[Adm.Lee]

Last Friday's game promised a big fight, with explosions and armored vehicles-- a last hurrah before middle school takes most of the players away.

The group set up near the lip of a lightly wooded ravine, ~170m across. On the opposite bank of the ravine, 3 Soviet artillery pieces, dug-in and camouflaged, ready to start shelling the American lines. The PCs had been led to this battery by Polish Free Legion scouts, and now it was just about the only opposition between these wayward Marines and the lines of XI US Corps.

Of course, an Army-level heavy artillery asset like this had to be protected. The players' scouts could make out at least two infantry positions on the other side of the ravine, plus a BMP-B. On this side of it, 2 squad-sized fighting positions and a BTR-80 backing up the left squad. The players divided up into four teams and began stealthing their way towards the foxholes: 2 snipers in overwatch, two 5-man assault teams, and the medics and CO in reserve... and things began to go wrong.

The right enemy squad spotted them creeping through the woods and opened up, kicking off a Medium-range (60-70m) firefight, 16 Soviets vs. 10 Americans. The PCs started to gain a firepower advantage using grenade launchers and aimed rifle fire, until the KPV on the BTR got into action. The US sniper team drilled the APC with several .50 cal rounds, but they couldn't hit the gunner, and two Marines were killed outright with head shots.

Eventually, the sniper's big gun was able to silence the KPV, damaging its ammo supply. More 40mm grenades into the fighting holes helped to suppress the Soviet infantry, and here's where the players' inexperience came to the fore. They launched separate assaults into the seemingly silenced fighting holes, but only 1 man each. They found that the Soviets were either reloading or playing possum, and both died, one in hand-to-hand combat. Two more attempted to board the BTR while the KPV was silenced, only to hear it come to life again, critically wounding one more PC while the corpsman was knocked out by another rifleman.

At this point, they could hear the BMP grinding across the ravine towards them, and they opted to run away, leaving most of their dead and wounded behind. As the BMP emerged from the ravine, one of the team's least wounded members drilled it with his only LAW, cooking off the ammunition. The Soviet dismounts were thus disinclined to pursue, and the remnants of the party disengaged. I think the final result was: out of 15 PCs, 2 dead, 2 critically wounded, 4 seriously wounded and left behind, 2 unhurt and escaping, bringing another 5 seriously or lightly wounded out with them.

Immediate summary: I think they bit off more than they could chew, in their place I might have tried to attack the squad positions only one at a time. Also, I think they didn't use their two 40mm launchers enough, or in concentration. They didn't deploy smoke until the end, to cover their withdrawal-- I would have preferred to use it to mask the approach.

Attacking in daylight was probably another big sin, I would have let them wait until dark (OTOH, I didn't say they could, but I didn't say they couldn't.)
I toyed with having the big guns open up on a distant target if they delayed attacking, offering both incentive to attack and cover from the noise, but they went right into action.

Rules failures: since I shifted initiative systems away from V1's in favor of a faster card-draw system, that meant getting wounded or even hit by concussion didn't slow down the NPCs (or PCs, for that matter). I think the Soviets in the holes were more effective than they should have been, in retrospect. OTOH, I should have played them in separate 2-man fighting positions, I just lumped them all together in squads for simplicity in record-keeping. Note to self: keep more detailed records, and try my idea of more cards for initiative.

Bullet damage: we went back to v1's (xd6 +xy) formula for this round, to see if PCs would take more significant damage (also doubling NPC hit points from v2's 20, to keep it fair). The PCs did take more significant hits, seeing that there were a few Serious Wounds from AK/RPK fire, but I think it was the SVD and PKM that did more of that. The KPV, of course, with its Damage rating of 12 was off the scale, killing 2 PCs outright and Critically Wounding 2 more.

Next time, I'll try using d12s for damage, maybe allowing an extra die if one scores an Extraordinary Success?

Campaign summary: at least it ended with a big bang-- the BMP. The guys were still excited (though I could tell my own son was close to tears briefly at losing two of his three PCs, I'm not sure I've ever killed off any of his characters before). At least one asked if we could play again next summer. And they cheerily ate pizza before a sleepover at someone else's house, playing "Modern Warfare 3" until the wee hours of the morning. Ah, youth.