Module Suitability Review - Allegheny Uprising

Image taken from Twilight:2000 Wiki, IP is GDW/FFE

Allegheny Uprising is and isn't your typical Twilight: 2000 adventure. It is, as usual, a post-apocalyptic road picture, and it has a McGuffin (a lost strategic reserve stockpile), but it also has something you don't often see in a Twilight: 2000 adventure. It has a plot best described as "wheels within wheels."

You have just within the CivGov team alone, an undercover CIA agent, a budding traitor who will sell the party out to set himself up as the new power in Western PA (which considering that the is a former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, says a lot about the state of Maryland in Twilight: 2000), and an incompetent buffoon who thinks he is a military genius. Lots going on there. No wonder Rodger Caldwell (the player's patron with CivGov) hired a MilGov team to take care of this.

Next, you have a marauder chieftain (with the oh-so-friendly moniker of the "White Death") shamelessly using an old, vulnerable member of the House of Representatives for his own ends (namely overrunning Western Pennsylvania). But what said chieftain doesn't know is that said congressman knows where this little supply stockpile is. Oh yeah, this has the potential to go sideways really fast, no?

Then there is the not so small matter of a war brewing between the militias in the mountains of Western PA, and the marauder "armies" (more like armed mobs) formed from desperate refugees that are preparing to go to war over the remaining food in Pennsylvania. Seems the harvest won't feed more than 20% of the total surviving populace this year. Yeah, of such things, bitter wars are made.

Something that an online friend pointed out to me after I wrote this? This has got to be one of the grimmest Twilight: 2000 adventures ever written. The fact is, hunger makes people do very desperate things, among them, contemplate genocide. If the heroes do not play their cards right, this could very well happen between the mountain dwellers and the the marauders. The only question would be, who would be the victims?

But how does this do for miniature wargaming fodder?

Skirmish Scenarios

The potential for skirmish scenarios is replete here. There are simply so many small unit actions going on between the marauders and the militias that their skirmishes alone could fill a scenario book by themselves. The main issue is to make sure the scenarios, as I mentioned in my Armies of the Night review, do not become "same-same".  But there are some interesting ideas nonetheless:

• A hired team of European veterans, makes a raid on the "abandoned shopping mall" at Monroeville to rescue Congressman Fitzpatrick. Building a shopping mall is daunting, but it would make a great convention game! (and nice small shout out to "Dawn of the Dead"! )
• Our small band of heroes has to fight off a New American ambush somewhere near the MD line. The trouble is, they can't have anyone taken prisoner, or New America might find out what is going on and send their own expedition.
• The same hired team of European vets decides to launch an attack on the White Death's personal encampment just as he launches the final assault on the mountains. 

Larger Scale Scenarios

Allegheny Uprising really lends itself very well to larger scale scenarios. The armies the White Death can put together are staggering, but badly equipped and trained (some men in his army have little more than knives, clubs, and crossbows). But they are motivated, motivated by sheer hunger, and hatred of the mountain dwellers, whom they believe have huge stockpiles of food. The truth is, they don't but The White Death has them believing otherwise, your morale rules should reflect that. Some interesting ideas include:

• The White Death has beaten CivGov to the stockpile, but Civgov isn't about to just let the marauders have it. The 228th has some advantages of firepower and training, but the White Death sure has the numbers.
• A campaign game of the White Death's attempts to force the mountains and lead his army to the food that doesn't really exist. You might want to have rules for rebellions that will break out in Western Pennsylvania once the White Death is preoccupied with subduing the mountain dwellers.
• CivGov's cache has become well known to everyone. Mountain militias and marauders alike have all allied to get the stockpile for themselves, trouble is, will they wait till the battle is over to betray their "allies"? And how long can CivGov hold the stockpile? 

That's just a few thoughts I have had with this particular adventure. Some final thoughts are, if you do the larger scale games, numbers on the White Death's "army" aren't there, neither are they really there for the militias, but you can fudge it nicely for purposes of a game.

As for figures, the suggestions I made in my Armies Of The Night Review still hold up, but with a higher concentration of civilian weapons. 

Next up, a review of Airlords of The Ozarks, or neo-nazis with dirigibles, ultralights, and ALCMs. Oh my!  

Module Suitability Review - Armies of the Night

Image is from Twilight: 2000 Wiki, IP is GDW/FFE

Armies of the Night is the first Twilight: 2000 adventure that doesn't move around a whole bunch, but remains pretty much in one place. Post-apocalyptic New York City. As an RPG adventure, it's a bit muddied if you ask me. Most of the goals, such as taking a census, or setting up some permanent MILGOV (US Military Government) presence, or figuring out what the heck happened to the last EIGHT expeditions are just plain impossible.

The gold recovery, on the other hand, is doable. But it's going to take a lot of smarts and firepower, and possibly some alliances with some local groups, and they won't be doing it on the basis of the "full faith and credit of the United States government," Your heroes might have to explain to their superiors why their recovered gold is a few bars light..

The story has elements of Escape from New York and The Warriors, as both films are set in New York, and Escape has a lot of thematic similarities, (something's lost in the city, we need it back, we've sent in other guys, and they failed badly...)

All in all, it's got a lot going for it on the RPG side, but what about the miniatures side?

Skirmish Scenarios

Armies of the Night has a lot of skirmish scenario potential. There are so many small gangs and groups running about NYC preying on other small gangs and groups there really is a firefight a minute in this module. The trick is, designing scenarios that don't all become "same-same".

Some of the more unique ideas include:

• The Duke of New York's machinations in starting a war between Little Italy and Chinatown, one could make a pretty good three sided game between his "army" pretending to be from Little Italy, Little Italy's own troops, and the forces of Chinatown.
• A salvage group has come under fire, can they shoot their way out, or are they going down under the guns of some of the urban jackals running about. 
• The last insane survivor of the gold convoy is holed up on top of the Empire State Building, can a small team sent in by MILGOV overcome exhaustion and a hit squad sent by "Hizzoner the Mayor" to silence said survivor before he gives up where the gold is?
• A game where the CIVGOV CIA team in town "hires" a bunch of gangers to silence the MILGOV team and make sure they don't find the gold before CIVGOV does.

Larger Battles

It's a little harder to find fodder for larger battles in Armies of the Night, but not impossible. If you look hard, and use some imagination, there are a few ideas, and some of them include:

• The culminating raid on Central Park to get the gold from it's watery grave. The MILGOV team will need allies for this, and the game's climax should be the arrival of a MILGOV relief force, but then again, will they be able to shoot their way back out when word gets around their trucks are filled with gold?
• The original gold convoy shooting it's way out would also make an awesome game, consider the convoy commander betrayed his own men for some material goods (he was smart enough not to take a cut of the gold, apparently), so properly done, it can make a nice twist on the usual "convoy ambush game".
• A campaign idea can be the MILGOV team actually using a co-op trying to survive as a base of operations, you can game out the various battles as the residents and MILGOV team try to hold off the yawning chaos in New York, the video game, The Division can provide a lot of thematic elements and ideas for this sort of campaign (leaving out the part about the Dollar Flu, though).

Some final notes, if you can find them, the old Games Workshop 20mm Dark Future figures would be great to game out stuff for this particular module. Another possibility in 20mm is Stan Johansen Miniature's Road Warrior line, or Rebel Miniatures Gangs, Gunmen, and Hostages for the 15mm enthusiast.

Well, next installment will be Allegheny Uprising, an interesting module, with a lot of potential for our purposes, but we shall talk more about that next time!

And in another small bit of news, we have now crossed 10,000 page views!

Module Suitability Review - RDF Sourcebook

Taken from Twilight: 2000 Wiki, IP is GDW/FFE

Ah, the RDF Sourcebook. To me, this ranks up there with the Black Madonna as one of the better written Twilight: 2000 modules out there. These 48 pages are just crammed with information on how to run a role-playing campaign in war-torn post-Twilight Iran.

And what a campaign it would be, because here, broken backed though it may be? There is still something resembling a war going on. Both sides may be depleted, down to almost nothing like in Europe, but they have something in Iran that they didn't have in Europe. Oil, and the means to refine it. And that alone has kept the war going, air strikes and all.

But how does it rank up as a basis for miniatures games?

Skirmish Games

For skirmish games, there is a lot of fodder, nothing specific, mind you, but there are some really good ideas in here, not to mention the mission generator alone is great for coming up with great ideas for pickup games. Some ideas I came up with just on a quick read through are:

• The Spetsnaz raids on American airfields in Saudi Arabia during the buildup in 1996.
• The confused fighting around Bandar-i-Khomeini and Khorrmanshahr in May 1997 between Soviet desantniki (104th Airborne Division) and American paratroopers and Rangers. (Disclaimer: Was actually working on this as a fan project called "Blood Upon the Risers".)
• The SEAL and Iranian Commando raids on the Soviet 105th Airborne Division in May 1997 around Bushehr and Ganaveh or the raids around Bandar Abbas against the Soviet 103rd Airborne Division.
• The Soviet Spetsnaz raid against US 3rd Army HQ on July 28th, 1997.
• The deep-penetration raids and patrols carried out across the Zagros mountains that occur from 1999 on.
• Anything generated from the mission generator on pages 31-32 is perfect, and with a little bit of thought and research, can be made into a really great skirmish scenario.

Larger Games

The beauty of the chronology in RDF Sourcebook is that is so detailed, it like, Escape From Kalisz, is a veritable gold mine for larger games. There is just so much to choose from, I am not 100% sure I can list it all here, but I am going to try, some of the ones that stand out to me are:

• The initial fighting between the Iranians and Soviets during the invasion of Iran in 1996, or the Soviet offensive in April, 1997.
• The American airborne landings at Bandar-i-Khomeini and Khorrmanshahr in May 1997.
• The American air assault landings by 101st Air Assault at Bushehr and Ganaveh in May 1997.
• The battle between 1st Brigade, 24th Infantry, and 217th Guards Airborne Regiment, supported by the Tudeh on May 16th, 1997. 
• The American Marine landing at Bandar Abbas in June 1997.
• The 1st Marine Division's defense of Yazd in August 1997 (this would make a great campaign).
• "Operation Pegasus II" in October 1997 (this would also make a great campaign).

All in all, with a little bit of research, RDF Sourcebook is extremely wargameable. It's up there with Escape from Kalisz and Ruins of Warsaw, in my opinion, and it takes very little work to get some great scenarios out of it.

One more little thought, a lot of figures got released to cover the recent unpleasantness, and some of the early war figures (2001-03) can be made to work for this area and period, so long as they don't have MOLLE, MICH helmets, or IBA, etc, but the figures are out there.

Next up, we'll be taking a look at Armies of the Night, or Twilight: 2000 does Manhattan!

Yep, One More Short Post - Lee Hanna, aka Adm. Lee on the Juhlin Forum is on the Dead Game Society Podcast!

Seems Twilight: 2000 is becoming quite the podcast fodder lately! That's right, another Twilight: 2000 themed podcast done by the folks at Dead Games Society ("We Play With Dead Things", I like the slogan!) has been added to their show.

I have not listened yet (am downloading the podcast as we speak and I will listen later), but I wanted to give everyone out there a heads up!

You can get the direct link to the show page here!

Thank you DGS! We appreciate you guys giving the game we love the time it deserves!

Module Suitability Review - Red Star, Lone Star

Taken from Twilight 2000 wiki, IP is GDW/FFE

Welcome back to the United States, and what a mess it is. Texas is supposedly not part of the US anymore, and the Mexicans and Soviets(!) have invaded the state, and pretty much conquered the southwestern third of it, then the Mexican army promptly collapsed under the logistical strain, and a civil war (and probably a few nuclear weapons from the US assisted in the process, but Twilight: 2000 canon never really addressed that). This particular part of canon is a bit controversial and even Frank Frey admitted in a recent podcast that this was done to give some "Red Dawn" flavor to the game.

So, what is Red Star, Lone Star? As a module, it has something of the elements of some Western movies, such as the 1956 John Wayne movie The Searchers. There is a huge, campaign changing McGuffin (an intact oil refinery) and it's up for grabs. And like every Twilight: 2000 module, it's a wonderfully drawn post apocalyptic road picture.

But how does it do for inspiration for miniatures games?

Small Scale Skirmish

There are a ton of small scale skirmish games that can be had in this module. The fact is South Texas is something of a free-fire zone. You have marauders, various factions of the Mexican army, Hispanic-Americans who are less than pleased to see the Mexican army and what it represents, Anglos of all stripes, some who will work with like minded Hispanics, and some who will not. In short, it's a mess. But it does make perfect gaming fodder, some of the better ideas include:

• Gaming out a guerrilla raid on either the Mexicans, or the Soviet Division Cuba. There are plenty of groups who would do well as the guerrillas, not all of them American, but some are participants in the Mexican Civil War.
• Gaming out a firefight between marauders and Mexican Federales or Constutionales. There was a lot of that in the module.
• Gaming out the kidnapping of the Kingsleys, which is the whole point of the module?
• The coming war between the South Texas Grange and the Texian Legion, the whole thing has the feel of a "post apocalyptic county range war" with automatic weapons, and a good set of western rules would make a fun conversion here.

Larger Battles

There is some really good fodder for some larger fights in this module, quite a few in fact. The culmination of the module, is in fact, fodder for a medium scale game in the vein of say, Rapid Fire, or Battlegroup. Some really good ideas that stick out include:

• A group of returned American soldiers lead an uprising against the marauder kingdom of Grady LaMarr in the ruins of Corpus Christi. A ruined airbase, with damaged aircraft, and rubble walls would make a striking table.
• The final assault by the Soviets on Brownsville, (and specifically, the Gulfwind Forty refinery) the forces of the Soviets aren't too large but it would make another really great convention game, the marauder and Mexican forces in Brownsville aren't great, but if stiffened by some Americans there to rescue an oil man's nephew and his wife? It could be a lot of fun, especially if you throw in some American guerrillas? This could turn into a campaign as you can run further games as every faction in the Mexican Civil War tries to capture the refinery for themselves.

In short, this module is a smorgasbord of good ideas for miniature gaming and you could have a lot of fun generating games out of it. One thing, cavalry figures are a must for any gaming based on this module, and both Ehliem and Stan Johansen Miniatures (J2047 and 2048 work really well) have some really good figures for this on the 20mm side, not real sure about 15mm. 

Next up, we'll be reviewing RDF Sourcebook, or Twilight: 2000 in the mountains of Iran! Incidentally, this is my 25th post on the blog! Wow, how time flies!

Yet another short post.

Lots to say, and lots to write, but I will keep this as short as I can, as people I am sure want more module reviews (They have been rather popular, to be honest.)

1. As I wrote on the updated version of my 20mm Review Page, I have had some favorable email conversations with the Managing Partner & Founder of Covert Intervention Games (CIG), Mr J Reid "Streak" Denton, CIG are the new owners of the Force20 line. He set me straight on some things, praised the blog, and generally is a good egg. I won't reveal the entire email, as I consider it privileged communication until told otherwise. But, it's nice to see the blog getting noticed by the industry.

2. Ehliem is having a sale until the 22nd of April, their "Not Going to Salute Sale". If you want to get into Twilight: 2000 on the tabletop in 20mm with some really great figures (including the only place you're going to get American Cav), this would be the time to do it. Not to mention, they turned the Cav "tops" into Modular Miniatures with new "bottoms" (yes, that sounded a mite naughty). This has exciting potential, if you ask me. (UPDATE: THE SALE HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL SATURDAY, THE 22ND OF APRIL)

3. As some of you know, I am a working writer in the industry on a very small scale level. My first effort, Red Star, White Lights, (and also sold here) was moderately successful, and well-reviewed. I am hoping my new effort, covering West Berlin, "Red Star, Burning Streets" is as successful, but we're early in the process of getting the rough draft reviewed and the map sketches completed. As for a release date, at this point, "it's ready when it is ready."

4. I want to plug this blog I found, the Charge Blog. It's "Great Big Modern Wargaming Rules Comparison" is an excellent article and one I highly recommend. Heck, it has rules sets I didn't know were out there.

5. Finally, I want to thank people again for their support of this blog. It's meant a lot to me as I write this thing. It is a quirky concept, to be sure, for a "zombie" game (To me, Twilight: 2000 is a concept that refuses to die, and I like that). I guess what I am hoping is that people spread the word about this little patch of the internet. And if you have useful pictures of Poland, or something to add? Please contact me care of the blog. I would love to hear your input and see if we can't incorporate it into a blog post sometime?

That's all for now, a review of Red Star, Lone Star, is coming soon!

Module Suitability Review - Going Home

Image taken from Amazon.com, IP is FFE/GDW

The module Going Home accomplishes a lot of things in it's 48 pages. First, it ends the players saga in Europe, and like the name says, brings them home to the United States (if they so choose). It sets up Northern Germany, Holland, Belgium, and part of France as well as a place to further adventure, and we get a look at conditions there, and even get a glimpse of the French "Dead Zone". 

We get a post-apocalyptic train ride that in the great tradition of Twilight: 2000 modules, turns things into a bit of a road picture, and unlike previous Twilight: 2000 modules, time is now a factor, as the ships are leaving on November 15th, 2000, and with 43,000 American troops looking for a ride home? "..it could get to be quite the game of musical chairs."

The module also updated the goings on in the larger war, and we got a good look at the breakdown in discipline in military units on both sides. More units are disobeying orders, and either setting themselves up as warlords and staying put, going home without orders, or disintegrating under the strain and becoming marauder bands.

It deservedly won the 1986 HG Wells Award for "Best Roleplaying Adventure". 

But how does one use this as fodder for miniatures games?

Skirmish Games

Going Home is replete with ideas for skirmish games. You name it, there's some motivation for scenarios here, some interesting ideas include:

• A small American unit is on it's way to Bremerhaven to take part in the evacuation. There are some unfriendly Germans (be they legitimate government representatives, or  marauders is up to you) but they want to relieve the Americans of their vehicles and heavy equipment, needless to say, the Americans aren't too keen on the idea.
• Another small American unit has run into a band of German civilian militia who take exception to the fact the Americans are "abandoning" their country, after all Germany has suffered. The Americans aren't interested in politics, they just want to go home.
• A train operated by a mix of American soldiers and Polish civilians is being ambushed by marauders, can the Americans fight their way through?

This doesn't of course, include the usual ideas one finds in the Twilight: 2000 milleu, and one can turn this into a campaign of a small unit travelling by some method to Bremerhaven, where they have to determine their progress, roll encounters which may turn into games, or be beneficial to them somehow, Two really great games to run this sort of thing are Force on Force and No End in Sight. Both have really great campaign systems for this. If you don't have a system, you can also adapt the Too Fat Lardies product, Platoon Forward.

Image taken from Too Fat Lardies Website, IP is Too Fat Lardies

In short, the module is replete with skirmish ideas, and one doesn't have to look too hard to find them.

Larger Battles

There are fewer opportunities for larger battles in this module, as most of the larger military formations are in the process of disintegrating or becoming warlords and statelets. There simply is not an appetite for large-scale warfare anymore. That said, there are a few large scale fights to be found in this module:

One such opportunity is more of a counter-insurgency game, with one player playing the German Armed forces taking responsibility for the Thuringer Wald, and another playing the part of the anti-government Freibroderbund, which has recently looted several American units of some gear (including 5 M60A4 tanks) and now may feel ready to take on government control of the surrounding area.

It would be an interesting contest, as both sides are, for the milleu, reasonably well equipped, it might even make a decent campaign.

That's it for now, next on our list of reviews is Red Star, Lone Star

Module Suitability Review - The Black Madonna

Taken from Quag Keep Blog, IP is GDW/FFE

The Black Madonna is one of my favorite all-time Twilight: 2000 adventures. It has a really neat McGuffin, (the Black Madonna), some well-done horror elements, a bit of a back handed swipe at a dungeon crawl (Yes, Mr. Frey, I loved how all the elements of the dungeon crawl were the oldest, and best monster of all: Man), and some memorable characters to boot (Molly Warren, and the Markgraf of Silesia).

It's got it all, and there is a reason people still talk about this module with a measure of reverence today. Hell, I even ran it with a mashup of GURPS: Alternate Earths (Dimension Hopping Nazis after the Madonna! Something actually worse than SSD-1109!!!)

But how does it stack up in the wargaming part? Surprisingly well!

Skirmish Games

Black Madonna is a well paced and crafted story, it's where I got my earliest writing tips, to be honest, so I have a soft spot for this one. But the skirmish scenario possibilities are endless here.

• Any number of groups shoot it out for possession of the Madonna. This could even make a larger game, but not overly likely, Czestochowa is a mass of rubble that was bombed, shelled, fought over, then nuked flat. Like my last review, you're going to have to model a lot of rubble, and possibly even a dungeon crawl as you match wits with the Madonna's mad guardian.
• Raids by groups of fugitive American stragglers on the Soviet 129th MRD, this would be common, as mentioned in the adventure, but the Soviets aren't going to be that motivated, they've all but quit the war.
• The division commander of the 129th MRD has a couple of problem officers, the division Zampolit (Political Officer) and the commander of the Olesno garrison. Both have the potential to tear the division apart. The division commander isn't above hiring a few American stragglers to eliminate both issues, violently.

Larger Games

There are some larger issues that might or might not be coming to a head in Black Madonna, that have nothing to do with the Madonna. Some of them would make excellent game fodder, and would be a hoot to game out:

• The Markgraf moves against one of his neighbors, either the Czechs to the South, or the Mercantile League to his East.
• A coup is brewing in the Soviet 129th MRD. The division Zampolit (Political Officer) has ideas of taking over the division and restoring "proper socialist order" whereas the division commander simply wants to get his men home and back to whatever families they have left.
• Another idea, this is from John R. Albers on Facebook, is to game out the battle for Czestochowa in 1997. This has a lot of promise as a 1:5 game, but it would be a large one and possibly have the makings of a campaign.

All in all, there are some really interesting possibilities here, and they would all make good miniatures games. Next, we'll be reviewing Going Home.

Module Suitability Review - Ruins of Warsaw

Taken from Twilight: 2000 Wiki, IP is GDW/FFE

My first Twilight: 2000 module, and one I kind of remember fondly. What I really liked about it was that I was a hard-core board wargamer just dipping my toes into this thing called role-playing at the tender age of 11. And here was the perfect way to do it.

A small community of farmers known as Sielce is eaking a paradise out of the nuked ruins of Poland's capital. They are making the ruins grow! And here comes the greedy Baron Czarny and his horde of cutthroats, bandits and assorted scum who want to take it all for themselves. The community is outnumbered, and outgunned, but has nowhere really to run to. Such things that desperate defenses are made of!

And it had detailed orders of battle and information for both sides. In short, it was awesome! I will admit, as I watched the back half of this season's Walking Dead, I was having flashbacks to this module.

But how about it from a miniatures point of view?

Small Scale Skirmish Actions

This book has a lot of fodder for skirmish actions in the rubble of Warsaw. The fact is, any time anybody leaves Sielce on a patrol of the ruins, there is a good chance of a firefight one can game out. Add in the fact both sides are probably running patrols, and you have instant fodder for a skirmish game right there.

Other games are conducting "diplomatic" missions to the other communities and the Soviet 10th Tank Division to enlist them in the fight against the Baron, this can easily be turned into a skirmish campaign, as the small force is probably going to have to fight off multiple patrols of the Baron's forces.

Another slightly larger, but still very much a skirmish game, is one of the core events of the adventure, a game based around ambushing the Baron's purchase of some chemical rounds to support his assault into Sielce. The elements of the convoy are listed in detail, as well as the forces Sielce can spare to ambush them, add in some lost American stragglers to provide "help" and you have the makings of a larger end skirmish game. I've run this, although I added in a Polish/Soviet force, and a force from the marauders Czarny did business with (seems he screwed them over..). The game ended with Baron Czarny's force giving half the shells to the Polish/Soviet force just to buy their escape, as the other sides were happily gunning each other down.

That said, you can run this ambush any way you like.

But this leads us to the main part of our article....

Larger Scale Actions (aka the Assault on Sielce)

As it is, the module is pretty much centered around this, the Baron will eventually give the order to attack Sielce, chemical rounds or not. He has to before winter so he can get the food that Sielce is growing for himself, and his growing army. 

The nice part about this module? Troop strengths and units are meticulously laid out in this module for the "Twilight: 2000 Mass Combat System" which is in this module. There is also a detailed hex map as well. All in all? This battle is very doable with any decent set of 1:5 large scale rules.

Terrain might be an issue as it is a veritable sea of rubble here (Warsaw ate 6 335kt nuclear warheads after enduring a 3 month siege, there isn't much left standing from before), but it's doable if you have the time and patience.

Most of the rules regarding the timing of the assault, as well as the loyalty of the Baron's army can be used straight out of the module, so no need for many special rules here.

I would also state that entire module makes for a great wargaming campaign. Limited resources, terrain needs are focused, as is the real estate. It's a pretty good bet you can generate dozens of campaign games out of this.

In short, this module is probably one of the most wargamable Twilight: 2000 modules out there.

New Stuff for Twilight 2000!

That's right, it's a new AFRICA Sourcebook for v2!

It's called the East Africa/Kenya Sourcebook, and while it is a bit barebones, it's the first Twilight: 2000 release I have seen since Twilight: 2013!

The sourcebook is complete, well edited, and chock full of potential gaming material for a brand new adventuring theater.

Image taken from DriveThruRPG, IP from GDW/FFE 

I have not read through it completely, but it looks good, and for $2.99 at drivethrurpg.com, a solid buy. 

In short, Twilight: 2000 is looking like it might just rise from the ashes again?

And how wonderful this is post #20!

Module Suitability Review - Pirates of the Vistula

Image taken from Wayne's Books, IP is from GDW/FFE

Pirates of the Vistula has the tone of a "road movie" but with a tugboat as the car and the Vistula River as the "road". It has everything, a determined captain heading to an uncertain destination (this to be revealed in Ruins of Warsaw), betrayal by a member of the crew, an epic naval battle (of sorts), and places to see and help/interfere in along the way.

Meanwhile, with winter closing in, and the Vistula having seen better days, it's a race against nature and time to get to Warsaw and help Adam save his family before the river freezes over.

In short, it has a LOT to offer for Twilight: 2000 as an RPG supplement, but as a scenario generator for miniatures games, how does it fare?

Smaller Scenarios

For smaller scenarios, there is quite a bit here, many of the forays as detailed in the module by the muscle Adam hires in Krakow (aka the Player Characters) has a lot of skirmish gaming potential. It is a veritable smorgasbord of ideas, some of the ones that stand out to me are:

• Liberating the small town of Niepolomice from the small band of Soviet deserters who have taken over the town. This would make an excellent Black Ops game in my opinion.
• Clearing out the marauder band that has taken over the town of Tamobzreg, this would be more of a Force on Force game here. You could also make this a minor campaign and game out the subsequent attack on Sandomierz, though this might make a small game for a larger scale set of rules.
• Gaming out the ambush of the Baron's Czarny's men at Gora Kalwaria. This also lends itself well to a Force on Force game.
• Lots of fodder for boarding actions, either defending against one, or launching one against a pirate vessel? This can really lend itself well to Black Ops.

Larger Scenarios

One of the aforementioned scenarios for this is the Tamobzreg marauders attack on Sandomierz, it's small by the standards of most large scale rules, but it has enough to make a good game of it.

The other is the culmination of the module, the "naval" battle between the Baron's pirate fleet and the the Floating City's fleet led by the Wisla Krowla.

I personally have seen quite a few tugs and other boats in 15mm-ish scale, and with some heavy weapons retrofitted to the boats with some styrene and the like, you can make some real post apocalyptic riverine combatants. The nice part is the module does a very good job of laying out the types, sizes, and armaments of the combatants on both sides. Many of them are quite small, and presumably, could be scratch built. Sadly, I have seen a few WW-II Soviet and German coastal gunboats but nothing that would "fit the bill" for this. I am thinking one is going to have to get creative and find some children's toys?

UPDATE: Pete has advised me of the existence of a tug boat from Frontline Wargaming. I suspect it's not cheap and a very large hunk of resin, but it does exist!

Rules are a bit of a pickle for this, and I am at a bit of a loss as to how one would run this with the rules mentioned before. Perhaps a set of Civil War river monitor rules would work for the culminating fight?

In short, this module has got a lot going for it, and one can make quite a few miniatures scenarios out of this!

Also, consider the Vistula has seen better days, there are going to be a lot of river hazards that are going to figure in any naval game. But it would make for a challenging game!

Next up? Ruins of Warsaw!

Another Short Post

Well, I got a painting session in today..loads of fun. Some British vehicles, seen here, are much closer to being done. 3 Britannia FV 432 and a Matchbox Challenger.

I think I nailed the British 2 color scheme pretty well, no?

I also sprayed and gessoed the following stuff of interest to us Twilight: 2000 lovers.

3 Butlers Models T64s
3 Butlers Models BMP 2s
2 Revell T80s
1 Trumpeter T55
1 Model Collect T72B1
1 S and S ZSU-23-4
2 S Model BMD-2s

All in all, lots more for my Soviets. There was also some WWII stuff, but I will cover that in my sister blog, Festungplatz.

I am fairly happy with progress thus far, but there is lots to do. I also have a bit of a side project percolating in my head. We shall see if that goes anywhere?

More to come, especially that article on Pirates of the Vistula!