Fria Ligans forum

Disclaimer: Keep in mind that this is largely written post-session (a few days after in most cases), so the details might not be 100% correct.

(I will post images of the character portraits and links to other images at a later date)


The players start out just east of Köping (Grid An 17) on April 16th 2000, having fled away in a Tgb 13 from the disastrous Operation Reset, not sure which direction to go and having to make several changes in direction due to enemy patrols or just destroyed roads.

The Characters:

Americans:
Sergeant First Class Frank Johnson, Age: 32, Marine Corps 1st Force Reconnaissance Company. Important Specialities: Infiltrator, Ranger, Communications and Launcher Crew. Armed with M82A1 rifle and M9 pistol.

Swedes:
Captain Iris Eastwood, Special Protection Group (SSG), Age 38, former Parachute Ranger from the Life Regiment Hussars. Important Specialities: Interrogator, Intelligence, Redleg, Ranger, Sniper and Infiltrator. Armed with PSG 90 and Pistol 88.

Private Alice Larsson, Combat Support - Combat Medic (IB 15, Älvsborgs Regemente), Age 37, Former Surgeon, drafted during the war. Important Specialities: Field Surgeon, Computers, Electrician, Historian. Armed with AK 5 and Frag Grenades.

Private Karl Albrecht, Combat Support - Sigint (FRA), Age 38, Former Engineer, drafted during the war. Important Specialities: Computers, Teacher, Logistician, Intelligence, Racer. Armed with an AK 4 and a Remington 11-87 semi-auto shotgun.

Private Bror Göransson, Combat Arms - Rifleman (IB 12 Smålandsbrigaden), Age 31, Former Criminal, drafted during the war. Important Specialities: Scrounger, Rifleman and Melee. Armed with AK 5 and Frag Grenades.

Civilian Alex Petrov, Intelligence Agent (Säpo)

SESSION 1 (D0 - D+2):

(Alex and Pvt Göransson are unconscious in the back of the Tgb 13 for this entire encounter)
After having taken stock of the equipment in the vehicle (including an off-road bike on the roof, and a KSP-90 mounted in a pintle mount with 400 rounds of ammo), the players decide that their best bet is to go north-west and scout out Köping and then proceed further North-West towards Lindesberg.
They travel north to cross the bridge at An 16.
They discover a Soviet checkpoint by the bridge and decide to sneak up and check it out.

Sgt Johnson and Pvt Albrecht sneak up to a nearby hill to get a good vantage point. They identify that the soldiers are indeed soviet, but can't make out what they're talking about.
There's 3 soldiers and an officer with a parked UAZ Jeep.

After sneaking back to the rest of their unit, they all manage to sneak back to the hill and set up an ambush.

Sgt. Johnson starts the ambush by shooting (and missing!) at the Officer that's sitting in the car. All hell breaks loose and the rest of the group open up with full automatic fire.
They manage to gun down two of the Soldiers and wound one of the Soldiers.
The wounded Soldier returns fire, while the Officer starts the car.
Nobody gets hit and Johnson manages to put a .50 cal round through the head of the Officer, instantly killing him, while Cpt. Eastwood manages to nail the last soldier with her sniper rifle by hitting him in the neck, paralyzing him.
Pvt. Larsson hurries down to the wounded enemy and manages to stabilize him, using her last personal medkit and her surgical tools.
Eastwood interrogates the soldier to get information about Köping and finds out that there are indeed Soviet forces at Köping, but due to the language barrier, she doesn't find out how many.
She decides to end the soldiers life with her knife.
They pick up the weapons of the Soviets and manage to put together one decent looking uniform from the killed soldiers, loading up that and their helmets on the Tgb 13, they move on across the bridge.

The group decides that it's prudent to avoid Köping, so they head north of Köping through the woods and manage to get around 10km (1 hex) before they manage to blow a tire. Albrecht manages to fix it together with Larsson.
They start moving again, but only get 2 hexes before they blow another tire.
Having no spares, the only option is to go back to the checkpoint to get a spare from the UAZ jeep.

They decide that Johnson should go with Albrecht (him being the best driver) to pick it up. They manage to sneak past Köping again without being noticed, and get back to the checkpoint before anyone has checked in on them.
On the way back, they decide to take a closer look at Köping, but doing so they get discovered and a group of 20+ Soldiers with 2 Trucks and a BTR-70 start moving towards them.
They flee directly north to throw off their pursuers.
There they run into two US soldiers who are lost and starving. They make a deal with the soldiers (Hicks and Hudson) to provide food if they agree to provide protection and help the group. They then make camp for the night.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group have spent the time setting up a decently hidden camp and hidden the Tgb 13 with branches. They've also managed to scavenge for water and hunt down a deer.

During the night, Eastwood gets attacked by a bear while on watch, but manages to kill it with one shot to the head.

The next day, Johnson and Albrecht return with the two soldiers in tow.

The session ends here.

SESSION 2 (D+3 - D+6).

In the morning, Alex and Göransson wake up. The group informs them where they are and what has happened.

The group moves 2 more hexes towards Lindesberg without much incident. At one time they do have to pull off the small road they're on because Johnson hears the roar of a V8 coming towards them. As they hide in the woods they spot a heavily modified 1969 Dodge Charger speeding past going east.
Thinking it's odd, but not much more, the group keeps moving towards Lindesberg and stop to make camp about 10 km outside of Lindesberg.
Having only enough fuel to make it to Lindesberg, they decide that Johnson and Eastwood should go to Lindesberg on foot to scout out the area and then return to report enemy numbers and make a plan.

The rest of the group set up camp while Johnson and Eastwood sleep so they can march all night to get to Lindesberg in the morning.

Johnson and Eastwood set off during the evening without incident.

Göransson takes the night watch and notices 3 soldiers of unknown origin passing by at a distance during the night. He doesn't open fire since they don't discover the camp.

Johnson and Eastwood arrives at Lindesberg at nightfall and scouts it out with night vision goggles. They discover several patrols going around the city, consisting of 1-2 soldiers with flashlights. No other ligts are on in the city, so it most likely is without electricity.
They decide to wait until morning to scout it out better using binoculars during dayligt.

Meanwhile, back at camp, Alex decides to explore the area, while Larsson and the americans scavenge for water.
Alex gets lost and ends up in a hex north-east of the camp, but he finds a ruined village with a hidden root cellar that can be used for hidden storage. (Ai 14)
Back at camp, Göransson notices the patrol coming back and hurredly sets up an ambush with Larsson and the two Americans, as he notices they are Soviet soldiers.
The ambush is a great success and they gun down the 3 soldiers.
Again they strip them of gear and useful uniforms.

Johnson and Eastwood discover that it is indeed Soviets that are holding Lindesberg. They count at least 30+ soldiers in town.
They decide that they can start to pick off a few soldiers before they need to run away since they are both skilled enough marksmen to shoot at ranges of 1-1.5 km.

They split up and take positions North and North-West of town with Johnson finding high-ground to the North and Eastwood picking a spot by the side of a river that runs into a lake north of Lindesberg, thus keeping her flank clear.
Johnson starts by taking an extreme range shot from 1.2 km away, managing to cut a soldier in half with his .50 cal sniper rifle.
All the enemy soldiers immediately stop and look around when the sound of the shot reaches them 3.5 seconds later. (Thus giving Johnson and Eastwood a hint that these are experienced soldiers, and not rookies).
As Johnsons second shot impacts, they all dive into cover. Officers come running out, shouting and pointing. Eastwood starts taking her shots and cut down two of them running for cover, while Johnson takes the arm off one of them.
Again, the enemy forces stop and hide.

Johnson and Eastwood both pick this moment to relocate twice, Johnson gets spotted and the enemy open fire. But they are outside of effective range, so only a few rounds whizz past harmlessly.

As they settle in to their new positions, they hear the sound of an engine.

With horror, they spot a BRDM-2 rolling out towards Johnsons last known position.

Eastwood, having a side view to the event, notices 3 enemy soldiers trailing close behind the BRDM-2. She opens fire on the one furthest behind and cuts him down without the other 2 noticing it.

Johnson decides to try his luck and starts shooting at the Armored Car.

His first shot hits and penetrates, going right into one of the crewmembers (unknown to Johnson since the vehicle doesn't stop moving).

This causes the vehicle to open fire, and since it has a good range, the rounds start impacting frighteningly close to Johnson.

He holds his courage and stays in his position.

Johnson fires again, hitting the turret and the gun goes silent.

Eastwood cuts down the second soldier behind the Car and the third one finally notices, he bangs his fist aginst the back of the vehicle and the Armored Car stops.

Eastwood fires a last time, killing the last soldier.

Johnson fires his third time, hitting the vehicle and sparks fly out, followed by a billowing fire pouring out through the three holes he has punched in the Armored Car.

Shortly after, the vehicle explodes in a violent bang.

This is their cue to exfiltrate.

They start moving back towards camp.

Meanwhile Alex finds his way back to camp in time to get there when Johnson and Eastwood does.

The group talk about what to do and decide to drive to the outskirts of Lindesberg and leave the vehicle hidden while going in on foot.

They manage to get halfway there before the engine sputters to a halt, having somehow gotten dirt into the fuel. They try to push the Tgb 13 off the road into the woods, but manage to get it stuck on a log.

They take their gear from the car and hide it 100 paces due north of the truck, and then proceed to march towards Lindesberg.


When they get there, they decide to wait until night to infiltrate the town. Johnson and Eastwood have night vision goggles and infiltrate from the North and South respectively.
Alex (who speaks fluent Russian) and Göransson (who is great at Melee) dress up as Soviet soldiers and sneak into town.
Larsson and the US soldiers follow at a safe distance behind.

Alex and Göransson manage to scope out the town by following the patrol routes that Johnson and Eastwood scouted out earlier.
They find the Officer and Soldier Barracks. One guard is outside each, so they decide to attack from opposite directions, but when Johnson and Eastwood sneak around the block to get there, they notice a patrol of 2 soldiers coming towards them.
They hurry back to Alex and Göransson and set up an ambush.
The patrol sneaks past and the four of them sneak up behind them. Alex grabs one of the soldiers from behind and Göransson stabs him to death. The other soldier is stabbed by both Johnson and Eastwood and dies without making any noise.

They go back to the original plan and approach the two guards from opposite directions. (the guards are roughly 25 meters apart)
Meanwhile, Larsson and the Americans set up enfilade positions along the road the soldiers are on, just in case. (Larsson using the Ksp 90, now dismounted from the Tgb 13).

Jonhsson and Eastwood sneak up behind one of the guards while Alex and Göransson distract both guards while approaching them, spaking to them in fluent russian and asking how the shift is going.

As they get to the guards, Alex again grabs the guard while Göransson takes him out with the knife, but Johnson and Eastwood has no such luck.
They only manage to wound the guard they're attacking and he manages to shout out a warning before dying.

The soldiers and officers in the buildings are up and making noise.

Göransson throws a grenade in the building that houses the soldiers, while Johnson and Eastwood retreat to a position where they can overwatch the side and rear of the buildings respectively.

Göransson and Alex run down the road to the end of the building to provide overwatch from the side in case anyone comes out.

Larsson and the US soldiers start sprinting towards their comrades.

Three soldiers and an officer pop out of the doorway, and Alex and Göransson open fire, cutting down two of them immediately and causing suppression on the others before killing them the next turn.

Two soldiers hop out of the windows to the rear, where Eastwood kills one and suppresses the other using her Pistol.
One officer does the same on the side of his building, where Johnson is waiting with his Pistol. It does not end well for the officer.

Another officer and two more soldiers go out the front and are greeted by both Alex and Göranssons AK-74 fire, and Larssons suppressing fire from the MG.

They don't last long.

After that, it all goes quiet for a while.

Alex hears someone shouting from the building that they give up.
He tells them to drop their weapons and come out with their hands up. Two soldiers and an Officer come out.

The group interrogates them about the rest of the forces in town and find out that they are the last survivors. Fifteen soldiers are out on patrols around Lindesberg (including the 3 that the group ambushed the day before) and are expected to return in a day or two.

The group spends a shift searching through the town and finds some weird and interesting stuff (including a survival kit, a trailer, and a weather balloon!), and also find a ZIL-131 truck with the right fuel for their own vehicle.

While they're doing that, civilians start comming out of cellars. They thank the group for saving them from the brutal occupation of the Soviet soldiers.

They tell the group that the soldiers were mostly marauders and don't seem to be in contact with any higher command. They have brutalized the civilian population for years.

The group decides to give the AK-74's and other military eqipment left by the dead soldiers to the civilians.

They also decide that a fitting punishment for the surviving Soviets is to strip them naked and leave them with the civilians.

They then drive the truck to their Tgb 13, remove the wheels from the ZIL and put them on the Tgb 13, while putting the slightly smaller Tgb 13 wheels on the Tralier to give it better ground clearance.

They transfer the equipment to the Tgb 13, hitch up the trailer and transfer all the fuel they can from the ZIL truck.

Not wanting to leave the rest of the fuel (a full tank more for the Tgb 13), they manage to dismount the fuel tank from the ZIL truck and store that on the trailer too for future use.

Thus ends session 2.

SESSION 3 (D+6 - D+10)

The group drives up to the Burned Village to set up a hidden camp in the woods outside, while they set up a backup stash of weapons and equipment in the hidden root cellar.

They transfer 6 AK-74’s with ammo, 4 Makarov Pistols with ammo, 9 sets of TTsKO green Soviet Fatigues, 9 SSh-68 Soviet Helmets, 4 Tgb 13 Spare tires, a doll and a super soaker to the cellar.

After that, Göransson, Larsson, Alex and the Americans explore neighboring sectors.

Larsson and the Americans get lost and end up with Göransson and Alex in sector Ai12.
While standing around on the road discussing what to do next, they hear the roar of a V8 engine.

They get into a heated discussion about whether to perform an ambush or not, and before they realize it, the car comes barreling around a corner and almost hits them. The car performs evasive maneuvers and the group dives out of the way, but Hudson manages to get hit in the arm by the car while diving to the side.

The car speeds off in the distance and the group decides to go back to camp.

Back at camp, Eastwood has been cooking up the last of the raw food they had left.

They eat and bunk down for the night. Johnson keeps watch during an uneventful night.

In the morning, they discuss what to do next. They consider going north, or to head back towards friendly lines. But in the end they decide that the best thing to do is to head out into the wilderness north of the area between Lindesberg and Filipstad to set up a more permanent camp.

Trying to save fuel, they decide to stick to the roads and head towards Nora. Driving south from Lindesberg, they run into a group of American soldiers, led by a Major of the US Marines. The group looks disheveled and starving, with very little equipment.

They stop at around 300 meters from the group and tell the Major to approach and talk to Captain Eastwood.

The two meet up halfway (with the Major flanked by two soldiers and Eastwood accompanied by Johnson) while Göransson covers from the Machine Gun mount on the Tgb 13.

The Major identifies himself and demands that the group join him in “a mission to seek out the enemy and destroy them”.

The Captain goes back to the group to discuss this, and most of them agree to tag along.

After they inform the Major that they’ll join him, he moves all his soldiers up to the Tgb 13 and starts ordering people around. He tells some soldiers to strip the vehicle of ammunition and food and orders Göransson to step down from the Machine Gun mount.

The group is apprehensive about this, but go along with it, except Göransson who suddenly says “fuck this” (in Swedish) and swings the pintle mount around to shoot a burst of fire right into the Majors chest, nearly cutting him in half.

Everyone is stunned and Johnson shouts “Nobody shoot! Drop your weapons, we don’t want to fight you!”.

All but two of the American soldiers drop their guns, but the two that don’t, open fire on the group.
The first one shoots Göransson in the throat and hits his windpipe. Blood gushes out from his neck as he tries to scream out in pain.
Johnson shoots the guy with his pistol and hits him twice in the chest, but he doesn’t go down.
Alex pulls out a pistol and shoots the soldier twice as well and this time he goes down.
The second soldier fires at Johnson and hits him in the arm, but it’s just a grazing shot.
Larsson runs up to Göransson to stop the bleeding and tend to his injury.
Meanwhile, Eastwood fires a burst into the second soldier and kills him.

The other soldiers surrender quickly.

Johnson talks to the soldiers and explain how we’re all on our own now and that Major was going to lead them on a suicide mission for a war that doesn’t even exist any more.
He tells them that they’re free to go if they want to, or they can come with the group to set up a safe place to live and try to find some peace in this world.

Three of the soldiers decide to leave, while 6 of them decide to follow the group.

The group continues towards Nora make camp in Ag16.

They set up the camp to last for about a week or two and manage to hide it pretty well.

Eastwood and Johnson head out to recon Nora while the rest of the group scavenge for food and water.

Eastwood and Johnson arrive at the east side of a lake next to Nora and see that there is a large wooded island dominating the lake that would give a great view of Nora itself (Alntorps Ö). They swim out to the island and scout out Nora.

It turns out that Nora has been more or less flattened in a battle at least a year or so ago. Most of the structures are ruins and there are broken wrecks of military vehicles littered throughout the town.

Staying on the island for a shift, watching Nora, they see no movement or signs of life.

They do, however, decide that the island itself would be excellent as a base. It has a few structures on it already, meaning the group will have shelter immediately, and most of the island is covered with woods, meaning it is sheltered from view from most of the surrounding area (except possibly directly from Nora).

They swim back to the eastern shore and search through the coastline and find a boat.

They move back to the camp and tell the group the news.
They pack up camp, and head out to the eastern shore of the lake by Nora. They find a spot in the woods to hide the Tgb 13 and start looking through the buildings in the village on the eastern shore (Alntorp) for loot.

They find some useful (and some not-so-useful) stuff.
Having set up a temporary shelter in one of the houses near the Tgb 13, they start ferrying soldiers and equipment over to the Island.

They quickly set up camp on the Island and decide that they should go back to Lindesberg and offer the civilians there to join their new camp.

Leaving the Island in the hands of the American soldiers, under the command of Hicks and Hudson, they drive back to Lindesberg and talk to the civilians there.

8 of the Women there decide to come with them to the Island.

They go back and send the Women over to the Island and help setting up the base.

During the downtime, Eastwood trains Johnson in the art of sniping.

End of Session 3.

Great write up. Short, sharp, descriptive.

Care to comment on the 50 cal shooting at the BMP and putting it out of action? I have run a 50cal v a lightly armoured truck, hit the engine block with +1 success which reduced engine to 0 reliability, so put the truck out of action.

Great write up. Short, sharp, descriptive.

Care to comment on the 50 cal shooting at the BMP and putting it out of action? I have run a 50cal v a lightly armoured truck, hit the engine block with +1 success which reduced engine to 0 reliability, so put the truck out of action.

Not BMP.

BRDM-2.

They have around 7-10mm of armor at most. So penetrating that with a .50 cal even from long ranges isn't that hard.

Rules-wise, it penetrated and I rolled for damage. First shot hit crew (commander in this case) but didn't otherwise effect the vehicle. Second shot penetrated and hit crew again, this time the gunner. Third time he hit ammo and did enough damage to make it explode.

The .50 cal does 4 damage 3 crit, my player had A+B skill in shooting. He had enough bonuses for it to turn into A+A in shooting. With just 1 additional success, that's 5 damage. The BRDM-2 has 3 armor. That means that with just 2 additional successes, he's not only penetrated the armor, but he's also doing at least 3 damage which is a crit to anyone hit inside. Not only that, but if you hit ammo and do 2 or more damage, all the ammo is destroyed and if it's a heavy weapon (which the KPV that's on the BRDM-2 is) the ammunition also automatically explodes. And since my player was rolling A+A, he got more than 1 success two times out of three

To be honest, I put the BRDM-2 in there instead of something bigger because I was afraid my players wouldn't be able to handle anything bigger.

Next time, I won't be so nice

EDIT: I think the key to his success was that he hit fleshy people inside and then managed to hit the ammo. If he had hit engines and such, it would have probably taken a lot longer to stop that thing.

EDIT 2: About the BRDM-2... Honestly, I'm considering lowering its armor to 2 in some areas... sure, there's a lot of angling from the front, but from the side, there's basically no angling. It's just a flat 7mm sheet of plate... that shouldn't give 3 armor IMHO.