DAY 5 – APRIL 22nd 2000
PRASZKA, POLAND – NIGHT
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
From now on I won’t be dividing the action between stairwells; NASCAR will enter the initiative order of the southern stairwell in last place.
ROUND 16
LED tries to break away from the melee to seek cover from ENEMY 2.
LED’S ROLL [click to expand]
Player’s Manual, page 63: “if you have an active enemy in the same hex as you and there is no barrier between you, you must make a MOBILITY roll to move out of the hex. If you fail you still move but your enemy gets an immediate, free close combat attack against you. The free attack occurs out of turn order and it doesn’t count toward their actions in the round. You cannot block it.
- LED rolls MOBILITY [D10] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 4)
LED pushes the roll:
- LED rolls MOBILITY [D10] = 0 SUCCESSES (4 again…)
LED moves away but ENEMY 3 gets a free close combat attack on him. ENEMY 3 is prone so he attacks with a -2:
ENEMY 3 rolls:
- CLOSE COMBAT [D6+D6] = 0 SUCCESSES
ENEMY 3 swings away but misses, and LED moves away from him.
He manages to step away from ENEMY 3 and the latter’s attack only hits the air. This action consumes LED’s fast action and with his slow action he moves past the door towards the opening to the next room.
ENEMY 2 moves closer to the opening (fast action) and reloads (slow action).
ENEMY 3 gets up (fast action) and trails LED to the other room (slow action).
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
Enemy 3 is within striking distance, but doesn’t have any actions left for this turn.
NASCAR reaches the opening (fast action) and takes cover.
End of Round 16
ROUND 17
Still wanting to seek cover from ENEMY 2, LED passes the opening to the next room (fast action) and saves his other action for the inevitable new assault ENEMY 3 will bring.
ENEMY 2 has no targets (LED is not in his field of view and NASCAR is behind cover) so he trails his comrade and takes position at the next room’s door.
ENEMY 3 follows LED ignoring the second foe who just appeared (NASCAR), uses his fast action to go through the opening and his slow action to deliver another diving blow.
ENEMY 3’S ROLL [click to expand]
ENEMY 3 is performing a diving blow, and has a +2 to his attack roll. ENEMY 3 has STR B and CLOSE COMBAT D.
LED will use his remaining action to try blocking the enemy’s attack (must be declared before the enemy’s attack is rolled)
ENEMY 3 rolls:
- CLOSE COMBAT [D10+D10] = 1 SUCCESS
LED rolls:
- CLOSE COMBAT [D10+D6] = 1 SUCCESS
LED blocks ENEMY 3’s attack, negating potential damage and ENEMY 3 falls to the ground.
LED is ready and successfully blocks the incoming assault; ENEMY 3’s momentum brings him to the floor.
NASCAR sees his buddy is not in need of immediate help, and assumes overwatch over ENEMY 2’s position.
End of Round 17
ROUND 18
LED raises his rifle and uses its butt to strike ENEMY 3.
LED’S ROLL [click to expand]
LED strikes with his AKM’s butt, his target is prone granting him a +2 (Player’s Manual, page 62). ENEMY 3 will spend one of his actions (fast action) trying to block the incoming blow; he gets a -2 for being prone:
LED rolls:
- CLOSE COMBAT [D10+D10] = 3 SUCCESSES
ENEMY 3 rolls:
- CLOSE COMBAT [D6+D6] = 1 SUCCESS
LED’s attack is partially blocked; he has to roll for hit location:
- Hit location die = TORSO
LED inflicts 2 point of base damage (Player’s Manual, page 93) + 1 for the additional unblocked success, for a total of 3 points of damage (critical threshold is 4). ENEMY 3 has already suffered 2 points of damage, dropping now to 0: this last blow was fatal.
He strikes his foe again center mass; it’s a hard blow and ENEMY 3 goes limp.
ENEMY 2 pivots around the door and raises his AK-74 to fire triggering NASCAR’s overwatch.
NASCAR’S ROLL [click to expand]
ENEMY 2 is in partial cover, only his head and arms exposed; NASCAR is in close quarters with a machine gun so he suffers a -2 penalty. He rolls 4 ammo dice (max ROF for his M249 is 6):
NASCAR rolls:
- HEAVY WEAPONS [D8+D8] = 1 SUCCESS (6 and 2 on the dice)
- Ammo dice [D6+D6+D6+D6] = 2 + 3 + 5 + 6
NASCAR doesn’t push the roll
- Hit location die = HEAD (this was rolled after resolving the attack roll)
ENEMY 2’s head is exposed (he already suffered 3 damage points to the head; stubborn fellow this one…). And his helmet is no longer an effective protection. NASCAR deals 2 base damages + 1 for the 6 on the ammo dice for a total of 3 damages. ENEMY 2 is instantly killed. NASCAR has fired 2+3+5+6 = 16 rounds. He has 112 left.
Two quick bursts from the M249 and ENEMY 2 is hit in the head and collapses to the ground.
The entire floor goes silent for moment, save the sound of heavy breaths as NASCAR and LED look at each other.
End of Round 18
End of the battle of Fabryczna 9
AFTERMATH
Final balance of the Battle of Fabryczna 9:
- 2 enemy team leaders KIA
- 5 enemy soldiers killed including a machine-gunner
- 1 up-armored pickup rendered inoperable and both driver and gunner injured
- Neither LED nor NASCAR have been injured
- They have both suffered 1 stress point
- LED’s AKM had its reliability reduced to 3
- LED has reloaded twice, he has a mag with 7 rounds left, another with 15 rounds and his current magazine has 6 rounds left, plus another full magazine
- NASCAR is still on his first ammo belt with 112 rounds left
LED and NASCAR carefully check the southern stairwell to make sure there are no more guest on the list for the night. They then move to the windows facing the river and try to assess how the battle is going: the Flock’s infantry has moved to a tree line and is trading fire with the defender’s outpost on the street. Judging by the volume of fire on the two sides, it seems the defendants have the upper hand.
The enemy infantry at street level is beyond maximum visibility; only their muzzle flashes can be seen in the dark. The duo decides trying to fire on the infantry would only be a waste of their ammo, so they instead collect everything useful from the last group they killed. Here’s the booty:
- 1 PM pistol (loaded) with 1 reload (reliability 4)
- 3 AK-74 assault rifles (loaded) plus 1 reload (all assault rifles have reliability 4)
- 2 steel helmets
This is in addition to what they looted from the machine gun team.
They decide to leave everything they looted and move back towards Garage Hotel to regroup with the other half of the group. LED leaves his AKM keeping the mags; he gets an AK-74 (reliability 4) and the 4 magazines.
NASCAR has now first-hand evidence that his M249 wasn’t meant for close quarters combat, so he gets the P-83 pistol (reliability 4) and the extra mag, knowing there’s more ammunition for it back at Garage Hotel.
POST FACTO OBSERVATIONS
The Battle of Fabryczna 9 presents unique elements that set it apart from the previous Battle of Garage Hotel. All the actions are in close quarters and everything happens within the confines of the apartments on the last floor of a residential building.
The idea was to increase the difficulty of the fight for the players. At Garage Hotel they basically ambushed the enemies: this granted the players the possibility to act first which they used to keep the enemy suppressed or otherwise engaged. At Fabryczna 9 LED and NASCAR had to first assault a machinegun team, then decide whether or not to use their AT in support of the town’s defenders, and finally the roles were reversed when they had to defend against an assault.
They quickly disposed of the machinegun team thanks to a couple of lucky rolls, good decisions (throwing a grenade in the room) and the fact that the enemies had basically already cornered themselves.
The interlude and the attack on the enemy technical took me a total of 3 to 4 hours, including writing and updating the maps. It was the players’ (and my) first time using an AT weapon and I had to frequently check the manual and proceed step by step with the roll’s modifiers, the damage inflicted, armor’s management, damage distribution to the vehicles component and finally damage and suppression for the vehicle’s crew.
Again, the players got lucky and spotted the assault team coming towards the building. They were ready to meet its members when they reached the last floor, but splitting to cover both accesses to the floor meant both LED and NASCAR were outnumbered. The enemies were less constrained by personal safety and more zealous in their attacks; the result was that both players were suppressed for a round (first time in the campaign) and risked taking damage (in the end luck prevailed again and they were not injured). The final fight also saw some hand-to-hand combat, courtesy of an enemy soldier that charged LED with his bare hands rather than wasting his round reloading.
After reading back the report from the battle I made some notes for myself:
- MOVEMENT: I house-ruled most of the initial movement inside the apartments forgoing the ambush rules. That was done for the sake of speed (crossing a door is a fast action and adhering to the rules would have required a single roll for every room traversed). When the players finally rolled for RECON to remain unseen, I forgot to give them a penalty due to the short distance involved (they failed anyway).
- VISIBILTY: The max visibility factor came into play only when the players were looking out of the building. I house-ruled that visibility and light are not an issue inside the building given the distances at play. Had I kept the -2 penalty to all ranged combat rolls for firing in a cloudy night, that would have doubled the -2 for firing in close quarters and most rolls would have gone down to a single D6. It would have been more realistic, but also much longer and a huge waste of ammunition.
- MODIFIERS: I forgot to apply relevant modifiers to a roll in a number of occasions. For instance: when LED fires at and kills the machinegunner in round 06, his target is prone and suppressed, so he should have a +3 to his roll. In round 11, ENEMY 1 fires at NASCAR suffering a -1 for his target being prone, which doesn’t apply in close quarters. Also, I kept forgetting that NASCAR has the Machinegunner specialty, granting him a +1 when employing a machinegun. I need to get better at this…
- DIVING BLOW: ENEMY 3 twice attempted a diving blow and twice failed. The player’s manual states that if the attack hits, you inflict damage normally and both you and your opponent fall prone. My interpretation has been that the attack is successful if it inflicts damage, and since LED blocked successfully in both attempts bringing the damage down to 0, then ENEMY 3 alone falls prone. Another interpretation could be that if there’s at least 1 success on your attack roll (no matter if it’s later blocked or not), than the attack is successful and both attacker and target fall prone.
- SPLITTING THE PARTY (TWICE): This battle involved half of my group and the decision was made because if fitted well narratively. The attack on the machinegun team and the destruction of the enemy technical proved that a two-men squad can be effective. As soon as I split the two players though, I felt the risk rising for both. A solitary player cannot receive help, cannot exchange initiative, doesn’t benefit from squad morale when rolling for CUF, and can be easily rushed by enemies when outnumbered. The situation called for separating my two players, but it’s best to keep them in groups of at least two from now on.
- RISK vs REWARD: the players have acted to support the townspeople in defending their city. The players know very little about Praszka and its government at this stage, so their decision was to make a gamble based on their guts. We’ll see how that pays off.
Overall, I really liked playing (and role-playing) the Battle of Fabryczna 9: it gave me a chance to use AT weapons, close combat, and my players had some difficulties in dealing with the assault team, with both LED and NASCAR being suppressed and losing one round. I’m starting to ramp up the challenge which makes for tenser sessions and higher satisfaction.