====== OGRE Digest, Jan 15th, 2004 (Last: Dec 30th) ======== ===== TO+E 42nd. Infantry "Rainbow" Division From: Sethkimmel@aol.com ===== Cybernetic Warriors From: stephan beal ===== More Infantry Ideas From: "Noah V. Doyle" ===== Dark Days? From: "Noah V. Doyle" ===== Ogre Miniatures News From: "Paul Chapman" ===== About those sensors...longish From: "Noah V. Doyle" ============================== From: Sethkimmel@aol.com Subject: TO+E 42nd. Infantry "Rainbow" Division > Nice detailing. Is this based on the "current" 42nd's org chart, or > some other source? (I tried using the TO&Es from _Twilight:2000_ > but found that too many of the specialist units didn't exist in _O_.) I got it from here: New York Army National Guard HHC major command links http://www.dmna.state.ny.us/nyarng.htm ============================== From: stephan beal Subject: Cybernetic Warriors > From: "Chris French" ... > > From: Andrew Walters > > Subject: Alternative Minis Alert! MCPs! > > They're currently $1.99 at Target! > > [begind planning run on Target locally] Scenario idea: Attacker: one [delusional] Ogre Mk III, nicknamed "Frenchy". Defender: - one Target superstore [no pun intended, but the name just begs to be punned]. Treat it as an SP 30 administrative building. - 12 armor units - 20 infantry Map: as decided upon by the players. A suburban map is recommended. Background: Mk III is somewhat delusional. It intercepted an audio/visual feed of what appears to be disguised as a Christmas shopping advertisement, depicting young children playing with hostage units: miniature tanks in a variety of shapes and colors. The enemy apparently made the mistake of sending it over standard broadcast channels, during peak TV viewing hours... presumably because they thought nobody would look for military messages there. [As mentioned, the Mk III is a bit off-kilter.] Objective: Free the minis from Target. The children who have been tormenting the hostages are to be... well, Targetted. The exact nature of the rescue mission, e.g., where exactly the minis are and how they must be rescued, is up to the players. One subversive broadcast shows the minis being delivered to Target in a small red transport vehicle, being pulled by 8 tiny, quadrupedal mammals. The fore-most of the animals appeared to have some sort of secret weapon or targetting system mounted on it's snout, so caution is recommended... ============================== From: "Noah V. Doyle" Subject: More Infantry Ideas Well, idea, singular, really. How about having infantry suffer D effects like other units, and keep their defensive adjustments the same? Would this give them that desired survivability we talked about in last June/July's 'Super Squads' thread? Any more thoughts along those lines, since then? Noah ===== [I count infantry defense as a bonus. Being helpless, even for one turn, in the face of your enemies is not a good thing. It takes 3 D results to kill a platoon, but only 2 to kill a heavy tank. -HJC] ============================== From: "Noah V. Doyle" Subject: Dark Days? The Dopp, Vulcan and Ninja are MIA. OM2 is no longer 'In Production'. Paul Chapman is delayed in answering Ogre-related email. Is it doom? Is it gloom? Or perhaps...is there a silver lining, in silence? So, we'll wait. And maybe see. Noah ============================== From: "Paul Chapman" Subject: Ogre Miniatures News Many fans of both Ogre and Ogre Miniatures have been wondering, some quietly, some not, about the status of SJ Games' miniatures production. Although in the past I have prided myself on maintaining a positive flow of information, of late I've expressed naught but silence. The short answer to your questions is: SJ Games has ceased production of all miniatures. Several new miniatures (the Vulcan, the Doppelsoldner, and the Ninja) were indeed sculpted and mastered, but we weren't able to produce them before the final shut-down date. We are talking to a new caster, and I expect to have more news before the end of the month. Rest assured that the new caster will be able to produce the aforementioned figures. Now, for those of you who have more free time and curiosity, I can expand a bit. In the second quarter of 2003, I watched the sales numbers of miniatures (all miniatures, I should note, not just Ogre) slowly sink. Alternatives to in-house casting were examined, and the decision was eventually made to close the casting department. Around this time, our Traffic Manager decided to move on to other pursuits, leaving SJ Games without a key person in the command structure. I was moved over to the Traffic Department, and was quickly swamped with the tasks of maintaining the physical building, shipping both to Warehouse 23 customers and distributors, and closing down the Miniatures Division. Still, I had high hopes for releasing the new Ogre figures before the end of the year. Then, the decision was made to move the warehouse to Las Vegas. Obviously, this required a whole lot of extra work that I had not planned on. Inventory needed to be counted, massive amounts of shipping materials needed to be purchased, and many, many, many pallets needed to be shipped and coordinated. The area that was the casting room was stripped to make the extra room necessary to ship the massive number of pallets. This was done, unfortunately, before the new Ogre figures had a chance to enter production. It was my planning that failed on this point, a fact I'm not at all happy about. However, the move to Las Vegas was a solid business decision, and the timing was right, despite the stresses it inflicted on me. Now? I'm back in Austin, after spending most of four weeks counting, packing, and shipping our inventory (and all of last week setting up the new warehouse!). I've got a list of "over-due" projects as long as my arm, and I'll be attacking them as fast as I can. At the top of that list is getting a signed contract out of the new caster, and being able to announce it. Only slightly less important is re- establishing the lines of communication between SJ Games and the Ogre fans. In summary, I've been busy, but I am very sorry that we weren't able to get the new figures out as promised. Thanks for sticking around. Paul Chapman Traffic Manager Steve Jackson Games ============================== From: "Noah V. Doyle" Subject: About those sensors...longish I remember something mentioned a while ago, about the Ogreverse battlefield being flooded with sensors, and ECM... From Strategypage.com: January 14, 2004: The latest futuristic electronic gizmo developed by the military is WolfPack, a six pound sensor/jammer that is dropped into enemy territory to get information and, if needed, jam enemy communications. Hollywood isn't the only place where old hits are recycled. Such miniature gadgets were first developed and used in the 1960s. These early devices were just a microphone and transmitter. An aircraft overhead could pick up the transmissions, record them, and get them back to a base where the activity (trucks, troops marching, or whatever), where it occurred and the time, could be recorded. In this way, operations along the carefully hidden (under the tall jungle canopy) "Ho Chi Minh" trail could be studied, plotted and bombed. The trail, run by the North Vietnam through Laos (just east of Vietnam), was vital to keeping their troops in South Vietnam supplied. In the 1980s, there was an effort to add self organizing networking to a series of smart mines (later called WAAM). This networking is in WolfPack, but didn't survive the end of the Cold War for the 1980s WAAM. One thing discovered with WAAM was that enemy troops would have an incentive to search for them, and kill them (with gunfire.) To make that a more sporting exercise, some anti-personnel mines were to be deployed from each WAAM once it landed (dropped from an aircraft or rocket shell.) This idea was later dropped, as the anti-personnel mines were too likely to later endanger civilians and friendly troops. This made WAAM somewhat less effective, but hardly worthless. WolfPack will face the same problem airdropped sensors in Vietnam did; the enemy will go looking for them once they realize the sensors are a danger to them. During the Vietnam war, a partial solution to this problem was to build some of the airdropped sensors so they looked like a bamboo plant. This deception would not stand up to close scrutiny, but the enemy troops were not going to closely examine every bamboo plant when they were sweeping an area for sensors. So this worked (except when, after the war, surplus sensors of this type were shipped to Europe for use their in a future war.) At present, WolfPack is not disguised (except for camouflage paint.) This may change once they are tested extensively with American troops deploying them against each other in field exercises. When the four inch wide, six pound WolfPack units are dropped in enemy territory (or manually placed outside friendly positions), they will not only pick up electronic information, but will be able to jam enemy signals (including cell phones) on command or as part of their programmed instructions. The ability of WolfPack units to detect other WolfPack units and form a network, and then collectively sort out who is doing what electronically, is a major advance in sensor and jamming warfare. Even if some of the WolfPack units are destroyed, the network will just reconfigure itself. The units cost $10,000 each, and if they work as predicted, the troops will always try to recover them for reuse. ============================= 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