I ordered the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1 (also known as ASLSK#1) this afternoon from Multi-Man Publishing. It should be here in about a week. But, let me give the whole story ...
I'm lucky that Andrew is very interested in history, which means that he's a ready-made opponent for trying out wargames. He's especially interested in WWII history, so it was natural that I'd get him the popular (and light) WWII game Memoir '44 several years ago. Memoir '44 is based upon Richard Borg's Commands and Colors system that originated with Avalon Hill-Hasbro's Battlecry (released in 2000) and continued with Memoir '44 (in 2004), GMT Games' Commands and Colors Ancients (2006) and Fantasy Flight's Battlelore (in 2006). Commands and Colors: Napoleonics is currently on GMT's P500 list, and is likely to be published in the next year or so.
Memoir '44 is a nice introductory wargame and can be a lot of fun. Suffice it to say that there are about a dozen expansions available to meet the demand of folks who love the original game so much. On the other hand, it has some problems as a simulation -- some wargamers aren't convinced that it should even count as a wargame. (One of these days, I'll post an entry giving my full take on the "realism versus playability" debate.) While Andrew played the game a lot four years ago, he hasn't seemed interested in taking it off of the shelf lately. When I asked him why, he mentioned several of the issues related to realism. So, for several months now, I've been trying to pick out a more advanced version of Memior '44.
One option is Fantasy Flight's Tide of Iron. Al owns Tide of Iron, and while I haven't played a game, I've watched Al play a few times against Steven and Drew. Tide of Iron has plastic infantry, tanks and vehicles similar to Memoir '44. It also is a significant step up the ladder of wargaming. Different units have different capabilities, and units have multiple options while firing -- including pinning fire and opportunity fire. I described it to Andrew as "Advanced Memoir '44." Al has mixed feelings about the game (with one of his biggest complaints being the thirty minutes that it typically takes to set up a scenario). I offered a few times to buy it from him, but Drew likes it enough that Al wants to hang on to it. (I also found a guy in St. Louis looking to sell his copy on Craigslist, but, while I offered him $40, he's holding firm on $50.)
At the opposite end is Multi-Man Publishing's ASLSK#1. Advanced Squad Leader was first published in 1985 as a sequel of sorts to Squad Leader (published in 1977). I had owned Squad Leader in the early 1990s (but sold it on EBay about ten years ago). ASL is extremely plain looking -- it has small, fairly unattractive cardboard counters and maps that look a little cartoonish. But the rules are extremely detailed. There are actually rules to handle squads moving in sewers for battles that take place in urban areas. The game has a hard-core set of followers. In fact, when Avalon Hill was absorbed by Hasbro, a group of gamers bought the rights to the ASL catalog and continued publishing the games and scenarios as Multi-Man Publishing. One of the group's best decisions was publishing a starter set (ASLSK#1), with six introductory scenarios to give gamers a chance to play the game with the core rules and decide if ASL was right for them. Al owns ASL, and ranks it as his only '10' at BoardGameGeek. If we picked ASL, Al would be thrilled.
GMT's first entry into the category was Combat Commander Europe (published in 2006). I haven't played Combat Commander, but I've listened to and read a number of reviews. My sense is that Combat Commander's rules are about 75% as detailed as ASL, but that the game introduces more chaos into the battles. This probably does a better job of reflecting a commander's actual control over the battlefield, but seems to frustrate a number of players. In addition, there are no vehicles in Combat Commander. While many were turned off, the game is a good seller, and GMT has published a number of expansions. I like GMT, and I usually like a little more chaos in my games than most wargamers, so in some ways it's the game that I "root for" in the debates.
The newest option is Conflict of Heroes by Academy Games. Again, I haven't played it, but I've read many reviews at BoardGameGeek. My sense is that it is somewhere in between Tide of Iron and ASL. It has bigger and more attractive components, and some folks who find ASL too difficult enjoy Conflict of heroes as an alternative. But hard-core wargamers feel that the simulation has more than a few holes. The positive spin is to say that it's ASL with easier rules and prettier components. The negative spin is to say that it's uglier than Tide of Iron and not as good of a simulation as ASL.
So, after reading everything I could about these four games, I still couldn't decide what to do. Realizing that Andrew would need to be excited about the choice in order for it to work, I gave him my quick description of each game and sent him to BoardGameGeek to pick one out. I said I'd buy whichever one he picked out, with the only requirement being that he'd have to promise to give it at least three tries. (I'm sure that I could trade any one of the four, if we don't like it.) Andrew usually has a soft spot for plastic pieces, so I was guessing that he'd go for Tide of Iron. Thus, I was totally shocked when he said he wanted to try ASL because of the deep details.
The game is on its way, and I'm sure that Al will be thrilled.
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