Developer: Random Games

Publisher: Microprose

After numerous attempts to develop a PC simulation of the classic Avalon Hill board game Squad Leader, fans of the epic strategy game can take heart as one is finally on the way. Over the years the long time publisher attempted to work with third party developers to create a PC version of the game, but for one reason or another it always seemed to fall through. Not that all the results ended up dead on the beaches, so to speak, as one attempt essentially became the Close Combat series from Atomic Games.

While that series attracted many followers and successfully spawned several sequels, which pretty much spanned most of the European theater of the war, the real-time gameplay didn't exactly satisfy the long time fans of the Squad Leader board game. Fast forward a bit in the history of games as Hasbro buys both Avalon Hill and Microprose and then last E3 shows off the first stages of the new Squad Leader, which is being developed by Random Games.

The first thing that was pointed out, and is fully apparent with the previewable beta, is that Random Games has worked to make the action and gameplay flow in the same manner as it did with the board game version. This means the hardcore gamers can expect turn-based play that recreates only very small (but extremely action-packed) sequences of a larger battle. Squad Leader is not really, and never was, a game about the big picture. Instead it successfully recreated those few minutes of intense action that the soldiers who were involved would never forget, and would probably spend the rest of their lives either trying to forget those moments, or bragging about them in a bar with friends (if not telling their grandchildren about them endlessly).

The computer version is being designed to appeal to the hardcore fans while also remaining accessible to those who didn't experience endless hours of dealing with movement points, rally fire, opportunity fire, defensive fire, etcetera! Many of these elements will be there but overall the game has been toned down a bit, and simplifies the use of action pointsin a way that is similar to an RPG, where players command each unit (in this case a lone soldier) who can only do so much each turn. Terrain and range modify the number of points that can be spent, so that is easier to walk along a flat road than to climb through wooded terrain.