Wing and Sword: a d20 Modern military campaign [METAGAME]

[The Shaman]

The Café Pergola is thronged with the late afternoon crowd. Even in the open air above the tables situated along the bustling Rue de Mornay one can smell the rich earthy scent of espresso mixed with the acrid smoke of Gauloises cigarettes. Patrons chat, read L’Echo d’Alger or Le Monde, sip coffee, and nibble pastries as the espresso machine hisses and a radio on a shelf over the counter plays le jazz Americaine. No one, not even the gendarme in his blue uniform and kepi flipping through a stack of action reports, notices the shopping bag left unattended under one of the tables.

Down the street a woman walks quickly away from the café. She mentally wills herself to slow down, to breathe deeply, but she cannot slow her step, not until she is back within the walls of the Casbah. She has hennaed her dark hair and lightened her olive complexion with makeup, but she is sure that everyone can see that she is not a pieds-noir, a European. However, no one on the street takes notice of her, not even when the bomb in the shopping bag she left under the table explodes.

Plaster and glass, tables and chairs, cups and plates, bodies and parts of bodies – all are thrown like so much confetti onto the sidewalk and into the street. The moment of silence after the blast’s echoes fade is replaced by the moans and wails of the injured. Bystanders race to pull the wounded and the dead from the smoking wreckage as keening sirens announce the arrival of fire fighters and gendarmes followed by a jeep with four soldiers, zouaves in khakis and red sidecaps.

Across the street from the café stands an Arab boy, a satchel filled with rolled copies of L’Echo slung over his shoulder. He stares blinking at the carnage, and doesn’t notice the three pieds-noirs converging on him until one of them grabs him by the arm and throws him against a wall. “Did you do this, you little bastard?” screams the European as the boy falls to the ground, dazed. Not waiting for an answer, the man kicks the boy as he lies on the sidewalk. Stunned the boy doesn’t move when a second pied-noir roughly yanks the satchel of newspapers off the boy's arm and scatters them across the street, along with a shower of five-franc coins.

The first man grabs the boy and lifts him to his feet, slamming the young Arab into the wall again, then all three are pummeling the boy as he weakly raises his arms to fend off the blows. Near the café, one of the zouaves sees the men and the boy. He unslings the MAS-36 rifle from his shoulder and takes a step toward the street, then stops as the firm hand of his section leader grips his arm. The caporal doesn’t say a word, merely shakes his head slightly, and the zouave stands silently, rifle in hand, watching the bloodied boy sink to the ground as the beating continues...

Introduction
Wing and Sword is a d20 Modern play-by-post military mini-campaign of counter-insurgency actions during the Algerian War of the 1950s.

The player characters are légionnaires of the 1er Regiment Etranger de Parachutistes (REP), the First Foreign Parachute Regiment, assigned to suppress the insurrection lead by the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN). FLN insurgents have been striking at civilian and military targets in the hinterland since 1954, but terrorist attacks in the large cities of Algiers, Oran, and Constantine are on the rise and the gendarmerie and sector troops assigned to the country are proving insufficient to stem the bloodshed. The French government begins a massive troop build-up in Algeria in 1956, but knows that conscripts alone will not be enough – the toughest assignments will fall to the men wearing a silver badge of a winged fist clutching a sword on their berets: Les Paras.

Players in Wing and Sword may utilize the following resources:

• d20 Modern Core Rulebook
• d20 Modern web enhancement

Selected material from The Game Mechanics Modern Player’s Companion and Ultramodern Firearms may be considered as noted below – no other third-party material will be allowed.

Characters
While Wing and Sword is a military mini-campaign, players should consider selecting a balanced group of classes and skills as the game will involve investigation, infiltration, and diplomacy as well as combat.

Players may select any of the base classes in the d20 Modern core rules at start. The following guidelines apply:

• 2nd level player characters at start
• 28-point buy
• Available action points equal 1 + class AP (e.g., a Tough 2 has 7 AP available to start)
• Human characters only
• Each character must take at least one rank of Jump, one rank of Knowledge (military science) (see “Skills and Feats,” below) and the Personal Firearms Proficiency feat to reflect their training as Foreign Legion paratroopers; a character who does not have French as their primary language must invest one skill point in Speak Language (French) as required of all legionnaires

Non-FX advanced and prestige classes from the core rules and the d20 Modern and Urban Arcana web supplements will be permitted. Advanced and prestige classes from TGM’s Modern Player’s Companion will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Please show your work on your character sheets – include all modifiers and ranks to a skill modifier, melee attack modifier, Wealth score, and so on, so that I can see how each number is derived.

Skills, Talents, and Feats
Non-FX skills, talents, and feats in the d20 Modern Core Rulebook are available. The following skills from the d20 System 3.5 SRD are also permitted:

• Appraise (Smart class skill)
• Knowledge (local) (trained only; all-class skill) – the player must specify a discrete location such as a city or other similar geographic area: ‘Phillipeville’ or ‘Petite Kybalie’ is acceptable, but ‘Algeria’ or ‘the Sahara’ is not.
• Use Rope (Fast class skill)

The skill “Knowledge (tactics)” in the d20 Modern core rules is replaced with the following expanded homebrew skill:

• Knowledge (military science): Military organization and administration, history and traditions, combat tactics and maneuver, logistics, and military justice.

Knowledge (military science) is substituted in all places where Knowledge (tactics) is currently applied for purposes of class skills, advanced class requirements, and so on. (Details.)

Skills and feats from either Ultramodern Firearms or the Modern Player’s Companion will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Equipment
Each character will be issued standard equipment appropriate to his rank and assignment, to be detailed later. A character may purchase additional personal items if he wishes, subject to approval before use by the character’s commanding officers and NCOs – a character who uses his Wealth score to purchase a U.S. M1911 .45 Colt pistol might be able to convince the caporal-chef leading his squad to allow him to carry it as a back-up weapon, but a character should not expect to purchase a AAT-52 7.5mm light machine gun for his own use!

Each character is assumed to have a driver’s license and a passport – all other licenses and permits will need to be purchased normally. Keep track of Wealth bonus changes from purchases of expensive items.

Roleplaying
Roleplaying is integral to Wing and Sword. Please prepare a thoughtful background for your character. At a minimum, the background should include something about the character’s education and previous employment (if applicable), interests, friends and family, personality, goals, and a physical description. The background is a good place to lay a foundation for future base or advanced classes as well.

Remember that men from all over the world enlist in the French Foreign Legion – don’t feel limited to selecting France or its colonies as a country of origin for your character.

An important note for women players! At the time and place of this campaign, there were no women soldiers in the French Foreign Legion – at least officially. Like most armies throughout history, women did occasionally join the Legion under a pretext, passing themselves off as men – at least one managed to continue service after her gender was discovered, with her unit maintaining her identity as a secret. Women players are welcome to play male characters or female characters in disguise – I would also consider an option for a female character who can participate in a couple of adventures as a nurse in the Sections Administratives Specialisees (SAS), though such a character would not be able to participate in the all of the adventures of the campaign. In any event, if you are interested in playing, I will find a way to accommodate you if at all possible.

As noted earlier, while this is a military campaign and will involve small-unit engagements with both insurgents and regular soldiers, it is first and foremost a roleplaying game. Player characters will be interacting with other soldiers, officials, spies, civilians, irregulars, terrorists, and paramilitaries over the course of the mini-campaign. While combat skills are useful, the ability to gather information from informants, prevent a riot by defusing hostilities, or navigate and survive in desert or mountain conditions may be just as important to the success of your missions as your ability to bring firepower to bear on a target. Soldiers are general issue humans, with a variety of interests, abilities, backgrounds, and skills – please don’t feel pigeon-holed into playing a Strong hero heading for the Soldier advanced class.

To assist in roleplaying your character, two “briefings,” the first a short history of the events of the Algerian insurrection and the second the order of battle for the French Foreign Legion paratroopers, will be provided in separate posts to follow this introduction. There will also be a short glossary and list of references to both history and fiction relating to the Algerian War.

Housekeeping
This thread will continue as the metagame, out-of-character thread after the final roster of players is filled.

To “enlist” in this mini-campaign ( ), please post a character sheet (without equipment!) including a background as described under “Roleplaying,” above. A player will not be added to the roster until a character with background is posted – your character sheet is your sign of commitment to active participation in the game.

Using colored text for dialog is recommended – please use silver for OoC text in the game thread.

At present I plan to use the Vacuum Elemental on-line dice roller. If you have another on-line dice roller that you would like me to consider, please let me know and I will take a look – I’m open to other options.

GM Notes
Experience: Experience is awarded through story awards. A group bonus for roleplaying may be awarded at the end of each adventure, generally equal to 100 XP times the average character level of the player characters. One individual bonus equal to 50 XP times character level will be voted on by the players at the conclusion of each adventure – this is your opportunity to reward your peers for good roleplay.

“Mini-campaign”: At several places in this text I refer to Wing and Sword as a “mini-campaign.” This is due to the somewhat non-traditional flow of time anticipated for the game. Military life has been characterized as long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of intense activity – this game will focus on that activity. The player characters may experience significant downtime between adventures – this time is assumed to be spent on training, routine patrols, and leave. These “interludes” between adventures may provide opportunities for character development – if an interesting idea is put forth by a player on what a character is doing with his time between adventures, we may roleplay it as a group. While your characters are soldiers and subject to military command and control, they are also human beings – feel free to probe and extend the limits of the campaign.

Historical accuracy: While I will introduce a fair amount of historical detail for purposes of campaign flavor, Wing and Sword is not a strictly historical campaign – rather, the adventures are “inspired” by the events of the Algerian War. Players looking for a simulation or scenarios of actual events may want to consider looking elsewhere.

Mature content: The Algerian War was incredibly brutal – all parties involved committed terrible atrocities in their conduct of the insurrection and its suppression. In order to faithfully capture the spirit of the war, these atrocities will be a part of Wing and Sword. However, this does not mean the game will include comic-book excesses of blood and gore – rather, expect to encounter the incidence and consequences of war, terrorism, and torture in the course of the adventures. Players are asked to approach the game with maturity and sensitivity to the subject matter.

Characters:

• Légionnaire Marcel Benezet Fortier - played by Bobitron
• Légionnaire Pyotr Andreievich Kerenin - played by shadowbloodmoon
• Légionnaire Normand Joseph Mador - played by Barak
• Légionnaire Raffaele Barzini - played by shibata

 

[The Shaman]

Campaign Briefing - the Algerian Insurrection

“L’Algerie c’est la France.”

On 1 November 1954 the National Liberation Front (FLN) calls for a general uprising against the French government in Algeria while its military arm, the National Liberation Army (ALN), stages its first coordinated attacks on police stations and military outposts, seeking to capture weapons and ammunition. The following week French interior minister François Mitterand states unequivocally in a radio address that “Algeria is France.”

France’s restive colonies, a thorn in the side of the Fourth Republic, threaten to become a dagger at its throat. The debacle of Dien Ben Phu in May 1954, a scant six months earlier, and the independence of Indochina are the most visible signs of disorganization and uncertainty about France’s role as a colonial power, and following the FLN’s call to arms, a line is drawn in the sand around Algeria by the French government.

Why Algeria? A colony since 1834, Algeria is viewed by many in France the same way that Americans do Hawaii, as an overseas extension of itself. Indeed, Algeria’s three departments are represented in parliament, unlike the French protectorates of Morocco and Tunisia. However, this obscures that fact that few Algerians enjoy French citizenship, that the European colonists of Alsatian, Corsican, Spanish and Italian origin, called pieds-noir or colons, practice crushing social and economic segregation of their Muslim Arab and Berber neighbors. The wave of anti-colonialism sweeping the post-war world has washed ashore in Algeria.

The FLN demands an end to French imperialism and hegemony, and they wage a campaign of death and destruction not only against the farms and mines of the pieds-noir in the countryside, but against Muslim ‘collaborators’ who aid the French or simply refuse to support the FLN. The conservative and equally extreme colons, for whom any compromise on issues of enfranchisement and self-determination are unthinkable, exert tremendous influence over the appointed governor-general of Algeria. French efforts to introduce reforms for the betterment of Algerian Muslims are met with resistance and bloody reprisals by both sides.

By the middle of 1955, the ALN and FLN agree to wage a war of unlimited terror against the French and Muslim collaborators, and the government responds with a policy of ‘collective responsibility’ against communities supporting the insurrection. On 21 August 1955, the ALN stages one of its most daring and deadly attacks on the town of Phillipeville, killing over 120 citizens, including women and children. French outrage over the atrocities results in escalating brutality by the gendarmerie and military, including the increasing use of torture to extract information on FLN and ALN forces. Call-ups of reservists in France are required to increase the troops committed in Algeria to battling the insurrection.

Colon riots in the cities of Algiers, Oran, and Constantine in early 1956 against reformers in the colonial administration push the French government further toward demands for absolute victory over the FLN, which in turn gains strength in the countryside as French tactics grow more extreme. The army’s role expands as the police and courts are unable to either successfully prevent terrorist attacks or prosecute the perpetrators.

In March 1956, Morocco and Tunisia receive their independence from France, and both countries quickly become havens to the ALN, who establish camps to train and equip their katibas (companies) for raids into Algeria. The war shifts to protecting the borders from interdiction, to cut off the flow of men and arms and explosives to the ALN and FLN. Soldiers battle the ALN among the farms of the coastal plain, in the oak forests and maquis of the rugged Aures and Kabylie Mountains, and in the barren oueds (wadis or canyons) of the interior.

It’s now June 1956, and there is no hope in sight that the war will end anytime soon…

 

[The Shaman]

Campaign Briefing - Bienvenue à la Légion Étranger

The train arrives in Sidi-bel-Abbès under an empty blue sky. Brilliant sunlight floods the town, glaring off whitewashed walls and casting deep shadows inside doorways and windows. The January air is warm and dry, foreshadowing the brutal heat and aridity to come. No breeze ruffles the palms along the boulevard opposite the train station, nor the flags of the légionnaires standing at attention as the recruits debark the train, contracts in hand.

Sober sergeants in white képis, red epaulettes on the shoulders and blue sashes around the waists of their khaki uniforms, organize the gaggle of men into a rough semblance of a formation. The orders are given in French and translated into a dozen tongues – German, Italian, Spanish, English, Polish, Greek among them – by the recruits as curious children watch from doorways, giggling and pointing. The men, some in suits, others in dungarees and shirt-sleeves, are brought to ragged attention at a word from one of the sergeants, and an officer with decorations in rows upon his chest, identifying himself as Capitaine Trumelet, speaks to the assembled initiates.

“Bienvenue à la Maison-Mère de la Légion Étranger,” he says in a firm voice – welcome to the home of the Foreign Legion. “Like those who came before you, you will serve with all the strength of your body and all the force of your soul, ready to give up the supreme sacrifice. You will always cherish in your hearts these words: Legio patria nostra – the Legion is our fatherland.”

Lead by the sergeants, the recruits trudge down the broad palm-lined avenue, the Boulevard de la Republique, past shops and bars and houses in the simple French provincial style – indeed, at first glance Sidi-bel-Abbès looks to be more like a town in Languedoc than a gateway to the Sahara. At a café two men play dominos as a half-dozen others kibitz, sipping strong coffee. From inside a restaurant wafts the sounds of a radio broadcasting a news program, the words lost in the stamp of the recruits’ feet on the pavement. Past a small park and garden where a group of children enthusiastically kick a dusty football a sign announces that the avenue is now the Boulevard de Général Rollet. It ends at a long, low building. Under the watchful eyes of a trio of sentries in olive-drab battledress armed with submachine guns, and through an iron gate, the recruits enter the barracks’ ground. The sergeants lead the men along a shaded walk past a monument, a great metal globe on a marble base, flanked by the figures of four stone legionnaires in the uniforms of a century ago – a curious gold star can be seen on the globe, in what must be southern Mexico.

The recruits once again assume a formation at the sergeants’ direction in the shadow of the red stone barracks and halls of the compound, the orders coming faster and sharper – now slow compliance is met with a biting rebuke. A training company and platoons is organized, and each unit in turn receives a medical examination and a severe haircut before fitting for uniforms. A meal in the mess hall and barracks assignment concludes the recruits’ first day as legionnaires.

The next day starts early.

In the pre-dawn darkness obscenity-spewing sergeants turn out the recruits for physical training, a three-mile run as a warm up to standing at attention for an hour on the barracks’ ground, all the while deriding the trainees’ ancestry and hygiene in ways that can be understood regardless of language barrier. A regrettable breakfast is followed by more drill, inspections, more drill, an equally unfortunate lunch, more drill, instruction, a lamentable dinner, and more drill, all accompanied by the sergeants and their unique, often scatological, insights on those who mistakenly believe themselves worthy of dying on behalf of their Legion, all under the relentless African sun.

The next day is the same. And the next. And the next.

At first the instruction is rudimentary – military protocol and French lessons for those who do not speak it already, the latter presumably to make sure that the sergeants’ trenchant observations are unambiguously understood. Soon the recruits are allowed to hold a rifle, but only for purposes of drill – the sergeants refuse to put a dangerous weapon in the hands of anyone as questionable as these trainees, of course, at least until each recruit can take it apart and put it back together with his eyes closed while singing “Le Boudin,” so time is spent mastering these skills as well.

Eventually someone, Captain Trumelet perhaps, forces the sergeants to relent, to their obvious disgust, and the recruits begin training with live weapons – rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, some heavier weapons like the recoilless rifle and the mortar, even hand grenades and other explosives. As the sergeants clearly resent this opportunity for the recruits, they compensate by demanding more physical training, long marches with full packs that take the recruits across Sidi-bel-Abbès, from the neat orderly European streets to the sprawling village nègre, the Arab quarter with its smell of roasting lamb and sheep dung, its bustling market under canvas awnings along the Rue de Montagnac, its strings of laden donkeys, and the chatter of many tongues – Arabic, Berber, Hebrew, and Spanish as well as French. Beyond the town itself lies the rugged Oued Mekerra, the recruits introduction to the unforgiving terrain of Algeria, a place that the sergeants clearly relish as the recruits are relentlessly driven along its sandy washes and up its rocky walls, kilometer after kilometer.

Unsatisfied with the natural challenges presented by the Algerian countryside, there are obstacle courses as well – log barriers to scramble over, barbed wire to crawl under, ropes to climb, trenches to leap, often accompanied by the staccato of a submachine gun or crack of a rifle fired seemingly inches over the recruits’ cringing heads.

Not all is marching, running, and climbing, however – there are daily inspections, kitchen duty, latrine duty, and guard duty in the middle of the night, trembling in the desert chill. There is also instruction in the history of the Legion: its founding in 1831 by King Louis Philippe, the conquest of Algeria – which would become the Legion’s home thereafter – campaigns in the Crimea, Italy, Mexico, and Indochina, the Franco-Prussian War, the world wars, and countless battles across North and West Africa – Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Dahomey, the Sudan, Madagascar. In the Salle d’Honneur the recruits stand before marble tablets engraved with the names of the names of the regimental commanders and of officers killed in action, paintings depicting the battles of Camerone and Tuyen Quang, and a glass case with a curious and morbid artifact: the wooden hand of Captain Jean Danjou. Captain Trumelet himself tells the recruits the story of Capitaine Danjou and the hacienda Camerone in 1863, how three officers and sixty-two légionnaires fought over two thousand Mexican soldiers, how the last five legionnaires fixed bayonets and charged the enemy rather than surrender themselves, their honor, and the honor of the Legion.

Days become weeks, weeks become months. The sergeants bark less – not because they like the recruits more, but because the recruits give them less reason to, though anyone who makes a mistake receives the customary derision and punishment. More time is spent with the lieutenants, who heretofore have been all but invisible. The recruits drill in the field for days at a time, living in tents, practicing maneuvers under the steady gaze of the officers and the inexorable glare of the sergeants. Blistering days and chilling nights are spent scrambling over hills and through oueds as the recruits begin to not only behave like a unit but move like one as well. Not all of the recruits that arrived on the train in January are present anymore: some quit, others are sidelined by injuries sustained during training, a few desert outright – no one is sent to look for deserters, and indeed the sergeants seem relieved they're gone and perhaps a little disappointed that some of the other recruits didn’t follow them.

One morning, after returning from a grueling march the previous day, the recruits are called to attention, and under the gaze of the paternal Captain Trumelet, the men are issued the képis blanc. The sergeants then reward the recruits by parading them around the barracks ground in their new white hats for the rest of the day.

On the last day of April, the recruits are drawn up on the barracks ground in their dress uniforms, all in white kepis, red epaulettes, and blue sashes. The rest of the 1ere Regiment Étranger is present as well, anciens, the veterans, alongside the bleus of the training company. Together the regiment celebrates the battle of Camerone along with the completion of training by the recruits, who now carry the rank and the responsibility of légionnaire.

The drinking begins immediately after the formation is dismissed.

 

[The Shaman]

Glossary and additional player resources

Glossary
aïn: spring
Alger: city of Algiers
ancien: veteran
Armée de l'Air: French Air Force
baksheesh: gratuities
battaillon de marche: a temporary 'marching' unit or task force
baraka: luck
barda: gear
baroud: combat
baroudeur: brawler; refers to NCOs who become officers or those of modest social backgrounds in the officer corps - a sign of respect among legionnaires toward their officer
blé: (argot) 'dough', money
bled: the Algerian backcountry
bonne blessure: literally, “good wound”; used as a greeting among legionnaires
bourdj: small fort or outpost
BRQ: intelligence bulletin (bulletin de renseignement quotidian)
cabane: (argot) jail
carte nationale d'identité: national identification card - issued to all French citizens
casevac: casualty evacuation
casseur: (argot) mug, strongarm, muscleman, thug
castor: GMC deuce-and-a-half; also transport truck generally
la chat et le souris: cat and mouse
choc: 'shock' - refers to (1) the five-man assault team in the standard 12-man section and (2) battalions of para-commandos (i.e., 11e Battaillon de Parachutistes de Choc)
cocos: French and Algerian communists
commérage: (argot) gossip
commissaire: chief detective
copain: (argot) buddy
casevac: casualty evacuation
Deuxieme Bureau: French military intelligence bureau
djebel: mountain, mountainous terrain
djellba: hooded robe - traditional Arab garment
douar: small village or nomad’s camp
embuscade: ambush
failek: ALN battalion (roughly 330 soldiers)
fatma: Arab woman
fell: abbreviated form of fellagha
fellagha: bandit; also FLN soldier or terrorist (derogatory); plural fellouze, fellaghas (informal)
feu à volonté: fire at will
fissa: quickly
flics: (argot) cops
fourragère: a braided cord worn around the left shoulder that signifies a unit citation for valor - the colors of the fourragère correspond to the ribbon associated with a particular decoration, such as the Legion d'Honneur (red), Croix de Guerre (red and blue), and so on
frigo: (argot) 'cooler', jail
gamelle: mess kit
gros-rouge: red table wine
hammada: rocky desert plain
Hauts Plateaux: High Pleateau region of Algeria
Hôpital Maillot: Algiers military hospital
inspecteur: detective
katiba: ALN company (roughly 110 men)
képi: a cap with a flat circular top and a visor
képi blanc: the traditional white kepi of the French Foreign Legion - the 'Beau Geste' hat
kufi: Muslim prayer skullcap
lit up: wounded by gunfire
mal jaune: literally "yellow fever"; refers to legionnaires and soldiers who adopted customs and lifestyle from Indochina
marche ou crève: march or die
marsouin: a colonial soldier; literally, “porpoise”
mechta: Arab dwelling
milieu: (argot) French criminal underworld
moghaznis: Muslim villages militia
moudjahiddine: ALN regular soldiers (sing. moudjahid)
moussebiline: ALN irregular guerillas
nana: 'chick', woman
oued: wadi or canyon
paras-colos: colonial parachutists
PC: command post
petits-blancs: working-class pieds-noir
pieds-noirs: Algerians of European descent (literally 'black feet')
piste: track or trail
planque: desk job; literally, “hiding place”
popote: officer’s mess
pourvoyeur: ammunition carrier
quille: last day of military service; literally, “bowling pin”
rappelés: recalled conscripts - reservists
ratissage: literally, 'raking' - used to describe sweeps across the bled to locate fellaghas
reconaissance à vue: visual reconnaissance; abbreviated 'RAV'
régiment étranger de cavalerie: foreign cavalry (armored) regiment; abbreviated 'REC'
régiment étranger de génie: foreign engineer (sapper) regiment; abbreviated 'REG'
régiment étranger d'infanterie: foreign infantry regiment; abbreviated 'REI'
régiment étranger de parachutistes: foreign parachute regiment; abbreviated 'REP'
régiment de tirailleurs algerienne: Algerian native infantry regiment; abbreviated 'RTA'
régiment parachutistes de coloniaux: 'colonial' (marine) parachute regiment; abbreviated 'RPC'
régiment de chasseurs parachutistes: light infantry paratroop regiment (French Air Force); abbreviated 'RCP'
relégué: (argot) small-time criminal
roulante: field kitchen
savate: French martial art that resembles kick-boxing in part
Service d’Itendence: French Army quartermaster corps
Sidi-bel-Abbès: town in western Algeria, home of the French Foreign Legion beginning in 1848
soldat: French Army private (also, any soldier generally)
sous-officiers: non-commissioned officers
spahis: French North African native cavalry
tableau de chasse: hunt tally
téléphone arabe: word of mouth among Arabs and Kabyles; syn. with "bush telegraph"
tirailleurs: French North African native infantry
unités territoriales: pied-noir home guard or militia units; abbreviated 'UT'
videur: (argot) bouncer
viet: abbreviation for Vietminh; soldiers and legionnaires who served in Indochina occasionally refer to fellouze as "viets"
voltiguer: rifleman

French Army ranks and their equivalents
--Enlisted
Légionnaire (private)
Légionnaire première classe (private first class)
Caporal (corporal)
Caporal-chef (senior corporal)
-- Non-commissioned officers
Sergent (sergeant)
Sergent-chef (senior sergeant)
Sergent-chef-major (senior sergeant-major) – rank rarely awarded
Adjudant (warrant officer)
Adjudant-chef (senior warrant officer)
--Commissioned
Aspirant (cadet officer)
Sous-lieutenant (sub-lieutenant)
Lieutenant (lieutenant)
Capitaine (captain)
Commandant (major)
Lieutenant-colonel (lt. colonel)
Colonel (colonel)

Bibliography
I used the following books and movies in preparing Wing and Sword:

Movies -
The Battle of Algiers, directed by Gillo Pontecarvo
Lost Command, directed by Mark Robeson
The Day of the Jackal, directed by Fred Zinnemann

Books -
Algeria, H. Isnard
The Algerian War and the French Army, 1954-62: Experiences, Images, Testimonies, edited by Martin S. Alexander, Martin Evans, and J.F.V. Keiger
The Algerian War, 1954-62 (Osprey Men-at-Arms 312), Martin Windrow and Mike Chappell
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Rick Atkinson
Arab Armies of the Middle East Wars 1948-73 (Osprey Men-at-Arms 128), John Laffin and Mike Chappell
The Architecture of Memory: A Jewish-Muslim Household in Colonial Algeria 1937-1962, Joëlle Bahloul
The Battle of the Casbah, Gen. Paul Aussaressus
Colonial Conscripts: The Tirailleurs Sénégalais in French West Africa, 1857-1960, Myron Echenberg
The Conquest of Morocco, Douglas Porch
The Corsican, Bill S. Ballinger (fiction)
The Day of the Jackal, Frederic Forsyth (fiction)
Fast Cars, Clean Bodies: Decolonization and the Reordering of French Culture, Kristin Ross
The First Helicopter War: Logistics and Mobility in Algeria, 1954-1962, Charles R. Shrader
France and the Algerian War 1954-62: Strategy, Operations and Diplomacy, edited by Martin S. Alexander and J.F.V. Keiger
France and the French: A Modern History, Rod Kedward
France since 1918, Herbert Tint
The French Foreign Legion, Douglas Porch
French Foreign Legion: Infantry and Cavalry since 1945 (Osprey Men-at-Arms 300), Martin Windrow
French Foreign Legion Paratroops (Osprey Elite 6), Martin Windrow and Wayne Braby
The French Indochina War 1946-54 (Osprey Men-at-Arms 322), Martin Windrow and Mike Chappell
The French North African Crisis: Colonial Breakdown and Anglo-French Relations 1945-62, Martin Thomas
The French Secret Services: A History of French Intelligence from the Dreyfus Affair to the Gulf War, Douglas Porch
The Gates of Gaza: Israel's Road to Suez and Back, 1955-1957, Mordechai Bar-On
Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu, Bernard B. Fall
The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam, Martin Windrow
Legionnaire: Five Years in the French Foreign Legion, Simon Murray
Lieutenant in Algeria, Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber
The Memory of Resistance: French Opposition to the Algerian War (1954-1962), Martin Evans
My Battle of Algiers: A Memoir, Ted Morgan
The New Atlas of African History, G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville
The Path to Victory: The Mediterranean Theater in World War II, Douglas Porch
Paris in the Fifties, Stanley Karnow
Paris Journal 1956-1964, Janet Flanner (Genêt), edited by William Shawn
The Question, Henri Alleg
Road to America, Baru (fiction)
Sahara: A Natural History, Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle
The Spanish Foreign Legion (Osprey Men-at-Arms 161), John Scurr
The Suez Crisis 1956, Derek Varble
The Sword and the Cross, Fergus Fleming
The Sword and the Olive: A Critical History of the Israeli Defense Force, Martin Van Creveld
UN Forces 1948-94 (Osprey Elite 54), Robert Pitta and Simon McCouaig
Urban Forms and Colonial Confrontations: Algiers under French Rule, Zeynep Çelik
War Since 1945, Michael Carver
War without a Front: The Memoirs of a French Army Nurse in Vietnam, Elisabeth Sevier with Robert W. Sevier
Wolves in the City: The Death of French Algeria, Paul Henissart
The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World, Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin

 

[Bobitron]

WOW! I am very interested in joining. Sounds like a great campaign. I don't expect I will be able to post a character until Saturday, I hope that's not too late.

Edit: Just read a couple articles about the conflict online. This should be a good one.

 

[Speed-Stick]

This sounds really really cool. I wish to participate. I need to do a little reasearch before I make my PC. A question: Did the REP have Chaplains? I was thinking a Chaplain might make for an interesting PC.

 

[The Shaman]

WOW! I am very interested in joining. Sounds like a great campaign. I don't expect I will be able to post a character until Saturday, I hope that's not too late.

Edit: Just read a couple articles about the conflict online. This should be a good one.

I'm really not sure what kind of interest this is going to generate - it's a bit different from most of the "special forces" type adventures/campaigns, so I don't know how broad the appeal will be. We'll see..

This sounds really really cool. I wish to participate. I need to do a little reasearch before I make my PC. A question: Did the REP have Chaplains? I was thinking a Chaplain might make for an interesting PC.

The regiment did in fact have a chaplain, but he was assigned directly to the regimental commander's HQ - the player characters will be recruits or replacements assigned to a squad/section, so that may not be such a good fit. Of course, a character who is considering the seminary (or a former priest perhaps?) could be interesting as well.

Thank you both, BTW - I didn't know if anyone would find this interesting or not!

I'll post the first campaign briefing later today, and add the OoB tomorrow, time permitting. The glossary and other resources may take a little time, but in the meantime, there are actually two movies you could try to rent or borrow about the Algerian conflict: the most notable is The Battle of Algiers, a very well made film by Italian director Gillo Pontecarvo commissioned by the Algerian government just four years after achieving independence from France and shot on location in the Casbah of Algiers, and the other is a fairly routine actioner called Lost Command starring Anthony Quinn and Claudia Cardinale (hubba-hubba!), based on a French novel called Les Centurions by Jean Larteguy. I'd recommend both films if you can find them.

I look forward to seeing your character sheets!

 

[Bobitron]

I was considering buying this...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1855326582/002-4213823-3166419?v=glance

...to help get a better visual. Have you seen it?

 

[Bobitron]

I'm really not sure what kind of interest this is going to generate - it's a bit different from most of the "special forces" type adventures/campaigns, so I don't know how broad the appeal will be. We'll see..

That's exactly why I'm interested. I don't want to play Rambo, I have been wanting to run/play in a realistic campaign for a while.

If you know the history fairly well (which I assume you do, great intro), I have a couple questions. First, were the Colon vigilante units an unofficial French sponsored militia, similar in structure if not mission to the Sudanese janjaweed, or more of a group that the French officials just turn a bind eye towards?

Second, what year do you want to start? I didn't notice a date in your intro. Are we starting after Salan's quadrillage system was instituted in '57, or later in '58 when the more aggressive tactics came into play?

I'm really excited about this one.

 

[The Shaman]

I was considering buying this...http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1855326582/002-4213823-3166419?v=glance...to help get a better visual. Have you seen it?

I have it, actually. It's excellent and (relatively) inexpensive - the book provides an overview of the war with lots of great details about the uniforms and equipment for many of the French and ALN forces. Be forewarned that it does not have a lot of information on the Legion paratroopers specifically, however - that's contained in another Osprey book called (rather fittingly) French Foreign Legion Paratroops. It does provide excellent general information on les paras from the other regiments in the 10e Division Parachutiste and other French units, and the color plates are great at helping to visualize the characters - the only significant difference in uniforms for the 1e REP is that the legionnaires never adopted the Bigeard cap of the RP and RCP and continued wearing their green berets instead.

I'm really not sure what kind of interest this is going to generate - it's a bit different from most of the "special forces" type adventures/campaigns, so I don't know how broad the appeal will be.

That's exactly why I'm interested. I don't want to play Rambo, I have been wanting to run/play in a realistic campaign for a while.

Okay, now I'm feeling the pressure of high expectations...

If you know the history fairly well (which I assume you do, great intro), I have a couple questions. First, were the Colon vigilante units an unofficial French sponsored militia, similar in structure if not mission to the Sudanese janjaweed, or more of a group that the French officials just turn a bind eye towards?

If you watch Pontecarvo's The Battle of Algiers, you'll see that I combined a couple of scenes for part of the introduction...

I've read about a half-dozen books on the subject - I'm definitely not an expert, but I will do my best to create a believable illusion for the game.

The ultras, which were the hard-line colon paramilitaries, were not officially sanctioned by the French government, and in fact their intransigence over issues of self-determination for Algerian Muslims became one of the primary reasons that de Gaulle had to grant Algeria independence - there was no middle ground on which to save Algeria for France in the end. The military could be found siding with and against the colons - soldiers were assigned to stop colon riots, but at the same time some of the French Army commanders (including officers of the 1e REP...) actively conspired with them before and during the putsch in 1961. Like just about everything else in the Algerian War, this relationship was incredibly complex.

[Second, what year do you want to start? I didn't notice a date in your intro. Are we starting after Salan's quadrillage system was instituted in '57, or later in '58 when the more aggressive tactics came into play?

Oops...I'll go back and add that in...

We'll start in the summer of 1956, shortly after Morocco and Tunisa are granted independence by the French government. At that time the ALN began setting up camps in both countries, and the French Army countered with the construction of the Morice Line to interdict border-crossers carrying arms and equipment.

Note that player characters will begin as legionnaires (privates) who are just completing their jump training before being assigned as replacements to the 1e REP. They can be new recruits who went straight from basic tranining to the paratroops, or they may have served in another Legion regiment and volunteered for jump school. In any case, the characters are new to les paras.

I'm really excited about this one.

Uh-oh, there are those high expectations again...

I promise I will do my best to make this fun!