August 1, 2000
 

Around mid-day, two riders are spotted approaching on horseback from the east. Both wear US-issue battledress and carry M-16 pattern weapons. Contact is made. The pair- a man and a woman- are stragglers from the 4th Squadron, 12th Cavalry (5th ID). For the past 13 days, they’ve been on the run, eluding Polish and Soviet Army patrols. The two riders started out with several others, but a couple of clashes with enemy forces since the “You’re on your own” transmission have winnowed the group down to two. They ask for food for themselves and their horses, and ammunition for their M4 carbines. Discussion inevitably rolls around to the two parties joining forces.

“We’re not going to hang around until you’re ready to leave,” the man says, upon learning of the Diamond’s delayed travel plans.

“What’s your rush?” Sarge asks, trying to keep his frustration under control.

“You haven’t heard? The big brass decided to pull US forces out of Europe; there’s gonna be a major evac, from some port in northeast Germany, end of the month, first come, first served. We’re fuckin' going home.”

Sarge and Walker both raise their eyebrows at this revelation.

“And how do you know about this… ‘major evac’?” Walker asks skeptically.

“We ran into a guy who hid out for a couple of days with a comms specialist from the 5th ID head shed.”

“So, hearsay,” Sarge says, nonplussed.

“You wanna take the chance he was full of shit?”

There’s an uncomfortable pause while both parties process this.

“I’m not going to order you to stay,” Walker says, breaking the silence. She knows full well that her unit can’t stop the Cavalry troopers from taking off if they’re really determined to do so. The Cav troopers expressions only reinforce this.

Sarge makes one last pitch with the “strength in numbers” argument.

“Bigger group means bigger target- and slower. We got a better chance on our own.”

The Diamonds command team discusses whether to grant the Cav troopers’ request for ammunition. Ultimately, Walker decides to offer the pair a trade; she doesn’t feel right letting two friendlies head off on their own without providing some potentially life-saving assistance. The two troopers are offered their pick of the remaining small arms captured from the marauders (not those previously spoken for), plus as much Soviet ammo as they can carry, for the pair’s carbines and remaining NATO-caliber ammo. The riders accept the deal. They take two AKMs (including the one with a BG-15 40mm grenade launcher attached), seven compatible mags, and two 40mmS HE rounds; in exchange, they hand over their M4s and four full STANAG magazines.


NOTES:
To determine encounters while the Diamonds remain encamped in Skarydzew, I’m using the Frequency rules and Stationary Encounters table on p. 36 of the Referee’s Manual. The Frequency rules suggest one encounter per shift. That seems reasonable when the party is on the move (they could run into stationary groups, or others on the move) or in a city, but not so much when the party is staying put in a small, isolated hamlet (technically, they can only “run into” another group that’s on the move). Consequently, I’m rolling the dice only once per day/every other day (?) from 7/31, as that seems more reasonable to me.

Anyway, the first roll called for a draw from the RED, but the result didn’t apply, so I ruled that as No Encounter for the day. On day two (D6+1), the result was 6, Stragglers. The D6 roll to determine how many stragglers appeared came up 2. The encounter suggests that the stragglers will attempt to steal from the PCs and leave at the earliest opportunity. That reminded me too much of the Murderous Bastards random encounter that I ran earlier in the campaign, so I omitted that part about stealing. I supposed I could have rolled an opposed Persuasion roll to convince them to stay, but that would have completely nerfed the encounter described by the rules, so I didn’t. Instead, I rolled to see if Walker (Persuasion C) could convince the riders to share any rumors that they picked up since the death of 5th ID. I awarded Walker +2 in modifiers for asking for something that didn’t cost anything (rumors), and outranking the people she was trying to persuade (CPT vs. SGT). Even rolling 2D12 vs. 1D8, she had to the push the roll in order to succeed. The result on the Rumor table was 9. I worked its contents into the dialogue.

Once again, I forgot to roll for Weather changes [for any of the shifts since the PCs arrived in Skarydzew]. Doh!

-

Wow! Great stuff!!

I've been doing the same, only rolling once per stationary day. I've been ignoring the result if it doesn't fit.

August 2, 2000
 

It rains for a few hours during the morning, so anyone not on guard duty tries to stay indoors. The rain lets up around noon, but overcast remains. It’s going to be a grey day.

PR continues his ad hoc physical therapy program supervised by Deacon. In addition to making continued progress with his fingers, hands, and arms, PR has regained some feeling and movement in his feet. His spirits have risen tremendously- he’s convinced that he will soon be able to walk again. He even insists that the team medic prop him up in bed (i.e. into a reclining seated position). Deacon is trying to temper his own optimism about his patient’s prognosis, but the medic’s hopes have risen as well. He now no longer fears that PR will experience significant, long-term paralysis.

At about ten hundred hours, a group of seven rain-soaked civilians arrives from the west. They hail from the neighboring settlement of Wygoda Plugawska, just under 2km west of Skarydzew, but have been squatting in the larger town of Doruchow (4.3km further west) for the past week, since the last marauder raid on their hamlet. The marauders took most of their home settlement’s food; what little the bandits left behind has since been consumed, leaving nothing until the upcoming harvest season. The people of Doruchow fed some of the refugees for a while, but that town is running low on food now too, so they were asked to leave this morning. The refugees have come to Skarysdzew to ask for charity, but are willing to work for it, and repay the food debt after the next harvest. With its new guests (i.e. the Diamonds) already providing more mouths to feed, Skarydzew is approaching a similar situation- provisions are running out faster than anticipated. Everybody’s about to go hungry, it seems.

When the refugees learn that Skarydzew’s American guests killed most of the marauders just two days prior, they grow animated, ask if a teenage boy was with them. The refugees explain that the boy was kidnapped from their village during the last raid- why, they can’t be sure. They beg the Diamonds to go find him and bring him back, even claiming that they heard that the bandits also had some American prisoners too. The Diamonds believe the part about the Americans is bullshit, laid on to give them an incentive to look for the civilian boy, but they agree to help anyway.

The Diamonds start by interrogating the captured marauder- something they didn’t see much use in doing, earlier. The process is complicated by the need for two translators- Bartosz translates Russian to Polish, and PR translates Polish to English (and vice-versa). The prisoner is in no mood to talk, but Walker is able to get him to admit that his group did indeed kidnap a boy for use as a camp “servant”; he also gives the Diamonds a rough idea of where his camp is located in the woods to the south.

“When we get there, make sure to identify your targets. We don’t want to hit the kid we’re trying to rescue, so no sprayin’ and prayin’, got it?” Sarge admonishes the rescue team, just before they set off.

The rescue team consists of Walker, Sarge, Deacon, Bird, Honeybear, Sandy, Grease, and one of the village militiamen with experience hunting in the woods. Any trail the marauders may have left has been washed away by the morning showers, so the team has rely on the prisoner’s directions and dead reckoning to locate the marauder campsite.

After about an hour of slow, cautious movement through the woods, the hunter, on point with Bird, indicates that he’s hearing voices from up ahead. Sarge gets the team on line and they begin a tactical advance towards the suspected campsite. 30m from the camp, Bird catches his toe on an exposed root, loses his balance, and falls forward; somehow, his "new" M4 carbine discharges a round when he hits the ground. The marauders are alerted. They drop prone, facing the danger, and open fire.

Deacon is already prone, making him a smaller target. Nevertheless, an incoming round grazes the medic's right cheek. Somehow, he manages to keep his cool and return fire. Just a few paces away, Walker staggers as a round pancakes against her PAGST vest. She falls forward, going prone, takes aim at her attacker, and squeezes of a few rounds. Both Diamonds score hits, although neither is aware of this at the time.

The rest of Diamonds go prone and start engaging targets. Sandy, Grease, and Sarge all miss theirs, but Bird and Honeybear eliminate two of the four marauders.

The opposing groups exchange fire for about 10 more seconds. The marauders are the first to cease fire, it turns out, because they are all dead. Two Diamonds (Deacon and Walker) are slightly wounded during the exchange.

The kidnapped teenager is found, curled up behind a tree, feet chained together. He’s filthy and badly shaken, but otherwise unhurt (at least, physically). The Diamonds seize the dead marauder’s weaponry (four AKMs w/ 3.5 mags, three RGD-5 hand grenades, and a few assorted knives/bayonets) and search the filthy bandit camp. Grease is a master scrounger- apart from some very dingy camping equipment, he turns up an Oriental carpet, a fire extinguisher [fully charged], and a Nintendo Gameboy hand-held video game console! (Batteries not included, unfortunately).

The party returns in triumph to Skarydzew with the rescued teenager and a carpet-full of loot. To show their gratitude, the refugees from Wygoda Plugawska share another rumor they’ve heard. A merchant passing through Doruchow told them that Krakow has declared itself a free city and is hiring soldiers of any nationality to join its nascent defense force. The Soviets are also supposedly hiring mercs to help them retake the city. Some of the merchant caravan guards were discussing signing on with one side or the other (probably whoever pays better) when they return to the area.


NOTES:
I finally remembered to roll for Weather changes! Twice a day seems more reasonable to me than four times a day (i.e. at the beginning of all four daily shifts).

This is encounter was built by rolling D6+2 on the Stationary Encounter Table. I rolled 7 on 2D6 to determine the number of refugees. I had to ponder for a while to figure out how to make this encounter fit into the narrative, but I’m satisfied with what I came up with. Since the party agreed to help, the refugees shared two rumors (I rolled twice on the rumor table). I tweaked the rumors a bit. One (R6) was the throw-away about the marauders having some American prisoners, the other (R2) was about the Krakow and the Soviets competing to hire mercs.

The rescue op started with a successful roll for Interrogation [pushed]- the prisoner confirmed the refugees’ story about the kidnapped boy. I wanted to use Bird’s Hunter specialty to try to track the marauders all the way back to their camp, but the morning rains washed away all spoor, so I scratched that. The opposed Group Recon roll to attempt to “Ambush” the camp failed 30m from the camp, so the engagement began at close range, and the marauders drew the first two initiative cards.

I didn’t use as many ammo dice in this firefight. The marauders were running low already, and the good guys were trying to reduce the chance of a stray round catching the kid they were trying to rescue. Deacon and Walker survived head and torso hits, respectively. Body armor is a real life-saver!

I used the Oracle to determine the condition of the kid and drew Seven of Diamonds (mildly helpful)- I ruled that this meant that the kid was unhurt and relatively healthy (at least, physically).

Since the marauder camp is relatively small, I ruled that the party could roll for Scrounging even though they spend less than a shift searching it. Grease rolled three successes (I even forget to add +1 for Help from another PC). I Googled “random gameboy game generator” and, low and behold, there’re a couple. I used the first one that popped up and the result was Streetfighter II (1993). Luckily, the Diamonds scrounged a couple of AA batteries a few days earlier. Let the games begin!

-

Strategy Meeting, Evening of August 2
 

The Gameboy is a real morale booster. Deacon commandeers it for 'therapeutic medical reasons', handing it off to PR so that the convalescing RTO can work on his fine motor skills. PR doesn’t mind the rotating cast of visitors, there as much to take a turn on the Gameboy as to visit with their injured squad-mate.

That evening, the Diamonds convene for a full team meeting, the main purpose of which is to determine a long-term course of action. Captain Walker starts things off.

“This village now has eight more mouths to feed. We can’t stay here much longer without putting our hosts in a bad spot. Once PR is back on his feet, literally, we’re leaving. Question is, where are we going? We need a long term goal. Otherwise, we just keep running in circles.”

Walker spreads out a large travel map of Poland on the table. It's poorly lit by candlelight. Her finger marks a spot, not even a dot on the map, about 6 or 7 kilometers south of Kalisz.

“We're right about here. Since Kalisz, we’ve been trying to keep moving east and south, keeping away from the FEBA, where the enemy has their frontline troops.”

“Worked out real great, so far,” Honeybear quips with a mischievous grin. Sarge half-heartedly shoots him a cross look; Walker can’t help but smile at the chorus of chuckles that follows.

“So just imagine what we’d run up against if we’d headed west instead,” Bird says, coming to Walker’s defense (not that she really needed it).

“Thank you, Corporal. In the last couple of days, we’ve heard some pretty interesting rumors. One: there’s a big evacuation of US forces from Europe leaving from Bremerhaven, Germany, end of this month. That’s about 690 klicks from here, as the crow flies."

Walker's finger traces a straight line between Skarydzew, Poland, and Bremerhaven, Germany.

“Second, Krakow, about 200 klicks southeast of here, has declared itself a Free City and is hiring mercs to beef up its defense force.”

“Just to clarify, what’s a ‘Free City’?” Sandy asks.

“Independent- neutral, not taking sides,” Walker explains.

“Like Casablanca in WWII,” PR adds to quizzical or blank looks. “Seriously? Bogart, Bacall? 'Play it again, Sam'? It’s an American classic!”

“Like Casablanca,” Sarge confirms (aside from PR, he's the only one present who's seen it).

Walker continues, “Now these are rumors, but they're all we have to go on. So, as I see it, our two options are start heading northwest, make for Bremerhaven, or at least friendly lines, or, head southeast, to Krakow. Option one is farther, and takes us back towards the front lines, but it does get us all closer to home. For Krakow, the reverse of all that is true. Questions, suggestions, concerns?”

“If we make it to Bremerhaven, and the rumor is false, we’re still back in friendly territory. If we get to Krakow and the rumor was false, then we’re 200 klicks further away from friendly territory than we are now," Sarge points out.

After a bit more discussion, a vote is taken. Bremerhaven wins.

-

August 3-4
 

Thursday, August 3, 2000 (roll +3 on SET)

At about noon, Grease, on sentry duty in the copse on the west end of town, radios in a sighting. Two vehicles - a Humvee mounting a Dishka HMG, and a military van of some sort- are approaching Skarydzew from the west. Both sporting Soviet Army tactical symbols (a “Z” perhaps?).

The Diamonds and the hamlet’s tiny militia have discussed what to do in this sort of situation. The Diamonds lay low (but ready to fight or run at a pinch), while the locals do the talking, sticking to a “this is just a sleepy little village; there’s nothing to see here” narrative. The vehicle-mounted Soviet patrol is met by one of the hamlet militia on the edge of the settlement. After a brief conversation (hidden Diamonds watch the exchange, but can’t hear what’s said), the two vehicles pass through town at a leisurely pace and continue on their way, heading east. Once the patrol is well out of sight, the militiaman reports that it was operating out of Grabow nad Prosna / Palaty, searching for NATO raiders believed to be running amok in the area (most likely, this refers to the Diamonds or the escaped American POWs). The Russians apparently bought the militiaman’s claim that no one in the hamlet has seen or heard of any Americans in the area.


NOTES:
To decide which Diamond was on sentry duty at the western OP, I rolled a D8- Grease got the job. I rolled opposed Recon and he won, so the patrol didn’t see him lurking in the trees. I treated the conversation between the militia and the Soviet patrol as a Social Conflict and rolled for Persuasion (opposed), with both parties rolling a single D8 (EMP C). The militiaman won, so he successfully bluffed the patrol, which went on its way, none-the-wiser, without searching the ville.


Friday, August 4, 2000

Arm around Deacon’s shoulders, PR is up on his feet and walking (shambling, more like it). His legs are weak and wobbly, but he’s regained a lot of strength in his upper body, and his fine motor skills are improving rapidly (probably thanks to Street Fighter II).

Later that afternoon, the militia “captures” a Soviet soldier on the northern approaches of the village. He’s in bad shape- bloody and delirious, barely able to walk or speak, and when he does talk, he doesn’t make much sense. His uniform is torn and dirty; his only weapon is a crude shop-built hand grenade of some sort.

Deacon fixes up the Soviet soldier as best he can, using supplies provided by the village. The Diamonds suggest that the villagers take the injured Soldier to the nearest Soviet garrison (Grabow) in order to earn some good will. The Americans offer to take the bandit EPW with them when they leave, dropping him off several kilometers away.

The Diamonds spend the rest of the day preparing to leave Skarydzew early the next morning. The villagers load the Americans up with as much alcohol fuel as they can carry, as well as a couple of days’ worth of food and fresh water- all that they can spare. It’s going to be tight until the next harvesters, but the villagers don’t begrudge upholding their end of the arrangement. They know it would have been much worse had their guests not eliminated the rapacious ex-Red Army marauders.


NOTES:
During the Diamonds’ stay in Skarydzew, I’d rolled all but one of the encounters on the Stationary Encounters table. The remaining encounter is Large Force, but I couldn’t think of a way to wedge that into the story, given that the village militia successfully bluffed the small patrol (the Scouts encounter) on Day +3. I don’t want to burn through the random encounter deck either so, for day five, instead of rolling for a fourth time on the SEC (adding +4 to the roll), I decided to see what kind of encounter I could create by drawing cards on the Further Elements Table. The results were 4 (Tired Soldier), 6 (Decayed), King (Bleeding), and 5 (IED). I was going to interpret Decayed as a case of gangrene, but since the next result was Bleeding, I decided that Decayed refers to the tired soldier’s state of mind.

-

During the Diamonds discussion, it felt like there were two options.
1) free city of krakow, or
2) something like Pirates of the Vistala/Going home.

I thought you'd end up going South, too Krakow. Only because i know you ran the Pirates game years ago.

Q how did you make the decision about which way to travel?
Q how do you feel heading in the same geographic direction as your Pirates game (is it more of the same?)?


I know i've said it before, but i only roll once per day on the stationary encounters table. Your explaining how you rolled and then turned the results into a story i think is valuable for new (even expereinced) solo players to see how this is done in practice, stringing random results into a cohesive story line. What you describe is very similar to my own games.

Behind the Ref Screen
 

A third option I considered was building a local base. This is the game concept that I find most appealing personally, but, ATM, the characters haven't found a place that they feel invested enough in to consider staying there long-term. This could change, however, as they continue their travels.

I thought about rolling the dice or pulling a card for this decision, but I didn't want the choice of the PCs' ultimate destination be quite that arbitrary. "Consulting the Oracle" works for a lot of things in this game, but for a major plot point such as the party's long-term goal, I feel like solid reasoning is more of a necessity. To make the decision re destination, I debated the pros and cons of Krakow v. Bremerhaven in my head. I basically did a quick and dirty cost-benefit analysis, and then played it out IC. Ultimately, Sarge's point was the most convincing to me. I couldn't imagine any of the Diamonds voting for, "Let's drive 200km further behind enemy lines to join a Polish city militia that may or may not be recruiting American troops, or even exist at all, for that matter." It's too much of a gamble, and there's not a strong enough pull for any of them.

Again, random rolls or draws, or the consequences of future encounters could change the Diamonds' course/goals/destination. I just needed a general direction to get things rolling again. Who knows? They may still end up in Krakow.

So, yeah, the main reason the PCs decided to head north is that I think that goal makes the most sense, logically, and in terms of realism, at this point in the story. I have another, supporting reason for pointing the game north, but I don't want to spoil what might be coming up, so I'll let you in on it later, if and when the story has arrived at another significant IC decision point.

-

August 5th, Morning-Night
 

The Diamonds leave Skarydszew just after sunrise. They work their way slowly but steadily north and east, sticking, as much as possible to back roads. By noon, they’ve driven roughly 25km and are approaching the town of Blaszki, which sits astride a major east-west roadway linking Lodz and Kalisz- very likely an MSR for the Warsaw Pact forces operating in the region. Bird spots an apparent ambush near a roadside petrol station; Grease successfully detours around it.

The Diamonds’ map shows a small forest on their current route, about 4.5 kilometers southwest of Blaszki. They plan to stop in the woods, pull off the road, conceal Pole Position under some foliage, and reconnoiter the way ahead on foot before sundown.

That afternoon, Bird and Sarge move north through the woods to get eyes on the town. Hearing voices in the trees up ahead, they stealthily sneak up on what appears to be a small campsite. Unaware that they are being observed, the civilians (who look to be hunters) sit around a small campfire dressing a freshly killed feral hog. The American scouts slink off back to the hide site. After a brief all-hands meeting, it’s decided to try to make contact with the group, see what they know about Blaszki and its environs . Bird and Sarge head back to the civilian campsite with PR and Sandy in tow; this time, however, the Americans are detected by the campers. After a brief but tense faceoff, PR persuades the Polish civies that he and his fellow soldiers mean them no harm. A deal is struck- an AKM and one full mag for information. The civilians report that Blaszki now lies in ruins, a casualty of the latest round of fighting (i.e. the Battle of Kalisz). No one lives there full-time anymore. The only inhabitants at the moment are a squad of Polish soldiers that run a checkpoint at the crossroads in the town. Allegedly, the Polish soldiers solicit bribes from civilian traffic. The civilians are not sure if the checkpoint is manned overnight, but they’ve seen no traffic on the highway after dark. When asked if there are alternate routes that cross the highway, the civilians explain that the fields and other roads in the area are still littered with all kinds of mines.

Bird and Sarge proceed to the northern edge of the forest. Blaszki is barely visible as a jagged silhouette on the northern skyline. Burned-out military vehicles, both NATO and Warsaw Pact, squat on the shoulders of the main road into town, tragic mileposts. Additional wrecks dot the surrounding fields. There was a mighty duel. A lot of soldiers- from both sides- died here just over two weeks ago.

Since the other north-south routes crossing the highway are apparently mined, the Diamonds decide to make a run through Blaszki after sundown. It’s probably too much to hope for, but maybe the squad manning the reported checkpoint will be asleep at their posts. If not, Americans might be able to bluff their way through the checkpoint- Pole Position is a standard-issue Polish military AFV, and PR’s Polish is good enough that he can often pass as a native speaker. Worst case scenario, the Diamonds might have to shoot their way through. According to the civies, the Polish troops don’t have any heavy weapons so, if it comes down to a fight, the Diamonds should have a firepower advantage.

After sundown, the Diamonds hit the road again. There’s not much of a moon up tonight, so visibility is limited, but Grease enjoys the benefit of OT-64’s driver’s IR equipment. The town, or rather what’s left of it, isn’t visible until the Diamonds are nearly upon it. Very little appears to remain intact. The main roads have been cleared, but rubble clogs the side streets.

The Diamonds spot the checkpoint first. Grease turns on the SKOT’s blackout headlights in an attempt to allay suspicions. The lone visible sentry doesn’t seem too alarmed at the sudden appearance of the approaching vehicle. Perhaps he recognizes its silhouette. As Pole Position edges closer, Honeybear waves a friendly, silent 'hello' from the gun tub; PR shouts from the air-guard hatch, “Zabieraj swoj tylek z drogi, glupek!” (Get out of the road, dumbass!) The sentry steps aside, salutes the passing APC with his middle finger, shouts, “Zwolnij, czubek!” (Slow down, nutcase!). Pole Position passes through the intersection unmolested, the ruse seemingly successful.

Wary of mines, the party stays on the main north-south road for another 4km before slowly taking a right turn and laying up for the rest of the night at an abandoned farmhouse.


NOTES:
This encounter includes a few random encounters from the deck that I’d pulled during previous sessions, but skipped as they didn’t fit prior situations. They are Empty Tank (the ambush at the petrol station that the party spotted and detoured around), My Kill, My Meat (the hunters in the woods south of Blaszki), and Cash is King (the Polish Army checkpoint in the town). To determine if the Polish soldiers manning the checkpoint were awake or asleep, I consulted the Oracle. The result was 9 (dangerous), so a watch was posted. Driving, Recon, and Persuasion rolls (most opposed) were successful, so the Diamonds were able to avoid combat. When I was younger, I probably would have sought it out, but seeing how dangerous combat can be the PCs that I’ve grown attached to, now I tend to try to avoid a fight whenever I can.

-

August 6, 2000
 

The Diamonds rise just before the sun, get back on the road. After a quick jog east, they turn north again, pick up the pace. It’s easier to see the road in daylight, so Grease gives Pole Position a little more methanol. The Diamonds continue to pass burned out military vehicles. Two out of every three are American models. Some of the blackened wrecks are still sitting in the road, indicating that this particular route hasn’t seen much heavy vehicle traffic recently. Pole Position rolls through an abandoned hamlet. The houses on the east side of the road are more badly damaged than the ones on other side. Among the char-stained exoskeletons of burned houses, rests a destroyed Soviet self-propelled gun, its blown-out barrel still elevated like some dried flower from an industrial nightmare.

As is his wont, PR periodically scans the channels on the SKOT’s integral radio. He picks up a fair bit of Russian and Polish transmissions. He can’t understand the former, but the latter are mostly brief and innocuous- the routine comms of an early 21st century military force at war. He slowly turns the dial…

“This is Diamond Regular One to northbound vehicle, come in. Over,” requests an English-speaking voice through a susurration of static. It carries hints of Louisiana bayou and desperation. “Diamond Regular One to northbound vehicle, please respond. Over.”

PR looks around, asks, “He talking to us?”

“Pick up,” instructs Captain Walker.

The caller says he’s a lone survivor from 1st platoon, Bravo Company, 4-6 infantry. He’s wounded and hiding out in a wooded area just west of an abandoned hamlet called Chlewo. 5th ID hadn’t established distress or confirmation codes prior to its dissolution, so PR goes old school with some American sports trivia.

“Diamond Regular One, who won the 1997 World Series? Over.”

“The [Kansas City] Royals,” the voice answers.

“How about the ’98 series?”

“There wasn’t one. The whole season got canceled.”

“I think we just passed it,” Sarge reports, consulting the map.

“Let’s go get him,” Walker says, decisively.


NOTES:
This is a combination of entry #6 on the Radio Chatter table and two draws on the Encounter Categories table. To be continued...

-

Combat!
 

Grease doubles back, parks Pole Position on the road, nose facing the woods where the alleged 5th ID survivor is hiding out. With Honeybear providing over-watch, Sarge, Bird, Sandy, and Deacon dismount and advance cautiously towards the tree-line. They find the lone survivor- he's unarmed, save for a pistol (M9), and he lost his K-Pot somewhere along the way. “I had to choose- radio or rifle,” he explains.

“Vehicles inbound from the north!” PR shouts from the starboard front air-guard hatch. The Diamond dismounts are 230m away from the SKOT.

A military convoy is approaching at a pretty fast clip. The lead vehicle appears to be a BRDM scout car. It’s trailed by a jeep-like vehicle mounting a tube-like crew-served weapon of some sort (probably a recoilless rifle), followed by a van and a 6x6 cargo truck.

Grease deftly re-orients Pole Position to face the oncoming threat- this makes the APC a smaller target, as well as facilitating re-boarding for the dismounts. Honeybear opens fire first, at just over 300m range. The burst produces a bright flash and brief shower of sparks from the BRDM’s small turret. The scout AFV slows and makes a sharp left turn, disappearing into the rubbled village.

The Diamond dismounts leave the main body of the woods and run towards a line of tattered trees oriented on a diagonal about 120m from the road (and Pole Position). Luckily, there’s already a slit trench dug there- a remnant of the battle that enveloped this area a little over two weeks ago.

The second vehicle in the convoy is now on point. The Tarpan Honker (a jeep-like Polish military vehicle) stops in the middle of the road 260m from Pole Position; its crew lowers the windshield and takes aim at the APC with an SPG-9 recoilless rifle…

PR and Honeybear are quicker on the draw. 12.7mm rounds chew through the Tarpan’s grille, while small arms rounds pelt the exposed crew cab, wounding the gunner.

Behind the Tarpan, the van takes a right and disappears into the rubbled hamlet. The 6x6 cargo truck stops in the road, dismounts a squad of infantry. The Polish riflemen (identified by their speckled, olive green uniforms) hit the ground running, following the BRDM and van into the ruins east of the road.

“They’re tryin’ to outflank us! Right side!” Walker shouts. This is supposition, as none of the Polish infantry are visible to any of the Diamonds at present.

The Diamond dismounts continue running towards the trench, Bird and Sandy outpace the others, but pay for their exertion with a twisted ankle and a pulled hammy, respectively. Eager to contribute, Bird takes a knee a few meters short of the trench; aims at the recoilless rifle gunner. When he pulls the trigger, nothing happens. The round is a dud.

PR and Honeybear both engage the Tarpan. PR’s M16A2 jams. Honeybear’s Soviet-made HMG proves more reliable. He hits the enemy jeep with another burst of 12.7mm rounds, killing the gunner and vehicle commander, and damaging the suspension. The Tarpan’s driver and loader are splashed with gore; traumatized but uninjured, both crouch down and try to make themselves as small as possible.

The cargo trucks- a STAR 266- turns right, stopping a few meters off road (now facing west). This unmasks a ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun mounted in the bed. The twin-barreled 23mm auto-cannon thunders out a long burst, directed at Pole Position. Fortunately for the Diamonds, the enemy gunner’s aim is off. The ZU crew begins to reload the auto-cannon.

Sandy reaches the trench, takes aim at the biggest threat (the STAR gun-truck) with her M203. The bulbous 40mm HE round traces a shallow arc through the air, exploding just above the STAR’s gas tank which, miraculously, fails to ignite. The gun crew, however, momentarily drops out of sight in the truck bed.

Assuming that the recoilless rifle in the Tarpan is no longer a threat, Honeybear rotates the SKOTs armored cupola a few degrees to the left, takes aim at the STAR gun truck. Roaring and spitting fire, the Dishka blasts apart the gun truck’s front left wheel and sends a 12.7mm round through its unarmored cab.

“Lets go get our people! Take us off road,” Walker shouts over the SKOT’s intercom. Grease complies immediately, accelerating smoothly into a tight left turn. Honeybear struggles to rotate the gun cupola fast enough to keep the HMG’s muzzle on target. Pole Position rumbles forward, off road, heading towards the scraggly tree-line from which the dismounts are still firing on the two visible enemy vehicles.

Just as it completes its turn, the enemy ZU-23-2 crew opens fire on the OT-64 SKOT. 23mm HE rounds explode against the right side of the SKOT’s troop compartment but fail to penetrate the Polish-made APC’s steel hide. A second or two later, the SPG-9 loader, now acting as gunner, fires the recoilless rifle at the moving SKOT. The rocket-assisted 73mm HEAT round leaps forth and fireballs against the ACP’s flank, burning a hole into its engine compartment. Somehow, the HEAT round doesn’t do enough damage to the SKOT’s engine to disable it. Pole Position continues to bounce across the field towards the friendly dismounts.

Honeybear was zeroing in on the STAR when Pole Position was hit (in fact, he assumes all of the hits were from the ZU). He squeezes the Dishka’s butterfly triggers and watches with satisfaction as green tracers streak into the ZU-23-2, producing several sprays of sparks. The STAR’s entire crew bails out, starts running east towards the ruined ville.

At this point, the Polish infantry squad and the BRDM-2 still haven’t reappeared. It’s not entirely clear what they’re up to, but they’re most likely still moving through the ruins on the east side of the road in an attempt to flank Pole Position’s last known position. The bulk of the surviving enemy force is now east of the road, rubble interposed between it and the Diamonds. Walker hatches a tactical plan to take advantage of the current situation.

Trailing a cloud of dust, Pole Position jerks to a stop behind the tree-line trench; Walker opens the rear hatches from the inside shouts, “Mount up! Let’s go!” Sarge echoes the order.

With the APC crew providing cover fire, the dismounts climb out of the trench and re-board the APC, Walker doing a head count. Sarge grabs the bound and blindfolded ex-Red Army by the LBE and tosses him out the back door. As soon as everyone is back aboard, Walker orders Grease to go. The driver steps on the gas and Pole Position lunges forward, heading west until he finds a gap in the trees, then hitting a sharp right turn to head north.

While the Americans were briefly out of sight behind foliage and a couple of farm outbuildings west of the road, the surviving SPG-9 crew dismounted their recoilless rifle, set it up pointing at the spot they expect the OT-64 to reappear.

As Pole Position leaves concealment and bounces across a fallow field, the opposing forces resume exchanging fire. Incoming rounds from small arms ping harmlessly off the Skot’s side armor and raised air-guard hatches. Sandy, standing in the right-rear air-guard hatch, spots the SPG-9 set up in the road. Before the enemy loader-turned-gunner can take another shot, he’s cut down by her rifle fire. Sandy’s rifle misfires just as her primary target falls, mortally wounded.

Having cut approximately 700m across the field, Pole Position reaches a dirt road branching off to the northwest from the main north-south [paved] road. As Grease maneuvers onto this branching road, the BRDM-2 announces its return to the fight by loosing off burst of 14.5mm fire at the retreating OT-64. The incoming tracers miss the SKOT gunner’s cupola by a few inches, but it’s so close that Honeybear instinctively duck’s down inside the troop compartment.

Now on a relatively firm, even surface, Grease puts the pedal to the metal, leaving the enemy in his dust (literally). The engine doesn't sound quite right, but it continues to do its job for the time being.


NOTES:
As mentioned in the last installment of notes, I prepped for this encounter by drawing cards and looking at the results on the Encounter Categories table. The first result didn’t of Crater didn’t make sense, given the AO; the second result was Military Convoy. Looking at my map, I couldn’t think of a compelling reason for a convoy to be travelling the stretch of road the Diamonds were using at the time, so I pulled a third card. The result was Military Patrol. I tried to make a story out of the latter two results but something was missing. I rolled on the Radio Chatter table and the result was a badly wounded American calling for help. That was the missing piece. I decided that there was a Polish 10th TD outpost in a large village up the road. This outpost hosts a mounted patrol tasked with hunting down American stragglers detected by an RDF team (the Ural van). This RDF team triangulated the wounded American’s position when he made contact with the passing Diamonds and dispatched the outpost's hunter-killer team consisting of a BRDM, Tarpan Honker with SPG-9, UAZ-452 RDF van, and STAR 266 gun truck carrying a squad of veteran infantry. This was the “military convoy” in the cards. I worried that this force was too strong, but I wanted this encounter to be both realistic and a serious challenge for the party.

This was my first shot at vehicle combat. Luckily, Honeybear drew an earlier initiative card than the BRDM-2 gunner, so the good guys got to shoot first. He made it count, hitting the BRDM’s turret and wounding the enemy gunner (who failed a CUF roll). I ruled that the commander ordered the vehicle into cover since it couldn’t return fire at that time.

For the SPG-9, which isn’t stat’ed in the rulebook, I used the numbers for 73mm AP (i.e. HEAT) ammo. I was really worried when the enemy gunner rolled a hit on Pole Position. When Engine came up on the damage table, I thought it might be the end for the Diamonds. Fortunately, the OT-64’s side armor held up, and the net damage wasn’t enough to destroy/disable the engine. For the ZU-23-2 hit on the SKOT, the result, luckily, was Ricochet.

Sandy hit the STAR with a 40mm grenade. The result on the appropriate table was Fuel Tank. I was hoping the fuel would ignite, but neither of the D6 blast dice showed six. The hit still made the gun crew go prone, though, effectively stealing their turn. Honeybear's second hit on the STAR resulted in a damage roll of Cargo. Was the ZU-23-2 cargo? It was the only object in the truck's cargo bed, so I ruled yes, and the burst (6+ damage) hit the ZU. That brought its reliability rating below zero, destroying it.

I rolled a lot of jams in this firefight- I risked pushing rolls to hit the enemy heavy weapons, trying to neutralize them before they scored punishing hits on Pole Position (which would have stranded the Diamonds). Bird, who’s usually a crit machine with his M21 (I haven’t kept track, but he’s racked up the most kills of anyone else in the unit so far, by a wide margin) experienced one of said jams, and didn’t score a single hit during the entire firefight.

Grease came up big on his Driving rolls. He always succeeded, usually earning extra distance, and only once needing to push (on the last roll of the firefight).

Bird and Sandy both injured themselves pushing Mobility rolls. Luckily, neither were hit during the firefight, so the -1s from the failed pushes didn’t really hurt.

I’m getting a lot faster Ref’ing firefights. I don’t have to look as much stuff up in the rules. The Ref screen and weapons cards helped with this, since I didn’t have to flip through the Rule Book half as much, and my ad-hoc combat tracker is proving indispensable.

This map shows the various unit locations at the time the engagement ends: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/ed...933013394&z=15

-

Whew. That had the potential to go very poorly for your protagonists. It seems like good initiative results really carried the day.

Are you adding New Guy as another PC?

- C.

Yeah, my stomach sank when the SPG-9 hit Pole Position's engine. I immediately assumed a mobility kill- it was a huge relief when I compared the 73mm AP (i.e. HEAT) damage and the OT-64's side armor. Every time I rolled a hit on the enemy vehicles, I kept rooting for weapon or gunner kills, usually to no avail. It was pretty suspenseful. I can say that I enjoyed the suspense, now that the results are in (and positive).

I think so, at least until the party can find a relatively safe place to drop him off. By then, though, he might be too integrated to dismiss. Anyway, I rolled a D6 for his archetype (Officer), then rolled a D6 for his rank (1st Lieutenant). I'll probably roll a D10 and see what specialty the results line up with to determine what his Army branch is.

I forgot about the ex-Red Army maraunder POW until just now. I'm going to minorly RETCON him being tossed out during the firefight. He's tied up and blindfolded and doesn't know any more about the Diamonds than the Polish hunter-killer team hasn't figured out for themselves.

-

Writing continues to improve.

Great battle scene and explanation in the notes.

Love that there was some vehicle combat. I'm always trying to add it to my game to use skills other than rifle, but am still working on doing it well.

I am new to the system but am liking the push rules. An extra chance for PCs at the risk of additional stress or injuries. I like the rule. And i like the decision making position it puts on players to have to make the decision to push or not.

This is becoming one of the better/best solo RPG write ups i've got in my short cuts.

Question: have you been using the included maps for your firefights? Or conceptual maps? Or hex grids over google map locations?

Thanks for the kind words, KC.

I use google maps and its integrated measuring tool (which gives measurements in Imperial units). I plug the measurements into a Google app that converters Imperial to metric. It's a bit clunky, but I'm used to it. I've seen folks insert hex grids over google maps locations, which would be more ideal, but it sounds more complicated to pull off than what I'm already doing.

-

8/6, Shift 2
 

Grease pushes Pole Position north, driving through mostly open farm country, dotted here and there with black and orange wrecks. The party passes several tiny farming hamlets along the way, some showing signs of recent habitation, others obviously abandoned. After traveling about 7.5km, the OT-64 approaches a patch of forest. Grease knows that his baby took several hits from large-caliber weapons during the firefight and he wants to inspect the damage. Similarly, Deacon needs the APC to stop moving and the troop compartment cleared out so that he can take a closer look at Lt. DeGrasso’s wound. Believing that two of the Polish army detachment’s vehicles were immobilized during the firefight they’ve just fled, Walker and Sarge decide that the risk of making a brief pit stop in the woods is acceptable.

Honeybear and Sandy, carrying the RPG-7 in addition to her M16/203, are tasked with watching the party’s back-trail. A still-wobbly PR tags along to handle comms. Bird and Sarge head deeper into the woods to scout out the road up ahead. They take Lt. DeGrasso’s radio- an AN/PRC-148 handheld, unusual outside of SF circles.

Grease gives Pole Position a walk-around, assessing the latest battle damage. He finds four shallow, sunburst-shaped gouges and one small borehole in the OT-64’s right side armor, the latter just over the the APC’s engine compartment. Grease pops the hatch, inspects the engine. Miraculously, the 73mm HEAT round didn’t do significant internal damage. It should continue to run, but it shouldn’t be pushed too hard. Grease estimates that it’ll take about eight hours of work to get the old diesel (converted to burn alcohol) back to optimal condition, relatively speaking.

In Pole Position’s vacated troop compartment, Deacon removes Lt. DeGrasso’s PAGST vest, lifts up the wounded man’s shirt. The damage is worse than it first appeared. Much worse. The bullet entered at the hip and didn’t exit- Deacon had assumed it was lodged in DeGrasso’s upper leg somewhere. Swelling and lividity in the patient’s lower belly indicates, however, that after entering near the hip, the bullet traveled up through his pelvis and into his abdomen, doing significant internal damage. DeGrasso seems to realize the true severity of his wound as well. Only surgery can save the man now, and that’s simply not an option under the current circumstances.

Deacon looks up, meets his patient’s eyes. Behind the man’s obvious weakness and pallor, he sees guilt. “You knew?” the medic asks.

Degrasso responds with a weak nod of his head.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I thought you might leave me. I don’t want to die alone,” Degrasso answers, earnestly. Deacon wants to reassure the mortally wounded man, saying something comforting like, You’re not gonna die, or it’s gonna be OK, but lying feels like more of a cruelty than a kindness. A few seconds of awkward silence pass until the Chaplain’s Assistant asks, “Do you want me to pray with you?”

DeGrasso seems taken aback by the question. “In a minute…” he answers weakly. With more effort than should be necessary, the mortally-wounded officer removes something from his upper-left chest pocket. “Here. Get this to XI Corps. Do not let the commies get their hands on it…”

DeGrazzo passes Deacon a device of some sort. Deacon recognizes it as a 2gb Zip disk.

“What’s on here?” he asks, taking the disk.

“Don’t know. Wouldn’t tell you if I did. It’s important- that’s all…”

Meanwhile, Bird and Sarge scout the route ahead. The smell hits them first, getting stronger as they draw near to the northern edge of the woods. They hear the buzzing of hundreds of flies before they see the first of the corpses. A few meters inside the tree line, the scouts find a row of bodies, a dozen at least- their bloodstained cammies identify them a American soldiers. All of them lay face-down, hands tied behind their backs with items of their own clothing. Their boots have been removed, as have their weapons, ammunition, body armor, and LBE. They’ve have been dead for several days at least. Although the majority of corpses are mostly intact, animals have gotten to some of them, making an accurate count difficult. Bird and Sarge have smelled the corruption of death many times before, but they have to cover their noses and mouths to avoid heaving.

After making sure the area is secure, Sarge grimly says, “Let’s get their dog tags,” They go about the extremely unpleasant task in silence.

By the time the scouts return to the SKOT, DeGrasso is unconscious.

“Gutshot. He’s not gonna make it,” Deacon quietly announces.

Walker is looking at the map. “We shouldn’t stay here. If I had to guess where that Polish platoon came from, I’d say here, Goszczanow…” she stumbles over the name, “less than 5 klicks southeast of these woods. We need to a little more distance between us and them. There’s another main road across our route, about 3 klicks north of here.”

“It looks like there’s more patches of forest, ‘tween here and there. We could relocate closer to that road, get eyes on it. If there’s traffic, we can wait ‘til dark to cross,” Bird suggests.


NOTES:
No rules here. Just a bit of story-telling. I originally thought that Lt. DeGrasso would be joining the party, but I just couldn't get inspired to flesh out his character. I decided to kill him off instead, poor guy. The intrigue hinted at in this shift is a bit cliche and I honestly have no idea where to go with it, at this point.

-

I thought finding the bodies might have been a random card encounter.

i thought the zip drive might lead to operation reset or ....... there was a USA set module, about controlling the weather, can't think of it off hand.

hehe. love that its tough killing off a NPC/PC. Means you're invested.

August 7th, 2000
 

Two days out of Skarydzew, the traveling food provided by the villagers is gone. The Diamonds have one day’s worth of rations left. The prospect of starvation rears its emaciated head.

On the outskirts of the next village of note (Liskow?), a large wooden sign is posted overlooking the road. It reads:

Głodni ludzie, kontynuujcie. Nie możemy wyżywić swoich.

PR translates for the others. “It says, ‘Hungry men, keep going. We can’t feed our own’.” The Diamonds decide that there is no use trying to negotiate. They pass through, eyed wearily by the townspeople. The local militia appears switched on and fairly well equipped with military grade small arms.

A few kilometers later, the Diamonds are flagged down by an American, one of sixteen it turns out. They are a gaunt bunch, closer to starving than hungry. They explain that they were turned away by the town the Diamonds just passed through. They ask- practically beg- the party for food. Walker explains that her squad is down to its last meal. The stragglers then suggest teaming up to essentially mount a raid on the nearby parsimonious settlement.

“Those assholes got plenty of food. They just don’t want to share it. You and us combine forces, that’ll change their minds.” Their leader, a brevet lieutenant, suggests.

“We’re not marauders, Lieutenant,” Walker declares, flatly. “We’re headed north, not south, and I suggest you do the same.”

The Lt. frowns, pauses but doesn't argue. “Why north?”

“We heard a rumor that US forces are pulling out of Europe end of August. Need to get to Germany before then, or else miss the boat,” Honeybear adds from the gun tub, hoping to help diffuse the situation.

“You got a radio?” Sarge asks the stragglers.

“Battery’s dead. Gotta spare?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

The two groups of Americans part on decent terms. The Diamonds offer to scout the road ahead (i.e north) a few kilometers and report back, mostly to assuage their own guilt from refusing to hand over the last of their food to foot-bound countrymen already gone a couple of days without.

The next settlement on the road is the polar opposite of the previous one. It’s smaller, and the villagers are almost too friendly. Their tiny militia is poorly equipped- a couple of shotguns and a pistol or two is all they have with which to defend themselves, but their larders are apparently full. They offer to trade food for better weapons. They even invite the Diamonds to stay- an arrangement involving an exchange of room and board for security.

The Diamonds want to keep moving, but a trade agreement is reached: the party will give five AKMs with 14 full magazines of for four (D6) days’ worth of rations, enough methanol to top off Pole Position’s fuel tank, and twelve shotgun (2D12) shells. The Diamonds tell the villagers about the 16 American soldiers they met on the road, just a few kilometers to the south, suggesting that this other group may be willing to provide additional protection for a spell, if the villagers agree to feed them. The villagers seem open to that proposition, so the party offers to backtrack, act as middlemen. Everyone involved is satisfied with the outcome. Before the Diamonds leave the next morning, the villagers warn them about what they will encounter if they continue to travel on the main roads north.


August 8 (Shift 1)

Taking a calculated risk, the forewarned Diamond party approaches the town of Malanów. The vegetation in the area is unusually sparse and drab for this time of year- it’s as if winter has descended early, but only on this particular section of Poland. The surrounding fields are fallow, inhabited only by scattered tufts of stunted yellow grasses, interspersed here and there with a few heartier weeds and nettles. The first stands of trees the party pass by are bare, then blackened. A couple of kilometers on, windrows of deadfall lay where patches of forest once stood, the ranks of trees lying with their tops pointing roughly south.

The first vehicle the Diamonds see appears badly weatherworn but otherwise intact, simply abandoned. Further on, they pass the burned out husks of military trucks, rusty rims ensconced in the pavement. What appeared from a distance to be whitewashed stones dotting the roadsides turn out to be human skulls, bleached by many suns. Further still, some vehicles lay on their sides, a few smashed like empty soda cans. The impression one gets is that a child giant, in a tantrum, has strewn his toy box full of army vehicles around the sandbox and then completely forgotten about them.

All this time, everyone is riding buttoned down inside Pole Position. Grease detours around the obliterated Polish town, avoiding the impact crater itself and the worst of the surrounding radioactive hotspot.


NOTES:
These episodes were strung together after a couple of days of writer’s block. I’d draw one random encounter that didn’t seem to fit the situation as it left off after the last. I did this several times. Each subsequent draw seemed to make things more muddled, not clearer. It took me a couple of days of thinking/imagining to put together a logical, coherent story from the disparate random encounters. It all came together this morning. I made a few rolls and voila, here are the results.

The part about the parsimonious town was generated by drawing cards on the Settlement Problem & Attitude table in the Solo rules. The results were Refugees (Problem) and Hostile (Attitude). I cribbed the idea for the billboard outside of the town from a favorite photo from the USA’s Great Depression.

The second element was from the Random Encounter card, Watcha Got? I’d already played out a couple of “desperate stragglers” scenarios earlier in the campaign so I tried to handle this one a bit differently. The third element was from the Buying and Selling Random Encounter Card. This village was willing to trade food for guns and ammo. I decided that the Diamonds would try to cut their own deal with the villagers, then attempt to broker an arrangement between the civilians and the hungry stragglers the party had recently met. Stringing the last two encounters together required some Opposed Persuasion rolls. Fortunately, they all went the PCs’ way.

Lastly, Ground Zero. First, I had to find a spot that either side would expend a tac-nuke on, and it had to make sense based on where v1 canon has units positioned in the summer-fall of 2000. The only place that came close to fitting those criteria is Malanów. Jed McClure's Poland hexmap index (https://static.squarespace.com/stati...xmap_index.pdf) has proven invaluable during the course of this campaign. I can just type in the name of a settlement near the party's line of march into the search box and if it's described in canon, there it is. Once I had a target worked out, I decided that it made no sense that friendly villagers wouldn’t warn the party about a tactical nuclear strike crater less than 10km from their hamlet, directly on the party's line of travel. So, I made the party aware of the danger zone well before they arrived on scene. However, I wanted to try my hand at describing what the landscape around such a spot would look like, so I had the party skirt the area, as opposed to avoiding it entirely. Since the rules state that rads are halved for those inside a vehicle and the party is deliberately avoiding the areas of strong and extreme radioactivity, I’m ruling that no Rad Attack took place during the shift it takes to detour the area.

-

As explained in the 4e thread, i think repeating random encounters is ok. For instance in your game, running into refugees or parties of USA soldiers - will come with different results depending on the cards (helpful, aggressive, sneaky, etc). And i think most encounters for example will be these "run of the mill" running into friendly or suspicious civilians, other on-the-run friendlies or enemy patrols. So i am in favour of double-ups or repeat similar encounters.

Although i admit you do a better job of non-combat encounters, i think even if they don't make sense, well - that's the T2K world. I think you need to make the randomness of it fit. Otherwise, your only accepting cards/encounters that fit your view - that fit your story line - you are almost taking the randomness out of it. And i think this is a big part of the T2K story line. Not knowing who is friend or foe.

Or even the story making sense! Escaping from Kalitz! It is chaos, so i say let the encounters be gamed as they crop up.

A bit like me, its not until my party is out of food will they mingle with villages for example. Its only when they are forced too. This is something i am trying to do better at, non-combat encounters. They are important, they can be deadly or awkward, but i think they are essential. And by forcing my own PC to socialise, i know it is adding to my game. More than just combat - recover -combat which is a bit = DnD dungeon crawls.

August 8th, Shift 2
 

The deer leaps from the trees, tries to clear the road in a single bound. Grease hears an impact, but Pole Position is too sturdy to feel it. Through the driver's vision block, a brown blur, there and gone in less than a half-a-second. Honeybear has the best view. He catches movement to his right front, tracks the final phase of the deer’s suicidal lunge. Clipped on the fly by the 14.5 ton APC, the animal cartwheels through the air, lands hard on the other side of the road.

“You just hit a deer!” the team's machine gunner (and cook) calls. It’s still twitching.

Grease brakes instinctively.

“There’s our dinner,” Bird drawls, monotone.

Pole Position is parked in the road, about 10m northeast of a culvert that crosses a narrow canal running northwest-to-southeast. About 200 meters northeast of the SKOT, the road disappears behind a small cluster of ruined residential buildings, the edge of a what appears to be an abandoned village. To the west of the road is a thickly wooded area.

Everyone is standing outside the vehicle, stretching their legs. Some watch Bird put the badly injured buck out of its misery, others don’t.

“Fuck, Bird, why you gotta use a knife?” Sandy asks, looking away.

“Cuz Ivan can’t hear a knife from a mile out.”

“Are we lucky or was that deer just really un-lucky?” PR asks.

“Guess that depends on who you ask,” Grease answers.

“Oi there!”

Eight heads turn almost as one.

A man stands in the road, about 200m north of where Pole Position is parked. None of the Diamonds noticed where he came from. His cammies look vaguely American, but they're not. He wears a white brassard around his raised left arm.

“British Army! You lot Yanks?” the man calls…

The speaker is Sergeant Bill ‘Topper’ Hudnall, formerly of the BAOR’s Special Observation Post troops. He’s currently operating as part of a group of around two dozen partisans, mostly Polish. They’re loyal to the NATO-aligned Polish Free Congress but operating independently at the moment. They lost contact with the PFC about a fortnight ago, after it was pushed out of Poznan by PACT forces. The partisans’ current base of operations is in the village of Ruda, a small settlement tucked into the forest between Turek and Konin. Those two towns are currently garrisoned by troopers from the Soviet 89th Cavalry division. Topper and a detachment of his guerilla comrades were laying in ambush the major east-to-west road which doglegs through the abandoned hamlet just up the way.

Topper glances at his wristwatch. “We’re about to head back to camp. If Ivan’s not showed up by now, he won’t be coming through today. You fancy paying a visit?”

“Have you met any other Americans?” Sandy asks the question on all of the Diamonds’ minds.

“Yeah, a few, about a week ago. They was heading north, like yourselves. Had a Humvee. We tried to recruit ‘em, but they weren’t interested.” Topper answers.

The Diamonds accept the invitation, and both groups head off for the partisan camp…


NOTES:
So I’ve been struggling a bit with how to move this campaign forward. I also feel like the campaign was getting a bit repetitive. Move, encounter a village that needs help, cut a deal (fight for food), rinse, and repeat. I too like the random nature of hex crawling, but it was starting to feel "desperately random" (name the film!). With the exception of the recent fight with the Polish hunter-killer team, the last few times I’ve drawn an encounter involving combat, the party has rolled successfully to avoid it. I’ve grown somewhat protective of the PCs, so I find myself trying to duck fights whenever possible, or only fight if the PCs have the upper hand. If I was playing with or running a game for other players, this pattern of would probably get boring after a few sessions (at times, it felt a bit stale to me). I found myself feeling the need to contrive a scenario where the PCs would be forced to fight, and do so without an advantage.

I tried using the tables in the Solo rules to give me a starting point. The results weren’t particularly helpful or inspiring, so I went back to the random encounter deck. I drew Outnumbered. In order to make that scenario work, I had to find a road in the Diamond’s path that the Soviets would use to move a supply convoys. Then I needed to find a spot where the party wouldn’t be able to quickly retreat- their MO- upon meeting the Soviet convoy. I spent a lot of time studying the Google Map satellite images of Poland to find a location that fit the bill (this is a downside to using Google Maps instead of 4e travel and combat maps). It was taking so long to find a spot that meet all of above criteria that I almost gave up and shut down the campaign until next summer. Instead, I went back to the Solo tables and drew some playing cards. Again, the results (Animal, Active) seemed unhelpful. But then inspiration struck. I imagined the SKOT hitting a deer and that gave me a reason to stop Pole Position and get all of the PCs out of the vehicle. Combined with the map location I found, this situation would have forced the party to engage in at least a few rounds of combat against a superior force.

I started the fight and the Soviets dew first initiative. The engagement opened at 200m. The BTR exchanged fire with Pole Position; the enemy’s BTR missed, rolling two 1s- the rules state that this means running out of ammo (already?), but I ruled it a jam instead, believing that to be more realistic (also, the net effect is the same- in either case, the NPC gunner has to spend the next round of combat not shooting). Honeybear missed the BTR with his first burst of Dishka fire. Originally, I had the partisans appear at that point and ambush the convoy. The Diamonds basically waited and watched before making contact with the partisans after the firefight was over (I was dictating that the Soviets lost). That felt a little too Deus Ex Machina to me so I stopped the combat and did a little Retcon.

I introduced the partisans because I want to give the PCs a purpose other than just getting to Bremerhaven in the hopes of going home. The partisans are going to try to persuade the party that the right thing to do is help the people of Poland eject the Soviet occupiers and overthrow the puppet Polish government, bringing freedom and democracy back to Poland. Even if they don’t persuade the PCs to join them long-term, the Diamonds will agree to help the partisans ambush a large Soviet convoy. I might have to improvise some rules for mass combat or come up with a reason to split the groups, as a 30 v 40 battle is going to be too unwieldy to handle.

-

My own solo games generally follow a couple of different paths.

1. I have a long term goal in mind, and i use the random encounter cards to fill in the journey there. For example my "target" is 5 days march away. I travel for 5 days using the random encounter deck, then if i reach day 5, i engage my target (sniper shot, call in mortar rounds, some other task such as gather intel (for a non-combat roll)).

2. Day after day slog of random encounters, with the random encounters being gelled together to make an overarching story line as the cards are played.

3. Or i pull together 3 or 4 encounters i'd like to play against, and just game my PC through them. In this way, i am mostly just having fun doing the math and decision making of combat. Learning how weapon A might be better/worse than weapon B. Or testing results v armour. or Blast radius etc.

I understand how writers block or monotony can filter in though. Once the fun is gone, go do something else. I'll do a day hike, or camp in/sleep/camp out of a location to get a real world kind of T2K fix.

Or, i play Advance squad leader, harpoon or chess to change things up.

August 9, 2000
 

The roads leading through the forest to the village are mined- partisan guides lead Pole Position on a short detour around an anti-tank mine belt. At first glance, the partisan camp looks like a run-of-the-mill Polish hamlet. Closer inspection reveals cunningly camouflaged bunkers and fighting positions scattered throughout the settlement.

The partisans call their band the “Lisi” (Foxes). Its leader is an ex-Polish paratroop officer named Kacper Boduch. The Lisi’s cadre* of ex-Polish army soldiers (and Topper) slipped behind the advancing Soviet army shortly after Poznan fell back into communist hands, eventually making its way east to Ruda. During its trek, the cadre managed to recruit a little over a dozen new fighters. One of those local recruits explains that Soviet cavalry troopers swept through the forest about three weeks ago, just prior to the arrival of the partisans, at which time they took all of the village’s horses (except for one old nag). This embittered the villagers which ultimately helped the partisans win them over.

After sharing a meal in the common mess, Walker, Sarge, Deacon, and PR meet with the partisan officers in a farmhouse that serves as the Lisi’s HQ building.

The guerillas have only fought a few inconclusive skirmishes with horse-mounted patrols since arriving in Ruda. Instead of seeking out battle, the Lisi have spent the past two weeks or so trying to recruit and train new fighters, fortifying the hamlet, and gathering intelligence on Red Army operations in the region. They’ve had little success in the former endeavor, but the partisan’s de facto intelligence officer, Father Gregorz Marcin, has managed to learn quite a bit about local Soviet forces. The Soviet 89th Cavalry Division is responsible for operations in the region. This formation is a division in name only. Its current strength is estimated at 300 troopers, with a few trucks, no AFVs, and only one artillery piece larger than 82mm (a 120mm mortar, based in Konin). Father Marcin shares the following intel at the meeting:

Turek
30 troopers detached from the squadron in Kolo; Turek’s citizens aren’t particularly fond of their Red Army guests, but they don’t want the war coming back to their town.

Konin
120 troopers; one 120mm mortar. The cavalrymen are helping the townspeople repair the highway bridge over the Warta.

Kolo
110 troopers; the detachment in Turek is from this squadron.

Sompolno
The rest of the 89th Cavalry division, including its HQ and support units, is located here.

The most intriguing morsel of intelligence regards reports of a Soviet armored train spotted traveling between Kutno and Kolo. Father Marcin hasn’t seen the train himself, but he heard it once, and locals living close to the rail line between the two small cities have reported seeing it about twice a week (once moving westbound, then again, eastbound) since around mid-July.

“We’ve been trying to build our strength but recruitment is going much more slowly than we’d hoped. The local people are tired of war, and don’t want to risk what little they still have to fight the occupiers. With your help, we’re strong enough to do something… significant. We aim to liberate Turek. Even if we only hold the town for 24 hours, it will send a message to the Russians. ‘You are not welcome here. You are weak, and we are strong. Go home, before it’s too late for you.'”

Commander Boduch then lays out his plan.

“We’ve learned that the 30 Russians in Turek are running out of food. A resupply convoy is being sent from Kolo, the day after tomorrow.

“If we ambush the convoy here… (he points at a small patch of woods astride the road connecting Kolo to Turek, 18.5km south of former, 5.5km north of the latter) it should draw out the Turek garrison. A second partisan force, about 1500m to the south, will be set up to ambush the expected reaction force. Even if the Russians in Turek don’t take the bait, they won’t last much longer without food.

“Either way- sooner or later- we march into Turek, raise the flag of the Free Democratic Polish Republic and spread the word.

“Your force, and a couple of my men will make up the northern group. Once you’ve stopped the convoy, you will reinforce the southern group. Together, we will take control of Turek.”


NOTES:
I created several PC-level partisans using the archetypes (and Spartan’s house rule that each PC receives a second specialization at char-gen). The partisan leader succeeded at an opposed persuasion role, thereby convincing the Diamonds to help liberate Turek- I’m not sure what I would have done if he’d failed. The party’s job is basically to play out the random encounter, Outnumbered, which I’ve been sitting on for a couple of sessions. It now fits the regional situation that I’ve developed. The party successfully rolled to waylay the convoy. Spending a full shift to prep the ambush gave the party a +3 modifier (from one C to one B and one C); the enemy rolled to detect the ambush from a moving vehicle with a -2 modifier (from one C to one D). The firefight will be described in the next post.

*The Lisi Cadre
Kacper Boduch, ex-6th Pomeranian Parachute Division
Bill 'Topper' Hudnall, ex-BAOR Special Observation Post Troop
Father Gregorz Marcin, ex-Polish Army chaplain
Anton 'Osi' Schimanski, ex-NVA combat engineer
Vadym 'Kozak' Dovhan, Donbas Cossack, ex-Red Army machine gunner
Witold and Jadwiga Dabrowska, a husband-and-wife sniper team (she's the better shot)
Grzegorz ‘Niedzwiedz’ [Bear] Rusiecki, ex-Polish Army tank gunner
Narcyz Cywinksi, ex-ZOMO

The remaining partisans use the Civilian NPC stat block.

-

Outnumbered
 

The Diamonds settle into position in a small wood overlooking the 470 highway (a two-lane, paved road connecting Kolo to Turek; they are strung out in a linear ambush formation on its east side). Pole Position is parked in a natural cut, about 60m east of the ambush line. There's a bit of a wait. A wise old soldier once described war as, "long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror." That will be the case today.

Unexpectedly, the Soviet convoy, when it arrives, is led by a BTR-70 (the Lisi had reported that the 89th CD didn't have any AFVs). Two 4x4 cargo trucks (GAZ-66) follow in the soviet APC's tire tracks. They contain another surprise- about a dozen soldiers per truck, riding in the open cargo beds. This was supposed to be a supply convoy! Instead of being up against a couple of truck drivers with minimal security, the Diamonds are about to pick a fight with a full platoon of Soviet infantry backed up by an APC and its 14.5mm autocannon. The party could allow the convoy to pass, but that would complicate things for their Lisi partisan allies waiting to the south. Against her better judgment, Captain Walker does not order an abort.

Fortunately, Ivan does not appear to be aware of the waiting ambush. Sandy kicks off the action as the BTR crosses in front of her position at the left end of the Diamonds' linear ambush. As soon as the Soviet APC fills the sight of her RPG-7, Sandy squeezes the trigger. With a jolt and puff of wispy white smoke, the rocket leaps at the target…

Faster than the eye can see, the PG-7VL HEAT round burrows through the side armor of the BTR, spewing a stream of molten copper and steel into the cramped troop compartment. All the Diamonds see is an orange fireball and a cloud of dust and smoke. Hidden from view Inside the BTR, one unlucky passenger is cut in half by the fiery jet and killed instantly. His neighbor’s near arm is badly burned. The rest of the passengers are buffeted by the blast, singed by the heat flash. For a few seconds, the survivors are all too shaken up to move. When they do, it’s to bail out of the stricken BTR in a panic. Everyone but the doughty gunner, that is. He trains his auto-cannon to the left, towards the threat…

The rest of the Diamonds join in, maximum ROF. The packed cargo trucks are the targets. Half a dozen Soviet infantrymen are killed or incapacitated in the initial fusillade. Several more are wounded. Damage to the trucks is minimal, mostly cosmetic.

The next 30 seconds are pure chaos. The truck drivers stop their vehicles and bail out. Some of the passengers are frozen in fear and shock, others scramble to dismount, stepping past bleeding comrades and over the bodies of the fallen, before leaping over the tailgate or lee side, desperate to reach the impression of safety given by the woods on the west side of the road. A trio of foolishly brave Soviet infantrymen pauses to return fire. Bird calmly picks one of them off.

The BTR’s KPV sends a searching burst into the western tree line. The gunner’s aim is high; severed boughs and branches rain down on a few of the Diamonds, but no one is hurt.

The Diamonds continue to pour on the fire. Several more Soviet infantrymen are cut down. The high ROF has another consequence. Nearly every Diamond experiences a stoppage. It must have something to do with the late-war manufactured ammunition they were issued prior to the doomed summer offensive.

Sandy reloads the RPG-7 with the party’s last rocket. She takes aim at the parked, smoking BTR, squeezes the trigger. The HEAT round strikes the APC just below its main gun, instantly silencing the weapon. For the next few seconds, 14.5mm rounds cook off inside the small gun turret, producing a hollow metallic banging with each sharp explosion. In rhythm with the banging, puffs of grey smoke leap from the open hatches, mingling with darker billows. The sound reminds Sandy a little of making Jiffy Pop popcorn on the stovetop as a kid. Funny what goes through a person’s mind during a firefight.

The numbers game begins to work against the Diamonds. With nearly all of the Americans trying to clear stoppages, fire superiority begins to rapidly shift in favor of the Soviets. Rounds buzz and whip-crack over the Americans’ heads, or thunk into the tree trunks they’re sheltering behind.

The Diamonds are now painfully certain that they bit off more than they can chew. Bird becomes the target of several Soviet riflemen at the back of the convoy. He’s hit first in the upper body, his PAGST vest absorbing most of the impact, then the leg- a graze. Pain bleeds through the adrenaline and he momentarily loses his cool (failed CUF check).

After clearing stoppages, the Diamonds attempt to regain fire superiority. Most of them don’t even bother to aim. Rounds go downrange, magazines are emptied- it doesn’t seem to help. The incoming fire doesn’t let up. Sarge takes a ricochet to the nose. He can tell immediately that it’s broken. Blood pours from the wound and down his throat (Critical Hit to the head: Nose Crushed; failed CUF check).

Captain Walker has enough combat experience to know that this fight is rapidly going downhill for her team. Surprised that Sarge hasn't already made the call (she's grown to rely on the grizzled veteran's tactical leadership under fire), she steps up and makes it herself.

“Pop smoke!” Walker shouts.

PR and Sandy are close enough to hear Walker’s command (enemy fire is much lighter on the left [south] side of the kill zone). Sandy is first to toss a smoke grenade- Goofy Grape (purple). PR follows suit (green). Sarge, meanwhile, has regained his wits, realizing that his facial wound, although painful and remarkably bloody, is not life-threatening. He pulls a smoke grenade (Mellow Yellow)* from his LBE and hucks it towards the road behind the trailing GAZ-66.

Just after the first of the canisters starts spewing its opaque payload, Honeybear is hit in the chest by a burst of machinegun fire. His PAGST vest stops one of the rounds, but not the other two (Critical hit to the torso: Internal Bleeding). The clock starts ticking…

A few meters away, Grease, reloading, sees his buddy get hit. “Medic!” he hollers.

Deacon, despite being wounded, slightly, himself, leaps up from the ground. Trailing leaf litter, he runs to the Diamond machine gunner’s position. Dropping to his knees, he rolls the big man on his back, tears open his protective vest. The entry wound is obvious, big and gushing blood. Deacon sticks his hand into the wound, somehow finds the severed artery on the first try, pinches it closed.

A split second later, Bird is hit again (Critical hit to the torso: Snapped collarbone). The cumulative pain is too much to take. He passes out (0/5 health points means he's incapacitated).

Captain Walker has no smoke grenades of her own to contribute; instead, on instinct, she empties a full mag into the GAZ-66 opposite her (the middle vehicle of the Soviet column). The hopeful fusillade pays off. The truck’s cargo bed erupts in a series of small explosions, adding to the visual and auditory chaos (+2 damage to Ammunition). Still popping off, the GAZ starts to burn.

A wall of sorts- three parts physical barrier (the burning BTR, the two abandoned trucks), three parts purely visual (clouds of colored smoke)- now separates the eight bloodied Diamonds in the trees on the east side of the road and at least twenty Soviet soldiers in the trees on the west side.

“Fall back!” Sarge shouts on the right. Walker echoes this command on the left.

Blood streaming from his shattered nose, Sarge crouch-runs over to and Honeybear and Deacon. Grease wants to stick around and help too, but he knows that Pole Position is the team’s only hope now- he springs up and sprints deeper into the woods, towards the Polish-made APC.

“We gotta move him,” Sarge says.

“I… uh… we can’t. I’m… uh… holding his artery closed,” Deacon stutters, staving off feelings of panic.

“Well keep holding it shut with that hand and grab his leg with the other. I’ll get his arms,” Sarge says, frustrated with the whole FUBAR situation, not the team’s amateur medic.

They hoist Honeybear up and start carrying him, slowly, into the woods. In their haste, they leave the machine gunner’s M240 behind. Priorities.

The Soviets seem content to let the ambushers go. They fire a few searching rounds into the smoke, but make no effort to press their advantage, even though an assault now would almost certainly overrun their opponents. What the Soviet soldiers know that the Americans do not is that the convoy has lost over half its strength (24 KIA), and several of the survivors are wounded.

Grease makes it to the SKOT, hops into the driver’s position. It’s risky, but the fastest way to his badly wounded companion is west, towards the kill zone, through a gap in the woods. The Diamond driver maneuvers the ungainly b-wheeled APC like it’s a Japanese sub-compact. He meets his withdrawing teammates half-way.

Seeing Honeybear unconscious, covered in blood, carried by Sarge (also covered in blood) and Deacon, the latter’s hand inside the team’s machine gunner, Walker shouts, “Everybody on board! Someone get on the big gun!”

“I’m on it!” Sandy shouts, dropping the RPG launcher on a fold-down bench before scrambling through the gunner's roof hatch.

“Where’s Bird?” PR calls out. Those not otherwise occupied look around. The team sniper is nowhere to be seen.

“Gawdammit!” Walker yells, frustration boiling over. “Everybody on board! We’ll go to him!", she shouts. Squeezing past a supine Honeybear, Deacon’s hand still inside his torso, Walker makes her way to the forward bulkhead. Practically punching the intercom talk button, she shouts, “Grease, take us north, to Bird’s position.”

“Guns left!” Sarge commands, his gruff baritone uncharacteristically nasal.

As Sandy trains the Dishka to bear on the enemy-held tree-line, Grease executes a tight right turn, drives 110m north just outside the forest verge. Leaving the concealment of the dissipating smoke, the team’s Grenadier squeezes off a long burst from the Dishka at the far right end of the Soviets’ firing line (the enemy’s left flank), eviscerating the rifleman occupying that spot.

Grease crosses the roughly 110m to Bird’s last known position like Dale Earnhardt, fishtailing to an abrupt halt in the grass just under the forest’s eaves. The expert maneuver leaves the SKOT facing the threat, its read passenger screened by the APC’s armored bulk. Incoming rounds PING against Pole Position’s nose and left-flank.

“I’ll go,” Sarge informs Walker. “PR, you’re with me.” Tugging Sandy’s trouser leg, he says, “Covering fire!”

With a stable firing platform, Sandy’s accuracy improves. With her second burst, she eliminates two more enemy riflemen in shockingly gory fashion. Incredibly, their nearby companions aren’t traumatized into quiescence.

Sarge and PR leap out of Pole Positions rear doors, into the woods. It takes them a few seconds to spot Bird, prone and well-camouflaged as he is. He’s unconscious but rouses when PR starts shouting his name. The usually stoic Bird cries in pain as his companions drag him to his feet. He half-walks, half lets himself be dragged the short distance back to the waiting SKOT. PR grabs the sniper's trusty M21.

Thick forest limits Grease’s options. He could execute a looping U-turn, try to flee across country, but the smoke from the grenade canisters is all but dissipated, and the slow, sweeping maneuver would have to occur in at least partial view of the enemy. North is also an option, but that would take the party towards Kolo, a major Soviet outpost, and away from their partisan allies. Going south will take the Diamonds back towards the Lisi, but it means driving past the entire enemy firing line while dodging burning obstacles. Ironically, the only sure way out of danger is south, through the ambush kill zone. This is all discussed on board while Sarge and PR retrieve Bird.

Keeping to the left shoulder of the road, Grease pushes the SKOT through the kill zone, Sandy laying down suppressive fire to the right (she rakes the lone undamaged GAZ with fire as the SKOT races past it, destroying the truck’s suspension and damaging its engine). Pole Position eats up the ground as Grease lays open the throttles. Shaken and feeling lucky to be alive, the bloodied Diamonds leave the battle behind.


NOTES:
Since the PCs were trying to establish fire superiority against a considerably larger force, I used the maximum allowed ammo dice for every PC attack roll (except the sniper, Bird’s) during the first couple of rounds. I was greedy and pushed all of the PC’s attack rolls during round 2 to up the odds of getting critical hits. Consequently, almost all of the PCs experienced a jam. Those pushed attack rolls did, however, result in several enemy KIA, so it was a trade off. I used a fast action to get each PC into full cover while they dealt with their stoppages. This meant that only the OPFOR was doing any shooting in Round 3. I considered having the PCs start a tactical withdrawal at this point, but I foolishly had them try to regain fire superiority instead. This meant that had to go back to partial cover (Fast Action), so all of their next attacks were carried out without the benefits of aiming. Not surprisingly, the hit rate went down. Also, because the PCs were going for maximum ROF, a couple of them went bingo on ammo.

Bird was crit’d in the torso (non-lethal) and incapacitated as a result on cumulative HP loss. Honeybear sustained a lethal crit to the torso (internal bleeding). Fortunately, Deacon was able to get to him quickly and the Medical Aid roll was successful, prolonging the machine gunner’s life for at least a stretch. Later, the Medical Aid roll to move Honeybear was also successful. I think he’s going to pull through, but he’ll be out of action for a significant spell of time.

During a couple of rounds, I forgot to roll CUF for characters in the same hex as someone suppressed or killed. I did, however, remember to apply the appropriate modifiers throughout the battle (e.g. -1 for firing into a forest hex, -2 for firing from a moving vehicle, etc.). I modified my combat tracker, adding a column for Stress. I kept track during the first 2-3 rounds and then I forgot. I'll go back over the tracker and update Stress for the PCs (there's no point doing so for the OFPOR now). I invested in a Ref screen and weapons cards a while ago and they’re paying off by saving me time (and wear on my Rulebook).

No rolls were fudged. I really thought for a while that this might end in a TPK. After Bird and Honeybear were knocked out of the fight, I contemplated having the remaining PCs surrender. I’d then draw a card from the Oracle to see if the Soviets would give quarter or not. If the party survived surrendering, I could then arrange a prisoner exchange between the partisans and the Soviets in Kolo for the PCs. Instead, I decided to fight on and attempt a withdrawal under fire. It proved to be a good call. The Dishka was deadly, racking up six kills with only three bursts. Fortunately, the Soviets’ RPG-18s all belonged to dead men (stuck on the trucks, no less) and the party made it away from the battlefield without suffering any more damage.

They wouldn’t know it yet (that would be metagaming), but the Diamonds’ ambush of the convoy was a clear-cut victory. They killed 3/4 of the Soviet force and destroyed or disabled all of its vehicles. The party did more than enough damage to allow the second phase of the plan to liberate Turek to proceed.

During the firefight, the party spent or lost six full M-16 magazines plus a few additional 5.56mm rounds, Honeybear's M240 and the remainder of his ammo belt (a total of 100 7.62x51mm rounds for the machinegun, plus 3 more fired by Bird), 63 12.7mm rounds, both of the party's RPG HEAT rounds, three smoke grenades, and numerous personal medkits.

Sadly (for me, at least), this will probably be the last campaign report from me for the foreseeable future. I head back to work full time next week, so I'll be preoccupied for a bit. Hopefully, I can get back to Diamonds in the Rough after things get settled.

*These three smoke grenades are half of the party’s total stock.

-

Your AAR style has been different to mine. More of a story book style whereas mine is more the nuts and bolts.

Yours is likely a more enjoyable read, whereas mine might be more in the style of a long example in a book.

I've enjoyed it. you've knocked out some material. I'm also about to head off on a 5,600km driving holiday, all on dirt, through the bush. So i'll be out of contact in a few days time also. I prefer my winter travels, whereas your enjoying the end of your summer time i guess.

Looking forward to picking the dice and discussions up soon.

Return to Ruda
 

Pole Position races south, Grease doing his best to toe the line between expeditiousness and a smooth ride. Back in the troop compartment, Deacon’s still got one hand inside Honeybear’s abdomen, fingers pinching closed the severed artery.

“He’s gonna need blood. Someone check his dogtags,” the ersatz medic instructs firmly.

Sandy’s still on the HMG; Bird’s arm isn’t working properly; Sarge has a blood-soaked drive-on rag pressed to the bridge of his nose, blocking the lower two-thirds of his view. Unwounded, P.R. stoops to comply. Walker cuts him off.

“Stop. Get Sgt… ‘Topper’ on the horn,” Walker orders. “I’ll check his tags,”

The C/O squats down next to the supine Honeybear, fumbles with the chain around his neck. “O negative,”

P.R. raises Topper on the radio, passes Walker the handset. She’s too angry to waste time on protocol.

“That ‘supply convoy’ we just stopped? You didn’t tell us it’d be escorted by a BTR and a fucking platoon!”

“Er… wait one, Diamond actual.”

“No. We’re headed back to the ville. Half my people are wounded, one critically. We did our job. That convoy’s not going anywhere. The rest is up to you. Diamond Six, OUT.”

She thrusts the handset back to P.R., making it plain that she’s done communicating with the partisan XO. Taking it back, P.R. sheepishly reports, “I’m O negative,”

“Fox Two to Diamond Six. Over? Fox Two to Diamond Six, pick up. Over?”

Grease is clear-headed enough to remember the detour around the AT mine buried in the dirt road to Ruda; he slows Pole Position to a crawl, maneuvers through a narrow lane cleared through the trees. Safely back on the road, the driver accelerates again- carefully measured, though, so as to avoid jostling the critically-wounded patient lying unconscious in the back.

…

Honeybear lies on a table in the village’s makeshift infirmary. Deacon’s hand is still inside the machine gunner’s torso. The chaplain assistant’s medic bag is spread open next to the patient. The machine gunner hasn’t regained consciousness; Deacon has P.R. standing by with the chloroform, in case he does.

“Somebody’s gonna have to pinch the artery shut while I tie it off,” Deacon says, unable to mask the trepidation in his voice.

“I’ll do it,” Walker volunteers. Like any good commanding officer, she feels responsible for the consequences of her orders.

“See those scissor-looking things?” Deacon asks. “No, the other ones. Yeah, that’s a clamp. You’re gonna clamp down right by where I’m pinching here. See? Yeah, right there. Good. Okay, hold that nice and steady,”

Deacon cuts a length of cat gut, fashions a loop. Using one hand to spread the fat and muscle bordering the wound, the team’s medic slips the loop around the exposed stub of the artery, cinches it tight, then uses both hands to tie it off, before trimming off most of the loose ends.

“Okay, good. Now slowly, open the clamp,”

Walker complies. The knot holds. Deacon closes his eyes, exhales long and slow. After he flexes his blood-smeared hands a few times, he sews up the wound.

“P.R., you’re up.”

Using a length of surgical rubber tubing and a pair of 20-gauge IV needles, Deacon rigs up a direct transfusion from the team’s RTO to the patient.

The procedures appear to have been successful, at least in the near-term. Deacon pushes through stress-induced exhaustion to treat the rest of the team’s respective wounds. Bird’s collar bone is broken (he diagnoses the injury himself, “Done it before, on the other side- fell off a horse when I was a kid,”). Deacon can’t do much more than immobilize the injured arm and fashion a sling. Fortunately, the sniper’s bullet wounds are mostly superficial. Sarge’s nose is a mess. The skin and cartilage of the upper septum are split open, literally to the bone (which is broken). Both the team Sergeant’s eyes are black, swollen to watery slits. With Sandy's help (as a boxer, she's seen plenty of broken noses), Deacon sets the bone, sews up the wound. Sarge will have an ugly scar when the wound heals.

When Deacon is finished rendering aid, nearly all of the party’s antibiotics and painkillers are used up. The Diamonds will have to beg, scrounge, plunder, or steal some more. The exhausted team medic slinks off to have a cry in private.


Ref Notes:
This write-up is based on several successful driving (Grease) and Helped medical rolls (Deacon et al).

-

SITREP (Home Base)
 

Ref Notes:

Due to Honeybear's wound, it looks like the Diamonds are going to have to stay put in Ruda for at least 3D6 days. I don't think that it would be realistic to apply the Healing Crits rules on p. 74 of the Players Manual (see below), as written, to a wound that essentially required battlefield surgery.

"CARE: If someone tends to you for a shift per day during the process of healing a critical injury and makes a MEDICAL AID roll, that day counts double."

As a result of their prolonged stay, I'm going to treat Ruda as a temporary (?) Home Base (Players Manual pp. 132-135). The Lisi have been using Ruda as their de facto home base for about a fortnight already. So, the following facilities are already in place:

• Cow pen
• Crop land (several plots)
• Pigsty
• Root cellar
• Still (medium)
• Well

IRL, there appears to be a small lumber yard in the village, so I might treat that as a Workshop for base facilities purposes. The Lisi have already started on some Defenses for the hamlet but I have yet to determine the number and location of these. Any additional facilities the party and/or the Lisi would like to add will be done so following the applicable Home Base rules. This will give me an opportunity to make use of Captain Walker's Logistician specialty.

-

Interesting read for sure on your group's actions and what has happened. Yes, combat can turn on a dime with some rolls as I have seen in a few fights with different groups. Just as you think the PCs are about to get their ass kicked a role comes up to help them win the day. Some of the encounters are fun and others are WTF when they come and how to use them.
I have discarded cards when it comes up with things that just do not make sence at the time.

Over all this sounds like a fun game you have going on. I would say ambushing the train might be something the group could do and slow down and to loot. But it might lead to more trouble then it is worth. But that is one hell of thing to call about about getting new things and doing some damage to the reds.

Thanks! I'm glad you've enjoyed it.

Yeah, sometimes a REC just doesn't fit the in-game situation at the time it is drawn. If I can't figure out a way to make it fit, I'll put it in the "save it for later" pile. IIRC, the train REC was pulled from that pile.

Good catch! I'm also toying with the idea of using the functioning rail like to set up a Last Train to Clarksville scenrio (from the 1e module, Going Home).

-

August 11, 2000
 

For the remainder of the day, the mood around camp is somber. The only bright spot for the Diamonds comes when Honeybear regains consciousness late in the afternoon. The machine gunner is extremely weak, and in a lot of pain.

The Lisi return to the village just before sunset. Disappointingly, the Turek garrison did not conform to Boduch’s expectations. For whatever reason, the Soviet detachment did not send a force to assist the ambushed convoy. Perhaps the latter wasn’t able to get a distress call off in time before its comms were knocked out of action. Whatever the reason, without the added strength of the American squad and its AFV, Boduch didn’t risk moving on the city. Before returning to base, however, the Lisi stopped to loot the convoy, the survivors of which had fled the area (presumably returning to Kolo). After counting 19 dead Soviet soldiers, the partisans recovered as much weaponry, ammunition, and food as they could carry, leaving some behind by necessity.

With PR and Topper translating, Walker and Boduch have a conference that nearly devolves into a shouting match. Walker is upset that the supply convoy was much stronger than she was led to expect; Boduch is angry that Walker aborted phase two of the operational plan, leaving the Soviets still in control of Turek. Fortunately, Father Marcin is able to diffuse the situation, having visited the makeshift infirmary and seeing the results of the ambush on the American allies first-hand.

That evening, the Diamonds have a meeting of their own. All of the Americans are present, save Honeybear.

Sarge is the first to speak. With his gashed, swollen, thickly-swathed nose, he sounds like he’s fighting a bad cold.

“Elephant in the room: we got a boat to catch, and a man [Honeybear] who’s in no shape to travel.”

“Deacon?” Walker asks.

“Can we move him? I suppose. Should we, though? No, absolutely not. I mean… I’m not 100% sure he’s even gonna make it through the night. He’s for sure not gonna be able to handle a road trip anytime soon.”

“How long ‘til he can- best guess?” Walker prompts.

“A week, at the very least.”

Walker’s quiet for a few seconds.

“Well, I’m not going to stand in the way of what could be y’all’s last best chance of going home. If anyone here wants to leave, you’ve got my blessing, but I’m staying put.”

“Me too,” Deacon says, almost without thought.

“Leave no man behind,” Sarge adds.

One by one, the remaining Diamonds state their respective intentions. It’s unanimous. They’re all going to stick together.

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I was going to say knocking out the train and stealing things from it will cause issues for the Reds I can see very much. The group will get lots of gear that they can use. But hitting it where they can have time to unload and carry things off before the cav shows up to run them off is the big thing and what the train might have for guards and carrying on it though I can see a big issue.

August 12, 2000
 

8/12/2000 Morning Shift (Cloudy)

Boduch proposes returning to the convoy ambush site with Pole Position and a mixed Lisi-Diamond force to recover the remainder of the abandoned supplies (or, at least, denying them to the Russians). After running it by Grease, Walker reluctantly agrees to the mission. The split squad consists of Grease, Cap, Sandy, and PR; Topper, Schimanski, Rusiecki, and Dovhan).

Sarge takes Walker's place, explaining, “I gotta do something to get my mind off this,” (he points to his bandaged nose). The platoon sergeant almost leaves it at that, but adds, “Plus, I wan to see how these guys operate,”

“You don’t trust them?” Walker asks.

Sarge hesitates, weighs his response, “Not yet.”

Walker acquiesces to Sergeant McNulty’s request.

When the recovery group arrives on scene, they discover that scavengers have gotten there first. It’s a gruesome scene. A pack of ten wild dogs are feasting on a trio of dead Soviet soldiers, and they don’t seem to be particularly frightened of the living. If anything, the dogs appear ready to make a stand to defend the scraps. When Kozak plinks one of them with a rock, it only makes the pack more aggressive. The Ukrainian draws his Shaska.

Pole Position is parked on the road, about 30m north of the tail of the destroyed Soviet convoy. The GAZ-66 is immobilized, but doesn’t appear damaged compared to the other two vehicles. The BTR has clearly sustained significant internal damage, based on the soot stains around every opening in its armored carapace. The middle vehicle is a blackened, amorphous mass, barely recognizable as military cargo truck. Grease and Sandy remain on board the APC (behind the wheel and in the turret, respectively); everyone else has dismounted.

Sarge and Topper confer. They’re reluctance to broadcast the party’s presence with gunfire, but it’s agreed that scrounging and area security can’t be accomplished safely with the dogs around, and there’s no way to get rid of them all silently (Topper left his suppressed Sterling SMG back at base).

Roll initiative…

Topper sends a warning shot skyward. A few of the curs jump at the sound, but the pack leader, clearly unwilling to back down, just barks back. Osi takes aim at the nearest mutt, squeezes the trigger of his short-barreled DDR AK. The mongrel drops to the turf, stone dead. Strangely, this doesn’t cow the survivors. Sarge fires next, killing another dog.

The alpha charges Kozak; the rest of pack follows its lead and attacks the intruders. Before most of the humans have a chance to fire, the dogs are among them.

Fighter jocks call a wild, close-range dogfight a “fur ball”. That term would be apt for what ensues here.

Topper, Sarge, and Osi all get bit in the initial charge. Long guns aren’t ideal for engaging targets that are literally at the shooters’ feet. Although the cur is close enough to pet by the time he squeezes the trigger, PR misses his target. Niedzwiedz misses his own attacker at point-blank range, despite being armed with a slightly handier AK carbine. Kozak’s 1927-model Russian cavalry saber proves much more suited to this kind of fight than modern assault rifles are. After avoiding the alpha’s snapping jaws, the big Ukrainian brings the curved blade down hard across the back of the dog’s neck, nearly severing its head. As soon as it flops lifelessly to the pavement, the survivors of the pack lose heart. They turn tail- literally- and run. It’s too late. They’re cut down in a hail of bullets before they can make the tree line.

Scavenging has to wait until wounds are treated. Rabies is the first thing on everyone’s minds, especially those bitten.

Inspecting his own wound, Topper reassures the others. “Nah, mate. Mad dogs don’t run in packs- rabies ain’t a social disease. We still gotta worry about good old-fashioned bacteria, though.”

Once bite wounds are cleaned and dressed, the scavenging begins.

Sarge limps over to the tree line east of the road, finds Honeybear’s M240 in the same spot it’d been left behind. The earth near the GPMG is still dark and damp with the machine gunner’s blood. Sarge lugs it back to the SKOT.

Niedzwiedz siphons ethanol from the unburned GAZ’s half-empty fuel tanks into plastic jerry cans.

Grease leaves Pole Position’s driver’s compartment to inspect the disabled BTR. The Soviet APC’s crew compartment is a blackened, gory mess; its weapons are thoroughly wrecked, the result of its main gun and coax ammunition cooking off. Two partially burned corpses- the gunner and a passenger, most likely- still crew the wreck. It smells like someone roasted pork over a bed of burning rubber. Miraculously, the BTR’s engine compartment appears undamaged.

While Grease and Niedzwiedz (a former Polish Army AFV crewman) inspect the disabled vehicles, the others pick up discarded weapons and search the corpses the dogs hadn’t gotten to yet. A survey of the bed of the unburned GAZ reveals several sacks of potatoes and other fresh produce, and Red Army rucksacks filled with spare clothing items and various personal effects. It appears that the passengers were planning on an extended stay at their destination. After a quick discussion, Topper and Sarge conclude that the convoy wasn’t just resupplying the 30-man garrison in Turek, it was reinforcing it.

The foraging party stows its loot- small arms, ammunition, grenades, food, and all of the rucksacks- aboard Pole Position. A full inventory will be taken back at base.

“We’d better get moving,” Sarge opines. “I can’t see Ivan just writing all this gear off.”


Ref Notes
For the day’s first shift, I pulled the Rabid Dogs card from the encounter deck. It fit the scenario perfectly.

This is the first time I’ve tested out the Close Combat rules. The pack drew an initiative of 4. Topper wasted the 1 slot with a warning shot. The next two characters easily scored kills (the dogs each had only 2 HP to begin with; pretty much every assault rifle has a damage rating of 2). It wasn’t difficult to hit a stationary dog at close range. On the other hand, once the dogs acted, a -3 modifier (-1 for a moving target, -2 for firing a rifle at a target in the same hex) resulted in a lot of misses once the dogs acted (charging and attempting to bit the dismounts). Most of my PCs didn’t have the Close Combat skill, so rolled their STR attribute only. Consequently, no one was able to block the dogs’ bite attacks. On the plus side, dogs have so few HP that a single hit from a rifle results in a kill shot.

I’m waiting on some rules clarification before posting what parts, if any, were successfully pulled from the damaged vehicles.

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