Cardboard
  Heroes,
    Advanced Squad Leader®
        Division.

Advanced Squad Leader is a tactical WWII combat wargame. Individual counters represent a single tank, truck or artillery piece, 10 men, 5 men or a single individual. Turns represent approcximately two minutes of real time and take place on a hexagonal mapboard where each hex represents 40 meters. The complete game consists of several boxed sets encompasing all theaters of the second world war.
       There are over 500 scenarios available for play. Scenarios typically last ten turns and represent historical actions of WWII. Fend off repeated German assaults outside Bastogne, parachute in behind the beaches on D-Day, fight a guerrilla war in Russia against the German invaders, hit the beaches in the South Pacific, go to the relief of the beleagured Red Devils at Niemagen, duel with Rommel in the North African desert -- all this and more.
       To represent small unit actions takes a lot of rules and Advanced Squad Leader doesn't disappoint. In addition to special rules for individual scenarios, the basic Advanced Squad Leader manual is 150+ pages long. Approaching the game can be a daunting task for a newcomer, but play is fairly smooth once mastered.
       It's an interesting, enjoyable and addicting game.

Crunching the numbers

In examining the Advanced Squad Leader combat tables I found some surprising things. Follow the links below to take a closer look and see if you agree.

The heart of the game system is the Infantry Fire Table (IFT).

Using artillery in Advanced Squad Leader is a one or two step process: first the To Hit Table is used to determine if a round struck its intended target. For non-vehicle targets, the incoming round is converted to an IFT equivalent and the table above is used to resolve the action.

For vehicle targets, once you've hit it, you use the To Kill Table to determine the amount of damage done an armored target.

Page Last Updated 04/30/99
This page has been visited times since April, 30, 1999.