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Category Archives: Weird War II

World War II: Mission 5, Top Secret Plans

War Master (Owen): Yes, a great War Master Indeed.

Lambert’s Losers Lt. Dick Dan (Lt. Dan): Our fearless squad leader, Distinguished Service Cross.
Private (E-2) Destry Lambert (Evil Winters): Our commando medic.
Private (E-2) Charlie Winters (Winters): Not sure what he does, Distinguished Service Cross.
Private (E-3) Hector Goldman, Bronze Star

In this journal entry I’ve had to change the names to protect the innocent…or because I couldn’t remember the names…or because I couldn’t spell the names.

Major Stalwart gave us our new orders. We were to infiltrate a French town (Le Pewy) behind enemy lines. Once there our primary objective was to recover a set of secret plans. Our secondary objective was to transport an allied spy back to safety. The spy’s name was Frederick Himmler—codename Pineapple.

Infiltrating behind enemy lines turned out to be a piece of cake. We just parachuted in under the cover of night. Winters and I made perfect landings. After two tries, Lt. Dan also landed, but not perfectly. Lambert missed the landing spot by a bit, but landed safety as well.

Sneaking into the French town turned out to be harder than it looked. Mostly due to the leadership of Lt. Dan who critically failed his stealth roll and stepped on a land mine. He was Shaken by the resulting explosion—the same explosion that alerted the Germans to our presence. That started what would later be called The Dance of the Land Mines. We had to move through the mine field all-the-while being shot at by the Germans. Lambert stepped on a mine too and soaked the resulting wound. I stepped on a mine and soaked the resulting 3 wounds. Yes, I’m that good. Eventually even Winters steps on a mine; just as he was stepping onto the safety of the road.

Later during the firefight, Lt Dan rolled another critical failure throwing a grenade. I took a wound from the blast. Later, in a moment of respite, Lambert healed the wound.

We make it to Frederick’s house just in time to see him being taken away as a German prisoner. After the Germans leave, Winters and Lambert watch to street as Lt. Dan and I search Frederick’s house. We find a cryptic clue:

“if lost drain pineapple”

Lt. Dan orders me to search in the sewer drain behind the house. I was tired from the fight, so I took a break instead. I told Lt. Dan I didn’t find anything. Fortunately the others decide to search the drain in the street in front of the house. Winters critically failed his Agility roll climbing down the ladder into the drain. Then he critically failed his Vigor roll. He falls; landing on his head. Disoriented from the fall he swallows a bunch of sewer crap.

Lt. Dan joins him in the sewer and together they search for a sign from Pineapple. They find a hidden nook with the plans we were looking for. Now we must decide whether to leave with the plans or try to save Frederick.

We’ll miss Frederick.

Lt. Dan signs the papers that put us all in for medals. Lambert gets a citation. Winters gets a Bronze Star and I get a Silver Star.

I heard that we all may be getting transferred to a nice soft job back at the states. If this is true, this will be my last journal entry.

Corporal Goldman. (That’s right, I got a promotion!)

World War II: Mission 4, Holding the Bridge

War Master (Owen): Yes, a great War Master Indeed.

Lambert’s Losers
Lt. Dick Dan (Ben): Our fearless squad leader, Distinguished Service Cross.
Private (E-2) Destry Lambert (Evil Mike): Our commando medic.
Private (E-2) Charlie Winters (Mike): Not sure what he does, Distinguished Service Cross.
Private (E-3) Hector Goldman (Steve): Armored Vehicle Crewman, bronze metal.

We’d had a long hiatus from our Savage World War II game. I think we were all ready to see just how well we could hold the bridge against the German onslaught. Some of us were less than prepared. I brought an old character sheet and Ben’s character was still written on a small yellow piece of paper. Oh well. (Later, I did find my latest character sheet tucked away in my Weird War II book.)

Since it’s been awhile, I’ll recap our mission. Hold the bridge until reinforcements arrive. If we can’t hold the bridge, we’re to destroy it.

Lt. Dan and Goldman check the buildings on the German side of the bridge. The buildings are clear. Winters and Lambert do a dramatic task to set the demolition charges under the bridge. On the first round they get a club and Winters needs a 7 (after all of the penalties) for a success. Lambert’s help gives him a +1 and together Winters ends up with exactly a 7! …using his d4 demolition skill. One success down and four more to go. Things didn’t go well after that. On the fourth round they still need three successes to get the charges set. They managed a single success for the round. Now they needed two on the last round. Winters critically fails his demolition roll…BOOM! The damage is rolled. Lowest damage ever—only 6 points. This Shakes Winters and Lambert. That could have gone much worse. Thankfully they are lousy at demolition.

A German truck followed by a Panzer IV appear at the edge of town and are heading towards the bridge. Lt. Dan and Goldman open fire. About that same time a French women with a baby carriage is also heading along the banks of the canal towards the bridge. She loses her grip on the carriage and it rolls into the water. “Epargner mon bébé !” she cries. (Translation: Save my baby!)

Winters rolls another critically failure while trying to climb around under the bridge. He falls into the canal. He can’t swim.

Lt. Dan fires the bazooka at the German truck and rolls 8 points of damage. I point out that he’s rolling the wrong dice for the damage. He rolls the correct dice and gets 13 points of damage—still not enough to stop the truck. (Loser.)

The French woman jumps in the canal to save her baby. She doesn’t appear to know how to swim. Lambert skillfully does a somersault dive off of the canal bank into the water. He plans on saving the baby and the women. Winters splashes to the canal’s steep bank. (At least he didn’t drown.)

As the truck turns down a side street near Goldman, he throw a potato masher into the open window of the truck. Goldman doesn’t have a throwing skill and its medium range and it’s a difficult shot. A -6 penalty. Goldman rolls an eleven and makes it! The explosion kills the driver and the truck hits the building Lt. Dan is in. The Panzer IV shoots at Lt. Dan’s position in the building and misses. The shot goes wide and hits the building across the street where Goldman is. The building partially collapses, but Goldman is unharmed. Lt. Dan jumps out of a second story window onto the truck and rolls a critical failure! He takes 18 points of damage. Lt. Dan soaks it all. (That’s our leader!)

Write-up note: My notes from my iPad says “Winters doors a German.” I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean, so I’m going with “Winters shoots a German.”

Winters shoots a German. He was one of two German officers that were heading along the canal banks apparently searching for the French woman. Lambert is able to grab the baby.

Now the battle with the Germans is in full swing. Goldman is having a continual firefight with Germans who are continually outflanking him, but he is holding his own. Lambert now has the baby and the French woman and is heading for the Allied side of the canal to get them to safety. Winters has scrambled out of the canal and moves towards the action to help Lt. Dan and Goldman. (Write-up note: it occurs to me that for this entire time Lt. Dan and Goldman have been holding off a truck full of German soldiers and a Panzer. Yeah, that’s the stuff we’re made of.)

Lt. Dan drives the truck out of sight of the panzer. A German throws a potato masher through the window of the truck. Lt. Dan takes a wound but soaks it. The truck takes a wound (its door is blown off and the steering is affected. The truck can’t turn left.) Another German notices the truck but not Lt. Dan. He assumes a German is driving the truck and jumps in beside Lt. Dan. Lt. Dan draws his pistol and shoots the German besides him. This is the beginning off a short, up-close gun battle between the two. It ends badly for the German.

We sight more Germans entering the town—a tiger tank and halftrack. The allies are coming towards the town from the other direction, but we can see they are woefully outgunned by the Panzer and Tiger tanks. Lt Dan calls for us to blow the bridge. Unfortunately the bazooka is laying in the road. Only Goldman has a chance to grab it, but he’s doing a fighting retreat against a squad of Germans. . Lambert, the baby, and the French woman all make it out of the canal and head for cover.

As I said earlier, the gun battle in the truck ends badly for the German. Lt. Dan Kills him then throws the truck into reverse to get the back to the bazooka.

The panzer destroys the oncoming Allied Sherman tank.

Goldman runs across the street and grabs the bazooka.

Lambert and girl run towards the Americans.

Winters and Goldman jump into the truck.

Another German Tiger tank shows up.

Lt. Dan backs the truck out from behind the building and heads towards the bridge…in reverse. Somehow Goldman and Lt. Dan switch positions in the truck. Goldman’s now driving and Lt. Dan has the bazooka in the back of the truck. Winters grabs the bazooka from Lt. Dan and shoots the panzer IV for no effect.

Us escaping backwards in the truck trying to cross the bridge and escape the advancing Germans.

Us escaping backwards in the truck trying to cross the bridge and escape the advancing Germans.

Goldman crashes the truck (intentionally) on the Allied end of the bridge and bails out. Knowing the Panzer will shoot the truck next, the smart move would be to jump into the canal. Goldman has a phobia of water so he instead jumps to the nearby shore—well within the burst radius of the panzers shot. Winters and Lt. Dan are still in the truck.

The panzers shot misses the truck and hits the bridge! The bridge collapses. The truck falls into the canal. Winters and Lt. Dan jump free.

A perfect ending for us! The bridge is destroyed. We’re all safe. And by the looks of it, we followed our orders perfectly.

Lt. Dan gets the Distinguished Service Cross for acts of heroism. Goldman and Winters get nominated for metals, but only Winters gets one—the Distinguished Service Cross! Unfortunately Goldman’s goldbricking past still haunts him when it comes to medals and such.

Write-up note: I know the guys (especially Mike B.) will read this and catch that the account for Winters is a little off towards the end. That’s because my notes conflicted about just where he was during the end of the battle. So I went with something I made up.

Oh, and image you just read this as an entry in the journal of Pvt. Goldman. I forgot to write it that way, but I’m sure you have a good imagination.

Pvt. Goldman, E-3

World War II: Mission 4, The Taking of the Bridge

War Master (Owen): Fair minded and makes beautiful sounds when he speaks. (Yes, I still need Bennies.)

Lambert’s Losers
Lt. Dick Dan (Ben): Our courageous (stupid?) squad leader.
Private (E-1) Destry Lambert (Evil Mike): Our commando medic.
Private (E-1) Charlie Winters (Mike): Still not sure what he does.
Private (E-2) Hector Goldman (Steve): Award Winning Armored Vehicle Crewman.

Journal Entry June 4th 1944 (still)

This has been a pretty busy morning for us. I’m not sure why they need the 16 million other guys.

Our next goal was to take over a nearby bridge and hold it until reinforcements relieved us.  The bridge was in some nameless French town. We stealthily advanced upon the town. That’s when the German machinegun opened up on us hitting Lambert and Winters. Fortunately neither was wounded. I laid down suppression fire in the area around the machinegun and Lambert rushed the building in true commando style.

During Lambert’s assault on the two German’s manning the machinegun, Evil Mike needed to roll a 6 on a d6 to hit one of the defenders. Mike was rolling FIVE d6’s. He missed—not a single 6. So he through in a Benny and rolled again. He missed again—no 6’s. Evil Mike spends a second Benny and rerolled. He missed a third time! Not a single 6 was rolled after rolling FIFTEEN d6s! Now Lambert is stuck in a room with two angry Germans.

I did manage to kill one of the two Germans with Lambert right away. It was close though. I tried twice more to kill the remaining German but my gun (dice) went cold. I eventually killed the last German. I have no idea what Lambert was doing while I was trying to save his life.

In the meantime, Lt. Dan and Winters where cleaning out the buildings on the other side of the street. Winters took a couple of wounds during the action and decided to join Lt. Dan. With the Machinegun nest cleared out, I laid down suppression fire so Lambert could make it to the building where Lt. Dan and Winters were holed up. Lambert patched up Winters.

The fighting through the rest of the buildings went pretty smoothly for us. In no time at all we were ready to assault the bridge.

Lambert and I took one side of the bridge’s defenses, while Lt. Dan and Winters took the other side. Our plan (Lambert and me) was for Lambert to assault the bridge while I covered him. Unfortunately we didn’t count on the superior reflexes of the Germans (nor the incredible Agility rolled by the GM.) I watched as the Germans cut down Lambert like so much Swiss cheese. Enraged, I charged the bridge with my combat knife. Fortunately Lt. Dan and Winters had easily handled their side of the bridge and were able to come to my aid. My assault with my knife failed miserably. Also fortunately the German solider I attacked was so surprised he missed me with his attack. Lt. Dan killed him. I’m able to kill the remaining German and bridge is ours.

Now we must hold it. What could go wrong?

Private Goldman

World War II: Mission 3, A Tank in the Woods

War Master (Owen): Witty, thorough, and handsome. (Yes, I need Bennies.)

Lambert’s Losers Lt. Dick Dan (Ben): Our fearless squad leader.
Private (E-1) Destry Lambert (Evil Mike): Our commando medic.
Private (E-1) Charlie Winters (Mike): Not sure what he does.
Private (E-2) Hector Goldman (Steve): Armored Vehicle Crewman, bronze metal.

Journal Entry June 4th 1944 (still just before dawn)

It was just before dawn (see, I told you) as we tramped through yet another endless countryside. We needed to find the damn Nazi mobile artillery, but it kept moving. Lt. Dan finally ordered us to steal a ride. It was easily done and soon I was driving us all down a nice country road. We were still hunting the artillery, but at least we weren’t walking.

We had to backtrack, but eventually found where the mobile artillery trucks had left the road. We followed their tracks into a lightly wooded patch of ground. We stopped. (I don’t remember why.) While stopped we heard the clanking and creaking of something coming our way. Our worse fear was realized. It was a tank. We all scrambled to cover; hoping it hadn’t noticed us. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of being one with the tree I was behind. Right up until the air around me was filled with machinegun fire. The tree was ripped and tattered, but I was only a little rattled (Shaken). I leaped out from behind cover and fired a burst from my Thompson at the tank commander who was looking out of the top of the tank. I missed. Uh oh.

Fortunately Winters and Lambert had my back, or rather the tank’s back. They actually climbed onto the back of the tank. By this time the tank commander had retreated down into the tank and had sealed the entrance. Lambert eventually realized to snap off the tank’s antenna so they couldn’t radio in our position. Lt. Dan spent some time fumbling with his bazooka. (I’m not sure where he got a bazooka.)

There were some tense moments as the tank exchanged shots with us. Lambert was hit and wounded once he and Winters jumped off the tank. Lt. Dan finally hit the tank with the bazooka. He damaged it, but didn’t destroy it completely. The tank escaped into the morning fog.

After the tank encounter we patched up Lambert (Hmm, maybe Lambert patched up Lambert. He IS the medic after all.) Then we went looking for the Mobile artillery. We found it. We called in the airstrike and got the heck out of Dodge.

Now we are trudging to a bridge that we are supposed to hold until relieved—all in a morning’s work for us.

Private Goldman

World War II: Mission 2, Vierville-Sur-Mer and the Artillery

War Master (Owen): A no holds barred master of war.

Lambert’s Losers
Lt. Dick Dan (Ben): Our fearless squad leader. Private (E-1) Destry Lambert (Evil Mike): Our commando medic.
Private (E-1) Charlie Winters (Mike): Still not sure what he does.
Private (E-1) Hector Goldman (Steve): Armored Vehicle Crewman and one-man army.

Journal Entry June 4th 1944 pre-dawn

Lt. Dan led us into an ambush on the way to the village of Vierville-Sur-Mer. One minute we are walking along quiet-as-you-please through a wood, the next moment grenades are landing at our feet. We kept our heads though. Winters quick reflexes allowed him to throw back one of the German potato mashers. Unfortunately, it hit a tree branch and ended up landing at his feet. It exploded. Winters was unhurt, but Lt. Dan took a couple of wounds. I already had my Thompson out and began shooting lead into the surrounding Germans. We escaped to fight another day. And that day is today.

Scouting out the town we saw the arrival of the mobile artillery we were supposed to call an air strike on. An air strike in town would kill many innocents. Lt. Dan ordered us to wait until the artillery moved out again. Also, HQ ordered us to hole up as the big thing they had plan was postponed a day. We waited in a barn. Private Lambert recently completed his Commando training…or so he told us. Lt. Dan must have bought it hook, line, and sinker because he let Lambert go back into town. I’m thinking his only scouting would be to find him a pretty French woman.

Soon we got word that Lambert had been captured. Lt. Dan asked for volunteers to rescue Lambert. Everyone took one step back, which made us all look pretty silly. Lt. Dan ordered us into town to rescue Lambert.

We made a sensational raid on the main German headquarters in town–lots of guns blazing and grenade explosions. This would have been great had we not been on a covert mission. Now the Germans were probably suspicious as to why we were even in the area. Lambert was already acting on his escape plan when Goldman arrived shooting up the place and the officer interrogating Lambert. The officer shook off the bullets like they were nothing. Lambert finished him.

We escaped town. Now we have to continue our search for the artillery and call in that air strike—all before the big day.

(Game Note: Lt. Dan has National Identity which allows him to recover a spent Benny if he rolls a 6 on a d6. This never seems to work. During this evening’s session, it worked several times for Ben, which is good. He needed them.)

(Game Note: Steve got two jokers!)

(Game Note: Rumors have started going around that the guy playing Goldman fell asleep during the game. Those rumors are unsubstantiated. Remember, loose lips sink ships, so stop gabbing around.)

Pvt. Goldman

 

World War II: Mission 1, A Gun Not Too Far After All

War Master (Owen): A deadly opponent in any arena.

Lambert’s Losers
Lt. Dick Dan (Ben): Our fearless squad leader.
Private (E-1) Destry Lambert (Evil Mike): Our medic.
Private (E-1) Charlie Winters (Mike): Not sure what he does.
Private (E-1) Hector Goldman (Steve): Armored Vehicle Crewman.

Journal Entry June 4th 1944

One quick note about my squad mates, specifically our medic, Lambert. Although the kid’s a smart as a whip, he seems to miss the most obvious observations. (Game terms: 14 skills, but no Notice skill.) I think he’ll be ok though, as long as he doesn’t step on a German mine like our last medic.

There was a rumor going round that on June 5th something big was planned. So it was no surprised that our unit found ourselves covertly assaulting a beach in the dead of night on June 4th. Our primary mission was to destroy a coastal gun emplacement, but we also had two secondary missions: locate some mobile artillery and call in an air strike, and locate and hold a nearby bridge. We must be the best of the best.

Our landing went well, except for the part where our rudder got caught on a floating mine. Lt. Dan did a fine job of risking his life to get us free. Next we snuck by the German sentries on the beach and climbed the cliffs to reach the area where the gun emplacement was said to be. For once intel was right.

We easily found the bunker that housed the gun. After some tense moments at the entrance, we silently entered. Grenades were freely tossed back and forth between us and the German guards. Since those failed to killed the guards, we resorted to the old fashion way: bayonets and bullets.

I managed to save one of the guy’s lives with a dead-on spray of bullets from my Thompson. After that is was routine kill and cleanup. We destroyed the gun and got the heck out of there.

After saving what’s-his-name’s life in the bunker, Lt. Dan put me in for a Bronze Star and a promotion. Seems I’m an E-2 now and out rank the other guys. I’m never going to live this down. (Game note: The only way I could get a promotion was to roll a 20 on a d20—which I did. I’m that good.)

We have a 5am deadline to find the mobile artillery. Fortunately we’ll have the help of the French Resistance. Hopefully there will be some beautiful French babes like you see in the movies that will be made of the war later. We can find them (both the resistance and the babes, I hope) in the village of Vierville-Sur-Mer. (Did the Muppets name all the French villages? Just asking.)

We have until 10am to find and hold the bridge. We’re to destroy it if we can’t hold it.

Sounds like another beautiful day in the army.

Pvt. Goldman