PDEE Pulp: the Okhrana shows its hand - a thrilling tale from the Baltic

To finish this year’s Palaeo Diet season, Mark used the Pulp variant of the rules to play a game of skulduggery, as the black hand of the Russian regime - the Okhrana secret police - tries to capture V I Lenin who is resting up at a German army camp at Bialystok on his way to the Finland Station.

So, it’s April 1917 and Lenin is being conveyed by the German High Command from his exile in Switzerland, back to Russia where they hope he will further destabilise the tottering Provisional
government. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Here’s an overhead view of a small German army camp outside the town of Bialystok. In Lithuania if you’re a patriot or in Poland if you’re not. It’s the dead of night … (Photo #1).

The camp is guarded by a detachment of six men (Goons, commanded by Sgt Ostmann, all armed with smg). A snatch squad of five Okhrana men (Adventurers, commanded by special agent Malinovsky, all armed with pistols) will try to infiltrate, grab Lenin, and escape with him (Photo #2).

There are some special rules …

The Okhrana men all have the Stealth special ability. While in base contact with any terrain item they cannot be seen by a Goon unless they fail an activation, or shoot. But they can recover their cloak of invisibility at the end of their activation.

The Okhrana are crack shots / close combat specialists, and get +1 on shooting at 1S or shorter, on aimed shots.

Lenin, who is taking a night-time stroll while he ponders the seemingly intractable problem of bourgeois false consciousness, might be in any one of the six locations marked by fires. He can be seen by the Okhrana (& Goons) at 1L. Once his position is confirmed Sgt Ostmann may change the location of one Goon so it is within 1L of Lenin (Photo #3).

The Okhrana win by getting Lenin off the table (via the same exit they entered the camp), per the ‘absent-minded academic’ rules in the Pulp Fiction scenario (pp17-18). The Goons win by preventing this so he can resume his train trip in the morning. If Lenin dies the side that killed him loses. He’s no use dead to either Ludendorff or Kerensky.

The Okhrana squad make their move in the small hours of the morning. It’s god luck § the Germans have no dogs on duty. Rachkovsky and Azef slip into the camp through the large gap in the S boundary fence which is guarded by Schmidt. They pass within 1L of the fire and can see § that Lenin is not there. However their initial objective is to neutralise Schmidt. A triple activation by Azef sees him sneak up to the German and shoot him at point blank range, but somehow missing. Schmidt reacted by moving away, and no other Goons were within L to react to the sound of gunfire. So Rachkovsky, cursing under his breath, loped forwards in an attempt to retrieve the situation, fired an aimed shot, and Schmidt took 1W. Only he reacted, again moving away (Photo #4).

Now Bogrov and Zhitomersky shimmied into the camp, to the L of where the other two agents had made their entrance. Bogrov failed 1/2 activations but the only Goon in LoS, Schroder, was too far away and saw nothing. At the end of his move he observed another fire, and § it was Lenin. Meanwhile, Zhitomersky moved rapidly along the inside of the W fence, out of sight of the Goons. Last of all Malinovsky, responding to the low coded whistle by Bogrov, joined his agent and confirmed it was indeed Lenin (Photo #5).

So we start Turn #2 with Lenin’s location discovered, and it’s relatively favourable for extraction by the Okhrana. Much better than one of the potential locations in the NE sector. So I removed the unreconnoitred fire tokens, and Sgt Ostmann detailed Erhardt to move into 1S of Lenin as close protection (Photo #6). In the above photo the Okhrana men are identified by W1-5. The Goons are Y1-6. Lenin is adjacent to Y6. The photo is looking E.

Bogrov activated first, tasked by Malinovsky (who was right behind him) with eliminating Erhardt. Bogrov failed 1/3 activations and Erhardt did not react (rested). So Bogrov skulked forward and shot at him, taking him OOA with a well-placed hit. Good timing! Only Schroder was in range to react, and he moved away. Zhitomersky activated next, skulking forwards under cover to within 1S of Lenin. Malinovsky also skulked forward, taking up a covered position across the street (Photo #7).

Rachkovsky and Azef now find themselves holding the R flank of the Okhrana line of escape. They successfully activate on 1 dice each and hold their positions (Photo #8).

Turn 3. Malinovsky triple activates, aiming to seize Lenin and hustle him away. He moves discreetly (skulks) across the street to make base contact with Lenin, then keeps skulking, back down the street, heading for the S edge, expecting Lenin to follow him. But Lenin isn’t having this and starts to howl (presumably, begins protesting loudly) attracting the attention of Schroder, the only live Goon within 1L). Who predates forward 1M, ending up almost in contact with Lenin and with Zhitomersky who is concealed in the shadows. Zhitomersky double-activates and shoots at Schroder, causing him 1W, and Schroder … moves away.

I’ve been trying to mentally rationalise the inert reactions of the Goons in this fight. Perhaps they are poorly-trained reservists (elderly men, convalescents etc) who weren’t expecting this kind of midnight action in a small out-of-the-way rear area camp. Anyhoo … the Okhrana finish their move by repositioning Rachkovsky and Bogrov, uneventfully (Photo #9).

Turn 4. Will Lenin cooperate? Malinovsky activates on one dice and skulks forward again. Now he is only slightly over 1S from the table edge. He whistles up Lenin, who - in accordance with the special rules - activates on three dice, and succeeds on two. So like a good boy he Ambles x2 towards Malinovsky and ends up in base contact (Photo #10).

The rest of the Okhrana snatch squad prepare to exit. They all successfully pull back with 2 x Skulk activations each (Photo #11).

And on turn 5 it was all over as the Okhrana vanished into the darkness with their captive, without any further opportunity for the Goons to react. The whole operation took only about five minutes (elapsed time not playing time). Right up til the end it seemed the defenders had no real idea what was going on.

Cheers from Pattaya

Mark