Please Stand By

Well, the adventures of Blake’s Raiders has been interrupted by real life.

Actually, writing these blog posts has actually accomplished the goal I set for myself - to improve my skills as a GM.

I was originally planned to be running a “one shot” T2K game at my Friendly Local Game Shop (FLGS) as part of their “RPG Demo” days.  The game was going based on the material I have written for this blog.

I had originally planned on running the game on March 21st.I had been busy with preparations until now.  I will resume posts as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading.

Monday, Monday

“Blake’s Raiders”
The “Village” of Lake Cormorant, Mississippi

Monday, 15 July, 2030

[Editor's Note - It turns out, there is a LOT of action today, so this is a LONG post]

Mondays were apparently going to suck during this mission, too, unless HQ got better at responding to my Sunday morning reports...

We were back up at 0500 to deal with the antenna.  I could have waited until 0530 (I wanted the extra sleep), but I also didn’t want to start any bad habits.  Lots of things can go wrong when you are working in the pre-dawn hours, especially when you are working with something like lowering a radio antenna in the semi-dark.  When you try to rush things, especially in poor visibility, you are just setting yourself up for failure, and setting your troops up for injury (or worse).  Everybody knew it, but nobody liked it, not even me.  But, as my first Sergeant taught me, way back when I was a nugget, “A bitching Soldier is a happy Soldier”.  (When your troops QUIT complaining is when you're in BIG trouble...)

Miracle of miracles, HQ had a message for us at 0500.  By 0515, the top two stages of the antenna were back down, the lookout rotated, and everyone but the lookout and I were eating breakfast.

We had covered all the windows in the garage and we had covered all the HumVee’s windows to boot (I had made a “blackout” kit for my HumVee way back when the 197th was  conducting ‘security and disaster relief’ missions close to Fort Benning) so while the rest of the platoon (sans lookout) was chowing down, I was sitting in what I called my “sales office”.

Our orders were understandable, but somewhat contradictory.  We were to secure the rail-capable truck we had encountered (check); establish a position in control of the railroad crossing (check); and scout south along the railroad tracks to "...ascertain, the location, size, composition, and intent of the non-compliant forces (i.e. marauders) encountered."  How my five people were supposed to simultaneously control the railroad crossing whilst also scouting for the "...location, size,..." etc. etc. of a marauder group was NOT in my orders.

At least the 197th was sending units south to “provide security to existing authority in the area’, meaning the Glover-Mid-South Militia, or GMSM that we had encountered just a couple of days ago.  Unfortunately, no one at HQ saw fit to tell me the "...size, composition, and intent..." of the forces they were sending, nor did they provide a time of departure, much less an ETA.  Sierra Squared, Delta Squared.

I spent some time thinking about what we could (and couldn't) do.  Clearly, we weren't going to get any fuel distilled today...

The platoon knew the shit was about to hit the fan when I radioed the code for SPEC McCarthy, who was on roving lookout, to come back to camp, even before I left the HumVee to eat breakfast.  While we waited for McCarthy to work his way back to the camp, I let the rest of the platoon know were were moving out, and to start gathering stuff up, leaving the antenna for last, and that we would tackle it as a group.

Fortunately, it didn't take long to police the camp and get everyone's personal gear packed away, since I had enforced loose gear discipline the whole time we were encamped at Memphis.  Next, I set the SGTs and SPEC McCarthy to packing up the 3rd and 2nd stages of the antenna, since they were already down.  SSGT Ruiz and I sat down to hash out some of the details of my plans...

SSGT Ruiz felt certain that three people could deal with getting the antenna's first stage down and stowed, as well as the other departure-related tasks, like hooking up the trailer - I was NOT going to leave it behind and unguarded, even just for a day or two, if at all possible.

Once the 2nd and 3rd stage antenna parts were packed up, I sent the SGTs to saddle up and begin a mounted patrol.  First, they were to pick up the traps they set out on Friday, except for the ones at the railroad crossing itself (which I made damn sure everyone understood where they were).  Then, I wanted them to scout south, keeping an eye (from a safe distance) on the rail line and looking for any signs of an approaching marauder group.  I wanted them to scout at least 5 klicks south quickly.  Once they accomplished that, I want them to continue south at a more deliberate pace.  I had them take two days of MREs with them, along with two days of grain for the horses and other necessities for an overnight patrol.  I also issued them one of our two M72 LAWs, in case the marauder group had serious firepower...

With my scouts on their way, the rest of us finished preparations to move out.  Hooking the trailer up went quickly, and by the time that was finished, it was light enough for us to see, and take the first stage of the antenna down safely.  Once it was down, SSGT Ruiz and I did a last walk-through of the house and the area to make sure nothing important was being left behind, and, just as importantly, that we weren't leaving clues to our unit's size, composition, etc. behind that someone could gain intelligence value from...

During the campaign against the Texian Legion, SSGT Ruiz and I found a house that one of their platoons had occupied.  They had used one room as a barracks, and there was a neat row of cleared rectangles in the dust of the room, showing exactly how many troops had slept there.  They had been careful to not let us see how big their platoon was in action, but with this evidence, I was able to get the 197th HQ to release some reserve troops, and the next time we encountered them, we were able to outflank them and defeat them.  In a similar way, I hoped to gain intelligence against this group of marauders, and use it to defeat them as well.

It was only a few minutes drive back to the railroad crossing, of course.  Having executed an ambush from the west side of the tracks, I decided the best course of action was to set up on the east side this time.  SSGT Ruiz and I had selected a small, run-down, but still intact house trailer about a hundred meters due south of the point where the railroad tracks cross the road.  It's screened from the tracks by trees to the south, but is clear to the west.

The blue spot shows the location of the first ambush.  The yellow spot is where we set up the HumVee today

The first order of business was to unhook and secure the cargo trailer to one of the trees behind the house trailer I had chosen as our temporary HQ.  Then we backed the HumVee partway into the trees, making sure the MK19 had a clear field of fire to the west, but we also had a clear path ahead to make a fast getaway if needed.  Then, SPEC McCarthy and I walked up to where we had parked the marauder’s truck.  Fixing the system that switches between road and rail took about an hour (AVG:MECH (90), roll 41), then SPEC McCarthy drove the truck behind the house trailer, parking it alongside our trailer.

[The group in the HumVee encounters the units sent down by the 197th (Roll of 5 on "Road" - Military Convoy).]

[It is approximately 20 Km from the group’s former cantonment at the Geeter School campus on the outskirts of Memphis to this railroad crossing, so the group from the 197th is able to reach the railroad crossing during the first period of travel.]

About then, we heard from our scouts that it was clear at least five clicks to the south, so I had SSGT Ruiz and SPEC McCarthy take turns at gunner and lookout. I decided to use the time before lunch to make some nominal plans for the next stage of our patrol.  Naturally, just about the time I was making real progress, I got interrupted by a radio call from the group that the 197th sent down, saying that they were approaching our position and requesting that I come up to meet them...  

I guess we'll have friendly company for lunch.

--------

Mounted Scouts Report

"SGT Rodriguez and I had only scouted south of Lake Cormorant a couple of clicks when we ran into a large pack of feral dogs.  I didn't want to immediately resort to gunfire, so I thought I would use a couple of our CS grenades to turn the pack away from us, and hopefully away from Captain Blake's position as well."


[Just as they start scouting south, the two SGTs encounter a large pack of feral dogs ("clear", roll of 12).  Number appearing is 3D6, total roll of 14.  Attack chance is 60%, roll of 26, so the dogs attempt to attack.  Range is 1D10 x 300m, roll of 4, so 1.2Km.  I judge that the wind is blowing from the scouts down toward the dogs (hence the long range of the encounter).  As the dogs approach closely, the scouts deploy CS grenades in an attempt to "discourage" the dog pack without resorting to gunfire...  SGT Whitehead attempts to throw two CS grenades (TW:50, average difficulty.  Roll - 100 (seriously))  Second throw - 22, success.  I judge a 20% chance that the dogs will break off the attack, based on one successful grenade throw.  Roll of 13, so the second CS grenade was enough to deter the pack.]

[Where did the first grenade go?  A roll of 7 on the thrown weapon scatter diagram = short, so the first CS grenade fell short enough to impact the two SGTs and their horses...]

[Per the rules, there is a one-turn delay before the CS gas cloud is generated by the grenade.]

When she hears SGT Whitehead yell, "Oh Shit!", SGT Rodriguez realizes the first CS grenade has slipped out of SGT Whitehead's hand as she prepared to throw it, and it has fallen just a few meters away...  SGT Rodriguez had been looking at the approaching dog pack, and despite her skill, she just isn't able to pull her horse away in time...

[AVG:EQ (75), roll 82]

[Both SGTs now roll against AVG:EQ (75) to avoid panic.  Their rolls are 50 and 30, so they both successfully avoid panic.  Both roll against AVG:EQ to guide their horses upwind of the CS and succeed, rolling 73 and 51.  They also need to roll against AVG:EQ to avoid their horses being impacted by the brief exposure to CS.  Rolls are 39 and 62, so both succeed.  Finally, they have to roll against their own CON to avoid themselves being incapacitated for an hour or so.  SGT Whitehead rolls a 24 and passes, but SGT Rodriguez rolls a 70 and fails (just barely).  So, they will lose an hour of scouting time while SGT Rodriguez recovers, and they are both at fatigue level 1, so all their skills will be reduced by five (per Player's manual page 12) until they have a chance to rest and recover, which probably won't be until they get back to their own camp]


"As the Robert Burn's quote goes, 'The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley.'  But, in the end, we turned the dogs away without a shot fired.”

"We managed to scout what I felt was a good five clicks south of the railroad crossing, and I radioed into Captain Blake that all was clear this far, then we continued south at a brisk pace."

[Having lost an hour recovering from the effects of the CS gas, the scouts have made it 15 kilometers south of the railroad crossing by lunch.]

[I decided that the marauders that the group encountered at Lake Cormorant had their main camp 20 Km plus 1d4 x 2 x d10 Km south of Lake Cormorant.  Roll was 2 on the d4; roll of 4d10 is 28, so the camp is 48 klicks south.  The scouting group in the truck was supposed to scout one day's travel ahead (two periods, or 40 klicks).  The driver would drop off the four troops, and drive back to the main group to report in, as this group lacks working radios.  They would have already arrived at the Lake Cormorant railroad crossing, but stopped to discuss their options, having lost the element of surprise, and not knowing anything about the forces ahead of them...]

[The next question is, exactly how big IS this group, and conversely, what forces did the 197th send down to oppose them?]

--------------------------

[Based on the U.S. Army Vehicle Guide and Howling Wilderness, the 197th is already being tasked to expand their control beyond the city of Memphis (the reason for this unit's mission), so the 197th will push significant forces south to both shore up friendly forces and meet this first (but far from last) major marauder incursion...]

197th combat force:
1xM2A3 Bradley (2 crew (Veteran Driver, Elite Gunner) + 5 troops (2 Experienced, 2 Veteran, 1 Elite)
1x M113 APC (2 crew (1 Experienced, 1 Veteran) + 5 troops (1 Experienced, 1 Veteran, 3 Elite)
1x M113 APC (2 crew (2 Experienced) + 5 troops (2 Experienced, 3 Veteran)
1x5-ton truck (2 crew (2 Experienced) + 5 troops (2 Experienced, 3 Veteran)
1x5-ton truck (2 crew (2 Experienced) + 5 troops (2 Experienced, 1 Veteran, 2 Elite)
1xHumvee (1 crew (Veteran) + 3 troops (1 Experienced, 2 Veteran)
1xHumvee (1 crew (Experienced) + 3 troops (2 Experienced, 1 Elite)

[197th support / work team (All with Novice combat skills)
1x5-ton tanker with still on trailer (2 crew, Experienced)
1x 2 1/2-ton truck (2 crew +5 workers, Experienced)
1x 2 1/2-ton truck (2 crew +5 workers, Experienced)


[The 197th combat force is basically 35 men, which is 7 base units of marauders.  I roll 7d6 for the marauders, coming up with one ‘leg’ unit, four horse mounted units and two vehicles. The resulting 2d6 rolls for vehicles are 5 (5-ton truck with a small still) and an 11 (APC) - M2 Bradley (wear value 4).  The marauders get three rolls for special weapons.  The rolls are 3, 3 and 11, for a trio of M252 81mm mortars.  These mortars, and their ammunition are carried in the truck, and the 'leg' infantry, along with the truck crew, are both the mortar crews, the still operators, and the guard force.  There are also the three survivors of the scouting group that have been integrated into the forces attached to the Bradley and the truck...]

----------------------

During the morning period, the scouts travel 15 klicks south, while the marauders travel 10 klicks north.  (The marauders are moving slowly both out of caution and to keep their fatigue levels down.  If they had marched at the full 20km/period rate, they would be at fatigue level 1.). When they stop for lunch, the two groups are 23 Km apart...

After lunch, the scouts resume working south.  Two hours into the period (the scouts having traveled 10 klicks south, and the marauders having traveled about 5 klicks north (putting the two groups only 8 Km apart), the scouts have an encounter.  [Roll of 9 on clear, so ‘Armed’.  Given how close the two groups are, I judge a 25% chance that the encounter is with one of the marauder’s mounted units.  Roll is 20, so they, in fact, encounter the marauder's northernmost mounted scouting group...]

[Initial range is 1d10 x 300m, roll of 5 for 1500 meters.  AVG:RCN, SGT Rodriguez (RCN:75 - 5 for fatigue) rolls a 93 for a failure, SGT Whitehead (RCN:50 - 5 for fatigue) rolls an 18 for success.  The marauders roll a 98 (AVG:RCN:60) for an even more abysmal failure than SGT Rodriguez!] 

[Because they were tasked to locate the marauders (and figure out their strength and armament), the scouts disengage and report the contact.  (They are also under standing orders not to engage groups much larger than them, and there are five mounted marauders, all well armed, even if this would be an ideal ambush situation...)]

[The scouts roll AVG:RCN to spot and avoid the next group of mounted marauder scouts, and roll 59 (SGT Rodriguez (70)) and 18 (SGT Whitehead(45)) against the marauder's 63, again succeeding easily.  (Despite her lower skill, SGT Whitehead is having an outstanding day spotting! (and should probably be given an extra skill point in RCN at the end of the encounter...]

[Finally, they have to roll AVG:RCN to spot the main group (-5 for the vehicle and -10 for the number of troops, +2 for their number), and succeed again, rolling a net of 45 and 31 respectively.  In return the marauders need to roll against DIF:RCN:60, plus a net of +13 to their roll. Their final roll of 71 is another abysmal failure.]

SGT's Rodriguez and Whitehead accurately scout the main group of marauders, their primary vehicle, their route, and their rate of advance, and pull back to safely report the same to Captain Blake.  They are instructed to remain to the western flank of the main body of marauders.  They are to try to determine any leaders, but to only engage after the 197th takes the marauders under fire tomorrow.

The marauders continue to move north at a measured pace, moving another 20 klicks north before establishing a camp, using both the afternoon and evening periods to travel and camping just before night falls at 9:14 p.m.  

[The marauders have a DIF:RCN:60 to spot the scouts during the evening, and roll a 95 BEFORE modifiers, for a complete failure.]

----------

"Evening Report - My cavalry scouts successfully located the approaching marauders and were able to evade the marauder's own mounted scouting force, which numbers approximately 20 men on horseback, all with modern arms.  The group is centered around a former Army National Guard M2 Bradley and a 5-ton truck with an additional 15 men or so.  While capturing the Bradley would be ideal, we have sufficient vehicle stocks to make its capture optional.

Fortunately, the total group seems to be of approximately equal strength to the fighting force the 197th sent south, with most of the marauders on horseback, and divided into four groups that operate separately as they scout forward on each flank of their advance.  As such, we should be able to defeat the marauder's cavalry by placing two strong units to each flank of our position and initiating the engagement from cover.  By attacking the marauders while they are on the move, we should be able to defeat them before they can get their mortars in action, since they were only observed to set the mortars up in the evening, once they established a camp site for the night.

It turns out that the gunner of one of the M113s had a grandfather that served in Vietnam with my grandfather (small world).  She grew up with stories of how they mounted a recoilless rifle on their M113 and used it to good effect against the Viet Cong.  When supplies of modern support weapons like the AT-4 started to run out during the campaign against the Texian Legion, she convinced her CO to “acquire” one from a museum and was able to return it to service and even start making rounds for it...  I had heard about it through the grapevine, but I had never seen it.

Another Sunday in Lake Cormorant

“Blake’s Raiders”
The “Village” of Lake Cormorant, Mississippi

Sunday, 14 July, 2030

Clearly, Sunday’s were going to suck during this mission...

Per my mission orders, 197th HQ wanted me to raise my big-ass VHF antenna, radio in my report, and get my antenna back down, all before sunrise, which was at 6:57 a.m. this time of year.  Well, of course, I wanted that big-ass antenna down before sunrise.  I sure as heck didn’t want any marauders to see a radio antenna sticking up in the air and think, ‘Hey, there’s somebody with modern communications technology.  I bet they got other good stuff to steal if we kill ‘em…”  I was one of the people who pushed to get land lines strung (and buried) between every outpost, to cut out radio traffic as much as possible, once we were permanently encamped around Memphis.  Even encrypted radio traffic makes "noise" that can be noticed.  More than one marauder group underestimated the firepower we had because they never heard any radio traffic from us...

So, we all got up at 0400.  None of us drank what passed for coffee these days, so we turned to in the relatively cool darkness and started getting the antenna set up.  (Funny how 76 degrees and 90+ humidity doesn’t feel all that cool, but we’ve mostly gotten used to it by now - at least being away from the river meant that there were FEWER mosquitoes... but I digress…)  

Raising the antenna was pretty straightforward, especially with the prep work we had done yesterday afternoon.  The first stage went up easily, we set the lower guy wires and made sure they were securely anchored.  Then, we raised the second stage, and anchored the mid-stage guy wires.  This close, I could have probably made contact with just the second stage raised, but I didn’t want to start any bad habits, so we raised the third stage and anchored those guy wires.  Finally, I pulled out my compass and turned the antenna in the right direction.  Then we waited.  At 0450, I turned the radio on to listen for the carrier signal that was supposed to be transmitted by the 197th HQ for 5 minutes every 15 minutes between 0500 and 0630.

Maybe I was lucky, or maybe I was good, but at 0458, I got a 5x5 carrier signal.  

(Frankly, I’d rather be lucky than good…)

I sent my report by encrypted microburst at 0502, received an acknowledgement, and then shut everything down to save battery power.  At 0512, I powered the receiver back up and waited until 0517.  Nothing, but no surprise.  At 0527, the same result.  When I got no response at 0542, I started to get irritated and decided that if I didn’t get any questions at 0600, I was going to go ahead and pull the antenna down so we could get some rest…

Wouldn’t you know, HQ finally transmitted a message at 0600.  Well, at least it meant we could stay put for at least the day.  The antenna came down a lot faster than it went up, even if we left the first stage in place (it was below the tree line).  I made sure the lookout was rotated and ordered everyone else back to sleep, letting them know we were going to stand down for at least today. We all needed the rest after the firefight yesterday, and we would need to run the still on Tuesday anyway...

After a catnap, I pulled my laptop out and decrypted the message from HQ.

As expected, their questions were mostly asking for details that I didn’t have, and couldn’t get.  Like, ‘Did the marauders you encountered at Norfolk Landing travel upstream or downstream after the encounter with your scouting element?’.  

“Per your OPORD, my scouting element withdrew in the face of a superior force.  Even though armed allied forces were promptly organized, the marauders withdrew before observation posts could be established in the face of an alert and organized foe.”

The second group of marauders apparently created the most confusion.  There were four orders in the message queue.  The second contradicted the first, the third contradicted the second, etc., etc., etc. ad nauseum.  In other words, SNAFU.  Apparently, part of 197th HQ wanted to acquire the railroad/highway truck we captured, while other parts just wanted the tracks blown up to prevent their use by the marauders.  Ultimately, we were ordered to stand by for additional instruction tomorrow, which suited me just fine…

[Encounter Roll, woods - 7 - Game, so no encounter of the encamped group]

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, allow us to catch up on rest and maintenance of equipment and vehicles.  

With the sun fully setting at 1940, we set to raising the antenna back up.  I caught the 1954 carrier signal, and sent my response back.  HQ acknowledged receipt with a, "Got it.  Stand by".  Every 15 minutes, we stood by for a response until 2100, per orders.  Nothing.  At least we got to eat while we were waiting on HQ to get off their fifth point of contact...

Since we could leave the antenna up overnight, I had the rest of the company stand down, and stood watch myself until midnight.  I planned to stay encamped here for at least one more day, to allow the still to finish ‘cooking’, but I also knew that no plan survives first contact with reality...

[When I created the marauders in the previous encounter, I already had it in my mind that they were advance scouts of a larger group moving up from the south.  The supplement Howling Wilderness establishes that by March of 2031 (in my timeline) the 197th will be responsible for security within 100Km of the Mississippi River.  I take that to mean a 100Km arc around Memphis, but not crossing the river.  If you look on a map, this arc stretches south from Memphis to Clarksdale, MS, then east to Batesville, MS on I-55 (hence the need for this mission - other groups are scouting other parts of the area).  From there, the 197th area of responsibility will run east to Oxford, MS, north to Holly Springs, MS, northeast to Bolivar, TN and back west to Whiteville, TN on US-64, north to Willis, MS on I-40, then back west/northwest to Dyersburg and the I-155 river bridge, an important river crossing.]

[Howling Wilderness also says that “refugees and marauders from the south and southeast will soon put increasing pressure on the division [my emphasis].”  I take this to mean that long before March, 2031, there will be a steady flow of refugees and marauders moving north into this area...]

[So, the questions remain, how big is this group of marauders, how far away are they, and what kind of equipment, especially military vehicles and weapons (if any) do they have...?]

[Finally, what are the 197ths final orders going to be...]

[Tune in next week for another installment of...”As the World Burns”]