The Hills of Stanley: A New Game, Sorta
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| The Goose Green Scenario. There are multiple maps, most way bigger, but all of them about as ugly. |
Lock ‘n Load wasn’t my first pony. Way back when, while
studying at the Navy War College ,
I designed a game on the ’82 Falklands
conflict titled The Hills of Stanley (THOS). Unlike most games on the conflict,
THOS didn’t focus on the naval or air battles, but rather the land conflict.
Last weekend, between watching Fury, shuffling in the Lynchburg Zombie Walk,
and playing Legendary Aliens with my gaming group, I dug the game out of
storage.
I’m pleasantly surprised. The game is more complex than what
I currently play or design, but sometimes complex can be good. Here’s a brief
overview.
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| Simpler times, no? |
- Each unit represents a company, battery, or platoon. The hexes are approximately 1,000 meters, but I bend that in a couple of places.
- There are three types of combat, ranged, assault, and bombardment. Air strikes are part of bombardment. Ranged combat has two sub-categories, mobile and deliberate.
- Units are rated for morale. They not only use that rating for rally, but also on something called the Precombat Firepower Modifier Table (PFMT)… catchy, right? This determines if the firing unit actually brings its entire firepower to bear. Obviously, the Paras routinely lay the lead on their target. The Argentines can be more iffy, although their Marines fight well.
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| Note the pencil corrections. |
- Units include British Paras, Commandos, Gurkhas,
- You might have noticed that the number on the lower right of the counter represents Operation Points. These points can either be spent in movement or to conduct combat, and hey… this was sixteen years before Conflict of Heroes used a similar concept.
That’s it for today. I’ll post more soon. Might even put up
an AAR .
Mark H. Walker served 23 years in the United States Navy, most of them as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal diver, he is the designer of the Lock 'n Load, World at War, and Nations at War series of games in addition to many others. Sign up for his newsletter to get design insights, game updates, and stuff.
Comments
This looks really good. Any chance of getting it published?
Dennis