Arriving in the post on Monday: Empire of the Sun (The Pacific War, 1941-45) – a Card-Driven wargame by Mark Herman Caesar: Conquest of Gaul – one of the Great Battles of History series. Also by Mark Herman (and Richard Berg). C3i Magazine #17. (Yes, they’re up to #21 yes; I’ve been getting back-issues!) CCoG became a lot more interesting after the "Great Battles of Spartacus" expansion … Continue reading New Wargames
Wandering into a bookstore last night, I found that the latest Anne Bishop book had been released: The Shadow Queen. I bought it and, after getting home from playing wargames with Randy, I read it. It’s not that long a book, despite the 400+ pages (there’s a lot of white space). It was very enjoyable, though. It meant I finally got to sleep a way past midnight, but … Continue reading Books and games
I’ve spent part of the last week playing one of Richard Berg’s Great Battles of History games: SPQR, Great Battles of the Roman Republic. This is a game I bought early last year (IIRC, or maybe late in 2007), and I played the introductory scenario, one of the simpler scenarios, and then put it away for a bit. Now it’s out again, and I’m … Continue reading Romans vs Barbarians
Randy and I had a good time last night – he slaughtered me in CoH, then I slaughtered him in ASL. All is right in the world. 🙂 That game is Conflict of Heroes. Randy has only two units visible on the board… the rest are hiding! The full session report is here: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/378744 After that, ASL (Starter Kit #1). I’m very happy with my command … Continue reading ASL, Conflict of Heroes
I had a couple of queries on Gleemax about my ASL SK review that indicated a belief that ASL was dead and out of print. I certainly understand where that belief comes from… but it’s not actually true. It just isn’t supported by Avalon Hill any more! ASL is currently published by Multiman Publishing (MMP), under license from Hasbro (who now own Avalon Hill and … Continue reading The current status of Advanced Squad Leader
Advanced Squad Leader wasn’t really published all that long ago, when you think about it. It was 1985 when it first hit the shelves, and was the successor to the astonishingly successful Squad Leader (1977), which had itself sold over 200,000 copies1. I doubt ASL has ever sold that many copies, but in terms on longevity it’s doing quite well. Although ASL might not quite … Continue reading Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1 review
It’s June 1941. The Germans are attacking Russia as part of Operation Barbarossa. 112 Russians, two Russian tanks and one gun must protect a small Lithuanian village from 122 Germans soldiers and six tanks… Continuing with my run of ASL Starter Kit scenarios played solo, I’ve reached the sixth scenario of SK#3. So, of the 22 scenarios included in the kits, I’ve now finished 20 … Continue reading ASL SK S25: Early Battles
.. One of the oddities about Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) is that if you want to play the game well, you need to spend more space storing the counters so that you can find them quickly than is taken up by the original boxes the game came in! See on the left-hand side of the photograph: ASL rules, then modules (maps, scenarios) and then counter … Continue reading Storing ASL
I’ve been busy recently with a bunch of other games, but I found myself yesterday able to get out my ASL maps and counters for another shot at teaching myself this venerable warhorse of wargaming. The ASL Starter Kits have been a real boon, although the rulebook for the third of the series is probably the worst of the series: there’s so much in it … Continue reading ASL SK#3: Sherman rides west!
I really don’t think there’s a game with a more complicated publication history than Advanced Squad Leader; certainly not if you look at the dependencies required to play any scenario from it. You see, originally ASL was published as a successor to the incredibly successful Squad Leader. How successful was Squad Leader? Very. Over 200,000 copies of it were sold, according to Greg Costikyan in … Continue reading Yanks! – ASL Module 3
