Nostalgic Vacation: 1977 - Squad Leader

On 08/29/2014 at 02:04 PM by KnightDriver

1977 was an important year for me: I was 10 years old, Star Wars was in the theaters that summer, the first Electronics Boutique (which became EB Games and then was merged with Gamestop) opened in my Mall at King of Prussia, PA, and the Atari 2600 was out for Christmas. For me it was ground zero for video gaming and science fiction, two of my favorite subjects.

So what should I play from this year? The Atari's release lineup was good at the time with Combat and Air-Sea Battle, but I have little interest in revisiting them; they are both just slight improvements on Pong. There wasn't much released to arcades, or on fledgling PCs that I can see, but one visit to BoardGameGeek.com, and I saw there was a board game out that year that became my absolute favorite, and one I subsequently played all through the 80's. It was Avalon Hill's Squad Leader.

slm

I love these maps! So much detail. It reminds me of the top down views in Valkyria Chronicles.

Squad Leader is a WWII board game were you lead small squads of men and vehicles through richly detailed battlefields on boards that could be combined any way you wanted. It had a large book of rules and a long list of conditions you had to check every turn. The game focused on realism and had rules for things like morale and fires. I liked that you had to check for fires. Damage to a building or a forest hex could result in a fire that could spread, creating an additional hazard. I loved the realism of that. I spent hours reading the rule books. It was so much fun.

Ha ha! Someone simulated fires in the minatures version of the game.

I used to have all the Squad Leader expansions: Cross of Iron, Crescendo of Doom, and G.I. Anvil of Victory, but in the 90's my copies of the game disappeared, probably to a yard sale while I was living in upstate NY. I considered getting it again on Amazon but it's around $50 and one of my conditions on this nostalgic peregrination is to spend as little as possible.

Squad Leader has made it to computers in the form of Virtual Squad Leader (http://www.wargameacademy.org/sqla/Vsql/ ) and a browser based version, Squad Leader Online (http://www.battle-board.com/minisl/ ). Not wanting to go through messy installs of VSL, I played SLO instead. It's like a beta version and has bugs (I couldn't get my troopes to move at all), but it was nice to see the boards and units again and look through scans of the original instructions.

xDarthKiLLx

08/29/2014 at 02:25 PM

it certainly looks like fun. are you enjoying it thus far?

KnightDriver

08/30/2014 at 03:40 PM

I'd enjoy it a lot more if I had the original game. I wish it was still in print so I could go to my local Complete Strategist store and get a copy. I may just get whatever is most like it instead, or spring for the one on Amazon.

Super Step Contributing Writer

08/29/2014 at 02:39 PM

Star Wars huh? That must have been cool.

08/30/2014 at 03:42 PM

I think I saw it on a family vacation that summer on Martha's Vinyard Island off the coast of Massachusetts. I remember not being too into it for some reason, but by the time of the sequel I was a big fan.

08/30/2014 at 05:00 PM

Interesting. I actually never got that into the original Star Wars as a kid. I liked the prequels. Yep, I was born in 1990. My childhood taste in Star Wars makes that obvious.

09/01/2014 at 11:34 PM

I remember seeing it with all the crowds and the cheers in the theater, but not really understanding what was going on.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

08/29/2014 at 02:58 PM

damn, I was born in 77.

09/01/2014 at 12:33 AM

I realize that this is ancient history for a lot of people, but what can I do. I can't control time like I want to.

I'm curious to see if anyone will argue for The Odyssey or Fairchild Channel F as being worth talking about or replaying. I'm not expecting it.

09/01/2014 at 08:54 AM

I think I played an Odyssey once. But not the other.

09/02/2014 at 12:01 AM

I thought about playing them. But I never came across a system I could buy. Although, I did see an Odyssey II in the box at my local retro store. Didn't have a strong interest to play it though. I think the simplicity of Atari is about as simple as I want to get in a game.

Alex-C25

08/29/2014 at 04:14 PM

Looks like a very interesting board game. I think I would play it over Risk if I had it.

09/01/2014 at 12:35 AM

It's so crazy complicated - makes Risk look like Checkers or something.

NSonic79

08/30/2014 at 02:18 AM

how do you remember this far back! I hardly rememeber graphic detail of when I was 10. 5 is one thing but 10? and with what you were playing then? wow.

09/01/2014 at 11:01 PM

I was talking to a friend at work who had gone to the same elementry school as I did. He remembered teacher's names, reading asignments and all that. All I remembered was the two fights I had. My other friend Sean is like that too. He remembers everybody he went to school with by name all the way back. Me? Very few.

However having a comprehensive game database in allgame.com does jog the memory about games. If i had a yearbook or something I would remember more names from school.

BrokenH

08/30/2014 at 03:10 AM

Dem hexagonal grid maps! I remember playing a mecha war game using layouts very similar to this.

09/01/2014 at 11:07 PM

Whenever I see hex grids, I nerd out a little bit.

Cary Woodham

09/01/2014 at 09:22 AM

Thanks for making me NOT feel old! I was only a year old in 1977!

09/02/2014 at 12:02 AM

I guess you would figure I would've moved on from games sometime in the mid 90's but nope, I just kept going.

goaztecs

09/11/2014 at 11:16 AM

Props on playing a board game that sounds like it would be really fun. I remember Electronics Boutique! I bought many Sega Genesis/Game Gear products from there.

09/12/2014 at 02:07 AM

I could have played Dai Senryaku VII because it's a war strategy game with hex grids for the PS2, but I wanted to see what I could find on Squad Leader and found that browser game instead. One day I'm going to get the original board game again.

I remember when Electronics Boutique became EB Games and then some stores had signs that read both EB Games and Gamestop on them when the merger happened.

PixlBit

Nostalgic Vacation: 1977 - Squad Leader

Comments