.g. a machine gun ) to be put out of action, after which a player must roll again each turn until the weapon is either restored to use or lost altogether; there is no need to determine whether

7896-451: Was also printed on flimsy paper, in booklet style, rather than the separate card stock scenarios normally associated with Avalon Hill SL products. A second set was released for G.I.: Anvil of Victory. The Rogue Scenarios were available only by direct mail-order to Avalon Hill, and were so called because they required ownership of three non-standard boards (also available at that time only via mail-order). The artwork on these boards initially

7990-540: Was clear that the system had grown in ways never dreamed of in 1977; large amounts of "nutmail" arriving at Avalon Hill convinced the developers of the need to streamline the rules. Originally this was anticipated as being a simple compilation of the rules in existence, possibly redoing the "To Hit/To Kill" system used to simulate armour protection and penetration in tank combat. In the March–April 1983 issue of Fire & Movement , developer Don Greenwood stated that he saw

8084-658: Was considered the new "state of the art" for tactical wargames. The first era of tactical wargaming had come to an end. The new state of the art was extended to Avalon Hill's Tobruk in 1976, as well as SPI's Firefight . But neither game did well, with increased realism in the form of detailed penetration tables in Tobruk and rigid rules for modern Soviet doctrine forced on the players of Firefight making games once again less playable. Tobruk also suffered from an unattractive map surface which depicted basically flat terrain. Another point for players of tactical wargames to consider

8178-429: Was designed for Crescendo of Doom, and Series 300 for GI: Anvil of Victory (scenarios 301-310). A rare case of third-party scenarios being done by license as an "official" product was the scenario pack released by World Wide Wargamers (W.W.W.) in 1982, offered by The Wargamer Magazine, containing Scenarios 81-90 for Crescendo of Doom and released in 1982. The artwork published by WWW is poorly done on this offering, which

8272-508: Was finally released in 1983. The "gamette" was actually bigger than Squad Leader itself, with 856 more counters and five more mapboards, as well as three more scenarios than the original SL. As well, two sheets of terrain overlays were included in the box. The modelling of infantry was again increased in level of detail, with squads now able to "break to green", or be replaced by lower quality units when morale checks didn't measure up to their Experience Level Rating. Many players were upset that

8366-433: Was having a price in complexity and "bookkeeping", or recording of moves on paper. Nonetheless, other tactical games on a man to man level were released with simultaneous movement, with Sniper! being released by SPI in 1973, Patrol !: Man to Man Combat in the 20th Century and Tank!: Armored Combat in the 20th Century both in 1974. That same year, Avalon Hill released Panzer Leader : The Game of Tactical Warfare on

8460-421: Was of low quality. For example, the low hill mass on Board 11 in the earlier version was actually rendered in bright red, indicating it could be simulating either a Level One height, or possibly some other type of terrain such as ground level mud, wheatfield, etc. However, the boards later were redone for ASL products to the high standards previously established. Most of these scenarios require only single copies of

8554-738: Was produced in time to debut at Origins 1977. (The original print run of 2,500 copies had purple boxes which have become collectors' items.) Avalon Hill sold well in excess of 100,000 games of Squad Leader , making it one of the most successful war games ever made. Combined with the sales of Advanced Squad Leader , its sales totaled over 1 million copies by 1997. Pieces in Squad Leader represent regular squads (rated for firepower, range and morale), weapon and vehicle crews, elite squads (with high firepower and morale but shorter range - used to represent paratroops or combat engineers armed with sub-machine guns), individual leaders, support weapons, and vehicles. The original game contains counters representing

8648-554: Was successful, and the next year SPI replaced their earlier titles with games featuring a new "Simultaneous-Sequential-Play-System", eliminating the bookkeeping involved in games like KampfPanzer and Tank and attempting to address the problems described by Bird, above. And so MechWar '77 replaced the earlier Red Star/White Star , Panzer '44 replaced Combat Command , and Search & Destroy replaced Grunt . The new Simultaneous-Sequential-Play-System (SSPS) allowed for much greater realism without sacrificing playability, and

8742-526: Was the increasing amount of unit data that was being built into the games. Rather than pieces depicting generic "infantry" or "cavalry" units as in Civil War strategy games, for example, games like Tobruk were inundating players with tables of complex ballistics information. Firefight came with a separate booklet on "Reference Data" amounting to 20 pages of information, much of it not immediately necessary for gameplay but certainly useful to defend some of

8836-503: Was virtually impossible, a fact tacitly conceded by ( Avalon Hill ) in that the GI (rulebook) index was not cumulative and did not cross-reference with the previous rules manuals. The end result was that German AFV counters did not represent some of the new changes, such as inferior turret armor, and German squad counters did not have accurate representations for such things as smoke making capability or other abilities introduced in GI. As far as

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