August 13^th, 2002 (12:00am) - Shrapnel Games announced a partnership with Mark H. Walker to publish Mark H. Walker’s Lock ’N Load today. Mark H. Walker’s Lock ’N Load, the game with "more game, less guff" marks a new direction for Shrapnel Games as its first published Board Game title.

Richard Arnesen, Director of Covert Operations for Shrapnel Games, said, "We’ve known Mark Walker for some time, and when we saw the design for Mark H. Walker’s Lock ’N Load we were instantly excited. This game brings back the fun of Board Games in the vein of Advanced Squad Leader, without the tomes of rules that went with them. It creates a taut and accurate depiction of the battle that can fit into today’s wargamers hectic schedule. We are very excited to bring something new and dynamic to the Board Gaming world, a world everyone at Shrapnel Games has been a part of at one time or the other in our lives. Even more exciting is that this squad level engine is tackling the under utilized Vietnam War as its backdrop!"

"I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Shrapnel Games on this venture," stated Walker. "This is the game I’ve always dreamed of playing. It has buckets of flavor without books of rules. Lock ’n Load truly has ’more game, less guff.’

Born of thirty years of gaming experience and an equal amount of frustration with dry-as-dust rules, Mark H. Walker’s Lock ’n Load is all about fun, all about the experience. Tired of games with books of rules? Sure you are; you have a life and so do we. Most of us aren’t college kids anymore. We’ve grown up and we have grownup responsibilities: a family, a career, a life. There just isn’t the time to wade through a bible of instructions before we play. Neither is it fun to spend huge hunks of your time researching an obscure rule. That’s not fun; that’s work. Not impressed yet? Check the features below:

* Dare we say THE BEST board game graphics ever? We do dare. The two artists working on the game, Ron Shirtz and Richard Canavan, are simply amazing. Better still, it’s an art you can see without a magnifying glass. The map hexes are 1", squads and leader counters are 5/8", weapon teams are 3/4", and vehicles a whopping 7/8" square! That’s what we call beauty!
* The game’s impulse system keeps both players actively involved
in every minute of play.
* The game is squad based; units represent each nationalities’ squads, half-squads, weapon teams, and vehicles.
* The single man counters include leaders, medics, heroes, chaplains, and snipers. Each significantly affects play. And each leader and hero gets a randomly selected Skill Card before the scenario begins. These cards bestow benefits such as stealth bonuses, ambush experts, and many others.
* The game’s random events add a twist to each scenario. Your objective may be to capture the town, but suddenly a Huey goes into the brush 500 feet downstream. You know that you have to rescue that pilot, but so do the Viet Cong! Playing Mark H. Walker’s Lock ’n Load feels like reading a good military adventure. All this in fewer than 10 pages of rules!
* Desperate assaults, unexpected ambushes, and stand up firefights are all part of this fantastic piece of work. Included in the module is a complete set of Mark H. Walker’s Lock ’n Load rules, twelve scenarios, Skill Cards, four gorgeous, geomorphic maps, 280+ counters, and player’s charts. You can’t go wrong.
* But Vietnam isn’t the end, it is only the beginning! We have modules in the works for Desert Storm, The ’82 Falkland War, Operation Anaconda, World War II’s Pacific and Western Fronts, and even a module based on Mark’s upcoming Sci-Fi novel. All this and you get the same great graphics, the same low intensity rules.
* And much much more...

Currently in beta, Lock ’N Load is expected to ship in October, 2002. A demo will be available in a few weeks at the Shrapnel Games website at http://www.shrapnelgames.com. The retail price will be $44.95, but those that pre-order the game before September 25th will save $5.00 off the retail price. To pre-order visit Shrapnel Games’ online store, the Gamers Front, at http://www.gamersfront.com.