Board wargames are a type of strategy game, like chess or go.  The main difference is that board wargames are not abstract games like chess, but are instead based on some sort of actual military conflict (usually historical, but some wargames portray hypothetical "what if?" situations and others have science fiction or fantasy themes).  Some are very simple and easy to learn, others are more complex. 

Board wargames put you in command and allow you to re-fight wars, battles, or firefights.  Imagine launching the D-Day invasion or defending against the German offensive in the Battle of the Bulge!  Can YOU do better than your historical counterparts?  This is why board wargames are so exciting; they combine the competition and mental stimulation of a classic strategy game like chess with the flavor and details of historical situations. 

Many people who try board wargames become addicts as they discover how fun they can be!  Board wargames can be particularly appealing for people who are interested in history, especially military history; for people who like the thrill of playing games and outwitting their opponents; and for people who like the face to face socializing.  Board wargames are played by people with a wide range of ages.  Most board wargamers first begin playing around the ages of 12-15, often introduced by a friend or older relative, but there are people who picked up their first wargame in their 50s or later.  Wargames have appealed to people from famous newscaster Walter Cronkite to professional baseball superstar Curt Schilling. 

In the 1980s, a new variety of wargame first appeared, the "computer wargame."  The early ones tried to duplicate board wargames on the computer screen, but poor graphics and poor AI made them poor substitutes.  Today, 30 years later, the graphics on computer wargames are better but the AI is usually still poor.  Perhaps more importantly, computer wargame makers increasingly became diverted by simulators (like a tank commander simulator) and the so-called "real time strategy games," both of which had more aspects of arcade games and physical action than they did of true strategy games.  In addition, they did not have the added attraction of face to face play.  By the 2000s, though, things had come full circle, with the development of several different engines that would allow people to play board wargames using their computers, so that someone in St. Louis and someone in Hong Kong could play a board wargame against each other.

Most board wargames are played on a map depicting the area the war, battle, or firefight was fought over.  A strategic wargame might have a map of the whole world, while an operational wargame might depict a smaller area such as the forests of the Ardennes or the fields of Waterloo.  A tactical game will zoom in even more, focusing on a single village, perhaps, or an invasion beach.  Usually the map is overlaid with a grid of squares or hexagons to regulate movement and combat.  A few wargames—typically naval or air games—don't use maps at all but tabletops or living room floors as their playing areas. 

Players command the units that fought in the conflict, maneuvering them around the battlefield and engaging the enemy in conflict.  Typically, wargames use cardboard chits (called "counters") to represent the various units.  A counter is likely to have a unit designation (such as "1^st Infantry Division"), an image or icon depicting the type of unit (infantry, cavalry, armor, etc.), and one or more numbers representing various attributes, abilities, strengths and weaknesses of the unit.  These numbers are used for movement, combat, and other game functions.

The game rules govern how units can be moved and fought; they also present the overall historical context, providing information about how terrain, the weather, historical goals, politics, and other factors may affect the game.  Most wargames also provide varying levels of "chrome"—that is, little bits of historical flavor thrown in.  For example, many wargames on the Battle of the Bulge have a rule for Otto Skorzeny's German commandos dressed in American uniforms slipped behind American lines to cause confusion and disarray.

The origins of wargames date back to the "kriegspiel" military wargames run by the Prussian General Staff in the 19^th century, as well as to early "civilian" attempts at modeling military conflicts, such as systems created by writers H. G. Wells in Great Britain and Fletcher Pratt in the United States.  But it was in 1958 that Charles Roberts created the first modern board wargame, a game called "Tactics" which depicted a war between two fictional countries, Red and Blue.  Roberts quickly realized that simulating real battles or wars might be more popular and followed up with a game on the battle of Gettysburg.  Games such as "D-Day," "Stalingrad," "Waterloo," "Guadalcanal," "Chancellorsville," and others followed.  The era of board wargaming had begun.

Throughout the 1960s, the company that published the abovementioned games, Avalon Hill, dominated the wargaming scene.  However, in the 1970s a number of new wargaming companies emerged (the most notable of which were called Simulations Publications Incorporated [SPI] and Game Designers Workshop [GDW], resulting in a vast increase in the number of wargames available.  Simultaneously, wargames caught the fancy of the American public (perhaps turning away from the unpopular "real" Vietnam War) and during the period 1975-1980 board wargames enjoyed a fad status and considerable popularity.

By the early 1980s, however, the fad declined.  Moreover, there was more competition for players and their hobby dollars from other types of games and gaming systems, including role-playing games, video and computer games, and "miniatures" gaming (to these would later be added collectible card games and so-called "Euro" games).  As a result, since the 1980s, board wargaming has been more of a niche hobby, with a smaller audience.  Ironically, advances in game design and print technologies began to make wargames both more attractive and fun to play at the same time that some people turned away from them.  In the 21^st century, though, several factors combined to make board wargames somewhat more popular, most important of which was the Internet, which allowed people to learn about, buy, and even play board wargames on-line.  Today there is a very active international board wargaming community.

Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) is probably the most popular board wargame in the world.  Its subject is tactical combat in the World War II era.  ASL is not a single stand-alone game, but rather a modular game system whose components collectively allow you to experience tactical combat in any theater of World War II. 

The extent and variety of ASL is truly astounding; if you can imagine a type of fighting in World War II, ASL can represent it.  Fighting in the rubble of Stalingrad?  Check.  Storming the beaches of Normandy?  Check.  Staving off Rommel at Tobruk?  Check.  Clearing Japanese from caves in Okinawa?  Check.  Finnish ski troops?  Polish cavalry?  Yugoslav partisans?  Filipino conscripts?  Japanese paratroopers?   Belgian snipers?  Check. 

Virtually every weapon and vehicle that appeared in World War II also make an appearance in ASL.  German King Tiger tanks.  Sherman amphibious tanks.  Japanese "knee" mortars.  Recoilless rifles.  Bulgarian panzers.  "Wasp" flamethrowing vehicles.  Molotov cocktail projectors.  Stukas.  Naval artillery.  Even the dreaded "Sturmtiger." 

To represent all of these exciting things, ASL needs a lot of rules and, sure enough, it comes with a thick rulebook.  But the genius of ASL is that it is actually easy to learn, because the core systems that govern movement and conflict are not complicated and can be learned in minutes (indeed, the ASL Starter Kits, which eliminate most of the chrome to concentrate on the core rules, allow people to be up and running in minutes).  Most of the rules are rules for specific circumstances.  If you are not playing a scenario set in the desert, you can completely ignore the desert rules.  This also allows people to learn at their own pace.

Gameplay in ASL is centered on the "scenario."  A scenario is a representation of a specific tactical action.  Do you remember the episode in "Band of Brothers" depicting Easy Company's assault on the German artillery battery position at Brecourt during the Normandy invasion?  That might be an ASL scenario.  ASL scenarios vary considerably in size and nature, but a "typical" ASL scenario might depict an action in which a player controls the actions of 100-300 soldiers, perhaps accompanied by 1-8 vehicles and/or guns.  ASL scenarios provide historical context and information, specify which maps and counters to use, provide special rules to simulate that specific situation, and provide "victory conditions" for each side.  Depending on its size, a scenario might take from a couple of hours to a full day to play.  Most scenarios probably take around four or five hours to play (including set-up time).

What makes ASL so highly addictive as a game is that it is incredibly interactive and incredibly immersive.  It "sucks you in" to the game in a way that virtually no boardgame ever does.  Many people have described the experience of playing an ASL scenario as like making their own World War II movie—that is how visual it is and how strong a narrative flow ASL scenarios have.  If you play an ASL scenario, you experience a "story."  Moreover, there is no "down time" in ASL.  The game is so interactive that there is no waiting for your opponent to make his moves.  Both players are constantly confronted with decisions to make, decisions that could significantly affect the outcome of the scenario.  The result is that ASL is amazingly mentally stimulating.  Your brain is overclocked when you play ASL, it is racing as fast as it can.  When you play ASL, you immerse yourself in a complete gaming experience.  You will want to come back again and again.

And when you play ASL, you have a world of options open to you.  First, there are literally thousands of different scenarios published.  You can reach for your favorite "classic" scenarios to enjoy them again, but you can also always—always!—have fresh new scenarios to play as well.  There is so much variety that you could play a different scenario every single day for well over a decade and still not play them all. 

However, in addition to scenarios, there are other ways to play ASL.  Two in particular are worth mentioning.  The first is the so-called "Historical ASL Module" or HASL.  HASLs are major products devoted to a specific military action with detailed historical maps and rules for that conflict.  Some past HASLs have included the fighting for the Red Barricades factory complex at Stalingrad, the Marine Corps invasion of Tarawa in 1943, and the fight for the "bridge too far" at Arnhem in 1944.  HASLs offer not only the thrill of playing on detailed historical maps, but also something called a "campaign game," which offers an extended playing experience.  ASL campaign games offer a unique strategic element by depicting tactical level fighting over an extended period of time—days or even weeks.  Through multiple playing sessions, players must be masters of strategy as well as tactics, assembling their forces, creating plans, and conducting extended attacks, defenses and counterattacks.  The fondest memories for many ASLers are from their first campaign game experience.  Many campaign games are also large enough to allow for the possibility of team play, which can be tremendously fun.

Another way to play ASL is through solitaire play.  While individual ASL scenarios may be able to be played solitaire, there is a whole game subsystem, Solitaire ASL (SASL) which provides rules and counters for players to undertake a variety of solitaire missions.  The game system provides rules for the governance of the "enemy" force.  Although one of the real thrills of ASL is its face to face play, SASL offers a very different playing experience that many ASLers enjoy quite a bit.

ASL is called Advanced Squad Leader because it is descended from a (long out of print) 1977 game called Squad Leader, designed by John Hill and published by Avalon Hill.  This game, the first tactical squad level game ever, was a best-seller and tremendously popular.  It introduced many of the concepts that still govern ASL.  Over the next seven years, three additional "gamettes" were published adding additional components, complexity and chrome.  By the early 1980s, it was getting pretty confusing.  There were several different rulebooks to go through, several different iterations of counter design, and other problems.  Expanding the system further threatened to put too much strain on it.

What Avalon Hill decided to do instead was to re-do Squad Leader, combining, revising and refining all the rules of the original system, as well as adding new systems to make it more universal.  The new rules would be accompanied by a modular system of components that could be purchased piece by piece.  The result was Advanced Squad Leader, appearing in 1986.  It too was an immediate hit and quickly developed a dedicated following.  Indeed, the demand for ASL material was so great that Avalon Hill could not satisfy demand, with the result that many people and companies (the so called "third party" publishers) began publishing "unofficial" ASL materials. 

Eventually, ASL outlived Avalon Hill itself.  The venerable wargame publishers had long been facing financial hard times.  In 1998, their parent company decided to sell its gaming assets to toy giant Hasbro and concentrate instead on other ventures.  But a small company, Multi-Man Publishing (MMP), which began as a "third party" publisher, then signed on as the designers and developers of Avalon Hill's ASL line, reached a licensing agreement with Hasbro that would allow it to keep the ASL line alive.  For the past 10 years, ASL has been the flagship of MMP's line of board wargames.  They have been good stewards of one of the best strategy games ever created.

The Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit (ASLSK) is a series of products designed to make it easy and inexpensive for people to try ASL.  Before the SK series debuted, you need to have the full ASL rulebook and a module like Beyond Valor in order to play a single scenario.  That's a pretty substantial investment.  The ASLSK offers a pleasing alternative.

Currently, the ASLSK series consists primarily of three stand-alone modules (there may be future products such as scenario packs released in the future):  ASLSK 1, 2, and 3.  Each contains a stand-alone rulebook, charts, maps, scenarios, and all the counters needed to play those scenarios.  So if you buy ASLSK 1, for example, you have everything you need to play its scenarios right away!  These modules are also inexpensive—it is often possible to find ASLSK1 for $24 or less.  This makes them a great gaming investment—you get an awful lot of fun value for your gaming dollar.

In addition to being inexpensive, the ASLSK series is a great way to learn the basic ASL rules.  Each ASLSK module introduces a major portion of the ASL rules.  However, because the rules concentrate on core game dynamics and leave out chrome and minor rules, they are short and easy to learn.  It is amazing to see that so much of the ASL rules can be distilled into just a few pages of rules.  Illustrated with copious examples of play, the ASLSK rules can have you up and running in a matter of minutes.

Each ASLSK module is stand-alone, so that you don't have to deal with three separate rulebooks.  ASLSK1 introduces the core infantry rules.  ASLSK2 reprises all of those rules (so it is in fact possible to skip ASLSK 1 and go straight to 2 instead) and adds rules for mortars and guns.  ASLSK3 reprises all the rules of its predecessors (so again, you can start with this module if you wanted to) and adds the core rules for tanks and AFVs.  The rules for all of these are completely compatible with full ASL rules—learn something here and it still works in ASL.  So it is a great way to learn the system.

So well done is the ASLSK series that some people never even go to full ASL—they are perfectly happy with the SK.  Even veteran ASL players will sometimes play ASLSK scenarios, often because they are usually a bit more quick-playing than full ASL.

Additional ASLSK scenarios can be found in MMP's Operations magazine, and a few "third party" ASLSK scenarios have also been published.

One of the best things about ASL is that it has a large, active and friendly gaming community.  Many ASLers who first meet across the gaming table become friends for life.  The ASL community is friendlier and more mature than many other gaming communities, such as the collectible card game community. 

First, keep in mind that there are thousands of ASLers out there, so no matter where you live, you can probably find an ASL opponent for face to face play.  Among the countries that have active ASL communities are the United States, Canada, Japan, Great Britain, Australia, Spain, France, Italy, Sweden and Finland.  Many other countries also have ASL players. 

The large size of the ASL community means that there are many organized ASL events around the world (including every country mentioned above).  These range from relatively informal day or weekend get-togethers for ASL players in a particular region to a variety of formal tournaments.   One of the largest ASL tournaments is a week-long extravaganza called ASLOK (short for ASL Oktoberfest) held in Cleveland every year in the first week of October.  It routinely attracts some of the best ASL players in the world, but is equally friendly to newbies!  Regional tournaments are held in every corner of the United States as well as in many other countries.  Larger tournaments may have more than 100 people, while regional tournaments may have attendance that ranges from 20 to 80.  

Not only are there ASL tournaments and events, there are also a large number of ASL clubs.  In the United States, one of the largest is the Southern California ASL Club, which has chapters in various southern California cities, runs a number of events and tournaments, operates a major ASL website, and even publishes scenarios!  It is a great resource.  There are other clubs across the U.S. and internationally.

People from all of these clubs and countries can meet not just in person at tournaments but on-line in the vibrant on-line ASL community.  There are active ASL discussion forums in many languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Swedish.  English language discussion forums allow people from around the world to meet and talk.  See the section on Web resources for more details.

There are a lot of places to buy ASL-related items.  If you want to try to find stuff locally, the first place to check would be your local hobby and gaming stores.  Major toy retailers like Toys 'R Us do not carry a niche product like ASL, but many hobby and gaming stores (and even a few comic book stores) do. 

However, one of the easiest ways to find ASL stuff is on-line, starting with the Multi-Man Publishing Web site at multimanpublishing.com.  Here you can buy the latest stuff, pre-order new stuff, and even take advantage of occasional cool sales. 

In addition, there are several on-line retailers who typically carry a lot of ASL items.  One of the best is the Gamer's Armory, run by Scott Blanton, at www.gamersarmory.com.  He has good prices and a reputation for good customer service.

Sometimes you can find ASL stuff at Boulder Games at www.bouldergames.com.  Fine Games at www.finegames.com has new ASL stuff but also often out-of-print ASL items as well.

British gamers might try Infinity Games UK at www.iguk.co.uk, Leisure Games at www.leisuregames.com, or Spirit Games at www.spiritgames.co.uk.  Second Chance Games at www.secondchancegames.com also usually has ASL stuff, including used items.  Great Britain actually has a wealth of on-line retailers that carry at least some ASL items

Australians might try Mil Sims Games at www.milsims.com.au.  Canadians can check out Imperial Hobbies at www.imperialhobbies.ca.  French-speakers can try Histoire et Figurine at www.histofig.com.  Germans can look for ASL stuff at Fantasy Encounter at www.fanen.com.  Folks from Japan can try the Internet Online Game Market at www.boardwalk.co.jp.   These are all just possibilities; a few Google searches and it is possible to find a great many on-line retailers who stock ASL items.

For people searching for "third party" ASL items, sometimes one can find them at on-line retail stores, but only a few such stores, such as Gamers Armory (www.gamersarmory.com) tend to stock a lot of items.  Otherwise, it is best to go to the Web site of the publisher and order it directly there, or to use E-bay.

And speaking of E-bay, last but far from least, this on-line auction site always has a lot of new and old, used and unused ASL items for sale at any given time.  Bargains can be had, but arms and legs are also sometimes at risk, so caveat emptor.  Nevertheless, E-bay is hands down one of the quickest ways to build up an ASL collection, and often the only way to acquire rare out-of-print ASL-related items.

There are hundreds of ASL related Web pages out there; one of the pleasures of getting into ASL is discovering the wealth of resources that exists on-line.  The sites mentioned below are far from definitive, but represent only some of the ASL sites available.

For places to buy ASL stuff, please see the appropriate section elsewhere here.

One site that many ASL players regularly visit is www.desperationmorale.com.  This large ASL site contains tons of free downloadable ASL play aids and scenarios, a comprehensive illustrated guide to every single ASL product (official and unofficial) ever released, an online discussion forum, and much more—even an ASL Museum!

Two other general gaming forums that have ASL-related discussion forums on them are www.consimworld.com and www.gamesquad.com.  In addition, there is a lot of ASL-related info at www.boardgamegeek.com.  Several ASL specific forums for non-English speakers also exist, including the ASL Italia forum at http://freeforumzone.leonardo.it/forum.aspx?c=33105&f=33105, the ASL Sweden discussion forum at http://forum.aslsweden.com, the ASL Spain forum at www.asl-spain.net/foro/index.php, the Forum Francophone de Liaison ASL at http://aslforum.histofig.com/smf/index.php, and more.

One site that is very useful is the ROAR site at www.jrvdev.com/ROAR/VER1/default.asp, which is an on-line database of win-loss records for every published ASL scenario.  It helps players know which scenarios are fun and balanced, and which may not be.  It also allows people to track their own records.  A newer site of somewhat similar bent is the ASL Scenario Archive at www.aslscenarioarchive.com.

VASL, which lets you play ASL on-line, can be found at www.vasl.org. 

The ASL WebDex at www.aslwebdex.net is an older site that still has some good resources.  Another older site, Tuomoland, has good resources for beginners, at home.comcast.net/~tomrepetti/. 

Two of the longest-running ASL newsletters are View from the Trenches, whose past issues can be downloaded at www.vftt.co.uk, and Banzai!!, whose issues can be found at www.texas-asl.com/banzai/banzai_index.htm.

Notable ASL clubs include (but are not limited to) the Southern California ASL Club at www.socalasl.com, the Texas ASL Club at www.texas-asl.com, and the New England clubs at http://asl.yankeegamers.org. 

Official ASL products were originally published by Avalon Hill and are now published, under license from Hasbro, by Multiman Publishing.  However, for many years, the demand for ASL related products has been so great that the official publisher has not been able to fill that demand.  In addition, ASL is a game that practically invites people to create their own scenarios and designs.  As a result, there is a flourishing array of "third party" publishers who design, publish and sell (or sometimes give away) unofficial ASL scenarios, newsletters, magazines, scenario packs, historical modules, and more.

Originally, "third party" products were limited to newsletters, but as time went on, some ASLers became more energetic and started to release products that were more professionally produced and more ambitious in scope.  Today, third party products run the gamut from simple "home-brewed" scenarios all the way up to full-fledged modules with rules, die-cut counters, and professionally printed maps.  Several third party producers have evolved to "part time business" status, while one company that started off as a third party ASL publisher ended up becoming a full time wargaming company in its own right.

To date, hundreds of unofficial ASL-compatible products have been released; for a complete illustrated guide, see the World of ASL Compendium on the Desperation Morale Web site at www.desperationmorale.com. 

The quality of unofficial ASL products varies greatly.  Often the publishers have less time or resources at their disposal, which can show up in terms of physical quality of components or in the amount of errata and balance problems.  On the other hand, there are unofficial publishers for whom their products are essentially labors of love and who will dedicate great amounts of time to getting things right.  Some third party publishers have established very high reputations for quality over the years.

Third party products typically fall into one of four categories:  1) newsletters, which may be further divided into newsletters with scenarios and newsletters without scenarios; 2) scenario packs, the most common type of third party product, which consist of from 6-18 scenarios but generally no other components; 3) scenario "plus" packs, which are scenario packs that contain one or more "meatier" components such as a full magazine, die-cut counters or and/or mapboards; and 4) modules, which are usually historical modules that contain rules, historical maps, and often counters and/or campaign games.  The latter are usually the most expensive, but also often the most popular. 

A number of third party publishers concentrate to some degree on "tournament" scenarios, which are scenarios of small or moderate size that can reasonably be played at an ASL tournament.  As a result, third party tournament-sized scenarios with a good reputation can garner a large number of playing.

Perhaps the greatest strength of third party publishers, however, is that they can fill niches that official ASL products are not likely themselves to fill, either due to the obscurity of the topic or for some other reason.  So, for example, there are third party products that deal with wars other than World War II, including the Spanish Civil War, the Korean War, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and others.  Within World War II, there are third party products that look at obscure subjects ranging from Australian troops in Borneo in 1945 to British special forces in North Africa to the Dutch in World War II and more.  This is not to say that there are no official ASL products on obscure or lesser known subjects—there are several—but no official publisher could ever publish all of these interesting items.  As a result, the ASL world is far the richer for the wealth of unofficial ASL products.

Some unofficial ASL producers include Sherry Enterprises/Schwerpunkt (mysite.verizon.net/resvy9ue/), Friendly Fire (www.friendlyfire.se/asl/), Critical Hit (www.criticalhit.com), Heat of Battle (www.heatofbattle.com), Bounding Fire Productions (www.boundingfire.com), Le Franc Tireur (www.lefranctireur.org), Lone Canuck Publishing (www.lonecanuckpublishing.ca), Fanatic Enterprises (http://fanaticenterprises.tripod.com/), and East Side Gamers (home.earthlink.net/~shouseman/eastsidegamers/).

One of the coolest things about ASL is its international flavor.  ASL players can be found not only throughout the U.S., and also throughout Canada, but also through Europe and beyond.  Australia, Belgium and France, Spain and Portugal, Italy, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden and Finland all have active ASL communities, and there are smaller numbers of ASL players in other European countries.  A wide variety of other countries also have at least some ASL players, ranging from South Africa to Hong Kong to Israel to the Philippines.  Japan has an active ASL community as well, but for some reason it is not very tied in to the rest of the international ASL community...:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Depending on the size of the ASL community in these countries, one can find ASL clubs, informal ASL get-togethers, a variety of ASL tournaments, and sometimes even publications.  Le Franc Tireur, for example, is a large professionally published ASL-related magazine from France. 

ASLers from different countries interact with each other on-line (and may even play each other on-line using VASL), but also try to play each other face to face when they can.  This is somewhat easier in Europe, of course.  In 2008, for example, the annual ASL tournament held at Arnhem in the Netherlands, featured players not only from the Netherlands but also from Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, France, and even the United States. 

The one tournament that many ASL players from around the world try to make a "pilgrimage" to at least once is ASLOK, or ASL Oktoberfest, held each year in Cleveland, Ohio.  Because it is the largest ASL tournament in the world, it is a fun and exciting event to attend.  Every two years, for example, a sizable contingent of Danish and Swedish ASL players make their way to Cleveland to take part.  The 2008 ASLOK featured players from the United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, France, Canada, and New Zealand. 

It is really fun and exciting to be able to sit across the table from an ASL player from the other side of the world, both having this shared love for the game.  ASL is a source of many international friendships. 

Interested in ASL?  Lots of people are, once they've taken a look at it.  Their first question is usually how should they actually start getting into it.  It's actually a two-part question:  1) what is the best way to start learning and playing ASL, and 2) how should one go about getting the system (i.e., in what order, etc.).

So let's take them in order.  How should you start learning and playing ASL?  In terms of products, the ASL system now has an excellent way to introduce people to the game:  the ASL Starter Kit series (ASLSK).  There are three modules (ASLSK 1, 2, and 3), each of which is standalone in that it can be purchased independently of the others (see the section on ASLSK for complete details).  ASLSK 1 introduces the basic infantry rules.  ASLSK 2 reprises these rules (so if you want to, you can skip 1 and go straight to 2) and includes new rules for mortars and artillery pieces.  ASLSK 3 reprises the rules of both of its predecessors (so, again, if you want to, you can skip the first two and go straight to 3), but also includes the basic rules for tanks and AFVs. 

The SK modules have several advantages.  The first is that they are inexpensive.  It is often possible to find ASLSK 1 for $24 or less, for example, so it is a perfect way to see if ASL is a match for you.  If you don't like it, you've hardly spent any money at all.  And if you do like it, you can use all of its components in your collection.  The second advantage is that the Starter Kits do a simply phenomenal job of extracting the core rules from ASL and leaving all the chrome rules aside.  The result is that you can concentrate on these rules and really get them down pat, without being burdened by having to remember less commonly used rules.  Thousands of new players have been introduced to ASL via the Starter Kits since their debut a few years ago.  They are very popular, and deservedly so.

It is, of course, possible to learn the full ASL rules—thousands of people have done so.  But the ASLSK modules are such a fantastic resource that starting with them is really recommended.  Take advantage of them!

Whichever way you decide to start learning the rules, don't forget to take advantage of one of the great strengths of ASL:  the size of the ASL community.  You don't need to learn these rules alone.  There are so many ASL players around—and not just in the United States—that it is often easy to find veteran ASL players who are more than willing to teach you the game.  Indeed, ASL players are famous for their friendliness to newcomers, because they have a vested interest in "growing the hobby."

If you decide that ASL is for you, the next step is assembling your ASL set.  This can seem very confusing at first, because there have been so many ASL products, official and unofficial, published over the years.  And at any given time, some products may be out of print.  But it is not that hard to start your collection if you keep a few basic principles in mind.

First, get the rulebook.  Even if you are still playing ASLSK scenarios, it is a good idea to go ahead and get the main rulebook, because you can already start familiarizing yourself with it.  The latest edition of the ASL rules is the 2^nd Edition, so make sure the version you purchase says this.  It is possible to find cheap 1^st Edition rulebooks, but in the long run it is better to purchase the 2^nd Edition.

Once you have the rulebook, remember that your first goal is to amass a complete core set of counters, maps and overlays.  Once you have these, you can play every ASL scenario past, present and future.  The counters all come in what are called core modules; the module Beyond Valor provides German and Soviet counters, while most other modules introduce a single nationality.  Core modules also include several maps each, and often sheets of overlays.  A few maps may also be found in non-core products called Action Packs; some overlays have also appeared in Action Packs and issues of the ASL Journal magazine. 

There is no preferred order of obtaining modules or nationalities.  The goal, of course, is to eventually have them all, so any purchase takes you closer to this goal.  In practice, it is often a good idea to prioritize the major nationalities of World War II, as there are more scenarios featuring Americans than Bulgarians.  Beyond Valor is usually the best first purchase.

The core modules (in terms of countersets) are these:

-Beyond Valor (introduces Germans and Soviets).

-Yanks (introduces most Americans)

-For King and Country (introduces the British)

-Code of Bushido/Gung Ho (originally two separate modules, introducing respectively the Japanese and the Chinese/US Marines/early war U.S./ Filipinos, these modules will be combined when they are reprinted in the near future)

-Doomed Battalions (Allied minors)

-Armies of Oblivion (Axis minors)

-Croix de Guerre (French)

-Hollow Legions (Italians)

Some of the contents of these modules have changed somewhat over the years in different editions, so be sure to check a resource like www.DesperationMorale.com to make sure you know what you are getting.

Keep in mind that you can often find used copies of these modules, or of individual components such as maps, secondhand on E-bay or elsewhere.  E-bay can be a great way to fill holes in a collection.  In recent years, there have been problems with delays in reprinting core modules that were originally published by Avalon Hill, because the original layouts and artwork did not survive and have had to be recreated.  This has resorted in some scarcities and high secondary market prices.  For example, Code of Bushido is currently quite expensive to buy secondhand, so many ASL players are eagerly awaiting its reprint so they can add the Japanese and Chinese to their collection.