Operation Typhoon Part 1

I had originally planned a big tank battle for this evening - something fitting the kick-off of Operation Typhoon... but then Jackson didn't show, and Patrick didn't make a new tank commander - to replace the previous one that had been blown to bits on a land mine. He briefly considered an Anti-Tank Rifleman... but it would have been a bit unfair to throw the originally planned three Panzers at that... so I quickly came up with something altogether completely different...

For anyone paying attention to the players stats you might notice a BIG improvement in some of them – I realized I hadn’t been updating their stats in the template I’ve made for these battle reports… We’ve got a couple seasoned survivors; Sgt. Boris Trotsky, Androv Virgilovski, and Lt. Marcov have 26, 25, and 20 experience points (respectively) and are getting much better than the sucktastic cannon fodder they started out as!!

6 October 1941

SITUATION

It is a couple days into Operation Typhoon. Our Serzhant Trotsky’s squad find themselves near Viyazma. They are summoned to their headquarters and given a very special mission: a train carrying Soviet Command personnel had to be abandoned due to tracks being destroyed by German bombing… unfortunately some extremely sensitive documents were left behind and it is imperative that these be recovered!

A new Sniper is to be added to the squad…

SCENARIO

The Soviets must get to the train and search the coach cars for the documents. Searching requires an action. To find the documents they must a) be in the coach where they documents were left (they don’t know which one) and b)raise on a notice roll (each subsequent attempt gains a +1 to the roll to a maximum of +4).

FORCES

Soviet Forces

Serzhant Boris Trotsky - Wild Card - Dave
Ag d6, Sm d6, Sp d8, St d4, Vg d10,
Pace 6, Parry 4, Toughness 8
Skills: Fighting d4, Shooting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d4, Throwing d4
Edges: Rank (NCO), Nerves of Steel, Rock’n’Roll, Fleet Footed.
Gear: Ppsh SMG (Range: 10/20/40, ROF3, Damage: 2d6, AP: 1, Auto)

Soviet Riflemen - 5
Ag d6, Sm d4, Sp d6, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 4 (5), Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d4, Shooting d6, Notice d4, Stealth d4, Throwing d4
Gear: 6xMosin-Nagant Rifle (Range: 24/48/96, ROF1, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2) +Bayonet (Str+d4, Reach 1, Parry+1), 1x DP LMG (Range: 24/48/96, ROF3, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2, Auto, Snap fire)


Rayadovoy Androv Virgilovski - Wild Card - Rick
Ag d8, Sm d4, Sp d6, St d6, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 6 (7), Toughness 7
Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Notice d4, Stealth d4, Driving d4, Throwing d4
Edges: Brawny, Improved Nerves of Steel, Dodge, Combat Reflexes
Gear: Mosin-Nagant Rifle (Range: 24/48/96, ROF1, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2), Bayonet (Str+d4, Reach 1, Parry+1)

Rayadovoy Ioseph Dizaleski - Wild Card - Patrick
Ag d8, Sm d4, Sp d6, St d4, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 4, Toughness 6
Skills: Fighting d4, Shooting d10, Notice d8, Stealth d6, Throwing d4
Edges: Alertness
Gear: Mosin-Nagant Rifle Sniper Rifle (Range: 24/48/96, ROF1, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2, Snap Fire, Scope),


German Forces (elements of Army Group Center)

Gefrieter Konrad Peters – Wild Card
Ag d6, Sm d6, Sp d6, St d8, Vg d8
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Intimidate d6, Throwing d6
Edges: Rock-n-Roll, Command
Hindrances:
Gear:
MP-40 SMG (Range: 10/20/40, ROF3, Damage: 2d6, AP: 1, Auto)
Luger Pistol (Range: 6/12/24, ROF1, Damage: 2d6, AP: 1)

German Rifle Team #1 (6)
Ag d6, Sm d6, Sp d6, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d6, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Throwing d6
Edges:
Hindrances:
Gear: 1x MP-40 SMG (Range: 10/20/40, ROF3, Damage: 2d6, AP: 1, Auto)
5x Kar 98K Rifle (Range: 24/48/96, ROF1, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2), Bayonet (Str+d4, Reach 1, Parry+1)

German MG Team #1 (4)
Ag d6, Sm d6, Sp d6, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d6, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Throwing d6
Edges:
Hindrances:
Gear: 3x Kar 98K Rifle (Range: 24/48/96, ROF1, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2), Bayonet (Str+d4, Reach 1, Parry+1), 1x MG34 (Range: 30/60/120, ROF3, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2, Auto, Snapfire)

German Sniper – Wildcard
Ag d6, Sm d6, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d8,
Edges: Marksman
Hindrances:
Gear: Kar 98K Rifle (Range: 24/48/96, ROF1, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2, Snap-fire), Telescopic Sight (+2 to hit when not moving)


THE GAME
(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


To start with I dealt myself two jokers on turn one. Nice. Too bad they were completely useless as there was no enemy visible… (I did, however net a benny and traded away a deuce which reduced the Soviet Rifle squad’s ammo level by one – and NOT MINE!)


The train yards and the abandoned train.


First shots exchanged. Mostly everyone was blazing away at each other from behind hard cover… so a couple guys were shaken here and there, but no casualties.


The Soviets entering the train


The new sniper took cover at the end of the train and exchanged shot with the German sniper. The German tagged the Soviet a couple times, but all wounds were successfully soaked.


The Germans finally shot one of the Soviet Riflemen, who was searching the train.

Serzhant Trotsky actually found the documents on his first attempt – after his troops failed to turn up anything on their first attempt…


The Germans set up an MG by the engine hoping to catch the Soviets as they retired out of the train.


Dodging a fussialde of bullets from the German MG team the remaining Soviets made it across the “Avenue of Death” and back to Headquarters without further incident. (oh, a few long range parting shots were exchanged… but no one really wanted to risk themselves over a blasted up train yard…

One of the least bloody games we’ve played! A couple extras were shaken, but only one Soviet casualty and no Germans.

The Soviet Rifleman was lightly wounded but was captured as he tried to make it back to friendly lines. He died at Marienburg Stalag XXB in 1943.

Coming Soon to Savage Timmy’s Playhouse:

We’ll have a bit of a break as this Saturday Amanda and I are heading out to check out some Roller Derby. Thereafter it seems I’ll be combining my two groups on Saturday – Wednesday isn’t great for most… So Savage Saturday will be a either Cthulhu or (sometimes Weird) World War Two… depending on who’s going to show up… This’ll make life a bit easier for me as I’ll only have to prepare one game per week (and write ONE game report…)