====== Ogre Digest, September 13th (Last: September 7th) ======== ===== Airborne lasers From: AvaheilDotter@aol.com ===== Scenarios Book 1 From: stephan beal ============================== From: AvaheilDotter@aol.com Subject: Airborne lasers << Looks like they're mostly thinking of deploying them in USAF aircraft, though, to use against hardened ground targets. Obviously the DoD doesn't play enough Ogre. >> Ogres exist only because of the balognium armor. Any current AFV is dead if spotted, ditto with an airplane in range of such weapons. Current armor alone is not proof against AT weapons, which is why active defenses are becoming so prevalent. Helos are way to vulnerable in a combat with a competently armed opponent. Witness the Russian problems in Afghanistan against stinger armed "freedom fighters." Political comment deleted... ===== [Sudden mental image of an Ogre in a ravine indirect firing guns and missiles. This laser armed airplane sends a UAV forwards with a BIG mirror... -HJC] ============================== From: stephan beal Subject: Scenarios Book 1 Yo, fellas, i finally got my hands on a copy (well, three copies) of Scenarios Book 1, and i'm looking for suggestions/tips: a) what are popular/favorite scenarios? b) what are the popular/favorite/working/non-working tactics? The format of the book: for those of you who haven't seen it, it's a more traditional book format than the other [non-minis] Ogre material, except that it's an odd size (smaller than A4, but bigger than A5), and i find that kind of awkward to handle (it certainly won't fit in my "Ogre Travelling Kit" easily). Like the GURPS material of the past 3-5 years, it wastes a lot of space with huge margins and a far-too-fancy-to-be-justifiable layout, but it appears that the content is pretty good. i think the whole thing could have been compressed into a Shockwave/Reinforcement Pack-like format, though, and that's what i had expected to see. This format is certainly more durable, and has it's merits/advantages, but i've never been a fan of the "new look" that SJG has been going for in the GURPS stuff the past few years, and it doesn't appeal to me here, either [specifically, it's the internal layout/decoration which i don't care for. i find the covers to be pretty good]. In fact, the layout looks very similar to that of GURPS Ogre, except that the wide margins aren't filled in solid black. If i may quote a particularly amusing line from the book, from the first scenario: "It depicts an attempt by mixed forces to ambush and destroy an Ogre by making us of the Ogre's well-known appetite for Command Posts." i'm hoping that Paul catches this one... Scenario 6.0 Spoiling Attack Section 6.41: Attackers Objectives: The attacker's primary objective is to disarm the Ogre... Any other unit destroyed scores no points. Section 6.52 Spoofed! The defenders do not have a hidden Ogre; instead, they can call upon up to 48 points of reinforcements. So... if you use the optional 6.52 rule, it is impossible for the attacker to win, since he must score at least 20 points to score any type of victory and nothing but the Ogre provides any points. Take care, ----- stephan stephan@einsurance.de - http://www.einsurance.de "If you stopped telling people it's all sorted out after they're dead, they might try sorting it all out while they're alive." -- Terry Pratchet ===== [Hmmm... As a patch I'd say count the victory points for each side normally in that case then subtract the attacker's losses from the defenders and go to the 6.43 section to determine victory in that case. Oh well, maybe they'll be time to playtest all of the scenarios in the next book. My least favorite scenario is Run for the Border because if the Ogre just runs it is almost certain to make it because so much of the chasing firepower is so slow. -HJC] List Moderator: Henry J. Cobb 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