[Adm.Lee]

I ran again today. The grown-up veteran of the game and the guy playing the two Marine snipers were absent, but I added another 7th grader who couldn't make the last two games. I let him pick from the unplayed PCs for this game.

First off, I had planned two main events, plus the inevitable travel encounters. A refugee they'd befriended wanted them to follow him home (and run off those pesky Soviets and set him up as village chief?), as there had been a Soviet vehicle park near there. They did want BMP track-links to get their derelict moving again. So they decided to camp for three days (brew some more methanol) before heading for town.

The other encounter was a result of me trying to think through "what would the Soviets be doing?" To my mind, the Ninth Guards Army was intent on rolling past Elblag and the 2-2 Marines' outpost and meeting XI US Corps to the west. That meant two divisions could keep rolling west over the bridges, while 3rd MRD mopped up and reorganized around Elblag. That translated to 1 battalion being detailed to patrolling into the area where the PCs now were. I rolled some dice, to figure out strengths and weapons available to this battalion (let's call it 3d battalion, 9th MRR). Then, I had an idea. I rolled some dice to see if it was feasible. (My rule is: roll a d20-- high means it's a good idea, or the stuff is available!) A die-roll of 20 told me that the battalion had a reasonably intact LAV-25 at their disposal. Hmm, and a lot of Marine gear is recently captured, and I bet there's a few English-speaking officers around.

Thus was born Major Volokov, a Leningrad-born intel officer from Frontal Aviation, now working for the Army. I drew high Sociable cards for him, so he's interested in rounding up prisoners, rather than kills. He took as many English-speakers as possible, filled out a platoon with riflemen and equipped them all with NATO helmets, flak jackets, Marine jackets and M16s. The plan was to pretend to be Marine stragglers and bring Marines in close, where they could be outnumbered and convinced to surrender. Moving only at dawn and dusk, they hoped poor visibility would help the deception. Of course, a large number of player characters would have different ideas....

It didn't quite work, and the resulting firefight took up the whole gaming session. I let each player (5) take one of the 12 PCs, and those were the ones on watch that night. They heard the LAV approaching, but didn't recognize the sound. When they did see it in the dawn after their last night of intended camping, the range was barely 100 meters. The players thought they might be more Marines, and so they called out, and some approached the road when hailed in English. And when called on to surrender, the shooting started at point-blank range.

The kid manning the SAW hosed down two fireteams really quickly, including the sneaky Major, the guy with the sniper rifle shot from the woods, and the others traded shots up close. Nearly all of the PCs were hit early, and most were hit often. The Barrett could not penetrate the LAV's armor, but the M203 gunner immobilized the LAV. One kid tried to start their HMMWV in order to run down some of the riflemen. This resulted in him unconscious at the wheel with the engine running amid the enemy troopers.

Later shots with the 40mm wrecked the LAV's interior, but could not stop the MG fire. As some player characters were knocked out with serious wounds, I let them bring in their backup characters, running up from their camp in the woods. One of the enemy was able to wrestle his way into the still-running HMMWV and drive away with it (oops, there went half of the food and all the reserve ammo!). The last two Russians in the LAV surrendered, but there weren't so many conscious PCs to accept the surrender.

There were 8 Soviets still alive and taken prisoner, only 3 conscious (good thing one was a medic). Only 3 of 12 PCs were untouched, 3 had serious wounds. The players' Hummer was gone, the LAV was unusable for a long time, and their BMP still needed a track. Their sole remaining vehicle is a 2.5-ton, now going to be full of all their gear.

The ranking prisoner informed the players that they still needed to surrender, as there were other platoons to the north and south who would be coming to check out the gunfire soon, and the rest of a battalion out there. The players are now thinking of running for it. Right now. I didn't get a decision about the prisoners, but I think they will insist on staying put, with or without the Americans. Their medics will be coming soon, after all.

Looks pretty grim for our heroes. I think I'll hurry them along with a mortar barrage?