Looks like I have the honor of making the first comment. I share your enthusiasm for these game(s) and I likewise think they are ingenious for exactly the same reasons -- there's a lot of tactical decision making packed into a mere 36 cards. Moreover, as you say, the game is easy to learn -- if you know ALS, then you instantly know how to play the expansion -- and it is very fast to set up, plays in about 15-20 minutes, and is tactically stimulating without getting too much into 'analysis paralysis'. It also uses a small enough tablespace footprint, and is very portable, so you can play it almost anywhere. With the expansion there are 20 possible theater combos -- ALD, ALE, ALI, ALS, ASD, ASE, ASI, DEA, DEI, DEL, DES, DIA, DIL, DIS, EIA, EIL, EIS, LSD, LSE, LSI -- and given that each player is dealt a different 6 cards out of 18 every time, the replayability is almost endless. The surrender option reminds me of games like backgammon, where you can accept or decline an opponent's offer to double the stakes; or poker, where you can drop early or continue risking more money right through to the final showdown. It's cleverly implemented in ALS, the scoring system of winning 2 games @ 6 points each to get the required 12 for an overall win means that you can compel your opponent to win 3, or even 4, games by surrendering early. In case you're interested, we've experimented with a couple of house rules: 1. Players are dealt 9 cards each, and discard 3 of their choice unseen (these cards are shuffled to form the battle deck). If you know your opponent well, you can potentially guess what they'll discard, and therefore know which cards they hold, eliminating some of the randomness. And if you know your opponent even better, you can potentially guess how they will play the 6 cards that they hold. 2. We've experimented with some options in rewarding a player if they manage to win in ALL 3 theaters: i) The triple-theater winner is dealt 10 cards in the next round, their opponent 8, and then both discard down to the usual 6 cards each; or ii) they discard so that down to 7 and 6 cards respectively. Hence the rewarded player has an additional option at every turn, including the final turn when they hold two cards, and can decide which one to play, and which to discard; or iii) The triple-theater winner gets a number of supplies equal to the median margin of victory in the previous round, e.g. if they won 12-8, 6-5, and 8-3, which are wins of 4, 1 and 5 respectively, then the median win is 4, hence they would get 4 supplies. After seeing the cards dealt them, they may distribute these supplies among the 3 theaters any way that they wish; or iv) the triple-theater winner merely gets to choose which one of the 20 theater combos will be played in the next round. Anyway, there are some ideas for you if you ever get bored and want to try them. :) Thanks for uploading your video. Please take care and stay safe.

Thanks for comparing them - just what I was looking for.

nice. i like the outtakes

Great video

if i only have budget for 1 game, which should I buy? ALS or SLS?