Hex and counter wargames have made something of a comeback with the excellent Combat Commander: Europe, but it’s not quite the hobby it once was.īoardgames, however, are doing quite strongly, led by The Settlers of Catan and other related Eurogames. The world today is also a different place than it was a quarter of a century ago, and the most common “wargames” played by people are likely to be games like Risk or possibly Memoir ’44.
I doubt ASL has ever sold that many copies, but in terms on longevity it’s doing quite well.Īlthough ASL might not quite be the most complicated wargame of all time, it certainly is up there in complexity, and its rulebook is off-putting for most novice wargamers, as is its cost to get started. It was 1985 when it first hit the shelves, and was the successor to the astonishingly successful Squad Leader (1977), which had itself sold over 200,000 copies 1.
Advanced Squad Leader wasn’t really published all that long ago, when you think about it.
