DAY 12 – APRIL 29th 2000
NORTH-EAST of DOBRODZIEN, POLAND – DAY
ROUND 06
ALEX, DONNA and NASCAR all assume overwatch on the hex with the LEADER and the PRISONER.
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
I think it’s time narration takes over and the battle is ended. Yet I wanted LED to reach the LEADER’s hex so that he could order him to surrender face to face with the added incentive of an assault rifle pointed at his nose; and LED didn’t quite get to the hex.
So I’ll give the enemy LEADER a 75% chance of surrendering (1-75 on a D100):
- Roll for Surrender [D100] = 31
Battle is over
“Okay American” comes the LEADER’s voice from the thick grass “let’s have it your way”
LED sees an empty hand emerging from the grass.
“I am standing up”
LED crouches and aims his rifle at the enemy “not so fast, show me your weapon”
A full arm emerges holding an AK-74.
“Toss it”
The LEADER complies.
LED stands up “now stand, nice and easy”
The enemy LEADER emerges from the grass, his hands raised and strings of grass still attached to his brown jacket. A man in his fifties with grey hair and a somewhat tired gaze.
He is instructed to drop his pistol, gear, step aside and wait on his knees while the group gathers.
The PRISONER slowly stands up, a woman in her forties with pale skin and dark hair, her dirty hands clutching a gunshot wound to her side and the pain she’s experiencing reflected on her face. She looks around and sees LED approaching her.
“Please” she says showing a German accent “tell me you are done saving me”
End of Round 06
End of Mental Ambush
FINALE
The handcuffs click shut around the LEADER’s wrists and ALEX makes sure they’re tight enough.
“Thank you for letting me stand” says the LEADER “at my age, sitting on knees is like torture” he smiles.
ALEX briefly looks up intercepting his eyes “sure, tovarishch, we are all good friends now”
A few feet from them, NASCAR is going through the LEADER’s backpack; he turns to ALEX “you know, we could drop him right here, make them all look like they got ambushed. Lots of bandits ‘round here”
ALEX remains serious “waste of bullets; anything in there?”
NASCAR is holding a small weathered booklet; he turns to the LEADER “what’d you say Ivan? You worth a couple of 5.56?”
“Are you playing John Wayne, American?” asks the man.
“Only if he had a machinegun” NASCAR stands up and hands ALEX the booklet “he had this, but it’s in Polish”
ALEX takes the booklet and looks at the front and rear cover, then flips through the first pages until he finds the index, flips a few more pages and stops at a map.
NASCAR looks at the map “he had a pen and a compass too”
“Can you keep an eye on him? I need to show this” ALEX nods towards LED, who’s not far away.
“Sure”
ALEX steps out, then turns “you shouldn’t talk to him”
“Why not? Afraid he’s gonna turn me into a commie?”
“We are gathering intel, not sharing it”
“How ‘bout we stick to sports?”
“That’s alright”
As ALEX is stepping away, he hears NASCAR saying “so Ivan, remember miracle on ice?”
AFTERMATH
LED turns around observing the now quiet kill zone, briefly stopping his eyes on the bodies laying on the ground. Not far from where he is standing, he sees NASCAR and ALEX patting down the enemy LEADER.
He sticks his hand behind the flack vest and runs it on his chest until he finds a painful spot. He flinches and takes the hand out.
“Want me to check that LT?” asks DONNA.
DONNA is treating the PRISONER, now laying on a bed of grass and breathing regularly as instructed.
“It’s okay, Kevlar did its job”
“Yeah, but you were behind it”
“Better than the other way around”
LED runs a finger on the stitching on the side of the front pocket of the vest: it came undone and is now barely holding the Kevlar element.
The PRISONER looks up at LED “next time, I want one of those”
“If they get you, it still hurts ma’am” says LED.
“Would you like to trade?” says the woman pointing at her wound.
“Through and through” says DONNA “no vital organs in its path. Trust me, by today standards, you got lucky” she puts a fresh bandage on the entry wound “press on it with your hand”
The woman flinches and puts a trembling hand on the already blood-stained dressing “I did not know luck could hurt so much”
“I’m sorry” says LED looking around once more “I was hoping for a… less painful outcome”
The woman nods, glad to take her mind away from the pain “I saw you tried gently, and then you tried… harshly, and bullets flew in between”
LED looks at the enemy LEADER “well, the old man seemed calm, reasonable, and I thought he could be pulled to act as I wanted” he then looks at a nearby corpse “the other guy was nervous, emotional, and I thought he could be pushed to act foolishly. In the end I was right, even though I got the firefight I was trying to avoid in the first place”
“All that trouble just for me, I’m impressed”
“You better be worth a million bucks, ma’am” says DONNA filling a syringe from a vile of antibiotics.
“Me? I don’t think so, frau doktor” she turns to LED “but I have been told the four of you are”
LED and DONNA exchange a look.
“Uhm, bad time?”
LED turns and sees ALEX standing a couple of meters away. He glances once more at the PRISONER, then says “no, what do you need?”
ALEX gestures to get closer and the duo moves a bit further away from the two women.
“Our Russian friend had this” says ALEX handing LED the booklet “it’s a tourist guide of this region, and here…” he flips the pages until he finds the map “…is a map of all the caves in this area”
LED observes the map: all caves are marked with numbered dots, and a few have been crossed out.
“We found a pen and a compass in his backpack” concludes ALEX.
LED looks at the LEADER “as soon as the woman is stable, we are moving”
ALEX looks towards the PRISONER with concern.
“She’ll live”
ALEX nods “we can be back in Dobrodzień by sunset”
“No, she can’t keep the pace with that wound. We move far enough, then camp for the night”
“You expect friends of the Russian to look for him?”
“I don’t want anybody ambushing us because they want the woman, I’ve learned my lesson today”
ALEX looks around “right”
“Switch with NASCAR please” says LED nodding towards the prisoner.
“So what’s the plan LT? asks NASCAR while scratching his neck.
“Help me line up the bodies next to the tree line, when the lady is patched up, we are moving West looking for a good spot for the night”
“Why line up the bodies?”
“I think eventually someone will come looking for them, and for our new Russian friend. If they find the bodies lined up they’ll think he placed them that way and that he’s still around somewhere. So they’ll look for him where they expect him to be, and not where we’re going to be”
“All that s**t, uh?”
“I’m not saying it’s guaranteed to work, I’m just saying it’s something to try”
“Copy”
“Finished the inventory?”
“Yeah” nods NASCAR “some good stuff, and some of it in good shape too”
“Good” says LED “we’ll take what we can and leave the rest”
“Hey LT, I gotta ask: was it worth it?”
LED turns towards the PRISONER “we’ll know soon enough”
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
A few things to take care of before wrapping this fight:
DONNA has to roll Medical Aid on the PRISONER for her to avoid infection due to the gunshot wound. She uses a dose of antibiotics (+3):
- Roll MEDICAL AID [D12+D12] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 2 and 1)
She pushes the roll:
- Pushed-roll MEDICAL AID [D12] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 3 on the re-roll)
DONNA suffers 1 stress point, she has used 1 dose of antibiotics and the PRISONER has to roll for STAMINA to avoid infection (she has STR C and no skill level in Stamina):
- PRISONER rolls STAMINA [D8] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 3)
Her wound will get infected. Player’s Manual, page 81: incubation time is 1 day, once that has passed the PRISONER will have a fever and suffer 1 point of damage. Every day she will make another STAMINA roll to see if he recovers, losing one more hit point with every failure.
It’s the PRISONER’s lucky day I guess…
The total equipment looted from the ambushed group is as follows:
- 2 loaded AK-74 (REL 4) + 3 reloads
- 1 loaded RPK (REL 4) + 1 reloads
- 1 empty AKM (REL 3) + 2 reloads
- 1 loaded M16A1 (REL 3) + 3 reloads
- 1 empty PM pistol (REL 5) + 2 reloads
- 2 loaded P-83 pistols (REL 3) + 4 reloads
- 1 loaded combat pistol (REL 3) + 3 reloads
- 5 knifes (REL 3 and 4)
- 1 improvised frag grenade
- 5 MREs
- 5 water rations
- 3 backpacks
- 2 steel helmets
- 1 flak jacket
- 1 compass
There’s a few items that belonged to the PRISONER and will return to her:
- 1 loaded M9 pistol (REL 4) + 1 reload
- 1 MRE
- 1 water ration
- 1 knife
- 1 backpack
- 1 sleeping pad
- Binoculars
- A deck of cards (with the 4 of diamonds missing)
Also, I rolled 3 random items from the table on pages 144-145 of the Player’s Manual:
- 72: revolver (nice) – house-ruled it has REL 3/5
- 81: teddy bear (makes me think one of the dead men had a child back home…)
- 54: ladies’ hat (I’m interpreting this as a beret, which will go to the PRISONER)
Here is what the players are taking:
- LED takes a backpack
- The Flak Jacket is given to the PRISONER
- 1 steel helmet is given to the PRISONER
- They each take 1 MRE and 1 water ration which they’ll consume during the day
- They take all the 5.56 ammo (4 reloads)
- DONNA takes the combat pistol + 3 reloads (better overall stats than her P-83, which she’ll keep for trading in Dobrodzień)
- ALEX takes the 2 reloads for the AKM
- LED takes the improvised frag grenade
- ALEX takes the compass
- LED takes the now empty M16A1, the two AK-74 + all reloads, the now empty AKM and the revolver (for trading in Dobrodzień, tough if they can find ammo for it, ALEX could use the revolver)
- LED takes the PM pistol and 2 reloads
Also, all ambushed men had a yellow armband with the profile of an eagle in black on it. The LEADER did not have one however. LED collects 1 armband and leaves the others on the corpses.
DONNA has used x1 antibiotics, x1 bandages and x1 pain reliever.
POST FACTO OBSERVATIONS
This fight was really a lot of talking interrupted by two bursts of violence. There was a lot of back and forth, a lot of stalling, a lot of Google translate. Having played six rounds means the battle lasted for 60 seconds or so, yet it took a couple of afternoons to play, not including preparations.
Ultimately, the ambushing part worked: the enemy force was cut down in the first round, and the exasperated ENEMY 2 was killed in round 05 after both ALEX and NASCAR took a shot at him (and DONNA could have potentially fired at him as well). The ambush was not meant to eliminate the enemy force, but boxing in the last survivors and the PRISONER proved to be an effective mean of pressure.
LED carried the totality of the verbal action – on the players’ side – and ultimately got the prize. His first failure in the PERSUASION roll triggered the first bout of violence; and I didn’t roll a second time for the interactions between him and ENEMY 2 as he was just pushing him to lose the little calm he had. Sometimes letting the story flow without dice rolls potentially impeding it can reward you with a memorable scene (which is good both when you have players at the table and when you are playing solo, providing you’re writing it down).
I was carrying on the battle mostly by house-ruling events and less by dice-rolling them. It started as an exercise of sort, but in hindsight I’m glad I went down this path: had I played everything rolling dice and looking at the details of every rule, I’m sure it would have costed me a lot more time and I would’ve ended up complicating the situation more and more with every round.
At the end of the day, I enjoyed (role)playing this battle. Yes, it took time and effort, the firefight part was brief (yet intense), I had a good number of bad rolls (more below), LED risked more than I wanted him to, and so did the PRISONER. But it was also fresh and unlike any other battle before.
Also, yes, at the end of round 01 I thought the battle was pretty much over…
As per usual, I read back the battle report and took a few notes:
- ERRORS: this is pre-battle, but I forgot to apply the +1 bonus fatigues give you when setting up for an ambush. Everyone made good to great rolls, so it wouldn’t have changed much.
- THE WAY(LAYING) OF THE AMBUSH: I now have first-hand evidence of how effective an ambush can be. Had the goal be to just exterminate the ambushed group, it could have been over in a couple of rounds. Good to know for future reference.
- DICE ALWAYS CLAIM A ROLE: a lot of bad rolls in this one. Once again, I’m reminded: preparation matters, if only to balance bad luck. And if you manage not to kill the NPC you’re trying to save, that’s even better.
- MULTIPLE VOICES: playing solo requires me to fill all roles. Anytime there’s a verbal conflict, I’m playing both for and against any position and trying to pull towards any endgame the characters have. It can be tiresome work, especially when stakes are high and the in-game timetable is compressed. Yet being the only one at the table means I can take all the time I need.
- LANGUAGE BARRIERS: this is related to the previous point. I had people talking in Polish, Russian and English because I thought it to be more realistic and that it added a layer of unpredictability (LED speaks English and Russian, but knows little Polish). I don’t speak neither Russian nor Polish and unfortunately do not know anyone who does. I used Google translate for every word I’ve written down, so apologies if there’s any error in grammar, spelling or vocabulary.
- PLAYERS and CHARACTERS: again, this is related to the two previous points. I’m not a player sitting at the table, immersing myself in my own character and mine alone. I am imagining thoughts and actions for my entire group, as well as any NPC crossing their path. Here I had LED conduct the negotiations, which makes sense on paper: he is the de-facto group leader and has the best combination of EMP and PERSUASION. LED is a seasoned professional who’s spent time in the intelligence community, the military community and the grey areas in between. And I… am not. Much like the hostage negotiations at the end of the Battle of Wanda Chotomska school, I went with my own instinct to describe the evolution if a situation I know close to nothing about.
- RULER OF YOUR OWN HOUSE: I understand that my house-rulings, especially on initiative, had an impact on the fight. As mentioned, I like to keep things flowing and avoid the risk to get bogged down into a roll-for-every-step-you-take situation. Again, playing solo comes with a set of liberties, especially time-wise, and I try to make good use of them. So, if you have players at the table, and you have to be reactive to their (mostly) unforeseeable decisions, make sure you have a good sense of the situation they’re in. For instance, in this fight you want to clearly know that the LEADER will not kill the PRISONER (he may threaten to do it), but ENEMY 2 may go to that extreme. Show it to the players and react to their actions and words accordingly.
With another battle under my belt, I would like to remind you that I have compiled a list of useful practices for facing a (fire)fight in Twilight: 2000 4E. If you are interested, you can find it on this page.