It’s approaching noon when the team is reunited. A haze of burning truck and UAZ hangs over the ambush site. Red and Erick, their own wounds barely bandaged, are hard at work in their improvised field surgical ward. Minka goes to check on and help them, in that order. The rest of the team begins reloading, reorganizing, and trading stories with one another and the White Eagles.
Ellis and Leks take a few of the higher-ranking prisoners aside for interrogations. The news isn’t great. It gets worse when the White Eagles’ RTO comes to Ellis with a radio message from Von Bahr (with the loss of the BTR-70K’s radio, the team has no working comms themselves). Ellis pulls the team and the White Eagle command element together and summarizes the take:
As suspected, the Soviets have been following their Afghanistan counter-insurgency template: protecting their own assets, trying to build up local forces to handle regional security in the rural areas, and preparing to move more Soviet forces into Radom to control the city.
The greatest perceived security threat is Von Bahr’s loosely-NATO-aligned East Germans at the power plant on the Pilica. The PCs’/White Eagles’ strike against the Soviet QRF happened to coincide with the Soviet-backed ZOMO move against Von Bahr. The majority of ZOMO forces are in the field for this assault now.
The Soviet advisor team is in a different chain of command than the QRF was. They both report up to commanders in Lublin, and they’re coordinating and communicating locally, but neither group answers to the other.
There are about a dozen advisors. A few of them are embedded with the ZOMO forces but the majority are using the ZOMO action to mask their own unspecified commando action against Von Bahr.
There are four main ZOMO elements in the field: a command post, a mortar battery with three 82mm tubes, a cavalry “company” of about 20 troops, and a mechanized infantry “company” with about 25 troops, an OT-64, and two BTR-60s. The remaining two foot infantry “companies” (in reality, platoons) are back in Radom for local security – presumably, one of these was the reinforcements that the team saw arriving at the QRF base.
Ellis does some quick map sketching. Von Bahr’s back is to the Pilica River, north of him. The ZOMO cavalry are moving in from the south as skirmishers while the mechanized infantry’s main assault comes in from the east. The mortars and command post are both southeast. This leaves Von Bahr’s western flank open, and that’s where Ellis suspects the Soviet advisors are operating.
Ellis, Red, and Leks confer with Rabarchak, the White Eagle commander on scene. As agreed, the White Eagles will support, but Rabarchak’s orders don’t allow her to move her troops forward and no one expected to have to ride to Von Bahr’s rescue today. But the team is behind the ZOMO’s lines and has an opportunity to disrupt this offensive without engaging another large force.
The team has to split up. It’s the only way they can do enough damage.
Ellis grabs Miko, Cat, Quinn, and Scott and the team’s own UAZ-469. They’re going hunting for the Soviet advisors.
Zenobia takes the BTR-70K with Turner, Ortiz, and Ross. They’ll accompany Ellis’ group as far as possible, then split off to make a special deliver to Von Bahr. The Soviets had done some surgery on their captured FV-101 Scorpion, replacing its standard 76mm gun with a 73mm gun from a BMP-1. Presumably, this was to simplify their supply chain for the vehicle. For the team, this means that they’ve liberated a decent supply of 73mm ammo that Von Bahr’s troops can use in their own BMP-1, for which they previously had no main gun ammo.
[No new faces here, but reminders. Turner, Ortiz, and Ross are all NPCs rescued from the POW column. Turner is an MP, Ortiz is an infantrywoman SAW gunner, and Ross is an artillerist. Ortiz and Ross are both carrying moderate injuries from the convoy/QRF ambush but are still fit to fight.]
Finally, Leks will take Bell, Cowboy, Pettimore, Magda, Minka, and Novotny in the OT-64. They’re hunting for the ZOMO command post with the intent of performing a decapitation strike.
[And a few more reminders. Bell, Cowboy, and Novotny are all rescued POWs. Bell is the NPC linguist, still trapped in the OT-64’s driver’s seat. Cowboy is the MLRS crewwoman who’s now the secondary PC for Red’s player. Novotny is a Czechslovakian defector, an infantry grenadier who’s usually an NPC but will temporarily be under the control of Miko’s player.]
It’s not a perfect plan, but there’s only time for an adequate plan executed violently. The team rolls out.
The hit on the Soviet QRF base west of Radom will rely on a successful convoy ambush to draw off enemy forces. Without dividing the Soviets’ strength, the raid team will be severely outgunned. But they do have a plan…
The team splits up into four elements. Pettimore and Zenobia move in first, creeping up before dawn to take position in an abandoned house southeast of the base.
The main assault will come from two teams, each approaching on the main road in an APC. The team coming from the north will be Bell (driver), Cowboy (gunner), and Miko (dismount) in the BTR-70K. The heavier south assault will be Turner (driver), Leks (gunner), Magda, Minka, and Novotny (all dismounts) in the OT-64. Finally, a three-person RPG team on loan from Von Bahr will approach on foot from the southwest in case any QRF elements try to break out through their compund’s back gate. All three of these teams spend a couple of agonizing hours easing into position. If they’re seen or heard, the whole operation will be blown.
[Bell, as readers may recall, is the trombonist and SIGINT linguist rescued from the POW column in mid-August. Turner is the MP from the same group. Both of them are still NPCs. Cowboy is also a liberated POW, a former MLRS crewwoman who’s now the secondary PC for Red’s player. Finally, Notovny is a fourth ex-POW and NPC, a Czechoslovakian defector who’d subsequently been a grenadier in the 5th ID.
I probably need to do a roll-up post for all the characters we’ve introduced who haven’t yet gotten much screen time here.]
Everyone reaches their starting position without apparent detection. They’re committed now – without radios, they have no coordination between the four elements. On paper, the numbers still suck for our protagonists. Even with the planned diversion drawing off enemy strength, they’re still going to be outnumbered by veteran troops who are equipped at least as well as they are and who are in their home. On the other hand, they actually have done some pre-fight management for this assault, and they should have the additional advantage of…
Leks needs this t-shirt.
Pettimore and Zenobia have been hunkered down in their hide for hours. It’s now mid-morning. Without a radio (the team’s only unit is in the BTR-70K), they don’t have direct communication to tell them when the convoy ambush goes off, but they can tell anyway. There’s a boil of action around the QRF base’s radio room. Within minutes, engines are cranking and hatches are slamming shut. The initial counter-assault package rolls out: the Scorpion, followed by the OT-64 with an infantry squad on board and the UAZ-469 gun truck with its AGS-17.
The rest of the QRF doesn’t rest. The other vehicles pull around to the front of the compound, ready to move once the ambush scene is secure. With the departure of the first package, this leaves a BTR-80, a HMMWV with a DShK, and the unarmed bukhanka ambulance and the Zil-131 recovery truck – plus, of course, the remainder of the infantry, the command element, and the mechanics and medics.
The sniper team waits. At a hundred meters out, they can’t hear the enemy radio, but their rifle optics give them a window into the command element’s body language. They can tell exactly when the counter-assault package hits the White Eagle ambush.
Pettimore sights in. Thoughts and Prayers cracks once. The QRF’s tower guard falls.
A kilometer to the north, Bell hears the distant shot. “I guess it’s that time,” he sighs, and cranks the BTR-70K’s engine. An equal distance to the south, Leks clanks the OT-64’s hatch shut and nudges Turner with his boot.
Pettimore and Zenobia move back into the shadows, watch, and begin marking targets. The Soviets are scrambling for cover, shouting back and forth as they try to determine where the shot came from and who was hit. They’re just getting organized when the bellow of engines heralds the arrival of both APCs.
From the previous week’s reconnaissance, the team determined that the Soviets’ initial reaction package should usually by the Scorpion, one of the APCs, and one of the gun trucks. Their plan calls for removing the biggest threat first: whichever APC remains at the base. Cowboy and Leks swing their KPVs onto the BTR-80 and cut loose. The Soviet APC’s hatches fly open and it shudders in a cascade of internal explosions as the 14.5mm deluge finds its ammunition feed.
From the OT-64’s air guard hatches, Magda and Minka open up on the workshop at the compound’s southeastern corner, suppressing the mechanics before they can get organized. The HMMWV’s gunner starts to swing his weapon in their direction, but Zenobia has been waiting for this. A single round from her M21 takes the gunner’s head off and sends the rest of the HMMWV’s crew scurrying for cover.
Miko jumps out of the BTR-70K and advances through the junked cars on the compound’s north side. He lobs a tear gas grenade into the former restaurant/tavern that now serves as the QRF barracks, then hunkers down as that attracts the attention and fire of the troops who’d already made it out of the building.
To the south, Leks turns his attention to an RPG team that’s trying to set up for a shot on the OT-64. Magda and Minka continue trading fire with the mechanics. Novotny dismounts but heavy fire forces him into cover before he can execute his assigned task of tear gassing the workshop.
Despite Cowboy and Miko’s best efforts, there isn’t enough weight of fire on the north side to pin all of the enemy troops in the barracks and headquarters building. One of the troopers manages to get an RPG-18 into play. The rocket hisses toward the BTR-70K and slams into its flank. The HEAT jet tears through the rear compartment, striking the priceless radio. Miko retaliates with more tear gas.
Heavy fire from the headquarters rattles off the OT-64’s armor. None of it penetrates but it forces Minka and Magda under cover and damages the APC’s coaxial PK.
Pettimore finds the source of the heaviest fire, a Soviet with an ancient Degtyaryov DP-27 propped on a window of the HQ. He sights in, breathes, and puts a round through the man’s heart.
Leks puts PK fire into the remaining members of the HMMWV’s crew, permanently deterring them from re-boarding their vehicle and getting their DShK into operation. Minka and Magda stay in the air guard hatches, sending short bursts toward targets of opportunity.
The Soviet RPG team sends a round toward the OT-64 but it goes high. Pettimore, Leks, and Zenobia focus fire on them.
There’s a momentary lull in the action as both sides maneuver and take stock. Miko, closest to the HQ, is the first to hear the call for surrender. With all his heavy weapons out of action, the Soviet commander seems to have realized the futility of continued resistance. The team moves in cautiously, but there’s no treachery afoot here. Under the guns of the APCs, the survivors lay down their weapons and have a seat on the pavement.
Aware that they’re on a clock, the team begins looting everything they can get. Zenobia goes for the HQ first and finds that the Soviet commander’s last action before surrendering was to toss a thermite grenade onto his radio and codebooks. There’s still at least one major intelligence win, though: a large wall map of Radom and its surroundings (which has some interesting implications about the Soviet commander’s headspace).
Miko and Magda head into the recently-fumigated barracks, working in quick bursts before ducking out to get fresh air. Minka makes a beeline for the workshop. Leks, Cowboy, and Novotny, aided by the East German RPG team (who are suitably impressed with the carnage), supervise the Soviet medics’ treatment of their wounded and herd the prisoners into the back of the Zil-131.
The team is about halfway through a good thorough looting when Pettimore, who’s remained on security, spots two heavy trucks approaching from the north. They halt about a kilometer away and an infantry platoon begins deploying. Through his rifle scope, Pettimore can see the ZOMO armbands.
The team drops what they’re doing and scrambles for their vehicles. Miko tosses a Molotov into the barracks; Leks drops the HMMWV into gear, aims it at the workshop, and leaves another Molotov in the driver’s seat. The impromptu convoy turns south, heading for a rendezvous with the White Eagles at the ambush site and hoping that side of the fight turned out as well as this one did…
We had an entire game session devoted to planning this fight before actually executing it, and that really showed the difference between randomly running into enemies and taking the time to think through and coordinate actions. Surprise and suppression played huge parts in the players’ success. The Soviets actually had a fair amount of anti-armor firepower that could have splattered the team’s APCs, but they didn’t have a chance to get much of it into play. At the end, the PCs killed 12 and captured 19 in exchange for minor injuries and stress. They also got away with the UAZ-452A ambulance, the Zil-131, and about half the Soviets’ gear and supplies.
With negotiation and reconnaissance concluded, the team preps their gear and moves to their staging areas. Red, Erick, and Ellis, along with NPCs Ross and Ortiz, move south in the UAZ-469. Their job is to link up with the White Eagles, await a suitable convoy, and support the ambush on the QRF. The main assault element for the hit on the QRF’s base is composed of Pettimore, Zenobia, Miko, Cowboy, Magda, Minka, Leks, and NPCs Bell, Novotny, and Turner with the BTR-70K and the OT-64.
The Battle of Radom begins fifteen kilometers west of the city. The White Eagle-friendly merchants in Opoczno report that a Soviet convoy is passing through on its way from Lodz to Lublin. It’s a BRDM-2 escorting two GAZ-66 trucks and a staff car. The ambush team moves into position and begins prepping the ground…
I resolved this as an off-screen mass battle scene, using a cobbled-together guidelines (too loose to be called “rules”) and a fair amount of improvisation. Here’s how it worked:
The White Eagles are committing their Platoon B: 25 experienced troops under Mariana Rabarchak. They’ll also provide one of their four vehicles, a pickup truck mounting an SPG-9 recoilless rifle. The convoy ambush will focus on disabling the vehicles and pinning down survivors so the QRF has an obvious reason to come to the rescue hastily.
Friendly force strength looks like:
command section (Rabarchak and 3 troops with a PK machine gun; veteran quality)
infantry section 1 (6 troops with an RPG-7; experienced quality)
infantry section 2 (6 troops with an RPG-7; experienced quality)
infantry section 3 (6 troops with small arms; experienced quality)
SPG-9 team (3 troops; experienced quality)
PC contingent (counts as veteran quality)
Expected enemy force strength is:
convoy survivors (hopefully low numbers, small arms only, and experienced quality)
QRF Scorpion light tank (veteran quality)
QRF gun truck (veteran quality)
QRF APC (veteran quality)
QRF infantry squad (6 troops with some type of light support weapon, veteran quality)
Once the ambush goes off, combat resolution will be abstract. Opposed Command checks between Rabarchak (d10+d8) and the Soviet commander will determine which side goes first each round.
Each group gets one “attack” with one base die for every 3 troops, or fraction, still active. Base dice are determined by troop quality: experienced d8, veteran d10. Heavy weapons provide additional d6s, similar to ammo dice: 1 for a machine gun or RPG launcher, 2 for a heavy machine gun, auto grenade launcher, or cannon.
A unit can always target an opposing unit that attacked it on the last enemy turn. Alternately, it can roll randomly for its target, representing the chaotic and uncertain (and map-free) nature of maneuvering in this fight.
Hits on vehicles are resolved normally, using the attacker’s most powerful weapon.
Hits on infantry are resolved with a random roll to determine who’s hit (one per success on the attack) Roll 1d6; if it’s equal to or less than the weapon’s base damage, the target is a casualty (dead or too injured to keep fighting; exact fate to be resolved later). If the die result exceeds the base damage, the victim is injured but still in the fight; a second injury makes them a casualty.White Eagle/PC forces get a +1 modifier to this roll because they’re fighting from prepared positions.
An example:
White Eagle infantry section 1 attacks the QRF infantry squad. They’re 6 troops of experienced quality, so they get 2d8 base dice and another 1d6 for their RPG-7.
An unlikely roll of 7/6/6 yields three hits on the QRF infantry.
Randomly selecting victims yields three different Soviet troops taking hits. The RPG-7 has a base blast damage of 2, so we roll 1d6 for each of the hits. Die results of 4/5/1 indicate that the attack injures two Soviets and kills a third.
The Soviet infantry team is down to 5 combatants, 2 of whom are injured and will be dropped by any successful subsequent hit. They’re of veteran quality, so they’ll still be rolling 2d10 base dice for their return fire, plus bonus d6s if they have a heavy weapon.
The initial hit on the eastbound convoy goes off exactly as planned. The BRDM-2, on point, rolls directly over one of the team’s carefully-hoarded antitank mines. Although the resulting destruction of the fuel tank somehow doesn’t ignite a fire, the crew bails out anyway.
PK and RPG-7 fire rips into the GAZ-66s and the staff car. One GAZ rolls over, its driver’s dead hand no longer on the wheel. The second GAZ and the staff car are damaged, their drivers and passengers bailing out and taking cover. The White Eagles begin sporadic harassing fire to herd and pin them in place to be rescued…
The QRF halts about 500m out to dismount the infantry, then advances in wedge formation with the Scorpion on point, the UAZ (mounting an AGS-17, let’s not forget) on the left flank, the OT-64 on the right flank, and the infantry squad using the Scorpion for cover while providing additional eyes. They fail to defeat Ellis’ crafty positioning of the other AT mines, though, and the OT-64 finds one the hard way. The blast rips through the vehicle, scattering the ammo stowage for its coaxial PK and heavily damaging the suspension. The crew bails out and the fight is on.
Round One
The White Eagles win initiative.
An RPG-7 round strikes the Scorpion’s glacis. The light tank shudders as the HEAT warhead rips a chunk out of its suspension, but it’s still drivable and the crew remains on board.
Small arms fire peppers the abandoned OT-64, killing the vehicle’s commander before he can re-mount.
The SPG-9 crew engages the UAZ-469, hoping to take the area saturation weapon out of play. Their first shot kills the commander and injures the gunner, but the gunner and driver remain steadfast.
Ortiz and Ross target the Scorpion and volley the RPG-22s they brought to the fight. Ortiz misses, but Ross scores a hit. A fuel fire erupts! The Scorpion crew hangs tough, though, and does not bail out.
Fire from the convoy survivors indicates they’re willing to take an active hand in their rescue. Two of the White Eagle infantrymen fall.
The Scorpion crew manages to extinguish the fire before it can reach anything explosive. Trailing smoke from its wounds, the light tank searches for its tormentors.
The UAZ-469’s gunner returns fire on the SPG-9 crew, injuring one of them.
The OT-64’s driver and gunner re-mount their vehicle amid a hail of fire.
The dismounted Soviet infantry zero in on the firing signature of the RPG-22s. A well-aimed GP-25 round tears into Red and Ortiz.
Round Two
The White Eagles maintain initiative.
An RPG-7 round, an SPG-9 shell, and a wall of fire from the command section’s PK all go wide of the frantically-maneuvering UAZ-469. That AGS-17 is still in the fight…
Another RPG-7 round strikes the Scorpion. The crew’s luck runs out as the commander is killed instantly. The blast injures the driver and gunner, but they still refuse to abandon the scrappy little vehicle.
Small arms fire drops another of the convoy survivors.
The PCs return fire on the QRF infantry, killing two with well-aimed shots.
The Scorpion entered this fight with an HE round loaded and has found a target. The blast sends one of the White Eagle infantry sections sprawling; two remain where they fell. A follow-up round from the QRF infantry’s GP-25 injures another.
The OT-64’s gunner locates the White Eagle command section and cuts loose with the PKV. Rabarchak’s RTO is torn apart.
Round Three
The White Eagles still have the momentum despite their losses.
An RPG-7 rocket ends the UAZ’s evasions. The vehicle comes apart in a yellow flash as its AGS-17 ammo detonates.
Another RPG strikes the OT-64’s bow, killing the driver. The gunner is alone on board his immobilized ride, but he refuses to bail out.
The SPG-9 crew loads HE and shifts fire to the QRF infantry, killing one more.
Hoping for a lucky hit, the PCs catch the Scorpion in the side with massed automatic fire. Sparks fly and a track link is severed.
The remaining Scorpion crew aren’t giving up yet. The gunner slams another HE round home, slews the turret, and engages the PCs. The blast knocks down Ross and Erick with moderate injuries.
The OT-64 gunner is still in the fight too. The KPV walks through one of the White Eagle infantry sections, claiming another victim.
The dismounts and the isolated convoy survivors have had enough, though. Both groups are below half their original strength. Their morale is flagging. Caught in a fire sack, they surrender [below 50% original strength and failed troop quality checks for morale]. The isolated OT-64 gunner realizes he’s in a stationary target that is about to attract at least three antitank attacks; he, too, pops a hatch and waves a towel. The Scorpion crew takes a bit more convincing, but with one dead, one injured, and a barely-functional vehicle [Reliability 1], they have to admit they can’t carry the fight on their own.
Red and Erick bind their own wounds, give Ortiz and Ross a quick assessment and patch job, and begin triaging the White Eagle casualties. Two were immediately fatal; three more are severe trauma cases.
Ellis, somehow uninjured, reloads his G3 and starts rounding up the prisoners. The haul is better than he expected: nine convoy survivors (three injured), the Scorpion driver and gunner (both injured), the OT-64 gunner, and three of the dismounts (including the platoon commander).
I also ran this in a Discord chat channel. Lacking a really good social conflict system, I reduced it to a series of opposed Persuasion checks. The negotiating team’s objectives were:
Establish general military cooperation and intelligence sharing
Obtain assistance with the planned raid on the Soviet QRF base in Radom
Cut a deal for ammo, particularly 14.5mm for the team’s APCs
Obtain more information on the White Eagles’ capabilities and force strength
Obtain support for a general push on Radom
Red, Minka, and Erick take the UAZ and head down to Opoczno. The team’s White Eagle contact is Lena Lewandowski, the unnervingly-cheerful proprietress of a market stand that trades in soap, other personal hygiene products, and medicinal herbs. She’s married to unfailingly-polite and unblinking Antoni, the local barber. Between the two of them, there’s probably not a couple in Opoczno who’s better-positioned to hear all the local gossip.
Lena listens to the pitch, purses her lips in thought, and rings a small handbell that’s chained to the side of her stall. One of the kids who’s loitering on the fringe of the market square comes running up. She tosses the urchin an apple and says, “go fetch Dimi.”
A few minutes later, a teenager with a well-maintained mohawk and a thousand-yard stare ambles up. Lena introduces him as Dmitri Boykov. “He’ll be your guide,” she says. “Dimi, the lady and these two Amis need to talk to Major Kozlowski.”
Dmitri looks over the negotiating team. “Huh. Okay,” he says. “You got food? Petrol? This might take a day. Get what you want to take and meet me down by the highway.”
As promised, Dmitri is waiting for the team at the side of the road. He’s carrying a pack and a cloth-wrapped bundle that looks a lot like a folding-stocked AK of some sort. He piles into the back of the UAZ and directs Erick to drive east. About eight kilometers on, he indicates a turn-off into the forest to the south.
It’s late afternoon, several hours into a twisty, turny odyssey through old-growth forest that shows little sign of prewar habitation or use besides the unpaved road itself. Dmitri points out a badly-overgrown side trail. A few hundred meters down, completely hidden from the “main” road, is a large hunting lodge. “You wait here,” Dmitri orders/explains. He retrieves his pack and bundle from the back of the UAZ and heads off into the forest. As an afterthought, he calls over his shoulder, “it’s unlocked,” before vanishing.
The lodge is a two-story structure with a rough, unfinished basement. There are indications here and there that it’s been stripped of former luxury furnishings, but what remains (or what’s been brought in to replace them) is sturdy and well-kept. The pantry is stocked with nonperishables, there’s a good supply of firewood. Three bedrooms are furnished as such. The fourth is set up as a makeshift two-bed infirmary with bandages, disinfectant, some basic instruments, and a few doses of morphine. There’s no electricity or running water but a pump out back appears to be connected to a clean well and the outhouse isn’t all that sanity-blasting.
Around the time Red, Minka, and Erick are finishing dinner, the sound of an engine comes from outside. An older Land Rover Defender 110, faded blue with a white roof and what looks like Austrian registration plates, pulls up. Three men and a woman emerge along with Dmitri. All are carrying basic infantry kit and uniformed in the “frog” camouflage pattern of older Polish fatigues, with the same white eagle on red armbands that Magda sometimes flies. One remains with the vehicle; the others walk up to the porch. Dmitri knocks politely.
The man leading the group is in his forties. He’s unusually dark-complected for a Pole, short, broad-shouldered. He holds out a hand. “Major Felicjan Kozlowski, Home Army.” He indicates the grim, scraggly-bearded man to his left. “Captain Aleksander Grabowski, my adjutant. And you’ve met Lieutenant Rabarchak.” Red and Minka recognize Marietta Rabarchak, who was in command of the first White Eagle group they met. Dmitri slips back outside to join the driver/bodyguard at the Land Rover.
Kozlowski moves to the pantry and takes one of the better bottles of sliwowica. “We use this for meetings on, mmm, undisputed ground,” he explains as he rummages in the dining room’s sideboard for glasses. “Usually with the Bracia Wilkow.” He gestures for the team to sit. “I’ve been wanting to meet you.”
There’s a bit of social lubrication over light drinking – the usual polite nothings that avoid touching on prewar homes and families or wartime traumas. Rabarchak asks after Magda; Kozlowski inquires after Red’s injury. After twenty minutes or so, Kozlowski leans forward. “All right, Captain.” Red’s already introduced himself as a Navy lieutenant, so the mis-titling sounds like Kozlowski has made the association and has chosen to use the equivalent Army rank. “Much as it’s pleasant to meet the neighbors, you didn’t come down here for this.” He taps the half-empty bottle. “What do you think my company can do for you?”
General cooperation and intel sharing: Red is at +2 for assistance, +1 for regional coalition strategy, +1 for previously helping the White Eagles, -1 for the White Eagles being a larger faction.
Red 2 successes; Kozlowski 2 successes.
Kozlowski listens with interest. “I’m willing to engage in equal exchanges,” he says. “But you are – and I mean no offense, Captain – a foreign officer speaking on behalf of a Polish community.” He nods to Minka. “While I appreciate you bringing a Polish representative, the Home Army needs to be certain you’re not acting as an occupying force. I’d want to send an inspection team to assess your community’s status before agreeing to any meaningful exchange. Anything else we settle on tonight would need to be contingent on that.”
QRF base raid: Red is at +2 for assistance, -1 for the White Eagles being a larger faction, -1 for asking for something dangerous.
Red 1 success; Kozlowski 1 success.
Kozlowski looks over at Rabarchak. “Lieutenant? It’s your patrol sector.”
Rabarchak leans forward. “If we’re risking our troops for your diversion, we need more guarantees than whatever we can salvage from burning wrecks. I’m assuming you want us to neutralize the quick reaction force so they don’t turn around and hit your strike force in the back. That will cost us. You’re not your people’s only medic, no?”
Minka nods as Rabarchak looks at her.
Rabarchak points at Red. “Then you, personally, stay out of the fight and with our command element. You provide priority medical care for any of our people who are injured in this diversion. That’s the price for our blood and ammunition.”
Ammo trade: Red is at +2 for assistance, +1 for Trader, -1 for the White Eagles being a larger faction, -1 for asking for something valuable.
Red 2 successes; Kozlowski 1 success.
Kozlowski sits back and lets Grabowski handle the trade negotiations. There’s a fair amount of back-and-forth, with Minka taking the lead once the discussion veers into Ponikla’s production and salvage capabilities. The eventual offer is one shipment of ammunition for one shipment of mead and personal hygiene supplies, and future ammo supply drops to be negotiated in exchange for salvage rights from the railyard.
Intel on White Eagle capabilities: Red is at +2 for assistance, -1 for the White Eagles being a larger faction, -1 for asking for something dangerous.
Red 3 successes, Kozlowski 3 successes (!)
Maybe if Ellis were here, he could gently extract some intel from Kozlowski without the Polish commander knowing what he was up to, but the team’s more pointed requests for additional information about their erstwhile partners are not well-received. Kozlowski eventually agrees that if he’s going to send an assessment team to Ponikla, he should at least return the courtesy and host a delegation in Skarzysko-Kamienna.
Participation in a general push on Radom: +2 for assistance, -1 for not having a strategy or good intel at present, -1 for the White Eagles being a larger faction, -1 for asking for something dangerous.
Red 1 success; Kozlowski 0 successes
Kozlowski looks like he’s about to reject the whole concept but Rabarchak leans in. “Major? A word?”
They step outside, away from the lamplight coming from the windows, and are gone for nearly a quarter-hour. At last, they return. Rabarchak looks tense but confident; Kozlowski is tightly-controlled. He sits back down and sighs. “All right. We’re not strong enough to do it, but they’re Moscow’s puppets.” He looks to Rabarchak. “And slavers. So if you can manage your raid on the QRF, and if you can prepare the battlefield enough that we have a solid plan and aren’t just going to shatter against fixed defenses, we will start preparing to drive the ZOMO and the invaders out of Radom.” He raises a hand in caution. “If. You have a lot to deliver on, Captain Greyson.”
Despite being an NPC and thus incapable of pushing rolls, Kozlowski is a competent leader (Empathy B + Persuasion B) and was rolling pretty well throughout this. Also working against Red was the fact that every single one of his dice was either a success or a 1 – meaning it was impossible for him to push any of his own rolls.
I ran this operation similarly to the previous reconnaissance of Radom. However, as the PCs were focused on a specific location, I decided that each success on the observation rolls would provide intel on one of the following key areas:
vehicles
troop strength
defenses
deployment practices
patterns of life
equipment
The QRF base started at Alert 2.
Day 1 (September 1; light rain, -1 to observation and +1 to stealth)
The team rides to the vicinity of the QRF base on the outskirts of Radom. They establish a concealed campsite.
Pettimore and Zenobia remain at camp to further camouflage it and prep their ghillie suits (Pettimore 2 successes, Zenobia 3 successes).
Ellis and Magda move ahead to identify ingress/egress routes for their surveillance. They’re able to pick up a patrol returning to the base and trail it for a while, Ellis overhears enough conversation to determine that foot patrols around their base are a regular thing for the QRF – the recon team will need to be disciplined.
Moving in a bit closer, Magda and Ellis are able to get a good idea of the base’s general layout. It’s located on the west side of a four-lane highway. The Soviets are using a former restaurant as their main barracks. The scrapyard’s office appears to be their headquarters office and team room, while its workshop is in use as designed for vehicle maintenance (and, from the sound of power tools and a small generator, seems to be well-equipped).
Alert remains at 2.
Day 2 (September 2; cloudy, no modifiers)
Before dawn, Ellis and Pettimore move into an abandoned house a few blocks away and focus their optics on the base. Over the course of the day, they’re able to identify a total of seven vehicles in the QRF’s inventory. There are two APCs: an OT-64 identical to the team’s own and a BTR-80. There are also two more light combat vehicles: a UAZ-469 fitted with an AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher and a HMMWV mounting a DShK heavy machine gun. Two support vehicles are present, a Zil-131cargo truck and a UAZ-452 ambulance. Finally, there’s a rather odd duck for this area: what appears to be a British FV101 Scorpion light reconnaissance tank. One infantry squad is on security duty at all times, with three troops in one of the light vehicles, two walking the perimeter, and the sixth in a rickety observation tower atop the workshop.
After dusk, Magda and Zenobia relieve the day shift. They have a stressful close call on their way in (+1 Stress to both women) when a foot patrol leaves the front gate just as they’re approaching the house, but the Soviets turn the other direction. Once they’re settled in, they get a good look at the QRF’s setup. These guys feel secure enough to run their generator for electric light, including security lights on the north, east, and south approaches. They’re well-equipped – newer (relatively speaking) rifles, body armor, all of the vehicles except the HMMWV are in good condition. There’s a base station radio in the headquarters and at least one man-portable backpack radio in use by the patrols. There’s no evidence of farming, but these guys are using the restaurant’s kitchen to cook, indicating that they’re getting fresh ingredients from somewhere – they’re not subsisting on crap rations.
Alert remains at 2.
Day 3 (September 3; thunderstorms, -2 to observation and +2 to stealth)
Ellis and Magda try out a couple of new hide sites on the south side of the compound. With crap weather, the Soviets aren’t too excited about patrolling aggressively. Over the next few hours, they’re able to work their way around the east side again, watching through windows and open doors to get a fairly accurate count of total personnel on site. By the end of the day, the breakdown looks like this:
command element (3): commander (captain), senior sergeant, radio operator
infantry platoon (25): platoon leader (senior lieutenant) and four 6-person squads
recon vehicle platoon (10): platoon leader (lieutenant) and three 3-person crews
support element (8): leader (sergeant), 5 mechanics, 2 medics
The captain is keeping them busy. They’re maintaining the guard rotation; the rest of the troops get the assorted joys of PT in the rain. There’s about an hour of vehicle recovery drills, with an infantry squad covering the mechanics while they hook up the “disabled” BTR to the Zil for emergency towing – all while incoming fire is simulated by the rest of the unit pelting them with walnuts. There’s the expected amount of bullshitting and grumbling but the overall impression is that these are professionals. Ellis identifies their parent unit as the 126th Reconnaissance Battalion, an element of 6th Guards Motor Rifle Division, which is the Lublin garrison unit.
Zenobia and Pettimore swap in after dark. It should be easy but Zenobia crosses upwind of the compound and finds out that the garrison is keeping dogs (+1 Stress to Zenobia from a push, +1 Stress to both for near-detection). The combination of night and rain makes for lousy observation conditions, but Zenobia does get a good look inside the workshop and verifies that the QRF is operating a medium still in the shed out back.
Alert, thankfully, remains at 2.
Day 4 (September 4; sunny, +1 to observation and -1 to stealth)
With a bright, sunny day, Ellis opts for caution and doesn’t send anyone in until after dark. Zenobia and Pettimore refresh their ghillie suits, as the vegetation is wilting (Zenobia 2 successes, Pettimore 3 successes).
After sunset, the newly-camouflaged snipers creep in from the west, finding a good hide site in an overgrown vacant lot. They behold an odd tableau: the mechanics, with the enthusiastic but unskilled assistance of some of the other troops, appear to be refurbishing a trio of the junkyard’s Polski Fiat compact cars (a 125 and two 126ps). Surely they’re not so hard up for transport that this seems like a good idea? And yet, they spend a good two or three hours sweating under the work lights. There’s a cheer all around when, close to midnight, all three engines cough to life.
About half an hour after the infantry platoon leader calls a halt to this performance, he takes two squads out the gate. They head off to the east. Twenty minutes after they leave, there’s a sudden crackle of rifle fire. The sentries glance to the east but don’t react; this seems to have been anticipated. The gunfire continues sporadically for an hour. After it stops, that group comes back into camp. Pettimore and Zenobia sneak off to investigate. About a kilometer east, in the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse, they find a 50-meter training range that’s clearly seen heavy use – not just tonight. These guys have enough ammo for rifle practice (though they’re collecting their spent brass) and their leadership is making them do night training.
Alert is still at 2 somehow.
Day 5 (September 5; thunderstorms, -2 to observation and +2 to stealth)
The team has enough intel to prepare an assault, but one key element remains: they need to see what a response looks like when the QRF believes a partisan attack is in progress. Ellis and Pettimore head back to the abandoned house to observe. They nearly cross paths with an outbound foot patrol (+1 Stress each), but the Soviets are slogging through the rain and don’t notice them. They settle in, but the rain is keeping the troops indoors today and there’s nothing new to record.
Later that afternoon, Magda and Zenobia ride west to stage something that will prompt a response, but look like the aftermath of a drunken party when the QRF investigates. They spend some time setting the scene: empty beer bottles, discarded food scraps, a small and reluctant campfire, a muddy blanket, a torn t-shirt. At their prearranged time, just after dusk, they initiate the ruse. A flare streaks skyward, followed by a few bursts of celebratory gunfire. A few minutes later, they launch two more flares and burn off the rest of an AK magazine. Work complete, they slip away, leaving the campfire smoldering.
The sentry in the tower is huddled inside his poncho, clearly miserable, but he’s doing his job. As the first flare lifts over the horizon, he gives two sharp blasts on a whistle. What follows is a well-choreographed scramble. The three troops on duty at the HMMWV crank it up and pull out onto the road. Infantrymen boil out of the barracks. A three-man crew runs for the Scorpion and fires it up. Within a few minutes, the Scorpion is heading west at a speed that’s unnerving for a tracked vehicle, followed by the HMMWV and the BTR-80.
A second infantry squad clusters under the eaves of the building nearest the OT-64, while crews test its engine and that of the UAZ-469. A little slower, the two medics load the UAZ-452 ambulance and four of the mechanics prep the Zil-131 cargo truck. The remaining personnel crowd into the radio room, waiting for a report.
Out at the diversion site, Magda and Zenobia watch from a prepared hiding place as the vehicles approach cautiously. In the darkness and rain, vision must be nearly impossible. The Scorpion and HMMWV pull to either shoulder to allow the BTR-80 to advance. Its turret and infrared searchlight are swinging back and forth – there’s a good chance its night-vision systems are still working. The women have prepped their observation post with care, though, and they remain undetected. They watch as the vehicles take up an overwatch position and the infantry squad dismounts from the BTR. The troops advance cautiously. They spend about twenty minutes checking out the site. It’s obvious when their leader gives the all-clear – they don’t completely lose vigilance, but there’s a ripple of relaxation. They re-mount the BTR and the convoy heads back east.
Back at the compound, it’s also obvious when the “this was bullshit” radio call comes in. The second-stage QRF stands down, pulling their vehicles back into their parking spaces and unloading their sensitive gear. The radio room stays packed until the first-stage team is back on site, though. Once they’ve parked, the mechanics carry a couple of jerrycans out to top off fuel. The captain pulls his lieutenants and sergeants together for a conversation – almost certainly a debrief on what the first team found.
To Ellis and Pettimore’s eyes, it looks like the SOP is to launch the Scorpion, one of the gun trucks, and one of the APCs with an infantry squad as the initial QRF. The second group, consisting of the second gun truck, the second APC, and the ambulance and recovery truck, are prepped to head out and render aid once the scene is secure.
Magda and Zenobia also observed that while the infantry squad didn’t proceed much farther into the woods, they did have one member who appeared to be functioning as a tracker. He spent an awful lot of time examining the ground, and the squad leader deferred to him before calling the all-clear.
Ellis scribbles notes, checking his watch on identification, scramble, departure, check-in and return. Shakes his head with concern, noting what he already suspected. These aren’t bandits, shattered remnants, or any of the other amateur or under-supplied units – they’re veterans, well-drilled and disciplined.
He leans over to Pettimore and shows him his notes and time calculations “Well… I’m not saying we can’t do this or that we shouldn’t do this… But I do think we may want to discuss our risk appetite because this is a different kind of risky than hitting some marauders.”
Watching the response procedures is the last piece the recon team needed. They creep back to camp and pack their gear for the return trip to Ponikla.
This was a roleplaying-only session, so not a lot of dice were rolled. I also failed to capture good notes on the conversation because my players were entertaining the hell out of me. This will, therefore, be a little more fragmented than the usual posts.
After making their way back to Ponikla and crashing in their own beds for some much-needed rest, the team gathers over breakfast to discuss recent events and to plan their next moves. Magda takes charge of the kitchen again and is soon churning out eggs, bacon, and donuts filled with cherry and plum jam. Red and Miko are both eating one-handed, each with an arm in a sling.
Ellis spent the trip back interviewing the four rescued soldiers (well, three soldiers and an airman). Not without some discomfort, he leads them through a recap for the rest of the team:
Task Force Cobalt was a scratch force drawn from U.S. XI Corps’ remaining special operations assets: survivors of 10th Special Forces Group, a couple of SEALs who somehow weren’t on the Baltic coast, a handful of AFSOC personnel, and two squads from the 4th Ranger Battalion. They were joined by a small contingent of Air Force and Navy technical specialists. Their mission was to enter Lodz, using the U.S. 5th Infantry Division’s operations in the area as a diversion, and conduct a raid on the Politechnika Łódzka. Their targets were four researchers and a large amount of laboratory records and material.
(Arkadi is nodding a lot at this point. He was part of the intelligence support operation that set up safe houses and escape routes for TF Cobalt; this aligns with what he knew.)
Mission preparation was heavy on two unusual items. First, the team was well-equipped with radiological monitoring: a Geiger counter on each vehicle and a dosimeter for every person, with the tech team having additional specialized gear. Second, psychological monitoring was a priority, with the team specifically instructed to self-monitor and monitor their colleagues for signs of dissociation, hallucination, or psychosis.
The raid was partially successful. TF Cobalt made it out with two of the researchers and most of their material. The planned link-up with the 5th ID was impossible, though, so the team headed south to try to get clear of the Warsaw Pact force concentration in the region. This, too, was unsuccessful – as the 5th ID fragmented, stragglers broke out in every direction and Soviet forces pursued, resulting in a countryside crawling with innumerable small units.
Over the following weeks, TF Cobalt lost half its original personnel. It replenished its numbers, if not their hard-earned skills, through linking up with a few groups 5th ID survivors. In late August, their communications specialists finally established radio contact with XI Corps headquarters and learned of a planned extraction by helicopter (albeit with the prisoners and their material taking priority). On the prearranged night, they headed for the planned primary LZ, only to hear their ride shot down. Rushing to the rescue, they ran into a marauder ambush. Only the two rearmost vehicles made it out, and they were separated in the subsequent pursuit.
The other vehicle (a LAV-25 with a mixed USMC, Canadian, and Norwegian recon team) is still unaccounted for, as are three of the aircrew.
“As the paradigm shifts, people are losing touch with the world that was,” Ellis observes. He suggests that the team ask the White Eagles and Bracia Wilkow to keep an eye out for more POW convoys. He also suspects that the marauders who hit TF Cobalt may try to unload their loot or prisoners in Tomaszow.
So, Tomaszow. Ellis spent a good long while there and he has a lot of information to share with the team, starting with his and Miko’s sabotage escapade…
[The sabotage sequence was played out in a Discord text channel visible to all my players, but I hadn’t blogged it until now. Bad referee, no MRE cookie.]
The TL;DR is that the marauders in Tomaszow represent a significant danger if the team wants to move west. They have significant riverine power projection capability, including several armed boats (former fishing and pleasure vessels) and what looks a lot like an ex-USMC combat hovercraft (the T2k-fictional evolution of the real-world Vietnam-era PACV). With a solid agricultural and aquacultural base, a decent amount of industrial wreckage that can be exploited, and a commanding position of local transportation, they appear to be setting themselves up to be a post-nuclear Tortuga: a “pirate haven” for other marauder bands in the region.
A recap of Ellis’ briefing notes:
Anatoliy Utkin, former Soviet Army major, is the marauder warlord. Ellis knows him by reputation. He’s an experienced and brutal counterinsurgency commander, seasoned (as many such Soviet troops are) in Afgahanistan in the ’80s.
The total force strength is about 40, most or all from the Soviet 89th Air Assault Brigade, which was (and may still be, less these guys) the preferred rapid deployment force of Soviet Reserve Front Headquarters in Lublin. They’e abandoned their military rank, instead going with a neofeudal structure in which each soldier is allocated shares of land, loot, and property. They’re also recruiting from local shitbags, with about 20 low-grade militia raised so far.
There is a small civilian fishing fleet on the river. Armed boat crews follow fishermen to make sure they don’t get harassed – or run away.based out of old power plant (defunct before the war)
They don’t appear to have any armor heavier than the BRDM-2 observed at the airfield. Their additional ground combat power is a few technicals with machine guns and recoilless rifles… and the hovercraft, with whatever it mounts.
They also appear to be existing with at least the tacit approval, if not some covert support, of the Soviet 20th Tank Division’s command staff. Ellis observed a handshake meeting between Utkin and a colonel from the 20th. Utkin provides enough stability to remove a lot of the hassle that Lodz would otherwise have to deal with in the region, and he seems to be avoiding direct conflict with Soviet forces who are still following orders.
There are collaborators. Of Tomaszow’s 2,200 citizens, at least 100 are dedicated to working under (if not actively supporting) Utkin’s new regime. Maybe another 300 are waiting to see which way the wind blows. Ellis was unable to identify any real resistance but Fryderyka and her associates do have a few friends left.
At least 3 marauder bands are operating in the area – 2 ex-Soviet, 1 US/British expats. All have peacefully come into the city to trade, resupply, and take advantage of local hospitality.
Two trader groups have regular routes that stop in Tomaszow. The team is familiar with one; it’s the group that also loops through Opoczno. The other one operates north of Tomaszow and includes a band that provides religious and folk entertainment, as well as a former East German EOD crew that offers demining services.
The city’s industrial base included textile production facilities that could be put back into operation (garment and rug/carpet); limited fuel production; a welding equipment factory damaged but tooling is usable; a derelict iron foundry, mothballed prewar; and lots of refined steel on hand. Its major needs are a larger skilled workforce; medical support; technical support; machine tools; and educated professionals.
The marauders do take randomly-selected hostages to ensure good behavior from their subjects. They’re put to work in the marauder HQ or on other special projects, but they aren’t mistreated beyond the actual kidnapping, and they’re released after they’ve put in their time (usually a couple of weeks)
Ellis saw no evidence of slave trading.
The marauders do have some security around their hovercraft. It’s kept in a secure area of the former riverside power plant that is their HQ. When launching, they clear the streets and put out a perimeter. Ellis observed it going upriver (south) on multiple occasions.
Ellis finds it peculiar that 2,200 people haven’t mustered the enthusiasm to overthrow 40 occupying troops.
While looking through his notes, Ellis comes to an uncomfortable realization. On a couple of occasions, he was apparently in some kind of fugue state or loop. He recorded the exact same observations for several days in a row, interrupted when he met with Miko or Fryderyka’s partians…
Ellis also has some intel on events west of Tomaszow that he’s pieced together from interviewing the various 5th ID survivors. The division did take down two Soviet motor rifle divisions during that fight. A couple of Polish formations appear to have stopped taking Soviet orders and have settled in for local defense.
The Soviet forces remaining in the Lodz-Kalisz area don’t appear eager to have any more attention from Lublin. Ellis infers that they may have lost interest in taking orders from whatever’s left of Moscow.
So, about Krakow…
Ellis looks at Pettimore. “So after you dealt with Florian, you stashed the painting…”
Pettimore leans in, squints, decides to put it out in the open. “You mean the Black Madonna?”
“Y’all stashed it in a copper mine, right?”
“Near as I can recall.”
“And what did you do with Florian?”
Pettimore infodumps: Dr. Wright was deprogramming Florian from whatever had gotten its hooks into him before the team met him. He eventually came on-side for monster hunting.
“Okay, just wanted to verify.” What Ellis is hearing from Pettimore matches up with what he received in The [REDACTED] Dossier… which Ellis now infodumps.
[Seriously, just go read it now if you haven’t already. There’s a lot of context in there…]
Ellis has… theories. The more he sees, the more he read in his fellow agent’s writing, the more he’s convinced that an unseen third hand is consciously acting to prevent reconstruction or recovery across Poland, if not farther. Neofuedalism, declining populations, systematic destruction of recorded knowledge… it’s starting to look like a pattern.
Pettimore: “Keep ’em poor, keep ’em stupid, keep the lights off, and keep ’em docile?”
Zenobia: “Pol Pot as a hostile alien?”
Ellis: “Well, yeah, he kind of was.”
Ellis states that there seems to be some indication that the memory/perception issues that the team has encountered – where people are confronted with papers or maps that their minds can’t recognize – are happening in Krakow, which is not a small city. And then there’s the evidence of cult activity…
Pettimore snaps. “He’s not talkin’ about the stuff we really need to know. This shit’s real, man. Do you know what happened in that field that caught fire? Do you know what I shot? I shot a goddamn demon, Red. A flesh and blood demon made out of fire. I wasn’t the only one.” He pushes his way out of the hostel, ashen and shaking.
Red sighs and looks at Minka. “Bring me a joint and the antispychotics. And one of the Cokes.”
Zenobia observes that the weirdness is taking advantage of the world’s current condition. “The world is closer to the way it used to be – the way they liked it – and they’re taking it back.” She doesn’t specify who “they” is. She doesn’t really need to.
Magda’s one-eyed, one-eared black-and-white kitchen mouser wanders into the conversation. The cat, who normally hates everyone but Magda and Tamara, walks up to Pettimore and rubs on him. This brings Pettimore somewhat out of his downward spiral. The cat then looks at Miko, bristles, and hisses.
Pettimore inquires about getting more silver… and bullet molds.
The conversation turns to next steps. With the Radom ZOMO receiving support from Lublin and pressing north toward Von Bahr, that’s the most immediate threat on the team’s radar. The consensus is that Tomaszow will keep… losing the hydroelectric power plant will be a major strategic setback, even if Von Bahr is an ally of questionable motives.
Ellis, Magda, Zenobia, and Pettimore begin preparing for a reconnaissance mission on the Soviet QRF base. Their intention is to gather intel for a possible raid, taking the QRF out of play. Red, Minka, and Erick (the chaplain’s assistant, newly-adopted as the backup PC of Leks’ player) will head to Opoczno and make contact with the White Eagles for some diplomacy, including enlisting their aid with the planned raid…
Flashback, adapted from the original playthrough in Discord chat:
Via Fryderyka’s ex-militia partisans, Ellis sends word back to Ponikla that he has need of Miko’s assistance with some recon and sabotage work. Miko happily loads up a quantity of demolitions that he has only a minimal idea how to use and sets off for the rendezvous on one of the motorcycles.
Ellis he wants to take a look at the airfield north of Tomaszow, which was struck by a NATO tactical nuke during the war. The locals are avoiding it because of radiation fears, but the marauders seem to be visiting it regularly with a work crew, a horsedrawn wagon, and a fuel bladder.
The early August weather is hot and sunny with clear skies. The moon is a waxing crescent. The airfield sits on mostly flat ground with abandoned farms to the north and west, forest to the east, and a low hill to the southeast (partially blocking view from Tomaszow).
The duo moves in quietly, slowly, and carefully, watching for observers (or snipers). Ellis’ main focus is on finding their source of fuel so he can gauge how much is left. He thinks he can estimate how much the marauders need for a [REDACTED SPOILER] he’s previously observed and, if it makes sense, sabotage that supply. Preliminary reconnaissance at long range gives them the general layout of the facility:
Ellis’ training and experience suggest the base was hit with a cruise missile. Yield would’ve been 150kt, more or less. It was an airburst, so the “crater” label is a misnomer, but there is a permanently glazed spot north of the runway. Not a direct hit, but close enough to put the place out of business:
The base administration buildings are flat – scoured down to the foundations. The north half of the housing complex is the same, and the rest of it apparently burned after the strike.
The hangars were hardened, but not for this. The frames are standing but they look rickety and unstable. The remains of three Su-25s are visible inside one of them.
The fuel farm was located in a secure area surrounded by a berm, with a razor-wire fence and security cameras on poles. It looks like the base armory and maybe some comms or crypto was also in there once. The fuel tanks are ruptured and scorched, and everything else in there burned. Wherever the marauders are getting their fuel, that isn’t it. The aboveground tanks look to be about the right size for a small airbase like this one. Underground tanks are a possibility, but Ellis doesn’t see any of the usual indicators of their existence.
The Geiger counter is reading slightly elevated radiation downwind of the impact site but the overall area isn’t so hot as to be concerning.
Miko and Ellis wait for sundown to move in closer. The crescent moon is casting minimal illumination conducive to a stealthy approach. Upon closer inspection, the base admin facilities are toast – no salvage to be had. The hangars are in slightly better condition and it might be possible to pick up some salvageable bits here and there. The Su-25s do not appear to have been stripped, probably because of radiation immediately after the blast (or because there was no one with enough knowledge of aviation to figure out what to pull off of them). None of them are ever going to fly again, though.
(Judging from the stuff on the surviving interior walls, it looks like the Su-25s weren’t an original tenant unit at this facility. This appears to have been home to an Mi-8 transport squadron. The Su-25s must have been staging out of here for CAS.)
The high-security area is also a total loss, thanks to catastrophic fires. It’s evident the marauders aren’t getting their fuel – or anything else – from there.
The team heads to the tower. It’s leaning in a way that suggests major structural damage, but if it hasn’t fallen by now, it’s probably settled into a somewhat-stable alignment. The stairs creak alarmingly as Miko goes up… but they hold.
From the elevated vantage point, no activity beyond normal wildlife movement is visible. They can see that the rail line terminates over by the base admin area. There’s a single warehouse over there (the rectangular building with the metal roof by the parking lot), which burned in the fires that consumed the base housing area. However, there’s a larger cargo handling facility (at the “Rail Station” label,) with a cluster of eight warehouses built so that a rail spur actually runs through them (not reflected on the photo, but I’m improvising here). Those are scorched blast-damaged but still standing, and there appear to be a few rail cars parked inside them.
Ellis and Miko spend about an hour poking around the base, looking for signs of foot and wagon traffic. All indicators point to the rail freight depot. The marauders may have scouted the rest of the airbase, but that’s pretty clearly where they’ve been focusing their efforts.
They head in, checking for mines, tripwires, and other nastiness along the way. Miko does spot the wires of two directional mines across the service road leading into the depot. They’re affixed to the skeletal poles of scorched road signs – easy landmarks and reminders for a crew that probably disengages and resets them each visit.
The depot contains a short string of railcars. All of them bear signs of damage from the nuke and a couple are derailed; one boxcar is completely on its side:
Two flatcars are both empty, with no sign of what they once contained (beyond the fact that it was probably massive machinery, judging from the heavy chain tiedowns).
The derailed boxcar is half-full of some sort of prefab construction material. Ellis recognizes it as the sort of runway matting used for emergency repairs after a runway has been cratered by bombing or artillery.
One more boxcar has been forced open and thoroughly looted.
A third boxcar also has been forced open, but it’s not completely looted (yet). There are four pallets of what, upon inspection, are Soviet-made chemical defense suits, gas masks, and extra filters. It’s probably enough to equip 80 people, subject to appropriate sizes.
Last, there’s a tank car. It’s derailed and the outer envelope is dented, but there’s no sign of leakage and the valves show clear indications of recent use. It was parked by the fittings for transferring fuel to the airbase’s storage tanks. Cracking it open and dropping a weighted cord into it, Miko is able to estimate that it’s down to the dregs… but on something this big, the dregs are still about 4,000 liters of Jet-A.
Ellis and Miko back off and discuss. Neither of them is a demolitions specialist, but Miko brought along a good quantity of plastic explosive. How hard could a shaped charge be?
[I roll. Miko’s stupid luck comes through again: 3 successes on a pushed Tech roll.]
Miko scrounges around in the ruins. Finds a couple of flowerpots to use as a mold for the plastic explosive. Packs it in, braces it in place with rubble, plugs in three detonators. Wires it up. Backs way the hell up, to the very limit of the 100m wire spool he brought.
Miko and Ellis are behind the hardest cover they can find, so they don’t actually see the explosion. And it’s inside the rail depot anyway. But there’s a sound like the world’s largest soda can being crushed under a giant’s foot. And then the fire starts.
They probably heard the blast, and can see the glow, in Tomaszow.
The whole rail depot is on fire. Gonna make it hard to find any evidence.
They should probably leave now.
The response arrives in about fifteen minutes. Twelve guys on horses, backed up by a BRDM-2 Ellis hadn’t seen before – the marauders probably were keeping it in a restricted section of the power plant that’s their primary base.
The BRDM stays on overwatch while the riders dismount and search the area in trios. There’s not much for them to find, though, and they’re certainly not getting close enough to the fire to see any evidence there.
They stay on site until dawn, when a similarly-sized force comes out to relieve them. The relief force is led by the marauders’ warlord, Anatoliy Utkin. The flames have died down by then and the ashes are cool enough for him to approach. He goes in with a couple of dudes – not bodyguards, from the body language and equipment. They’re possibly his technical experts. They poke around for about half an hour, focused on the tank car.
From a few hundred meters away, Ellis can’t tell what conclusions they come to, but when Utkin comes out, he pulls in the sentries and they ride back to Tomaszow. It looks like, at least for the short term, he’s writing this off – there’s nothing left here for him to exploit.
Something that’s always bugged me about Twilight: 2000’s vehicle combat is the relative lack of anything meaningful for the person in the vehicle commander’s seat to do. Sure, many of them have their own pintle-mounted MGs, but there’s no command function. This recently came up in a Kaserne on the Borderlands session and my table had a brief discussion about it. Here’s what we came up with:
Vehicle Command: As a slow action, the vehicle commander may coordinate the actions of his vehicle's crew. Make a Command check. With success, this counts as help (Player's Guide, p. 46) for each other crew member's actions this turn.
Timing wasn’t an issue because of our house rules on initiative. The table agreed that the commander should act first to determine success or failure on granting the bonus.
In the interest of balance, we restricted the benefit to actual crew positions, not passengers. There was some debate about whether human cargo using firing ports should benefit, but I felt that was excessive. If you want an in-game rationale, assume that only the actual crew seats have jacks for the vehicle’s intercom.
This seemed to work well as implemented. The commander’s player felt his XP investment in Command was being rewarded, and the gunner appreciated the extra +1 to offset penalties. The driver was a NPC, so he didn’t have opinions, but the bonus was there when needed.
Miko is running through the woods. It’s a moonless night. Glancing over his shoulder, he can see his pursuers’ torches drawing closer. With his night vision briefly spiked by the firelight, he fails to see the massive tree trunk in his path. He hits the ground hard. Rough hands seize and bind him and force him along a hidden path.
At the path’s end is a clearing. A single massive stump, planed into a flat surface, sits in the clearing’s center. Figures clad only in fur and hide await. Miko is forced to his knees and bent backwards onto the stump – the altar. As a blade descends, a massive horned head looms over him.
Miko wakes up. It’s midmorning at the helicopter crash site. Magda and Leks are still crashed out, sleeping off their own overnight watches. The rest of the team is awake and breaking camp.
Once everyone is up and more-or-less functional, the team heads north, back to the highway. They’ve just reached the scarred pavement when they catch the sound of a large wheeled vehicle approaching from the east. There’s a quick scramble for defensive positions and antitank ordnance before Zenobia recognizes the oncoming BTR. She should – she and Arkadi and Minka put enough hours into getting the damned thing back into service.
Ellis pops out of the commander’s hatch and waves. Bell is in the back on the radio; two more of the recently-rescued POWs, the MP in the driver’s seat and the infantrywoman crewing the turret, round out his crew. He dismounts and briefs his colleagues on his conversation of a few hours ago. From his prior deep-cover work in Tomaszow, he also knows the team is heading into an area saturated with small marauder bands that spun out of the Soviet 9th Tank Division’s disintegration. He’s been checking in with Gunstar Two-Two, who has reported two marauder patrols in his vicinity – troops on foot backed by technicals.
The team does a quick shuffle, putting Leks into the BTR-70K’s turret. Ellis stays in the commander’s seat. Red and Pettimore pile into the remaining troop seats. Miko takes point on horseback, with Magda, Minka, and Zenobia, also mounted, trailing him by about 50 meters.
The bridge across the Pilica at Przedbórz is mostly intact. The deck is cratered in places and the guardrails show evidence of a large and heavy vehicle punching through them for a high dive, but it’s passable. The highway skirts south of the town here. There are signs of habitation, both in Przedbórz and in some of the outlying farms, but no one comes out to greet the team.
About half a kilometer west of Przedbórz’s southern ruins, Miko spots two vehicles on the road. He reins in and raises his binoculars. They resolve into a clearly-destroyed BRDM-2 that appears to have been rear-ended by a GAZ-66. There’s no sign of movement – other than the corvids and vultures picking over some corpses.
The point team moves in cautiously, checking for snipers, antitank mines, and every other problem they’ve encountered on roads to date. There’s no immediate threat here, though. They wave in the BTR.
As the full team looks over the scene, a picture emerges. The BRDM appears to have been the point vehicle of a good-sized convoy. It was hit with two RPGs fired from the woods to the north, disabling it and killing its crew. The GAZ-66 behind it attempted to push it out of the road so the rest of the convoy could push through, but its driver and front-seat passenger were killed by autocannon fire – apparently from the now-burned-out BMP-2 to the north. A couple of discarded LAW tubes tell the story of how the ambushers’ IFV was taken out.
The ambush scene. I had to reassure my players that we were going to a tactical map for clarity, not for rolling initiative.
The Ural-375 halted off the road to the north [at marker 2] seems to have attempted to flee while the crews of the deuce-and-a-half and the UAZ-469 bailed out and took cover in the woods. The Ural was disabled by machine gun fire, while the M35 and UAZ took massive damage from light autocannon fire coming from the east. Marks and empty casings on the ground [at marker 1] show where some sort of tracked vehicle left the pavement and opened fire with a 23mm autocannon.
All in all, including the crews in the vehicles, the convoy took 23 casualties. Five of those are farther to the west, where they were captured, gathered together, and executed. Two more wheeled vehicles seem to have reversed out of the ambush and escaped back to the west. The ambushers paid for their victory, though. It looks like they lost 14, though it’s hard to get a definite count of the bodies in the BMP.
Red and Ellis check the bodies. The convoy was Americans – they’re still in uniform. About a third were 5th Infantry Division personnel. The rest are in sanitized BDUs, but tattoos and faces tell a story: one SEAL, a couple of Rangers, two guys Pettimore recognizes from his time working alongside 10th Special Forces Group. The ambushers fit the marauder profile: piecemeal Soviet uniforms, a few still bearing 9th Tank Division insignia.
All of the vehicles, except the burned-out armor, have been thoroughly stripped, as have the bodies. Scattered around the Ural, though, are a half-dozen smashed wooden crates. Some are still half-full of paper, and more documents are strewn around the area and blowing in the wind. It’s all written or typed in Polish, scientific notes and circuit diagrams. [Old school Twilight: 2000 fans should have some idea where this is going.] Magda is the first to take a close look.
Magda: “This is bullshit. It doesn’t make any sense and now I have a headache.”
Zenobia: “Let me see that.”
(pause)
Zenobia: “This is bullshit and now I have a headache. Some of this goes back to 1937 and they’re writing about generating electricity from zero point energy.”
Red: “What?”
Zenobia: “Imagine an infinite source of power that isn’t supposed to exist.”
Red: “Wait, what?”
[This scene was made even more hilarious by the fact that Zenobia’s player works in the energy sector and has an excellent idea of the level of bullshit involved here, so Zenobia’s incredulous-offended tone was 100% authentic.]
The discussion derails when Bell pops out of the BTR. “Mister Ellis! We gotta go! We gotta go now!”
Ellis gets the spare headset settled onto his ears in time to hear, “Ops, Gunstar Two-Two, they’ve found us. Our position is compromised. We’re abandoning our vehicle and moving east on foot.” A moment later, everyone hears the sound of distant gunfire from the west.
Moving to the sound of the guns, the team finds itself approaching a fenced farm set among a patch of woods. [A lot of their fights seem to happen in woods because battlemaps without cover or concealment are not very interesting.] Ellis orders the BTR to head straight down the road, drawing attention and fire, while the cavalry element circles south to flank. As the team splits up, they can see four figures in American woodland camo running/staggering toward the farm. Pursuing them are two small groups of aggressors and a GAZ-66.
Pettimore bails out of the BTR and heads north on foot with his bow readied, looking to flank the northern group of marauders. Minka, Zenobia, and Magda move toward the farm’s southern edge, intending to use the barn down there as cover. Miko, predictably, splits off from the group and drives toward the GAZ-66. The BTR, under Ellis’ command, slews across the road and opens up with a full broadside. Red and the unnamed infantrywoman successfully suppress the southern marauder trio, though Red’s M4A1 jams [as reliably happens every session that the player pushes an attack]. Leks puts a warning shot from the KPV into the GAZ’s bow, splattering the driver all over the cab. The three gunners in the bed bail out, leaving their own KPV and PKs unmanned.
Down south, Minka displays her equestrienne skills by vaulting from her mount’s saddle onto the roof of the barn. Zenobia follows in much less acrobatic fashion, drops prone, and prepares to engage the marauders. Magda opts to stay at ground level, dashing along the barn’s northern wall to the northwest corner, which looks like solid cover.
The fireteam to the north realizes that they have no interest in tangling with a BTR-70. They pop smoke and find cover. This exposes their flank to Pettimore, who promptly rewards their inattention with an arrow. The BTR crew and passengers ignore them in favor of suppressing the GAZ-66 gun truck’s crew so they don’t get any bright ideas about re-mounting their ride.
Miko continues riding toward the gun truck. He has a vague idea of doing something to it with a grenade. This plan meets abrupt disruption when two more marauder fireteams emerge from the treeline to the west. A moment later, their support arrives.
If you’re thinking, “that looks a lot like a ZSU-23-4,” you are correct. Token and map are both another fine product of Pulpscape from Patreon.
If you’re thinking, “that looks a lot like a TPK,” [spoiler].
The BTR is in the worst possible place: stationary, broadside across the road, waiting for the survivors to board. The first burst of 23mm goes high, somehow missing the APC, but it also suppresses the people the team is here to save. They’re pinned down, unable or unwilling to move. Leks’ return fire also misses, a rare and untimely error for the Estonian.
Miko’s one-man charge out of the woods ends when one of the newly-arrived fireteams volleys into him. He turns his horse around with his one working arm; arterial blood is spurting from the other, which he can’t seem to use any more. [3 points of damage and a severed artery crit.]
Minka’s first war shot from her recently-acquired GP-25 pins the southern fireteam. Their injuries are minor [as UBGLs suck for actually inflicting personnel damage in 4th edition] but they’re more interested in staying in cover than in returning fire. Magda and Zenobia add to their misery.
Pettimore continues stalking the northern fireteam, putting another arrow into the already-injured member. His buddies abandon him, repositioning a bit south and screening their movement with more smoke.
One of the newcomer groups advances alongside the ZSU-23-4. The other pursues Miko. They briefly surround him, attempting to capture a prisoner [or hostage], but he manages to break free.
Leks and the ZSU gunner trade volleys again. The ZSU misses again thanks to its lack of stabilization. The team only had a single 40-round belt of 14.5mm and Leks now burns the last of it. As his KPV clatters empty, there’s a spurt of black smoke from the ZSU’s engine compartment. It falters – but then continues advancing.
Red, still fighting to unjam his M4A1, forsakes it in favor of sticking his arm out a hatch and waving a Glock 18 in the general direction of the northern fireteam. Dumping half a magazine is enough to suppress them again.
Two of the survivors manage to reach the BTR and haul themselves into it. The other two are so close, but still pinned by the fire hose of 23mm rounds.
Leks scrambles out of the vehicle, prepping his RPG-22 as he goes. Red follows him a moment later.
The gun truck crewmen take advantage of the PCs’ inattention by re-boarding their vehicle. One shoves his former comrade’s remains out of the driver’s seat and begins trying to crank the ignition. The others take up positions on the KPV and the starboard PK. The KPV gunner opens up on the BTR but continues the marauders’ streak of poor heavy weapons marksmanship. The guy on the PK sees Magda and walks fire into her. It’s not a serious wound, but she’s not in a good place. Zenobia takes note of this and pumps a half-dozen rounds from her M21 into the offending gunner. His partner reconsiders his recent life choices and drops below the lip of the bed’s improvised armor.
Bell and the infantrywoman jump out of the BTR and drag the last two survivors aboard. Ellis orders the driver to pull forward into the smoke, screening the APC from the ZSU.
The ZSU maneuvers for another shot on the BTR but its crew can’t reacquire the target through the smoke. Leks comes to one knee, aims, breathes, and fires. The RPG-22 warhead strikes squarely on the SPAAA’s turret. The gunner’s hatch belches flame and a severed arm. The quad 23s fall silent.
A blood-covered Miko gallops past Minka, Magda, and Zenobia. Having exterminated the southern fireteam and, from their vantage point, having seen the survivors board the BTR, the women decide it’s time to withdraw. They abandon their firing positions and begin heading for their horses. The second fireteam hesitates – they can’t catch Miko on foot, they don’t want to run into an ambush if their opponents are feigning retreat, and they don’t want to walk through the gunfight between the vehicles.
Pettimore abandons his skirmish with the northern groups, runs into the smoke, and hauls himself aboard the BTR. With every seat occupied, he pulls himself onto the roof and settles in to provide desantnik-style suppressive fire.
The fireteam that was escorting the ZSU draws ahead of it and opens up on Red and Leks. Leks takes a hit and is suppressed. Red attempts to drag him to the BTR but doesn’t have the muscle necessary to haul the machinegunner and his golf bag of weapons. The men drop prone in the middle of the road, exposed. Red takes a round through the arm and topples, spraying blood [from the night’s second severed artery crit].
At this point, I fully expected this to result in two PC deaths.
Ellis, head out the commander’s hatch with his sidearm raised, sees this happen. “Driver! Reverse, slow! Easy left! Halt now!” The BTR hisses to a stop, shielding Red and Leks from the bulk of the enemy fire. The two men painfully climb aboard, Leks and Pettimore holding Red, who can’t quite cling to the hull with his one good arm.
Five minutes of aggressive flight gets the team out of range. Everyone not engaged in tactical medicine fans out into a threadbare defensive perimeter while Minka and Leks frantically work to stabilize Red and Miko. Miko’s wounds are relatively easy to get to the point that his little geometrically-regular friends can start their work. It’s touch-and-go for Red, but eventually he, too, is relatively safe. With that, the team cautiously crosses the bridge and begins the long trek back to Ponikla.
This was one of those fights where the team didn’t hold the field at the end. They came away with a net loss of supplies and four injuries – two of them critical. However, they did accomplish their mission with more success than I anticipated. I probably made the withdrawal a little easier than it should have been, but we were past midnight at that point and everyone was dragging. OTOH, the opposition had just lost both of their fire support platforms, so they probably weren’t too eager to press the issue, even with the motivations they had to finish the job.
This one is probably going to result in some hard conversations about tactics, both in and out of character. Especially around Miko.
The ZSU was an absolute monster, but like most SPAAA, it was a glass cannon, vulnerable to heavy machine gun fire. The fight likely would have gone much worse if Leks hadn’t made that RPG-22 shot, though.
The team is now out of 14.5mm ammo, leaving both their APCs without significant offensive capacity. Their remaining anti-armor assets are one LAW, two RPG-22s, and one HEAT rifle grenade. They also burned through about half of their trauma medicine supplies to save Red, Miko, and two of the rescuees. While they’re in no danger of running out of small arms ammo, they’re at a point where they need to approach enemy vehicles very carefully – and the Radom situation is not cooling off…
