ChalkLine's Desiderata

[ChalkLine]

Small Emplacement Excavator

As you've probably noticed by my posts my players usually don't get far before they bog down due to logistics and this usually means some sort of defensive site.

Now, having the players stand forlornly there with a spade and a mattock off the humvee is humorous at first but if you're serious about getting some dirt between you and the incoming supersonics you need machinery.

Here the US Army and the Bundeswehr offers the following:

The Small Emplacement Excavator is a Unimog truck turned into a suspiciously effective front-end loader. Also known as the Unimog 419 (the big engine 'Mog 406 series or the "U-1300L" from Paul Mulcahy's website) but assuming that it only has its external load available. This isn't strictly true, it has its normal cargo bed which you can dump stuff in but its normal load weight is used up by the digging equipment limiting that greatly.

The digging gear can be removed in one period and stored, only using up 750kg of its 2,250kg load with the attachments and making it an awesome truck again. You can even use the digging arm as a light crane by slinging a chain off the knuckle.

Honestly, there's so much to love about 'Mogs although they have been known to roll over.

Price: $7,500 S/- (the WarPact have their own versions)
http://www.military-today.com/engineering/see.htm
http://www.pmulcahy.com/light_uv/german_luv.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unimog#Variants

[ChalkLine]

Internal Defence Forces (Poland)
"Wojsk Obrony Wewnętrznej" (WOW)

The Territorial Defence Forces or the OTK ("Obrona Terytorium Kraju") had several sorts of unit, most are what are erroneously referred to as "ORMO" in the GDW books. However they had several large formations known as the WOW and these were the hammer to the other OTK unit's anvils. Local OTK would hold and defend but the WOW would bring heavier force to bear to wipe out serious problems behind the lines.

WOW units came in three sorts, the three Territorial Defence Brigades which are the 1st Masovian Brigade of the Internal Defense Forces, 1st BWOWew ("1 Mazowiecka Brygada Wojsk Obrony Wewnętrznej"), 2nd Podlaska Brigade of the Internal Defense Forces, 2nd BWOWew ("2 Podlaska Brygada Wojsk Obrony Wewnętrznej") and the 5th Podhale Brigade, 5th BWOWew ("5th Podhalańska Brygada"), two independent regiment, three communications regiments, four regional regiments, four pontoon regiments and two pontoon battalions (the Poles know their river-crossed country only too well) and three engineering battalions specifically tasked as reaction forces to weapons of mass destruction.

(TKO units came in various types as well, and they include one Independent Defence Brigade, eighteen Independent Territorial Defence Regiments and sixty three Territorial Defence Battalions.)

An impressive number and it is these rather frightening individuals that will be hunting your scrawny arses across the Vistula Valley.

First off, here's the TOE of the 5th Podhales at the start of the war.

- command and staff
- three motorized infantry regiments (each with three battalions, a mortar battery and a battery of guns)
- tank battalion (probably T-55AD-2)
- 122 mm cannon squadron
- 120 mm mortar squadron
- 57 mm AA cannon squadron
- reconnaissance company
- company of sappers
- chemical company
- communications company
- traffic regulation company
- medical company

Here's the TOE for the 15th Independent Regiment

- command and staff
- motorized infantry battalion (three motorized infantry companies and a support company)
- tank battalion
- school battalion
- 120 mm mortar battery
- anti-tank battery (85 mm D-44 cannons)
- anti-aircraft battery
- sapper company
- communications company
- traffic regulation company
- supply company
- NBC warfare company

Now, obviously these units will not be at full strength. The beauty of these guys is that they can be literally anywhere in Poland, ready to pop up and give your players grief at any moment. Their mission is to seek out and deal with groups such as the players. Note that they have their own comprehensive communications network so if the players run into them then they get logged by the intel guys and the hunt is on. Obviously they have several fires to put out with the general level of banditry and players that amble along, helping locals and generally being inoffensive might be placed low on the list of priorities. However players destroying WarPact infrastructure and units, threatening supply lines and generally being a military bother will find these characters turning up quite quickly and repeatedly.

WOW units will often work in conjunction with Soviet MVD units and other similar allied rear are security troops.

And here's the kit of the average WOW trooper:

Field Uniform, wz. 68 "Moro" camouflage¹ 04.00kg
wz.68 "kostka" ("cube") Backpack 02.00kg
Blanket 01.00kg
MP-5 field protective mask and bag 01.00kg
6x 8-hour duration MP-5 filters
OP-1 NBC Suit and bag 08.00kg
Poncho 01.00kg
wz. 67 Steel Helmet w/ netting 01.50kg
6B2 Flak Vest 04.00kg
CZM Flashlight 0.20kg
wz. 70 Webbing² 02.00kg
6H4 Bayonet and scabbard 00.50kg
RKA (AKM) Assault Rifle 03.30kg*
6x 6L10 Magazines 03.00kg
120x 7.62x39mm 57-N-231³ 01.60kg
6x RGZ-89 Fragmentation Grenades 02.40kg⁴
2x RDG-2B Smoke Grenades, (White) 01.10kg
Individual First Aid Kit 00.20kg

¹"Rogatywka" Cap, "Uszatka" Woollen Hat, Shirt, Trousers, Field Jacket, Boots, Underwear
²Belt & Suspenders, SDPL Entrenching tool & Carrier, First Aid pouch, 2x Ammunition Pouch, 1 lt Canteen, wz. 70 Mess Kit
³8 x 15r stripper clips in two cardboard boxes
⁴2x of the 6 are in the Pack
(*Rear area troops had the AKM ("RKA", " Radziecki Karabinek Automatyczny" "Soviet Automatic Rifle") rather than the Kbk wz. 88 Tantal or the Skbk wz. 1989 Onyks)

EDIT:

I should have noted the usual TKO TOEs as these are the "ORMO" you see listed.

TKO Regiment TOE
- command and staff
- 4-6 infantry companies: 3 infantry platoons and a heavy machine gun platoon
- special company: 2 sapper platoons, 2 communications platoons and 2 chemical platoons
- supply platoon

TKO Battalion TOE

- command, staff, political section, quartermaster
- two infantry companies
- economic platoon
- economic team
- transport team
- communications team

The "economic teams" are disaster relief specialists.

[ChalkLine]

The Samovar

(A little bit of colour for your Russian characters)

Where you get Russians you'll get tea.
Russian troops are notorious tea-drinkers and drink their tea usually without milk and often sweetened and this is usually served in a metal-based glass. Within Russia, tea preparation differs, but usually includes lemon, and sugar or jam. They first brew a concentrated brew up and then mix it to taste with plain boiled water.

The preferred method of making tea is in a samovar, a metal boiling vessel consisting of an urn with a vertical metal tube inside filled with solid fuel. The Russian jackboot, the sapog, can be used as a bellows to get the fuel hot. No, I have no idea how you'd do that.

[ChalkLine]

Combat Recovery of Vehicles

In the brutal grind of the Soviet-Axis front of The Second World War the Axis slowly started to run out of armoured vehicles. The savage fighting unparalleled in its intensity, ferocity and longevity elsewhere on the planet meant that the huge Soviet factories so painfully evacuated east could out-manufacture the Axis factories that nightly were pounded from the air meanwhile in the west the allies could bring in vehicles manufactured safe distances from the fighting. This led to a strange phenomenon in the style of combat.

Whole battles would range over who could recover a knocked-out armoured vehicle first. In the midst of the fighting the Axis troops would throw forward recovery teams to drag out the precious combat hulks for rebuilding. At the same time they'd also try and recover the enemies' vehicles as well to make up the shortfalls in their own armoured lists. Noting this, the Allies on all fronts responded by sending their own teams in to drag vehicles out in an effort to beat the Axis to the prize or they'd simply end up facing the same vehicle after a short period. The US actually made their own specialised tank recovery/transporter known as the M25 Dragon Wagon that still looks like it could see service today in its angled armour and no-nonsense build concept. Also both sides would fight bitterly to ensure the battlefield was held long enough to recover the wrecks, the Axis so they could reuse the vehicles and the Allies so they could recover their own and deny Axis vehicles to the enemy.

In Twilight 2000 both sides see the same situation arise again. While certain anti tank weapons result in an unrecoverable wreck many leave a vehicle capable of salvage.

A simple scenario can be created where the troops fight over just such a downed vehicle and this can even be inserted into the period just before the break out at Kalisz or in other campaigns. The situation that is needed to recreate this bitter style of fighting is:
- Decent troop numbers.
- A coherent enemy rather than scattered bandits or small patrols.
- Recovery gear available to both sides.

The following sort of assumes and M1A1 has been disabled prior to the breakout at Kalisz. It can be easily adapted for other situations.

First off, play out the demise of the vehicle. While in the normal style of small campaign you can make this a simple IFV or APC (most commanders wouldn't risk a recovery vehicle over a truck) in large unit settings a late-era MBT is the obvious choice. Either the players knock it out or near it when it goes down.

The first thing friendly forces will try and do is secure the area and recover the crew. Specialists such as AFV crewmen are valuable and medical teams will push up to the vehicle to try and provide aid and extract the wounded. If the vehicle is in a highly exposed area this can be extremely dangerous, the recovery teams may even try trenching forwards under the cover of night. The wreck site must be secured and this is easier said than done, for a start it's already known that something capable of damaging an armoured vehicle overwatches the area. Each area capable of dominating the vehicle's location has to be occupied and secured. It's at this point the enemy begins to be assured that a recovery effort is underway and starts their own efforts to secure the site.

While the recovery teams are on their way the local troops will have to deal with the first counter attacks. The enemy will probe forward, not looking for a serious fight but rather trying to estimate the level of security the area has. The local troops try and oppose these probes and also search out and negate any observation posts that are set up. The enemy isn't stupid, they know what's going on and will task assets suitable to the prize. If the enemy has artillery the OPs might at this time range a few shots to register some locations the defenders might set up. While the security element fights off the probes they should also be furiously digging in for what comes next.

Now the enemy knows where the vehicle is, roughly what sort of opposition there is and what the nature of the AO is they might mount their first serious counter attack. Utilising what artillery fires they have the attack should come from at least two directions at once, this is the sucky bit about holding a known location. Hopefully friendly flanking units can fend off some of the enemies flanking movements but there should be tense moments while radio gives updates on how well those efforts are going.
While taking care not to hit the vehicle, the enemy FOs direct fires onto areas of serious resistance. If these are in the open the fuzes are air bursts meaning there's no cover. If they are dispersed positions they will probably be ground bursts and if it's hardpoints then they will probably be delay fuzes to explode after they penetrate the cover. Clever defenders will use a variety of defences.

The enemy are intelligent soldiers and not obedient orcs; they assault using the terrain and timing to keep the odds on their side and don't rush forward like morons to a certain death (anyone who that that was a good idea was dead by 1996). Often the players will just see muzzle flashes. They can roll whatever numbers they like but should only have the vaguest idea if they hit people. Environmental factors such as screams, visible wounded and so on are fairly rare and often drowned out be the din of the battle. Players who disregard incoming fire attract more incoming fire, often of the explosive variety.

Should the counter attack be a serious effort command will vector over reinforcements from the reserve if they can spare them. Note these aren't unlimited and there's other actions going on. Command will always try and save enough troops in the reserve to deal with breakthroughs so keep this in mind.

After the fighting is going on and the enemy and the players rearranged the scenery with whatever ordnance they have at hand at some point either the enemies' or the player's recovery team will show up, possibly both. Now the big effort starts. The recover team has an immediate security team that covers their area but they need the enemy removed from the AO. The enemy has exactly the same idea.

Note that NPCs don't usually throw themselves to their deaths. Attacks should stall at 10% losses and the enemy commander doesn't throw more troops into a meatgrinder without extremely good reason. The vehicle isn't worth it yet. At 10% the enemy stop pushing forward and 25% they start to fall back in good order. At 50% they make a run for it and at 75% they'll discard weapons in their flight. The players shouldn't always know this happens, often they'll only notice a lull in the shooting. Note that this might simply be the enemy commander shifting the axis of attack. A good way to guess that the enemy has had enough is when they start popping smoke and the other side should always be smoking the crap out of the place. (A note on smoke: if the players have a good position the enemy might simply fling smoke at it to neutralise the players' fire)

If the players have fought off the enemy push they can go forward and set up a perimeter. If they have to fall back (do players ever actually retreat?) then they have to push forward and the situation is reversed. Rinse and repeat until one side starts to run out of assets.

If it looks like the vehicle is going to fall into enemy hands and cannot be retaken then it has to be destroyed or contaminated to deny it to the enemy. During the fight the recovery team will have stripped weapons, radios, vision gear (including periscopes, they're removable), ammunition and POL (Petrol Oil Lubricants) if possible.

If it looks like the players are planning to demolish the vehicle the enemy will call artillery on it in the attempt to kill demolition teams and hope the vehicle is not too seriously damaged, assuming they can see it.

Note that recovering a vehicle is the sort of mission the enemy will risk a similar asset on. If they do commit an MBT or MBTs these won't wander in by themselves or lead an assault. Their weapons have extremely long ranges and MBTs work best in the T2K setting as support elements, standing back and slamming positions with heavy HE while being far enough away that players would have to deploy an ATGM to hit it. Armoured vehicles *always* have an infantry security element (infantry are cheap) who push forward to deny rocket-range positions to an attacker. If vehicles are attacked with an ATGM they will pop smoke and retire, shifting position. Meanwhile the infantry will note the position and call it in using the vehicle's radio.

Sooner or later one side will get their recovery team into position and start to recover the vehicle. This can take hours depending on the situation, however a vehicle too badly bogged will simply be blown in place.

What's the pay off for all this?
Have the players rewarded in a campaign sense. For a start such a defence should be appreciated by command. If they recover the vehicle reasonably intact it should turn up later to provide heavy support for the group, possibly during the breakout.

[ChalkLine]

Polish BRDM-2 M96 and M97
Polish BRDM-2 upgrades.

A while back I did a post on the Russian/Soviet BRDM-2M and I mentioned the Polish variants but never detailed them. Here's some data on them but as these come in after the fall of the Polish People's Republic there's some NATO-specific mods I'll change to Warsaw Pact. They're fairly obvious and people wanting a NATO BRDM-2 only need swap weapons, radios and optics.

The Poles love their BRDM-2s and they still soldier on to this day in the Polish Land Forces. Polish experience with the vehicle noted several deficiencies notably too small a crew, deck hatches only and that the belly wheels had little practical use even on rough ground. Oddly enough the Poles never bothered with the painfully thin armour, the vehicle was designed at a time when rifle calibre rounds and shell fragments were considered the primary threats.

M96
With this in mind the Poles went to work and stripped out the belly wheels of the BRDM-2 and put in a new hull floor. With this large extra space they installed a side hatch on each side and put in two passenger seats low in the hull. This is the basic Polish BRDM-2 in Twilight 2000. A new Tatra engine and transmission gave the vehicle more power and a spare tyre rack on the rear of the hull relaces the previous Polish practice of placing a spare on top of the turret. Finally the turret is replaced with an elongated oval version for extra room. Inside is a carrying space for an RPG-7V for use by the dismounts.

Not to sit on their laurels, as the storm clouds of war approach the Poles start to modernise their equipment. A large amount of BRDM-2s are brought up to Zbik standard:

M97 Zbik
Featuring a new square turret the Zbik (Wildcat) gains a roof hatch for the commander and a hatch for storing a 9K111 Fagot (AT-4 "Spigot") post that mounts in front of the hatch. Six 81mm "Tucha" smoke grenade launchers, three on each side of the front of the turret, are mounted. The vehicle mounts better radios, a laser range finder and a 60 mm LM-60K mortar (12 rounds). The new turret allows a -4.2º to + 32.5º vertical traverse.

[ChalkLine]

Dedovshchina
Russia's brutal tradition of hazing.

Soviet troops are often but not always subjected to a severe form of hazing that may lead to suicide, mental trauma, injury or death. It's probably the most brutal hazing tradition of any military. Numbers are hard to estimate as western sources are inevitably biased or engaged in misinformation but GMs should consider whether a Russian soviet unit in the game has a history of dedovshchina.

It should be noted that not all units do this as it's well understood to be detrimental to unit performance and cohesion and some commanders make serious attempts to limit or eradicate the practise even during the soviet period. Battle experience in Afghanistan and later in 1st Chechnya proved that units allowing higher levels of dedovshchina performed poorly. Poor outcomes include desertion, fratricide, suicide and severe lack of unit cohesion and effectiveness. Another problem is the intra-unit animosity makes every task more complex; handing the Dragunov to a man and ordering him to cover the advance of a hated superior has to be avoided for instance. Dedovshchina was officially made illegal in 1982.

Dedovshchina is intimately associated with the grey market within the military, and this economy reaches from the lowest ranks into the officer corps which makes it difficult to eradicate. This has its roots in the hard facts that troops are paid very poorly (or not at all during the dissolution) and persons higher up the chain expected those below them to make up the shortfall in wages. This can lead to very poor behaviour when stationed in foreign areas on the part of the troops as they try and satisfy their superior's expectations while having less of a bond with the locals.

Notably dedovshchina was reduced to a large degree in what the soviets termed "The Great Patriotic War" (WW2). During this time command was far more vigilant, superiors had to watch their troop's performance or be replaced and possibly suffer severe repercussions. As the soviet troops enter the "survival phase" of Twilight 2000 it's unlikely that most units would persist in this behaviour, but it makes an interesting GM tool if animosities have persisted from an earlier period. It is also a perfect reason to incorporate former soviet troops into the game.

[ChalkLine]

(For UK campaigns)

Sterling "SMG" in 7.62×51mm NATO

If the worst ever happened Britain planned on making "Last Ditch" weapons such as the Second World War Primitiv-Waffen-Programm in Germany.

Thus this creature was designed and even one produced as a proof-of-concept. It is a full-auto/semi-auto lever-delayed open-bolt weapon that uses the Sterling SMG control group and L1A1 SLR or L4 Bren magazines. It could mount the L2A1 SUIT sight.

(Nobody knows its weight, ROF or accuracy and the MoD refuses to tell. It's probably still kept as plans and tooling).

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by ChalkLine

Small Emplacement Excavator

As you've probably noticed by my posts my players usually don't get far before they bog down due to logistics and this usually means some sort of defensive site.

Now, having the players stand forlornly there with a spade and a mattock off the humvee is humorous at first but if you're serious about getting some dirt between you and the incoming supersonics you need machinery.

Here the US Army and the Bundeswehr offers the following:

The Small Emplacement Excavator is a Unimog truck turned into a suspiciously effective front-end loader. Also known as the Unimog 419 (the big engine 'Mog 406 series or the "U-1300L" from Paul Mulcahy's website) but assuming that it only has its external load available. This isn't strictly true, it has its normal cargo bed which you can dump stuff in but its normal load weight is used up by the digging equipment limiting that greatly.

The digging gear can be removed in one period and stored, only using up 750kg of its 2,250kg load with the attachments and making it an awesome truck again. You can even use the digging arm as a light crane by slinging a chain off the knuckle.

Honestly, there's so much to love about 'Mogs although they have been known to roll over.

Price: $7,500 S/- (the WarPact have their own versions)
http://www.military-today.com/engineering/see.htm
http://www.pmulcahy.com/light_uv/german_luv.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unimog#Variants

The SEE was in the third fanzine in the story of the 7th Division's Engineers as one of the vehicles that players would be able to use in the scenario. Great to see it here too

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by ChalkLine

Small Emplacement Excavator

As you've probably noticed by my posts my players usually don't get far before they bog down due to logistics and this usually means some sort of defensive site.

Now, having the players stand forlornly there with a spade and a mattock off the humvee is humorous at first but if you're serious about getting some dirt between you and the incoming supersonics you need machinery.

Here the US Army and the Bundeswehr offers the following:

The Small Emplacement Excavator is a Unimog truck turned into a suspiciously effective front-end loader. Also known as the Unimog 419 (the big engine 'Mog 406 series or the "U-1300L" from Paul Mulcahy's website) but assuming that it only has its external load available. This isn't strictly true, it has its normal cargo bed which you can dump stuff in but its normal load weight is used up by the digging equipment limiting that greatly.

The digging gear can be removed in one period and stored, only using up 750kg of its 2,250kg load with the attachments and making it an awesome truck again. You can even use the digging arm as a light crane by slinging a chain off the knuckle.

Honestly, there's so much to love about 'Mogs although they have been known to roll over.

Price: $7,500 S/- (the WarPact have their own versions)
http://www.military-today.com/engineering/see.htm
http://www.pmulcahy.com/light_uv/german_luv.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unimog#Variants

Unimogs are standard issue for ALL US petroleum [logistics] units and are used to emplace the FFSSP (Forward Fuel System Supply Point) or "lego petroleum" as we called it (a system of easily emplaced rubber hosing, pumps, and rubber fuel bladders up to 500k gallons in size). Unimogs dig the ditches that hold the rubber hoses which run from the fuel bladders to the pumping station. Move palletized pumps and fuel bladders and build fighting positions to protect the FFSSP. The 475th Quartermaster Unit in Meadville PA had 8 Unimogs in their TO&E. The Unimogs can also attach grapples (for hauling pipe for the Theater Petroleum Supply System's aluminum 20-foot pipe sections) or put on fully articulated forks. In addition to the articulated forks, fixed fork extensions can attach to the bottom of the bucket while the bucket is still attached. They aren't as "nimble" as articulated forks, but they allow you to pick up small loads without removing the bucket. The Unimog comes with a Triple Hydraulic attachment system to expand the number of possible attachments. The bucket/grapple/forks can be taken off in 5 minutes (the one period time is to remove the hydraulically operated arms or the entire backhoe, not just a bucket). The bed is a tilt-bed on US models and can be locked out when the hoe is mounted. With the hoe removed, you now have a dump trailer/bed holding 2 cubic yards of material.