2020, It 'Twas The Best of Times...Nah, Who Are We Kidding, It Stunk?

 So, I know I've not been as active of late on the blog, and I am hoping 2021 will be better. Partly, I have a paying gig with these nice folks: https://sjrresearch.tumblr.com/.

 It has been busy and I am very proud of the work I've done there. But, it has cut into the time I can give "500 Miles..." That said, I fully intend to put myself on a monthly article schedule and stick to it. I owe my loyal readers that much.

 I also have a lot of Russian Civil War on my mind lately, as I am painting 15mm to do games set during that conflict. 

 As for T2K items, it's been mostly quiet, with the exception of the release of the 4th Edition Alpha to Kickstarter supporters. I will say this much...I wish I could say I was impressed. I wasn't. Sadly, I feel Free League made a very good looking product, that when you scratch the surface, had a lot of problems. Problems that by the time the Alpha rolls around, should at least be addressed, let alone dealt with. 

 I invited Tomas from FL to do another interview to address these questions. He didn't even respond to my request. I am going to repeat that request. But, as of right now, I am going to say this about the 4th Edition. And I say this as a kickstarter backer. Please don't do what Cyberpunk 2077 did and rush this? Take the time and do it right. I am willing to wait. Keep me informed, and keep us in the loop. Want to see a delayed kickstarter done right? Talk to the guys at Catalyst Games Labs. Their Battletech Kickstarters ran into delays, they ran into numerous issues, and they and the fans persevered and in the end, they produced a top-notch product. Free League needs to take that stance.

 Enough said about that. Meanwhile, Mr. James Langham of the "Cold War Goes Hot" vlog on Youtube is coming out with a set of mass battle rules for Twilight: 2000. I suspect they might be based on his current 15mm efforts with "Seven Days to the Rhine" by Great Escape Games. I have a copy of those rules, but something about them doesn't float my personal boat. Not real sure as to why? Too simple I guess? I like my rules with a little crunch in them. Guess it's why I am painting like mad and thinking hard about variants for BG:Northag and FFT3? But who knows, I might be pleasantly surprised? 

I promise I will be posting some more FFT content soon, perhaps some nations OTHER than Poland? 

Other than that, I wish everyone a happy 2021, and we'll talk more very soon! TTFN!

Another Entry for the Fistful Of Tows Project

 

Polish 20th Tank Division 1997

                                                 for the Fistful of TOWs Twilight: 2000 project

  I had so much fun writing the previous article, I decided to do another one. This time, I grabbed another one of my Micro Mark lists, this one on the 20th Tank Division, which was part of the Polish 1st Army. In Chico's Advent Crown document, which I heartily recommend for anyone doing any Fistful of Tows games set in the Twilight War, 1st Polish Army gets pretty shot up defending Northern Poland, especially around Gdansk and the northern Wisla river region. 20th Tank Division probably did not fare well in these engagements.

  I chose the 20th mainly because of it's makeup, it has a lot of mix of old and, new, and has some "school units" that would be interesting to field on the tabletop. Either way, it makes for a neat unit to run on the tabletop.

  I also didn't add in the usual Army and Front level assets, as I think I will include this in their own blog entry. 

 

  So, assumptions I made here:

• The T-72s got some minor upgrades, better ammunition from Soviet stocks, and perhaps fitted for side skirts made locally? (Use later pen numbers for Soviet T-72s and improve HEAT defense by one letter to the flank). 
• The tank battalion in the 49th Mechanized Regiment got upgrades to T-55AM standard, as the refit kits were made in Poland, and I am sure in the winter of 1996-97, those factories were working triple shifts!
• Polish BMP in selected units, of which the 20th was one, had their BMPs upgraded to BMP-1P standard.
• All Polish BRDM AT-3 Sagger in the 20th have been upgraded to AT-5 Spandrel models (purchases from the Soviets).
• All Tank Regiments in the division got SA-13 for their ADA companies.

So, without further ado.

____________________________

Polish 20th Tank Division, April 1997

Quality: Fair to Average (more Average on Polish soil, fair in the earlier fighting in Germany)

Artillery Accuracy and Friction Response: 3+ / 2+

Combat Formations

24th, 28th, and 68th Tank Regiments:

• Base
• 1 ZSU-23-4
• 1 SA-13
• 2 recon BRDM-2
• 3 Tank Battalions
• 6 T-72M1 (24th), 6 T-72M (28th), or 6 T-72A (68th)
• 1 Mechanized Company
• 1 BMP-1P + 1 Infantry Stand w/SAM Stand
• 2 BMP-1P + 2 Infantry Stands
• 1 Engineer Company
• 1 OT-64A + 1 Engineer Stand
• 1 BLG-67 (use same model as MTU-55) AVLB
• 1 Regimental 122mm SP Artillery Battalion [See the Artillery Support Groups]

49th Mechanized Regiment:

• Base
• 1 recon BRDM-2
• 1 ZU-23-2 Stand and 1 Truck
• AT Missile Battery
• BRDM-2 with AT-5 Spandrel
• 3 BMP Mechanized Battalions; each with:
• 3 BMP-1P + 3 Infantry Stands w/SAM 
• 6 BMP-1P + 6 Infantry Stands
• 1 120mm Mortar Stand + 1 Truck
• 1 Tank Battalion
• 9 T-55AM
• 1 Engineer Company
• 1 OT-64A + 1 Engineer Stand
• 1 UAZ-469 + Mine Clearing Charge equipment
• 1 Regimental 122mm SP Artillery Battalion [See the Artillery Support Groups]

___________________________________________________________________________

Attachments

8th Divisional Recon Battalion (Maximum of one)

• 2 recon BMP-R
• 2 recon BRDM
• 2 recon infantry stands + 2 UAZ-469

75th AA Regiment (Maximum of one)

• 1 ZU-23-2 Stand + 1 Truck
• 4 SA-6 SP SAM

7th Engineer Battalion (Maximum of one)

• 3 Engineer Stands + 3 OT-64A
• 1 T-55 with mine plow
• 1 PTS-M

Artillery Support Groups

Regimental 122mm SP Artillery Battalion

• 2 2S1 SP 122mm Guns [1 FO +1 UAZ]

Divisional 122mm SP Artillery Battalion (Maximum of 2)

• 3 2S1 SP 122mm Guns [1 FO + 1 UAZ]

Divisional MRL Battalion (Maximum of 1)

• 4 BM-21 122mm MRLs [Light MRL]

___________________________________________

Well, that's it for the 20th, I'll cover another selected division sometime next week!

TTFN!

FFT 3 and the Twilight War

 So, I have been working on my Fistful of Tows 3 armies of late, as I have a ton of unpainted micro armor that I kinda want to turn into painted micro armor. (and have been working to do so, I'll have some articles on how that's been going soon!) And, I have been thinking. I've always touted FFT 3 as a great set of rules to do the operational level clashes of the organized phase of the Twilight War (1995-1997, and perhaps even 1998?)

 Well, I have a lot of Micro-Mark lists from Mark Bevis lying around my Wargames Vault library, and I wanted to use them to convert to lists I can use for a plain vanilla "Third World War." Well, an idea hit me like a brick through the proverbial window. Why can't I also use them for Twilight War organizations as well? Right? 

  So, I am embarking on two new projects, one is, of course, to make some headway in reorganizing and painting my FFT 3 armies, and second? To create parallel army lists for FFT 3 so people can game out the Twilight War on the tabletop. 

  But Jason, what of some of the weirdo vehicles like the M1A2 Giraffe? What do we do for that? Well, I stated those out and have enclosed a link to those items here. So, without further ado, let's discuss my first list, a list for the humble OTK Territorial Defense Units (What most Twilight: 2000 gamers know as the ORMO!)

     To quote Wikipedia: 

      The OTK was founded in 1965 to help defend Polish territory in situations where the Polish People's Army was engaged abroad under Warsaw Pact obligations. Although their primary mission was defending the homeland, the OTK also had the Warsaw Pact mission of transporting Soviet forces and supplies across Poland in wartime. Formed mainly from units shifted from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the OTK went under a new Inspectorate for National Territorial Defense in the Ministry of National Defense. The OTK included the Internal Defense Forces (Polish: Wojska Obrony Wewnętrznej - WOW, the largest unit) and several smaller territorial defense units.

    The OTK, thus was the second line militia forces one would see in most communist countries that answered more to the party or a parallel organization, rather than the military itself. The WOW, which was the internal defense forces, will be covered in a different article. Mr. Bevis has them organized into several territorial defense brigades, and he has a decent breakdown of the units in his list. According to him, he has 2 Brigades centered on Warsaw and Katowicka, and 7 regiments centered on the other major cities in Poland. Now, in our timeline, by 1990, the OTK was seen as fairly ineffective, as there was a bit of mission creep, (many social organizations, such as the boy scouts, fell under the perview of the OTK) and many Polish officers saw an assignment to the OTK as a fairly easy assignment before retirement, or even one they could pursue after retirement (aka, they had a lot of dead wood to clear out.) I suspect the situation didn't improve until East Germany fell, and NATO troops were on the Oder-Niesse, but there must have been some improvements to these units, if only to give them a fighting chance?

  So, what improvements do we think they made?

• The first change I suspect they made was to get the OTK units trained up under the supervision of perhaps convalescing or otherwise disabled officers and NCOs fresh from the fighting against NATO in Germany. How well this went is up to some conjecture. But I suspect something better than 1940 LDV, and not quite as good as 1943 Home Guard might be a way to evaluate them. They're willing to fight, how well they will fight is an open question.
• Another was to improve the equipment available with whatever the Army was willing to spare (mostly cast-off or perhaps gear captured from the Chinese front! Though, I suspect there wasn't a ton of the latter.) I assume the Polish Army itself upgraded as follows:
• All of the RPG-2s are replaced by RPG-7.
• A limited number of 82mm M37 mortars were issued from reserve stocks. 
• All the SMGs are replaced by AKMR or AKMs 
• Limited replacement of ZPU-2 with ZU-23-2 as more are made available from new Soviet production. 
• The remaining B-10 RCLs are retired for more SPG-9s
• Each battalion is given a battery of 6 M37 82mm mortars.
• And this is my off the wall option, use it at your peril. As the NATO buildup in Germany continued over the winter of 1996-97,  the Polish government was deseperate to get any arms they could lay their hands on. One method they came up with was to release obsolete tanks to the OTK. Some 900 T-34/85s were released to the OTK from  reserve stocks as other army reserve and WOW units recieved T-55s as hand-me-downs from other army units. The vehicles were in bad shape, and often as not, encased in concrete and used as pillboxes ala the German Panzerturm, but...you could use them on the basis of one company per OTK Brigade or Regiment.

So, what would an OTK list look like? Well, not much different from an OTK list constructed for a 1980s game. They'd still be of fairly dubious quality, and with mostly light equipment, they'd have no business going toe-to-toe with anyone outside of an urban area or other close terrain. But in that terrain, with RPGs and RCLs, they could exact a high toll of NATO troops.

 TWILIGHT: 2000 POLISH OTK DEFENSE FORCE 

Quality: Marginal

Artillery Accuracy and Friction Response: 4+; Response 3+

Combat Formations

OT Infantry Battalion:

• Base:
• 1 SPG-9 73mm RCL Stand
• 1 82mm M37 Mortar Stand
• 3 Rifle Companies: 
• 3 Stands of Infantry

 OT Infantry Regiment:

• Base:
• 1 Traffic Regulation Platoon (treat as normal infantry stand) and 1 Truck
• 1 ZU-23-2 23mm Stand and 1 Truck
• 1 82mm M37 Mortar Stand
• 4-6 Rifle Companies:
• As per the battalion above, but each company has an 73mm SPG-9 stand.

Attachments

OT Brigade Engineer Battalion: 3 T-55 AVLB, 3 Truck Bridges

OT Brigade Engineer Company: 3 Engineer Stands and 3 Trucks

OT Brigade Smoke Laying Company: 1 Smoke Generator on Truck

OT Brigade Security Platoon: 1 ZU-23-2 Stand, 1 Truck

OT Armor Company: 2 T-34/85 (Polish player may only field one of these companies in a game).

__________________

So, this was an easy and short entry, but we'll cover individual divisions of the Polish Army, the WOW, and other units as I get to them. I am also going to show off my 6mm painting efforts and show you how I cracked the code to brush painting with AK. Figures I would crack that code after I made the decision not to buy any more of their products. 

TTFN!

Funded in Seven Minutes...Nice Start if You Ask Me!

 Well, it came, it saw, and boy, did the fans conquer. The game was funded in 7 minutes! Not bad for what is considered a "dead game."

 Well, readers of "500 Miles..." I guess we knew better. What can I say, I put my money where my mouth is, and I like what I saw. I got the deluxe kit. The Mrs. thought it was a good idea from a variety of standpoints...and told me to shell out for the ref's screen. She is very thoughtful like that. 

The game with the first set of stretch goals! - From the FLP Kickstarter Page

My own impressions? It's going for the best features of both V1 and V2. I like the two seperate softcover books, and I like the encounter and initiative cards. That is going to make combat a snap to run. The dice are also a big help. I am not 100% on using a six sider for hit location? Might a D12 have worked better, but hey, I am sure we'll get more updates on that in the future.

Production values are solid throughout, and the people working on it have made in my mind, a real effort to make this work. Their efforts are going to be reflected when this bad boy hits games store shelves in August of next year...GenCon release perhaps?

Support sounds as if it will be something they are going to push hard, especially with the Kickstarter having done so well. I am confident this will sell well, and I can almost hear the 80s soundtrack in my mind I used to game by. Lots of AC/DC and Journey (yes, I know, you can almost see the bad hairdos and poor fashion choices, right?) 

In an aside, it's going to be a relief to take "Twilight" back from all the lovers of a certain book series. That and I'm going to cackle hard when I break this out at a con in front of some millennial Team Yankee players and say "So, wanna try and survive what happens when the nukes fly?"

Yeah, you will too.

Welcome back, Twilight:2000. We have missed you!

Short News Post - Introducing "Rad Zone" (New Contest on the Juhlin Forum!)

As quoted from the post linked here:

This concept should be familiar to Traveller players and is borrowed shamelessly from the "Amber Zone" concept.

Ok, the way this is going to work is this. Please submit a maximum of 1500 words to this thread of a developed adventure seed (doesn't need to be a full adventure). The scenario seed must be at least 500 words in length, and it must have a developed plot line, potential ideas for complications, as well as suggestions to the Referee on how to use something in their campaign. The entry may be rules agnostic, or for a specific version of Twilight: 2000, be it 1st Edition, 2nd Edition, Edition 2.2, or Twilight: 2013.

All submissions must be original, and not published elsewhere, either physically, or electronically on the web in any form.

Extra points to someone using the "Amber Zone" concept of something ambiguous turning into something rather unpleasant indeed, or at least potentially so...

All submissions must be submitted by 0000 EST, Saturday, August 15. A poll of the board membership will then decide the winner. In case of a tie, the mod staff will cast the deciding vote. Voting will be held until 0000 EST, Sunday, August, 31.

Oh, almost forgot, I am putting up a comp copy of my recent miniatures scenario book "Red Star, White Lights" as a prize!

So, flex those creative muscles! I'd love to see what you all come up with!

An Interview With Chris Lites, part of the Free League Publishing Twilight: 2000 team!

I know it's been a while, but I wanted to have some more information on what's going on with the upcoming Twilight: 2000 4th Edition Kickstarter campaign by Free League Publishing! We've seen some interviews online with the design team here, I am not a big video person myself, having been told once that I had a "face for radio, and a voice for television."

But I digress, in any event, I have here the questions and responses from Chris Lites, who is part of the design team, and his thoughts on where the team wants to go. Chris was extremely responsive, and gracious considering the amount of development time he is putting into the release we hope will be sometime next year! (My thoughts, noone elses, please don't bug FGL about it!)

The interview is below, the questions were either formulated by myself, or submitted by readers. Chris's responses are in italics.

1.     Will Character Generation be limited to Army characters, like in the 1st Edition will it be more diverse like in the 2nd Edition?

You can play military or civilians from the start.

 

2.       Will there be setting sourcebooks that do more modern apocalypses?

I’m not sure what the future holds. We’ve discussed an option that might lead to a contemporary sourcebook...possibly.

 

3.       What can you tell us about the proposed mechanics?

One set of mechanics is a more detailed version of the Year Zero System. It includes a much heavier focus on combat. We are also playtesting an alternate ruleset. I can’t say more now.

 

4.       Have you brought anyone on from the old GDW team?

Marc Miller is involved.

 

5.       How many of you are fans of the game?

I don’t think anyone involved isn’t a fan of the old game. I started playing it in about 1986 as a kid. I was pretty obsessed with all things military. I memorized cyclic rates for NATO and Warsaw Pact small arms at one point. Twilight: 2000 was probably the third game I played after D&D and Recon. It was pretty much designed for kid me.

 

6.     What made you all decide to keep the game in 2000, considering younger players are, well, barely aware of the Cold War and all that came with it?

We kept the game where it is because it’s the most plausible scenario and the one fans are familiar with. I think the idea of apocalypse never gets old. Given our current world, certainly, “the end is nigh” is very much in the air. The specifics of what any causal factor were pale in comparison to what we, as a society, deal with mentally: the aftermath. We were perilously close to apocalypse in the Cold War and find ourselves in a different, longer apocalypse now. One that is multi-causal. However, the effects of a Third World War have most of the trappings of what we’d see if everything that can go wrong now continues to do so. While new players might not get the Cold War sense of doom, I think younger generations can relate to the feeling of a dark cloud over the world. Setting it in a recent era makes it realistic but still a bit escapist.

 

7.       Will you be re-issuing old adventures for the new system?

The old adventures serve as a road map. You’ll see the Poland campaign but, in true sandbox style, we present it in such a way that is can be set in the UK, Germany, Sweden, wherever you want.

 

8.       Miniatures, what scale and whom if anyone, have you approached? Or can you talk on that?

Miniatures have been discussed. I am a huge minis gamer. Nothing is decided. The RPG certainly does not require them.

9.       If there’s one thing you want to tell the fans, what is it?

 I’d tell the fans that I was a huge fan of Twilight: 2000, studied the Cold War as a kid while it was going on and both myself, and Tomas intend to do the old game right while making it mechanically modern.

 

10.    Do you think, with what’s going on in the world now, and the rise again of PA entertainment over the last few decades, has Twilight:2000’s moment in the sun finally come?

I think the current state of the world makes the return of Twilight: 2000 as timely as it was when it appeared in 1984. We live on the edge of a vast unknown, a very likely dark abyss, and it permeates our global culture. If you can turn that experience into an exercise for fun, you might find it cathartic. At least in our game, players have agency. In the real world, as individuals, we are very much subject to the agency of others save when we come together. If we’re going to get out of this era’s looming end times, it’ll require global movements from the people who will suffer the consequences. That said, it is a game at the end of the day and the object is to have fun. But, as a writer, I’m very aware of how close some of the scenarios in the game are to what might happen in the not too distant future. There is, for example, a virus in game as an optional plot thread. I wrote that prior to COVID. I hope other things we’ve put in the game remain conscripted to the land of “might have been.”

So, that is our interview thus far. I plan to do another one, hopefully before the beginning of the kickstarter in August! So, send me your questions care of the blog!

 

In other news, there's been quite a bit coming out via Battlefront Miniatures, including this curious development! 

Image taken from Battlefront Website

 Yes, reader, your eyes do not deceive! LAV-75s in 15mm! Yeah, I know, there must be a T2K player at Battlefront. It's the only explanation. They are due to be released in July, and I do my T2K gaming in 20mm, but I might get some for my 15mm Sci-Fi armies. I'll keep ya posted. 

 In other news, my 20mm projects have been slowly humming along. Well, not so much mainly because I have a literal ton of 15mm projects to work on in the sci fi realm, then some WWII, so I am doing the Twilight: 2000 miniatures projects as I can, when I can. But some progress has been made!

A Revell M2 Bradley, a Trumpeter LAV-25 (third one of these I have built) and a S&S GAZ-66 Flatbed, all in 20mm

Another view of the above pictured.

The completed Elhiem "Cover Stars" pack, along with the HMMWV that goes with. Need to weather the HMMWV, but they're almost ready. Good figures that paint up great.

For future installments, I plan on doing a review of Battlegroup: NORTHAG, and perhaps writing some ideas for T2K for it, as well as reviews of Spectre: Modern Operations, and Contact Front, two newcomers (relatively) on the block for potential T2K Miniature gaming fun. I also plan on showing off some of the moderns I picked up recently second hand, and from Butler's Printed Models. I'm also got an idea to doing some Twilight War orbats for Fistful of TOWs, as well as doing a series on where to get the miniatures! 

Ye Gods! It Has Been a Busy Newsday!

It seems the newest edition of the Fanzine "Good Luck, You're On Your Own!" is not only out, but up on DrivethruRPG.net!

Both issues can be found for free at DTRPG and are a good read, I highly recommend them (and I have contributions in both), but they've got some fun miniatures-related ideas we'll go into later!