Well, it must have been in late 1989 or early 1990.
I was just back from my year that I spent as an exchange student in the US and getting involved full tilt into roleplaying games (Rolemaster on Middle Earth) and Tolkien's world. Back then, I got close to being able to speak Sindarin...
In that game store where I sunk all my money, beside the roleplaying games, they also had a corner for wargames - a rarity for Germany. On one of those days, I pulled out the ASLRB v1, looked at the binder and saw this:
My story is pretty similar - even to the rough dates, and speaking Sindarin (Quenya was a bit tough for me).
During the eighties, I would regularly read this French roleplaying/wargaming magazine
Casus Belli. I often had a Squad Leader scenario - probably at some point it moved to ASL. I didn't have an opponent or the money, but it did look cool.
In '89 or '90 I got to play one, maybe two, games of SL with another student at my school (same guy who was the expert on Quenya). I liked the game, but he warned me that the expansions added a lot of complexity and confusion; maybe I'd be better off going for ASL. So when I got a little cash, I went and got myself the rulebook and BV - possibly Paratroopers as well.
Then I got to reading the rules, and
right there on page A1 was
A.14 COLLATERAL ATTACKS. I got a little scared, and wondered if I had just lost a lot of money on a game I would never be able to play.
It was about a year before another friend came along and we decide we'd really give it a try. First scenario was
Fighting Withdrawal and we didn't get much out of it, but over the course of a few months we moved on to Paratroopers scenarios and some from French dedicated ASL magazine
Tactiques. I'd say the important moment was when we played
TAC 12 Commando Schenke, and I realized (even before we really got into games with vehicles) how much this game could do.
I've had long periods when I didn't play ASL, but so far I've always come back to it.