No matter at what level you play Squad Leader you will soon be faced with a momentous decision-to buy or not to buy Advanced Squad Leader. Once again The Avalon Hill Game Company has announced in The General magazine the appearance of Advanced Squad Leader. Advanced Squad Leader is no longer just a rules book, a compendium of all existing rules neatly trimmed and spruced up. No, sit. It is now emerging as a full- blown system of its own which will replace all of its predecessors leaving only the bare boards. We are talking Big Trauma for many dedicated Squad Leader players. Soon you, I, and a lot of others will stand, look at rows of shrink-wrapped boxes and wonder how the heck it all came to this. The answer lies along that road we have travelled for these many years from Squad Leader to GI Anvil of Victory. To see what I mean, let's return to scenario #1 and follow its progress up through the ever increasing levels of complexity to GI. SQUAD LEADER (1978) The first battle on the streets of Stalingrad is probably the most remembered and the most deeply engraved of all scenarios. As you turned the last page of your rules book, combat, movement, and terrain (as it applied to scenario #1) remained relatively unchanged except for the inclusion of Upper Building Levels (rule #57). There were, however, more counters and more rules. You started with 20 and ended up with 63 and a rules book of some 30 pages. CROSS OF IRON (1980) With the arrival of Cross of Iron things began to heat up. That simple little game of " move the tankees" now became more complex, but that was all right because it filled in some of the blanks. You fought in Stalingrad in pretty much the same way. Oh, you could take prisoners (rule #89) but it was more often the case that you settled for its more familiar predecessor (elimination). The use and effectiveness of captured weapons was curtailed (rule #90) making those captured machine guns (MGs) less powerful and more prone to breakdown. What MGs lost in rule #90 they made up for in #95-Sustained Fire. Now you could really pour it in, but at a risk (breakdown number decreased by two). Finally, we were allowed to play with matches, Deliberate Fire Setting (rule # 102.2). While you were not allowed to set fire to hexes which would deny your opponent his victory conditions, you could set them in his path. Movement underwent some startling changes (Double Time Movement rule #73). No longer could squads zoom down roads faster than a speeding bullet. Things were tamed down. They couldn't travel as far, and they became "exhausted" when using all their movement factors. Weather conditions made their appearance but would only affect this scenario in regards to setting fires. Remember, we are only looking at the rules changes affecting scenario #1. When finished you had one new map board, a lot of new counters and 40 new rules to go along with them for a final count of 103 rules and two rules books numbering 70 pages. CRESCENDO OF DOOM (1981) Once again the cry for more realism was answered. Combat, as applied to scenario #I, was changed. Not by much, but it did move. Anybody (just about) could now go berserk (rule #110) and those little red berserk counters were no longer made of iron. A negative die roll modifier during Defensive Fire for every hex entered during movement helped to tear the capes off those supermen. Field promotions were now possible and one could create scouts. MGs were once again adjusted (rule # 119) and some strange things could happen when you rolled your dice. If you rolled doubles while attacking (or in Close Combat-CC) your attack would be resolved on the next lower table of the Infantry Fire Table (IFT) (unless a leader were present rule #121-3). The good news was that maybe you didn't lose that valuable leader to a Killed in Action (KIA) result (Wounded Leaders rule #122). When moving, counters finally realized that they didn't have to go tbrough buildings or woods to get to the other side. They could now go around 'em (Infantry Bypass Movement rule #106). A squad could also be split in two by deploying (rule #121.4). You now found yourself with a pile of new counters, two new map boards and three rules books, 106 pages with 140 rules. To play, you needed three boxes of counters, three rules books at hand for easy reference unless you had memorized 140 rules, and, of course, skill. It may be obvious to you that things were getting out of hand. Some years before you and your new game moved into a nice one bedroom cottage. As the years passed and the family increased, additions were made to that little cottage until it had become unsightly, ungainly and, most of all, uncomfortable. A family with any sense would have moved to a new and bigger house but not us. Now, on top of all this came another addition. GI: ANVIL OF VICTORY (1983) The introduction of GI and quantum physics had about the same effect on their respective communities. The once familiar laws were now changed and everything had become increasingly more complex. You were now faced with an entire page of rules on machine guns alone. Another level was added to buildings to make a once easily understood concept into a doctoral thesis. You now had four rules books, 143 pages containing a total of 175 rules, some of which change with every level and you had to know which you could use and could not. Am I making my point? Okay, faced with this situation what would you do? Try to compile four rules books and 175 rules? Add another module (Ayeee!) or say, "Hey, something's wrong here. I think we'd better do this again and get it right"? Well? Maybe that's why we have a new game system. What do you think? Back to Table of Contents -- Game News #4 To Game News List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Dana Lombardy. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com