Press Release
Dec. 5th, 2006 04:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ltmurnauFrom Consimworld.com etc:
December 04, 2006
LnLP Signs Brian Train
Lock 'n Load Publishing announces that Brian Train, designer of over twenty published games, will join a growing stable of wargame design talent that includes award-winners Richard Berg and Paul Rohrbaugh. Read the :
LOCK ‘N LOAD PUBLISHING NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact:
Janice Hinshaw
Lock ‘n Load Publishing
Janice@markhwalker.com
Lock ‘n Load to Publish Brian Train's Balkan Gambit
Lock ‘n Load Publishing Signs Brian Train to Growing Stable of Designers
Henry, VA, December 2, 2006 - Lock ‘n Load Publishing, the sole publisher of Lock ‘n Load board games, announced today that Brian Train, designer of over twenty published games, will join a growing stable of war game design talent that includes award-winners Richard Berg and Paul Rohrbaugh.
Entitled Balkan Gambit, Train’s design uses a combination of formation activation and diceless, matrix-based combat systems to simulate “the Allied invasions of the Balkans that weren’t”. One of the great what-ifs of World War 2 in the Mediterranean theatre, at least to Hitler and the German High Command, was the possibility of an Allied invasion of Greece and/or Yugoslavia. In history, the Allies did nothing of the kind until Operation MANNA, the liberation of Greece in late 1944 after the German garrison had already withdrawn into Yugoslavia. But the Allies knew the Germans perceived such invasions as a credible threat and created several strategic deception plans, leading the Germans to move or keep critical troop formations in northern Italy and the Balkans when they would have been much more useful somewhere else. The game comes with four scenarios.
Operation BOARDMAN: In summer 1943, the British 8th Army is sent to liberate Greece and Crete. This was a deception to cover Operations HUSKY and AVALANCHE, the historical invasions of Sicily and Salerno.
Operation ZEPPELIN: In summer 1944, the notional British 12th Army attacks Greece and Albania while the US 7th Army attacks in Dalmatia, in concert with Soviet amphibious operations against the coast of Rumania and Bulgaria. This plan was part of Operation BODYGUARD, the overall deception plan to disguise Operations OVERLORD and ANVIL (the invasions of northern and southern France).
Operation GELIGNITE: Actual plans were drawn up to send the British 8th Army across the Adriatic in late 1944 or early 1945 to cut off the final retreat of German Army Group F and forestall any further Soviet advances towards northern Italy. The plan was shelved due to shortages of troops and landing craft
Operation SLIVA (PLUM): Between 1948 and 1955, the possibility of a Soviet invasion to bring Yugoslavia back into the Soviet orbit remained the largest factor in Yugoslavia's perception of external threat. This hypothetical scenario frames such an invasion as an intervention in support of pro-Soviet Yugoslavs, in the name of “fraternal assistance”.
The game will be available for pre-order before Christmas at www.locknloadgame.com.
Since opening their doors in September of 2006, sales for Lock ‘n Load Publishing’s discounted Band of Heroes (49.99 for a limited time), and pre-orders for the company’s P-500 games have been stunning. The first three Lock ‘n Load Publishing titles —Lock ‘n Load: The Swift and Bold, which features the British Paratroopers in Europe (circa 1944), Lock ‘n Load: A Day of Heroes, a simulation of the Ranger and Delta Team battle in Mogadishu in October of 1993, and World at War, an entirely new, platoon level Mark H. Walker design, which depicts the Third World War in August of 1985, are scheduled to go into production in winter of 2006.
The first computer game based on Mark H. Walker’s Lock ‘n Load franchise, Lock ‘n Load: Heroes of Stalingrad, will release in Q2 of 2007.
ABOUT LOCK ‘N LOAD PUBLISHING
Founded by award winning author and game designer Mark H. Walker, Lock ‘n Load Publishing develops and publishes commercial board and computer games. Lock ‘n Load Publishing’s games include Lock ‘n Load: Forgotten Heroes, Lock ‘n Load: ANZAC Attack, and Lock ‘n Load: Band of Heroes. The games have won numerous awards, including the Origins award for Historical Board Game of the Year, two Wargamer Reader’s Choice Awards, a Charles S. Roberts Award for Best Modern Era Wargame, and International Gamer’s Award for Best Historical Simulation. Lock ‘n Load Publishing is headquartered in Virginia. More information is available at www.locknloadgame.com.
December 04, 2006
LnLP Signs Brian Train
Lock 'n Load Publishing announces that Brian Train, designer of over twenty published games, will join a growing stable of wargame design talent that includes award-winners Richard Berg and Paul Rohrbaugh. Read the :
LOCK ‘N LOAD PUBLISHING NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact:
Janice Hinshaw
Lock ‘n Load Publishing
Janice@markhwalker.com
Lock ‘n Load to Publish Brian Train's Balkan Gambit
Lock ‘n Load Publishing Signs Brian Train to Growing Stable of Designers
Henry, VA, December 2, 2006 - Lock ‘n Load Publishing, the sole publisher of Lock ‘n Load board games, announced today that Brian Train, designer of over twenty published games, will join a growing stable of war game design talent that includes award-winners Richard Berg and Paul Rohrbaugh.
Entitled Balkan Gambit, Train’s design uses a combination of formation activation and diceless, matrix-based combat systems to simulate “the Allied invasions of the Balkans that weren’t”. One of the great what-ifs of World War 2 in the Mediterranean theatre, at least to Hitler and the German High Command, was the possibility of an Allied invasion of Greece and/or Yugoslavia. In history, the Allies did nothing of the kind until Operation MANNA, the liberation of Greece in late 1944 after the German garrison had already withdrawn into Yugoslavia. But the Allies knew the Germans perceived such invasions as a credible threat and created several strategic deception plans, leading the Germans to move or keep critical troop formations in northern Italy and the Balkans when they would have been much more useful somewhere else. The game comes with four scenarios.
Operation BOARDMAN: In summer 1943, the British 8th Army is sent to liberate Greece and Crete. This was a deception to cover Operations HUSKY and AVALANCHE, the historical invasions of Sicily and Salerno.
Operation ZEPPELIN: In summer 1944, the notional British 12th Army attacks Greece and Albania while the US 7th Army attacks in Dalmatia, in concert with Soviet amphibious operations against the coast of Rumania and Bulgaria. This plan was part of Operation BODYGUARD, the overall deception plan to disguise Operations OVERLORD and ANVIL (the invasions of northern and southern France).
Operation GELIGNITE: Actual plans were drawn up to send the British 8th Army across the Adriatic in late 1944 or early 1945 to cut off the final retreat of German Army Group F and forestall any further Soviet advances towards northern Italy. The plan was shelved due to shortages of troops and landing craft
Operation SLIVA (PLUM): Between 1948 and 1955, the possibility of a Soviet invasion to bring Yugoslavia back into the Soviet orbit remained the largest factor in Yugoslavia's perception of external threat. This hypothetical scenario frames such an invasion as an intervention in support of pro-Soviet Yugoslavs, in the name of “fraternal assistance”.
The game will be available for pre-order before Christmas at www.locknloadgame.com.
Since opening their doors in September of 2006, sales for Lock ‘n Load Publishing’s discounted Band of Heroes (49.99 for a limited time), and pre-orders for the company’s P-500 games have been stunning. The first three Lock ‘n Load Publishing titles —Lock ‘n Load: The Swift and Bold, which features the British Paratroopers in Europe (circa 1944), Lock ‘n Load: A Day of Heroes, a simulation of the Ranger and Delta Team battle in Mogadishu in October of 1993, and World at War, an entirely new, platoon level Mark H. Walker design, which depicts the Third World War in August of 1985, are scheduled to go into production in winter of 2006.
The first computer game based on Mark H. Walker’s Lock ‘n Load franchise, Lock ‘n Load: Heroes of Stalingrad, will release in Q2 of 2007.
ABOUT LOCK ‘N LOAD PUBLISHING
Founded by award winning author and game designer Mark H. Walker, Lock ‘n Load Publishing develops and publishes commercial board and computer games. Lock ‘n Load Publishing’s games include Lock ‘n Load: Forgotten Heroes, Lock ‘n Load: ANZAC Attack, and Lock ‘n Load: Band of Heroes. The games have won numerous awards, including the Origins award for Historical Board Game of the Year, two Wargamer Reader’s Choice Awards, a Charles S. Roberts Award for Best Modern Era Wargame, and International Gamer’s Award for Best Historical Simulation. Lock ‘n Load Publishing is headquartered in Virginia. More information is available at www.locknloadgame.com.
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 01:24 am (UTC)Congratulations :) !
no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 05:33 pm (UTC)You may have read allusions in my blog that someone in the Office of the Secretary of Defense was using this game design as the basis for a predictive model of the Iraqi insurgency. I think, with Rumsfeld's departure (at last!) that this staff member will be too busy revising his resume to follow up on this, which is fine with me (he never bothered to answer my e-mails asking about what exactly he was trying to do). I've also found that a gamer and ex-Marine is using the game as a teaching aid in a class on "Analyzing Insurgency".
High praise, but it doesn't pay the bills. I'm not a tool of the Pentagon yet.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 06:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 07:42 pm (UTC)I think it's a particularly nice game to take to the desert, since it is so minimal in appearance yet so deceptively deep in its play. It's easy to teach to people. And the stones don't blow away in the wind, as cards or the cardboard game counters would!
no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 03:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 03:58 am (UTC)Excellent news. And, it's not a meme! :P