====== Ogre Digest, September 19th (Last: September 13th) ======== ===== Re: Scenario Book 1 From: "Alvin Helms" From: Andrew Walters ===== Orbital Timeline for the Ogreverse From: Fish Flowers ============================== From: "Alvin Helms" Subject: Re: Scenario Book 1 Stephan Beal wrote: > 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 use of the Ogre's well-known appetite for Command Posts." Thanks! Glad you liked it: I wrote "Hammer & Anvil." ;-) Frankly, I was surprised that SJG printed it almost word for word, with no editing. In fact, only one change was made: In my original version, the Ambusher had Heavy Weapons Infantry instead of Regulars (which was outside the parameters of the contest, since only units available in Deluxe Ogre and Deluxe GEV could be used). I've played it many times both ways, and there is a predictable difference in the average outcome: Obviously, the Ambusher has a better chance with Heavy Weapons than without... However, I *had* planned the Victory Conditions to take into account the huge losses anyone MUST take when facing an Ogre. "Victory" is still possible for the Ambusher even when the majority of his forces have been destroyed. I'm curious to know whether any of you have played "Hammer & Anvil," and what you think of it. Did the forces seem balanced, at least when considering the Victory Conditions? What was the outcome? Have you played it with the Optional Rules? And so on, and so on... Gimme some Feedback here... ;-) -- Alvin Helms ps: Incidentally, several people wrote to me some time ago (shortly after OSB1 came out) to compliment me on "Hammer & Anvil;" but I lost all of that e-mail in a computer crash before responding to any of it, including a fairly good short story based on the scenario (by whom, I cannot remember). If any of you sent me an e-mail and I never responded, that's why. Sorry. Feel free to send it again, if you'd like. ===== [I would have liked to see some of the infantry pop out of hiding on the map and shout "Wolverines attack!" -HJC] ===== From: Andrew Walters Subject: Re: Scenario Book 1 I meant to say in Spoofed! that if there is no Ogre its just a shooting match, play for points. Not sure if that's my fault or theirs. Knowing me and knowing SJ Games, assume its me. Rodil found another error in the victory conditions, too. As far as Run For The Border is concerned, Rodil and I played the heck out of that game one day and I claimed and proved that if the Ogre just turns around and fights it can whip the pursuing force. What it *can't* do and still win is stop, take a few shots to take the edge off the pursuers, and then run. Running should always win, fighting should always win. Broken scenario. Rodil fixes this by not giving the Ogre a head start, the pursuers go immediately after the Ogre. He and others think this works, but I'm unconvinced. The Ogre has even more motivation to stay and fight, in which case it wins an uninteresting victory. Running is harder, though. My fix for RftB is to say that since the Ogre is PE and the PE forces have full specs of its ECM gear (current as of that morning), they get +1 to the die roll on all attacks. This makes their attacks much more vicious, and whether the Ogre runs or fights its a toss up. I'd love to hear how these two fixes work for others. In the meantime, I'm working on all kinds of scenarios for trucks, low-powered Ogres, and engineers and LADs, all with reasonable military authenticity. More later. Andrew ============================== From: Fish Flowers Subject: Orbital Timeline for the Ogreverse A timeline I've gleaned for orbital and space events: 2006: Russian colony Vorota established at L-4 Lagrange point. 2008: US colony Washington established at L-5 ("upwind" of L-4). 2023: Laser weapons feasible. 2070: Last War begins. L4 and L5 colonies self-sustaining; ordered to destroy another. Small Luna bases established by each Lagrange colony. Combine L5 colony has asteroid for mining. Defensive tech (BPC, jammers, cloaking) at GURPS TL11; general TL9. 2073: Contact lost with Lagrange colonies, and presumably Luna bases. 2075: PE ground-based anti-satellite lasers online. 2076: Spysats gone; comm and navsats remain ("for now"). Am I missing anything? Fish. working on last war scenarios for orbit war and tripe ===== [Huh? Passive sats like spysats are shot down while active radiators are left alone? Why? Are the Commsats run by Nihon. ("We're not listening in on your messages, honest....") I like the feel of the Ogreverse where somebody blew up your datalink so you're out of contact with the supreme forces commander and have to deal with that Ogre with whatever you've got for the next few hours. -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