From: "Andrew Walters" <andreww@farallon.com>
Subject: RE: AH Reviews R-S (Squad Leader)

Squad Leader - 

I've been waiting weeks to get to S just to see what people would say
about Squad Leader.

I Bought Squad Leader in the early eighties, and took it back.  What can
I say? I was a kid: I didn't like East front games 'cause there were no
Americans or British to root for.  The technology was a little primitive
(I was playing a lot of scifi, then).  I didn't like broken troops, guys
I couldn't control. I didn't have the patience for the programmed
instruction rule book.  

And, let's face it, Squad Leader is hard.  Its not just that the system
is complicated, because it isn't all that bad, really.  Its hard to kill
things.  You can fire all sorts of weaponry at an enemy in a stone
building, and they thumb their noses at you!  Or you break them and they
come back.  Then you make one slightly aggresive move and lose a stack
of pieces all at once, and the scenario is over.  This is a tough game
to *play*.

Okay, seventeen more years go by, and now I'm playing Squad Leader, and
liking it.  I'm not going to go ASL, or get any of the "Gamettes" (*who*
invented that "word" (wordette?)), because I have a life (no offense, I
just have a bunch of other hobbies), but the challenges are suited to me
now.  Move-Shoot-Roll-take pieces off the board is fun, but Squad Leader
gives you the conundrum of no safe moves, no good shots, and you have to
do a lot of preparation for an assault and even then its not guaranteed
succ ess.

The turn sequence creates a *lot* of interaction.  Fire happens before
and after movement, you can be fired on in any hex you move through, you
can even move, fire, and move a little more. As strange as this seems,
it gives the most realistic interaction of combatants of any game I
know, including "real-time" computer sims like WarCraft (don't get me
started).  

The Morale-Break-Rout-Rally rules take a little getting used to, but
they're the best antidote to the cardboard super-hero syndrome I know
of.   

Another great thing about Squad Leader is that there are a lot of
willing email players.  In my case that makes the difference between
being able to play or not.  I don't see Squad Leader discussed much on
the list.  I don't know if that's because there's a seperate list or
because no one here plays Squad Leader.

Firmly in the category of "Classic, gotta have it," whether you want to
play it or just learn from it.