DAY 2 – APRIL 19th 2000
S of KALISZ, W of WIELUŃ, POLAND – MORNING
“Hey, do you hear this?” DONNA points a finger up and slightly tilts her head.
Everyone remains immobile for a second by the once again bogged down pickup; NASCAR with his hands on the tail gate and his head turned; ALEX still asleep in the back after spending the night on watch, his arms clutching the hunting rifle.
“Those are dogs barking” says NASCAR incredulously.
“Yeah… sounds like a lot of them” continues DOC while looking around.
LED emerges from a small ridge, sprinting towards the vehicle with his M1911A1 pistol in his hand. “We need to get it unstuck, now!” he yells.
DONNA gets back in the cabin and NASCAR leans forward pinning his feet in the soft ground. LED joins him moments after and slams all his weight on the back of the pickup “gas, gas, now”
NASCAR pushes as hard as he can while the engine revving up temporarily covers the still faint barking noises. The pickup moves forward but eventually the back wheels fall back into the trenches they have been digging.
“What the hell is coming?” asks NASCAR while resetting his feet.
“It’s a pack of wild dogs” says LED pressing his shoulder against the tail gate “they have tracked us and I don’t think they’re coming here to play”
NASCAR bends his legs “go, DOC, go”
The two men push as hard as they can as the vehicle wobbles back and forth. As they’re both stretched forward with their arms extended, the pickup springs forward sending a small cascade of dark mud into the air, and they fall face down on the ground. The vehicle moves about fifteen feet before stopping with its right back wheel sinking more and more every time DONNA presses the gas pedal.
“Come on, you piece of junk!” yells DOC.
“Stop, stop! It’s gonna sink more” says NASCAR getting up.
“We just need another push, solid ground is right there” says DONNA pointing in front of the truck from the side window.
LED and NASCAR resume their position. As soon as they’re at the pickup they hear the barking, now closer than ever.
“Ah s**t! They’re getting closer”
“Press it DOC, push, push, push!” yells LED putting all his weight against the back of the pickup.
Twice the vehicle appears on the verge of moving forward, only to then move back against the two men.
NASCAR turns towards the barking sounds “nah, nah, I haven’t survived all this s**t to get mauled by f**king dogs” he then moves to the side of the pickup to get his M249.
LED grabs his arm “no, wait, we can still push, come on, one more time”
“I don’t know, they sound close to me”
“Are we going again?” yells DONNA from the cabin.
LED pulls NASCAR to the back and both men lean against the pickup.
“Go again DONNA!”
The engine roars and revs up as mud is sprayed against the men’s feet. The dogs’ barking is still audible despite the noise coming from the vehicle.
“Now push, push!” says LED while grinning from the effort.
The pickup wobbles, inches forward, then moves its wheel out of the muddy hole and the two men fall again on the soft ground.
“Well, what the…” says NASCAR helping LED to get up “come on LT, let’s get the hell out of here”
DONNA stops the vehicle on solid ground just 10 meters from the two men “come on, let’s go” she says banging the door white a hand from the outside.
LED and NASCAR spring towards the vehicle, pile up rather comically in the back, and DONNA launches the pickup along the grassy plain. A moment later, a pack of 8 wild dogs emerges from the ridge and start trailing the vehicle, their eyes fixated on it and their angry barks lamenting the increasing distance as the pickup speeds away.
LED and NASCAR have their weapons ready, but as the dogs grow smaller in the Polish countryside, they lower them and eventually relax when they cannot see or hear the wild animals anymore.
“You know LT, ordinarily, one would get a medal for this”
“Yeah? Well, here you just get to remain alive”
Just beside them, ALEX opens his eyes slightly and turns to his fellow soldiers “I heard something”
“A pack of rabid dogs chased us for a mile and almost teared us to pieces while we were trying to unstuck the pickup” says NASCAR.
“Ah… cool” says ALEX returning to sleep.
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
The day didn’t start well: a failed NAVIGATION roll brought the players out of their way and while they were returning on their path they suffered another mishap for a failed DRIVING roll.
Once again, I rolled a 6 on the mishaps’ table: bogged down. I also drew an encounter card and got:
- 3♦ RABID DOGS: a pack of dogs (PCx2) tracks the players and attack them if they get a chance. Each dog has a 1 in 6 chance of having rabies.
LED had 2 successes on his RECON roll to spot the dogs. The encounter distance for the type of terrain the players are in (open terrain) is 2D10x4 = 60 hexes, which I increased to 70 on account of the extra success (house-ruled). The dogs were therefore spotted while 700 meters away. Dogs move 3 hexes/round, so I decided they only had a small chance of getting to the players, provided the players made a successful STAMINA roll to free the vehicle. They did, but only after pushing, so it ended up being a close call, as I dramatized it.
DAY 2 – APRIL 19th 2000
S of KALISZ, W of WIELUŃ, POLAND – DAY
DONNA and NASCAR are looking into the hood of the pickup, propped up by its metal support rod.
“How the hell did you manage to do this?” asks NASCAR while sticking his hand in between the components to reach something.
“Me? Hey pal, I just drive this piece of junk, I can’t be responsible for its lack of maintenance”
“Ah, man, there’s oil everywhere, and I think that puddle is from the cooling system” NASCAR opens up a screw top from a thick plastic container “hey, wipers’ fluid is still inside”
LED arrives and stops behind them “alright boys, give me the news, how bad is it?”
NASCAR turns and shakes his arm trying to remove the motor oil “well, everything that should be inside is outside, so there’s a number of holes that shouldn’t be there. Honestly LT, it looks like someone put a machinegun to this engine”
LED turns to DONNA, looking for a second opinion.
“It does look like the engine gave birth” she nods.
LED quickly shakes off that image “I’m guessing it can’t be fixed”
“Well, one would need the tools, the parts, new oil, and a lot of work… and luck…” NASCAR’s sentence is left lingering as he turns to the engine once more.
“Honestly, sir, there’s no point in trying” concludes DONNA.
“Well, no point in despairing either; unload it, so we can move away from it and camp”
“There are a couple of things we could do” ponders DONNA.
After further consideration, they push the pickup in some tall shrubs to partially hide it, they remove the steering wheel and bury it nearby in a recognizable spot; DONNA removes the still intact led-acid battery and puts it in her backpack, and NASCAR takes the AT4 rocket launcher, the jerrycan with the extra fuel, and keeps the vehicle’s keys.
“Say we are lost and we wander back here” says NASCAR to DONNA while pocketing the keys “and spare parts start falling from the sky. We could try to put it back in business”
“I think there’s a better chance those dogs from this morning are going to repair it”
ALEX comes back from scouting the area “I think West is the best bet to find a good place to make camp”
“West it is” confirms LED.
“I also picked up traces of animals, I’d like to follow them, there’s an entire afternoon of daylight”
“After we have settled for the night”
The group moves away from the broken-down pickup and after about 200 meters LED turns and looks at it. NASCAR sees him and moves beside him.
“I guess that’s your first casualty LT”
LED smiles “yeah, and under what do I file that? Wear and tear?”
“Nah, write down faulty equipment: they’re gonna send it straight to the manufacturer and tell us to appropriate a newer model”
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
Once again, DONNA failed a DRIVING roll and I rolled on the mishaps’ table. It came out 12: engine blown. The reliability of the vehicle drops to 0 (inoperable) and it breaks down.
So, on day 2 of the campaign, the players lost their vehicle.
In the day shift, they met a couple of hunters (I had drawn the encounter card 8♦ HUNTERS AND THEIR PREY); they approached the hunters but they had little raw meat to barter (6 rations) and the players really couldn’t offer anything meaningful in return, so they went their separate ways.
DAY 2 – APRIL 19th 2000
S of KALISZ, W of WIELUŃ, POLAND – NIGHT
“One friendly native coming in”
LED raises his eyes from the fire he’s tending to towards the sound of NASCAR’s voice, coming from an indistinct shadow in the moonlit darkness. Then another shadow grows bigger, its steps no longer masked by the cracking of the fire as it gets closer. ALEX appears in the orange circle of light casted by the flames and raises a hand holding a small dead rabbit.
“You’ve been out all this time for that? There’s maybe enough meat for a child under that fur”
ALEX sits down depositing his prey and his hunting rifle, stretching his legs next to the fire. He notices DONNA already asleep on the other side of the flames.
“It was almost not worth the bullet that killed it” he says.
“Still” says LED taking out his combat knife “let’s not waste it”
LED starts working on the small animal, using a flat rock as a cutting board and proceeding cautiously and methodically in the dancing light.
“Can you relieve NASCAR? His x-ray supervision has picked up a source of water and we could fill our canteens” asks LED.
“He’s going out at night alone?” responds ALEX with surprise as he feeds small twigs to the flames.
“He insisted. I think he’s trying to prove something”
“What?”
“I’m not sure…” answers LED briefly interrupting his work.
“Give me five minutes and I’ll take next watch” says ALEX while undoing his boots “I need to stretch my toes and find out what exactly is itching down there”
LED looks to his left, making sure DONNA is still sleeping, then turns to ALEX who’s massaging the toes on his left foot.
“ALEX, I’ve been thinking” he says lowering his voice. The other turns to listen. “Most likely it’s going to be just the four of us, for a while at least”
ALEX nods slowly.
“DOC and NASCAR were assigned to me, and I don’t take it lightly. The world has taken a sharp turn and much of what used to be the norm is gone, but I still believe their survival is my responsibility. And now I have you to take care of as well” LED scratches the back of his neck “I plan on doing everything I can, but these are dangerous times, and for the most part everywhere is a dangerous place… I don’t think I have to tell you of all people…”
“Lieutenant, I am glad I was assigned to this unit. Not just because you are the only people I have met in the past three months who didn’t try to kill me… I feel there is something… more. A sense of unity, something… I don’t know”
“You got that in the five days you spent with us?” asks LED.
“That is how rare this has become: finding people you feel you can trust. That’s why you know it immediately when it happens”
“Well, I want to keep our little group alive and united. When I was tasked with finding you and bringing you back, I was briefed about you. I know you are Polish intelligence; I know you risked your life passing intel to our side. And you can probably tell that I am no infantryman”
“You want to know…” begins saying ALEX.
“No, no” interrupts LED waiving his hand “I don’t want to know. But if there is something you know that may put us in any kind of danger, then you might want to say it”
“I understand” nods ALEX “but, really, what I know, what they wanted from me, doesn’t matter anymore. You are in no more danger with me than you would be without me” he stops briefly “can you believe that?”
“I’m sorry ALEX, but for something like this, I think you need to convince three people, not just me. I know there are rules and codes and procedures in… our world. I’m only asking you to consider it. In the meantime, I’ll do my best and, fingers crossed, we’ll find our way”
“I’ll think about it” nods ALEX “and I want to say, we will all do our part and I trust you will keep us alive”
LED gets back to the rabbit “well, so far we have lost our vehicle, have no place to go, and we’re surviving one day at a time, so I’d wait before submitting a performance review”
“Right” ALEX smiles and starts putting his socks and boots back on. He then gets up, takes one step away from the fire, stops and turns “hey, that’s plan A right there”
LED looks up at the other man “what?”
“Surviving”
WITH the EYES of the REFEREE [click to expand]
HUNTING has an interesting mechanic in TW2000:
- You start with a SURVIVAL roll, modified for the terrain type and any other relevant modifier (in this case ALEX had +1 for open terrain, and +1 for his Hunter specialty). For each success, you have tracked an animal (you roll which animal on the table on page 147 on the Player’s Manual): ALEX had 2 successes and he tracked a Grouse and a Rabbit; the Grouse requires a shotgun to hunt, so he pursued the rabbit.
- Then you make a RECON roll to move into position without alerting the animal: it’s a straight (not opposed) roll modified by how close you want to get (same rules as for ambushing, Player’s Manual, page 61). If you fail, the animal is spooked and runs away. ALEX successfully moved to 100 meters from the rabbit (10 hexes, meaning a +1 modifier).
- Once you are in position, you make an attack roll. According to the rules you have to kill the enemy in a single attack or it will flee (even if wounded). In this case ALEX succeeded in the RANGED COMBAT roll and killed the rabbit firing a single shot.
The table on page 147 of the Player’s Manual contains the hit capacity of each animal and how many rations of domestic food it yields. The rabbit has a single hit point and yields only a single ration of food.
Raw meat must be cooked before consumption (with a successful SURVIVAL roll). If the players eat raw meat, they have to make a STAMINA roll to resist food poisoning.
Even if the SURVIVAL (cooking) roll is unsuccessful, the raw meat is converted into domestic food rations and upon eating it a STAMINA roll is again required to resist food poisoning. Things can get interesting if the SURVIVAL roll is made by the referee and hidden from the players.
LED’s SURVIVAL (cooking) roll was successful, so food poisoning averted.
FINAL COMMENTS
On a different note, I had the first damage point suffered by a player: NASCAR had no successes in his SURVIVAL roll for foraging water and when he pushed it, he rolled a 1, so he took one point of damage. That’s what you get for foraging at night…
Everybody slept for one shift, ALEX ate the cooked rabbit, everyone else ate an MRE, and everyone drank a water ration.