What Lock 'n Load Tactical Digital is
Lock 'n Load Tactical Digital is a squad-level turn-based tactics game built from the award-winning board games of the same name. You command infantry and support elements on a hex grid, moving and firing in an impulse-based system that keeps both sides acting throughout the turn rather than waiting for one long sequence of moves. Infantry combat is the core: squads and half-squads form the backbone, backed by weapon teams with mortars, heavy machine guns and anti-tank guns, plus tanks, armored and non-armored vehicles, and fixed-wing aircraft. Individual figures matter too — Leaders, Medics, Snipers, Chaplains and Advisors each do a specific job, and a Hero can emerge from the middle of a firefight to swing it your way.
The Core Game gives you two scenarios from Heroes of Normandy set in World War II and two from Heroes of the Nam set in Vietnam, so you can try the system across two very different periods before deciding whether it suits you. The wider series covers infantry combat from the 1930s to the present, with additional content spanning Korea, Vietnam, an alternative 1985 Cold War gone hot, and sci-fi infantry.
Playing it with friends
Online PvP is supported, so two players can face each other across the hex map, one commanding each side. Because play is impulse-based and decisions come fast, matches stay active for both players instead of alternating between long waits. Tactical leadership and unique skills reward planning: positioning your Leaders, using weapon teams to cover open ground, and timing armor and air support are what decide most firefights. The game is in Early Access, so expect the system and content to keep developing as it moves toward a finished state.
Before you start
The rules come from a tabletop wargame, so there is a real system to learn, but the developers built several ways in. The game manual and module booklets can be read online or downloaded in PDF, EPUB, MP3 audio and MP4 audiobook formats, with plenty of worked examples showing how the mechanics play out. A set of boot camp training videos walks through the entire system rule by rule, which is usually the fastest route in. The stated approach is "Play the Game, Not the Rules" — learn by running a scenario and looking things up as they come up, rather than memorizing the booklet first. Start with one of the four included scenarios, keep the manual open beside you, and the impulse system will click quickly.