============ OGRE/GEV list, March 30th (Last: March 26th) ============= ===== Idea for new maps ... From: garth.getgen@genie.com ===== New Terrain for GEV/OGRE From: garth.getgen@genie.com ===== Disabled, but not mobility challenged. From: garth.getgen@genie.com ===== Riding on the battle taxi From: garth.getgen@genie.com ===== Hexmap From: OHara Walter ===== Yet another new OGRE unit! From: garth.getgen@genie.com ------------------------------ From: garth.getgen@genie.com Subject: Idea for new maps ... In my attempts to draft up new maps, I've been studting the atlas to come up with new terrain types (see previous posting) ... and an idea suddenly struck me: why reinvent maps when they're right there in front of me?? Thus, my next major project will be to take some historical hot-spots around the world and re-draft them into GEV standards. Now, if I can just find some maps of the usable scale for the Low Countries, East Europe/western Russia, parts of the Mid-East, the Korean DMZ, Central America, etc, etc. Garth L. Getgen SSgt USAF ----- [How about San Francisco? I hear that's gonna be a hot battleground when the Nihon Empire invades. -HJC] ------------------------------ From: garth.getgen@genie.com Subject: New Terrain for GEV/OGRE As part of my ongoing project to upgrade and improve the game, I've come up with a few more terrain types to add use in future maps. MARSH -- basically SWAMP without any trees. Infantry and GEVs treat as CLEAR, rest treat as SWAMP. SCRUB -- everything from dense brush to light/patchy woods and orchards. GEVs/Lt TANK pay +1MP for FIRST such hex entered each movement phase, rest treat as clear. TRUCKS can enter and get D1. This terrain blocks Line-Of-Sight (LOS) if using those rules. ROUGH -- rugged terrain broken, covered with rocks and cut with gullies. Infantry and OGRES treat as CLEAR, TRUCKS may enter but risk getting DISABLED, rest pay 2MP per hex. HIGHWAYS -- multilane roads designed for high speed travel. All treat as ROAD, except may get +2MP during FIRST movement phase but may not fire during regular combat phase if they do so. TRAILS -- dirt roads or unimproved secondary raods. All treat as ROAD but do NOT get any extra movement bonus. BERMS -- raised hiway/railroad berm, flood control dikes, stone walls, hedge rows (ie, northern France), etc. All units treat as CREEK, but also blocks Line-Of-Sight (LOS). If BERM is not a hexside (ie, HIGHWAY), units must declare which side they are on. Infantry defense is x1.5 behind a BERM. VILLAGE -- a small TOWN that doesn't fill the hex. All treat as CLEAR, Infantry get x2 Defense. In this list, only the SCRUB BERM block Line-Of-Sight. Orginally, I was going to also have BRUSH, MARSH (the one above would be WETLAND), RUGGED and EVERGLADE that would be equalivants of CLEAR, WETLAND, ROUGH and WATER with blocked LOS. After much consideration, I thought that was a bit too much. The next two parts of my project: terrain elevation contors and helicopters. Garth L. Getgen ------------------------------ From: garth.getgen@genie.com Subject: Disabled, but not mobility challenged. > When you get that new rulebook, read GEV:6.139 on disabled units moving > around. (Man, it's so MUCH easier to make truly obscure references to > the pre-minis rulebooks!) -HJC] Yes, I knew about that rule (it's in the old 1978 rules, too); there was even a fiction story using this very rule. But please read it again: "Even a disabled unit may fight in overrun combat. Every vehicle carries a computer to aid in movement and fire control; should the crew be knocked out, the tank will continue to protect itself against immediate dangers. IT WON'T MANEUVER or make long-range shots -- but it can HIDE BEHIND A RIDGELINE and fire on any enemy unit nearby." (Emphasis mine.) In other words, the GEV will not "go around in circles" -- it will find a nice big rock to duck behind or even a crater to drop into. The computer will seek out the nearest "safe" (realitive term in a combat zone) spot to park the vehicle until the crew can take control. Hmmm ... perhaps there could be a rule for "Permanately DISABLED units" where the crew it killed but the tank is intact. If a friendly Infantry squad can get to it before it's overrn, they drop a guy off to drive it back to a Command Post for a crew replacement. He won't be able to fire but at least the unit gets back in action. Garth L. Getgen ------------------------------ From: garth.getgen@genie.com Subject: Riding on the battle taxi > [And the reason that Heavy tanks suffer fewer "direct hits" than light > tanks is that their crews are picked from luckier stock, no? ("Yes > private, now this is the tank we should ride on. I just feel it.") Well, be that way then. Ok, valid point. How about this then: Roll a second die againt the Infantry at half strength (they'll still duck behind the tank's hull). Read as SPILLOVER if the Infantry are INSIDE of an armored unit (D1 or better). In either case, the Infantry do not get their normal terrain bonus, rather they use the same as the vehicle (ie, x2 in TOWN instead of x3). {This is something NOT covered in GEV 5.11} The logic there being if you can see/hit the tank easily, that little cluster in men on top of it aren't hiding any better. Garth L. Getgen ------------------------------ From: OHara Walter Subject: Hexmap >>If you don't care about moving pieces, there are several shareware >>programs out there for map-making. I know a lot of people swear by >>HexMap. I swear AT Hexmap, often enough, but there isn't much better out there. sigh. Walt O'Hara ------------------------------ From: garth.getgen@genie.com Subject: Yet another new OGRE unit! I wish I could take full credit for this idea, but alas, my momma raised an honest boy. I found a 'Web page that advertises sci-fi minitures (please don't ask for the URL, because I didn't write it down -- look in the newsgroup REC.GAMES.MINITURES.MISC for a message with an embedded link) and one of the items is this weird multi-articulated thing with a "laser dish" on a tower. All I can do is try to relate that to GEV terms: THE MOBILE LASER TOWER Based on a MISSLE CRAWLER, this unit is deployed to high threat areas to add area defense against enemy CURISE MISSLES. Since it's based on the same hull, it has the same defense and movement (D2, M2 as HEAVY). It's main weapon is a LASER on top of a telescoping tower -- it takes a FULL turn to erect the tower and the unit may not move with it up. Once erected, the tower is the same height as the STANDARD LASER and has all the same restrictions (range and terrain). It takes a full turn to retract the tower, after which time the unit may move but can not use the laser. During overrun attacks, the unit has an ATTACK factor of 1 to represent its defensive weapons/infantry guards. (The CRUISE MISSLE CRAWLER should have this, too, if it doesn't already -- but neither of them may be the attacker in an overrun, always the defender!!) When I first thought about this idea, I considered using either a SUPERHEAVY hull or a "small" OGRE (Mark II or so) ... but then I thought that neither of them was suited for the job -- both are more of front-line attack units and turning them into a support unit made little logistical sense. I was just about ready to drop the whole idea when I notice a stray counter had fallen out of the box. When I went to put it where it belonged, I saw it was a CRAWLER ... and I realized my dilema was solved! Now, is that just too weird or what??!?!? Garth L. Getgen ----- [If the power source for a laser (not laser tower, which I consider a fixed installation) could be made mobile in a hull smaller than a Mark III, then the battlefield would be crawling with them, right? I can still see an "Aegis" Laser Cruiser as the escort to the GEV carrier. (No terrain to get in the way...) -HJC] Henry J. Cobb hcobb@io.com http://www.io.com/~hcobb All OGRE-related items Copyright (c) 1997, by Steve Jackson Games.