DAY 16 – MAY 3rd 2000
LUBLINIEC, POLAND – MORNING
ROUND 06
LED checks to his right and sees ENEMY 3 moving away through the vegetation. Unable to locate his teammates, and having seen ENEMY 5 take cover behind a tree, he decides to close the distance between both targets.
He gets up (fast action) and sprints for another patch of shrubs (fast action).
LED’S MOVEMENT [click to expand]
LED needs 3 hexes worth of movement to accomplish his intended move (1 for traversing the open terrain hex and 2 to enter the shrubland hex). He rolls MOBILITY to try an increase his standard 2-hexes movement by at least 1; he rolls with +1 on account of his Runner specialty:
- LED rolls MOBILITY [D10+D8] = 1 SUCCESS (rolled 9 and 5)
As soon as he reaches it, he drops down prone (free action).
ENEMY 5 loses both his actions recovering from suppression.
ALEX is observing ENEMY 3 slowly crawling away. Having only a partial view of the ongoing skirmish, and unsure whether his teammates are in danger, he decides to take care of the potential threat.
He sets his sight (fast action) and fires a single round (slow action).
ALEX’S ROLL [click to expand]
ALEX is firing at short range at a prone target (-1). No bonus for his telescopic sight as he didn’t spend a slow action aiming.
- ALEX rolls RANGED COMBAT [D8+D8] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 5 and 1)
Not good… he decides to push the roll and bite the bullet on the 1 rolled.
- ALEX push-rolls RANGED COMBAT [1+D8] = 1 SUCCESS (rolled 6 on the re-rolled die)
- Hit Location Die = TORSO (rolled after deciding to push the attack roll)
It’s a hit: ENEMY 3 is struck in his torso and suffers 3 base damage points, which is critical and kills him.
ALEX fires a single round, and his M40A3 has a 1-point drop in its REL.
He struck his target center mass and observes it go limp, face down in the grass.
DONNA has lost sight of ENEMY 3; she gets up (fast action) and moves across the open area (fast action).
DONNA’S MOVEMENT [click to expand]
DONNA might move more than the standard 2 hexes with a good MOBILITY roll. She tries and rolls for it:
- DONNA rolls MOBILITY [D8+D8] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled double 3)
Nothing really warrants pushing the roll. 2 hexes it is.
She scans around and goes prone in the grass (free action).
NASCAR has trained his M249 on his new target and is now ready to fire: he makes the last small adjustments (aiming – fast action) and fires (slow action).
NASCAR’S ROLL [click to expand]
NASCAR is at medium range (-1), firing at a prone target (-1) in a forest hex (-1), but benefits from his Machinegunner specialty (+1). He rolls 4 ammo dice:
- HEAVY WEAPONS [D8+D8] = 1 SUCCESS (rolled 7 and 4)
- Ammo Dice [D6+D6+D6+D6] = 5 + 2 + 2 + 1
- Hit Location Die = HEAD
ENEMY 5 is in partial cover with respect to LED as well as NASCAR, but his head and arms are exposed. He suffers 2 points of base damage, mitigated by 1 by his steel helmet. Let’s see if he’s suppressed:
- ENEMY 5 rolls CUF [D8] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 4)
He is prone and suppressed once more. His helmet may degrade because of the attack:
- Roll [D6] = 5 -> no degradation
NASCAR fires 5+2+2+1 = 10 rounds
HINDSIGHT: I forgot that ENEMY 5 was prone because he had been suppressed, and therefore couldn’t be in cover.
His fire is accurate and ENEMY 5 is once more forced down and suppressed.
End of Round 06
ROUND 07
LED saw ENEMY 3 as he got killed by ALEX. ENEMY 5 is now his only chance of getting a prisoner out of this fight: he gets up (fast action) and sprints forward. “Keep up the pressure!” he yells (free action).
LED’S MOVEMENT [click to expand]
Time for another MOBILITY roll, still benefitting from LED’s Runner specialty (+1):
- LED rolls MOBILITY [D10+D8] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 3 and 5)
Odds are good, so he pushes the roll:
- LED push-rolls MOBILITY [D10+D8] = 0 SUCCESSES (rolled 5 and 1)
Bad luck: no extra hex of movement and 1 damage point for the 1 on the re-roll.
He moves quickly through the grassy area, his eyes fixated on the enemy’s position, trying to spot movement through the forest. Suddenly, his foot hits something protruding from the ground; he trips and his momentum carries him forward a few feet. His balance gone, he falls to the ground face-down and the rifle butt of his carbine hits him in the sternum.
“S**t” he utters in between heavy breaths, while raising his head trying to scout ahead.
ENEMY 5 loses both his actions recovering from suppression.
ALEX has no line of sight on the remaining enemy, and decides to move to a position where he can better support his teammates. He gets up (fast action) and moves for a patch of trees up ahead (fast action).
ALEX’S MOVEMENT [click to expand]
ALEX will attempt a MOBILITY roll to increase the distance covered with this single movement:
- ALEX rolls MOBILITY [D10+D6] = 1 SUCCESS (rolled 7 and 3)
He moves 1 extra hex, for a total of 3.
DONNA gets up (fast action) and keeps moving up, trying to get a sense of what’s going on.
DONNA’S MOVEMENT [click to expand]
MOBILITY roll for DONNA, same as before:
- DONNA rolls MOBILITY [D8+D8] = 0 SUCCESSES
Two hexes movement.
She enters a patch of shrubs (fast action) and goes prone amongst them (free action).
NASCAR keeps pressuring the last enemy, firing another burst from his LMG (aiming + firing = fast action + slow action).
NASCAR’S ROLL [click to expand]
NASCAR fires just like the previous turn: at medium range (-1), firing at a prone target (-1) in a forest hex (-1), benefitting from his Machinegunner specialty (+1). He rolls 4 ammo dice:
- HEAVY WEAPONS [D8+D8] = 1 SUCCESS (rolled 8 and 5)
- Ammo Dice [D6+D6+D6+D6] = 6 + 5 + 2 + 1
- Hit Location Die = LEGS
On target: ENEMY 5 suffers 2 points of base damage, plus another point for the 6 rolled on the ammo die, for a total of 3 which is critical and kills him (simplified rules for NPCs).
NASCAR fires 6+5+2+1 = 14 rounds
Two consecutive bursts spray half a dozen bullets each over the target area; ENEMY 5 is hit multiple times and dies as a result.
The forest is quiet once more.
End of Round 07
AFTERMATH
LED waves his arms towards the collapsed shed, its vision of the structure made possible by an open line of sight through the trees. On the opposite end is ALEX, waving back after checking the corpses there.
Just behind LED is NASCAR, standing over the corpse of the last enemy he has killed. The body was laying on its side, but it has now been pushed and empty eyes are staring at the leaves above them, hands still clutching a hunting rifle and pants stained with dirt and blood.
“Sneaky bastard” comments the big guy “thought he could just set up here and play hunter with us”
LED turns “well, he almost got the jump on us, or on me at least”
“You picked the wrong squad to hunt down Ivan”
“Anything useful on the body?” asks LED.
“A hunting snare” says NASCAR holding the metal cable “this could come in handy. A knife, and what he’s wearing, that’s it”
“Got it”
“I could try and pray that rifle from him, but he’s gripping it for good”
LED shakes his head “nah, leave it” then observes the first curious insects approaching the corpse “we need to get going”
ALEX is tossing the Russians’ rifles in a hole in the ground, just behind the shed. DONNA joins him.
“Final verdict doctor?”
“They’re all dead” says DONNA pointing behind her with a thumb “not that I was expecting anything different. You’re setting up a treasure hunt?”
ALEX start piling dirt and leaves into the hole using his boot “we can’t carry all of this, but we may want to come back later”
“And the rest of their stuff?”
“That’s up to the Lieutenant, but I say we take the ammo and the radio, and leave the rest”
DONNA turns to the trees “they’re coming” she adjusts the strap of her M4A1 “by now they should have assaulted the rocket base”
“I guess so” ALEX grabs a leafy fallen branch and puts it over the hole, then stops looking at it “well, that’s far from perfect, but it will have to do”
They move to the other side of the collapsed shed; ALEX collects his sniper rifle while DONNA looks at the corpses scattered around. LED and NASCAR join them exiting the forest.
“What do we have here?” asks LED.
“Weapons and ammo, mostly” says ALEX “and something interesting over here”
“Show me” orders LED, and the duo moves past the corner.
NASCAR takes a look around, then turns to DONNA “you alright DOC?”
DONNA keeps her eyes on the bodies laying among the grass “yeah, I’m fine”
“They got what they deserved DOC” comments NASCAR “no point in pitying them”
“Did they?” DONNA turns “you sure?” she points around “somehow I fail to see the threat posed by these men”
NASCAR nods “we are at the intersection of war and survival. The bar is set pretty low”
“This was a foraging party: they were here to forage, hunt” she points at the fallen tree “and collect firewood. Yet we tracked them and killed them; and now we are burying rifles and leaving corpses to the crows” she stops briefly “the bar is not low; there’s no bar at all”
POST FACTO OBSERVATIONS
The idea behind this firefight was to offer some variety: two opposing team-sized forces facing each other in a difficult terrain, with lots of foliage, forest, shrubs and blocking hexes. The necessity to move to gain (or break) line of sight, the challenge of setting all the pieces (i.e. the players) ahead of the fight without being spotted, and the added difficulty in targeting partially hidden and distant enemies were all part of what I had envisioned.
Once more, the combat maps created by Free League and delivered with the official material proved to be up to the challenge and suited to represent the scenario I had in mind. My only complaint is that, in order for multiple maps to be joined at their edges preserving the hexagonal grid, their border hexes are always made of open terrain, and you can end up with lanes of open terrain if you put multiple maps together. This is easily solvable with a little editing if you play with the digital version of the maps, but a bit more inventiveness is required if you play with the physical maps on the table.
My original vision of the fight was a skirmish between the four enemies and the players, followed by the arrival of the last remaining enemy who would set himself in a hidden spot and start picking at the players. The challenge would have been finding the hunter and taking care of him, hence ‘Hunting the Hunters’. My dice, of course, had something different in mind…
This is an innate feature of TW2K, and really any table top rpg: whether you are a player or the referee, you start by following your own idea, then comes the element of randomness provided by the dice, end eventually you have to adapt to the situation that has been created. They say no plan survives first contact; we can say that in a ttrpg no plan survives first roll.
I briefly considered how to handle communications between the Russian squad and the rocket base, but decided not to overcomplicate things. After all, the base was about to be attacked by the 1st Polish SOC when the players left it, and that means the foraging party can get no help from it. On the other hand, the base could have reported the assault and ordered the away party to get back, but I straight on ignored this possibility.
This led me to another interesting possibility: the players could have just waited for the assault to start and then set up an ambush somewhere between the position of the away party and the base. It would have been a smart move, if maybe a bit boring. This thought occurred to me when I was already playing round 02 (or 03), and was therefore already committed to the fight.
Final balance: the players got lucky. LED is the only one who has suffered a damage point, and only because he fell while trying to sprint. They spent relatively little ammo, ALEX’s M40A3 sniper rifle proved to be very effective in combat, and NASCAR carried – as per usual – the bulk of the fight. No prisoners though, which was one of the objectives stated ahead of the fight.
After reading back the battle report, I had some notes:
- MANAGING SECRET ROLLS IN T2K At one point I had LED roll for RECON secretly. This is a bit more tricky than the word suggests. As a Referee, the best way to keep a secret roll secret in T2K is to roll yourself behind the screen, but you have to know the player’s Ability and Skill’s levels, as well as all the applied modifiers. Some games suggest you have your players roll dice ahead of the fight, record the results, and then use them randomly when necessary during combat. It’s a way to keep results secret, but still have the players roll for their destiny. In T2K it would be unpractical, since dice rolled depend on levels and applied modifiers, and the latter can change from round to round. You could ask your players to roll 2 of each die type (so, basically all dice in the set) before the fight, record the result in a table, and then use the combination you need to determine the result of a secret roll. It’s a mathematically sound approach, but I get it if you think it’s a bit too much…
- DISTANT PLAYERS I split my party in 2 across a significant distance (9 hexes in Round 00, equal to 90 meters), and then split them again across the maps. This is useful for covering all angles and flanking enemies, but if you play with a foot set in reality, it’s a mess if the players are trying to coordinate and do not have radios.
- DISTANT PLACES Engagement occurred at the edge of short range, only sometimes at medium ranges. This results in penalties to your attack rolls, and rounds after rounds of foot movement when you want to close the distance. Mobility can extend the distance you cover in a single movement, but without a good roll you are stuck with the basic 2 hexes, or worse you can injure yourself trying to get some move movement points in order to traverse a forest or foliage hex.
- M40A3 ALEX’s sniper rifle proved to be as it appeared: slightly overpowered. With a long effective range (12 hexes) and a base damage matching its critical value, ALEX achieved two kills firing two rounds. Downsides? You have to set up in a stable position, ideally spend a slow action aiming through your telescopic scope to get a bonus, and only then fire. If your target moves, you take the penalty or you start all over; and after 5 rounds fired, you have to reload.
- TERRAIN If you can, get comfy in a foliage hex: you can get to partial cover (and switch to full if needed), be able to fire, and give a -2 penalty to all enemies firing on you. Or get in a forest hex, which is the next best thing (-1 penalty). A shrubland hex still gives the enemy a -1 penalty, but there’s no cover to be found (partial or full). And finally, if you are in the open, at least go prone and offer a harder to hit target.
- THE FOREST THROUGH THE TREES Navigating a forest map can be tiresome work. Unless you stick to open terrain hexes, you have to spend a lot of movement actions to go where you want to. Every foliage, forest and shrubland hex offers a penalty to movement, and Mobility rolls will abound in order to get where you need to go in less rounds. Only make sure you don’t run out of actions when you are in a tight spot: you don’t want to find yourself at the end of a long movement, facing an enemy with his actions still un-used, while you have exhausted yours.
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.