My nephew as Caleb the Redneck-Gangsta Hybrid
My niece as Kate the Deranged Sniper
My brother as Steve the Carousing Sailor
Me as Jimmy the
Steve too took the Reservest/Support class while Kate was a Resistance Fighter. The rest of us are enthusiasts. We didn't bother with attitudes (even mix of Patriots and Survivors I suppose, with a bit of anti-Russian Avenger in Maria) and our temperament is crazy but medicated normal.
Gameplay:
Our first session was spent on character creation and familiarization with the game rules. We also worked out some house rules, which I'll explain in the next post. I had intended to introduce the players to the combat system via an attack on our location (yes, the literal place where we were all sitting that night) by three black UH-1 Hueys carrying a thirty-man platoon of Italian Paratroopers. For game purposes, we were assumed to have had our guns in the trailer with us.We didn't get to fight that particular battle. The players recognized it as the Unwinnable Training Simulation it was and refused to stay in place. They opted instead to bug out into the nearby woods and ambush one of the Italian squads before heading deeper into the hills.
A shot rang out from Caleb's 30-30, covering the 300 meters and hitting the Italian Sergent in the face. This first round wisely removed him and his M203 grenade launcher from play. Kate's .270 and Jimmy's .300 mag responded in quick succession, dropping two of the M59/42 machinegunners* (the third, using a tripod-mounted variant that would take longer to bring into play, could be dealt with next turn). Caleb and Maria didn't take part in the fight; they were given shotguns and instructed to run interference on the other squads should they come to the third one's aid before we were done (actually, they had gone to bed at this point).
The Italians rolled coolness under fire with variable results. They caught sight of our position near the end of their turn and sputtered away at us with AR-70/90 Berettas and SCS-70/90 carbines, but the little washout and boulders we were hiding amongst provided ample cover. Our hunting rifles barked out again, and their assault rifles responded, tearing into the foliage with a much greater effect this time.
We really should have high-tailed it out of there at that point, but we decided to stick around and trade lead with those goombas (we really wanted their guns). When the dust settled we had killed or wounded eleven of their's with the loss of one of our own (me!). Not that bad considering that simulations of the initial setup often had none of us still combat effective after the second volley.
Of course that was just a sample battle to make sure that everyone know how to play. The actual campaign was set for next Sunday, and in the meantime I've instructed my players to educate themselves on the topics of leaderless resistance and the clandestine cell structure, with special emphasis on the tactics of the IRA and Viet Cong.
*Interesting history behind that gun. A cousin to the Yugoslavian M-53 and German MG-3 which can be found throughout the armies of Western Europe, and a grandchild of the MG-42. Many parts are interchangeable between the different weapons and a Wehrmacht soldier could easily mistake one for Hitler's Buzzsaw at first glance.
The West Germans had a problem when they started rearming in the '50s: they knew the old MG-42 was pretty much the best medium-machinegun ever designed, but it was politically unfeasible for them to keep using it. So they came up with the Rheinmetall MG-1, an MG-42 in every way except chambered for 7.62 NATO barrel and with an adjustable rate of fire. The MG-3 is that with some finer adjustments, and the others are just a bit simpler. Vintage '42's are still popular amongst American collectors and a few may even be taken from war stocks to equip the Blue Helmets (Soviets and Yugos didn't throw anything away).
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