====== OGRE Digest, Sep 27th, 2003 (Last: Sep 21st) ======== ===== Ogre on WinDos 98 From: "Mark S Haynes" ===== Cruise Missiles From: "Chris French" ===== blitz From: "David & Robin" ===== Valley of Tears scenario From: Sethkimmel@aol.com ===== The very first Ogre - Germany 1942... now you can own one! From: Chris Condon ============================== From: "Mark S Haynes" Subject: Ogre on WinDos 98 > From: "Chris French" [vast amount of text snipped] > I wonder if an IBM PC-compatible _O_ computer disk would work > with Windows 98... probably need some sort of emulator. > > CF To answwer that question - YES!!! Origin's IBM PC OGRE game plays fine from a 3.5" floppy on Windows 98SE. The files can be copied onto the hard drive but the game still checks for the disk in the drive and wont play without it. Mark Haynes "God may not play dice with the universe, but I have to." ============================== From: "Chris French" Subject: Cruise Missiles > [Anything in the crater is gone, but that doesn't apply > underwater. -HJC] Umm, hello, do the words "water-hammer effect" mean anything to anyone? Being underwater isn't going to help a unit -- in fact, the unit is even worse off; if the effect of having several thousand tons of water slammed into one doesn't kill one, sprung hatches and seams are a definite possibility. > [Yeah, but it's another table to lug around and it's a lot more complex > than the CRT. I don't need to look at a chart to find the minimum > firepower that will cause at least a D result against a Heavy Tank on a > roll of one in the clear, but to figure out what range from a cruise > missile explosion that is in the hex game requires a lookup. -HJC] *Huh*? The chart already exists, in _Shockwave_ (just above the Missile Crawler art), and there's it's all of 1" tall and 4" wide. The CRT in my PB edition of _GEV_ takes up all of a 4" x 7" page. As- suming someone does a little Photoshop work and puts both of these on one piece of paper, they'll both fit neatly onto one side of a single 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. So what's this "lugging around" nonsense? As for actually having to look things up, the CM table isn't *that* hard to use -- units/terrain down the side, CRT columns across the top, and distance away between them. Pretty much the same as everything else in the game. CF ============================== From: "David & Robin" Subject: blitz > > From: David Morse > > Not to mention nobody ever died of starvation after being out of supply > > for twelve minutes (three Ogre turns). Heck, even an M1 tank is hard > > pressed to run out of gas in that time. > > Well, according to _GURPS OGRE_, most tanks can shoot off their > entire ammo supplies in one _O_ turn.... :) One more reason GO is at best apocrypha not canonical at least at my house. GO does not do a very good job of modelling Ogre. > > Urban ogres are terrifying though: [...] > > Its a castle on wheels. > > Umm, here's a few words to keep in mind: "basements, "rubble", > "craters". An OGRE only has to get high-centered once. (And > thinking on what most European cities look like, there's no way an > OGRE will ever fit down even a main street.) One more word for you: Nukes. Even AP guns fire tac-nukes. Ogres make their own streets. Look at pictures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, still want to argue that Ogres can't get through downtown? > As I understand it, the battlefield is overrun with Recon Drones > (not represented in _O_, but shown in _Battlesuit_), which allows > each side to shoot over forests and whatnot with reasonable > accuracy. So double-blind isn't an option for _O_. Good point. This is also why Ogre has no LoS rules, indirect fire mortars etc. Not to mention many of the shells are likely to be "smart rounds". Given that 1 vehicle in a hex 1.5 kilometers across is fine enough resolution for Ogre weapons and targetting systems, double bilnd might work if the game were a standard GEV scenario played on a map the size of China! ;-) > > [I was thinking about weapons of mass destruction today (no reason > > really...) and how to get the cruise missile rules to work for both hexes > > and minis without needing a complex table. > > Why not just use the "original" rules, and tell the minis folks to > read "1 hex" as "2 inches"? We were here first! :) > > I wonder if an IBM PC-compatible _O_ computer disk would work > with Windows 98... probably need some sort of emulator. > > CF > > ===== > > [Yeah, but it's another table to lug around and it's a lot more complex > than the CRT. I don't need to look at a chart to find the minimum > firepower that will cause at least a D result against a Heavy Tank on a > roll of one in the clear, but to figure out what range from a cruise > missile explosion that is in the hex game requires a lookup. -HJC] Play the hex game more. You know it's the _real_ rules anyway ;-). Even the CRT was a look up for a while. ============================== From: Sethkimmel@aol.com Subject: Valley of Tears scenario I turned it in too late for the Contest. Tell what you think.... The Valley of Tears Prologue: 03:00 hrs, June 22, 2086, Dimona Nuclear Weapons and Robotics=20 Research Facility in the Negev Desert of Israel "It took the Nazi's almost three years to kill over a million and a half Jews at Auschwitz; parties unknown were able to do the same at Tel Aviv in a millisecond" thought Dr. Joshua Krenstein, the senior AI research fellow ashe typed code onto a computer console. What he was doing was strictly prohibited -- he was adding unauthorized code into the AI algorithm that would be loaded in the CPU of the cybertank JDA-293. If he were caught he would be shot, or worse, handed over to the Arabs, as he smiled inwardly. He truly believed that the Panuropeans were behind the Tel Aviv bombing and perhaps the Cairo-Damascus ones as well. Why was anybody's guess, but softening up the Mideast for a landgrab, seemed the best bet? Of course when Germans, Russians and the French are suspected, it didn't have to be for logical reasons; the chance to kill Jews for it's own sake was enough. Dr. Krenstein only hoped this little friendly "sabotage" would allow him some indirect revenge for this old atrocity. The idiots in the Rabbinate-military junta that now ruled Israel wouldn't allow sentient Golems, on grounds that it blasphemed against G-D, and self-aware cybertanks would be uncontrollable. The fools, this would be the only thing that would save Israel, especially know that the Combine stopped aiding Israel, and even worse, was aiding the Arabs. The 'yanks' were hoping that the Arabs would use the aid against the Paneuro's, but they were also stepping up their incessant attritional attacks against Israel as well. "There; that's it," he thought, as he shut down and prepared to go home. Those idiots at MIT should have told Denver to go to hell when they expelled him from the Combine, butno practicing Jews would be allowed to live in the Combine unless they converted to the state run Catholic or Episcopalian churches. "Oh-well; their loss, Israel's gain," he smiled grimly. 04:00 hrs, October 6, 2086, the Golan Heights, Israel Major General. Ephraim Ben Zvi chomped on an unlit cigar and paced the floor of the Battalion CP with a barely concealed impatience. The Syrians had been making noises again for the umpteenth time about retaking the heights. True, it had been over a hundred years since there had been a shooting war in the valley, but this time he was VERY worried. There was trouble in Lebanon again, and two of the three battalions of his Brigade, including his mechanized infantry battalion were up in the Bekaa Valley staring down the Syrian and Lebanese forces there. Most of his third battalion was down in Jordan watching the Saudis and the Jordanians. That's why he was up front conferring with Col. Netanyahu about what the Syrians were doing over on the East Side of the rocky plain that made up the Golan Heights. It didn't help that he had just finished reading a history of the Yom Kippur war. He was amazed at the sheer number of tanks that had fought back then. The Syrians had attacked with 1500 tanks, and the Israelis defended with 450. What a cruise missile would have done to that concentration of armor if they were available back then. Still, he thought with pride; we DID destroy over a thousand Syrian tanks, at the cost of two armored brigades shattered (one, the 7th, being the ancestor of his brigade). No wonder that this area was nicknamed the valley of tears What worried him the most was that today, just like back in 1973, was the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year. He was just as short handed as his predecessors were. He was defending three widely separated fronts, withhalf of the forces that were here normally. He had just one company of armor and that damn Golem to defend the heights, when he really needed at least a battalion. He was also annoyed that he missed the Col. who was up at the front lines making sure his tanks were properly dug in. The computer screen next to him suddenly turned opaque from broad spectrum jamming, and it announced "WARNING; many cruise missiles inbound! Request weapons free on the laser tower." He leaned over the comp tech and stabbed the affirmative key on the pad. Next the air raid klaxon went off (funny it wasstill called that he, thought as he put on his helmet and started to seal his battlesuit up). There was a g-dawful roar as the laser tower started to fire again and again, and again The tower did very well; neither the battalion nor brigade CPs were hit, and though the valley was now pockmarked with glowing craters, none of his vehicles were hit. The tower however, was hit by the last cruise missile, and was destroyedThe comp tech reached Colonel Netanyahu's command tank through the hash of radio and Maser jamming. Col. Netanyahu reported that he could now see large plumes of smoke coming over the horizon, even though it was still dark. That could only mean one thing; cybertanks. He then saw them-my G-D there were FOUR of them, all ex-combine Mark II's, and there were two companies of GEVs, a company of tanks, and a full battalion of battlesuited infantry behind them. Col. Netanyahu knew he was a dead man His command superheavy tank was the largest vehicle in this company, and even though they were all dug-in in revetments, had a battery of artillery in support, and had the approaches to the position mined; he knew that he couldn't hold this position. The Syrians would pour over him, destroy the Battalion and Brigade CPs and continue to the Jordan River. They could then invade Israel proper, and cut off the Israeli forces in Lebanon. Maybe they would finallydrive us into the sea if the reserves don't get here in timeCol. Netanyahu forgot one thing howeverThere was a Golem back at the CP and it was coming up fast He then heard an odd thing on the Comm net. "Don't fall back! It's Judah the Maccabee! I'm coming to help you and with the Lord's help, the Syrians willnot defile the temple again!" Col. Netanyahu thought that tin can popped its' cork, but any help was welcome, as he launched some targeting drones, and downloaded targeting data from the intelligent landmines in front of his position. Scenario notes: use the miniatures from Deluxe Ogre and Deluxe GEV. Use the Ogre map. Israeli forces: One Golem cybertank (use the Mark III model) One superheavy tank (use the Paneuro one) Four combine heavy tanks Four combine missile tanks One combine howitzer One paneuro howitzer One paneuro mobile howitzer Four armor points of revetments (use the Ogre Battlefields rules, and use coins to represent them on the map). Any mix of large and/or small revetments is OK One combine CP One paneuro CP Syrian forces Four mark II Ogres (use the paneuro light tanks to represent them) Four paneuro missile tanks Four paneuro heavy tanks Six combine GEVs Six paneuro GEVs Six Paneuro light GEVs 39 infantry squads (use all the infantry from both Deluxe Ogre and Deluxe GEV) Set up: The Israeli player places his/her forces anywhere in the obstructed part of the map. He/she must place one of his/her CP's within ten hexes of the end of the obstructed area (hexes ending with 07-16). Every hex ending in 17 is considered to be mined (see optional Ogre rule 8.03). He/she may place his/her revetments anywhere in the obstructed area and they may have armor units inthem at the start of play. The Syrian player enters from the East Side of the map (any hex ending in 22) on turn one. Israeli forces may escape from the WestSide of the map, and Syrian forces may escape from the East Side (also note the victory conditions for Syrian units that exit the West Side of the map). Units exiting the map may not return to the map. Victory conditions: Four Ogres exit West Side of map: Overwhelming Syrian victory Three Ogres exit West Side of map: major Syrian victory Two Ogres exit West Side of map: Syrian victory One Ogre exits West Side of map: minor Syrian victory No Ogres exit map, but both CPs destroyed: minor Syrian victory No Ogres exit map, but one CP destroyed: minor Israeli victory No Ogres exit map, no CPs destroyed: Israeli victory No Ogres exit map, no CPs destroyed, Golem survives: major Israeli victory No Ogres exit map, no CPs destroyed, Golem survives, all Ogres destroyed: Overwhelming Israeli victory [Then I requested some clarifications and he responded. -HJC] > Stats for this? Use the Golem stats in GURPS Ogre, pg. 96.... 1 MB, 3 SB, 3 MSL racks, 9 internal MSL, 10 AP, 45 tread-M3 and "also carries a number of small drones" which GURPS Ogre doesn't explain in game terms. The number of treads and speed is inferred from the quote: "Except for those changes (armament), the stats for a MkIII may be used." BTW; how many "Henrys" does this beast cost; GURPS Ogre doesn't say? The Syrians are using Combine gear? see the scenario story fiction.... I got the idea from the blurb in the Ogreverserse (think it was in OM...) about MkII templates kept in production for sale to client states. Thought it reasonable that the Combine would screw a one time ally for advantage.... So the Israelis can put their stuff far in the north east corner and the syrains enter into the same hexes? Sorry; thought I made it clear. The Syrians enter like an Ogre in a "normal" kill the CP game -- clear edge of the board. The Israelis are dug in UP to the edge of the obstructed area - NOT in the clear area....just like defenders in a "kill the CP" scenario... These are the syrian Ogres, not the Israeli unit? Correct.... ============================== From: Chris Condon Subject: The very first Ogre - Germany 1942... now you can own one! Hi, I saw this on back of a Japanese model magazine and ordered a few. Really cool! The Super Tank was in development by Nazi Germany! Truth stranger than Fiction. Pictures and website enclosed http://www.hlj.com/cgi-perl/hljpage.cgi?TAK17547 ============================= 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. 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