Metropolis: Gauntlet

12 December 2000 1300H. W 23rd St. Manhattan Island, New York City.

Departure.

Maks’ convoy to Madison Square Garden set out. Along with his two Humvees, Rhonda Lowery also joined in a pickup, with some of her team, along with a 2½-ton truck with salvage equipment and more staff.

I rolled for encounters along the way, every couple block or so. I used this table from Armies of the Night.

Which I modified as follows:

No event = Blocked street

Workers = Gang

Troops = Hizzonner’s convoy

Special = Go Wild

Actual results:

Enc 1 – Troops – neighborhood protection – waved through

Enc 2 – Gang – 11 members loitering in street – 70m distant – Convoy takes quick left

Enc 3 – Civilians

Enc 4 – Pack of dements (22) – Maks bulls through – objects thrown at vehicles

Enc 5 – Special – Gang fight – they disperse when convoys shows up – 12 remain, watching convoy – Convoy turns right on W 23rd St. -This “fight” is actually a ruse for an Ambush I decided.

Ambush

Lowery’s motorcycle scout warned of trouble ahead on his radio. Somebody had pulled a spike strip across the road.

Armed figures arrived on scene from nearby buildings, in increasing numbers. Lowery radioed “Maks, this looks bad.”

Maks, from the rear Humvee, called back, asking if the road was completely obstructed. This looked to go hot at any moment.

The road, yes, but the scout reported the the sidewalk hadn’t been covered.

DeAngelo Pratt, the group’s driver/mechanic, was at the wheel of the lead Humvee. It started taking fire. He gunned the engine and made for the sidewalk.

Anybody driving on the sidewalk, I ruled they’d need to make Driving checks. Pratt scored twice. Once to mount the sidewalk and avoid obstructions…

…and again, a Formidable roll, ’cause my brother decided he was attempting to run down the gunmen on the sidewalk.

He scored on the first two Formidable rolls, bouncing two gunmen off his hood. Last roll was a Catastrophic Failure, which in the context of “rundown” rolls, I ruled that Pratt not only missed the 3rd guy, but the gunman got 2 free (out-of-turn) shots with his .380 pistol at the HMMWV barreling past. They were ineffective.

The last gunman was mowed down by Grant Derek William manning the M240 MG.

Side-note: All this time, I thought machineguns used Small Arms (Rifle) asset. Wrong. They use Autogun, which I always assumed was for larger caliber weapons. Helps to look stuff up!

At that moment, an Improvised Explosive Device detonated in the street. The motorcycle scout was killed instantly. Humvee 1 was too far (on the sidewalk), and partly obscured to take damage, either from the concussion or fragments.

The IED was fairly amateurish and underpowered. I used a RAW HE Rifle Grenade (C:10, B30, Pen 1C) to model the explosive.

Farther back, the rest of the convoy was determined to push through. Lowery’s driver in the pickup charged down the street, ignoring incoming fire.

Back in the 2nd Humvee, Maks’ face took on a steely expression when he spotted another spike strip being dragged across the street… by a kid.

Linda, driving Humvee 2, failed her Driving roll getting onto the sidewalk, and the vehicle was caught on debris, halting its movement.

Maks commanded Barna Áron to engage the gunmen appearing on the sidewalk with the mounted M2HB. He wagered that the fire would scare the kid hauling the spike strip.

Two gunmen were cut down by the hail of .50 rounds. The child dropped the spike strip and fled back across the street.

Maks called out on a bullhorn: “Clear the street! Anyone armed will be shot!”

Incongruously, Maks noted much of the gang was wearing high school lettermen jackets.

Falling Objects

Ahead, the lead Humvee was almost out, continuing on the sidewalk, and exchanging fire with gunmen ahead.

Every turn, I kept rolling for more gang members to show up on the scene. But they wouldn’t just show up on the street.

Objects began raining down from above. GDW dropped out of the gunner’s station after a brick walloped his M240, damaging the vehicle weapon [rolled Weapon/Ammo on hit location]. Other objects hit the roof and hood of the Humvee, and the sidewalk nearby.

I’d made up a roll table of objects that’d be thrown at the vehicles. Building debris, small appliances, piss-filled bottles. From 10 stories up, these objects would hit like a sledgehammer.

A small, dense electrical box crashed through Humvee 1’s roof, hitting (nonexistent) passengers.

Gunmen fired on the Humvee, but were hampered by misfires and jams [Rolled 2 Catastrophic Failures].

In the Rear With the Gear

At the rear of the convoy, Linda struggled to free the Humvee from the debris. Lowery’s 2½-ton truck barreled past, the driver also turning on the sidewalk. He attempted to run down the gunmen, but missed them, and they fired back without effect.

Maks, in the stalled Humvee, spotted [Outstanding Success!] one of the people tossing objects from above, and nailed him with his G11 [first time G11 used in our campaign!]

Gunmen were approaching the Humvee from the rear, firing, starting to get their range.

Linda managed to get Humvee 2 moving, hewing to the sidewalk as well.

Straight On Through To The Other Side

The lead Humvee burst through, was engaging gang members running into the fight.

One of its tires had taken a puncture from debris on the sidewalk.

Pratt made a poor driving roll, in this case. I knew in this fight the HMMWVs would be taking Suspension damage from direct fire, debris, spike strips, etc. So I wanted to model its run-flat tires. Found this online:

As it happened, that was the only Suspension damage from the fight. Now they have a tire to replace. Also the M240 is out of action until repair. And Lowery is mourning the loss of her motorcycle scout.

The rest of the convoy soon followed, driving through and away from that hornet’s nest before it could build to a critical mass.

Rhonda Lowery radioed Maks, echoing his suspicion that somebody had sold them out. She told him that – since moving vehicles are seldom seen in Manhattan these days – prepared ambushes targeting vehicles just aren’t a thing here… unless word had leaked.

It seemed like their ambushers were half-ready for them, for whatever reason.

NEW! Classic GDW RPGs on CD-ROM – I have Twilight 2000 (1e and 2e disks), plus Twilight 2013 in DRM-free PDF. Buy an entire RPG product line for $35!