====== OGRE Digest, November 12th (Last: November 8th) ======== ===== Opportunity Fire From: "Chris French" From: "Alvin Helms" ===== Strange long range fire rule. From: "henry_cobb" ===== Re: Subs and Micronukes From: "Charles Barnett" ===== shooting down missiles From: stephan beal ===== Ogre editorial comic From: jkajpust@concentric.net ============================== From: "Chris French" Subject: Opportunity Fire > [ http://www.heavygauss.com/Droidsmain.html -HJC] Thanks, Chef! :) > [The higher you fly the more lasers can see you and these lasers > already chop up GEVs. -HJC] Three words: "Laser-Reflecting Armor". Coming soon to a HVY near you.... :) [Laser-designator-enhancing-coating? Every tanker knows about that. The first simulator scenario in boot camp gives them a nice shiny target and a full load of nukes and then it gets tougher. Pity the enemy never applies it in real life. -HJC] Also, the main reason Lasers chop up GEVs is the poor Defense of said GEVs. Let the zapgunners deal with a HVY or two. > [From now on it means Stone Temple Pilots, OK? -HJC] Umm -- no? (Never heard of them, save as a riff during a con MST- ing of _Zardoz_.) > [The platoon has three 1/6th chances of snipping a rack means the > average loss is half a rack. Assuming they survive the OGRE's AP battery.... > You shoot at external missiles first? -HJC] I admit it's Newbie _OGRE_ tactics, but the missiles are far more dangerous than a Main or Secondary gun -- while they last. > From: AvaheilDotter@aol.com > At the risk of creating a lot of new counters on the game, what Ogre > has ALWAYS lacked was opportunity fire. No need for counters. Around here, all units are listed on notebook paper (one sheet covers a whole battalion), and such details may be noted on said paper. > From: David Morse > If you carefully studied my sequence of play, you would notice that GEVs > only got 2 moves after the last move of a MSL tank, not 4. So yes, > they're more nimble than MSL, but not /infinately/ nimble: I did study it. But it's not how much movement the unit has left that affects reaction time -- it's the unit's actual velocity. The GEV is bopping along at 1.67 miles per minute; it's not likely to see the MSL or HVY until it trips over the thing. And at that point, it's a question of the tank gunner's reflexes and the gun's traverse speed. > From: Servitor@aol.com > -and the MB upgrade just means you can be a tad more effective when the > racks run dry (or get shot off). MB upgrade? [For the Fencer methinks. -HJC] > Oh, and to the kind soul out there that pointed out the four foot > inflatible Godzilla (Gojira?)'s usefulness if we wanted to run "Godzilla > 2072"... -uhm, thanks. But, no. There's just too much potential for > abuse with this idea. 4' Godzilla? My _CW_ group had the idea for having a _CW Tanks_ minis event featuring Hot Wheels tanks vs. a man in a Godzilla suit.... OK, I confess -- it was my idea.... > Simultaneous surface ship movement, then all subs? Is that what > you're saying? For the Advanced Game, yes. For the Basic Game, there are no subs. (It is assumed that all surface ships treat any subsurface tar- get to a rousing chorus of "Christmas At Ground Zero". ) CF ===== From: "Alvin Helms" Subject: Opportunity Fire The lack of Opportunity Fire is really my only major complaint with the Ogre/G.E.V. combat system. Accordingly, I've played many games with a variety of Opportunity Fire rules, trying to find a way to work it in. The most obvious way to implement Opportunity Fire is simply: Any unit that you don't move has the option of firing at an opponent (at the end of the opponent's movement phase, but before his firing phase) if it moves into your unit's range. This works well, and so do several other methods -- but it also slows down the gameplay. Sometimes a LOT. One way this happens: Because you KNOW that the enemy unit will fire at you if you move into range, you simply DON'T move into range. And he doesn't. And you don't, and he doesn't, and nothing ever happens... This is particularly true when an Ogre is involved. Try the basic "Kill the Command Post" with the Opportunity Fire rule I just described above. If the Ogre chooses to stop just outside the range of the defenders and WAIT, you're in for a looooong game. Of course, you can invent some auxiliary rule to force people to move (sit still too long and cruise missiles target you, turn limit on the game, or whatever) but the pace of the game is still affected. If anybody has some good ideas for Opportunity Fire, I'd enjoy trying them... -- Alvin Helms wykan@siscom.net ============================== From: "henry_cobb" Subject: Strange long range fire rule. Non-Evasive fire. Missiles in the OGREverse are almost always lauched on evasive courses that waste fuel changing course back and forth to evade interception, but they don't have to be. Any missile weapon of range four hexes or greater may be launched on a non-evasive attack. Announce the attack (it cannot be combined with anything else) and trace a path in hexes up to twice the normal range of the weapon, just like a cruise missile attack. Hostile forces within their normal range of the path may fire to intercept the attack exactly like against a cruise missile but at the full +3 tracking bonus. Note that AP guns should have a 12+ base roll to intercept missiles. Won't that put the terror of missile tanks back into the game, eh? -HJC ============================== From: "Charles Barnett" Subject: Re: Subs and Micronukes On 8 Nov, Seth said: >YEAH!!! BPC sub, meet Mr. SUBROC...:-) (how BIG was the warhead anyway, or > is that still classified?) Seems it was 250 kt - over twice the yield of a CM. http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-44.html ASROC is claimed to have had a 10 kt warhead. 1/10th a CM or 10k x Rattler. http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/r-5.html And I screwed up: >and a kiloton. A SATNUC submunition seems to be 500 *pounds* Should be .5 tons = 1000 pounds. Hey, as long as it wasn't a power of ten... Thanks to Henry, I can now chew on detailed naval rules. ===== [Another naval scenario is at http://www.io.com/~hcobb/gev/2001/gevfeb08.txt -HJC] ============================== From: stephan beal Subject: shooting down missiles > From: "Chris French" > So? David Drake's been talking about shooting down artillery > shells with beam weapons since his first _Hammer's Slammers_ > story. Talking about it and actually achieving it are different things entirely. Asimov was talking about colonies in space by 2000. > From: Servitor@aol.com > BTW, OGRE Macrotures now has a permanent home here in Florida at > Sci-Fi-City. It gets played every three months (alternating with our other > "Mega-Games" every 4th Sunday of the month) with the next play date > scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 24 at 12 noon here at the store. AaaarrrgggghhhH! If only i weren't 5000 miles away!!!! ============================== From: jkajpust@concentric.net Subject: Ogre editorial comic Dubya's Ogre http://corrigan.ca/nov7-02.htm ===== [With that hungry looking claw and the thick clouds it looks more like Ogrethulhu to me. -HJC] ============================== Send all submissions or mailing list changes or problems to ogre@sjgames.com Archives for this mailing list may be found at http://www.io.com/~hcobb/ General online support for the OGRE game is at http://www.sjgames.com/ogre Ogre, G.E.V., Shockwave and other products mentioned here are trademarks or registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy at http://www.sjgames.com/general/online_policy.html