David R. Moody - 11:44am Jul 24, 2003 PST (#4828 of 4834) President of Krapee Games. Running for Governor of California on the American Silly Party ticket. Vote for me on October 7, and Make California Moody! On the Table last night at Endgame in Oakland, CA, was another scenario of Lock 'n' Load. This is such a cool game! At any rate, Joe chose an early war scenario: November 1965, near Plei Me. I had a battalion of the 9th Cavalry, defending a captured NVA hospital and HQ complex from a counterattack by NVA troops. I got air support in the form of air strikes (treated like off-board artillery) and two Huey gunships. I deployed my at-start troops in the hospital, with the two reinforcing troops coming in on either side. My plan was to take up positions in good cover and trust to my air power to hold off the NVA. I also sent a couple squads forward to make a skirmish line. Joe started his men forward, moving under cover. His heavy MG on top of a nearby hill blasted one of my squads that tried to set up a claymore in a patch of huts--I had to send a leader out to rescue them and pull them back to the hospital. Once my air support arrived, I tried to direct the Skyraiders down on the MG, but missed the first two times. Joe continued to advance steadily. Then the Hueys showed up, and the slaughter commenced. Every time Joe tried to move in the open, my choppers blasted him. The Skyraiders finally hit the MG, Shaking it, then one of my Hueys wiped it out with rockets and MGs. Joe tried to hit the chopper with an RPG and small arms, but he missed and I shredded the unit that tried it. Despite all that, the NVA fought fiercely--one of my advanced positions was overrun, Joe got two heroes, and one of my stacks kept having trouble seeing the enemy. But my firepower was just too much, and by the beginning of the last turn, with all his officers down and all his surviving units Shaken, he conceded, but not before hitting my units in the hospital with a suicide attack from one of his heroes. I lost one and a half squads total. All in all, still a fun game, but we wondered if helos are too powerful. It seems from the rules that flying helos are invulnerable (helos can either be flying or hovering), but then Joe found another section that says you can fire at flying helos with small arms, but with a penalty. There is a +2 penalty for a flying helo to fire, but that seems to be nullified by the -2 you get for being adjacent. I think flying helos shouldn't get the adjacency benefit. As I see it, if you just make a firing pass, it should be harder to hit, and consequently harder to be hit. If you stop and hover, it's easier to hit, but then it's easier to be hit as well. I think we need some clarification, and we'll probably try this one again once we better understand the helo rules. No time for another Corsairs and Hellcats mission, alas. Maybe next week.