What became an increasing problem for me was when AH developed John Hill's subtle design with the ever increasing complexity of Cross of iron, Crescendo of Doom and GI. It is interesting that this would include the lack of formalised command structures and surrendering myself to the full abstraction of 'the' Squad Leader, but I am fine with that, it was a game with the heartbeat of abstraction. Whether for reasons of nostalgia or otherwise, I found the 1st module hit all the right notes for me and really just SOME of the rule changes that came with Cross of Iron could have made a 5th Edition (basic) Squad Leader pretty much my perfect game. I stated out in the late 70' with 4th edition Squad Leader (what we now think of as basic Squad Leader) and it was a fantastic revelation and created the spark that has given me a life long passion for WWII tactical games.
SL / ASL touches an audience between the extremes of being the only thing they play to the gamer who totally shies away from the complexity and depth, plus all shades between, creating 'dabblers' to various degrees, so I say the following as my perspective, while not wishing to antagonise anyone else.
