CapnJim's Modern Stuff - Balczaki-Soviet Bridge Fight Full AAR - Pg 54-10 Aug 25

[mikedemana]

Have fun tonight with the game! Looks like it'll be another good one.

Mike Demana

[Doug ex-em4]

Capn, you certainly produce a top scenario outline. All the info and looks great as well. As does the table - I’m a fan of your tables, they always look like a layout I’d like to play on.

Looking forward to reading about what transpired.

Doug

[CapnJim]

Office of Media Relations or Ministry of Truth ^__^.

Looking forward to the AAR.

Yes.

Also looking forward to the report, it's becoming like a serial! "Tune in next week for 'Balczaki Blunders!' Heh."

What is truth, anyway.  Lately, that concept seems to be a bit, um, loosely applied.  Just as it seems to be in Balczakistan...

As for the "Blunder of the Month Club", read on...

Have fun tonight with the game! Looks like it'll be another good one.

Mike Demana

Capn, you certainly produce a top scenario outline. All the info and looks great as well. As does the table - I’m a fan of your tables, they always look like a layout I’d like to play on.

Looking forward to reading about what transpired.

Doug

Thank you, Gentlemen!  I appreciate your comments. 

Before I get into the After Action Report, some administrative details.  We use microdice to mark the status of units.  In this scrum, white/off-white dice indicate who has activated in a turn.  Blue and green dice track shock.  Red dice track wounds on Heroes and Leaders.  Black dice indicate Low on Ammo. 

And now, with that out of the way and for your viewing pleasure, I present to you...

Part 1:  Shit!  They're Here Already!

It was another quiet morning at the main offices of Radio Free Balczakistan.  "Was" being the operative word.  The Manager had just received an ominous phone call.  An Assistant Commissar from the Office of Media Relations, along with lackeys from the National Police and Army, was on his way to shut the place down.  The office staff began frantically running around, scooping up anything the Balczaki authorities might find incriminating.  Their security guards prepared to receive the inevitable appearance of the authorities.

Outside, several groups of civilians were milling about, seemingly unconcerned with what was about to transpire.  One group was hanging out around a pickup truck by the maintenance shed out front, their weapons hidden under a tarp in the bed of the truck.  Another group was in the garage behind the office building.  They too had access to weapons.  A 3rd group, across the street by the monument park, appeared to be tourists taking pictures (that photographer actually worked for RFB...).  Last, a 4th group was also on the sidewalk by the monument park by a park bench.  Oddly, they were singing songs, as though they were a vocal group practicing....





Then they came.  All too quickly.  First, an Army light tactical vehicle, followed by the obligatory black sedan, arrived from the south and pulled up along the office building.  A big blue van, presumably the National Police (it had government plates!), arrived from the west, and swung around from the north and it too pulled up along the office building.



They got the attention of the civilians across the street.  Their guy with the camera turned around, and continued snapping photos.



Then, another Army light tactical vehicle came up from the south, and pulled into the office building's dirt parking lot and stopped, blocking some of the cars in the lot.  Soldiers and government men piled out of their vehicles, and the civilians by the pickup armed themselves.  The other group of civilians by the park now turned to see what was going on.  It appeared that something was about to go down.  What that was remained to be seen.





It wouldn't take very long at all to find out.  The civilians by the pickup opened fire on the soldiers in the parking lot, dropping the 2 nearest to them.  Unfortunately for the civilians, they got right back up (must have been flesh wounds), and returned fire as they moved toward those civilians.  An armed civilian went down.  The Manager and the office staff kept up their grabbing of any useful intelligence inside the building.



As the National Police unassed their van (one, the driver, remained in the van), the civilians in the garage behind the office building had armed themselves, and piled out into the street, firing at the Police.  And not hitting anyone.  Yet.  The unarmed civilians all spectated, and the guy with the camera kept up his picture-taking.



Over by the pickup, the Army troopers shot down a 2nd armed civilian.  The other 2 in that group then, wisely, fled up the side street.  the Police Inspector and his bodyguard decided to chase after them.  But the unarmed civilians by that park bench intervened...



By now, the Manager and the office staff had grabbed what incriminating evidence/useful intelligence they could and escaped the office building via the rear windows.  That went well for the office staff, as they exited via ground floor windows.  The Office Manager, however, had to exit through an upper floor window.  Let's just say he did NOT stick his landing, and injured himself at the end of his jump/fall.  Worse, in the process, he dropped all the evidence/intelligence had had scooped up (a lot of it, actually) and it would end up blowing away in the breeze, never to be seen again.   Their security men waited inside for the government men to come in.



Out in the street, those unarmed civilians beat the snot out of the Police Inspector's bodyguard, and the Police Inspector (now outnumbered 4 to 1) ran back by his vehicle.  Needless to say, while the soldiers by the pickup were insuring the 2 downed previously-armed civilians would not get back up, the other group of soldiers saw the Police Inspector's unfortunate situation, and opened fire on the unarmed civilians that had accosted the Inspector.  That's right, Balczaki soldiers shot unarmed civilians down in the street!  Of course the "innocent civilian photographer" in the other group of unarmed civilians was able to get some shots of that...   

And, by now, the Assistant Commissar and his bodyguard had gone up the front door of the office building.  It was locked...





As any reasonable person would ascertain, it seems the raid had gone somewhat sideways.  But then again, what doesn't go sideways in Balczakistan?  Stay tuned for Part 2: Close But No Cigar. to see if anyone can scavenge their situation.  It will be coming soon to a device near you!

[carlos marighela]

Nicely done.

I see a lengthy explanation of precisely what the yellow card allows you to do/not to do being in order with The Balczaki soldiery.

[Andy in Germany]

My word, that escalated quickly. Looking forward to part 2...

[Rick]

Nicely done.

I see a lengthy explanation of precisely what the yellow card allows you to do/not to do being in order with The Balczaki soldiery.

Heh I guess it all depends on what sort of evidence gets out - obviously if there's no proof, then nothing untoward could possibly have happened...
Great game by the looks of it - I assume the intention had been to get into the building much faster and catch them in the act of absconding with evidence?

[mikedemana]

Trigger happy folk, them Balczakis! Sounds like a lot of fun so far.

Maybe it has been in other games, and perhaps ones I have played in  , but the triangular patterned sidewalk is very cool. Scratch built? Or where did you get it from?

Mike Demana

[CapnJim]

Nicely done.

I see a lengthy explanation of precisely what the yellow card allows you to do/not to do being in order with The Balczaki soldiery.

Yes, well, as the soldiers would say, and is stated in just about all schoolyard dust-ups, "they started it"....

My word, that escalated quickly. Looking forward to part 2...

Yes it, did.  Sometimes, Gene (who played the Balczaki Police and Soldiers) is kind of a "Shoot First, and Don't Worry About the Questions" kinda player...

Heh I guess it all depends on what sort of evidence gets out - obviously if there's no proof, then nothing untoward could possibly have happened...
Great game by the looks of it - I assume the intention had been to get into the building much faster and catch them in the act of absconding with evidence?

Yes, but see the above comment about Gene....

Trigger happy folk, them Balczakis! Sounds like a lot of fun so far.

Maybe it has been in other games, and perhaps ones I have played in  , but the triangular patterned sidewalk is very cool. Scratch built? Or where did you get it from?

Mike Demana

The mat is a pre-printed neoprene mat.  I bought 2 of them (both urban themes) a couple years ago.

And now, on with Part 2: Close But No Cigar...

The Police and the armed civilians traded fire (eventually, someone there would actually hit someone...), while one group of soldiers shot at the civilians who had accosted the Police Inspector and his poor bodyguard.  The other group of soldiers was seeing to the downed armed civilians by that pick-up truck.  The Assistant Commissar was trying, with no success yet, to break down the locked front door of their target office building...

 

...while the RFB manager and staff escaped down the alley at the rear of said building (absconding with only some of the incriminating evidence/useful intelligence).



Out in the street, in the frantic, short-range gunfight between the Police and the civilians, someone actually got shot - 2 someones, actually - both Police Officers.  The 4th Officer (the van driver) had, by now, joined the other 3.  And the unarmed civilians (the group with the dude with the camera) began slowly backing away from the action.



Over by the pick-up truck, that group of soldiers, their business with the 2 downed civilians there completed, turned their attention to the other 2 armed civilians who has fled down the side street.  The soldiers dutifully shot them down in turn.  The surviving 2 unarmed civilians who had picked on the Police Inspector ran into the park, taking cover/hiding behind the statue there.



The other group of soldiers, having already come to the rescue of the Police Inspector, now came to the rescue of the Police by the van.  In an impressive display of marksmanship, they shot all 4 armed civilians there down in one fell swoop.  That photographer must have some interesting photos by now...



Having taken care of their armed civilians, the soldiers near the office building parking lot turned and headed toward the front door of that building.  The Assistant Commissar was still having issues kicking/shouldering the door in.  The RFB security detail waited inside.  And the surviving Police retreated behind the black sedan...



...while the other soldiers headed down the alley behind the office building.



The unarmed civilians all now scrambled toward safer environs...



Now backed up by soldiers, the Assistant Commissar and his bodyguard were able to force the front door of the office building.  For their troubles, they were met with gunfire.  The Assistant Commissar ordered the 4 soldiers in to clear the building.  4 went in.  Only 3 came back out, shaken by their experience.  They left 1 of their comrades lying Out of Action inside.



Things came to a head now.  The other group of soldiers, who had made entry through the rear ground floor windows left open by the escaping RFB office staff, defeated the security detail (in detail) and secured the building.  The civilians outside kept up their getting away, and the surviving Police cautiously came out from behind the vehicles.

 

Once the building was secure, the Assistant Commissar and the soldiers who were waiting outside, went in.



And that was pretty much it.  We had played 10 turns out of the 15 allotted.  So, with the building secure and time to spare, the Balczakis tossed the place, finding an office worth of useful intelligence, and destroying media-related equipment and supplies in all 4 offices.

The Aftermath

Using the post-game campaign chart in the Fistful of Lead Core Rules, we then figured out who of the various Out of Action figures survived (or didn't).   And then we counted up Victory Points to see who won.

For the Balczakis, they had 4 figures Out of Action (2 Police, a Soldier, and the Inspector's bodyguard), and their Police Inspector was Wounded.  All survived, with varying degrees of Wound severity.  They destroyed equipment/materials in 4 offices, and found intelligence in 1.

For the RFB staff and the civilians, the Office manager and Staff escaped, with 1 office worth of intelligence.  Of their security detail, 1 died, but 3 were only wounded and declared Taken Into Custody.  Oddly enough, none of the downed civilians, armed or otherwise, survived.   

So, Here's the final tally:

Balczaki Authorities
RFB Staff In Custody:  3 VPs
Equipment Destroyed:  4 VPs
Intelligence Gathered:  1 VP
Total:  8 VPs.

RFB Staff
RFB Staffer Not In Custody:  5 VPs
RFB group escaped with Intel:  2 VPs
Total:  7 VPs

So, it appears that the Balczaki Office of Media Relations squeaked out a minor win.  Too bad the Manager dropped those 2 office's worth of evidence/intel when he fell/jumped out of that window (FYI, that was a result of a roll on the Random Event Chart - the only Joker played the whole game... )

There would ensue more information wars, of course.  There would be more charges and evidence thereof of Balczaki soldiers gunning down unarmed civilians, executing wounded civilians in the street, and accusations of repressing the freedom of the press.  The Balczakis would, in turn, show evidence that all the civilians were armed (don't ask how those weapons showed up...), and accuse RFB of treason and sedition, as well as aiding a terrorist organization (the BFF).

Neither side would get the upper hand in the Battle of Words and Pictures.  Yet.  The US, with its Ambassador safe and sound, was staying out of it.  BUT, another participant could soon be prodded into entering the fray.... (cue dramatic music)

[Lord Raglan]

Super write up mate

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Interesting read, thanks.

[carlos marighela]

Good game!

[CapnJim]

Thanks, fellas.

And now, I've been inspired by Lord Raglan and his recently shown T80s.

I have 2 of Universal Hobbies' (apparently) T55AMs.  These are diecasts, and are based on the bespoke tank in the James Bond movie Goldeneye.  They are labeled as 1/50 size, and they do indeed measure out to that.  They come in good ol' Soviet green.  However, inspired by His Lordship, I decided to paint them in Soviet camouflage patterns in use in the early 90s (when the action in Balczakistan takes place).  The schemes may or may not be correct for T55s, but what the heck...

First, here is what they look like out of the box:




I decided to do one in a 3-color scheme used on several Soviet tanks:




The other, in a scheme I've seen only on T80s,  But like I said, what the heck...




And here are the 2 together:



I'm pleased with how they turned out.  It's being rumored that they could see action later this year...

 

[has.been]

Nice work Capt!
I too have a 'Golden eye' tank. You & Lord Raglan might have inspired me to try a paint job.

[carlos marighela]

They look great!

That second scheme, the grey/brown/green one appears in a Soviet manual on tank camouflage from the 1980s, so it's totally conceivable that a T-55 could be painted that way. The Czechs used a not dissimilar scheme in the late 1980s and they applied it to their T-55AMs.

[Lord Raglan]

Good job on the T-55s Jim