in the begining...

[Draq]

More excellent info gents. I was considering injecting a Polish ex-pact soldier turned rebel-scout/interpreter, as an NPC, which will help players with little knowledge of poland. I believe i read some where the 5th division meets up with some Polish free legion(?) Forces before Kalisz. Also considering injecting an encounter witha modified version of the lieutenant's 4th brigade from final blackout as a fourth wall reference. Really want to take that book, update it to fit in t2k, and run it as a campaign.

[Draq]

And yes, since I first discovered t2k I've thought about campaigns on both sides, using various references, like metro 2033/2034, for a sov-pact campaign.

[Draq]

I like the idea of wargaming the encirclement of Kalisz, but as much as I'd love too, I could never do minis.

[Draq]

I'm thinking for a starting party, a medic, a vehicle crewman with smg, a combat engineer with shotgun and m79, the rest, riflemen.

[Olefin]

I'm thinking for a starting party, a medic, a vehicle crewman with smg, a combat engineer with shotgun and m79, the rest, riflemen"

for your crewman it helps if he is either a driver or a gunner - no fun at all to "obtain" a vehicle and not have the skill to either drive it or operate its gun if it has one

all depends on your vehicle mix - if they get a LAV or Bradley or a tank at minimum they will need a driver and gunner - also keep in mind per the game they are supposed to start at full fuel and ammo load - make sure the players know otherwise - they have money which could be used to buy ammo and you could have that ammo, if you want, instead of on them be a buried cache they had to leave behind earlier in the battle and thus you have to get to it to be able to get the vehicles fully supplied

[Slappy]

We usually went pretty small. 5-7 PCs, maybe a couple of NPCs to fill out skills (i.e. if none of the PCs wanted to be a mechanic). Once ran with a local Polish Free Army liaison as an interpreter and guide. Was a good way for the GM to feed information and drive action.

That means maybe two vehicles. A hummer and a LAV-25 are a nice pair. They have decent abilities, but don't make the PCs invulnerable. They still need to run from real opposition. And you can run a still and tanker trailer, one on each.

Also did this once with the PCs just on horseback. Really limits the amount of stuff they can carry, but keeps them fairly mobile and keeps the profile down. Ran into some issues as I don't personally know that much about horses, but if you do can be a nice twist.

[Olefin]

I wonder if a lot of people do a Hummer and a LAV-25 because that is what is in the guidebook as an example - personally I prefer the Bradley - a LAV-25 is pretty much dead meat against any kind of tank where a Bradley at least has the TOW's on board - and since carrying capacity is pretty limited for TOW's you have to really limit when you use them -

for instance in my last campaign we had a Bradley and used a TOW to save our butts when we got caught in the open by a Russian convoy - but you had to really think about using one because the chances of finding a replacement TOW anywhere outside of Krakow is basically nil

[Twilight2000v3MM]

Problem with heavy armor is just that... its heavy. Try to get a 30+ ton Bradley over a local wood bridge meant for 3 ton trucks. Plus, they. Suck. Fuel. And maintenance is an issue. Atleast with HMMVs and a LAV 25 you can get common auto parts as spares.

Smaller is better especially in the age of you MIGHT see a tank.