DAY 5 – APRIL 22nd 2000
PRASZKA, POLAND – NIGHT
ROUND 06
DONNA assumes overwatch position, ready to fire should anything unfriendly exit the smoke cloud.
ALEX has GROUP 1 in his sight; he aims his hunting rifle (fast action) and fires (slow action).
ALEX’S ROLL [click to expand]
ALEX uses his hunting rifle (range 10, ROF 1): he’s at short range and within visibility, but gets a -2 for cloudy night; he also rolls 1 ammo dice:
ALEX rolls:
- RANGED COMBAT [D8+D6] = 0 SUCCESSES (1 and 4 not pushed)
- Ammo die [D6] = 4
- Hit Location die = TORSO
ALEX fires but misses (his first miss) and spends 1 round (he’s down to 1 left in the rifle)
NASCAR acts on the information previously – and succinctly – conveyed by ALEX: there’s more enemies south. He assumes overwatch position aiming at the corner at the end of the block S-E.
LED peeks again around the corner and sees a single enemy fighter kneeling next to the one he just shot, his back a clear target in the dim light; he aims his pistol and yells “Stop right there, drop your weapon or we will shoot!” (we, plural, a little bit of deception just to reinforce the threat), he then quickly repeats the order in Russian (LED speaks fluent Russian).
OPPOSITE ROLL [click to expand]
This is an opposite roll for PERSUASION; these are the modifiers applied:
LED gets:
- +1 for having more people in his side (not because of the bluff, but because the opponent clearly knows there’s more having received a grenade and machinegun fire from the alley)
- +1 for the enemy having suffered damage (2 hit points from the frag grenade)
- LED has the Psy Ops specialty, but it applies when he’s trying to change somebody’s mind, which I don’t think is the case here)
The fighter of GROUP 2 gets:
- -1 for having suffered damage
- -1 for having just seen his leader critically wounded and the fact that he’s been threatened from behind him, so his enemy may have a rocket launcher trained on him for what he knows…)
- All maluses listed above won’t really matter given that the fighter has EMP D and no Persuasion skill…
LED rolls[D12+D12] = 2 SUCCESSES
The GROUP 2 fighter rolls[D6] = 0 SUCCESSES
LED can be very persuasive
The sole survivor of GROUP 2 freezes for a second, his eyes widening and his ears pricked, he looks once more at his injured commander, and then says “Ok, ok, don’t shoot”. He deposits his AKM on the floor and raises his hands above his head.
LED advances along the wall, his pistol aimed at the enemy’s back. He peeks around the corner in the smoke- filled alley and sees the other 2 members of group 2 dead on the pavement. He then reaches his prisoner and kicks away his rifle. “Only you left?” he barks in Russian, his pistol only a few inches from the enemy’s head. “Yes, yes!” quickly says the prisoner, “I’m the only one alive”. LED nods and takes a deep breath, “It’s me” he yells, “all clear here!”
WITH THE EYES OF THE REFEREE [click to expand]
The guy is not lying, so I ruled no rolls are necessary. From this point on, the token for GROUP 2 will be replaced by 2 tokens for the dead fighters in the alley and another token marked 2 for the prisoner.
The LEADER is still clutching his belly, his fatigues rapidly soaking with blood; “I need help” he mutters not talking to anybody in particular, his eyes fixated on the pavement just past his boots.
GROUP 1 has now reloaded and is looking for some payback. ALEX’s last shot revealed his position so they know where the enemy is. The two members of GROUP 1 go prone (free action), aim at ALEX (fast action) and fire with their hunting rifles (slow action).
GROUP 1 ROLL [click to expand]
GROUP 1 is within short range and ALEX is in partial cover (his head and arms exposed. GROUP 1 suffers -2 for cloudy night. Using the rules for groups of NPCs only one of them fires with the other giving a +1 to the roll. They use 1 ammo dice (ROF for hunting rifle is 1).
GROUP 1 rolls:
- RANGED COMBAT [D8+D6] = 0 SUCCESSES (they rolled 1 on both dice…)
- Ammo dice [D6] =2
- Hit Location die = TORSO
GROUP 1 fires a shot but misses badly. I’ll treat the double 1 as a jam since they reloaded in the previous round; in their next round they’ll spend their slow action getting their rifles ready to fire again
Roll 1D6 for the smoke to dissipate. Roll[D6] = 1 -> the smoke dissipates. It will be fully dissipated by the end of round 7
The fire is widely inaccurate and bullets fly way above ALEX’s head.
End of round 06
ROUND 07
“LED, you good?” yells DONNA looking through the dissipating smoke. “Yeah” comes the answer shouted by LED a fraction of second later. [I’ll count the brief exchange as a free action for both DONNA and LED]
DONNA moves down the alley S-E and goes prone (free action) past ALEX (she uses both her fast action and slow action).
ALEX hears the sound of steps and notices DONNA coming his way, he decides he can risk firing his last shot and having to reload in the next round (by then DONNA will be able to pick up the rate of fire).
ALEX’S ROLL [click to expand]
ALEX uses his hunting rifle (range 10, ROF 1): he’s at short range and within visibility, but gets a -2 for cloudy night and a -1 for prone target; he also rolls 1 ammo dice:
ALEX rolls:
- RANGED COMBAT [D6+D6] = 0 SUCCESSES
- Ammo die [D6] = 1
- Hit Location die = ARMS
ALEX doesn’t push the roll. His shot misses, embedding itself in the grassy ground. His mag is now empty and he will need to reload in his next round
NASCAR keeps his overwatch, in case whoever is behind the corner tries to move down the alley.
LED hears the gunfire, “Who’s still out there? You said you were the only one left!” he barks at the PRISONER. The PRISONER shakes his head quickly, “My team is dead, I’m the one left in my team”. “LED glances at the smoke dissipating in the alley, “how many more? And I mean all of them!”. The PRISONER’s mind is rapidly at work “four, four more”. “And no one else?”. “No, no, all the other squads are north of here”. LED decides not to investigate that last bit of information, saving it for later. “Get up, you’re coming with me” he says grabbing the prisoner by his jacket.
“The captain, please we have to help him” says the PRISONER pointing at the LEADER.
LED looks at the man on the pavement who’s pressing on his stomach with blood-soaked hands and taking short, heavy breaths.
“Get the others to surrender and we’ll help your captain”.
“You promise?” asks the PRISONER with concern.
“This is not a promise, it’s a deal. Do we have a deal?”
“Okay” says the PRISONER.
[At this point I merged LED and the PRISONER’s round; the whole exchange takes all their round]
GROUP 1 spots DONNA getting in position next to ALEX (no roll, she’s within visibility range and she’s not trying to be stealthy), so they get up (fast action) and decide to retreat past the corner they came from (consuming their slow action). Next round they will still need to reload (reloading is always a slow action for NPCs).
End of Round 07
ROUND 08
This round is very straight-forward:
- DONNA keeps overwatch, her M16A1 (7 bullets in its mag) trained on the corner
- ALEX reloads using a slow action (since DONNA is there, there’s no rush). He’s on his last mag
- NASCAR keeps his overwatch, not knowing the enemy has retreated
- LED and the prisoner move down the alley towards ALEX and DONNA (he’s escorting a prisoner, so he can’t roll for mobility to move further than the standard 20m)
- The LEADER is still immobilized by the critical injury
- GROUP 1 reloads (slow action for NPCs) and stays in full cover
End of round 08
ROUND 09
- DONNA keeps overwatch
- ALEX assumes overwatch aiming at the same corner
- NASCAR keeps overwatch
- LED moves another 2 hexes (20m) with the prisoner
GROUP 1 is unaware of the faith of their comrades, so they keep up the fight, peeking around the corner to engage ALEX and DONNA. This triggers their overwatch.
ALEX and DONNA’s ROLL [click to expand]
DONNA is within visibility and at short range, she gets the -2 for cloudy night and rolls 6 ammo dice (she’s almost certainly emptying her mag, so she tries to roll all the dice she can):
DONNA rolls:
- RANGED COMBAT [D6] = 0 SUCCESSES
- Ammo dice [D6+D6+D6+D6+D6+D6] = 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 4 + 6
- Hit location die = TORSO
DONNA doesn’t push the roll. She missed, but GROUP 1 will be suppressed (she got a 6 on her ammo dice roll). She uses (1+1+1+2+4+6) 15 rounds, but since she had 7 left, she’s only used those. She’ll have to reload in her next round.
ALEX is within distance and at short range; he gets -2 for cloudy night and rolls 1 ammo dice:
ALEX rolls:
- RANGED COMBAT [D8+D6] = 0 SUCCESSES
- Ammo dice [D6] = 5
- Hit location die = TORSO
ALEX doesn’t push the roll and he misses as well, his shot chipping the wall of the garage unit
Their fire doesn’t result in any hits but is on target enough to suppress GROUP 1, which loses both actions recovering.
End of Round 09
