Advanced Squad Leader: a complicated relationship
I’m not experienced in playing wargames enough to assure this, but ASL, as many say, it’s objectively one of the greatest wargames ever made. Its giant rulebook can prove the worth of this tactical level boardgame. It’s strange for me to call it a “boardgame”. It’s not a boardgame…it’s a…how can I say? An historical in-depth study adapted to a game. But I can’t call it neither a game. It’s not a game, it’s an historical research translated in paper pieces that makes anyone able to exploit his mental capacities at his best.
My father was an ASL player. I’ve never seen him playing it because he was gone when I was only 12. I remember instead a giant table at one of his friend’s house, probably World in Flames of Australian Design Group. Anyway, my father has left me in legacy the main historical modules: all the WW2 factions except the French, the partisans and the minor allies of both the nazi-fascists and the Anglo-americans; in addition, the old 1985 rulebook, some scenarios and some of the geomorphical maps needed to play. I was introduced to ASL more than two years ago by one my father’s friends, Enrico. I’ve played something with him when I was a teenager and he had only to wait I grew up to teach me his favourite wargame, the only one he play since many years because of a problem with his eyes, which affects him in a way that he is unable to see the carachteristics of other maps and counters different from the ASL ones.
I’m a white fly, I admit. I’m probably the youngest Italian player of ASL (I’m 27) an I play it since 2 years and an half. I began with Starter Kit, to upgrade then to full ASL. I’m particularly near to ASL, I can’t deny that it’s a game not fit for me. When I was a kid of 10 years old I began to play Steel Panthers, the PC equivalent of ASL: very similar to the legendary boardgame except for one thing: it was much and much easier! When you play ASL there is no AI: you and only you have to calculate, to do mathematical operations, or you’re unable to think the next move.
And here comes the problem. I’ve never had a scientific and “mathematical” mind. I studied Humanities, both at high school and at university (at least, in the first part of my academic training). After high school I threw Maths down some dark garage of my brain. It is quite a strange thing, too: a “humanistic” man who plays wargames. But this is another story. I want instead to underline here my difficulties in learning ASL. I often recognize that many mistakes while playing are caused by my lazyness in doing sums. This is my usual way of acting when I have to manage tanks: “So…mmm I’d have a + 3 and -1…bah I don’t remember. Let’s move forward!” At this point, the punishment for being so superficial arrives punctual. My tank is hit by an enemy gun and is destroyed.
But lazyness in dealing with numbers is only a part of the problem. One of my most terrible moments while playing ASL is the setup. Wheter attacking or defending, my mind is upset by the complexity I’ve to face. How many factors to consider! Type of terrain, number and quality of my units compared to the enemy ones, type of support weapons at my disposal, turn lenght, maps number and playing area size, weather…God! How can I do everything ok without leaving something wrong? And, God’s sake, there’s always something wrong in my setup: and if not in my setup, in the way I move during the course of play. One wrong thing, and that thing is the key of my defeat; or one turn of slow advance, and victory becomes too far by now.
Another reason contributes to my regular defeat. The ignorance of rules. I’ve spent a lot of time reading the Starter Kit rules first, and the ASL rulebook then. I even wrote a summary in Italian of the parts A, C and D. But there’s always stuff I forget and it’s often really important, like some rules concerning Concealment, Fire Attacks, Close Combat…even rules already present in Starter Kit sometimes elude my mind. I’ve come to the conclusion that only writing well my summary on pc and reading it regularly and studying it like I had to prepare me for an exam I could become confident in myself while playing. Eh…to play: above all, you learn ASL only playing and playing and playing…
To play ASL in itself however, is another problem. Many enthusiasts of the game don’t have opponents nearby, so they are forced to rely on VASL or on sporadic game conventions throughout the year. Personally speaking, I have opponents to play with but the real obstacle for me is the simple fact that almost all the ASL players are veterans. ASL (for what I’ve seen in Italy) is a game played from 40 to over 70 years old men: this is in part due to the fact that it’s old. It has been launched in 1985, when complexity didn’t scare wargamers. But people now has changed his way to approach the boardwargame: no more monster games and enormous rulebooks like until 20 years ago. So, the fact that ASL is old implicates that its players play it since a lot of time. “Green” players are easily slaughtered and this makes them lose their desire in keeping on to play ASL.
It’s not easy to become an ASLer, however: prepare yourself to memorize a big amount of rules. This means that ASL steals a lot of time and wargamers nowadays are not willing to limitate their game experience to only one game ( I put me in this list) and to spend hours and hours in reading rules. If one has time enough for the boardgame hobby, ASL can’t occupy the entire free time to it dedicated: it would be very very restrictive, in my opinion. Nevertheless, many ASLers play only ASL: this creates a sort of club seen with suspicion by other boardgamers. ASL players often isolate themselves in a sort of elite circle for superior minds that creates a distance between them and other boardgamers.
My relationship with this game is complicated, a sort of love and hate. If I don’t play ASL for a while, I’m well but I feel at the same time a thin sense of lack; if I begin to play it for days, like in game conventions, I think only to ASL all day long and I become completely depending on it, I love it and I’d play it for eternity. I’m convicted that ASL won’t be played anymore in 20-30 years, because of absence of newcomers. For what concerns me I will play it until there will be players. ASL is a great master and his teachings are a precious source in order to perform well in other wargames.
To conclude, I think that ASL is a great game: it provides a mountain of material, the possibility to recreate every tactical combat of WW2 and rules that permit to simulate reality the closest as possible, they’re extremely detailed and in spite of their quantity the game turns well and puts the player to the test like no other wargame. On the other hand this complexity pushes away young people and potential newcomers; and if you’re in love with military history, like me, and you begin to play it, ASL will become that girl you leave and go back to for many years to come.
If you’re an ASLer or a wargamer and you don’t have a Medium account write me to catani.gabriele1@gmail.com to tell me your opinion on this matter!
