Advanced Squad Leader

Conflict: WW2
Theatres: Multiple
Scale: Tactical
Players: 2
Publisher: Avalon Hill, MMP

Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) is a tactical-level board wargame, originally marketed by Avalon Hill Games, that simulates actions of approximately company or battalion size in World War II. It is a detailed game system for two or more players (with solitaire play also possible). ASL his the successor of the old Squad Leader from Avalon Hill.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Squad_Leader
Board Game Geek: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/243/advanced-squad-leader
Web Grognard: http://grognard.com/titles.html
VASSAL Module: http://www.advancedsquadleader.net/index.php/VASL_mods
Cyberboard Gamebox: http://loakes.game-host.org/limeyyankgames/gameboxes.php

Components include the ASL Rulebook and various games called modules. ASL modules provide the standard equipment for playing ASL, including geomorphic mapboards and counters. The mapboards are divided into hexagons to regulate fire and movement, and depict generic terrain that can represent different historical locations. The counters are cardboard pieces that depict squads of soldiers, crews, individual leaders, support weapons, heavy weapons, and vehicles.

List of original scenarii: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squad_Leader_Scenarios

List of original boards: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squad_Leader

ASL has been complemented and boosted with a number of extensions or gamettes, and action packs:

1—Beyond Valor (1985)
2—Paratrooper (1986)
3—Yanks (1987)
4—Partisan! (1987)
5—West of Alamein (1988)
5a—For King and Country (2004)
6—The Last Hurrah (1988)
7—Hollow Legions (1989)
8—Code of Bushido (1990)
9—Gung Ho! (1991)
10—Croix de Guerre (1992)
11—Doomed Battalions (1998)
12—Armies of Oblivion (2006)

The game also has action packs including additional scenarii and boards:

1-Action Pack 1 (AH, 1997)
2-Action Pack 2 (MMP, 1999)
3-Action Pack 3: Few Returned (MMP, 2007)
4-Action Pack 4: Normandy (MMP, 2008)
5-Action Pack 5: Eastern Front (MMP, 2009)
6-Action Pack 6: A Decade of War (MMP, 2010)
7-Action Pack 7 (MMP, 2011)

Extras & fansites:

Original scenarii index: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squad_Leader_Scenarios
Extra scenarii: http://www.aslscenarioarchive.com/
VASL transcriptions of scenarii: http://www.advancedsquadleader.net/index.php/Category:Scenarios
Scenarii resources at Wargame Academy: http://www.wargameacademy.org/sqla/scenarios/index.html
A lot of ASL resources here: http://www.tuline.com/dru/node/11

Videos:

Intro by “Strategist Board Games”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqwcHiA18p0
Intro to wargames basics with ASL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH70ZZlTCjM
Intro to ASL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvOv7p29s9A

More about original Squad Leader:

Squad Leader is a tactical level board wargame originally published by Avalon Hill in 1977. It was designed by Hall of Fame game designer John Hill and focuses on infantry combat in Europe during World War II. One of the most complex wargames of its time, Squad Leader was the natural extension of the trend towards greater realism (and hence complexity) initiated by several earlier games, including Avalon Hill’s own PanzerBlitz and Panzer Leader. Those two earlier games were slightly larger in scope, with counters representing platoons and map hexes measuring 250 metres across, compared to Squad Leader’s 40 metre hexes and squad sized units. The original Squad Leader was produced in time to debut at Origins ’77. (The original print run of 2,500 copies had purple boxes which have become in and of themselves a prized collector’s item.) Three expansions (called gamettes by the publisher) were produced, Cross of Iron (COI), Crescendo of Doom (COD) and GI: Anvil of Victory (GI).