First published was Squad Leader, a tactical level board wargame by Avalon Hill
in 1977. Squad Leader focuses on infantry combat in Europe during World War II. Popularity, dealing primarily with the games complexity and dedication to realism, propelled Squad Leader to the forefront of the wargaming hobby. But to address many aspects of Squad level combat a new form of
Squad Leader was needed.
Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) was first published by Avalon Hill in 1985 as a successor to the
Squad Leader series ASL has its roots and from which the rules and components were directly developed.
ASL quickly tied together all loose interpreted and contradictory rules. This new system was heralded as the main thrust of the Squad Leader system and has since become to be all and end all to squad level gaming.
For the next 20 years, Advanced Squad Leader grew in popularity and complexity. The basic rule book grew into a massive, in-depth binder bound rule book. The complexity of the rules slowly intimidated potential new players from the
ASL ranks. In 2004, Multi Man Publishing, the original owners and publishers of
Squad Leader and Advanced Squad Leader, introduced the Starter Kits.
The Starter Kits take the complexity of Advanced Squad leader and simplifies it to levels that new players can understand. Each kit focuses on specific aspects of the over all game but is independent of each other and can be played separately.
The ASL Starter Kit #2 is a stand-alone game. This kit contains eight scenarios that require only the maps and counters provided in the module. The two mapboards that are included also work with both
Squad Leader and Advanced Squad Leader (ASL), and the scenarios can be played using full
Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) rules if desired.
