After action report from the 2nd squad, 1st platoon, "Baker Company", of the 508th airborne division. I always wanted a tank.
(We played The Region, an apolcapse world hack.)
I'm Private Presley. Before the war, I played guitar in Arkansas. My brothers in arms included a criminal from alcatraz, a lawyer turned doctor, my piano playing good friend, and Sarge. The crook managed to bring 10 ounces of dope. For those listening, that's two grunts, a sniper, a doctor, and our Sarge. I had a guitar, and a bazooka.
We were trained, and are ultimate badasses. But, this is our first real live combat dropped. And I just got dear john'd.
Sarge gave us our orders: harass the enemy, find targets of opportunity. Primary target is two bridges. Rules of engagement do not include taking prisoners. I hoped we could steal a tank. Those things are great.
Our plane was hit by AA fire, and we jumped -- DIABLO! -- way off course. We were somewhere in France, and no idea if there were even any nazis here to harass. We found them soon enough -- signal flares after we were a bit loud in searching for additional soldiers.
Luckily, most of the 2nd squad was able to stay together. We even found a few troopers from other Companies. Sarge had a full roster of us grunts.
We were taking fire, so high tailed it to a barn. Our sniper was able to setup a position, and buy us some time. In the barn, we found two trucks, and were able to mount heavy guns to the rear. Us grunts went out and attacked the enemy head on while the snip took 'em from the read. They didn't know what hit 'em -- and I got a bullet.
Luckily, our medic was able to patch me right up.I was in and out for a few minutes, but by then we'd cleaned up.
Once we got our bearings, we were we were up shit creek. 20 miles from the drop site, with no armor and no mobility. The same AA gun that took down our plane was operational in less than a mile away. Sarge gave the order, and we headed to take it out.
Just as we were massing, the germans sent a counter attack. A half-track, loaded with soldiers. And a heavy machine gun, mounted. We were fucked -- or woudl have been, if not for the quick action of our medic. He tossed his anti-tank mine, and the damn thing blew!
There was one german with enough gumption left to fire off a shot, and it was a lucky one. Took our medics head clean off. That man saved my life, and he deserved better.
We found a phone stations and the headquarters, and took both out. That C-2 is good stuff.
We kept at it, and managed to take out the few guards around the AA tower. And -- sad to say -- a tank. I blew up a tank with the bazooka.
There was another couple of tanks left, so we managed to add those to our supply. Now we just got to figure out how to drive 'em. And they are french tanks, not the good panzer ones.
It was a terrible night. I lost a good friend in the ole' doc. We've harried the enemy but good, I just don't know if it'll matter to the war. We're so far from any operational concerns.
George Austin , Jeffrey Hosmer Paul Edson Marc Forbes and Charles King played in this band of brothers. They were all fantastic.
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Hey, it's great to hear people are playing Mission Boston! Thanks for the AAR.
ReplyDeleteJohn Aegard is it your hack?
ReplyDeleteI didn't write the Regiment -- that's Paul Riddle & John Harper -- but I did write the Mission Boston paratrooper D-Day scenario with the gear bingo and the French tanks and so forth.
ReplyDeleteJohn Aegard The gear bingo was pretty great. Two of us went into the muck when jumping -- and one of us lost a column or row. It wasn't me, but I thought it was pretty great. The player this happened to was kind of annoyed, thinking that a 7-9 result should be better. Then he heard that a real miss was drowning. Well done, there.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't take much damage, but I think that was the GM not exchanging fire as much as should happen. We're accustomed to being fine on a 10+ roll, and that's not quite how this one works -- right?
I had a blast as Sarge, for what it's worth. I think the squad leader role adds a certain player-focused arrow to the scenario. We rolled really well early on. Love love love the "We can't accomplish our ACTUAL objective, let's just screw stuff up..." aspect.
ReplyDeletePaul Edson You made a good sarge, too. This may become on of our standing ongoing games, since it worked out so damn well. I feel like the next session should be quieter -- more about how we deal with the liberated french town. That'll humanize us and make it a game about people, rather than being larger than life. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteWilliam Nichols it's been some time since I've run the Regiment, but from what I remember, every time you take fire in the fiction, you're rolling on the (quite unforgiving) Volume of Fire chart. Hit the Deck mitigates this somewhat. Assault mentions that you take fire as established even on a strong hit -- the bennies you get on a 10+ are about the result of the assault, not the cost to achieve it.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I ran it, if there was someone shooting at a PC and the PC did anything besides run away or cower from it, that PC was rolling VOF. Forcing decisions between Assault and Hit the Deck is super fun!
Paul Edson thanks! When did you realize that the real mission was screwed? How did you figure out where you were? That's my favourite part of the scenario, when the mortar crews are popping flares over you and you don't know anything about what's happening.