The Player Characters & Their Equipment

There are five player characters. All PCs were rolled up using the worksheet from the rule book. Nothing was fudged.

Captain Kemp Blake, US Army
Combat Engineer
Age: 55

After graduating High School in Andersonville, Georgia, Kemp enlisted in the Army, serving in the Combat Engineering Corps.  After his initial tour was up, he returned home and used his GI Bill benefits to study Civil Engineering at the University of Georgia.  He then got a Master’s Degree in Architecture. Initially working for a large firm in Atlanta, after a few years Kemp decided to move to a smaller city, opening a business in Columbus, Georgia.  After buying a building to serve as both his home and offices, Kemp learned that the President of the bank where he got his mortgage was also his next door neighbor, and a retired Army General. They soon became good friends, and with the support of the General, Kemp became an officer in the Combat Engineering group of the local Army Reserve Center at nearby Fort Benning.

As more and more reserve troops were activated and sent to the battlefields in Europe and Korea, then-Lieutenant Kemp’s unit was attached to the 197th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) at Fort Benning, and activated as part of the strategic reserve.

During the campaign against the Texian National Legion in late 2028, then LT Blake distinguished himself several times in battle and was promoted to Captain and given command of a small reconnaissance unit.  An avid hunter and fisher, Captain Blake adopted the idea of horse-mounted scouts as motorized vehicles became harder and harder to maintain and operate. His cavalry scouts were used effectively against pickets set up by the self-styled “Warlord of Memphis”, especially during the harsh winter of 2029-2030.

Staff Sergeant Helen Ruiz

Combat Engineer

Age: 42

Staff Sergeant Ruiz has been part of the Army Reserve Combat Engineering group ever since she completed her original term of active duty service. She had originally planned to use her GI Bill to pay for college, but shortly after returning home from active duty, her father began showing signs of early onset Alzheimer's, so she began assisting with his care while working as a substitute teacher in the school systems in the Fort Benning area. Helen's mother began suffering health issues as well and both of them passed away shortly before the Twilight War began.

Like Captain Blake, SSGT Ruiz was activated as part of the strategic reserve and attached to the 197th.

Sergeant Myra Whitehead

Infantry

Age: 31

SGT Whitehead is the daughter of two career infantry soldiers who retired in the Fort Benning area before starting a family. Growing up around the base, she saw both the good and the bad of military service and ultimately decided to pursue a career in medicine, becoming an RN. She married a fellow RN who was also from a military family. The newlyweds were offered, and accepted, positions at a military hospital in South Korea. SGT Whitehead was widowed when her spouse was killed by North Korean Special Operations forces who conducted a parachute attack against their hospital at the outbreak of the Second Korean War. Returning home a refugee, enlisting in the Army as an infantry soldier was a natural outlet for her grief, and an avenue for revenge.

Sergeant Adele Rodriguez

Ranger Infantry

Age: 36

SGT Rodriguez’s Ranger platoon was scheduled to deploy to Europe, when they were bumped off their C-141 for ‘higher priority cargo’ - nuclear armed Tomahawk missiles.

With deployment to Europe no longer practical, SGT Rodriguez' Rangers were attached to the 197th and became the Brigades’ de facto scouting element during the initial security and disaster relief operations that the 197th was assigned to accomplish in Georgia and Florida beginning in mid-2027.

When the 197th was ordered west, fortunes changed for the worse. It turned out that the leader of the Texan National Legion, self-styled General (actual Colonel) Steven Dexter, was a graduate of, and former instructor at the Ranger school, so he often anticipated the tactics of the scouts, leading to high casualty rates among the 197th's Ranger-based scouting elements.  SGT Rodriguez was assigned to Captain Blake’s company after Captain Blake distinguished himself in action against ‘General’ Dexter’s Texians and he was assigned the responsibility of scouting the left flank of the 197th as they advanced north against the ‘Warlord of Memphis’.  

Specialist Daniel McCarthy

Vehicle Mechanic

Age: 24

Dan McCarthy grew up on a farm in Wales.  The youngest of six siblings, he grew up helping with all manner of farm-related chores, but also knowing that he would inherit little, so he concentrated on his studies in addition to his work around the farm.  Developing a particular knack for fixing things, he won a contest to appear in the long-running BBC show Top Gear.  That appearance impressed an executive at Chevrolet enough that Dan was offered a chance to intern at a Chevrolet plant in Marshall, Texas while also attending school at a nearby university.

Then, just a few weeks after he arrived in Texas, the Twilight War began.  Putting his farm knowledge to good use, Dan helped raise crops while keeping the factory running as the American supply chain slowly ground to a halt.  Dan was captured by the Texian National Legion when it occupied Marshall, but he was liberated by then LT Kemp Blake when the 197th routed the Texian forces from their easternmost redoubt.  Dan distinguished himself by diagnosing several vehicle issues by sound alone (and fixing all but one), and accepted enlistment in the U.S. Army. He has served as the primary vehicle driver, general mechanic, and master gardener for “Blake’s Raiders” ever since, while also trying to learn how to ride a horse and master the lore, lingo, and unique culture of the post-Twilight War U.S. Army.  

Group Equipment

Equipment was pretty straightforward.  Everybody gets an M4 as their personal weapon.  Captain Blake also gets a 9mm pistol. I found a list of standard personal gear (LBE, uniforms, boots, poncho, sleeping bag, etc.) that was a standard $1,000.  I tacked on an extra $1,000 in cost for Captain Blake being the CO of the unit and needing things like extra uniforms, a dress uniform, etc.

I figured that a two-horse trailer would be a quite a bit more than the cost of a standard 1-ton cargo trailer, and decided on $4,000.  Everything else was just standard equipment out of the book, except for the two sniper rifles, as I described in the introduction.

Some equipment, such as the secure radio and the trailer with the still are issued to the group by 197th HQ and will be returned at the end of the mission, so they don’t count against the group’s budget.  Likewise, the group’s horse trailer is being left behind, but still counts against their budget.

I’m not going to list all of the tools, medicines, etc. that I bought for the group.  I did find a character generation sheet with equipment online, and I used that to come up with the total costs.  I based my purchases on what I recall my old group needing, and partially to match their skills.

Platoon Equipment List

Budget:

Specialist McCarthy: $  5,500

SGT Whitehead: $16,000

SGT Rodriguez: $15,500

SSGT Ruiz: $16,500

Captain Blake: $33,000

Total: $86,500

- HumVee, horses, etc.: $28,000

- Personal Equipment: $  6,000
- Small Arms: $  7,120
- Heavy Weapons: $  2,120
- Equipment and Tools: $35,015
- Ammunition: $  5,136

- Magazines: $ 500

- Misc: $ 500

Sub-Total: $84,391

Remaining Balance: $  2,109

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HumVee, Horses, Trailers, etc.

HumVee $14,000 (wear value of 3)

MK-19 GL $  5,000

50km Secure Radio Provided by 197th HQ and to be returned

1-Ton Cargo Trailer with still Provided by 197th HQ and to be returned

Subtotal - $19,000

Horse x 2 $  4,000

Horse tack, etc. x2 $  1,000

Subtotal - $  5,000

Horse Trailer $  4,000

Vehicle Sub-total: $28,000

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Personal Gear $  1,000 each

(Personal weapon, fatigues, boots, ruck, LBE, sleeping bag, etc.)

Officer’s gear $  1,000
Personal Gear Sub-Total: $  6,000

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Small Arms & Accessories

- M4 x 5 (Issued weapon)

Equipped with high-power scopes and laser sights

- 9mm Pistol (Issued to Captain Blake)

Equipped with laser sights

- Crossbow x3

Equipped with high-power scopes and laser sights

- Crossbow Pistol x 3

Equipped with laser sights
- 9mm Pistol x 2

Equipped with laser sights
- Pump shotgun x 2
- M2010 Sniper Rifles (with high-power scopes and bipods) x 2

- M249 LMG x 1

- Knife x 5

- Bayonet x 5

Small Arms Sub-Total: $7,120

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Heavy Weapons

M320 Grenade Launchers x2

M72 LAW x 2

Heavy Weapons Sub-Total: $2,120

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Ammunition

.22LR 1600 (for trade)

5.56N 2800 loose

5.56N 1340 belted

7.62N 500 loose (for trade)

9mmP 480 loose

40mm HVDP 100 belted

40mm Chem   72 loose

40mm HE   72 loose

40mm Illum   44 loose

Grenades

M67 Frag x 30

M34 WP x 30

M25 CS x 30

Mines

M18A1 Claymores x 6

Food

Domestic - 450 Kg (90 days per person)

MRE - 75 KG (10 days per person - emergency rations) 

Grain for Horses - 180 Kg (90 days per horse)