Heylo!

I've noticed this site lacks ww2 RPs. This is either because the interest simply isn't there, or because no one is awesome enough to make one.

So, I've decided to plant this here to work out which one it is.

Currently I have a few scenarios that I can pursue, give me a holla if any take your fancy, and we'll go from there.

"We shall fight on the beaches"

During the chaos of the German blitzkrieg against France, a platoon of BEF soldiers, and a platoon of French armour attempt to hold the line against the onslaught of Panzergruppe von Kleist. Like their comrades up and down the line, their objective is simple: stall the German vanguard for as long as possible, whilst troops four miles behind can be evacuated from the Dunkirk beaches. The fighting will be situated around a fictional French village surrounded on both sides by waterlogged fields, forcing the over confident Germans to make a frontal assault with their panzers. Expect a Saving Private Ryan style last stand.

"We shall fight on the landing grounds"

20 May 1941, the Third Reich launches the world's first massed airborne operation, code named "Unternehmen Merkur", against the Allied forces holding Crete - the Greek island. Greek soldiers, backed by Commonwealth elements, must stand their ground against a paratroop and glider assault against the town of Heraklion.

"We shall fight in the fields"

13 June 1944, the British Army makes a lunge for Caen - a vital crossroads for the invasion, and conquest, of Nazi Occupied France. The Germans, though lacking air support, make a determined defence of the city and its surrounding areas. With a gauntlet of thick hedges, fields, villages and forested areas to run through, the British must punch their way past the massing German panzers and anti-tank guns.

"And in the streets, we shall fight in the hills"

June 26 1944, the American 79th Infantry Division makes its assault on the battered defenders of Cherbourg - a French port in Normandy deemed vital to the invasion effort. Without the port, the Allies will struggle to resupply their armies. The Germans, though low on ammunition, food and morale, nevertheless make a characteristically enthusiastic defence in the face of certain defeat.

Fort du Roule, which dominates the city and its defence is the 79th's goal, but as stated, the German defenders will not let it go without a fight. It's going to be a long day, and a bastard of a climb.

"Schatten in den Bäumen"

19 September 1944, the American Army makes an ill advised assault on the areas in and around Hürtgen Forest. The Germans, usually facing the might of Allied air and numerical superiority, are able to use the forest's environment to negate both of their adversaries' advantages. Intense forest fighting ensues, with German platoons making ambushes on Allied columns, and repelling American assaults on their heavily entrenched lines.

Here, a company from the 3rd Panzergrenadier Division, backed by a platoon of StuG III's, holds the line against an American assault on Weisser Weh Creek; a forested network of tight roads, pathways and cottages.

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I can field more scenarios, directed towards the Eastern Front and North Africa if needs be, but I thought I'd offer some of the lesser used battles as a backdrop.

Hmm, interesting. I'd love to do something that isn't D-Day however- and there are more than enough interesting stories that arose from the Invasion of Crete, such as the following resistance that basically occurred on the island, so I push for that RP the most. Alternatively, as a second vote, I guess the assault on Caen will do just fine.

Oh, and believe me, there used to be an interest like hell before for these RPs, myself included, but it's died out of late. Good to see you running something.

Wow. This place sure isn't as active as I remember it being, have I stumbled into the aftermath of some mass migration? I've done a little research, trawling through off-topic threads, and it seems you guys had some trouble with the site a month or two ago?

Well, before I develop anything, I'll need more than one person showing interest - valued though it is - but now I'm thinking I've just stumbled into a graveyard. Serves me right for not researching, but back in the day RPG was the place to be, so I just spawned myself here without thinking.

I'll remain here for a few days, see how things go.

Staying on topic, the Battle for Crete does sound like an interesting scenario, especially as the Greeks themselves get a little run around on the pitch. I'll begin looking into the finer details of things.

Seen as I always enjoy a good WWII RP, I'll throw my hat into the ring.

I agree on the Battle of Crete scenario. The Greeks fought with everything and anything they had, no wonder Churchill said that "the Greek didn't fight like heroes, but heroes fought like Greeks.".

I would love to see this! Personally, I'd like something on the Eastern Front, but I love everything here.

Crete would be a lot of fun. A lot of WWII RPs tend to overlook the earlier period of the war, so I think it'd be a lot of fun to get in there with a good group.

Here's the draft of what I have so far.

A few things I'm currently considering:

- Not having the players in the same platoon, but allowing them to be whoever they want, from a grunt to a local commander.

- Allowing German characters.

- Posting an operational map. Can't find a good one, so I'd have to make it myself.

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"We shall fight on the landing grounds"



May 20, 1941.

Air raid sirens across the island of Crete merge to create a hellish orchestra, for in the clear skies above, comes a huge swarm of German Junkers Ju 52 and their accompanying gliders. This attack is an ambitious one, and the Fuhrer has gambled on the ability of his Fallschirmjäger to single handily defeat the island’s defenders without the aid of heavy weapons or armoured support.

With the Royal Navy holding the water ways, German reinforcements by sea are not forthcoming. The Luftwaffe, though dominant in the sky, is a weak stand in for Germany’s reliance on mechanised and mobile warfare. If the Third Reich wishes to prevail here, then it will need to secure the island’s airfields in order to bring in sufficient reinforcements needed to overwhelm the defenders.

The Allies holding Crete, formed up of British, Australian, New Zealand and Greek units of varying states of operational capacity, knew this assault was coming in advance. Their anti-aircraft batteries are more than ready to receive, though many of them are antiquated.

The JU 52s, piloted by brave and skilled men of the Reich, are immediately hit with an awesome display of ground fire. Tracers riddle the sky, striking out at the cumbersome transports left and right; dozens plummet to the earth in a fiery blaze. As the defenders cheer, believing for a moment that they can beat this assault before it ever has a chance to really happen, the Fallschirmjäger jump from their craft. Suddenly, the air is no longer thick with hundreds of hulking aircraft, but with thousands of parachutes.

The Allies scramble to defend their positions. Some, especially the Commonwealth soldiers, are well armed and are experienced in matters of war. Others, like the Greek army and Crete’s inhabitants, rely on a wide range of almost laughably antiquated equipment; for a brief period in time, the musket makes a return to the battlefield.

This battle is just beginning, and yet, to some it seems it is already over.

The Players, Their Starting Area, and Their Objectives

The players of the RP assume the roles of soldiers operating in the Commonwealth and Greek military. Additionally, players may assume the roles of the Crete inhabitants, whom at the time were able to provide an arguable backbone to the Allied front. Regardless of nationality or equipment, they form a mish-mash platoon slammed together in the chaos of the assault. They are linked to the British 14th Infantry Brigade’s headquarters.

We’re to assume that there are around 30-40 NPC soldiers in the platoon, to make up background noise. NPCs may be ordered around, and man handled by players at will. The NPCs, like the players, will be a motley crew of Cretan, Greek and Commonwealth fighters.

The RP will start as the players arrive on the western edge of Heraklion, disembarking from a sputtering Breda-32. The scene will be one of chaos, as Allied soldiers run to and throe, shooting at the incoming paratroopers, and manning the anti-air batteries against the JU 52s, and fleets of gliders. This airborne assault is the second to hit the island (the first striking further west), and is happening some hours after the first.

Shortly after, the German Fallschirmjäger, having made it to the ground, will assemble and launch an attack against the players’ position. Historically, the Germans broke through the defensive perimeter, took the western parts of the town (including the Greek barracks) and the docks, before being repulsed by an Allied counter attack. In the RP however, things will go as the players decide.

The players’ objectives, therefore, are to prevent where possible a German advance into the town, and to join all counter-offensive operations ongoing in the area.

Character Sheet

Name:
Gender: (Females permitted for Cretans only)
Nationality: British, Australian, New Zealander, Greek or Cretan.
Age:
Physical Appearance:
Rank: Caps at Staff Sergeant
Weapon and Ammunition: i.e Lee Enfield MK3 | 25 x 303.
Brief Background: A paragraph or two will suffice. Just sum your guy/guyette’s life up prior to the battle.

(Spot the references in character history. I couldn't help myself.)
(They are both NCOs as I plan to have maybe a handful of NPCs under their command, if that is okay- though this can very easily be edited to whatever you have in mind.)
(Also, if you say that Boonie/Giggle Hat isn't allowed for Scott, I know it doesn't fit the theater as well as the Pacific but still, he's a fucking Down Under person :D)

Name: Scott Patrick Harris
Gender: Male
Nationality: New Zealander (ANZAC)
Age: 22
Physical Appearance: Scott is a fairly well built lad, being slightly tanned yet mostly pale in skin color, with brown eyes and brown, short hair, standing around 6"3. He can usually be seen wearing a green boonie, or British nicknamed "Giggle" hat, and a standard British khaki green uniform, and usually can be wearing a shirt, shorts and a primitive load bearing harness, for ammunition and grenades, like many of his counterparts. He has a fairly tactile pair of boots, perhaps in far better nick than most soldiers', and a few cuts and bruises. In particular, due to general clumsiness on the way out of Corinth, he received a shallow cut in his left arm, and hence has a bandage still left on, leaving it for the moment being.

Rank: Sergeant
Weapon and Ammunition:
-Sten MkI
-8x 30 Round Magazines, 9x19mm Parabellum

-Webley Mk IV Revolver
-2x 6 Round Magazines, .38-200 British

2x Mills Bomb "Pineapple" Grenades

Brief Background:
Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.
Plato
"And you could say right there, Plato understood Hitler." Scott

Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Scott was born into an already militaristic family, though his mother was a primary school teacher. It was his father being a soldier in the ANZAC Expeditionary Forces who fought in the Battle of Gallipoli that Scott always looked up to, and wished to follow at some point, his study of Ancient Greek first to mind however and something that he wished to undergo as a degree, from his mother's tales of Socrates and Plato's theories. The experience of the Med was something Scott never saw he'd see if that was his path, but following his own recruitment into the New Zealand Army at the outbreak of war, he did just that. Before this time, he had done well in school, and was going to go to university- but the war saw different to that. The Japanese threat was something that did scare him, but he wasn't deployed to fight them. His division was off to fight the Germans, and like his father, he was off to the Aegean, as a part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces- which was again, like his father's unit before him, to become a part of the ANZAC.

He was deployed to the Battle of Greece, or Unternehmen Marita as it was known to the German invaders. He was a part of the larger 2nd New Zealand Division, particularly in the 5th Infantry Brigade, 21st Infantry Battalion that reinforced the Greek Army- though the German spearhead punctured any defensive that the Allies put up. Following a botched evacuation from Corinth to Crete, Scott was promoted to Corporal, following the loss of a handful of section leaders on the way out. The situation, even Scott can see, has gone to shit. He has accepted that on Crete, the war may take a very different path- there is no more running on a golden isle, where the local populace themselves are even armed, to stop the German thorn from pushing this last island into enemy hands. If Scott knows anything, it's that there are no more islands to retreat towards after this battle- and that there is either evacuation to Africa, or resistance. Like the Greek plays that Scott has studied, it's a setting for some drama.

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Name: Dimitri Costas
Gender: Male
Nationality: Greek (Cretan)
Age: 20
Physical Appearance:
Dimtiri stands at about 5"11, with a fairly olive skin and black hair as you would find on many Greeks in this part of the world. He has a fairly stocky build, and seems healthier than most, perhaps due to the fish-based diet and intensive work he had as a fisherman before he joined in fighting. He seems to have a few cuts and bruises, like most, and can usually be seen wearing a British-donated basic uniform with Greek insignia, comprising of a green shirt and shorts, with a small pack and a load bearing vest to boot. He wears a simple Steel helmet, with a netting attached, if at any point any shrubbery is required to be added as a camouflage. One distinguishing feature of Dimitri is the anchor that is tattooed onto his back- something he received just before the outbreak of war, by a visiting tattoo artist in Heraklion- something that many people did not opt for. While some would consider it perhaps a tattoo associated with the navy, for him it is his relation to the sea, a person who fishes, that it reminds him of, and sets him apart.

Rank: Lance Corporal (Future Resistance Cell Leader?)
Weapon and Ammunition:
-Bren MkII
-7x 30 Round Magazines, .303 British

Brief Background:

"We will fight them on the landing grounds? Shit, they're fucking falling out the sky! Last time I checked, that wasn't a landing ground!" Dimitri

Dimitri was born in Myrina, Lemnos- an island at the time that was recently made a Greek entity following decades of occupation and rule by the Ottoman Empire, and truly brought itself into the Hellenic world. He was brought up stoically Greek Orthodox, and his father was a fisherman, originally hailing from Crete- while his mother was a housewoman, and took care of Dimitri and his siblings. They moved to Crete when his grandparerents fell ill, to help care for them, and hence, Dimitri would really consider himself a Cretean in this respect, though he always did appreciate the mountains of Lemnos. He joined his father as a fisherman at 14, ditching any further education, and was always quite courageous, or somewhat able to lend a hand when needed in the worst of the Aegean storms. Dimitri didn't enlist when the war broke out- he was too young, and his parents relied on him to help keep the family's trade in fish going.

The Invasion brought his two older brothers to fight for the Greek Army, and the news reached them of their deaths when the British and Commonwealth, as well as any Greek forces managed to evacuate themselves to Crete. He felt angered, and joined up in the local militia as a result, particularly into the 1st Greek Regiment, of which was swiftly attached to the 5th New Zealand Infantry Brigade that Scott was also in. The regiment, despite usually being armed poorly with anything that came to hand prior to their arrival on Crete, was now relatively well provided for due to British donations of equipment, and Dimitri found himself a good leader of a small number of Cretean men within a fireteam. He was adept at carrying around the heavy Bren Gun, and while not being standard Greek equipment, on Crete, it was a weapon he'd put to good use. Dimitri's promotion was for the same reason that Scott's unit had seen in Corinth- a poor evacuation of officers had left a gap in NCOs, and his role as a Lance Corporal. Dimitri wishes that this isn't a fight that will ultimately be lost. But the sheer number of paratroops and the state of the defenders, already makes him think about the aftermath of such an invasion. And that he will fight to keep his homeland clear, even if there is a sea of German soldiers rather than cod in the Aegean around Crete, even if the rest of the Allied forces leave.

Name:
William Maxwell
Gender:
Male
Nationality:
British
Age:
21
Physical Appearance:
Tall, Broad shoulders, thick arms, red hair, freckles acrossed his nose and cheeks, gray/ blue eyes, light stubble on his chin
Rank:
Pvt.
Weapon and Ammunition:
Primary-
Lee Enfield No.1 Mk.III
9x10 mag 303. British
Secondary-
Webley Revolver
3x6 .38
Brief Background:
William grew up in the small town of Dunkfeld just North of Perth. He spent most of his time working on his families sheep farm. When he wasn't working William was trying to catch up on his studies. William was never the brightest kid and often had trouble in school but it was thanks to his sweet heart Anne that he passed, Anne being the one that did most of his school work. By the time he was near graduation he knew that there would be war and just like any other boy with hopes of being a war hero he enlisted. He had always seen himself as a soldier one day and often played army when he was younger with his siblings pretending the sheep to be IRA affiliates. He was assigned to the 14th Infantry 1st Battalion the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders a proud bunch of drunkards and louts, With in 11 months time he was already being shipped off to fight in Greece some place called Crete.

Please note that I am not the most hardcore role player but I like the idea of this and I wanna give it a try.

Maxwell57 said
Please note that I am not the most hardcore role player but I like the idea of this and I wanna give it a try.

That's cool.

I'm just wondering whether the Guild's latest crash has killed everyone off, so we'll wait to see if anyone's alive out there.

I'm here, just brewin' up a character.

I'm still alive too, the guild breaks down more than a Japanese tank...

Awesome. I shall work on getting the the OOC up.

Kill me some nazi's

Name: Alexios Stathos
Gender: Male
Nationality: Greek
Age: 50
Physical Appearance: Alexios stands at an average height of 1.77m tall, is well built for a man of his age. Then again one can argue that the hard labour he's done has helped his health, if it only had helped his hair from turning grey and slowly fall off his head. He has the typical olive skin of the Greeks, a well-trimmed moustache and a set of two brown eyes that are as sharp as ever. He also wears an old, red, Ottoman fez which he has sewed medals and marks on, including the Greek flag and the Orthodox Cross.
Rank: Sergeant.
Weapon and Ammunition: Mannlicher-Schönauer rifle, 8x 6.5×54mm.
Walther P38 pistol, 5x 9×19mm Parabellum.

Brief Background: Alexios was born in a typical fishing-village on Corfu, his mother a tailor and his father an orthodox priest. His family, consisting of his parents, two sisters and three brothers including himself, was raised as devoted Christians, and always told to cherish the freedom they had in an independent Greece. Nothing of interest happening during Alexios's childhood, and it seemed that he would follow his father's footsteps in becoming a priest. He had studied, and failed his exams twice, when the news broke out that Greece was at war; With the Young Turkish Revolution just happening, the Balkan kingdoms of Montenegro, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece sent an ultimatum to Constantinople to retreat her forces from the Balkans. When it was declined, the respective countries declared war, and The First Balkan War had begun.

Alexios eagerly joined the Greek army under command of Prince Constantine I., and participated in the successful campaign against the Turkish army as they fought their way into Macedonia. Alexios first distinguished himself as an excellent marksman, earning him a medal and a promotion, even going as far as being issued a new rifle. As the war, first against the Turks and then against the Bulgarians, came to an end, he did his best to return to his clergy education, but failing the exam once again before giving up on it. Instead he began working within transport, driving trucks with cargo all across Greece, especially in the newly liberated northern lands. When Greece joined the Allies in the Great War, Alexios once again joined the army and fought against the Central Power forces, primarily Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire.

He continued to fight in the army during the Greco-Turkish war, and returned home after the Greek forces were defeated by their long-time enemy. And with no wars to participate in, Alexios resumed his work as a cargo driver much of his life, until the Italians and Germans came. Leaving his family behind, his wife and lone daughter, he made his way to Athens, and was transferred to the 1st Greek Regiment alongside other Greek men of all ages. At Crete, they would either stop the German invaders, or die trying.

why is there no American troops allowed

america wasn't in the war yet..