This is one of my favourite hobbies. ASL is a very fascinating game. I met with my fate, its predecessor Squad Leader, in 1984. I played it as often as I could then, but it was hard to find opponents willing to put in the time needed to learn the game.

 Because this is not a game for the faint of hearted. I have now two binders for the rules and supplements. This is because the designers of the game tried to portray all aspects of World War 2 combat in a very realistic and also playable way. So, it has a lot of detailed rules. About a lot of things. Still, I do not find it too hard. You just have to get inside of it, and play it, and it just gets natural! Now, a few words about what ASL is:

ASL is short for Advanced Squad Leader. It is a board-game about tactical warfare during World War II. That means you control counters representing 50-200 (1-10 men in each counter) or even more men, their heavy weapons and often vehicles supporting them. Sometimes you get artillery support, air support, or you make a air- or sea-landings. 

This is what an infantry squad (US), looks like. It represents 7-15 troopers.

You fight during day or night, rain or shine, summer or winter. The games are set up on boards, either one or several generic boards depicting cities, farmland, woods, mountains, jungle or desert. Historical maps are also used a lot, depicting for example the Reichstag area in the final battle for Berlin or the factory areas in Stalingrad. The attacks your units make are calculated using tables, and dice are used to see how effective the attacks are.

Scenario cards are used to portray historical situations from all theatres. It tells you a little about the combat it tries to portray, what forces you and your opponent get, how your battlefield is to be configured and what the opponents have to do to win. There are more than 1000 published scenarios to chose from, so nobody have to play the same game twice. Now, you often do play good scenarios several times, because different set ups and tactics can make very different games.

As I said before, it is hard to find opponents. I used to have two within 150 km! On the other hand, there is a thriving community on the Internet. I discovered that late in 1996. There is a mailing list where you get info about lots of tournaments held worldwide and on new products. The list also has a lot of discussions on various issues, rules interpretations, scenario tactics, how to store all those 10 000+ counters you get. There is a lot of humour and some flame wars too to liven things up. It is incredible how many nice guys there are out there with the same hobby as me!

The best thing about the list is that you can find opponents. You can play ASL by e-mail or on-line. There is a great little program to help you play ASL by e-mail, Kevin Pietersons ASLAP freeware at Paul Ferraros site  To play on-line you need VASL (Virtual ASL) by Rodney Kinney, from the VASL Website