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A question of over complexity
By Mike | November 9, 2007
Back in the early eighties I bought the first of the Squad Leader series and was enthralled. It was such a change from what I had played before and I loved the small unit actions that made you feel that you were a part of what the infantry man had to contend with in battle. I liked the programmed learning method which got you straight into the first scenarios without having to wade through the entire rulebook. Once hooked I was quick to buy up the gamettes CoI and CoD however the rules started to add a lot more complexity and for me slowed the pace down due to referring back to the rules. By the time G I came along the complexity was way above anything I had experienced before, I mean it is necessary to have realism but so much to remember became a bit daunting such as “blind hexes” “reverse slopes” Hull down” “penetration fire” Kindling die rolls” etc. I managed to stay with it however and had so many great battles either solo or with my buddies.
It seemed natural then to graduate to ASL and I bought this in the early nineties. About that time the work place was becoming all encompassing and 15 hour days with a further 40 minutes drive back home became the norm and left me drained with very little time to play games or even relax. This eventually started to ease off but it took about 2 years before I started to find some “me” time and by then my interest had waned somewhat and the thought of learning a new set of complex rules just did not appeal. ASL was put in the cupboard and over the years I did make the effort however the complexity of the rules just ended with me selling the whole ASL stuff on E-Bay.
I still have the original SL quad and play on occasions also I have enjoyed the design your own and have done some of my own scenarios and they work OK. Personally I much prefer the SL to ASL as the complexity is at least manageable with SL and, to me, still keeps hold of the enjoyment factor which is after all why we play these games.
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April 7th, 2008 at 4:05 am
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