Advanced Squad Leader

Advanced Squad Leader

Advanced Squad Leader 2nd Edition Rulebook
Designer(s)	Don Greenwood
Publisher(s)	Avalon Hill Multi-Man Publishing
Years active	1985–present
Players	2
Playing time	360+ minutes
Website	www.multimanpublishing.com

Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) is a tactical-level board wargame, originally marketed by Avalon Hill Games, that simulates actions of approximately company or battalion size in World War II. It is a detailed game system for two or more players (with solitary play also possible). Components include the ASL Rulebook and various games called modules. ASL modules provide the standard equipment for playing ASL, including geomorphic mapboards and counters. The mapboards are divided into hexagons to regulate fire and movement, and depict generic terrain that can represent different historical locations. The counters are cardboard pieces that depict squads of soldiers, crews, individual leaders, support weapons, heavy weapons, and vehicles.

Twelve core modules provide representations of nearly every troop type, vehicle, and weapon to see combat action from any nationality involved in World War II. Each module comes with 6 to 20 researched situations depicting historical battles. These scenarios are printed on card stock with specifications of game length, mapboard configuration, counters involved, special rules for the conditions of the particular battle such as weather, and victory conditions. In addition to the scenarios published in the modules, there are numerous other sources for scenarios, both official and unofficial. There is also a detailed set of instructions in the ASL Rulebook for Design Your Own (DYO) scenarios based on a point-purchase system.

Additional variations on ASL include Deluxe ASL (DASL), which was a short-lived experiment in fusing miniature wargaming with ASL; Historical ASL (HASL), which used historically accurate maps, usually in a campaign setting where the outcome of one scenario affected the setup of following scenarios; Solitaire ASL (SASL) with many rules changes for fog of war and command to enhance solitaire play; and the ASL Starter Kits (ASLSK), a series of stand-alone introductory kits.