Sean Druelinger designer of Lock 'n Load's
Point Blank: V is for Victory
I had asked Mr. Druelinger to do a short bio about himself and some information about his game. I would describe it as not a Card Wargame, but a wargame played with cards. It comes with a good-sized rulebook and does not abstract many parts like a card game usually does.
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| Game Map |
This is a write up about the game from Lock 'n Load:
"Point Blank" is Lock 'n Load Publishing tactical World War 2 squad card wargame, for 2 players pitted against each other in situational combat scenarios.
There is also a solo option as well as partnerships in teams of 2.
Each scenario presents the players with a unique situation involving squads of men, support weapons, leaders, and individual armored fighting vehicles.
This game pits the forces of the USA against Germany just after the landings in Normandy (June 1944) through October 1944. Each player has victory conditions determined by the scenario in which to defend or take objectives, seek and destroy their opponent’s units, or one of many other different scenario objectives.
The game is played on an abstract map board made up of terrain cards in the game and managed through a distance system that accounts for the range to targets, line of sight, and defensive attributes. The player has units that start out on the map and gradually work their way towards their objectives by advancing through the battlefield all the while conducting combat actions against their opponent or defending their troops from return fire or whatever hell that awaits them. Players draw cards from a common action deck where they will play actions on their units on the map board. The game is an IGOUGO impulse system and turns are managed when the action deck is exhausted. (Some scenarios may require multiple deck exhaustion to finish the game). Actions in the game consist of Fire, Move, Assault, Rally, etc. The action cards contain dice icons on them to determine random results.
One of the unique features of the game is that it contains a deck of terrain cards that are not part of the action deck. As players change terrain they will draw a terrain card in which their moving units will occupy. Some action cards such as Recon helps players manage what terrain they occupy but your opponent may have other plans for your moving troops during their turn.
Combat in the game is similar to how combat is conducted in Lock n Load Tactical. 2 players can play a game in about an hour (depending on the scenario size) and if you cannot find an opponent then try the game solo system. In general, the gameplay is fast and excited and compares to such legendary game systems as Up Front."
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| Some Cards |
I am not a big fan of interviews. It seems that the same questions always get asked. I would much rather have the designer etc. give us the information without my input. To each their own.
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| This is a big game with a lot of cards |
Without further ado, here is Mr. Druelinger's write up. It gives us a good look at his game design:
I was introduced to Squad Leader when I was about 12 years old. I was playing D&D every other week with this gaming group of 20 something’s at the time. I accidentally showed up on a non-D&D day and was asked if I want to play SL. I was hooked from that point on.
I was lucky to see a lot of AH games in their infancy and was able to participate in many of the playtest sessions. Titles like longest Day, up front, enemy in sight, etc.
In and around 2012 I wrote some scenarios for Nations at War and Tank on Tank for Line of Fire magazine. I then developed an east front prototype for Nations at War and got a green light from the owner of L'nL at the time to proceed. L'nL was then bought by David Heath around 2015. He wanted to redo the original Nations at War titles and asked me to develop them. At the same time, he asked that I include my east front module “Stalin’s Triumph” into the mix. We developed all 3 systems at once. In addition to that, Dave asked me to develop/design the Lock 'n Load tactical solo system to be compatible with every scenario for every L'nL tactical game to date.
In 2016 I began designing PB. I introduced the game to David in 2017 at Origins and after some strong hesitation he gave me the green light.
Point Blank was inspired by games like Up Front and L'nL tactical. The thing that makes this game different is that it introduces what I feel are new concepts in tactical gaming. For instance:
Movement: Moving is an action that you can issue to the game, but the ordered units do not complete their move until the next owning player's upkeep phase. This models that troops have to gather their equipment, form up and then move out. From a game perspective the opposing player has a chance to react to move action before it is completed. Melee is handled in much the same way. An order is issued and then resolved in the player's next upkeep phase. I do not see a lot of games that handle actions this way.
Terrain and Line of Sight are other areas that sets the game apart. Terrain is very dynamic in PB. A unit in a sector within terrain can conduct an action to change its terrain while remaining in the same sector. Terrain can also be acquired and held by the player through play of recon actions. Terrain that is collected through Recon actions can place terrain into empty sectors to secure good terrain for units that are in the process of moving or into sectors adjacent to opposing units or friendly units. This mechanic makes of interesting Line of Sight situations and expands the maneuverability options for units in the game.
Spend and Discard actions; Another key factor that sets this game apart from other card driven games is the ability to discard cards to perform some type of action. In every card driven game there are situations where a hand of cards may not contain a card that you need to perform a preferred action. In PB you may, in lieu of playing an action card, discard a card (spend action) to activate an action printed on a unit's card. Once that action is performed however, the unit is "spent" (rotated 90 degrees) to indicate that it can no longer perform an action until it is readied through the play of a "Ready" action. Other actions in the game are available through discard type actions. This whole concept expands the game play and helps to prevent situations where a player is locked down by a hand of cards that may not be of any use.
Leaders in the game are represented by individual cards and they have benefits to units by contributing their modifiers. Additionally, they have actions printed on their card that they can execute through a spend action in action to the play of an action card during a player impulse.
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