============ The Ogre Digest, June 12th (Last: June 6th) ============= ===== Convention Report From: Charles Barnett ===== A Book Review From: Shadowjack ===== Building boards for Ogre/GEV From: Armored Core2 ===== Ogre Inspiration? From: "nvdoyle" ===== Play Ogre Online. From: "Hunt, Kirk (Tucson)" From: Lee Ajifu ===== Multi HWZ Defenses From: "Ask Farallon" ============================== From: Charles Barnett Subject: Convention Report Diecon 1 was June 1,2 and 3 here in metro St. Louis. There was a demo miniatures game and a boardgame. I had only played one miniatures game of any sort ever and it wasn't Ogre. There were slots for 6 players in each. 5 showed for the miniatures game and 4 for the board game. The miniatures game set up as one guy surrounded by 4 in the corners of a roughly 4' x 8' map. All forces were about 35 armor units' equivalent plus either a Mk V or a Mk III and 2 x Mk I. Objective was a simple 'he who kills the most' free-for-all. I believe we had only one experienced Ogre minis player. The game ran 4 hours and was main forces were only just being committed when it ended. It did serve the purpose of showing how the game worked. With a smaller board and fewer players, a scenario clearly could have been run to completion. Definitely a different flavor of Ogre for me. The board game was a division-level enactment of the Battle of Gibraltar. Wow. My hat is off to Jeff Crowder and whoever else has been developing this scenario. It doesn't seem to be done yet, but again, wow. The map was done on oversize blank hex paper from a road atlas and had terrain features either pasted on from copies of GEV or colored with markers. The result was photocopied on a *big* machine and transparent plastic dropped on top to protect it. Overall, the map was about 3' x 4'. Mr. Crowder said his original objective was to use all his counters from all his games. Had this game gone to completion, I could see that happening. This game slot ran 4.5 hours and needed to be all day to do it justice. More of the players were experienced and so play was faster. Even so, with a roughly 60 x 45 mile map and 18(!) Ogres starting maybe 10 miles offshore, not all the beasts had crawled out by the end of the game. The furthest inland any had reached was about 8 miles, but battle was truly joined. Two players divided control of Paneuro forces, two divided a few Combine Mk Vs, a number of MkIIIs and some Mk IIs. Ogres set up visible but types and IDs hidden. PE buildings were face down. The intent was for the GM to balance the game as it went on by giving reinforcements to one or both sides. Initial PE armor was about 270s point out of about 500 available. Similar forces, all hovers, would be available to land if the Ogres could knock out sector C&C buildings integrating a laser and jamscreen net. We didn't get to see how that would work since the game didn't go that long. PE initial forces and reinforcements were from a pre-fab TOE and I assume the Combine manned forces would be as well - available forces, objectives, cruise missles available were all secret from the opposing side. I had 1/3 of the PE ground since this piece held The Rock - an impressive concentration of the available artillery. As the time ran out, my use of it was less impressive. A submerged Ogre would crawl out onto The Rock itself on the final turn, and it had never been attacked. Mistake #1. Mistake #2 was dropping one of my limited number of cruises on it, one hex from shore. I thought I had considered the shockwave effects, and had - on the *visible* units. But 'The Guns of Navarone' did not appear as counters and my seee-kret TOE was face down while I was deciding if this was a good idea. Doh! and earth-shattering kaboom ensued. 2/3s of my guns were destroyed, the other 1/3 disabled and the town terrain turned to rubble. When the Ogre did emerge, it turned out to be one of the few Mk Vs, now a shambling wreck. Though forces rushing south clearly would be able to put it out of my misery, it still was powerful enough that it would destroy what I hadn't - and The Rock was supposed to be the linchpin of PE defense. Mr. Crowder was charitable in saying it was lost if I had not done as I had anyway, but one of his playtesters stopping by was more realistic. "Somebody will be wanting to talk to you about this." I said I'd likely be offered a bullet. The readership may want more detail about this game, but I can't give much more than I have. It is a work in progress and involved limited intel in any case. Mr. Crowder threatened to run the game again at Archon in October. I'd like to see that. Thanks to everyone involved for a fine game. ============================== From: Shadowjack Subject: A Book Review I picked up this book a while ago at a library sale, read it, and then forgot about it until today. I just remembered it, and thought some of you people might be interested: "A Visual Novel of the War of Tomorrow : Armor At Fulda Gap", by John L. Cook. (From Avon Books, copyright 1990.) "High-tech armored giants battle in the ultimate test of courage and skill...GRAPHICALLY ILLUSTRATED. Includes diagrams, dramatic photographs, blueprints, and detailed battle plans." - Front Cover "Massed regiments of Soviet T-90 tanks are storming through Fulda Gap in Central Germany. American tank commander SFC Tom Jenkins and gunner SP4 David Martinez realize that this is no mere exercise - as their awesome M1A3 Abrams leads D Company of the US 3rd Armored Division toward an inevitable confrontation with the relentless Russian invasion force." [You see, the Warsaw Pact never collapsed - they pulled together after the Berlin Wall went down, and are as evil an empire as ever. And now, sometime in the 1990's, they've decided to invade!] "Over the next 36 hours, the European countryside will explode in a bloody clash of men and high-tech "smart" machines - and hundreds of young, untested troops will be transformed overnight into courageous, battle-hardened heroes!" "COLONEL JOHN L. COOK is an Army intelligence officer and R&D expert, with experience in Europe's Central Front." - Back Cover Unfortunately, I'm sorry to say, he's also a lousy writer - the dialogue and characterization in this book are dreadful. But who cares about plot - we want tanks! Right? Lots of good stuff here about near-future (or present day, by now) warfare here. All the NATO C3 stuff is routed through a computer network, including supply. Refuelling is done with automated, remote-controlled robot trucks (one guy can handle, like, six at a time), and the tank groups are equipped with little robot tanks that are used for diversions and fire support on the flanks. NATO has automatic mine flingers and laser-guided artillery. The Russkies have GEVs made of non-metallic components, so as not to set off any mines. Attack helicopters and airplanes on both sides. Tactical satellites in orbit to handle recon and communications. Lots of DPU rounds and smart cruise missiles, and I think there's a fuel-air explosive or two. No real nukes, but plenty of electromagnetic-pulse or microwave-emitting mines for screwing up electronics and communications, and the infantry carry lasers for zapping sensors and unprotected eyeballs. In all, it was a lousy novel, but it was a decent look at what, in 1990, was the future of modern warfare in action. Some nifty Ogre ideas, too - I like the drone tanks and the EMP mines. I don't know if it was part of a series or a stand-alone volume, but it might be worth picking up if you spot it cheap in a used book store somewhere. -- William Spencer williamspencer@hotmail.com Shadowjack shadowjack@subdimension.com ============================== From: Armored Core2 Subject: Building boards for Ogre/GEV Feel free to pass this along to the list, once I get a digital camara I'll take some pictures of the 2 boards I've 'finished' and put 'em up on my webpage along with a detailed description of how I did it. Okay, for those of you with too much spare time, and $20-30 dollars to spare here's a pretty cheap way to make a very nice OGRE board. Keep in mind I haven't even attempted to try and make a "GEV" board yet, but I'll let you know when I do. I'm currently finishing a 40" x 40" board, but my first was a 24" by 44" miniatures scale version of the original, well loved barren wasteland from OGRE. Step one, supplies: *The cheapest plywood you can get ahold of, 1/4" thick is good, cut to size (I prefer 1" extra in both directions so I don't have to worry about getting everything right up to the edge). *Big Bag o' Sawdust. They'll be happy to give you more then you need at your local hardware shop/lumberyard. *Bottle of woodglue. I don't remember the exact size I used on the small board, but it wasn't enough, on the 3.5' square one I used the largest elmer size that doesn't have a handle. *cheap paintbrush 1-2" wide. *piece of scrap lumber 2"x4"x12" works well *old bowl to mix in. Step two, making a mess: If you are finicky, or want really smooth terrain, sift your sawdust first to get the chunks out. I didn't bother. In the bowl mix 3 parts glue, 3 parts sawdust, 1 part water. aproximatly. mix and add more of whatever you think approriate until you get a nice oatmeal consistancy... it'll probably actually look like oatmeal. Great! Spread this gunk all over the board (I did mention do this outside or on newspapers right?) Try to get an even coverage. You may notice it's not sticking (needs more glue and sawdust) or it's clumping (needs more water and glue). Fiddle with the mix till you can get a nice even spread over the board. You don't want it thick, in fact you want about 40-60% coverage. When you are satisfied put in a well ventilated area and let dry. This will take a while... like a day or two if it's humid. Step three, breaking your fingernails: Okay this is the most dangerous step of whole process. Remember that scrap 2x4 I mentioned? Take that and scrape your newely dried board. Hard, don't worry the woodglue has bonded on there pretty strong, all you're going to do is basically sand it. So you don't scrape your self while playing. Step four, more oatmeal: Okay, make some more sawdust, glue 'n water mix, this time with less or no water. Get yourself a cup of water you don't plan on drinking from, and a spoon. The spoon is for getting globs of goop outta the bowl. Dip your fingers in the water regularly so that the goop doesn't stick to your fingers while you're molding it. 4.1 Craters: Get a large spoonful and drop it where you want your crater. Flatten it, then push out from the center and in from the edges to make a crater. A little extra water on your fingers can make the outter edges meld with the terrain nearly seamlessly. 4.2 Ridges: Get a smaller spoonful and drop in the middle of where you want your ridge, knead it out to form a ridge. When making a long ridge do a section at a time. You probably want to keep ridges/craters no more then 1/4"-3/8" high. If people are interested I'll post some tips on painting next week, but I just waited a week for the craters/ridges to dry then put on some nice coppery/orange exterior matte latex housepaint, dry brushed a little black to give some detail, and then painted the craters with mini paint. As far as other terrain goes I've created a lake with elmers glue (the white kind) but I'm not sure how it'll work out as the glue hasn't totally dried... Good luck! -Yanni ============================== From: "nvdoyle" Subject: Ogre Inspiration? http://www.achtungpanzer.com/lowe.htm If that's not a PE 'Jaeger' class HVY... Noah V. Doyle ============================== From: "Hunt, Kirk (Tucson)" Subject: Play Ogre Online. Henry, I can't find the computer game. Can you direct me? Kirk ===== [I think it's inside the members only Pyramid chat areas. As I've never been offered a membership I can't tell for sure. Here's another example of a dice and map PBEM server: -HJC] ===== From: Lee Ajifu Subject: Play Ogre Online. The delay server and dice roller are nice http://www.nash.nu/B5Wars/AutoGM/ ============================== From: "Ask Farallon" Subject: Multi HWZ Defenses Remember that the HWZ has a lot of punch and range, but you're investing two of your precious armor units in an object with D1. That means a missile is an automatic kill. That makes it a very attractive target that's not going to move, assuring its fate. Given these factors, its hard for the HWZ to deliver its money's-worth of damage. If it becomes the center of the Ogre's attentions, and if the Ogre has neither missiles nor mains, the HWZ gets two shots. Statistically, that's four treads. Four. That's the same as a GEV over seven turns (assuming no shot on the first turn), or a carelessly used HVY, and either of those cost half. So there does need to be a *plan* behind multi HWZ use. This plan probably must involve forcing the Ogre into zig-zagging to delay it, giving the HWZs extra shots and buying time for the other armor units. I think the 4 HD is fun against a Mark III, but I'll be surprised if there's a poly-How defense that works against the Mark V - the map is to short, and the Mark V's ability to soak up damage is too great. But I'd be happy to be wrong. ============================== Henry J. Cobb ogre@sjgames.com Archives at http://www.io.com/~hcobb All OGRE-related items Copyright (c) 2001, by Steve Jackson Games.