listed Toussaint's gear in the equipment thread. opened up character sheet for him as well. He will be starting in the area where everyone else is as well. though, since he is french he will be required by Lestat de Lioncourt to track down the other PCs for food. Who in their right mind felt that Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise could ever be French, Vampires, or Effeminate?

Masseur Toussaint, make a recon roll to see how steathily you make your approach, s'il vous plaît

Well, crap.

you can push that roll if you want.

Done and done, barely managed. Ignore the +1, just had a brain fart.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:17, Mon 04 Apr 2022.

Toussaint, at this point you are welcome to stay in your own thread and keep a low profile, or you can join the all in a day thread with the others and meet the party.

I think I'll lay low for just a bit longer, just to be certain there isn't an ambush going on and to see if I can get a little bit more info. Would be sad to go through all that sneaking trouble just to be shot at close range by a polish farmer.

In reply to Roch Toussaint (msg # 658):

If you haven't had your plans spoiled by a Polish farmer or his damn dog, then you've not really been playing Twilight 2000... ;)  #beentheredonethat

or had your entire supply depot shot up

Well, never played twilight 2000 before, so, yeah #neverbeenthereordonethat

lol, don't sweat it. these guys went through a few days on the run and saw considerable attrition, mostly due to the life cycle of most RPOL games. but it was still quite entertaining.

Lol, I don't mind at all, good banter is what separates us from the savages right?

wait, you mean the non-savage from us, right?

In reply to GM (msg # 664):

At this point, we're all savages. Just a matter of relativeness.

yeah, there just isn't anything worse than plot devices. about to step up the action now that everyone is together.  i will post in later tonight about who gets to die first.

at 1200 meters moving at a walking pace, if nothing impedes the progress of the men on the road they will cross the bridge in about 9 to 10 minutes.

they haven't spotted you guys let, that is obvious because they aren't reacting to your guys. it would require more than the naked eye. at 600 meters the average person looks like a triangular shaped blob that moves around to the naked eye.

and all of you are wearing camo, subdue fatigues, or a combination of the two. that breaks up the outline against a natural background.

the vehicle on the other hand is making noise, moving, is an unnatural shape, and moving on a defined background that permits it to stand out. and it still requires binoculars for the likes of you guys to truly see what is out there.

if you plan on escaping then you don't need be planning on taking up some sort of position to engage the enemy from. if you plan on fighting against these guys they are well and again too far away to reliably fire on them. even with sniper rifles and heavy machine guns.

besides, tactically, the best place to attack would be in the center of the bridge. its a limited cover area, acts a natural choke point funneling the enemy into a kill zone, offers equally bad ground to cover in egress or ingress, lacks concealment, and makes for an exposed position to fight from.

any questions? ideas? or details that you need explained? I don't mind helping out with explaining further to help create a plan of action/set a scene for you.

Well Roch for one don't want to leave roving soviet warbands if there's a reasoneble chance to take them out. Won't fight them on his own though.

Apologies for the delay in posting. Involved in my local Passion Play and so having a busy weekend.

understandable, Jesus gave all, we can give a few days easily enough.

i'll give the others until tomorrow. then i'll push the scene forward some more. thanks for your diligence guys.

Nice. Roch will wait until the soviets vehicle is in the middle of the bridge and then try to stop it there, I guess? Is that possible? A tire, the driver or the engine?

Sorry it took a bit longer to post. Between Easter weekend and then work being ... less than favorable... I just could get a post out until last night.

no sweat, it was perfectly fine.

In reply to GM (msg # 674):

Checking in. Planning another nine-mile walk this coming Bank Holiday weekend. Good for getting an idea of the T2K world.

Ranger Reconnaissance Company standards with the US Army 2nd Ranger battalion:
1. 75 push ups in 2 minutes
   85 sit ups in 2 minutes
   2 miles in 12 minutes, 36 seconds or less
2. 16 pull ups with no time limit, but without leaving the bar
3. 5 miles in 35 minutes, 56 seconds or less
4. 12 mile march with fatigues, boots, rifle, armor, and 40 pounds in 120 minutes or less
5. 500 meter swim in 12 minutes, 36 seconds or less

1. is based on the Army Physical Fitness Test, the APFT
2. is based on the requirements from Army Airborne Training
3. is a requirement of the Ranger Recon Company from experiences in the war in Viet Nam
4. is based on the requirements of the Army's Infantry Deployment Standards
5. is a requirement of the Ranger Recon Company from experiences in the war in Viet Nam

this being the standards for the RCC, it isn't far off of the standards encouraged by the Ranger Training Battalion for acceptance into an actual Ranger Battalion (as opposed to simply completing Ranger School and going on to a regular unit assignment)

the top numbers that are encouraged are a little tougher and are considered the first point of recruitment in other organization such as Army Special Forces, Combat Activities Group (aka Delta), or combined branch units under the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) umbrella.

100 push ups and sit ups in 2 minutes
20 pull ups in two minutes with releasing the bar
2 miles in 12 minutes or less
5 miles in 35 minutes or less
12 mile march in 100 minutes
500 meter swim in 10 minutes or less

this is because the physical training shows a level of commitment and an ability to self motivate above the norm.

even with these physical requirements around 70% fail to make it into CAG due to deficiencies in basic skills like land navigation or marksmanship. those are a fundamental skills to infantry. when it comes to the Special Forces most (60%) will wash out because of the mental discipline. This is often higher the naval Special Warfare Development Group (DevGru or Seal Team 6) because these men come from naval career paths where land based combat operations isn't something they are capable of learning without going through SEAL training. This is why the Navy allow Marines to go into SEAL training to begin with. Similarly, since 1989 about 70% of CAG recruits have come from Ranger Regiments. Prior experience is everything to Special Operations selection.

Army Special Forces (the Green Berets) are expected to operate with minimal support, often in enemy controlled regions, for extended periods of time ranging from six month to thirty six months to complete a mission. The main reason for this drop rate is inability to integrate into the team environment. SF training is all about applying the training to real world problems, it takes a lot of team work and effort. Most people supply the effort but when they get stressed, tired, hungry, angry, and nervous the teamwork ethic takes a beating. Collateral blame tends to creep in.

Supreme ownership of decisions and mistakes is key in the environment these guys work in. this is also what makes teams successful across the board; SEALS, DevGru, PJs, SF, Delta, Rangers, Force Recon, Raiders, etc., but with the unique missions Green Berets are often sent on it is paramount for success. They are often on their own for long periods of time with minimal overarching command and control.

This is the reason the Tier 1 units are invitation only. They possess access to independent command structures with their own facilities and budgets. It builds uniquely capable teams of Operators but it is very demanding as well.

Most Special Operations personnel are either support personnel with a myriad as technical skills or what are considered tier 2 operators. Tier 2 Operators deploy as often as Tier 1 Operators typically, only they are used slightly differently. They are assigned to a unit, expected to operate on teams they didn't choose to be a part of, and do not receive the level of training time nor training budget of Tier 1 Operators. However, Tier 2 makes up the vast bulk of Special Operations Personnel. Similarly, they conduct the vast bulk of 'Special Operations'.

Due to the high number of Operational troops in SOCOM it has accumulated a huge number of higher ranking non-commissioned officers (NCOs). Mainly from E-6 to E-9 paygrades. This is because their no way to offer these people better pay incentives to stay. Many of these men who have a dozen years or more in SOCOM with paygrades of E-7 to E-9 still make less than a comparable civilian leadership role by a considerable amount. Top pay scales range in the $60k to $70k range for men in their late thirties to early forties with more time and training in a single job than the top 10% of business administrators. And those jobs range from mid six figure incomes to mid seven figure incomes. Plus no one is actively trying to kill them on the job.

just a rant, most people are never aware of what it takes or what it pays to become someone who consistently wrongly portrayed in TV and cinema.