moif
RM3 Armourgeddon
Introduction
It is the spring of 1936 and Dan Mansfield and Miss Audrey Summers are with friends in the Aegean enjoying a well earned holiday after the horrors of the Arctic winter. Reclining casually on the stern of Sir Percy de Havilland’s pleasure yacht Starling, they contemplate the view of the turquoise sea stretched out before them with the complacency of the wealthy. All is still, the ship barely moving in the azure tranquillity, the gentle tinkle of iced drinks emphasising the comfortable silence.
“Darling?” Audrey Summers glances across at Mansfield’s reclining form.
“Mmmm?” Dan Mansfield’s athletic body lies stretched in the shade of an awning.
“What’s that boat doing out there?”
Mansfield cracks open an eye and peers into the distance.
“Which boat?”
Out in the hazy, sunlit distance a small motor boat surges along with a line of white water churning in its wake. Several dark figures hunch against the sped of the boat.
“Joy riding?” Mansfield shrugs and settles back into his lazy contemplation of oblivion.
“I think they’re coming this way” Audrey Summers muses as she helps herself to another glass of the chilled champagne.
This observation soon proves correct as the small but powerful boat surges forward to come along side the Starling. Audrey rises to her feet and wanders to the rail to gaze down into the boat only to meet with the strange and discomforting sight of several bearded faces brandishing rifles.
“Oh my…Pirates?! She exclaims
“Pirates?” Mansfield’s eyes snap open instantly and within a second he is beside her at the rail in time to see the swarthy gang forcing their way past the steward an onto the Starling’s after deck.
“What the deuce?” he cries as a small rat faced man brandishes a pistol.
“Audrey Summers I presume?” one of the men steps forward to smirk at her. He is a slender man with pale skin and dark, almost hypnotic eyes.
“Yes?” Audrey Summers can’t but help reply.
“Who the hell are you and what do you mean by this intolerable intrusion?” Sir Percy shouts from below. There is the sound of a scuffle, a gun shot , then a female scream.
Dan Mansfield starts forward but the rat faced man raises the pistol to his face and sneers.
“Dan, don’t” Audrey pulls at his arm and the stout Englishman‘s face works with anguish and anger. The slender man chuckle’s at the sight then motions the rat faced man to step back.
“My name is Yuri,” he says as his face contorts into an unusually unpleasant attitude. “I’m afraid I must insistent you come with us… or I shall be forced to shoot your friends”
“You fiend!” Audrey gasps.
“Do you expect me to…” Mansfield lunges forward but a burly fellow standing behind him raises his rifle and clubs him in the back of the head. Audrey screams as Dan collapses into an insensible heap.
“I’ll never go with you!” she tells the slender man, but he is already walking back to the small boat and his compatriots grab her arms and hurry her away. Her last glimpse of Dan Mansfield shows him lifting his head and shaking it as the small boat speeds away from the Starling.
“DAAAAAAAAAAAAN!” she screams but her voice is drowned in the thunder of the powerful engine and the throaty voices of the laughing men around her.
Several hours later, the back of his head still tender, Dan Mansfield steps from the Starling with a grim visage. Behind him the crew carries Sir Percy from the yacht on a stretcher. Around him, the port of Moudros sleeps in the midday sun but along the docks he spies George Macarthur and another familiar figure hurrying along to meet him.
“What is it?” George calls out as he and Mitchell hurry closer.
“The damned Bolsheviks have snatched Audrey!” Mansfield cries in a passion.
“Bolshevik’s?” ‘Mad Dog’ Mitchell exclaims “What would they want with Miss Summers?”
“They left this with Percy” Mansfield pulls a slip of paper from his pocket and Mitchell reads the short message in amazement.
Professor Summers. You will only see your daughter again if you bring the rocket to 126 Nevsky Road in Omsk before the summer is out. Do not attempt to notify the British government or any one else or else I must be forced to a desperate act.
“What do you make of that?” Mansfield asks. Mitchell shrugs.
“How’d they know about the rocket pack?” he replies. Neither man has an answer. Mansfield runs his hand through his hair.
“Why are you here?” he suddenly asks.
“Well, as to that, I was in the neighbourhood on business you might say and I bumped into George not more than an hour or so ago.”
“He was brawling in a bar I passed by” George mutters.
Mansfield, well knowing the sort of shady deals Mitchell might get up to simply nods.
“I’m going to need your help”
Mitchell nods.
“I’ll go and fetch mah Browning…”
RM3.1 Armourgeddon
Agent 99 and the Trans-Siberian Express
It takes twenty two days to get from Istanbul to Moscow by train, and from Moscow the Trans Siberian railway goes straight to Omsk and beyond. Upon their arrival in Istanbul however, Mansfield, Mitchell and Macarthur hurry to a local arms dealer known to Mitchell as ‘Teddy the Turk’ who has extensive contacts in the region and for a small fee agrees to smuggle them into Russia as a part of a convoy.
“But be careful” he warns ”Comrade Beria has spies every where doing Uncle Joe’s dirty work! No where is safe. My friends over there tell me that the land is full of empty villages and in the south there is famine and marauding gangs of Bolsheviks fighting tooth and nail for control.”
Mansfield and the others thank Teddy and make their way north east into the heart of Stalin’s darkness. By road through Turkey and up along the western coast of the Caspian Sea, then over land for ten days, they finally arrive at Yekaterinburg in time to catch the express train to Omsk….
Omsk is situated on the banks of the north-flowing Irtysh river, at its confluence with the Om and on both branches of the Trans-Siberian railway.
2,700 km east of Moscow, it is the cross-junction of highways in the central part of Russia. Passenger and freight boats along the Irtysh and the Ob Rivers provide connection from coal and mineral-mining towns in Kazakhstan, as well as oil, natural gas and lumber-rich northern Siberia. It is an important gateway to the east and is currently in the throes of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic’s expansion into Kazakhstan.
It is in Yekaterinburg that things begin to come together though. Standing in the train station, a Russian phrase book in one hand a Cyrillic time table in the other, George Macarthur feels Mansfield’s iron grip on his arm.
“Did you send the telegram to London?”
“Yes, I was just….”
“That’s him by God!”
“Who?” George turns to see a man in a strange green uniform far across the open station, boarding a train.
“That train!” he points to the distant engine. “What train is that?”
The myopic ticket seller replies in a babble of incomprehensible Russian and ‘Mad Dog’ Mitchell growls in frustration.
“God damn it all, that trains a fixin’ to leave already!”
“Lets go!” Mansfield rushes off leaving George at the ticket sellers booth…
“But we don’t have tickets!” George turns to the ticket seller in frustration. “Can we buy tickets on the train?”
“Da” the ticket seller shrugs.
“Da?” George looks back at the old man as Mitchell drags him away
“Come on George dammit! We’ll just bribe the conductor…”
Yuri relaxes in his cabin with a Turkish cigarette as the train pulls out of the station. On his face is a smile of satisfaction since things are going according to plan. The English lady has already been sent on her way and now he is set to meet Beria’s man, the mysterious Agent 99. Nikolai, a goon with a gun enters the apartment and sits opposite him.
“The NKVD are with us on the train Comrade.”
“Good.”
The time to make Moscow aware of their strength is finally upon them at last. After years of preparation and diligent work, the rewards are finally in sight. He stands up and buttons his uniform coat across his athletic form.
“Stay in sight” he tells his men, then passing back into the dining car he spies the man from Moscow in the middle of the wagon.
Agent 99 is a dark, swarthy man, obviously a Georgian by his heavy accent and no doubt a close confident of Stalin and Beria given his occupation.
“What is this ultimatum?” he demands before Yuri has even sat down. Yuri raises and eye brow and sits with deliberate insolence, nonchalantly lighting up another Turkish cigarette. Agent 99 is a large and powerful man with a brooding and dangerous face, easily twice as big as Yuri whose slender form lounges deceptively at ease, ignoring the Georgians insistent glare.
“Let us rather speak of Khalnikov…” he smiles.
“Khalnikov?” It is obvious only for a brief moment that the Georgian is off balanced. “What of him?”
“How long has he been missing now?”
“What do you know of Khalnikov?”
Yuri’s smile broadens.
“More than a year… nyet?”
Agent 99 sits back in his chair and fishes in his coat pocket for his own cigarettes. At either end of the carriage, guests from the rest of the train are beginning to arrive and the mood at the table lightens.
“Da, more than a year. I presume you have him and now you want to do a deal for his return?”
“Not quite”.
Agent 99 lights his cigarette and glances about the dining car. He’d like use the bayonet he has tucked into his jacket on this Russian upstart and get it over with, but there are too many witnesses and anyway, he’s curious now. Khalnikov is a scientist who went missing nineteen months ago.
A waiter approaches their table but they wave him away. Yuri speaks in a low voice that hardly contains his triumph.
“As you no doubt guess, Korsakov has Khalnikov hidden away some where very secure”
“Of course”
“..yes, but there is more. Khalnikov has been allowed to work for his keep and now the fruits of his labour are ready to be plucked… Perhaps you are not aware of the details surrounding Khalnikov’s work?”
The Georgian shrugs as if it were of no consequence, but deep inside he is troubled. There is a confidence in Yuri’s manner that indicates much below the surface. No one who understood who he was would speak to him like this unless they felt very sure of themselves and he has never felt such a chill as he does now at the sight of that diabolical smile. It is clear that a possible threat to the chairman has arisen from the depths of Kazakhstan, but he is out of his own depth here. He must speak with Comrade Beria as fast as possible. Yuri is still speaking.
“So, I suggest you return to your masters in Moscow and…”
A scuffle in the door way behind him causes Yuri to pause and look up. Agent 99 follows his gaze and see’s a tall, broad chested man standing in the doorway of the diner, others stand behind him, one of whom carries a huge machine gun.
“The Englishman!” Yuri exclaims in pale faced astonishment…
Starting
Rocketman and his friends start which ever end of dining car they wish. Only Rocketman starts inside the actual dining car doorway. Mitchell and George start any where in car behind Rocketman (either first or second class). First and second class have much the same lay out.
Yuri and Agent 99 are seated in the centre of the dining car. Yuri’s henchmen are in first class and Agent 99’s men are in second class. Players 3 & 4 may decide where abouts there elements stand, but they must not be within 4 inches of player 1’s elements.
Ivan the conductor and the four railway company guards are in the post car. Having been bribed by the ‘polite English gentleman’ they will defend him and his friends against what they perceive to be ‘foreign militia’s’.
Map
Everywhere on the train is Difficult terrain.
Victory Conditions
Either side wins by defeating all the elements of their opponents. The winner is the last man standing. As usual a named character cannot actually be killed, only ‘downed’ so that they may appear in the subsequent games.
Special Notes
Every where on the train is rough going, except the carriage roof tops which is difficult, due to the wind. The roof tops can be reached by scaling the railings between the carriages. The train has open access between each carriage, but for the sake of the game, the engine is off limits. The post car is at the rear of the train and has no windows.
There are 1 d6 civilian passengers in each wagon except third class which contains 3 d6 passengers.
Player One Player Two Player Three Player Four
Rocketman Ivan the Conductor Yuri Agent 99
George Macarthur 2 x Railway company guards 3 x Bolshevik henchmen 2 x NKVD henchmen
‘Mad Dog’ Mitchell
Elements in bold text are officers.
RM3.2 Armourgeddon
126 Nevsky Road
Having finally reached Omsk, Dan Mansfield and his friends find a telegram from Professor Summers in London awaiting them at the local post office.
+++ HAVE RECEIVED YOUR REQUEST STOP PACKET IN TRANSIT STOP STRONGLY URGE YOU FIND LADY P CARFAX IN OMSK STOP WILL WIRE FUNDS ASAP STOP. +++
“Who in tarnation is Lady P Carfax?” Mitchell, his Browning wrapped in a blanket under his arm, wonders in his Texan drawl.
“That was dated nearly two weeks ago” George Macarthur points out.
“I’m blessed if I know who the old girl is, but if the Prof tells us to find her, then I suppose she must be our next port of call!” Mansfield replies. “George, how long do you suppose it will take before the package gets here?”
“I couldn’t say, but if the trains run on time here, then maybe a week or so…”
“Maybe she’s a doozie” Mitchell ponders as he gazes about the dusty street. Around them trudge weary down trodden people. “This place sure looks like the ass end of no where!”
The friends finally track down the ‘English Lady’ by asking at the local museum, where the name of Carfax produces a wide selection of toothy smiles.
“She stays with the comrade Colonel” a diminutive old soul tells them as his face lights up.
“She sure is popular in these parts!” Mitchell observes, “And this sure is a handsome fine house!”
Having followed the directions from the museum, the three adventurers find themselves standing at the door step of a grand old town house, its gables decorated with large red flags.
“Let’s hope they’re friendly!” Mansfield pulls the bell chain and almost at once the door is opened by a bullet headed man in a brown suit. He glares at them with a surly frown.
“Excuse me” Mansfield adopts his most charming and winning smile, “but do you by any chance speak English?”
“Yer, wot?” the man replies. “Course I speaks it, ain’t I from Wapping?”
“Wapping?” Mitchell asks.
“Who is it?” a delicate female voice asks from within.”
“We’re friends of Professor Summers, come from London to see Lady Carfax” Mansfield replies. The man looks down at the trio’s well worn and travel stained clothing.
“You’d better come in then” he says with a sniff.
Lady Penelope Carfax is a handsome woman in her late fifties. Slight of figure she retains the air and charm of a younger woman but her eyes betray her wisdom and she soon has the whole story from Dan Mansfield.
“Well, this is all very romantic I dare say” she says once the tale is told, but how will you rescue Miss Summers with just the three of you?”
Mitchell, his Browning still concealed by the blanket, chuckles. “Oh, we can manage I reckon”
“It will take more than a Browning Automatic Rifle to rescue young Miss Summers” Lady Carfax replies in an amused voice.
“Well, blow me down lady!” Mitchell slaps his thigh in appreciation. “You know yer guns!”
Mansfield looks up, deadly serious. “We have more than just the Browning. In about a weeks time we’ll have the help of Rocketman!”
“Rocketman?”
“It’s what the scoundrels want. A rocket pack that enables a chap to fly, but how the deuce they knew about it I have no idea!”
“Nor have I,” Lady Carfax replies, “...and who is this Rocket person exactly?”
The friends exchange worried glances and the tall English Lady smiles to her self.
“It’s just…” Mansfield begins.
“No, don’t tell me, I think I can guess.”
Later, sitting around a table consulting maps, Lady Carfax introduces a tall man in a green Bolshevik uniform with an aristocratic bearing.
“This is my good friend The Colonel. “
“Just ‘the Colonel’?” Mitchell interrupts.
“Da” the man replies removing his cap to reveal tightly cropped hair. “You do not need to know my name. Few do anyway. My rank will suffice for the mission we must undertake.”
“I’m sorry” Mansfield holds up a hand, “I’m sure a friend of Lady Cafax’s means well, but what mission are you talking about?”
The Colonel, lighting a cigar and puffing out a cloud of smoke, gazes at the stout Englishman with hooded eyes.
“Your young friend was being held at the criminal’s safe house as of nine o’clock this morning.”
“The criminal?”
“Da, The Russian dog Korsakov.”
The friends exchange surprised looks and Lady Carfax leans forward into the smoky lamp light.
“You must understand” she explains, “that Korsakov is not well liked by the Kazakhstani’s. His reign of terror in the east has not made much of an impact in the outside world but in Kazakhstan his cruelty is well known…. The Colonel is from Kazakhstan and is… shall we say, an opponent of Viktor Korsakov.”
“That’s all well and good Ma’am, but who is this Korsakov fella anyway?” Mitchell asks impatiently.
“Korsakov is the Devil in human form!” The Colonel snarls. “For the last few years he has been building a private army in Eastern Kazakhstan. They call it a Bolshevik army, but they are outcasts from Moscow, shunned by the party and the chairman. We have attempted to annihilate them but they are strong and have amazing weaponry the like of which we have never seen or heard of before.”
“What sort of weapons?” Mitchell asks with interest.
“They have armoured vehicles, tanks and superior rifles…”
Mitchell sniffs with disdain.
“…and when we tried to attack them with our own armoured cars, they were melted and destroyed by an invisible wall of heat!”
Silence follows this last statement until Mitchell, leanings forward.
“A whut?”
“From his lair, this demon from the north is able to send out invisible rays of death that burn men into ashes and cause trucks and armoured cars to explode into balls of fire. Anything that is caught by this invisible weapon is immediately destroyed. We are powerless against it. Our only consolation so far has been the weapons apparent range for it seems it is never moved.”
“A defensive weapon then” Mansfield muses.
“A fixed position?” George wonders.
“Da.” The Colonel nods, apparently satisfied to have impressed them, yet with air of a man with more to relate. Mansfield cocks his head and regards the ramrod straight officer whose steely eyes betray some inner struggle.
“What is it?”
“Korsakov himself.”
“What of him?”
“He is a machine!”
Starting
126 Nevsky Road is a large house that stands in an over grown garden, well back from the main road. It is surrounded by a crumbling old stone wall and patrolled by armed guards. There is only one way in for a vehicle, the front gate way. To the rear of the building is a garage and parked outside it is a car and a small truck. Rocketman and his allies arrive in two trucks by the front gate where The Colonel will order the guards to admit him. Obviously Rocketman can arrive any where he pleases should he choose to use his rockets though!
In the house, Yuri and several of his guards have met up with Korsakov’s female side kick, the hot tempered Olga whose Kazakh tribesmen guard the house. Olga is known to the Colonel as a dangerous mad woman, wanted for various murders in the southern districts. The Kazakh’s have one sandbag emplacement which they may deploy anywhere upon the table. The defenders may conceal their forces prior to the game, but Yuri, Olga and the Iron Guards must begin directly to the rear of the house.
Victory conditions
This game is a regular fire fight, so either side wins by defeating two thirds of the combined elements of the opposing side. The usual points system applies. Each standard element gives 1 point and each named character gives 5 points. Rocketman gives 10 points
Special Notes
Every where is rough going except the road, paths and the interior of the house. The surrounding wall is low and easily climbed over
For vehicle information, see the bottom of this page
Player One Player Two Player Three Player Four
Rocketman The Colonel Yuri Olga
George McArthur Sgt Sternov 4 x Iron Guard riflemen 10 x Kazakh tribesmen
’Mad Dog’ Mitchell 10 x Kazakhstani Iron guard machine gunner
Bolshevik soldiers
RM3.3 Armourgeddon
Rocketman Attacks!
Having secured the house at 126 Nevsky Road, Dan Mansfield and his new found allies ransack the property for Miss Summers. To their dismay however, they find no sign of the girl and turn to the few surviving prisoners…
“Ask them where Audrey is” Mansfield points at the four dour faced survivors.
Sgt Sternov frowns then looks to the Colonel who merely nods as he lights yet another cigar.
“Da”
A series of sharp commands is given and each prisoner is dragged into the house by the Colonels victorious troops. Presently a scream rings out and Mansfield’s face takes on the desperate look of a man torn by indecision. He turns to George who gazes back at him sympathetically.
“Those fella’s don’ waste any time” Mitchell remarks with approval.
“Colonel, is this really necessary?” George ventures to ask. “Surely there must be a more humane way. Could we not offer them leniency in return for the information?”
The Colonel regards the two Englishmen with a cool eye.
“Nyet”
Later, at Lady Penelope Carfax’s house, Mansfield sits with a stiff G&T and regards the maps laid out on the table by the Colonel.
“This is Eastern Kazakhstan” he jabs a slender dagger like finger at the map as if it were mortal enemy. “Here is Semipalatinsk and here is Vostochno-Kazakhstanskaya.”
“Whassat?” Mitchell asks bluntly.
“The eastern Oblast of Kazakhstan. Although the Bolsheviks have long since occupied the land of Kazakh, up until now the land has remained an autonomous region under the Kyrghyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and their Chairmen of the Central Executive Committee, Kulumbetov, but this authority is challenged by the Kazakh uprising which rebels against Rusian rule. Korsakov is using this treacherous rebellion as a cover to hide his nefarious designs and some where in this wild region is where he has built his main base but its actual location is a well guarded secret. This is where they have taken Miss Audrey Summers and where we must go to root out his evil.”
“Dash it all!” Mansfield cries out
“Calm yourself my hot blooded young friend.” The Colonel regards the map with a cold eye. “Our distasteful methods of gathering information have revealed to us, a way to locate this hidden base for although we do not have its current location, we have managed to obtain… a clue to it shall we say?”
“A clue?” the three friends all look up.
“Indeed, for whilst Korsakov’s men were not aware of the location of the secret base, they did know of the road which leads to it.”
“By Jove!” George laughs. “So, if we follow the road then we will eventually come to the secret base?”
“Exactly, but I am afraid it is not so easy. The road is of course guarded. Furthermore, it is a well used road, a conduit by which Korsakov supplies his secret army from Semipalatinsk… according to our dearly departed friend, there should be a check point… here!”
Every one stares at the map where a faint dotted line meanders through an endless forest.
“It looks peaceful enough” Mitchell remarks with a smile.
One Week Later…
“So, tell me again…” Mitchell swats a mosquito on the back of his neck. “Goddam these bugs! …tell me again, just why did we bring Lady Carfax with us?”
Sitting beside him in the back of a truck filled with tired Bolshevik riflemen, Mansfield shrugs.
“The old girl demanded to come along, said she had her reasons.”
“What reasons?”
“Something to do with this missing scientist fellow, Khalnikov”
“What about him?”
Mansfield shrugs. He stares out the back of the truck at the endless pine forests and over cast skies. Behind them a drab green armoured car brings up the rear of their small convoy.
“I think she might want to rescue him or something. Apparently he’s some big wig with a head piece that Korsakov kidnapped to make this death ray of his”
“Yeah, do you believe that shit?” Mitchell coughs up a throat full of dust and spits it out the back of the truck with the ease of practice. “A dooms day device! I mean, seriously, who does this fella think he’s a kidding anyways?”
Mansfield does not answer. Having seen the serious light in Lady Carfax’s eye he thinks back to the meeting between Yuri and the strange dark faced man on the train. Just before Yuri had seen him, he’d overheard the slender officer bragging to the stranger.
“…the fruits of his labour are ready to be plucked… Perhaps you are not aware of the details surrounding Khalnikov’s work?”
Just what were the details of Khalnikov’s work he wondered? What ever they were, it seemed Lady Penelope Carfax understood them enough to appreciate some horrendous danger they threatened and was prepared to risk her life in order to prevent it. Since it was only by Her ladyships help that he’d managed to find allies in this strange land, he’d been obliged to remain silent when she’d stated her intentions to accompany them to attack Korsakov’s lair. Now however, he regretted bringing a lady on such a dangerous mission.
“Hey” Mitchell interrupts him. “We’re stopping. Are we there?”
Player One Player Two Player Three Player Four
Rocketman The Colonel Yuri Olga
George McArthur Sgt Sternov 10 x Iron Guard riflemen 10 x Kazakh tribesmen
’Mad Dog’ Mitchell 10 x Kazakhstani Bolshevik Iron guard machine gunner K1 Light tank with 37mm gun
Lady Carfax soldiers (with HMG) Staff car
Lady Carfax’s driver: Truck Supply truck
Meadows Armoured car with HMG
Touring car
Truck
Armoured car with HMG
Starting
Players one and two start in a convoy from the edge of the table, on the upper road, facing south and players three and four start at the check point in random order except for the light tank which is parked besides the building, covering the road. There should be at least two Kazakh tribesmen in the watch tower. Yuri and Olga begin inside the guard house.
Victory Conditions
Either side wins by killing two thirds of their opponents. Furthermore, each side will suffer a penalty in future games if they lose their ‘Vulnerable Element’. For players one & two this is Lady Carfax and for players three & four it is the supply truck.
Special Notes
Every rifleman automatically carries one grenade, though these can be shared between elements. Players one and two can exchange all items and weapons as they see fit but players three and four cannot (they have not had the time to properly co-ordinate.
Also, each of the trucks available to players one and two carries a satchel charge, but these must last for the next three games, so must be used prudently as they may be vital later on.
RM3.4 Armourgeddon
The Machine Man
Having discovered the hidden road to Korsakov’s secret base, Rocketman and his allies stop to take their bearings. Around them the forest is filled with the smell of cordite and smoke.
“Boy that was close!” Mitchell gasps as he heaves for breath.
“I’ll say” George nods. “I thought I ‘d bought the ticket for a while there”
Rocketman nods solemnly.
“We certainly gave them a good pasting, but I’m afraid they know we’re coming now. We’d best push on as hard as we can”
“Nyet” The Colonel approaches with a stern look. “We must call in reinforcements”
“But there isn’t time!” Rocketman interjects.
The Colonel holds up a calm hand.
“Patience my young English warrior. There must be enough time for we cannot hope to catch Korsakov by surprise now. Our only hope is to hit him as hard as we can before he has time to muster a more fitting defence and to do that we must bring on more troops”
“More troops eh?” Mitchell nods, “well, Hells teeth man, what’re we waiting for?”
Rocketman regards the iron jaw of the ex marine and nods slowly.
“I suppose your right though it goes against the grain for a chap to stand about with his hands in his pockets whilst his wife to be is in the hands of such villains”. His friends regard Mansfield with sympathy and Lady Carfax touches his shoulder.
“Rest assured Daniel, we will do all in our power to recover Audrey”
Having left the others the Colonel finds Sergeant Sternov and takes him to one side. “Find a telephone at once!”
Sternov looks around the endless trees on all sides
“Out here?”
“Da, we passed several villages along the way. Take the car and get word back to the others, tell them our location and to follow this road.”
Sternov nods and turns to leave at once
“Wait” The Colonel’s voice cracks out like a pistol shot and stops him in his tracks.
“Contact Air Marshall Petrovkski as well and tell him to send his best aircraft out here also. With luck they can hit the dogs before we attack and give us some cover.”
“Anything else?” Sternov asks with a business as usual expression.
“Da. Bring me some more cigars!”
Player One Player Two Player Three Player Four
Rocketman The Colonel Korsakov Olga
George McArthur Sgt Sternov Yuri 10 x Kazakh tribesmen
’Mad Dog’ Mitchell 10 x Kazakhstani Bolshevik 10 x Iron Guard riflemen Supply truck
Lady Carfax. soldiers (with HMG) 2 x Iron guard machine- K1 Light tank with 37mm gun
Lady Carfax’s driver: Truck gunner
Meadows Armoured car with HMG Staff car
Touring car Off-table mortar crew K4 Heavy tank
Truck Spotter (on table, must be (Note this element only functions
Armoured car with HMG in line of sight of target) if Yuri’ssupply truck survived
Ilyushin DB-3 bomber chapter three)
Starting
Players one and two begin at the western edge of the table as the aircraft attack the base, though player one’s bomber starts off table to the east. Due to the size of the airfield, the game concentrates itself around one particular gate way; a rear entrance to the tank workshops so whilst the air raid takes place off table, only one bomber is available to attack this particular part of the airfield. In the back ground, the forces of good can see a vast metal tower capped by a strange glittering dome wreathed in a lurid green glow. According to Lady Carfax this must be the secret weapon of Korsakov itself (and will be the object of the fifth chapter).
Players three and four start where ever they like, but the tanks start inside a workshop and the gate must be manned by at least four guards. Players three and four also have two sand bag emplacements. One of which is on top of the air field control tower.
Victory Conditions
Either side wins by defeating two thirds of their opponent’s forces, or by defeating both their generals.
Special Notes
Every rifleman automatically carries one grenade, though these can be shared between elements. Also, each of the trucks available to players one and two carries a satchel charge, unless these have already been used in chapter three.
The aeroplane only has enough fuel to remain on site for ten rounds. During this time it can employ multiple modes of attack. It can strafe, which takes three rounds (one to approach, one to pass over head and one to withdraw) strafing takes place immediately prior to passing over head, and bombing takes place immediately prior to withdrawing. The aeroplane can withdraw in any direction it chooses, but it must first approach in a straight line for the first two rounds. Alternatively the aeroplane can circle the table firing its rear machine gun down as it passes. By this method the aeroplane attacks from each table edge per turn as it moves around the table. This gives it the advantage of firing every round, but denies the use of bombs. The aeroplane only has enough bombs for two attacks.
The Mortar requires a spotter to be on the table in order to hit its targets. This figure has a field telephone by which he can communicate with the mortar. The line for the field telephone extends 14 inches from that point on the western edge of the table where the spotter arrives.
RM3.5 Armourgeddon
Child of War
The battle rages. Smoke billows across the aerodrome and above it all stands the eerily glowing tripod tower. About its domed top, energy crackles and snaps with ever increasing urgency.
“That thing looks like it’s about to blow” George mutters.
“It’s worse than that” Lady Carfax responds in alarm. That’s Khalnikov’s death ray and it appears to be operational!
“So that’s the dreadful secret weapon they were discussing on the train” Mansfield muses as he accepts a water canteen from Mitchell. He takes a long pull at the cool water then wipes the grease and ash from his face as examines the distant tower.
“We’ll have to stop them from using it”
The Colonel turns to Sergeant Sternov.
“How many explosives devices do we have left?”
“I’ll go and find out”
Sternov hurries away and the allies crowd about the bonnet of Lady Carfax’s car where George has spread a sheet of paper upon which is a hastily drawn map of the aerodrome.
“Look here you chaps” he sketches a map hastily. “This is the tower, and I count at least two more tank workshops up ahead. Just past the control tower and I think I spy some sort of wooden buildings.”
“It is detention centre” the Colonel adds.
“I say” Mansfield looks up with a steely glint in his eye. You don’t suppose that’s where they’ve hidden Audrey do you?”
“I would say it is highly probable” the Colonel replies. “Da. Most highly probable“
Mitchell jabs his finger at the rough map.
“They have at least one more tank up ahead; I caught a glimpse of it through the smoke!”
“Damn!” Mansfield cries. “We’ll have to knock it out as soon as we can.”
Lady Carfax pulls on her gloves purposefully.
“What are you doing my love?” The Colonel asks.
“What does it look like?” the English lady replies. “I’m going to rescue Khalnikov and don’t you dare try to stop me”
“No I don’t suppose there’s much use” the Colonel replies doubtfully as he eyes the Walther PPK in Lady Penelope’s hand
Player One Player Two Player Three Player Four
Rocketman The Colonel Korsakov Olga
George McArthur Sgt Sternov Yuri 10 x Kazakh tribesmen
’Mad Dog’ Mitchell 10 x Kazakhstani Bolshevik 10 x Iron Guard riflemen Supply truck
Lady Carfax. soldiers (with HMG) Iron guard machine gunner K4 Heavy tank
Lady Carfax’s driver: Truck K1 Light tank with 37mm gun (Note this element is only
Meadows (unless destroyed in game 4) functional if Olga’s men
Touring car Armoured car with HMG manage to roll a 6 to start its
(unless destroyed in game 4) (unless destroyed in game 4) engine.)
Truck Off-table mortar crew
(unless destroyed in game 4) (unless destroyed in game 4)
Armoured car with HMG
(unless destroyed in game 4)
Starting
Players one and two begin any where within 6 inches of the western edge of the map. Rocketman may start airborne if he so chooses.
Player three begins in which ever defensive positions he wishes, but Korsakov has ordered Yuri to take control of the death ray so Yuri starts the game on the death rays manual control platform.
Player four begins in which ever defensive positions he wishes but the heavy tank starts outside the tank workshops where it has sustained damage from the air raid. At least two engineers are working on it from outside which means these are on its back and exposed. In order to get the heavy tank started, at least one engineer must be present and a die roll of 6 is required. If both engineers are killed, others can take their place. Climbing onto the back of the tank takes one round.
Victory Conditions
Players one and two have three victory criteria and win by fulfilling any two of them. First: destroy the tower. Second: kill Korsakov. Third: Rescue Audrey and Khalnikov from the detention centre.
Players three and four win either by destroying two thirds of their enemy’s forces or by preventing players one and two from fulfilling their success criteria.
Special Notes
Every rifleman automatically carries one grenade, though these can be shared between elements. Also, each of the trucks available to players one and two carries a satchel charge, unless these have already been used in chapter three.
Player two has a mortar team but these must move forwards to set up within range of the tower. This takes ten rounds, there after the mortar may commence firing unless it has been destroyed.
The death ray is being powered up as the game starts and will reach a sufficient power level to open fire at its lowest setting by round nine. There after it can sustain fire every fourth round. The death ray is so powerful that anything successfully targeted is immediately destroyed along with anything else in a three inch radius. The level of energy being unleashed is so great that the weapon vaporizes anything but named characters (who are defeated but make miraculous and highly improbable escapes). In order for the death ray to hit a target, Yuri must be in line of sight. If the death ray is used to target the off table mortar crew, Yuri must succeed in a perception roll against the mortar crew who receive a +2 bonus for being hidden.