How do I play Mark Walkers Lock'nLoad?

By Peter Bogdasarian
What do I need to know about the units?



What happens in a turn of Lock'nLoad?

All turns have four parts. Each part will
always happen in the same place each time.
First off, you roll initiative. Each of you rolls a die
the high roller wins. Whoever had the initiative
last wins a tie.
Next, you have a rally phase. Here,
shaken units try to recover but you need an
individual to help them. A hero or a leader is
enough to do the job. You roll two dice and try
to roll equal to or less than the morale of the
units in the hex. Medics also do their thing here.
You get to subtract 2 from the die rolls if you are
in terrain with a positive terrain modifier.
The next part of the turn is the largest.
It is called Operations. Here, all the stuff
happens. The players take turns moving, firing
and passing, starting with the player who has the
initiative. Each unit may normally do one thing a
turn. This continues until there are three passes
in a row.
Finally, there is a clean up phase.
Markers for moving, firing, etc. are removed.
Also, all units in degrading and blocking terrain
hide and will need to be spotted in the next turn
before they can be fired at.

How do I tell if a hex has a positive target
modifier? Look at the Terrain Effects chart &
figure out what kind of terrain surrounds the
center dot of the hex. Now cross-reference that
with the target modifier column.

What can I do in the Operations phase?

When its your turn, you can do 3 things.
First of all, you can always try to spot the enemy
this does not use up your turn, though it does
take the turn of the unit trying it. After this, you
have a choice you may (1) activate one or
more units to do stuff or (2) pass. If you pass,
the other player gets to go.

How do I activate one or more units?

You can activate all units in a hex (to do
one or more things) on your turn. A leader,
when activated, may also activate units in
adjacent hexes.

What can I do with an activated unit?

Each activated unit may do one of the
following: (1) move (or crawl), (2) shoot, (3) try
to spot and, if successful, shoot (if failed, provide
opportunity fire), (4) attempt to lay smoke and
also provide opportunity fire.

How do I move units?

Units spend movement points to move.
Each hex entered costs some of these points.
(see the terrain effects chart) A unit may enter a
number of hexes whose cost is equal to or less
than its movement factor. A unit which moves
with a good order leader may move an extra two
movement points. Units must move together.

Note: units which more are automatically spotted
and are vulnerable to opportunity fire. A unit
may choose to low crawling which case it only
moves one hex but does not give away its
position.

How do I see something (so I can shoot
it)?

Units in Lock'nLoad are either spotted or
hidden. A unit is spotted if (1) it is in a open
hex, (2) it has moved/fired this turn, (3) it is next
to one of your units or (4) it has a spotted
counter on it!
To spot a hex with enemy units in it,
you only need to roll a die and have a unit that
can see the hex you wish to spot. To figure out
if you succeeded, you compare the modified die
roll with one-half your morale (rounded up).
Only two things modify the die roll: (1) degrading
terrain in between your unit and what you want
to see (add 1 to the die roll per hex) and (2) the
leadership modifier of a unit trying to spot
(subtract from the die roll).
If you can roll below your modified
morale, you spot the hex. If you roll above your
modified morale you do not. If you roll equal to
your modified morale, then and only then you
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How do I play Mark Walkers Lock'nLoad? By Peter Bogdasarian
need to figure out if the hex youre looking at is
degrading or blocking terrain. If it is degrading
terrain, you spot. If it is blocking terrain, you do
not.

How do I tell if a hex is clear, degrading or
blocking? Look at the Terrain Effects chart and
figure out what kind of terrain surrounds the
center dot of the hex. Now cross-reference that
with the type column.

How do I shoot something?

In Lock'nLoad, you can shoot at hexes
which your units know contain the enemy. Thus,
to be able to fire at a hex, you need 3 things: a
unit (1) capable of seeing and firing into a hex
that (2) contains spotted enemy units. The hex
must (3) be within range of the weapons to be
fired at it.

Okay, so Im shooting now how do I
figure out if I hit?

The basic concept for resolving all small
arms fire in Lock'nLoad is pretty simple you and
your opponent each roll a die. The die rolls are
then modified for firepower, terrain, etc. If the
attacker rolls better than the defender, then the
difference between his roll and the defenders is
the amount of damage inflicted. Because you
shoot at hexes in Lock'nLoad, every unit in the
defenders hex is hit by a successful attack. Like
movement, all activated units must fire together
at a single target hex.

Where do I look for these modifiers? The bottom
of the Direct Fire table.

Okay, so hes hit what did I do?

To figure out what happens to infantry
units, leaders or other personnel units in
Lock'nLoad, you roll a die and add the amount of
damage inflicted. You then compare your
damage roll to the targets morale. If you rolled
less than or equal to the targets morale, you
accomplished nothing. If you rolled above the
targets morale, then you look at the Direct Fire
Table. Once there, you need to know two things
(1) how far you rolled above the targets morale
(is your roll more than twice his morale? triple?)
and (2) whether you shot a squad (called an
MMC on the table) or an individual (called an
SMC on the table).




A leader can help! If your leader passes the
damage check, you can subtract his leadership
mod from the other damage checks made by
units in the stack.

Fire Combat sounds nasty. How do I get
some cover?

To lay smoke: nominate a squad or half-
squad as placing smoke and roll 1 die. What you
need to roll depends on who is attempting to lay
smoke. American units need a 3 or less, NVA a 2
or less and Viet Cong a 1. Smoke may be placed
in your hex or in an adjacent one. See the
terrain effects chart.

Fire Combat sounds wimpy. How do I fix
bayonets?

To engage in melee, move into an
enemy hex. Melee is normally simultaneous.
(both sides fight) The attackers firepower (both
units and machineguns) is compared to the
defending units attacked and a kill number
determined from the melee table. 2d6 are rolled.
If your roll is equal to or greater than the kill
number and the other guys dead.

Viet Cong can ambush. If they move into melee
from outside the attackers line-of-sight (whether
they are hidden or not does not matter), their
firepower is tripled and they get the first
strike.

Also, shaken units and SMCs without firepower
ratings are killed/surrender automatically if all
other units stacked with them die.

Ive got a sniper what does he do?

A sniper may be placed at any time
even during the opponents impulse in any hex
with a positive terrain modifier that is not
occupied by any enemy units. Unlike normal fire
combat, he rolls 2d6 to hit, but he only attacks
one unit (determined randomly) in the enemy
hex.
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