The most successful wargame in history has been Avalon Hill's Advanced Squad Leader (ASL).  This guide is going to give a brief history of the game, a description of game play and a guide to buying ASL products.

HISTORY
The origin of Advanced Squad Leader starts with the game Panzer Leader, which was a wargame that gave players control of platoon sized armor units.  Unlike earlier games, the boards were geomorphic, which meant that any board could be butted up against any other board and a nearly endless combinations of battle areas could be fought over.

In a successful attempt to create a game that did for infantry what Panzer Blitz did for armor, Avalon Hill created Squad Leader.  It used the same idea of geomorphic boards, but came up with many innovations of its own.

The game's rules were 64 pages long.  While that number is impressive even today, in the 1970's when it was created anything over 8 pages was considered complex.  To make it easier to digest, the game included 12 scenarios to be played in order.  Each scenario required learning a little more of the rule book.

Another major change to the way gamers were used to playing games was the introduction of phases to a turn.  Although many feared that this would turn off gamers when the game was first published, it is perhaps the biggest influence Squad Leader has had on the gaming community.  Today, is is expected for a game turn to be broken up into phases.

The last major innovation was the concept of letting the opposing player interact during the friendly player's turn.  Although not as influential as the phased turns, many games today have this feature.  Of course, computer games have taken this concept to its logical conclusion with thier real time game systems.

Squad Leader spawned 3 supplements: Cross of Iron, Crecendo of Doom and GI:Anvil of Victory.  These games each contained 64 page rule books as well as new scenarios.  They also continued the programmed instruction approach to learning the more complex games.  This, however, quickly caused problems.

Because the rules were added as they were needed, related rules and even modifications of older rules were widely seperated in the rule books.  This made it difficult at best to completely comprehend the game system and experienced players had to go all the way back to the beginning if they wanted to introduce friends to the game.  Even worse was the fact that many new rules completely or partially replaced older rules.  The most obvious example was the introduction to the first supplement, Cross of Iron, that instructed players to throw away ALL vehicles from the original Squad Leader and forget the rules they learned.  Trying to remember what rules were still in existance and which ones were superceeded became nearly impossible.

A consolidated rulebook was desperately needed that would contain all current rules and present them in an easy to reference format.  Advanced Squad Leader would be that solution.  Originally, it was only going to be a rule book and players would not have to buy new games.  Except for the map boards (which were the most expensive component), Avalon Hill did not keep that promise.  But I am glad that they did what they did.

The new game did more than just reorganize the rules.  Old, cumbersome techniques gave way to new, efficient methods of record keeping.  In order to maximize on the new efficiencies, new counters were needed for memory minders.  What was more, by clearing out the old clutter, new room was made for new ideas.  It was generally agreed by those who made the conversion that ASL was much smoother, easier to play and more realistic than Squad Leader before the supplements.

The game was an instant success.  Under Avalon Hill, it produced 17 core supplements (called modules) and covered every major nationality that fought in World War II.  Two Deluxe modules allowed players to use micro armor miniatures in the game and four Historical modules focused on famous slugfests from World War II.  It covered the deserts of North Africa to the beaches of the Pacific Islands.  Official scenarios covered the Spanish Civil War to Soviet pacification of resistance groups of liberated countries in the 1950s.  Paratroops, amphibian operations, caves, extreme weather, cavalry and night actions were possible, as well as others.  To this day, the vehicle notes in Chapter H are considered the most comprehensive listing of armored fighting vehicles and important data in the world.  Even for those who don't play, this information is worthe cost of the rule book.

The game enjoyed distinctions few, if any, other games have.  Avalon Hill started their second publication (the first being The General) exclusively to support the ASL gamers, and several independant groups published magazines devoted to ASL as well.  The ASLOktober Fest in Ohio was the world's largest gaming convention devoted exclusively to one game.  One gaming group formed a company called Multi-Man Publishing (a derivitive of the term Multi Man Counters to represent squads, half squads and crews in the game), who entered a contract to take the lead in all future ASL developments.  When Avalon Hill went out of business, Multi-Man Publishing (MMP) purchased the rights and continues to sell them to this day.

MMP published Armies of Oblivion (core module 18), which was the long awaited addition of minor countries armor to ASL, and created starter kits and the Historical Study series of modules.  Similar in concept to Avalon Hill's Historical modules, the Analysis modules focus on entire campaigns instead of a single battle.  They have re-written the rules to accomidate nearly 2 decades of errata, rule clarifications and adjustments and are slowly reprinting the scenarios to likewise reflect years of play testing.

GAME PLAY
Players begin by selecting a scenario to play.  Litterally hundreds of official scenarios exist from which to choose from, as well as a like number of well produced independent ones.  The scenario card will include historical information on what led up to the battle and how it turned out so players can judge their own progress against their historical counterparts.  Of more important concern is the mapboards to be used and the forces each player has at his disposal.  Special rules unique for each scenario are included.

There are approximately 80 geomorphic boards from which to choose from in the complete series, as well as overlays to modify them.  Units will reflect leaders, infantry, support weapons, artillery and vehicles.

When each player has set up, they will alternate turns per the scenario instructions.  When each player has had 1 turn, then 1 game turn is complete.  When the required number of game turns is over, players consult the victory conditions to see who won.  Although details can vary greatly, common themes include gaining victory points (usually by inflicting casualties), occuping terrain or achieving a breakout (exiting units off a board edge).

Each player turn is broken down into 8 phases.  A list of the phases, with the major activity to be done, is as follows:

1) Rally Phase-each player attempts to rally broken units so they will return to the fight
2) Preparation Fire Phase-current player may fire at enemy units
3) Movement Phase-current player may move units.  This may be interrupted by the enemy to fire on them
4) Defensive Fire Phase-opposing player fires back at current player's units
5) Advancing Fire Phase-current player units that did not move or fire may do so now
6) Rout Phase-units from both players who broke their morale will run away
7) Advance Phase-current player may move all infantry 1 area
8) Close Combat Phase-if units from both players are in same area, they Close Combat

A key concept to the game is broken units.  It is not necessary to eliminate a unit to make it combat ineffective.  A unit that was scared so badly that it no longer wants to fight is considered broken.  Successful game play demands that a player effectively match broken units with leaders to rally them and get them back into the fight.

BUYING GUIDE
The best way for someone to be introduced to the game is through someone who already knows the game.  However, not knowing someone who has the game should not discourage others from playing.  MMP has produced a series of Starter Kits that are inexpensive and are self contained.  The rules are simplified and only focus on the most common and important aspects of the game, so players can get a feel for how the game plays.

When a player is ready to go to the real thing, the first thing he must buy is the rule book.  The second item he must buy is either Beyond Valor or Paratrooper.  Beyond Valor (core module 1) has all the counters necessary for German, Russian or Finnish armies as well as scenarios and mapboards.  The MMP version of Beyond Valor includes map boards 1 through 4 (from the original Squad Leader), the Avalon Hill version will require you to get these boards seperately.  Even without these first four boards, many scenarios can be played with only the new boards.  Paratrooper was origninally designed as an inexpensive way to get into the game.  It was much smaller than Beyond Valor, but contained everything but the rules to get started.

When a player feels he has the basics down and is ready to grow, the general trend should be to follow the modules in order.  This is because later modules would expand on what was already present in earlier modules.  The back of every modules will spell out what earlier modules are required to play this one.  You will find that key modules to have (in order) are Beyond Valor, Yanks, West of Alamien, Code of Bushido and Gung Ho.  These include the complete set of counters for all the major powers, as well as a large selection of map boards.  In between them were smaller modules didn't offer much in the way of new counters but did have boards and interesting scenarios.  Even if the theme did not interest you, the boards (and occassionally a unique unit) were frequently used in later modules.  If that is the case, the description will state that some scenarios require whatever game the board or piece is in.

There are also the non-core modules to consider.  Streets of Fire and Red Barricades will only require Beyond Valor.  Hedgerow Hell and the 2 Kampgruppe Peiper games will require Beyond Valor and Yanks.  Pegasus Bridge will require Beyond Valor, Yanks and West of Alamein.  The Historical Study games will require nearly all of the core games.  Unlike the small core modules that have boards that are needed elsewhere, these are specialty modules and rarely contribute anything beyond themselves.

In summary, the list below should help you prioritize you purchasing modules.  It is not intended to be the only way to purchase the games, but rather as a tool to help decide where to go when the time is right to grow.  Note that even if a module's theme does not interest you, it may have boards or specialty pieces required for a game that does.

1) Any Starter Kit
2) Rule book and either Beyond Valor and/or Paratrooper
3) Beyond Valor, if not already owned
3a) Streets of Fire and/or Red Barricades, if desired
3b) Smaller modules leading up to Yanks, if desired
5) Yanks
5a) Hedgerow Hell and/or Kampgruppe Peiper modules, if desired
5b) Smaller modules leading up to West of Alamein, if desired
6) West of Alamein, Code of Bushido, Gung Ho (in order)
6a) Pegasus Bridge, if desired
7) The rest of the core modules, in order
8) Historical Study modules

Again, the list above is meant to be a guide.  Your personal preference will ultimately dictate what you want to have.  ALWAYS check the back of the game, or ask the seller, what prerequisits are needed to play a particular module.