This was sent to us... Lock 'N Load: Forgotten Heroes Vietnam is a boardgame set during the Vietnam war focusing on small unit tactics. If you're familiar with Avalon Hill's Squad Leader series you have a decent idea of what Lock 'N Load is like, except Lock 'N Load's rulebook, unlike the Squad Leader games, won't give you a herniated disc or two. With gorgeously rendered artwork and a rarely gamed setting perfect for tactical wargaming, Lock 'N Load is easily one of the best tactical wargames to come out in the past two decades. Now, if you've tried to play any board wargame in the past twenty years you know how hard it is to find opponents. Enter VLnL, a nifty little program that ships with each copy of Lock 'N Load. VLnL is a JAVA based application that allows you to play Lock 'N Load live, online, with other Lock 'N Load gamers. Since it's JAVA based it will work on any platform. And best of all, there's no extra charge for the program. Unlike some gaming systems in which you first have to purchase the engine itself, and then go on to buy individual games, VLnL is ready to go straight out of the box! VLnL doesn't provide an AI though for the game, but there are always plenty of gamers looking for a fight online. For more information on Lock 'N Load: Forgotten Heroes, designed by Mark H. Walker, a longtime writer in the industry, please visit http://www.shrapnelgames.com/markhwalker/locknload/1.htm, and for more information the VASSAL, which powers VLnL, please check out http://www.vassalengine.org Back to 1st Quarter 2004 List of News Items Back to Master List of News Items Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Coalition Web, Inc. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com