''Avalon Hill's Squad Leader'' is a 2000 turn-based strategy video game developed by

Random Games In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of pattern or predictability in events. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Individual rand ...

and published by Hasbro Interactive under the

MicroProse MicroProse is an American video game publisher and video game developer, developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization (series), Civilizatio ...

label. It is a tie-in to Avalon Hill's

board wargame A board wargame is a wargame with a set playing surface or board, as opposed to being played on a computer or in a more free-form playing area as in miniatures games. The modern, commercial wargaming hobby (as distinct from military exercises, o ...

'' Squad Leader''.

Development

Publisher Avalon Hill had considered a computer version of its

'' Squad Leader'' during the 1990s, as the game and its '' Advanced Squad Leader'' releases had sold over 1 million copies by 1997. However, ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

''s Terry Coleman noted that the series' complexity made this job "too daunting" initially. In the middle of the decade, the publisher worked with Atomic Games on a computer adaptation called ''Beyond Squad Leader'', but the companies' partnership collapsed and the game became the unrelated '' Close Combat'' in 1996. Avalon Hill tried again with

Big Time Software Battlefront.com is a video game developer and publisher. Battlefront specialises in war-related games, including turn-based and real-time strategies, as well as simulations of air, land and naval military vehicles. Apart from publishing the sel ...

's ''Computer Squad Leader'', announced in early 1997. This project fell through in July 1998 to become the independent wargame ''

Combat Mission ''Combat Mission'' is the name of a successful series of computer wargames simulating tactical battles. The series has progressed through two distinct game engines. The original game engine, referred to as 'CMx1' by the developer, Battlefront.co ...

'', in the run-up to Hasbro's purchase of Avalon Hill. At the time of ''Computer Squad Leader''s cancellation, Avalon Hill announced plans to contract another developer to adapt ''Squad Leader''; the publisher's Jack Dott explained that the next incarnation would "be more faithful to the original product". Avalon Hill's entire staff was laid off upon the company's sale to Hasbro that August. In late 1999, ''Computer Gaming World'' published a rumor that Hasbro was interested in adapting the Avalon Hill board game line into computer titles, starting with '' Panzer Blitz'' and ''Advanced Squad Leader''. Producer Bill Levay later said that he hired

for the project after detecting the "spirit of ''Squad Leader'' in their game '' Chaos Gate''", a computer adaptation of the '' Warhammer 40,000'' board game series. Levay described ''Squad Leader'' as an effort to capture the original's "spirit", and to make an "accessible" tactical game, rather than a hardcore simulation or literal adaptation of the board version. The head of marketing for ''Squad Leader''s computer version, Tom Nichols, explained that the game was "heavily based" on ''Chaos Gate''. ''Squad Leader'' also reused that project's

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...

, which had likewise appeared in Random's ''

Soldiers at War ''Soldiers at War'' is a turn-based tactics game set in World War II. The player takes control of eight-man squads through the campaign of fifteen historically based missions, starting in North Africa and ending in Germany. Soldiers gain experience ...

''. The game was announced in April 2000.

Reception

''Squad Leader'' received "generally unfavorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. William R. Trotter of '' PC Gamer'' said, "Hasbro has confirmed everyone's worst fears. Incredibly, they've published a game that will not only antagonize every living fan of ''Squad Leader'', but will baffle and stupefy most newcomers as well." In 2004,

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1996 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for the game, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...

's Peter Suciu wrote that ''Squad Leader'' "remains one of the worst board-to-computer adaptations to date".

References

External links

* {{Random Games 2000 video games Squad Leader Turn-based strategy video games Video games based on board games Video games developed in the United States Windows games Windows-only games