ChalkLine's Desiderata

[ChalkLine]

The following being a couple of years-long stream-of-consciousness posts on the Twilight 2000 Face Book page.

Please note that nearly all these posts refer to the First Edition timeline. I know a lot of the vehicles here are covered on Paul's site, most of what I'm posting is for colour and context.

[ChalkLine]

20 years ago I was working on a largish building site. It was pouring down raining one day so I made up a list of what would be salvaged there if the workers just never came back.
It was a large site; about eight five-story buildings:
- Mobile 25t crane, four-wheel drive, as ten-ton truck. This has four wheels and a crane only as structure, and is abysmally slow on the road.
- 3x Hoists, each hoist lifts a steel, 1m high, 'basket' about 3m², the hoist gantry is three sided and runs on an inbuilt generator. Each gantry section was 6m long. There is no 'floor' button on each level; an operator at the foot of the gantry controls it. Total gantry length would be about 60m but it wouldn't be safe up to that height!
- 8x Oxy Acetylene welding kits, usually about 60% full. There was a supply container (20') onsite for welding supplies.
- 18 wheeler and pup trailer, dumper.
- 2x Compressors (trailer size, mondo)
- First Aid demountable shed, well stocked
- 20x temporary power poles, steel, 6m high
- 100m power cable
- 2x mini refrigerators
- 4x civilian sedans
- 3x civilian utilities (pick ups)
- 2x civilian vans
- 1300m² form-boards, 16mm 12ply. We were making the structures out of concrete. This is sufficient to make an eight-story building with three lifts in one shot. Of course, it was spread over eight buildings.
- 3x bobcats and interchangeable tools
- Four wheel drive forklift, about 8t
- 100x pallets of concrete block bricks
- 13x 20' shipping containers
- 4x 40' shipping containers
- 2x backhoes
- 1x excavator
- 1x concrete pumping truck, the arm had a ten-story reach.
- 2x concrete trucks
- 7x demountable sheds, with sinks.
- 2x demountable toilet/shower blocks, filthy.
- 14x power-boards
- 8x garbage skips
- 870x star pickets (star droppers, steel stakes)
- 3000m x 3m (9m sections) Green plastic shade cloth
- 3000m x 3m (9m sections) steel 'cyclone' chain-link mesh
- 3x 25' cabin cruisers (I have no idea either)
- 35' yacht (ditto)
- 60x (2m x 3m) 'cyclone' chain-link mesh frames with 2" steel pipe frame.
- 10x 40m (40mm) Water hose (we were always pumping)
- 5t truck with extendable crane and bore for footings
- 5x 50m coils copper water pipe
- 20' container plumbing supplies
- 20' container paint supplies
- 20' container power tools and expendables
- 20' container electrical supplies
- 20' container safety supplies

Concrete and reinforcement steel was brought in as needed so the players would have to go look for that.

[ChalkLine]

If you're like me it always confused me that when you get a vehicle in T2k you don't get *any* of its equipment, not even a jack! 🙂
Anyway, here's a load plan someone gave me for a Bradley M3A2. I'm not sure of how accurate it is but it was given to me by someone with intimate experience with Brads.

M3A2 ODS Bradley CFV
Ammunition & Pyrotechnics
2 TOW 2A ATGMs ready loaded
100 rounds 25mm APDS-T M791 ready loaded
200 rounds 25mm HEI-T M792 ready loaded
800 rounds 7.62mm (4-1) ready loaded COAX
200 rounds 25mm APDS-T M791 stowed
400 rounds 25mm HEI-T M792 stowed
1 400 rounds 7.62mm (4-1) stowed
1 000 rounds 5.56mm stowed
2 M47 Dragon missiles
2 M18 Claymore mines
16 smoke grenades for vehicle launchers
4 illumination flares
4 coloured smoke grenades
4 incendiary grenades (for vehicle self-destruction only)
Other Expendables
330 litres of fuel in the fuel tank
5 20-litre plastic jerry cans of potable water (10 lts per man per day all uses)
Vehicle Equipment
3 Fire extinguishers (turret, driver & rear compartments) (Internal Halon system inoperable)
Flotation screen & supports
Flotation screen repair kit
Spare screen supports
2 Camouflage screens and poles
Tarpaulin
2 Track links
1 Track ficture
1 Track drift pin
Maintenance platform on the upper hull (this can be attached to the hull in front of the engine access panel, to give the crew a horizontal surface to stand and work on).
Tracked vehicle tools sufficient to undertake routine maintenance and perform simple tasks.
Shovel
Axe
Mattock
Sledge hammer
Crow bar
Heavy duty two cable
50 metres of razor wire concertina
1 5-litre can of motor oil
1 2-litre can of transmission fluid
1 2-litre can of grease
2 20-litre plastic jerry cans filled with non-potable water
Grease gun
Cable reel
Pintle
Panel marker
Traversing unit
Windshield kit
Driver’s thermal night viewer & spare lens
AND/VDR-2 tactical survey meter and vehicle radiac set
AN/PRS-7 or -11 mine detector
M256 chemical detector kit
M42 alarm detector
M43 alarm detector and battery
A decontamination apparatus is stored on the forward part of the turret shield,
AN/GRA-39 radio set
AT-784/PRC antenna
Spare radio antennas
TA-1/PT telephone set
TA-312/TP telephone set
First aid kit, contents limited to a selection of wound dressings, bandages, scissors and antiseptic
Hand crank generator M91
Mounted Water Ration Heater
Camp stove
Bucket
Dozen bungee cords
Lantern, powered by vehicle
Rope, 50 m
Sandbags, empty, 1 dozen
Battery charger
Commander’s Equipment
Issue mapcase
1:100 000 map of Poland, eastern Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria
1:50 000 map of western Poland
Prismatic compass
Protractor, ruler, pencils
Angle head torch & 2 D cell batteries
M22 7x50 binoculars
Prismatic compass
M238 flag set
Scout Equipment
M60 machine gun (temperamental - doesn’t like heat, cold, dirt or water, ie frequent malfunctions)
M60 spare barrel equipment bag including asbestos glove for barrel changing
M60 tripod
AN/PRC-77 radio and LC-2 cargo frame
M49 telescope & tripod
M22 7x50 binoculars
Prismatic compass
AN/PVS-7B night vision goggles (2 prs) (no batteries)
AN/PVS-4 night vision sight (no batteries)
Individual Equipment
1 MOPP suit including gloves per man stored under his seat
1 Personal weapon, set of LBE, rucksack and duffel bag per man

[ChalkLine]

When the warbirds get grounded the ground pounders probably breathe a sigh of relief right?
Almost.
The USSR still had its huge 2S4 240mm mortar, a beast throwing a massive shell the size of a middling air to ground dumb bomb and capable of doing the tasks that things like the JDARM do today. Bunker busters, the dreaded CHEM shell, vast HE rounds and cluster bombs, not to mention its tactical nuclear shell.
Put a few in your game today . . .

https://www.armyrecognition.com/imag...eprint_001.jpg

[ChalkLine]

The Wieliczka Salt Mine just east of Kraków

[ChalkLine]

Chemical Warfare

While the Rool-Of-Cool states the GM can use anything anywhere, T2k has always had a strong grounding in some realities about where or why things appear in the campaign. Chemical warfare, one of the most feared things that exist in the game, is not usually looked into simply because it is so feared. However, let's have look at why and where it's deployed.
Basically, chemical warfare is simply a tool in the military toolbox. Once approval has been granted for release the OPFOR or Allied commander will look at the battle-space and see if chemical weapons have the ability to act as a force multiplier and what the effects will be. They don't simply soak the battleground in chemicals.

Chemical weapons are one of a class that have effects on both sides, and as such aren't applicable to many situations. As many of the posters here have over the years have made accounts of the terrible conditions that chemical warfare countermeasures inflict on the combat personnel and their large negative effects on combat capability - especially combat endurance - it becomes obvious that chemicals have a fairly niche application.

As everyone here knows, there's essentially three sorts of of chemical weapon:
- Nerve Agents
- Blister Agents
- Choking Agents

Nerve Agents promise fast disabling of enemy forces but also heavily contaminate the battlefield. Thirty years after the end of the Cold War we can actually admit that the USSR did actually see the Poles as allies, and as such weren't in a big hurry to contaminate Poland wholesale for many practical reasons. Nerve agent release also limits the enemy from manoeuvring in the contaminated area as all nerve agents are very persistent and also have very damaging long-term contamination that may make the battleground impassable for years to come. As such important choke points and other strategic areas should never be attacked with nerve agents. Also areas that have water run-off towards strategic areas should also be avoided, especially if that run-off flows back into your own territory. Prevailing winds, which in the European plain blows mainly west, should be taken into account when looking at nerve agent deployment. This means Warsaw Pact deployment of nerve agents are more likely to blow into enemy territory than NATO deployments. However NATO long range deployments might be used to attack rear-areas without an accompanying ground attack. These attacks would be invariably area-denial in nature so players could expect them to be well-marked by Warsaw Pact forces by the time they got to them - assuming there was any local survivors.

Nerve agents, like biological and nuclear weapons, are the best way of limiting player movement into areas where the campaign simply doesn't go.

Blister Agents are less persistent in most cases, but this is relative. Stormwater runoff can become heavily contaminated and cause significant injuries on contact if the blister agent has had a heavy release. Blister agents re seen by militaries as more-easily countered and so have been kept in store alongside more effective nerve agents because friendly troops can manoeuvre through contaminated areas with less losses. Blister agents are used, like artillery, against set positions and less as area-denial. Blister agents are a serious threat to players and the GM should think long and hard on how blister agent attacks should be made on characters. I personally thing they should be encountered more as an NPC-on-NPC attack to allow the players to experience them but to be well prepared.
Blister agents are, in my opinion, at the upper limit of destructive power a GM should allow players. It should be noted that civilians are almost never protected against blister or nerve agents and collateral damage of this sort of release will be high in civilian populations, especially among the vulnerable.

Choking agents are commonly deployed by even very advanced governments on their own citizens. Choking agents have little persistence except in very high concentrations and rapidly degrade, but that doesn't mean that they're harmless. In Viet Nam the USA deployed choking agents as area denial in OPFOR tunnel complexes in concentrations that were lethal. However choking agents are easily countered if a group is prepared and make a good tactical complication in T2k combat. Choking agents are also far less restricted in use than nerve or blister agents and can be encountered far further down the command chain than the other agents that are usually restricted to the divisional level or release. They have a heavy effect when used by surprise on unaware or resting troops. Long term use on set positions can make those positions untenable, and both players and NPCs may resort to 'smoking out' well-entrenched units with these agents deployed over long periods.

Persistence.
The major aspect the players will encounter with chemical agents is their persistent nature and the contamination of the campaign area.
As noted above, water runoff is a prime area of contamination, as is the interior of areas not exposed to the weather. Some of the more persistent agents such as the nerve agent VX 'stick' to the underside of surfaces and can make contaminated areas instantly lethal for long and varying periods after deployment. The interior of structures used as shelter and defensive positions, abandoned vehicles and public structures can all be contaminated by chemical agents and the GM should give this some thought when designing a new area. Small spaces such as utility sheds that are rarely opened are especially prone to contamination. Another danger is the repair and use of utilities such as water and air services that may flush out contamination. To be fair a GM should have this happen to NPCs before inflicting it on players so the players can develop some survival skills regarding this aspect.

Anyone want to chime in?
How about storing chemical weapons and decontamination?