Sunday, June 24, 2007
Squad Leader in 3D
Miniatures Games
Some years ago, I had a conversation with John Hill, the designer of Squad Leader, about how to convert the board game rules to a miniatures game. To my surprise, Hill told me that the game had originally been designed as a miniatures game, and that he had pitched it to Avalon Hill as such. He was told that, while AH had no interest in a miniatures game, if he converted it to a board game, they would buy it. So he did, and they did, and the rest is history.
Hill’s advice was to simply use the rules as-is, converting measurements from hexes to inches. He suggested a straight one hex to one inch conversion, but I think that’s because he envisioned using micro armor. Our group decided that a two- or three- inch to one hex conversion was better for 15mm figures, and we have played it that way off and on for a couple of years.
Then recently, the owner of the WWII figures (I had painted them for him several years ago) bought a couple of Hotz Artworks hex mats. This past Saturday night was our first using hexes instead of rulers.
And what a difference it made! Squad Leader played fairly well with rulers, but is a delight with hexes. Having the hexes sped up things considerably, taking measurement out of the equation, and leaving us to concentrate on the other aspects of the game.
The scenario involved a group of Germans defending a fortified position and a collective farm, separated by eight hexes. A large force of Russians was dispatched to clear them out.
After the Germans deployed, the Russians entered on the opposite side of the board. The initial strategy was to concentrate the entire attack on the fort and ignore the collective. The Russians would mass in a wood close to the fort, shoot to attempt to disorder the Germans, and then close assault.
The plan didn’t work. As the Russians attempted to take positions in the wood, they were slaughtered by massed German firepower, both from the fort, and at long range, from the collective. An assault finally was attempted, but by then there were far too few Soviets left.
Since the game took just an hour and a half, we set up again and restarted. This time, the Russians sent a smaller contingent to keep the Collective busy. Again, the horde moved up to the woods. This time, the Germans were far less effective in their fire. Part of that was that their dice had gone cold; part was that the troops in the collective now had their own problems and could not fire with impunity.
The Russians facing the collective farm then got lucky and rolled snake eyes on a low odds shot. The German leader in the hex failed his morale check, as did the rest of the unit. The second round of morale checks eliminated a third of the German flank.
The Russians facing the fortification got a similar break and were able to force their way in for a Russian victory.
Squad Leader turns out to be a terrific system for miniatures when using printed hex mats. The basic game is elegant and relatively simple. While ASL has moved on to Multi-Man publishing, I’d really like to see basic Squad Leader re-released as a purely miniatures set.
Entry Permalink and Comments | Email this entry | List All Posts By Category
Didn't find what you wanted? Try our exclusive Miniature Wargaming Search Engine.
Comments:
No comments yet.