Sunday, February 27, 2022

0182 - For the Duration

I am a fan of the game since its first publishing. I am a Cold War kid, born in 1968 and growing up near a Strategic Air Command base, nuclear-armed B-52s flying overhead were a fact of life growing up. Son of a WWII veteran, I, like my brothers, joined the military and served in Europe at the tail end of the Warsaw Pact time and into the early 90s.

I have lived in Europe for over 30 years, traveling a lot of it and meeting many of its people and I am more concerned than I have ever been. The main reason is probably the fact that I have gotten older. I have a wife, a family, and a life that I have built up painstakingly over the last 30 years. The bravado of youth has passed and I realize that this is all too real. My oldest is of military age and I realize this may not be my war but his.

What breaks my heart is that I know that there are literally millions of parents like me in the same situation. We can talk the talk all we want but in reality, many lives will be cut short. That is the bottom line.

I love the game but the reality of the current situation means that I would have to be a ghoul to continue playing while the world deals with a war in Europe after 70 years of peace. People are dying every day and there is currently no end in sight.

I will suspend my game until sometime after the war has ended but I do not know when that will be. To the young soldiers out there fighting in a war that they did not start and to the millions of civilians caught in the crossfire, may you be kept safe and the end of the war come sooner rather than later.


Friday, February 4, 2022

0181 - Going Native - Part XIV (Fisticuffs - Round 1)

0932 25 AUG 2000, Krakow, Poland (Hex 17358)

===================================

 

"My eyes were watering, I have to admit. I took it right square in the face and it hurt a lot. Still, not as bad as when I was growing up, but it still hurt. I do not regret it so. Those slave-drivers had it coming and I just wish we could of put some holes in them instead, but you have to play nice in Krakow or a whole LOT of hurt comes down on you in a very short time."

 

Christmas holidays are behind us. Santa brought me the greater portion of two Polish motorized companies with BTRs and T-55AM2s for Christmas, along with some support weapons and some SA-8s for Team Yankee. I know the Poles preferred the OT-64 but I also wanted to have the BTRs for my Soviets, so there we are. I also took the time to kit bash some Artillery Reconnaissance Vehicles to act as observers for the artillery that the Soviets have and the Poles will soon be getting. It was an enjoyable time.

 

Team Yankee took a large part of my time and the rest was swallowed up by introducing my sons and the girlfriend of the oldest to Twilight:2000 using the v4 rules. I made a point of making this an in-person game with old-school pen and paper as well as a no mobile rule on the table. The preparation takes a while to get used to again, as most of my games have been virtual recently, but old habits die hard. We are two session in and they have managed to survive an encounter with a large enemy patrol, although they did take some knocks too. All in all, a good game.

 

We are here to talk about solo roleplaying T2K and that is what we will do. When we last left the group, the exploration team had stumbled upon a group of Robotniki being treated poorly by a group of Krakow ORMO. The team was disturbed by this and it came to an exchange of words and then blows. That is where we are.

 

It is unlikely that we will see any gun play, as the Krakow ORMO reacts quickly and probably a little heavy handed to firefights within the city, but this will not be the case in if the conflict is settled using bare knuckles.

 

I was thinking about a battle map but realize everything will be really close range, so I think we can just assume we have a flat stretch of round between fields in the Polwsie Zwierzynieckie district. The opposition will be Polish soldiers, one per PC, with Soldier #1 facing off with Marshall, Soldier #2 with Wally and Soldier #3 with Macron. We can assume, by gentleman's agreement, the firearms are stacked out of reach, body armor removed and both groups really want to help us take a look at the hand-to-hand combat rules.

 

I just heard the bell, so let the fisticuffs begin.

 

Initiative

Now time to draw initiative for this round.

 

Order

Name

2

Soldier #1 fighting Marshall

4

Soldier #2 fighting Wally

5

Marshall

6

Macron

7

Wally

8

Soldier #3

 

Initiative Step 2 - Soldier #1 fighting Marshall

The soldier will perform a melee attack on Marshall (Slow Action) and prepare to block any counter attacks(Fast Action). Marshall will attempt to block the melee attack (out of order Fast Action)

 

Task:

Melee attack vs. Marshall

 

Ability Die:

Strength B (D10)

 

Skill Die:

Close Combat D (D6)

 

Modifiers:

--

 

Mod. Ability Die:

Strength B (D10)

[Unmodified]

Mod. Skill Die:

Close Combat D (D6)

[Unmodified]

Ammo Die:

--

 

Roll:

10,4,--

 

Result:

2 Successes

 

 

Two hits and Marshall will attempt to ward off the blow.

 

Task:

Block Melee attack from Soldier #1

 

Ability Die:

Strength C (D8)

 

Skill Die:

--

 

Modifiers:

--

 

Mod. Ability Die:

Strength C (D8)

[Unmodified]

Mod. Skill Die:

--

 

Ammo Die:

--

 

Roll:

3,--,--

 

Result:

Failure

 

 

Marshall fails and she will then be forced to take the hit, which will potentially cause two points of damage. She will push the roll instead.

 

Task:

Block Melee attack from Soldier #1 (pushed)

 

Ability Die:

Strength C (D8)

 

Skill Die:

--

 

Modifiers:

--

 

Mod. Ability Die:

Strength C (D8)

[Unmodified]

Mod. Skill Die:

--

 

Ammo Die:

--

 

Roll:

1,--,--

 

Result:

1 Mishap

 

 

Not only does she fail to stop the blow, but she has a mishap inflicting an additional point of damage on herself. The damage total is 1+1 (additional success) + 1 (mishap) = 3. Marshall lost a 60% of her total hits. Ouch.

 

Initiative Step 4 - Soldier #2 fighting Wally

The soldier will perform a melee attack on Marshall (Slow Action) and prepare to block any counter attacks(Fast Action). Wally will also attempt to block the melee attack (out of order Fast Action)

 

Task:

Melee attack vs. Wally

 

Ability Die:

Strength B (D10)

 

Skill Die:

Close Combat D (D6)

 

Modifiers:

--

 

Mod. Ability Die:

Strength B (D10)

[Unmodified]

Mod. Skill Die:

Close Combat D (D6)

[Unmodified]

Ammo Die:

--

 

Roll:

5,3,--

 

Result:

Failure

 

 

This guy seems more clumsy than his friend and fails to inflict any damage on Wally.

 

Initiative Step 5 - Marshall

Her head still ringing from the last blow, Marshall jumps back into the fight and prepares to give the guy a drumming.

 

Task:

Melee attack vs. Soldier #1

 

Ability Die:

Strength C (D8)

 

Skill Die:

--

 

Modifiers:

--

 

Mod. Ability Die:

Strength C (D8)

[Unmodified]

Mod. Skill Die:

--

 

Ammo Die:

--

 

Roll:

3,--,--

 

Result:

Failure

 

 

She will not push this roll, as she has taken enough damage.

 

Initiative Step 6 - Macron

Macron squares off with his opponent and will try to deliver a melee attack (Slow Action) will preparing to block any attacks that may come his way (Fast Action).

 

Task:

Melee attack vs. Soldier #3

 

Ability Die:

Strength C (D8)

 

Skill Die:

Close Combat D (D6)

 

Modifiers:

--

 

Mod. Ability Die:

Strength C (D8)

[Unmodified]

Mod. Skill Die:

Close Combat D (D6)

 [Unmodified]

Ammo Die:

--

 

Roll:

1,4,--

 

Result:

Failure

 

 

Macron also fails to impress with his attack.

 

Initiative Step 7 - Wally

Macron squares off with his opponent and will try to deliver a melee attack (Slow Action) will preparing to block any attacks that may come his way (Fast Action).

 

Task:

Melee attack vs. Soldier #2

 

Ability Die:

Strength C (D8)

 

Skill Die:

--

 

Modifiers:

--

 

Mod. Ability Die:

Strength C (D8)

[Unmodified]

Mod. Skill Die:

--

 

Ammo Die:

--

 

Roll:

4,--,--

 

Result:

Failure

 

 

Wally swings and misses, like the others.

 

Initiative Step 8 - Soldier #3 fighting Macron

The soldier will perform a melee attack on Macron (Slow Action) and give him a shove (Fast Action). Macron already declared that he would attempt to block the melee attack (out of order Fast Action)

 

Task:

Melee attack vs. Macron

 

Ability Die:

Strength B (D10)

 

Skill Die:

Close Combat D (D6)

 

Modifiers:

--

 

Mod. Ability Die:

Strength B (D10)

[Unmodified]

Mod. Skill Die:

Close Combat D (D6)

[Unmodified]

Ammo Die:

--

 

Roll:

5,4,--

 

Result:

Failure

 

 

The melee attack misses so we can just move on to the shove.

 

Task:

Shove Macron

 

Ability Die:

Strength B (D10)

 

Skill Die:

Close Combat D (D6)

 

Modifiers:

--

 

Mod. Ability Die:

Strength B (D10)

[Unmodified]

Mod. Skill Die:

Close Combat D (D6)

[Unmodified]

Ammo Die:

--

 

Roll:

1,1,--

 

Result:

Failure

 

 

Not going to push that one, as it would leave to our protagonist hurting himself.

 

The end of the round sees Marshall with a bloody nose and a lot swinging, cursing and shoving but nothing of consequence for the others. Scenes of pushing around in the locker room are coming to my mind, I have to admit.