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.