[WW] War Story of last night's session

[gathomas4@juno.com]

The following is a description of last night's session of Weird Wars that
i sent to a friend of mine who isn't able to game much anymore.  There
was only one player (Mike) playing a Grunt infantryman named Cpl. Long. 
Long started at first level on Omaha Beach where he was one of four in
his platoon to survive the landing.  After several missions (Long is now
3rd level) he has stumbled on some weirdness and the OSI has just shown
up to give Long his "initiation mission" (though he doesn't know that.) 
Comments in brackets are my notes to the list for clarity so that other
WMs might get some use out of this.


"Last night was fun.  Mike and I ran some Weird Wars and he and his guys
were tasked with stealing a German tank prototype from a medical supply
train about 100 miles behind enemy lines.  They were given a crash course
in jumping out of airplanes and handed a tanker's manual to study.  They
were allowed their choice of Airborne weaponry, and given both a German
tank commander's uniform and a large satchel charge (in case they were
unable to retrieve the tank they were ordered to blow it up.)  About 2200
they hopped on a C -47 cargo plane and were flown to their destination
with a platoon of 82nd airborne (who were on a different mission.)

They un-assed the plane without a hitch and four out of five landed in a
field near a French farmhouse.  One guy aimed for the wrong clear spot
and landed in a nearby pond and promptly started drowning.  Quick
thinking and a natural "20" on Cpl Long's (Mike's character) swim roll
saved his drowning buddy.  Long and the newest member of the Fire Team
took some damage from a bad landing but it was no big deal.

[Essentially, for the crash course given them I allowed every character
to make Parachute Proficiency related DEX checks at a -2 penalty instead
of -4.  As a quick way of handling the inherent dangers of jumping i used
the following: For each character that jumps out, roll 1d20, on a one
something goes wrong. Roll 1d6: on 1-2 the parachute doesn't come out and
the character must succeed at a Will save DC10 to pull his reserve; on
3-4 the parachute "streamers" and is ineffective, again the character
must pull his reserve, but there's a 1 in 6 chance that the streamer
tangles with the reserve chute and the trooper plummets to his death;  on
5-6 the cord doesn't disconnect and the trooper finds himself being
beaten to death on the outside of the aircraft, taking 1d6 subdual damage
per round until he cuts himself loose.]

They got their bearings and headed East where a train station lay about
five miles away.  Five miles, and a blown Navigation roll, later and they
had not seen a train station and they almost stumbled onto a German
patrol of a dozen Wehrmacht Infantry.  They got out of that one through
some good stealth rolls and the cover of darkness.  They did finally get
to the train station at about 0130.

The train had ten boxcars, all with red crosses on the side.  Some Vichy
French were loading some supplies onto the fourth car while some Germans
stood around.  There was a guard at each end of the train as well. 
Binoculars, the train area was lit, revealed that the second to last car
was a flat bed with canvas walls painted to look like a box car.  The
fire team snuck up to the train across an open field.  The workers were
on the opposite side of the train and being 100 miles behind the lines
made it easy.  They cut one of the ropes to the canvas and crawled up
inside the car expecting company, but no one was home.  There was indeed
a tank there.  It was an M4 Sherman "Easy Eight" complete with olive drab
paint and a big white star on the side.

Mike was excited about a chance to drive the latest in German technology
(he wanted to make a German character when the campaign started, as in an
actual German trooper) so it took a while for him to catch on:
"What does it look like again?"
"Olive drab, with a white star on the side.  It looks like the Sherman
from your tanker's manual."
Slowly, the situation sunk in.
"It's one of ours? It's one of ours.  Oh shit."

So now he formulates a new plan and sneaks up to car number four to check
out what's being loaded onto the train.  Ammunition mostly.  As the
French finish up and close their side of the boxcars doors, Long opens
his side and tosses in a grenade.  On a prearranged signal ("When you
hear a big boom, get the hell out of here") the Sherman is started up by
one of Long's troops and the guy drives it right off the flatbed. 
There's a spectacular explosion from the ammo car and most of the Germans
in that area are killed.  The guards at each end of the train open fire
as Long runs to catch up to his tank.  With the tank still moving, Long
(with a DEX check of 18) leaps onto the back of the tank, scrambles up
and mans the .50cal HMG on top while ordering the driver to turn the
thing around.  Long takes a bullet, but lays waste with the machinegun
and then they roared off into the night at top speed.

A search of the tank revealed that they had a full load of .50 cal ammo
(1000 rounds) and a full load of .30 cal ammo for the other two machine
guns (2000rds), but they have not a single 76mm cannon shell. 
Fortunately, they have a full tank of gas (we started late, so I left
that scene out.)  They argued a bit over how to get back home (the result
of some more pitiful Navigation rolls), but they got on track and made
good time.

At 0330 they topped a rise and saw the bridge over a river that they
hadn't expected to see for a few miles yet.  There were two surprised
guards on the near side and a dozen soldiers on the far side manning an
MG34 HMG and a Pak40 75mm antitank gun.  Unfortunately for the Germans,
they were expecting Americans from the other side of the river and so
they had their backs to Long and his tank.  Long ordered the driver to
floor it as the Germans on his side started running and he opened up with
the big 50 as his assistant driver manned the .30cal.  The Germans at the
far end turned their gun around, but by that time the tank had roared
almost on top of them and Long was laying down so much suppressive fire
that the Germans never got a shot off with the antitank gun.  The tank
roared right through and over the next hill, where Long, for some reason
set off the satchel charge in the road (he just threw it out the back) in
hopes of fooling the Germans into thinking the tank had blown up.

At 0400 they almost drove smack into a convoy of trucks being escorted by
an 8-wheeled armored car sporting a 50mm gun [Puma].  Not having tank
shells, Long chose not to tangle with that and they slowly backed into
cover before anyone saw them.  After the convoy passed, they drove
through the crossroads and made good time until just before dawn, when a
Panzer IV came into view about 300 yards out.  Again, Mike was having
difficulty identifying his tanks:

"Panzer, that's one of ours right?"
I dug through a book to find the picture of the German officer sitting
atop his Panzer, the barrel almost covered with white stripes (one for
every allied tank he'd killed.)
"Panzer's are ours arent they?"

Well, Long still had his German officer's uniform on and so he called out
to the other tank in German.  Long does speak a fair amount of German
(though his accent isn't so good), but he's in an American tank behind
enemy lines and his Bluff roll didn't even come close to double digits. 
The other commander buttoned up and commenced firing.  His first shot
missed.  Long stayed up and started firing with the .50cal (which of
course did nothing but give the Germans something to listen to as the
bullets ping off their tank) as the Germans reloaded and began to draw a
bead on the Sherman.  Long, still firing the .50, is frantically yelling
for the Driver to do some of that "driving shit" when there's a metallic
sound from inside the turret and he feels someone tap him on the back of
the head.  He hears a voice, as if from far away say: "Batter up."  Mike
(not the character) is stunned for a bit, completely at a loss at this
latest development.  He looks over his shoulder to see if there's some
nazi uniform wearing werewolf sitting right behind him, waiting to take
his head off.  The Panzer fires again, but the Sherman is moving full
speed now and the shot goes wide.  Long says: "Fire!" and the 76mm cannon
goes off.  The shot scores a direct hit on the Panzer's hull seperating
the turret from the chassis, leaving the Panzer a smoking ruin.  As the
Sherman passes the Panzer, Long notices that there's no hole in the enemy
tank.  He hears a metallic noise from below, someone taps him on the back
of the head, and a far away voice says: "Batter Up."  Long drops down
into his own turret and his loader is white as a sheet, his eyes locked
on the cannon's breech.  Long opens it up and sees nothing but the smoky
outline of a 76mm shell.

[The Sherman has one level of Arcane Ammo and one level of Ghostly
Gunner. There is no way they are going to get to keep this thing.  Arcane
Ammo is an awesome power.]

Mike being Mike he gleefully commenced blowing the living daylights out
of the Panzer wreckage with his new toy.

After that it was smooth sailing and he reported in to the OIC of the
mission, an OSI Cpt. He even gave the Cpt. a demonstration of the tanks
abilities.  Needless to say, he was invited to join the OSI and those of
his men who can't keep their yaps shut will be transfered to the areas of
heaviest fighting.  For his exemplary efforts and extraordinary bravery
under the most difficult conditions blah blah blah Cpl. Long was awarded
the Bronze Star.

So now Mike's character is 4th level, one level away from gaining his
coveted Sniper prestige class.


And to top it off, not a single one of his guys got killed.  i need to
start making some more difficult missions.  i think next time i'll send
him on his own to go assasinate Rommel =)



Happy Gaming,

screenmonkey
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