Mark H. Walker Looks at Heroes of the Pacific

Dec 17, 2011

After a brief hiatus from World War II, the award-wining Lock ‘n Load game system returns to the Second War to end all wars with a vengeance. Twelve frantic firefights from America’s island-hopping campaign in the Pacific comprise this complete Lock ‘n Load game.

You will lead desperate Marines struggling ashore on Tarawa, face a counterattack of HA GO tanks at the Peleliu airfield, fight for Kitano Point on Iwo Jima, and more.

It isn’t, however, all about the Marines. Heroes of the Pacific comes chock full of the U.S. Army’s finest, as well as the Imperial Japanese Army. All drawn with the painstaking detail our fans have come to expect.

***

It’s a strange world. People suck an endless stream of reality programming from their TV, yet call sports lovers dumb, Kim Kardashian is famous for nothing, yet thousands of hard-working writers, musicians, and filmmakers are forced to eek out their living. Stranger still is Heroes of the Pacific. Well, sort of.

The strangeness is self-inflicted. You see, I’ve always wanted to bring Lock ‘n Load to the Pacific. In fact, the Pacific is my favorite World War II theater of operations. Nevertheless, it has taken me the better part of a decade to design Heroes of the Pacific. Strange stuff.

Firepower?

World War II-era Japanese are interesting to model. Although famed for their warrior spirit and discipline, they were poorly equipped. From 1943 on they were bringing a bolt-action knife (Arisaka bolt-action rifle) to the semi-automatic M1 Garand gun battle. This put them at a distinct disadvantage. The U.S. Marines marksmanship furthered it.

Hence, the standard Japanese rifle squad has a firepower of one. Just like their German counterparts. On the other hand, the Marines have double that (that’s two for the math challenged). The U.S. Army also has one firepower (smaller squads, and less training than Marines), but additional squads in a fire group aren’t halved—a nod to the Garand’s firepower.

Morale

The Japanese have a unique morale structure. They don’t shake. If they fail a damage check they are reduced. Sort of like the Somalis from Day of Heroes, but much tougher. They are tougher for a couple of reasons. First off, Japanese squads are three step units. A Squad that fails a Damage Check is reduced to a Half-squad. If that same Half-squad fails another Damage Check it is reduced to a smaller Half-squad. Fail again and they are dead.

Japanese frequently fought to the last man, making them very tough to clean out of bunkers, caves, and such. To replicate this, I gave Japanese a changing morale structure. Their line squads have a morale of five—standard for well-disciplined troops. It won’t be too difficult to inflict casualties on those Squads. The Half-squads, however, have a morale of six, making them a little tougher to reduce. When the Marines finally whittle the Japanese Squad to the second Half-squad, they’ll find only the die-hards with a morale of seven are left, frequently necessitating a Melee to eliminate them. It’s fun stuff, without a lot of less-than-fun rules.

Hidden Units

Argh, I hate them. They are the lamest of design ploys. Nevertheless, I understand that surprise Japanese attacks and snipers are much of the fun in any game modeling the Pacific theater. The game’s standard rules cover the snipers, just fine, but small groups of men ambushing Marine patrols or emerging from spider holes to fling satchel charges at defensive positions is something new. Here what I did.

Some scenarios allow Japanese to enter using Ninjutsu movement. The Japanese player merely points to a hex that the Japanese are to appear (it’s usually a Half-squad, but can be more), and rolls d6. If he rolls four or greater, he places the Japanese in the hex. Simple? Yes, but there is a bit more meat than first strikes the eye. One is added to the die if the hex is Heavy Jungle, making it easier for the Japanese to appear in that terrain. One is subtracted from the d6 if there is an enemy MMC in the hex, making it more difficult to appear right under the Americans nose, and the other results (1-3) are much more than “no effect.” The Japanese might be eliminated, might be placed in an adjacent hex of the American’s choice, or perhaps not placed at all. We think it works quite well, and without the muss of tracking hidden units.

Is there more? Well, of course there is. We have come up with simple rules for Banzai attacks that pull your head out of the rules, and put fun on the table. And the Marines have plenty of chrome, from spectacular 6-2 Leaders, through enhanced moral on their Shaken side, to their own, unique Skill cards.

Our Kind of Battles

And last, but not least, Heroes of the Pacific is chock full of the kind of battles we like to fight. Most are small—not tiny, but small. Although the game ships with a bunch of tanks, almost all the scenarios feature the infantry, with one or two armored fighting vehicles in a supporting role. Play testing has been fun… so much fun that I wonder why it took me so long to design. It’s just strange.

Author
Recent Posts

Mark H. Walker

Mark H. Walker is a writer and board wargame designer. He has written articles about information technology and video games for publications including AutoWeek, PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World, Armchair General, and Playboy and websites such as GameSpy and Science Fiction Weekly.

Latest posts by Mark H. Walker (see all)