MrsWargamer
Posts: 1655
Joined: 6/18/2014
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Myself, if I could go back in time, I'd tell them, just stick with the first manual, accept that the game is not perfect, just make lots of boards and lots of additional counters so that people could make oodles of scenarios.
Because there doesn't need to be that much fuss given to some things. Yes some weapons were fractionally different under laboratory test conditions, but often in real life, the differences just didn't matter.
I'd have been fine with terrain that wasn't too fussy, I'd have been ok with lots of maps that didn't get too nit picking fussy, I'd have been ok with buying packs of counters that mechanics wise were mostly the same, just differing images for differing nations and weapons. Because the 75 on a Churchill, and a Sherman, and a Pz IV doesn't need to be different. It doesn't need to be significantly different from a T-34.
Some of the games evolution wasn't so bad, but, the main problem was they probably just never knew the game would become popular. I don't think they planned for so much success. ASL though, as accurate as it might be, is also intimidating, and so extreme it likely scares off more than it attracts.
As I said, the Starters appeared at a time when the internet should have been exploited. They should have made it a downloadable pdf file, because you can download and print out on to a page sized label, and mount on card stock pretty darned easily. And I think if they had done that, they likely would have attracted enough attention, that increased print runs for the main product probably would have been much easier to justify.
Every time I drag out my ASL, I have the urge to just back date the whole process to at least Cross of Iron and simply disregard data on the counters that isn't relevant, and rules elements that weren't present. I look at the OOB I possess, and to me, it is more a collection of materials to play Squad Leader than Advanced Squad Leader to a point.
I don't worship the ASL manual as being a paragon of perfection. I consider it almost more a testimony to fixing something that often wasn't broken.
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Wargame, 05% of the time.
Play with Barbies 05% of the time.
Play with Legos 10% of the time.
Build models 20% of the time
Shopping 60% of the time.
Exlains why I buy em more than I play em.
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Is there MORE out there other than Imaginative Strategist? - 
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