Campaign Map

I cant take credit for this map, i just scribbled over the top of it like a child. If it is yours please let me know and i will credit you, or take it down if you prefer.

Operation Reset - Part 3

5 miles south of Sieradz July 18th 2000

Plunged into darkness, the lead driver of the convoy spots what could be lights behind them and pulls the convoy off the road into the cover of nearby woods. Strike Zulu sets camp and secures a perimeter, the night vision goggles are jury rigged to run from the batteries of the SAS teams Saxon APC. Watches are set and they get some rest while they can.

During the night the camp is attacked by a large bear which is quickly taken down with the combined firepower of 2 machine guns.  As the teams prepare to leave evidence is found of another intruder, who came and went during the night without being seen.

Continuing along the back roads and less well known routes, the convoy continues south. Around noon they spot the taller buildings of Wielun through the trees. Scouts continue on foot through the woodland with snipers for support. As they pass through the woods they find evidence that a large number of refugees camped there not so long ago. When they reach the outskirts of the town they find a mass grave, apparently full of Polish and Soviet troops.

Sneaking into town the scouts find it to be heavily occupied by soviet forces. Some engineering work appears to be underway to the east, and there are signs of small manufacturing industries working. The scouts pull back to the convoy. 

After some consideration Strike Zulu decide to skirt Wielun through its suburbs. They quickly disguise themselves with captured enemy uniforms and weapons and head out. They make good time and cut through the suburbs until they reach the main Wielun-Kepno road. In their way stands a road block of a half a dozen men and a russian BMP APC.

A Russian officer aproaches the convoy and, satisfied after questioning the lead vehicle about who they are and where they are going continues to inspect the column. The SEAL team in the second vehicle, speaking no Russian, engage the enemy. As the convoy sets off towards the road block members of the SAS team exit their vehicle and lay down surpressive fire with machinegun and RPG fire. The BMP seams impervious to their efforts, and after a well placed smoke round from the Ranger teams mortar blinds its gunner, the BMP is disabled with a thermite charge.

The convoy continues around the suburbs of Wielun, pulling of the main road and fleeing south before encountering another road block. Trying to make up for lost time they pick up speed and attempt to avoid any other towns.

By late afternoon Strike Zulu, making good time, is 10 miles north of Krakow. Perhaps because of their speed they fail to spot an ambush at the sides of the road, and drive straight into it. Coming under fire from sustained heavy machinegun fire from both sides of the road. Only the SAS team in the rear vehicle have time to react, and having Dr Czerwinski and the MCCS device, they decide to leave the convoy to its fate and take an alternative route.

After taking a longer route to avoid the ambushers, the SAS team arrives at the outskirts of Krakow. Leaving their vehicle behind they continue on foot with the professor, his device, and his research....

to be continued...

Operation Reset - Part 2

The river crossing south of Kolo - July 17th 2000

Strike Zulus convoy approached the Soviet rocket batteries at speed, the exhaust fumes from the recently fired rocket batteries obscuring their approach. Hatches were opened and weapons readied. By the time the Russians realized they were under attack it was too late, artillery crews snatched up weapons and began to fire at what they could see of the convoy though the smoke. Strike Zulu lay down a withering wall of return fire.

As they sped out of the exhaust fumes Strike Zulu found themselves rapidly approaching the bridge over the river Warta. An old T-55 tank blocked the left hand carriageway. The convoy mounted the bridge and passed the stationary tank as the crew desperately tried to get it running. On the other side of the river the convoy passed through the rocket batteries HQ and the crews tented encampment.

While the Russian tank crew were still trying to get their T-55 started, the antiaircraft crew had fared a lot better. They had managed to get their ZSU-23-4 Shilka up and running and as the allied convoy passed through the tented encampment they engaged them with their 23mm antiaircraft guns. as Strike Zulu came under fire they pulled of the road and down the embankment towards the river taking them below the enemies guns and to safety.

Finding themselves between the enemies support elements and their front lines, travelling through areas filled with abandonned vehicles and equipment the convoy comes to a halt to discuss their next step and scavenge for arms and ammunition. As they are gathered around the command hmmwv studying the few maps they have, they recieve news over the radio of the defeat of 5ht division and the fall of Kalisz.

Hearing the news that Kalisz has fallen to the enemy they decide to head south with the aim of reaching Krakow and liasing with known DIA agents operating there. Skirting around the enemy occupied town of Turek they move onto the back roads skirting the forest. After an hours travel through overgrown and neglected farmland the strike force stops at an abandoned farm house for rest and repairs. 

Rested and with night approaching they push further south using the back roads and the cover of darkness to mask their movements. Around midnight as the convoy approaches the main road east out of Kalisz they decide to send out scouts to recon the road and descern whether it is afe to cross. As the scouts approach the road they notice a small amount of watch fires around the town of Sieradz. Cautiously the scouts skirt the town and make contact with the civilian militia guarding it. They learn more about Krakow and the rumours of its independance.
2 hours later, having negotiated passage throught the town of Sieradz, Strike Zulu finds itself back again on back roads heading south in the darkness. At this point their only pair of night vission goggles fails.......

to be continued.

World in Conflict

Trailer for the PC game World in Conflict, it has a similar background to Twilight 2000.

Trailer for World in Conflict: Soviet Assault.

Distorted Futures (pasts) 4

80s/90s Warsaw Pact Polish troops.

Distorted Futures (pasts) 3

Another in what is rapidly becoming a 'feature' of images of 80s/90s military personnel.

ZSU-23-4 "SHILKA"

Weight             42000

speed               30/15

acceleration     10

range               300

toughness         6

handling           2

DC                   470

AV                   45+D8x3 (57)
accuracy          -

cost                 -

availability      U

armament        4 x 23mm Autocanon

The ZSU-23-4 "Shilka" is a lightly armored, self-propelled, radar guided anti-aircraft weapon system (SPAAG). The acronym "ZSU" stands for Zenitnaya Samokhodnaya Ustanovka, meaning "anti-aircraft self-propelled mount"; the "23" signifies the bore diameter in millimeters; the "4" signifies the number of gun barrels. It is named after the Russian Shilka River. Afghan soldiers nicknamed it (sewing machine) due to the sound of firing guns and because of the similarity of the name "Shilka" to the Russian word "шить" (, meaning "to sew"). It is also referred to by its nickname of "Zeus."

- Wikipedia

Distorted futures (pasts) 2

Some 80s/90s Soviet troops

Distorted Futures (Pasts)

Twilight 2000 was written in the 80s and set in the 00s and speculates greatly about what might have been in a post nuclear Europe. This is how i visualize the player characters in my game. History tells us different, but this is still how i see the characters.

Operation Reset - Part 1

Somewhere north  of Ozorkow - July 17 2000

Operation Resets objectives are for a special forces team to capture Dr Piotr Czerwinski and any research and/or prototype for a mechanical computer chip (MCCS - Modular Computer Chip Surrogate). Dr Czerwinski will have to be extracted from Lodz University - Poland. The Team will then link up with the 5th division offensive at Kalisz, and return to the UK.  The window of opportunity is narrowing, the DIA have intercepted intelligence that suggests KGB agents will try to extract him there selves soon.

Due to this narrowing window of opportunity Strike Zulu, a US special forces team comprising of a 5 man SEAL team and a 4 man Ranger team, led by Major Billings, is due to be despatched to Lodz - Poland. Due to events in Poland they have to move fast and are short of men. Members of a combined special forces unit, commanded by the British SAS have been attached to Strike Zulu.

After a briefing and introduction on board a C-130 Hercules, Strike Zulu leaves RAF Brize Norton at 00.00. After an uneventful 2 hour flight they land in darkness in a field somewhere north of Ozorkow. They are met off the plane by their support element from the 75th Rangers, and 2 Polish guides. 

Strike Zulu heads south in darkness, lead by their local guides around the towns of Ozkorow and Zgiers without incident. The guides lead them in to the heart of the city of Lodz using their local knowledge to avoid Soviet or Polish patrols. The headquarters and supply elements of the Polish 6th Border Guard Brigade and the Soviet 20th Tank Division are both known to be using the city.

At around 03.30 Strike Zulu arrives in a large public park. While the Rangers set up their support weapons to cover the retreat, the SAS, SEALs and Polish guides scaled the wall and crossed the street to the university buildings. Dr Czerwinskis apartment was soon found in the accommodation blocks and the doctor was secured.

The teams now split up, the SEALs were remained at the accomodation block to provide cover and to guard Dr Czerwinski, while the SAS team crossed the road and entered the university complex. They found Dr Czerwinskis lab across a large open quadrangle. As they aproached the lab they noticed there were lights moving inside. The group split, one half remained near the door to keep look out while the other group stealthily infiltrated the lab. They caught a 4 man search team by surpise in the lab and quickly neutrilised them.

The SAS team collected Dr Czerwinskis notes and what appeared to be the prototype MCCS device bundled in a packing case. They began to withdraw from the university complex across the exposed quadrangle making use of the little cover available. It was here they came under fire from a concealed sniper which they could not locate, popping smoke for cover they exited on to the street.

Back in the street the SEAL team had also come under fire and reacted, surpressing the front of a building which they believed to be a hospital. Under covering fire form the Rangers, both the SAS and SEAL team retreated back to the park.

After a brief discussion they decided they would retrace their entrance route and head back to Kalisz that way. By 06.00 they wear approaching the bridge to the south of Kolo, when they encountered a large Soviet force. As they watched the soviets prepared and fired rocket batteries at targets to the South West. Strike Zulu prepared their weapons and spead towards the Soviets trusting on speed, surpise and aggresion to confuse and scatter them...

to be continued...

Saxon APC

Weight             2200

speed               60/30

acceleration     15

range               320

toughness         4

handling           3

DC                   80

AV                   30+d8X2 (38)

accuracy          -

cost                 -

availability      U

armament        7.62 GPMG in turret

The Saxon was intended to act as a cheap but efficient "battle-taxi" for units that would have to make long journeys from the UK to reinforce the BAOR. As a lightly armoured wheeled vehicle it is much faster - especially on roads - and easier to maintain than a tracked vehicle. Indeed, it shares many parts with commercial trucks, reducing the operating cost.

It is armoured against small-arms fire and shell splinters, but is not intended to stand up to any anti-vehicle weaponry. The vehicle has a single machine gun for local air defence, and can carry up to ten men.

- Wikipedia

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE TWILIGHT WAR

In 1995 a series of Sino-Soviet border conflicts expanded into general war between the Soviet Union and China. The Sino-Soviet war rapidly escalated from conventional warfare into exchanges of nuclear chemical and biological weapons. In 1996 a cabal of East German and West German military officers seek to reunify their country. Unified German forces stage a coup d'état against the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. The US and NATO allies initially attempt to stay out of the war, but are quickly drawn into the European conflict.

Between 1996 and 1997 a largely conventional war is fought between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces throughout Europe. There are limited exchanges of battlefield nuclear weapons, and chemical and biological weapons. During Thanksgiving 1997, the Soviet Union launches a surprise first strike against targets in the United States and Europe. The US and Great Britain launch retaliatory nuclear strikes against the Soviet Union.

In the aftermath of the nuclear exchanges, both blocs struggle to recover from the damage. The war continues - despite increasing shortages of men, equipment, and fuel. In the United States there is a breach between the civilian government and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. An open rift develops between "Civgov" (the civilian government) and "Milgov" (the military government), which leads to a low-intensity civil war.

By the summer of 2000, the European theater of operations had been fought to a near stalemate. In one final effort to break the deadlock and end the war NATO forces planned a summer offensive across Northern Poland and into the Baltics, but the offensive ground to a halt in the face of a Warsaw Pact counterattack. Several divisions & corps on each side were virtually eliminated. In the chaotic aftermath, supply lines are lost, high level command breaks down and armies in the European theater lose cohesion beyond the platoon unit. Some go “native’ and integrated with the militias of independent “free cities", others turned into gangs of marauding bandits and some small groups of surviving soldiers sought to find their way home.

- Wikipedia

THE YEAR 2000

By the spring of the year 2000, the armies of Europe had settled into their new "cantonment" system. Civil authority had virtually ceased to exist. Most military units were practicing extensive local recruiting in an attempt to keep up to strength, and stragglers were often incorporated into units regardless of nationality. Thus, U.S. units contain Germans, Poles, Danes, and former soldiers of Warsaw Pact armies in addition to Americans. Nominal titles of units (brigades, divisions, etc.) have little bearing on the actual size of the unit.

In early summer, the German Third Army, spearheaded by the U.S. Eleventh Corps, moved out of its cantonments on what was to become one of the last strategic offensives of the war.