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Old 09-09-2022, 02:53 AM
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kcdusk kcdusk is offline
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Geddes rolled out into the Badlands with his newly acquired RPG and also a guide, a boy who looked 14 but might well be aged 17 or more but presented as scrawny due to the ravages of war.

Geddes had half a days travel ahead of him to get into position. The guide would ensure there were no badly chosen tracks or chance of getting lost on route. The target location was in woodland where any push was likely to occur. The mission as Geddes saw it, was part necessity and part low risk test.

Success would mean contributing to the village not being surprised by an armoured attack.

Failure would mean the loss of an imported fighter (Geddes), loss of a single RPG and perhaps a young boy of early fighting age.

The early travel took place through European forest. Tall pines. Some low lying thickets. On an overcast day.

Talk was minimal. A combination of language barrier, wanting to hear any potential threats that may be lurking and just enjoying the sounds of the outdoors.

As they approached their intended location, the guide took Geddes by the arm and they both squatted down. The guide was able to explain there was a number of stone buildings up ahead, which represented their observation point area.
However, rumours suggested the buildings up ahead had become home to an advanced Russian sniper. Geddes trusted that this may be true. The buildings numbered about 5 in total. With one being 3 stories high. The dirt road that travelled through the buildings linked a known Russian staging point on their side of the border and the road tracked through a direct route to a bitumen road inside friendly lines. It was highly possible a sniper was here, providing intel back to Russia while also preventing the location from being occupied by the enemy.

[I have created the following encounter from within my own mind to help play through the engagement rules which I think will be used often in most T2K games. I have positioned a sniper in the third floor of the building. Obvious, yes, but also plausible and even if discovered will probably provide stiff opposition from a strong vantage point.

I have also assigned a soviet soldier NPC to guard the ground floor area, whose role is to provide early warning if an enemy soldier is able to get to the building unobserved.]


Geddes decides to wait until dusk has set in before approaching the building.
Page 144 under Keeping Watch says that a passive Recon role is required for the group approaching the encounter. Geddes has pushed up alone. He has D12 intelligence and D12 in Recon to spot the novice lookout.

Distance for woods is 2xD10 and I roll 5,5. Therefore the range is 10 hexes or 100m.

I roll 2xD12 and get 8+5 which is a single success. This means I can chose to show myself, back off or try and ambush the lone NPC.

I intend to creep up on the NPC and try and disarm/incapacitate him so I can enter the building quietly.

This requires an Ambush check per page 61 of the players manual PDF. This is an opposed Recon task check.

First Geddes. Distance is 10 hexes and I intend to move into the same hex as the NPC.

I decide to roll D10 and this will indicate how many hexes are foliage which has a +2 to my infiltration roll and then the remaining hexs will be shrubland which has 0 effect to my recon roll.

I roll a 1. Meaning only the first hex is foliage which will provide me with an advantage. I rule that my PC can move the first hex with no roll required, but must then travel the final 9 hexes through shrubs with no modifier.

D12+D12 + no modifier for foliage -2 for advancing and ambushing in the same hex as the NPC. This modifies my roll to D10+D10. I roll 10+8 which equals 3 successes.

The NPC is D6+D6 with a -1 for dusk, resulting in a final roll of a single D6. NPC rolls a 1 which is a fail.

Geddes has crept up to the NPC unseen. My intention is for Geddes to knock the PC out cold in close combat and enter the building unnoticed.

Geddes draws his knife which is a +2 damage verse a +1 for being unarmed. The NPC has 5 hitpoints.

Geddes HTH is (D12+D10) with a +3 for the PC being defenceless and then a -2 for Geddes choosing to hit the PC in the head via aimed attack. This results in D12+D12. I roll 5+11 which is two successes.

Damage therefore is +2 knife + 2 for the successes which results in 4 points of damage. Not enough to incapacitate the PC who has 5 hit points!
However, the knife has a critical hit of 3. So the 4 points of damage results in a critical hit.

The effects of this are;
As per page 75 of the PDF all critical hits incapacitate an NPC.
The critical hit when I played it through produced an eye gouge that killed the NPC anyway.
Geddes has made it to the building unseen. To be continued.

Observations from the encounter so far;
  • For the ambush our PC gets two die modifiers to his Recon roll being terrain and also how close he wanted to get to the PC. While the PC gets a single modifier to his Recon roll being any weather or darkness mods.
  • Interesting there is no “city” terrain type on the table at page which might provide modifiers for infiltration/ambush.
  • I wonder if the no city terrain issue above will be part of the Urban Operations manual?
  • My PC advanced into the PC hex undetected. I didn’t like using the knife to incapacitate the PC but I am glad I did. The knife added an extra point of damage, but more importantly the critical hit number was lower than an unarmed attack (3 v 4).
  • Interesting there is no close combat option to knockout someone.
  • While the PC was defenceless this provided a +3 to hit them, while this is a good modifier, for trained PC’s it can be wasted as D12+D12 is reached and the modifier wasted because it cant go any higher. Also, only one opportunity to hit (so make it count! I might have considered pushing this roll if I missed).
  • I have referred to an Officer and a Guide who are helping my PC. Instead of giving them names, I’ve deliberately used their roles to make description and understanding easier for myself and the reader.
  • Interesting that hit points of normal PC soldiers is 5 while even US Special Forces is 6. There is not much difference in hit points. Though I note again that critical hits will incapacitate a PC. I need more examples to see how I feel about this.
  • Using my knife produced a critical hit and an eye gouge (ouch!) which resulted in death. I felt a bit uneasy about this. I hoped my trained close combat PC could have dealt with the NPC more cleanly (ie knockout blow)
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