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