The Swiss Guard - An Encounter In Poland

[Tegyrius]

Originally Posted by Raellus

Second, when the group inevitably runs into civilians, what's their cover story? Travelling merchants seems the likeliest choice but, if so, where's their merchandise? Would they ever tell anyone what their true cargo was if they thought they could avoid a fight by doing so? I can totally understanding them not wanting their secret to get out, as there are quite a few groups who would conceivably want to get their hands on the pope's remains. On the other hand, it could potentially buy the convoy allies.

The merchant cover requires too much overhead. This mission would likely have a few priests (or bishops or even a cardinal) along due to its nature. Let them do what they know best. They're a traveling church and its escort, going up and down in the world to tend to people who need faith more than ever in these dark times...

- C.

[Rainbow Six]

Cheers Rae,

Firstly, I haven’t come across anything which states that the Swiss Guard has any mounted units and can’t recall ever having seen a picture of mounted Swiss Guards, but I’m afraid I couldn’t say 100% whether they do or don't.

I think Tegyrius has hit the nail on the head with regard to a potential cover story – they do have a Polish born Monsignor travelling with them, so most likely justification would be that the Monsignor has to get to Krakow for some important – and probably unspecified – reason pertaining to the Church, which is not that far removed from their true purpose. That in itself could well gain them local allies en route (and, potentially, opposition from your own Papal State). I could probably be doing with rewriting the paragraph that starts with the group not being openly hostile to any NATO groups to elaborate on that…

Whether they take anyone into their confidence regarding their true purpose is probably in part down to how an individual situation develops and can be role played out – a PC with good persuasion and possibly charisma skills may be able to get them to open up, and of course a GM is at liberty to have one of the party be a potential traitor who will betray the rest of the group for
reward (there’s a brief reference to that in the article already).

Also, as an aside, with regard to why they are in Poland in full Swiss Army uniform, when I first wrote the piece I opted to have them disguising themselves as West German troops whilst travelling through Allied controlled Austria as I figured they would likely blend in with the crowd. My original intention was to have them change to Warsaw Pact uniforms , probably Polish Air Assault, when they crossed into Pact held territory but I decided against that on the basis that the group collectively would not have the language skills to pull it off if challenged rigorously (and also ran the risk of being “conscripted" into a larger Warpac force should they encounter one), so I quickly went off that idea. Likewise the idea of them keeping their German disguise was impractical in enemy territory, so given the choice between reverting to their own uniforms or disgusing themselves as civilians I opted to have them revert to Swiss uniform - part of my reasoning was that southern Poland ( bear in mind the article was originally written with a view to being a Polish based encounter) was already home to soldiers from a multitude of nationalities so one more small group wouldn’t make any difference, and disguising themselves as civilians would expose the language issues again (and a heavily armed group of ‘civilians’ would look suspicious in itself . My intention was that they would try and rely on their advance scouts to try and avoid any potential opposition / threats and reach Krakow covertly rather than fighting their way there (although I wanted to make it clear that they were well armed and equipped in the event they did have to fight, and they have suffered a number of casualties).

Hope that helps…

[Raellus]

It certainly does. The matter of the care and handling of horses can be explained by a few of the Guards' pre-service backstories so that's not an issue. I too like the idea of posing as a travelling church if questioned.

As for uniforms, I think that shades of green would be very common across armies by 2000. Many (if not most) prewar uniforms would have fallen apart by then and replacement unis manufactured after the nuclear phase would likely be much simpler in terms of cut and color (i.e. less elaborate camouflage). IRL, the Austrian army still mostly wears plain green so, for me, that would be the way to go, at least while in Austria.

[Cdnwolf]

This article so ties in with your theme....

http://popes-and-papacy.com/wordpres...is-will-again/