Halloween Treat: ZOMBIES!!!!!

Ah, Zombies.  I love Zombies.  And even for Ogre, zombies can be fun.  The accidental mixture of a cadaver preservative and some minor Battlefield Drugs resulted in the Living Battle-Suited Dead!

Sg. Wilkins Stared out into the moonlight, trying to shake the feeling that something was out there.  It had been over half a day since the last battle, and Intelligence had declared the sector clean hours ago.  But Wilson simply couldn't shake the feeling that something was still going on.  Knowing that he was just showing his paranoia, Wilson had ordered a recon squad to patrol just a couple of kicks away from the CP.  The last fight had played merry hell with the sensor grid, and until the engineers arrived they had to make do with a mostly visual inspection of the perimeter.  For several hours Wilson had rotated teams out into the wilderness, with nothing to show for it.  He sighed, and made ready to recall the latest team when an incomming signal crashed his net.
"Sarge!  Sarge! Its Coleman.  We got something out here, move-"  The voice cut off with a gurgling primal scream.  Weapons fire roared over the channel and even at the current distance, Wilson could make out the muzzle flashes. Wilson snapped to his feet, checked his suit scanner, clicked his mike.
"Report Contact.  I repeat, report contact!"  Only screams answered him, like small animals being disemboweled.  Wilson taped his control pad, importing the helmet cams of Coleman's squad.  The sight left him speechless.  Humans, or at least parts of them, were being consumed by other humans.   They h Dead humans.  Some wore Combine armor, some Pan-euro.  All were quite dead; palid skin, terrible gaping wounds, missing limbs.  Wilson was stunned by a numbing horror, felt the urge to spew.
There were no such things!
His external audio registered a new sound.  A low moaning, like some wounded animal.  A scraping shuffle, the clink of battle-armored feet on gravel.  Wilson whirled around, and saw several of the horrors staggering towards him.  Fighting the scream that tore loose from his throat, Sg. Wilson fled back towards the CP with everything his jump jets could give.
Wilson crashed through the perimeter like a comet, slamming up against the remaining heavy tank with stunning force.  Breathless, Wilson struggled to his feet, waving a heavy arm back towards the oncoming horrors.  Several of the men heard them now, and reached for weapons.  Wilson pushed several troopers towards the remaining vehicles, squeezing out what words his shallow breath would allow.
"Warm it, all up." Breath. "Everything, we got." Breath. "They're coming." Breath. "Sweet Jesus." Breath.  "They're coming."
Again, that wounded animal moan.  That dead-leg drag.....
"THEY"RE COMING!!!!!"

Setup: Use the classic Ogre board, and set the Living player CP somewhere in the Center 3 rows of the board.

Scenario: the Living Player takes 5 normal BS squads, 1 missile tank and 1 heavy tank guarding a CP during a dark Halloween Night (deploy all units within 2 hexes of the CP).
Defending the CP for 5 rounds from the Zombies is the objective.
The Zombie player takes 2d6 Zombie BS squads, and deploys them 1d6 hexes away from the CP (minimum of 3 hexes).
The dead and slain have risen, offering only moans of "brains!", and have the first round.
The Living player take his round second.
The end of the living player's turn is the end of a full round.
After 5 rounds, the match is over.

Zombie special rules:
Zombies may not combine attack (no intelligence), but may group together in a hex during movement (spillover fire applies as normal).
Zombie Reinforcements: At the beginning of the Zombie player's turn, he rolls 1d6-1 for zombie reinforcements that appear 1d6 hexes away from the CP (minimum of 3 hexes, minimum of 1 zombie reinforcements).
Zombies are Move 1, Defence 2 (undead), Range 0 and Strength 1.
Zombies may only attack in overrun combat (hand to hand only).
Zombies are killed on X or XX results only (head shots).  D results are ignored (even in overrun combat where D results usually count; instead they simply punch through the bodies).
Any Living infantry unit slain by zombies will rise as a zombie controlled Zombie unit in the next Zombie player turn. Any other units slain (missile tank or tank) are just dead.

Its been a few days: Howitzers in Craters!

Love this old variant on Howitzer placement, allowing Howitzers to be placed inside a crater.  This prevents ramming or overrun attacks against the Howitzer (except from infantry) and gives the Howitzer +1 defense. If you pay 24 points, the Howitzer also has Point Defense (!) which gives it a defense factor of 5!  Its also completely concealed until fired, meaning you can potentially shoot an Ogre in the ass!

I love it!

Old school Optional rules: MINES

I love going through the the older versions of Ogre and GEV to find the little included variant rules.

Like, MINES.  I love mines.  They totally make the other side either paranoid or grimace with pain.  While the rulebook states what mines do; IE the player writes down a number of hexes that are mined; if an ogre enters the hex roll 1d6 - on a 5 or 6 the ogre takes 1d6 tread damage.  If a regular unit rolls through, you must roll a 6; if you do, that unit is destroyed (D result for infantry).  But the rule never states HOW MANY mines the player gets.  Since they are kinda chancy, and free I would say roll 1d6+1 to get how many mines you may deploy.  If you want more, sacrifice an armored unit to get another 1d6+1 mines.  I would also limit the number of mines to no more than 12, cause then it gets real nasty.  

And what about mine clearing?  Combat engineers?  Hmmm......

Orbital Strikes: LOIC anyone?

Alright, let's stop fucking around.  You all know what I'm talking about here.  The Hammer of God.  Orbital satellite to ground strikes.  Oh yeah!

OK, so this depends on quite a few things.
One, clear communications to the satellite or it's controller.
Two, the satellite must be in an appropriate orbital path/time-frame, or Geo-synchronous in order to deliver the Package.
Three, What are the criteria for calling in a god-strike?  We have Ogres on the field.  How much worse can it get?

Rules: An orbital strike costs the player the 5 armor units during setup.  When used, the player declares the target hex and rolls 1d6: on a 5 or 6, the call gets through and the strike is called down.  Anything within the target hex is struck at 5-1 odds (if an Ogre, roll for each weapon system and 3d6 for tread damage).  For each hex distance from the target hex, reduce the damage by 1 (so 2 hexes away is 4-1 odds, three is 3-1 odds, etc).  Anything past 5 hexes is safe.  Place a crater in the target hex.

Swarming an Ogre: totally stolen from Battletech

1, sorry about not posting for a couple days.  Some stuff came up.

2. Why can't infantry, with jump jets and reinforced power armor, perform swarm attacks against an Ogre?  It would be really simple, actually.  They would still be struck by AP batteries.  But they also would have a better chance of destroying certain systems, or even detonating external missiles.  Place charges?  Use mono-edged weapons to cut armor or power leads?  Disable sensors (causing negative modifiers to hit tolls)?

Rules: any infantry squad that moves into base contact (or adjacent) to an Ogre may during its movement phase 'board' the Ogre.
During the fire phase, any unit 'boarding' an Ogre may make a 1/1 odds attack against any weapon system still available to the Ogre (not currently destroyed).  X or XX hits only count, as per normal rules.
The Ogre may target 'boarded' enemy squads with any functioning AP batteries available as per normal rules.  'Boarded' infantry to not counted as or for overrun attacks.
'Boarded' infantry may dismount at anytime during their movement phase.
'Boarded' infantry may not attack Ogre treads while mounted.

Comments should be fixed....

As per your request, I have fixed the comments areas so that anyone (including anonymous folks) can leave comments.  Should help get some feed back.  Always looking for feedback.

OGRETHULHU is here! RUN!!!!!!

Oh this thing, this evil beast.  

I have a love/hate relationship with this monster.  First, its fun to play or try to kill.  Second, its everything scary about an Ogre taken right up to 11.  It has eye lazers, grasping claws, swallowing mouths, regeneration and you have to kill it twice!  I have only ever beaten it once, and that was with a shitload of cruise missiles.

Enjoy, and thanks to Henry Cobb (imma big fan)

OGRETHULU

Points: 300

Ogrethulhu behaves as a standard Mark-V ogre in all cases not

addressed below.

Ogrethulhu's Eye: Ogrethulhu has grown a huge eye on a tower stalk whose

attack is the same as a laser turret (Attack strength two, no spillover,

LLOS, doubled once to attack strength four in overruns, etc.) but with a

range of sixty inches (30 hexes) and a defense of 3.  This eye sits on top of a tower of defense strength 6.  Destroying the tower destroys the eye as well.  The

eye can be regrown without regrowing the tower first, but the eye's range

is only 20 inches (10 hexes) whenever the tower is unavailable.

Ogrethulhu's Pods: Ogrethulhu has six pods of defense strength two

each on its flanks that have no direct attack but are used for

spawning and so help with regeneration.

Ogrethulhu's Claws: Ogrethulhu's two claws have an attack strength of

four, a range of eight inches and a defense strength of four each.  These

act exactly like main batteries except that they can attack at a longer

range and have special powers in overruns noted below.

Ogrethulhu's Tentacles: Ogrethulhu has Six tentacles growing from its

back.  Each has an attack strength of three, a range of six inches and

a defense of three.  These act exactly like secondary batteries except but with a longer range.

Ogrethulhu's Tongues: Ogrethulhu has twelve mouths along its sides from

which sticky tongues extend to gobble up infantry and other victims.  The

tongues work exactly like antipersonnel units and can only attack infantry

and D0 armor units but anything that is destroyed by a pure tongue attack

is considered to be eaten.  Each tongue has an attack strength of one, a

range of two inches and a defense strength of one.  In addition tongues can

shoot down cruise missiles that come within their range with a base roll of

12 each.  (AP guns ought to have this same AA ability to help balance Ogres

vs missiles.)

Ogrethulhu's Legs: Sixty units that work exactly like tread units (20 leg

units per hex of movement or 10 leg units per inch of movement), except

that they work better in swamp than treads do.  Ogrethulhu moves at half

speed in swamp but it is never stuck and all non ram attacks against

Ogrethulhu's Legs are at half strength (round down) while it is in a

swamp. (It is "legs down" in the swamp.)

Ogrethulhu is very hard to hurt and even harder to kill.  Due to its

unearthly nature ordinary attacks are very difficult to target against

it.  Units that are in different hexes or more than one inch apart on the

battlefield cannot combine their fire into a single attack on Ogrethulhu

other than a Critical Hit, because somehow the angles of fire do not line

up.  In addition for every attack against Ogrethulhu subtract one from the

roll and consult the normal CRT.  (So on a one to one attack, you need to

roll a 6 on the die to destroy the targeted system.)  The only way to

actually kill Ogrethulhu is to reduce it to negative 60 leg units.

Yes, it can go down to (and recover from) negative leg units, but it cannot

move until it has regrown all of these negative leg / life units and at

least one normal leg unit.  Blowing a cruise missile up on top of

Ogrethulhu can do sufficient "leg" damage to kill it.  (Especially if it's

within the crater radius.)

Note that unlike the Ninja's stealth, Ogrethulhu's defense bonus even

works against infantry overruns and shockwave attacks.

While it is at negative leg units Ogrethulhu can still choose whether

to regenerate guns or legs, but once it reaches minus 60 leg units it

is dead despite whatever else it may have.  Note that it is possible

to ram Ogrethulhu to death and its defense bonus does not help it

against ram attacks.

If you are using the Critical Hit rules then Ogrethulhu's defense

bonus is doubled against critical hits, giving it a total modifier

against critical hits of minus three.  (But a successful critical hit

does kill it.)

During overruns Ogrethulhu may ram exactly as an Ogre Mark-V but it's

claws have a special ability.  Each overrun fire phase each

undestroyed Claw may either fire normally (at doubled strength for

being in an overrun) or grab any manned armor unit and eat it.

(Survivors do not understand why their buddies just drove up to be

grabbed by the claws and the Spawn aren't talking, or at least they

don't say anything in any known human language.)  All of Ogrethulhu's

weapons do have doubled attack strength in overruns and all of its

weapons work in underwater overruns, but only against submerged

targets and only at normal strength (being doubled then halved).

If you are using the Ogre ram rules instead of the GEV overrun rules

then Ogrethulhu eats without cost any armor unit it "rams" as long as

it has a functioning claw and any infantry squads reduced by

Ogrethulhu entering their hex are added to its gut.

Place those units consumed by a tongue attack (for infantry and D0

units) or claw grab (for armor in an overrun) off board in a area

called "Ogrethulhu's gut".

Whenever Ogrethulhu enters a town hex roll one die.  If the roll is

less than or equal to the total of Ogrethulhu's undestroyed tongue

units plus two for each undestroyed claw (so the total to roll against

starts at 16) Ogrethulhu instantly eats that town hex and reduces it

to rubble, before resolving any overrun.  In addition to placing a

rubble counter on the hex, place another one in Ogrethulhu's gut to

trade in later for spawn.  Note that Ogrethulhu can't help eating town

hexes as it is always hungry.  (In minis this effects a two inch by

two inch square of town terrain each time.)

Finally, Ogrethulhu regrows destroyed parts.  At the start of each of it's

turns Ogrethulhu may indicate one damaged component to attempt to

regenerate, roll one die and if the number rolled is greater than or equal

to the defense strength of the targeted item it is repaired.  For Example,

a pod is regrown on a roll of 2 to 6. If rolling to regrow leg / life

units, just roll one die and if the total is three or more Ogrethulhu

recovers the amount rolled minus two in leg units.  (So on a roll of 5 it

recovers 3 leg units and on a roll of 1 it regrows none.)  Ogrethulhu can

never recover more of any item than its original undamaged state.

Roll an additional regeneration die for each pod that is about to

generate spawn this turn.  (So if all six pods are about to hatch,

Ogrethulhu could conceivably regenerate seven times in a single turn.)

Also at the start of each turn after its regeneration roll, Ogrethulhu

may start growing a Spawn Squad in each pod that isn't currently

destroyed or already busy growing a spawn from the previous turn.

Trade in two squads of eaten infantry from its gut for each Spawn

Squad started.  One rubble counter from an eaten town hex or six points of

eaten armor units may be substituted for an eaten infantry squad.  Note

that a howitzer counter counts as 12 points and so can substitute for two

squads of eaten infantry.  The nutritional value of trucks and command

posts varies with their point value in scenarios.  The pod will then finish

growing the squad at the start of Ogrethulhu's next turn if that pod is not

destroyed in the meantime.  This Spawn Squad will start stacked with

Ogrethulhu but can move independently on the turn that it is placed.  So if

given enough chow, Ogrethulhu can spawn off 6 squads every other turn, if

none of the pods are damaged.

2 Claws (Attack 4, Range 8", Defense 4)

00

6 Tentacles (Attack 3, Range 6", Defense 3)

000000

6 Pods (Defense 2)

000000

Eye (Attack 2, Range 60", Defense 3)

0

Tower (Defense 6)

0

12 Antipersonnel Tongues (Attack 1, Range 2", Defense 1, against inf and D0

only)

0000 0000 0000

60 Leg Units: Move starts at 6"

00000 00000 (Movement drops to 5")

00000 00000 (Movement drops to 4")

00000 00000 (Movement drops to 3")

00000 00000 (Movement drops to 2")

00000 00000 (Movement drops to 1")

00000 00000 (Movement drops to 0)

60 Negative Leg / Life units (After removing all Leg units above.)

00000 00000 00000 00000

00000 00000 00000 00000

00000 00000 00000 00000 (Ogrethulhu dies)

Spawn Squad, Attack: 1, Range: 2", Defense: 1, Move: 6".

Note that spawn do not combine into larger units than squads.

Like Ogrethulhu subtract one from the die when attacking spawn.  D or

X results remove a spawn squad and they take spillover fire normally.

For example a GEV fires on a hex with three spawn in it.  The first spawn

takes a normal 2-1 attack and is killed on a roll of 3 or higher.  The

other two spawn take 1-1 spillover attacks and are killed on a roll of 6

each.

Otherwise spawn are treated as ordinary marine infantry (something

aquatic about all those tentacles...) and have doubled attack strength

in overrun and are subject to AP fire, etc.

Optional Rule: Heavy Weapons Spawn.  At the cost of twice as much chow as

usual, Ogrethulhu may generate Heavy Weapons Spawn as the same rate as

normal spawn.  Heavy Weapons Spawn have the same attributes as normal spawn

except that each squad of Heavy Weapons Spawn gets a single attack 3 range

8" non-overrun attack.  Each squad of Heavy Weapons Spawn that contributes

to an overrun attack that destroys a missile tank or howitzer gets to rearm

its missile attack from the destroyed vehicle.

--

Henry J. Cobb

http://www.io.com/~hcobb/

Infantry transport: really?

In actual warfare, the lowly Infantry trooper will hitch a ride aboard anything that will carry him.  They will ride behind tank turrets, cling to door mirrors, ride atop shipping containers, etc.  In Ogre terms, this should mean that any armor vehicle (medium tank, missile tank, mobile howitzer, heavy tank, etc) may carry 1 squad (up to 3 guys) of armored troops.  They may mount or dismount during the movement phase as their only movement.  While being transported, if the unit carrying them is destroyed, the troops are as well.  The troopers may not fire while mounted.

sound fair?

Addendum: it has been brought to my attention, and rightly so, that 3 guys is actually 3 squads.  My confusion came from the counter of a strength three infantry, being three single squads stacked together.  Each armored vehicle should be able to transport only 1 squad at a time.

PS: thanks Aramis for the heads up!

Counters VS Miniatures: a rant

Yes, I am going to rant for a moment.  It's my blog, and I'll rant when I want to.

When I first started playing Ogre, it was a 3rd edition set.  It had hex maps and stuff.  And it was good.  Turns out, that if I wanted some varying terrain, that fold out Battletech maps worked wonders.  And counters, whoo i love counters.  Did you wear one out?  Print a new one!  Want to make your own units?  Fire up MS Paint!  Want to play with a friend, but he can't afford $100 for the new box set?  Find an old Battletech map and print him some counters damnit!

Now dont get me wrong, the miniatures were good.  Damn good.  When you could get em.  When they were in production.  When you had $50 and nothing better to blow it on.

Evil Steve should go back to making cut counters with fold up maps in pocket cases for $15 bucks a wack.  He would outsell his entire munchkin line overnight.  He could sell Ogre at Walmart and Target, rather than the Munchkin base set.

But hey, what do I know?

Last of the red hot Coelacanths

This is from an old scenario available on Steve Jackson's Ogre website, about a specialty Ogre that was equipped with hover units rather than regular treads.  A GEV-Ogre unit if you will.  Its loads of fun to play and scares the hell out of your opponent.  My buddy loves this thing, and used it on me the other day (I went all GEV on him.  It did not go as well as I had hoped).

The "Coelacanth" Hovertank.
(Mark VI-size stealth/ground effect cybertank):

2 cruise missiles (special/infinite; D3)         O O
2 missile racks (D4)                                  O O
20 internal missiles (6/5)       O O O O O  O O O O O
                                           O O O O O  O O O O O
3 main batteries (4/3; D4)          O O O
8 tertiary batteries (3/2; D2)      O O O O  O O O O
12 antipersonnel (1/1; D1)        O O O O O O
                                            O O O O O O
60 propulsion units starting at 4/3 MA.
(The progression goes like this: 4/3, 3/2, 2/1, 1/0)

Special Rules for the Coelacanth.
Ground Effect Cybertank: The Coelacanth moves at 4/3 and is treated like a GEV for terrain effects. Its propulsion units are treated exactly like Ogre tread units, except that they are automatically targeted at 2-1 odds and takes 2x damage from rams, attacks, etc. When ramming, it is treated like a Mark VI.

Stealth Equipment: All attacks directed at this Ogre except infantry overruns are at -1 to their die rolls.

Tertiary batteries: An experimental smaller and less-armored version of the secondary battery. Worth 3 VP each when destroyed.

Victory Points: All destroyed components of this Ogre are worth 6.6 x their normal VP. For instance, a tertiary battery, when destroyed, is worth 19.9 VP. (A cruise missile is worth 12 VP X 6.6 whether fired or destroyed.) If the Coelacanth is destroyed completely, the opposing side gets an additional 257.4 VP for the cybertank body.

Page is up!

Ah, the first blog is in and the page is up.  Have tons more stuff to add, articles, variant units, short stories, the list goes on.  Better get started then.