Untold Stories - L'nL

Lock ‘n Load have been busy supporting their tactical series with an interesting product that builds on the narrative giving nature of the system.

Expansion cover

There are two elements to this support material. Firstly there is a book of short stories about tactical actions in Normandy 1944, in which individuals and squads come to life in a way that matches the world of the tactical game.

Secondly, the book of short stories has driven the development of a scenario package that mirrors the book storyline and in effect produces a triangular relationship between the book narrative, the natural cinematic nature of the game and the game components.

This post takes a closer look at the scenario package, which includes the necessary maps that have been done in a slightly different, but complementary style. So some new ideas to to look at.

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Kursk Month - Assault on Hill 252.2

Kursk Battles update 1.

Gaming.

First game up on the table is scenario 1 from Dark July, Lock ‘n Load’s boardgame module that covers the tactical level fighting in the region just west of Prokhorovka and specifically at the Oktiabrski State Farm and Hill 252.2

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July means Kursk!

A bit of a Kursk theme is planned for the July gaming table. It just so happens that 5th July will be the 75th anniversary of the opening of the German 1943 summer offensive. A campaign (Operation Citadel) that was monumental in terms of the direction of the war and renown for the huge tank battles fought around Prokhorovka.

Dark July, is the Lock ‘n Load Tactical boardgame module that covers the tactical level fighting in the region just west of Prokhorovka and specifically at the Oktiabrski State Farm and Hill 252.2 

The module has six scenarios, with one of them using a full sized map. I happen to have the X-Maps, which are essentially doubled in size, so you get a larger gaming hex as it stretches a one map game into a two map space and I think this will help with the visualisation of tank gun ranged fire.

To coincide with gaming the module, I am reading Kursk - The Greatest Battle, Eastern Front 1943 by Lloyd Clark and published by Headline Review. This has been on the ‘to read’ list for too long and if the opening pages are anything to go by, this should be a good read.

It talks about a Tiger company being charged across the steppe by 100 T34’s a mile out and then suddenly the T-34’s disappear from sight as they drop into a fold in the ground, only to re-emerge half a mile out. It’s the kind of first hand account that helps us understand those ‘to hit’ numbers in our games, even when the ground looks featureless and flat. The Tigers inflicted great carnage, but some T-34’s got through and four Tigers were damaged. It has T-34’s shooting on the move as they close in and the Tigers moving to get better firing positions. All that sort of stuff really helps visualise what out games should be doing.

There will be ongoing Kursk related posts throughout the month here, at COMMANDERS web space and over on Consimworld and BoardGameGeek. For the figure games, I will also post to the LeadAdventureForum / Pendraken etc.

RESOURCES:

Link to next post (intro to Kursk and the Dark July map)

http://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2018/07/kursk-battles-intro.html

COMMANDERS, this is my sister webspace that is more snippet based than here. LINK

https://commanders.simdif.com/

Post about the Lock ‘n Load Starter kit (note there is now a Version 5 set) LINK

http://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2017/11/lock-n-load-starter-set.html

Version 5 Lock 'n Load Tactical, a first look.

Lock ‘n Load Tactical is a boardgame covering WWII and modern combat at the tactical level, with counters representing individual squads, vehicles and support weapons. Hexes represent about 50 metres of ground.

The system is already mature with a large selection of kit available and various theatres of war covered, making it popular amongst tactical gamers. The company have just updated the system  core rules from version 4.1 to V5 and this post looks at the main areas of change and headlines some of the new rules.

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Prepping for a big Lock 'n Load game

Lock ‘n Load Tactical has not graced the gaming table since January and I want to get the Dark July module (Kursk ‘43) onto the table soon, so this week I have had another read through of the rules (version 4.1) and set up a couple of the scenarios from the Heroes of Normandy module that include vehicles, to get familiar with things again.

Scenario graphic

This is a WWII tactical game with hexes representing 50 metres and counters representing squads, individual vehicles and individual support weapons.

This post is just something of a musing about the system, showing its great narrative character by way of an AAR.

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Lock 'n Load SOLO module

A look at the Lock ‘n Load Tactical Solo system

(edits added to conclusions 20th August 2018)

Lock ‘n Load recently launched their Solo platform for their tactical WWII - Modern series, in which an AI system takes on the role of the ‘other player’, giving the solitaire player a chance to apply their wit against an unseen gaming partner, but how well does this inanimate guest behave at the table?

I found myself travelling something of a learning curve to get comfortable with the system, as I suppose somewhat ironically, I had to first learn how not to be a good old fashioned solitaire player and so I thought it a worthwhile post to share that journey, as I don’t think this is a system that you can fully appreciate until you have a few games under your belt.

The rest of this post will hopefully help those sitting on the fence about buying or those who have bought and are just looking for another perspective on play.

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Lock 'n Load Starter Set

Getting into Lock ‘n Load Tactical

Lock ‘n Load Tactical is a popular boardgame system that has individual vehicles and squads fighting over a hexed mapboard.

This tactical series is mature both in terms of product range and the life of the system. Most of the game modules have been out of print for a few months, but recently a large scale re-printing effort made everything, plus some new stuff, fully available again.

The company (also and somewhat confusingly called Lock ‘n Load) have recently released a low cost starter kit, so that anyone sitting on the fence can dip their toe into this well presented tactical world and see if it is for them.

This post will be looking at that starter kit in a bit of detail, so if you are looking for a system to scratch the tactical itch, then use the ‘read more’ tab for the rest of this post.

Tank on Tank (L'nL)

Tank on Tank,

Designed by Peter Bogdasarian and published by Lock 'n Load, Tank on Tank is a fast play tactical World War Two game with a small footprint, low unit density and easy to learn rules.

 

This article looks at the system and components as presented in the recent second edition re-issue, which split the game into two modules, one covering the West Front late war and the other covering the East Front with a late '43 to '44 order of battle.

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Heroes of the Motherland - Battle Generator

Heroes of the Motherland - published by Lock 'n Load.

This new game is partly a re-print and partly new content. It brings back into production the Lock 'n Load Russian WWII tactical expansion previously known as 'Not One Step Back' - but substantially adds to it to make it a stand alone product.

This post looks at the game from the perspective of using the new Battle Generator System, which can be bought separately as a game support product.

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Heroes of the Pacific

Published by Lock 'n Load, Heroes of the Pacific is a new title in the Lock 'n Load ('Heroes of') series and also the first game in this series published by the new management at Lock 'n Load.

The rules have been stream-lined to give us version 4 and the counters have changed so that they already come with rounded corners and so don't need trimming (for those like that do that).

This post will just take a look at the basic elements of the game and the new rules that give this module its Pacific flavour.

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Rommel at Gazala

Rommel at Gazala is newly released by Lock 'n Load. The game is published as a second edition, with the first edition known to gamers as a Desk Top Published (DTP) production made available by its designer - Jim Werberneth.

This post gives access to a short video review of the product, a sort of mix of an unboxing video, together with some observations and comments.

Since Lock 'n Load is under new management, I thought it would be interesting to look at one of their new releases with regards to production standards and development.

With its relatively small footprint and low counter use, figure gamers may be interested in using this game as a basis to manage a miniatures campaign. Each hex can generally hold up to a divisions worth of units.

Please tap the below link for the YouTube video.

link http://youtu.be/s7QqxHOEpTo

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Mini campaign AAR for Verkhne-Kumsky

Verkhne-Kumsky, Operation Winter Storm 1942.

Some years ago, I put together a 4 day mini campaign game for the Panzer Grenadier series, covering Manstein’s attempt to reach the trapped 6th Army at Stalingrad. The campaign area was formed from four mapboards and the Germans had to drive from one end, to reach the River Myshkova at the other.

　
It worked rather well and so recently I tried to convert the idea into a Lock ‘n Load mini campaign. While it looked good on paper, in practice, it lost something with the change in game scale, especially as thirteen miles of real terrain was being compressed into just four L’nL boards. A different approach was needed.

Module cover graphic

Video for the Verkhne-Kumsky mini campaign

Verkhne-Kumsky, a mini campaign covering a four day slice of Operation Winter Storm 1942.

Copyright - Norman Smith

Just a short video covering the basics of a mini campaign that I have been working on for Operation Winterstorm 1942, using the Lock'nLoad system. The game files are held over at Boardgamegeek - see below link.

You can enlarge the video screen, the image gets a bit stretched, but generally looks OK.

Boardgamegeek host the download. It is a free PDF, I hope you enjoy looking at it.

LINK http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/96183/verkhne-kumsky

 

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Tiger Vs T-34 system analysis

Tactical gamers are generally aware of the handling and capabilities of key vehicles such as the German Tiger I and the Russian T34/76 tanks in their rules and in historical accounts from the period. This article is just intended to show how Lock ’n Load deals with these two adversaries, so that gamers can compare this to their own systems.

At the conclusion of the article there is a link to a fascinating source for gun / armour penetration tables (the introduction alone is valuable).

One of my vehicle drawings for a home grown tactical game.

Enter the Guards AAR

A Lock ‘n Load scenario, Stalingrad 1942.The street lay silent, none daring to move for fear of attracting the attention of ever watchful snipers. The lulls between the intense firefights were short and filled with nervous tension, as men surviving on a minute by minute basis, prepared for the next round of fighting. Lt. Petrov, was the first to act. He saw movement across the street, screamed his orders and sub-machine gunners responded with devastating effect.

The Russian module ‘Not One Step Back’ brings the Russian
order of battle into the Lock ’n Load system.
The base game ‘Band of Heroes’ must also be owned.

This article will be a straight forward AAR - anyone wanting a detailed look at the system should refer to my earlier post called 'Heroes of the Blitzkrieg' (see labels on the right under Lock 'n Load).

Those with a fondness of the first scenario in Basic Squad Leader (1977) ‘The Guards Counterattack’, will smile as they set this scenario up.

Click on 'read more' to continue.

L'nL System study and AAR

Heroes of the Blitzkrieg - World War II tactical system by Lock ‘n’ Load.

HoB is a stand alone game covering French (and Belgian) v German tactical actions from the 1940 period. It comes with V3 of the L’n’L series rules.

L’n’L do some nice box cover artwork - but this cover doesn’t do it for me.
I’ve never really been a fan of photographs as box art and this feels bland compared
to the really nice work done on the contents.

V3 rules cover - some box art based around around this image
done as a painting might have been a better prospect.

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