More Questions

[Gabe The Gun]

Thank you everyone for your replies and welcomes, very much appreciated! Now I have been going through the rules and module for a month non stop prepping for this campaign. Theres only one issue, how the hell is anyone going to go anywhere when there are hundreds to thousands of troops and armor in almost every city in escape from kaliz? I look at this info and think " Theres no FRAKIN way anyone is going to survive 2 min against any of this with a party of 4 guys". Am I wrong? I mean it seems my players are going to be constantly rolling up new characters to play with, cuz im going to run it as is and not sugar coating nothin! I mean cmon, even all the wooded areas are full of patrols, it seems like there is no place to run, or hide, or even stop and still fuel, on top of like 4 random encounter rolls a day! This module is BRUTAL ha ha ha, I mite as well tell my pc's to just name their first characters HEAD SHOT.

[TiggerCCW UK]

Just another reason to ditch the vehicles and go sneaky beaky! Low profile is the way to go - the over confident and gung ho don't last too long....

[Cdnwolf]

You have to remember to start your game in the middle of the night... when the attack starts coming in from direction there is going to be a lot of smoke, dust and confusion .... the attack came in three hours before dawn...

"The final battle was more of a confused brawl. As the division was being overun from the rear, the 1'st Brigade on the left flank jumped off to punch a hole to the south..... they succeeded in disorganizing the screens sufficiently for parties of fugitives to break free and escape to the south."

"they should be able to get out of the immediate area in fours hours driving and should be able to get to the cover of woods, probably the woods between Kepno and Zloczew. From that point the actual play of the game begins."

I am quoting from the handout that came with the first edition of the game... if you dont have it... i will try to make a copy of it for you.

[Legbreaker]

At the end, almost everyone is in disarray, especially to the south. I can't recall the unit off hand, but remember the M1 tanks set up above a road and virtually destroyed a Sovet Division moving westward. This is the most likely gap in the Pact encirclement and although it's likely the characters will encounter Soviets, they won't be in much shape to put up a decent fight - the PC group should be able to steamroller them with fairly minimal effort. (The GM should however tailor any opposition to test the PCs but not be much more than a speed bump).

[Targan]

At first it does seem as though the PCs have no chance against all of the various enemy forces roaming around Poland and in fact that is a good vibe to instill in the players and their characters. At first the characters should feel desperate, hunted and alone. That is what T2K is all about. But there are a number of factors that work in the PCs' favour.

Number one is that there can't be enemy troops in all places at once. Given the amount of destruction across Europe by 2000 there are wide areas with hardly anyone in them. As the GM you need to keep in the back of your mind the locations of the command elements and major subordinate units of the enemy in the area the players are in. From that you can logically determine the radius in which enemy troops from those units are likely to be. Different types of enemy units will move at different rates and will be more or less spread out. And some units are much more capable of rapid reaction than others.

The first day or two after the Battle of Kalisz will be the worst for the PCs. They'll be demoralised and battered and probably a bit confused about what happens next. They will probably not all be from the one platoon or company so they will be getting to know each other and feeling out their new chain of command. The opposing force will definitely be actively trying to destroy or capture surviving elements of the 5th but the enemy isn't in terrific shape either - the 5th went down hard and made the enemy pay heavily for its destruction.

You can slowly raise the PCs' hopes by helping them start to feel empowered and more in control of their destinies. For instance, the officers and senior NCOs amongst them will probably want to try to make sense of whatever intel they have regarding enemy forces in the area. Reward them for this, give them enough info (even if much of it is inaccurate or just plain wrong) to help them make some decisions about what to do and where to go in the short term. The decisions made by the party's leadership (or by consensus if that is the style your group likes to play) and the success or failure those decisions lead to are likely to influence the way decisions in the party are made in the future. For instance, if the party's officers and senior NCOs make good (or lucky) choices early on and the party survives without taking heavy casualties for the first few days, the other PCs and NPCs may gain confidence in the leadership abilities of their superiors. If they botch it perhaps there might be the threat of mutiny or a forced change in the way group decisions are made.

As a GM I love those early parts of a T2K campaign because you can never really tell ahead of time how these things will turn out. I am envious that you will get to experience these things soon.

[Marc]

I agree with all the stated above. I will only add some more points.

The overall picture is ominous for he characters. It must be in this way and it will a very important part of your job during the session to create such a feeling in your players. The great numbers will be against them and the tactical map (if anything similar is available for your players) will show no safe spots. But you are running/playing a roleplaying game at a micro-level. Here is where they have their chance.

First, an encounter with enemy forces does not mean that the group is spotted. Probabilities can play in favor of your players. If they are moving on foot and are few in numbers they probably will spot the enemy before being spotted. Second, avoid the usual temptation to simplify the terrain where the characters are moving. Don’t limit yourself to the short description of an encounter table. They are in a battlefield with ruined farmhouses, wreckages of both sides, smoke, corpses, abandoned material, and all kind of stuff… add it to the normal terrain characteristics that could provide some concealment to the group, things like irrigation channels, little bridges, fields, woods, rocks, bushes, stonewalls… Take some maps or aerial pictures to help you to describe the terrain. This thread may be useful: http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=566

If they are wise, they move in short jumps, carefully studying their next position before moving.

Other resources will be given or suggested to you by your own players. Enemy uniforms or vehicles? Known minefields to protect their movements? Some kind of help (forced or voluntary) by civilians? Do their understand the enemy radio communications?

And finally, others are trying to do the same that they are doing and the situation will be extremely fluid. Actions by other groups of allied soldiers could act as diversionary facts to help the movements of the group.

Good luck for your game! Keep us informed!