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Michael’s Army
AN
E
23 SOURCEBOOK
FOR
GURPS
®
FROM
STEVE JACKSON GAMES
Written by Michele Armelini
and Hans-Christian Vortisch
Edited by Jeff Rose
and Scott Haring
Cover by Bob Stevlic
Like Poland, Romania had long been a country
surrounded by unfriendly neighbors. After centuries of
struggles for independence and a disastrous WWI cam-
paign on the side of the Allies, it found itself involved
in WWII as the third partner of the Axis in Europe. The
Romanians never shared the global goals of the Ger-
mans or Italians, nor their ideological motives; Roma-
nia’s aims were less high-flying, aimed at defending
their own territorial integrity. Once they had taken back
from the Soviets the border regions they had been
forced to give up, the Romanians were pushed and
pulled rather reluctantly along by the Germans on their
way to Moscow. Another Romanian province was
much closer to their hearts, but, unfortunately, it was in
the hands of another Axis partner, Hungary.
Romania’s surprisingly large military was ill-pre-
pared for a modern war, however, and it soon showed.
While they were prepared to pay high prices for their
victories, such as taking Odessa, the toll became
unbearable as the troops were caught in savage battles
farther and farther away from their homeland, includ-
ing the infamous disaster that was Stalingrad.
And when the tide turned, Romania chose to
switch sides. Fighting alongside the Soviets, their sus-
picious former enemies and new allies, Romanian
troops advanced through Hungary all the way to Ger-
many.
GURPS
, Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jack-
son Games Incorporated.
Pyramid
, e23,
Michael’s Army
, and the names of all products pub-
lished by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve
Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license. Some art copyright © 2005
www.clipart.com. All rights reserved.
Michael’s Army
is copyright © 2005 by Steve Jackson
Games Incorporated.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this material via the Internet or via any other
means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please pur-
chase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic
piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
STEVE JACKSON
GAMES
e23.sjgames.com
®
Stock #82-0140
Version 1.0 January 7, 2005
The end of WWII saw Romania on the side of the
victors, but the country gained little from the struggle.
The peasantry making up most of the population was
still dead poor, the military was only a shadow of itself,
many Romanian citizens were dead, and the survivors
would soon be shrouded by the Iron Curtain.
As a setting for a
GURPS WWII
campaign, Roma-
nia offers many interesting prospects. Internal politics
allow for adventures involving Romanian agitators,
courtiers, and decision makers, as well as foreign
agents; backroom deals and court intrigues will often
give way to political assassinations and street fighting.
Other campaigns might put Romanian soldiers against
the Russians (perhaps on the side of the Germans at
Stalingrad), against their archenemy, the Hungarians, or
even against the Germans, fighting the Nazis with their
own weapons, supplied by them earlier in the war. Play-
ers wanting to fight the Soviets on the Eastern Front
may do so, without having to accept characters who
bear the Nazi stigma.
Foreign servicemen also have much to do in or
over Romania. German troops fought side-by-side with
Romanian soldiers, Soviet tankers swerved into Roma-
nia on their way to Germany, and U.S. bombers
dropped their load over Romanian targets.
Romania also offers unique possibilities for
Weird
War II
campaigns. Many Romanians were deeply
superstitious, and the nation offered a colorful folklore
to match. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and other hor-
ror creatures abound. The gamemaster could easily cre-
ate widely different campaigns based on one or more of
these legends, with the war either a mere background,
or being influenced by paranormal activities into alter-
native directions.
A
BOUT THE
A
UTHORS
Michele Armellini is a translator living in Udine,
Italy. He contributed to many
GURPS WWII
books,
and is the author of
GURPS WWII: Grim Legions
. He
is fascinated with modern military history, wargames,
and roleplaying, in whatever order. He may spend inor-
dinate amounts of time studying the social forces at
work behind obscure historical events – and trying to
convert them into game mechanics!
Hans-Christian Vortisch is a writer and translator
based in Berlin, Germany. He contributed to most
other books in the
GURPS WWII
-line and is the
author of
GURPS WWII: Motor Pool,
as well as sev-
eral other
GURPS
titles. His main interest lies in tech-
nology, its interaction with man, and its statistics in the
game. However, he is also fond of the weirder aspects
of life . . .
GURPS REFERENCES
The authors refer to a number of other
GURPS
books in Michael’s Army, and make
specific page referencesfor those who want to
read further. Here is a key for those abbrevia-
tions:
B is
GURPS Basic Set
,
Third Edition
; CB
is
Cabal
; CI is
Compendium I
; HB is
Hell-
boy
; HT is
High-Tech
; MIiii is
Magic Items
3
; W is
World War II
; W:AKM is
All the
King’s Men
; W:D is
Dogfaces
; W:DWE is
Doomed White Eagle
, a product only avail-
able as a PDF on e23; W:FH is
Frozen Hell
;
W:GL is
Grim Legions
; W:HS is
Hand of
Steel
; W:IC is
Iron Cross
; W:MP is
Motor
Pool
; W:RH is
Return to Honor
; and W:WW
is
Weird War II
.
MICHAEL’S ARMY
2
1. ROMANIA
AT WAR
Cornered in the uncomfortable periphery of
Europe, Romania had spent centuries fighting for inde-
pendence. In both World Wars, it fought to keep its bor-
ders intact and to reclaim its lost provinces, but where
in World War I it stumbled upon victory in defeat, in
World War II it ultimately found defeat in victory.
For these same reasons, the Allies began pressuring
the Romanians, offering them territory and military
support. Siding with them could be the only way to
wrest Transylvania from its Austro-Hungarian masters.
On August 27, 1916, Romania declared war
against Germany and Austria-Hungary and was imme-
diately overrun by an offensive that took over 90% of
its territory; the court, government, and remaining
forces were pushed into Iasi, with their backs to the
Russian border, and when Russia surrendered, Roma-
nia had no choice but to do the same. However, in the
end, it declared war again, just in time to make it on the
winning side.
So after being thoroughly trounced on the battle-
field, Romania came out smelling like a rose, doubling
in size. It got Transylvania from Austria-Hungary and
solidified its control over Southern Dobrudja; the col-
lapse of Russia allowed it to grab Bessarabia, too.
These were largely Romanian-speaking regions, but
they came burdened with large foreign minorities. The
language barrier with these minorities was a real hurdle,
since Romanian was, and is, the only Romance lan-
guage in the region.
RUBBER-
BAND
BORDERS
In 1918, empires collapsed and new countries
appeared on the map of Europe. Romania, however,
had already been in existence as an independent state
since 1861, but from that date to 1945, it was to experi-
ence wild changes to its borders. While economic,
social and ideological forces were at work in Romania
just as everywhere else in the interwar years, the terri-
torial and ethnic issues were more troublesome than in
many other countries.
Enemies Everywhere
Romania was surrounded by resentful rivals. The
heir of the Czarist Empire, the Soviet Union, would
remain weak for years to come, but its sheer size made
it an awkward neighbor, with Ukrainian minorities in
Bessarabia. Both Bulgaria and, beyond it, Turkey, had
no love for the Romanians.
Most importantly, there were the Hungarians, who
had just lost Transylvania and had a minority popula-
tion in that now-Romanian province. Hungary was
smaller than Romania, but still it made a roughly
matched enemy, smarting for revenge. It did not help
that, in 1919, Romanian troops had advanced all the
way to Budapest in order to stomp out the short-lived
Hungarian Communist government of Bela Kun. The
Magyars did not forget the occupation of their capital.
V
ICTORY IN
D
EFEAT
When World War I began, Romania (p. W60) was
a small, crescent-shaped kingdom born of the erosion
of the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan Wars (see
Bloody Balkan Backwaters,
p. 4). Its king, Ferdinand I,
was related to the German Kaiser, and was sympathet-
ic to the Central Powers, but an alliance with them was
impossible because of the territory that filled the hollow
of the crescent: Transylvania. This mountainous
region’s population was two-thirds Romanian, but it
was part of Austria-Hungary, and the Hungarians had
very much the upper hand there. So Romania remained
a neutral; one, however, whose goodwill was critical for
the Central Powers – Romania provided them with
petroleum and the supply line that made Turkey’s war
possible.
Treading Carefully
The main objective of Romanian foreign policy
after 1919 was making sure that those enemies wouldn’t
MICHAEL’S ARMY
3
One of them seemed to be dealt with in 1933, when
the Romanians also reached a settlement with the Sovi-
et Union. Bulgaria could never go after Southern
Dobrudja on its own. So at that time, it seemed that all
the possible dangers were handled, or, at least, effec-
tively guarded against.
B
LOODY
B
ALKAN
B
ACKWATERS
The history of Romania prior to WWI was
influenced most by its unfortunate geograph-
ical position: a corner of the European conti-
nent between two empires, Turkey and
Russia. For centuries, the Romanians strug-
gled under the repression of their traditional
foes, the Turks, which left them inclined to
consider anybody who did not share their fer-
vent form of the Orthodox Christian faith as
enemies. Nor was their relationship with
Russia any better, with Russian armies
invading every few decades throughout the
18th and 19th centuries.
Romania did not gain full sovereignty
until after the Crimean War in 1878, and
even then sizable numbers of Romanians
remained under foreign rule, most notably in
Austria-Hungary. Together with its poor
Balkan neighbors, the country lagged far
behind the rest of Europe. A bloody peasants’
rebellion wreaked havoc in 1907. It stayed
out of the First Balkan War in 1912, when the
crumbling Ottoman Empire was attacked by
Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia, but it was
drawn in the ensuing conflict over the spoils
– thus acquiring Southern Dobrudja. Then
WWI came.
So after WWI, Romania had in its history
an explosive cocktail: firebrand nationalism,
a deep-seated mistrust for foreigners and
non-Christians, a touch of Byzantine
intrigues, and the ferocity of Balkan-style
warring.
Y
EARS OF
I
RON
If foreign relationships seemed reasonably peace-
ful, things were quite different within the country.
Crown Swapping
Much of the blame for Romania’s problems can be
laid on King Carol II (see
Who’s In Command?,
p. 5).
He had already become thoroughly unpopular with
both the nobles and the people for such things as desert-
ing his unit in WWI and taking a Jewish lover, and he
had been forced to abdicate his position as heir in 1926.
So when King Ferdinand I died in 1927, a regency was
set up for Carol’s son, Mihai (Michael).
Carol, however, didn’t intend to remain in exile.
He waited for his scandals to fade from memory, and in
1930 he was back again, reclaiming the throne from his
own son. This dynastic crisis was over by the end of
that year, but certainly it did not make the crown stead-
ier. Along the road to political rehabilitation, Carol had
promised to get rid of his lover, but soon after he was
back in power, they were living together again.
The King’s greed, corruption, and vices spawned
similar behavior among the ruling class, which con-
tributed both to the unenviable economic situation and
to the popularity of firebrand reformers.
Poor as Always
Way, way below the court’s pomp, ceremony, and
riches there was the overwhelming majority of Roma-
nians: impoverished peasants, whose plight had barely
been improved by the weak attempts at land reform that
had followed the 1907 uprising (see
Bloody Balkan
Backwaters,
above). The middle ground was thin and,
outside the capital, it was mainly made up of people
who, after two or more generations living in Romania,
were still considered “foreigners”: East European Jews
and
Volksdeutsche
(ethnic Germans). Such a middle
class was feared by the nobles and disliked, when not
positively hated, by the peasants.
Though rich in natural resources, Romania still
was a backward country, and had barely begun to
exploit its petroleum, forests, coal reserves, or the wide
and powerful Danube. The agricultural methods were
primitive. Industry was underdeveloped, and a strict
protectionist trade policy was unsuccessful in promot-
ing development. In 1940, the infant death rate in
Romania was the same as in India.
come back for what they had lost. Romania turned to
Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia for a mutual-defense
alliance, the so-called Little Entente. This came into
being as early as 1921, and since all three countries had
border regions with Hungarian minorities, its main pur-
pose was very clear. However, this bloc also needed a
more powerful sponsor, and France nicely fit the role,
since the French were already worriedly looking for a
counterweight to Germany.
Romania and France also established a special rela-
tionship, aided by the common Latin origin of their lan-
guages, but above all by the fact that France could be
not only an important patron in the West but also a sup-
plier of modern weaponry. Another state Romania had
no quarrel with was Poland, but while the two countries
together could certainly bully Hungary, there were big-
ger bullies on the block.
MICHAEL’S ARMY
4
WHO’S IN COMMAND?
Some of the personalities listed below were
no longer “in command,” or, for that matter,
alive, by 1941. They are briefly described here
anyway, for a pre-war Romanian setting.
Marshal Ion Antonescu (1882-1946).
A
respected WWI commander, Antonescu was an
obvious choice when Romania needed a strong-
man in 1940. Antonescu’s beliefs were close to
the Iron Guard’s positions, despite him having
Jewish relations, but he was first and foremost
fanatically patriotic, as well as ruthless and Cal-
lous. A competent general (Strategy-13), he was
less effective as a politician, though he certainly
did not lack Strong Will (+1). He adopted the
title of
Conducator
(leader), the Romanian
equivalent of
Führer
. He was a reliable ally, but
not a yes-man
.
Antonescu was arrested in 1944,
and sentenced to death for his war crimes by the
Communists in 1946. He was red-haired, and
Legion members unflatteringly nicknamed him
“Cainele Rosu”
(Red Dog).
King Mihai I (1921- ).
The young king had
been mostly a figurehead until 1944, when he
began a dangerous plot to oust Antonescu and
bring his country in on the winning side. He was
popular with his subjects (a good Reputation)
and probably had above-average IQ (12+). He
bargained hard and cleverly in order to obtain
the best possible deal from the Soviets, but went
into exile in 1947.
King Carol II (1893-1953).
Showing clear
symptoms of Lecherousness, Greed and general
lack of self-control throughout his life, this king
also earned a bad Reputation, especially because
of his continuing relationship with his influen-
tial Jewish mistress, Magda Lupescu (born
Elena Wolff, 1895-1977). He also had other
shorter liaisons and largely neglected his wife,
Queen Helena of Greece. He made sure the state
indemnified him personally for losing crown
estates in the provinces that had to be given
away. He abdicated in 1940.
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899-1938).
Born
Cornelius Zelinsky to immigrant parents, this
religious and political leader was fervently
nationalistic, anti-Bolshevic and anti-Semitic.
Codreanu had at least Charisma+2 as well as
Fanaticism and Intolerance (and, some would
say, Voice). He probably had high skill levels in
Bard and Fast-Talk, and was extremely popular
(Reputation+4), but see also the Disadvantages
all the Iron Guard leaders would have (
The
Archangel’s Nest,
p. 21). He was murdered by
order of King Carol II.
Horia Sima (1907-1993?).
The second
leader of the Iron Guard, he was more anti-
Semitic than Codreanu, if possible. He certainly
had Fanaticism, Intolerance, and maybe Blood-
lust. He was briefly in power, as Antonescu’s
Vice-Premier, but he pushed for an all-out
“legionary” state, on Nazi Germany’s model.
From 1941, he was in German custody as Hitler
wanted to keep him as a reserve, and indeed he
set up a puppet government in exile in Wien in
1944. Sima then went into hiding, probably in
Spain.
The National Peasants’ Party, led by Iuliu Maniu,
should have been the obvious choice for tackling these
economic problems; but many Romanians were attract-
ed to more extreme measures.
edly involved blood rituals. Members used to carry
crosses and pouches filled with Romanian soil on their
bodies.
In 1929, Codreanu acknowledged that religion
alone couldn’t fulfill the Legion’s objectives, and he
entered politics. In 1932, the Guardsmen gained a few
parliamentary seats. They were using the whole range
of typical fascist tactics, from blood-curdling propa-
ganda and violence to beneficial initiatives like volun-
teer work and charity. All of it was laced with religious
fanaticism, processions, and even “miracles.” The rul-
ing Liberal Party saw the threat, and outlawed the
Legion in 1933; the Prime Minister was promptly
assassinated. Legionnaires were killed in turn, but this
only gave the movement its martyrs. This pattern would
be repeated several times, until in 1937 the Legion
would peak at some 35,000 nests; that year, it became
the third party in the country.
St. Michael’s Guardsmen
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, a young man who had
been steeped in the anti-Semitic environment of the Iasi
university, founded a small religious group in 1927 as
an offshoot of the League of the National Christian
Defense. It was called the
Legiunea Arhanghelul
Mihail
(Archangel Michael’s Legion). It was to become
better known under the name of its paramilitary wing,
the
Garda de Fier
(Iron Guard). The movement was
devoutly Orthodox and nationalist, feeding off the
deep-felt roots of the nation’s mystique; it was also rab-
idly anti-Communist and anti-Semitic. The basic unit
was a 13-member
cuib
(nest), and the initiation suppos-
MICHAEL’S ARMY
5
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