ASL is not a church.

ASL generates narrative like no other boardgame I have ever played. The seemingly needless complexity arose out of an attempt to allow the players to do anything. What if I want to do a drive by with the MG on an armored personnel character? What if an engineer throws a demolition charge down the stairwell? The range of possibilities is huge. Most of the hard rules are edge cases.

It's like a D&D game, but instead of telling the story of Beef McSlabHuge the Lawful Good paladin, you are telling the tale of Baker Company, 1st Battalion Fifth Marines at Pelelieu. It follows the same model of taking a million things into account and generating a target number to see if the action succeeds. After a while, all of the normal action become routine and you only have to dive into the rulebook when someone is trying to drive a Satan flamethrower tank off of a landing craft in choppy water.

Like D&D, everyone will play it wrong the first few dozen times. But you still get the "remember when your berserk Gunnery Sergeant managed to clear that whole cave after his flamethrower blew up?" moments. Don't worry about a total understanding or even winning. Don't be afraid to wing it when you can't find a rule. Agree to play it a certain way with an understanding that you will look it up later for future games.

Another way it is like D&D is that new players really need a Dungeon Master to teach the game and provide an opponent. The DM always knows the lion's share of the rules until his players have played for a long time. Then the players handle more and more of the rules themselves until everyone is fluent in the system. This doesn't bother people much in rpgs, but it sure frustrates people trying to learn ASL.

In the end, if the game doesn't appeal strongly, spend time playing games that do what you want them to. I tried for a long time to see what I was missing with Magic Realm and realized that the problem was that I actually just don't like it.

I realise I have become an ASL Anabaptist. I still love the game, but I have become to disregard its worldly existence and the whore of Babylon Papist Anti-Christ loving, caring game company that has spiritual monopoly over it and provides its dogma modules to its believers when and how it sees fit. It is on theological grounds that I refuse to partake in military and civil government tournaments and ranked ladders, and my attitude towards the new trends in the game is one of non-conformity. So, be a priest and spread the Ruleset yourself, and don't wait for others to provide you guidance, for no one has a place between a gamer and ASL.

A WITCH!

I realise I have become an ASL Anabaptist. I still love the game, but I have become to disregard its worldly existence and the whore of Babylon Papist Anti-Christ loving, caring game company that has spiritual monopoly over it and provides its dogma modules to its believers when and how it sees fit. It is on theological grounds that I refuse to partake in military and civil government tournaments and ranked ladders, and my attitude towards the new trends in the game is one of non-conformity. So, be a priest and spread the Ruleset yourself, and don't wait for others to provide you guidance, for no one has a place between a gamer and ASL.

This link leads to one of the most eloquent answers to your question that I have read: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/386060/an-attempt-to-des...

And also, ASL is not a lifestyle game unless you want it to be. All of the ASL players I know play a lot of other games too. ASL is not a cult, nor are ASL players any more cultish than the enthusiasts of other systems. Most ASL players I know also play other tactical WWII game systems, so they are not blind to other systems.

Ok, I have been moving my way up the wargame foodchain and am now flirting with ASLSK 1.

I have played a couple of sample games with an experienced ASL player

and am now working through a solo game of ASLSK. My problem is that I find the learning curve, even for ASLSK, a bit steep. Even the mechanics of a turn don't seem intuitive, they seem like using a PC when you have a Mac.

I have played squad level games like CoH, CC and Band of Brothers. These games seem to get to the center of the tension and fun of such games with intuitive and manageable rulesets (plus no CRTs!).[q]But I am guessing that there is something I am missing, something that is over the hill of learning in ASL. For those who love this game, tell me why persevering is worth it. Is it the community? Is it tradition? Is it the expandability of the game? Is it the detail and "realism?". What does ASL have that no other squad level game has?

The armour-anti-tank system in ASL was devised by Lorrin Bird and it is the stuff of genius rarely found in any area of human endeavour.

About the variety of opponents: I've never 'met' a woman playing it, so far.

I did, I saw a woman coming to a tournament with her boyfriend, she gets 3 wins out of 5 games.

And a friend of mine use to play some Red Barricades - ASL Historical Module 1 games with his wife.

...

All of the ASL players I know play a lot of other games too. ASL is not a cult, nor are ASL players any more cultish than the enthusiasts of other systems. Most ASL players I know also play other tactical WWII game systems, so they are not blind to other systems.

It's the narrative, and the near limitless possibilities that make the game what it is. Any tactical game can have an assault by Free French troops through the woods against a German-held house. But what about German fire that causes one member of the squad to rise up in heroic fury and lead his men against the Germans? What if they were not just Free French but Moroccans from the colonial army with a reputation for deadly close in knife fighting? What if a German machinegun then opened up on them from the flank, breaking the squad's morale, but not the hero, who charges into close combat against a full squad of Germans and kills them all in hand-to-hand knife combat, even though he is wounded by the crossfire and dies while killing the last German?
That was half a dozen die rolls that represent my near-capture of a victory location. But the narrative.. man! That was fun!

I played ASL for a lot of years and enjoyed it back then. I get why people enjoy it and I respect it as a seminal game design. Now, I just don't have the time or inclination to play ASL when there are other games that scratch that itch. Contrary to Andy's comment, the other games don't deserve to be flushed because they too (if they are good scenarios) offer an equally compelling narrative.

What does ASL have that no other squad level game has?

ASL generates narrative like no other boardgame I have ever played.

According to http://www.aslscenarioarchive.com/ there are currently 5,419 ASL scenarios, no other squad level game comes close.

I get why people enjoy it and I respect it as a seminal game design.

ASL generates narrative like no other boardgame I have ever played. The seemingly needless complexity arose out of an attempt to allow the players to do anything.

...Most of the hard rules are edge cases.

...Don't worry about a total understanding or even winning. Don't be afraid to wing it when you can't find a rule. Agree to play it a certain way with an understanding that you will look it up later for future games.

...This doesn't bother people much in rpgs, but it sure frustrates people trying to learn ASL.

One man's fish is another man's poisson in this case. I find ASL to deliver one of the least narrative experiences playing tactical WW2 games. With regards to story/narrative, I must paraphrase Steve Jobs, "Any time you see CRTs, they've done it wrong."



That's like saying specs on a computer, matter, though. Bigger, faster, etc mean nothing if the usability and user experience sucks.

ASL generates narrative like no other boardgame I have ever played....

It's like a D&D game, but instead of telling the story of Beef McSlabHuge the Lawful Good paladin, you are telling the tale of Baker Company, 1st Battalion Fifth Marines at Pelelieu. It follows the same model of taking a million things into account and generating a target number to see if the action succeeds. After a while, all of the normal action become routine and you only have to dive into the rulebook when someone is trying to drive a Satan flamethrower tank off of a landing craft in choppy water.

Like D&D, everyone will play it wrong the first few dozen times. But you still get the "remember when your berserk Gunnery Sergeant managed to clear that whole cave after his flamethrower blew up?" moments. Don't worry about a total understanding or even winning. Don't be afraid to wing it when you can't find a rule. Agree to play it a certain way with an understanding that you will look it up later for future games.

Another way it is like D&D is that new players really need a Dungeon Master to teach the game and provide an opponent. The DM always knows the lion's share of the rules until his players have played for a long time. Then the players handle more and more of the rules themselves until everyone is fluent in the system. This doesn't bother people much in rpgs, but it sure frustrates people trying to learn ASL.