“The Manor” (Lock ‘N Load Tactical)

[Whiterook]

Played at Compass Games Expo, November Edition, this was a very cool scenario and the largest counter count scenario played with my game buddy, Tim. Neither of us had played the system in a long time, but we didn’t have to refer to the rules too much, as we’d read up on the rules before the expo.

Basically, I played American 506th PIR troopers, whose main force starts at the south side of a vertical map (hmmmm, would that be short or long end… I think the proper term would be Short End…anyway…) and need to work their way up map to a large manor to the north; small group of reinforcements come in at the northern corners of the map; Germans begin in the manor. My job… clear the manor with a certain number of kills or control of a certain large number of rooms.



I think I had like 7 Turns to do this… LNLT is notoriously short on turns, even when the objectives are difficult! What I needed to do right off the bat was, get through those hedgerows, which cost 2MPs to cross, plus the cost of exit terrain, so it would gobble up 3MPs of generally four (six with a leader, double timing with him)…so, in other words, Avoid them! The problem with that was, there were only a few approaches that didn’t have LOS to the the Germans seeing me coming, but if I could advance up 7 hex rows, there were some nice forest and buildings to provide cover and all me to launch from to assault the manor. The second problem was, where to setup my attached 60mm Morton team… they would start out in light woods, move behind a building, and later shift back right a little; overall though, they couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn for kills, but they did suppress the enemy and survive the battle, so I consider that a win for the lads!

[Whiterook]

I split my southern forces in two, one going straight up for the forest and buildings up center, and a smaller group hauling ass to the left flank, towards buildings. My issue was, those pesky Germans set up in the manor had machine guns (MP40’s, as I remember it) that could easily reach past the 3 hex row range to the trees and buildings! The key in LNLT is getting to the “shadow” cover behind terrain obstacles, so getting right up near the back gives me a breather.

The left flank squads were trying to get into those buildings and into the in-season crops between bracketing rock walls; I was thinking the other force could rush the south side of the manor, while the small group pincered in and hit from the left. However, when I started taking fire from those MP40’s, I knew the run up to the fields’ rock walls, where I’d have to be adjacent behind from the manor to get any cover, would be a meat grinder…perhaps a calculated risk, as it would have effectively split up fire from those MP40s; until I recognized a little late (hey, I had no advanced intel!!!) that the MP40’s to the far (right/east side) of the manor had no LOS to where the small group would be launching to the fields…fire was going to be split regardless!

It’s so open to the south and east sides of he manor that, that would be a meat grinder, too. Also, I didn’t have enough time (turns) to slug out a fight, firing into a heavily fortified stone building, while taking incoming through leaves! I made the last minute call on the walkie-talkie talkies to the small group to shift right and join the main assault!

[Whiterook]

…that ended up being a wise move to shift the smaller group to the main force, as the main force got chewed up good!



I was inflicting casualties and suppression on the Germans, but getting hammered back bad. The smaller force made it in and reenforced my main group and it became a matter of keeping the Germans busy.

The reinforcements from the top right (northeast), worked their way through two rows of hedgerows; one squad got pinned in the open fields between the hedgerows and never made it out, though they survived the battle! …their mates droid make it through the heroes and started working their way to assault the far noth side of the manor, opposite the main force.

Meanwhile, the reinforcements from the top left (northwest) tried their best to get to the safety of the field’s rock wall, but they got absolutely hammered and pinned. Only two squads were able to take cover and move along the wall, south, in an attempt to turn the corner and support the main force to the south assault of the manor



…SPOILER ALERT! …they didn’t make it.

[Whiterook]

The reinforcements that were pinned, recovered, but there was no way for them to get into position to fire on the manor. The reinforcements to the north slugged their way into the  the manor’s north side and took out a good number of Germans, The main force killed the Germans in the southwest side of the manor, while everyone else cleared hammered the Germans on the southeast. The manor was two story by the way, so it made fighting more difficult.

The Americans took the objective, capturing the remaining German force, but by the skin of the trooper’s teeth!