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).

[ChalkLine]

A short scenario.

This one is essentially so the players can actually use an anti-material rifle the way they should be used.

(Note that it's a myth that 12.7mm weapons can't legally be used against personnel, you can use tank cannon on personnel and no one cares. That myth arose because originally the M2HB was an AT weapon and troops were instructed not to fire on personnel and unmask the weapon before the proper target was in its sights.)

Like my scenarios often are the main enemy are marauders. This is a fairly simple scenario that once again requires the PCs to engage with either local civilians or some other stability-operation group from either side. However the group shouldn't be Russian as they turn up in the scenario. Note that if it is the Polish civilians who get the group to deal with the Sniper they might provide the group with a venerable but deadly PTRS-41 14.5mm AT rifle fitted with a modified PSO-1 sight, otherwise a military group will provide a native weapon. If they do get the PTRS then this even more than other anti-material rifles puts out a huge muzzle blast and concussion that makes this thing almost impossible to hide as well as being extremely long and hard to move.



I didn't mention it but none of the civilians should be military age (15 to 50) as in Poland people of that age will be in the army. As such only children and the elderly are "civilians" in this setting.

[ChalkLine]

Troop Nationalities Table

This is my table on troops percentages from both sides. However this assumes a general and "traditional" NATO vs WTO war in Poland and not the canonical GDW setting.

[ChalkLine]

In 1963 the "Mongoose" missile system was renamed "Rapier" because no one in the project could think of what the plural of "mongoose" was.

[ChalkLine]

Pokhorony okurka refers to a type of informal punishment in the Russian (and previously the Soviet) army and can be translated as ‘a cigarette butt funeral’. The punishment is imposed upon soldiers caught smoking in prohibited areas.

If such a violation is identified, the guilty soldier and his unit are ordered to carry out a march and dig a metaphorical (human-sized) grave for the cigarette. The commander gives a sarcastic funeral speech about the cigarette butt, soldiers shovel soil onto it and march back to their base. Depending on the gravity of the misconduct, its frequency, the discretion and creativity of the commander, particular scenarios may vary.

The punishment can be intensified by its suddenness; for instance, the unit can be woken up in the night by an alert. A forced march can be complicated by the request to undertake it in full uniform (with helmet and bulletproof vest). The length of the march and the size of the pit can vary as well. The ritual can be accompanied by the appointment of guards of honour, the three-volley salute and other ceremonial procedures inherent in military funerals. The diversity of these scenarios emphasises traditional, informal and entrenched nature of this practice.

I'm noting this because it illustrates a famous aspect of Russian culture: "Our strict laws are counterbalanced by their non-observance".
This sort of informal punishment arose because Russian military law is extremely strict and usually far too draconian to implement in real life without the serious eroding of morale and thus unit efficiency. Instead a sort of shadow legal system arose based more on practicality. It also shows the dual nature of the Russian officer who also functions as the higher-level NCO rather than just a mission specialist.

[ChalkLine]

Armoured Trains - More Thoughts

While armoured trains will probably have been used in the Twilight War, it's my belief they won't be seen in wide use until a bit later after the war itself dies down and the industrial base builds up again. This is based on why they arose and why they declined historically.

Most people would assume that armoured trains declined because they were restricted to the railway lines, the armoured train had unparalleled mobility in some ways and massively restricted mobility in others. But this is not why they declined. During The Great War, the Russian Civil War and the concurrent wars in Eastern Europe and The Warlord Era in China armoured trains maintained their dominance even after tanks and especially armoured cars (and some armoured cars of the era such as the Garford-Putilov were a match for tanks in combat). It is mainly to do with the military objectives of the time, and these were invariably the capture of the railway lines themselves.

At a time of limited manufacturing ability damage to the fabric of the railways was avoided. Marshalling yards, stations and the lines themselves were prizes and something not easily repaired. Rolling stock was immensely valuable and only slowly replaced. All this meant that the trains were sitting on infrastructure the enemy were trying to avoid damaging. It was The Second World War when railways could easily be replaced along with its rolling stock and in this time strategic strikes were mounted against the railways in massive amounts.

You'd think this period might suit the time the players are in but not really. The lines are already smashed in the Twilight War and need rebuilding. Realistically NATO is no longer interested in Poland so large scale incursions will be rare. Yes, the MSRs bringing materiel and livestock from the remaining industrial centres will be used but these won't be used the same way armoured trains are properly used (as a massive force multiplier). They will be security elements and will be more likely armoured rail cars utilising LAV chassis with the occasional MBT chassis mounted in support. These vehicles will frequently need to leave the lines as the infrastructure was heavily targeted during the war.

[ChalkLine]

UAZ 469 Weapon Carriers

The ubiquitous UAZ 469 in the rules is not listed as armed, but there were in fact many weapon carrier variants. The USSR, Poland and East Germany (and more I think) all used it as a carrier for the B-10 recoilless rifle. While this might seem an irrelevant weapon with the pervasive use of the RPG-7V it far outranges that weapon and provides heavy, cheap firepower on a light chassis.

Similarly, Afghanistan saw the introduction of a rear ring-mount over the cargo bed capable of taking the Pact Heavy Mount or the AGS-17. There were also hillbilly-armour versions of these that also had gun-shields.

Finally, the big KPV appeared on a pintle mount on the rear bed in Afghanistan.

But for sheer insanity the UAZ was stripped of its bodywork, given angled light armour and a quad .50 cal MG mount in The Balkans. (not the Maxon Mount)

[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

[CDAT]

Originally Posted by ChalkLine

...
(Note that it's a myth that 12.7mm weapons can't legally be used against personnel, you can use tank cannon on personnel and no one cares. That myth arose because originally the M2HB was an AT weapon and troops were instructed not to fire on personnel and unmask the weapon before the proper target was in its sights.)...

I did some research into this years ago, as near as I could find it comes from the 101st AB in Vietnam, when they were using M113 with the .50 and two 7.62 MG's. The Vietnamese were waiting for the MG's to run out of ammo (all ran out at about the same time) then a guy with a RPG would step out and shoot the track. So the commanding General (I do not remember his name and to lazy right now to look it up again) put out an order that you would not use the .50 to engage the troops, but would save it for when the M60's were reloading to take out the anti-tank weapons (this became equipment over time).

[ChalkLine]

Originally Posted by CDAT

I did some research into this years ago, as near as I could find it comes from the 101st AB in Vietnam, when they were using M113 with the .50 and two 7.62 MG's. The Vietnamese were waiting for the MG's to run out of ammo (all ran out at about the same time) then a guy with a RPG would step out and shoot the track. So the commanding General (I do not remember his name and to lazy right now to look it up again) put out an order that you would not use the .50 to engage the troops, but would save it for when the M60's were reloading to take out the anti-tank weapons (this became equipment over time).

I can't find my source but I think this exact thing happened over and over.
Originally tanks were either little and well protected (FT-17) or big and less protected (British Mk IV). The little ones couldn't survive the .50 AP round but the big ones created a problem; they were so big inside that 37mm AT shells, the standard of the time, could sail right through one and out the back without hitting anything and this got worse as the vehicle got more refined and the crews were reduced in size. However the M2 (not the HB variant I have noted above) could riddle the bastard and kill everyone inside. The US developed this doctrine fighting UK-supplied or captured armour in The Russian Civil War.

[Adm.Lee]

There's a lot to chew on in here, thanks for posting it all!

[mpipes]

Originally Posted by ChalkLine

In 1963 the "Mongoose" missile system was renamed "Rapier" because no one in the project could think of what the plural of "mongoose" was.

Why it is mongeese of course!

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by mpipes

Why it is mongeese of course!

+1

[Raellus]

Thanks for posting your codex here, Chalkine. It's a great resource and I hope that you continue to add to it.

-

[CDAT]

Originally Posted by ChalkLine

I can't find my source but I think this exact thing happened over and over.
Originally tanks were either little and well protected (FT-17) or big and less protected (British Mk IV). The little ones couldn't survive the .50 AP round but the big ones created a problem; they were so big inside that 37mm AT shells, the standard of the time, could sail right through one and out the back without hitting anything and this got worse as the vehicle got more refined and the crews were reduced in size. However the M2 (not the HB variant I have noted above) could riddle the bastard and kill everyone inside. The US developed this doctrine fighting UK-supplied or captured armour in The Russian Civil War.

Are you sure of this? As near as I can find the M2 (and the .50 BMG round) were not fully developed tell after the death of Browning (in 1926), there were some test bed units as early as 1921 (such as the M1921 MG), but all the issues were not worked out yet. Also it was made due to a need of an anti-aircraft gun, but I have never seen it listed as an AT weapon. As near as I can tell depending on the round (only looking at AP) the .50 BMG can penetrate between 19mm (3/4 of an inch) to 34mm (1 1/3 inch) so not really what I would think of as an anti-tank round (yes it can take out WWI and some of the early WWII tanks). So not saying it was not, but I have never seen it listed as such and the dates that I have seen for it have production starting well after WWI and the Russian Civil war.

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by CDAT

Are you sure of this? As near as I can find the M2 (and the .50 BMG round) were not fully developed tell after the death of Browning (in 1926), there were some test bed units as early as 1921 (such as the M1921 MG), but all the issues were not worked out yet. Also it was made due to a need of an anti-aircraft gun, but I have never seen it listed as an AT weapon. As near as I can tell depending on the round (only looking at AP) the .50 BMG can penetrate between 19mm (3/4 of an inch) to 34mm (1 1/3 inch) so not really what I would think of as an anti-tank round (yes it can take out WWI and some of the early WWII tanks). So not saying it was not, but I have never seen it listed as such and the dates that I have seen for it have production starting well after WWI and the Russian Civil war.

It was used during WWII in the anti-armor role but it was more against lightly armored vehicles and not tanks - the AP and API rounds could penetrate the hull plates or fuel tanks on German half tracks and light armored cars and they could penetrate the armor on the light Italian, Japanese and French tanks they faced as well as the rear and side armor of the original Panzer II, III and IV tanks before they started up-armoring them.

But you are right - it was more a weapon of last resort when it came to armor - if you took on a tank there were a lot better weapons to use than the M2 Browning

[kato13]

Have not logged in for a while.

Just wanted to say this thread is awesome.

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by kato13

Have not logged in for a while.

Just wanted to say this thread is awesome.

I would like to second what Kato said about the awesomeness of this thread

[ChalkLine]

Ugh, facebook has stopped me linking images to it. Looks like I'll have to go through and find some way to host them.

[ChalkLine]

Tractors

One of the most useful vehicles ever constructed is the agricultural tractor. While it might seem a strange topic for a post this will probably be one of the most critical vehicles for non-military activity.

The Ursus ('Bear') tractors were famous for rugged simplicity and reliability in a time when western tractors were growing in complexity and cost which came with a commensurate lessening of reliability. Poland, being a country with a large agricultural sector, had many indigenous agricultural plant companies and a thriving import/export trade in this equipment.

During the Twilight period Ursus in Poland had been producing many tractors, here is three versions:

- Ursus 2812 (light tractor). 2,000kg, 25km/h, 60 litre (D,A), Equipment: Hydraulic Three Point Hitch (lift 1,300kg), 28Kw Power Take Off, Pulley - 21.0L/Period working, 10L/Period on road

- Ursus 1014 (medium tractor). 4,000kg, 25km/h, 90 litre (D,A), Equipment: Hydraulic Three Point Hitch (lift 3,000kg), 60 kw Power Take Off, Pulley - 45.0L/Period working, 22L/Period on road

- Ursus 1614 (heavy tractor). 5,000kg, 25km/h, 200 litre (D,A), Equipment: Hydraulic Three Point Hitch (lift 5,500kg), 100Kw Power Take Off, Pulley, 4x4 - 70.0L/Period working, 35L/Period on road

(0.75l/period x Kw)

A three point hitch is the adaptor point for machinery and includes a hydraulic system. The lift value is the maximum weight of an attachment.

A power take-off is normally a drive shaft running out of the engine to provide motive power for an attachment. Like the three point hitch it is an adaptor point (important note: these can be incredibly dangerous)

A pulley is simply a wheel that transfers power by pulley action.


Attachments:

Tractors are only the motive power, they are mainly made useful by their attachments. In Twilight 2000 they are either using their traction via tow cables, towing a trailer or attached to machinery such as ploughs or diggers.
Trailers.


Trailers

Generally a tractor can tow twice their weight so it may be possible to tow some of the following trailers at reduced load.

- Single Axle Livestock Trailer, 3.5 Tonne
Weight: 1,800kg, Load: 3,700kg, Max Speed 40km/h, Required power 20Kw, Notes: Rear loading doors, unroofed, rear ramp, spare wheel. Capacity: 4x 700kg animals, 6x 550kg animals

- Single Axle Livestock Trailer, 7.5 Tonne
Weight: 3,150kg, Load: 7,850kg, Max Speed 40km/h, Required power 30Kw, Notes: Rear loading doors, side access doors, roofed, rear ramp, spare wheel. Capacity: 8x 700kg animals, 10x 550kg animals

- Single Axle Utility Trailer, 2.5 Tonne
Weight: 1,300kg, Load: 2,400kg, Max Speed 40km/h, Required power 20Kw, Notes: spare wheel

- Double Axle Utility Trailer, 4 Tonne
Weight: 3,100kg, Load: 4,000kg, Max Speed 40km/h, Required power 25Kw, Notes: spare wheel

- Double Axle Bale Trailer, 9 tonne (low flat trailer with no sides for hay bales)
Weight: 1,950kg, Load: 8,900kg, Max Speed 40km/h, Required power 80Kw, Notes: spare wheel

- Double Axle Bale Trailer, 15 tonne (low flat trailer with no sides for hay bales)
Weight: 4,800kg, Load: 15,800kg, Max Speed 40km/h, Required power 45Kw, Notes: spare wheel

- Tandem* Tipping Trailer, 13 Tonne (*two rear wheels, no front wheel)
Weight: 5,200kg, Load: 13,200kg, Max Speed 40km/h, Required power 75Kw, Notes: spare wheel, this vehicle has 4mm walls 1.8m high

- Single Axle Dump* Trailer, 8 Tonne (low, fixed trailer. Lifts up at the front on hydraulic rams)
Weight: 2,200kg, Load: 8,100kg, Max Speed 40km/h, Required power 45Kw, Notes: Rear folding gate.

- Tandem Utility Trailer, 13 Tonne (high sided, rear ramp trailer)
Weight: 10,800kg, Load: 13,200kg, Max Speed 40km/h, Required power 135Kw, Notes: Rear folding gate, 2.2m high 1mm sides


Plant

Backhoe
Each backhoe has a seat, jacks to raise the tractor off the ground and a digger arm. Excellent for making deep trenches.
28Kw: 330kg
60Kw: 430kg
100Kw: 530kg

Front End Loader
A large bucket on the front of the tractor that lifts up and tilts for moving bulk material. Good for quickly creating earthworks and vehicle hides.
28Kw: 300kg
60Kw: 400kg
100Kw: 500kg

Auger
A honking great big drill for making deep holes in the ground. Excellent for making sturdy anti-vehicle barriers.
28Kw: 100kg
60Kw: 200kg
100Kw: 300kg

There are far more attachments but they are dedicated agricultural tools. Generally a farm would have three times its weight in tractors in these pieces of equipment

[swaghauler]

Check out BELARUS tractors. They are another Eastern European tractor that sold very well in the West too.
On the Asian front, there's only one name in tractors made as a cooperative venture between China and India and is now the best-selling tractor in the world... MAHINDRA Tractors.

One added detail you might need to add is with regards to the hydraulic attachments system. There are...
SINGLE (two hoses & quick-couplers) for use with minor implements like snowplows and manure spreaders that only need hydraulics to raise.

DOUBLE (four hoses & quick-couplers) for use with variable geometry units that may be required to rotate or flex/bend like buckets, backhoes, and plows.

TRIPLE (six hoses & quick-couplers) for use with full geometry units like backhoes with claws, buckets with claws, and hydraulically adjustable forks.

Most tractors come with a Double Point Hydraulic system (noted by having TWO hoses on each side of the tractor) but small tractors may only have a Single Point system (noted by only having one hose on each side of the tractor). This will limit the equipment the tractor can use as much as PTO power will.

[ChalkLine]

Dogs in Twilight 2000

Dogs tend to occur in three different situations in Twilight 2000; as guard dogs, as war dogs and as wild dogs.

Guard dogs are one of mankind's oldest early warning systems.
A dog's hearing is about 2.5 times better than a human's and they can pinpoint a sound to within 5º of its origin. In fact this is accurate enough that at close ranges you can use a dog to 'point' and direct grenade launcher fire and expect a fairly good chance of a hit on the source of a sound within 100m. Similarly dogs have been used at close ranges to direct machinegun fire at unseen targets.

A dog's sense of smell is of course legendary and comes in at about 40 times better than a human's admittedly poor sense of smell. Dogs can detect not only a target but can also track the scent trail and fully understand how this corresponds with the target's movement.

Guard dogs are extremely valuable, it would not be unusual to find settlements trading pups with a good guard lineage and breed. Settlements would utilise guard dogs to not only provide early warning against human threats but also wild dogs and similar animal threats. Note that guard dogs can be trained to alert handlers silently of threats.

War dogs are used by all combatants in Twilight 2000's Polish theatre. Using their senses noted above a war dog can track a target off to the side of the target's line of movement on the downwind side. This is incredibly useful as small foot patrols will often pause and set up an ambush to surprise followers. In Vietnam Australian tracker dogs could allow combat patrols to parallel a target and intercept them while being totally out of contact with the enemy. War dogs can be used in a shock attack and their fast movement and ability to knock down even quite large people is not to be underestimated.
War dogs can also be used as messengers. Well trained dogs can quickly, quietly carry messages unseen to other areas.

Another use of war dogs is mine detection dogs. These dogs work especially well against IEDs and above-ground munitions.

Wild dogs are extremely formidable. Usually in Twilight 2000 they are depicted as charging the players at first sight. From experience hunting dangerous feral dogs in Australia* I can say that this would be extremely rare. Usually a wild dog utilises its superb senses to observe threats from out of contact. Wild dogs learn vey quickly by observation that humans can kill dogs if they can see them so they avoid this at all costs, often you barely see any movement. Their prey of choice would be wounded, distracted or sleeping larger prey or unaware juveniles. They attack from ambush from multiple directions and have anecdotally used distraction pack members to occupy a prey's attention while the actual hunting dogs get close into position. Wild dogs are well known for using many different hunting styles from long pursuit to leopard-crawling up close before assaulting in without warning.

Dogs are mankind's oldest domesticated animal and the only domesticated animal we can be sure we have undertaken significant evolution alongside. People form strong bonds with dogs and this can have positive and negative effects in warfare. Dogs are extremely good for reducing stress in humans and historically soldiers and survivors have adopted dogs when they can. Conversely, dogs are relatively fragile in regards to modern weaponry and having a wounded or killed canine companion can have adverse morale effects. While players are immune to morale this will have a large effect on non-player characters.

Modern canine body armour, including the modern canine mask/helmet, were rudimentary in the Twilight 2000 setting. All sides have a lightweight ballistic harness that included a webbing system. This would usually hold water for the dog and a medical first aid kit. Some larger dogs can quite easily carry large amounts of ammunition if the load is spread carefully over the dog but this can easily damage the dog if in adverse situations. Loaded dogs are prone to heat stress and if pushed can simply collapse and die in a very brief interval.

(*I adore dogs but feral dogs can pull down and kill children as almost happened to a friend's child. This is why they are culled in Australia along with the immense ecological damage they do.)

[ChalkLine]

Alcohol Fuels.

In 1981 the US Army did a study of pure alcohol fuels* and found the following results.

Methanol promoted engine wear in certain sections of the engine. Top of bore and top of ring, cam followers and cam lobes, valve faces and valve guides all wore about seven times faster than ethanol or gasoline fuels. This was due to chemicals created as the by-products of combustion.

The found that pure alcohol fuels ran cleaner engines with less gumming and other deposits.

However Ethanol has its own problems. It absorbs water from the air and this separates if the engine is allowed to sit for extended periods (they didn't say how long). It is also corrosive and will attack the fuel lines of that period.

Game Effects:
Really, this can be used just for colour for mechanic characters or GMs could call for more rolls for methanol-powered vehicles.

(*They also studied alcohol blends and found no appreciable difference to 100% gasoline)

[ChalkLine]

A Third Echelon Campaign

In most games the players get the gee-whiz stuff at the very start and it slowly degrades during the game. Little by little, they start to pick up AKMs for the ammo, shoot off their 40mms and so on.

But in this style campaign the players starts off with real last-ditch stuff, not even Vietnam-era body armour. 1950s webbing, old style uniforms, weapons two generations out of date and so on. A hardcore GM will make their equipment and weaponry actually a severe disadvantage so the players have a strong incentive to scrounge, loot and cobble together more modern gear that’s more effective. The vehicles are clapped out old horrors that should really be in the back lot of a museum awaiting restoration. Even horses should be scruffy old nags. Worse, it could be cheap repurposed civilian gear that rapidly falls to bits.

The main challenge in this is letting the players get access to their own side’s equipment. Unless you want them indistinguishable from the enemy in a short spate of time you need to let them find out where stuff they can use is. It also really kicks up the trading aspect of the game.

This by definition is a lean campaign. I’m usually of the opinion that the enemy simply don’t engage if possible if they're down to their last magazine because really by then you’re combat ineffective, but in this style game everyone is short of everything and the players should not be able to pick up four magazines off a fallen enemy. Usually loot should be in the order or a dozen rounds, and I’d bump the combat difficulties up so there’s a lot more shots per hit than there is now (T2K, and all modern games, makes it far too easy to hit in a firefight).