Sunday, October 12, 2008

Big GEV Scenario, still in experimental stages...

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to pull out all my Steve Jackson Games OGRE/GEV stuff. I've got just about every expansion that was printed and re-released for the 1977 classic Ogre... I've got the second edition Ogre Book, Reinforcements, Shockwave, and Battlefields along with re-release that combines Ogre and GEV into one box. Lots of pieces and maps. So having lots of pieces, being very intimately familiar with the game mechanics, and having my boys napping to get time enough to be bored, I designed a Scenario. Its pretty hefty too, but needs some play testing to ensure balance as of yet, so I'm working on that. Its similar to a game my Dad and I played back in 2006 when they visited.

Here it goes:

For months the ceasefire between the Combine and Paneurope deteriorated and as tensions and border incidents along the DMZ increased, so did the forces stationed along the DMZ. In once province in central Europe, the provincial capital was right along the DMZ, and therefore its only defense was the local Politzi. Paneuropean Forces however set up in the area set to defend, or re-take the capital, when the Combine Forces came north after them. Paneuropean forces along the DMZ in accordance with the treaty were two reinforced battalions of just infantry. In response to increased tensions (no surprise here, it is the Last War after all...) Paneuropean commanders stationed two field artillery batteries, on heavy armor company, on light scout squadron, and two mechanized infantry companies. The Politzi were told just to hold the line, and if need be, get out of the way if it looked like the cities and towns would fall to the Combine, the Capital Politzi Chief just shook his head in disgust knowing his men would never abandon they're homes without a fight.

Setup:
Uses three maps in the following order west to east: S-3, GEV, S-2

Paneuropean Forces:
All militia counters in the Ogre Battlefields expansion will be used. Militia will not become 'un-ready' and will not be able to move... The politzi refuse to budge and will fight to the death! Capitol (GEV Map 2114 area, with main bridge along river) must have at least 15 strength points of Militia counters setup on it. Suburb of the Capitol on Map S-3 0715 must have 5 strength points of militia set up on it, all other towns can only have a max of 3 strength points, and no less than 1. This should force the attackers to move with caution in the event of over-run attacks... After all, militia defense is tripled in town hexes, and in over run, they get the same bonus as infantry...

DMZ authorized force of two re-enforced infantry battalions:
72 Strength Points of Infantry set up along or north of the line drawn from S-3 hex 0112- S-2 2312 (should be a map fold to be a good guide...). All other forces set up north of this line also
Quick Reaction Force, two Mechanized Infantry Companies
2 forces of 3 GEV-PCs with 3 Strength Points of Infantry on board each GEV-PC (each GEV-PC carries a platoon of infantry, or three squads)
Artillery Batteries (batteries are somewhere between three or four tubes in the real world...)
1 battery of three Howitzers
1 battery of three Mobile Howitzers
Heavy Armor Company
6 Heavy Tanks (one platoon, three vehicles, kinda following the Israeli concept of tank platoon here)
3 Missile Tanks
Light Armor Company
6 GEV
6 Lt. Tanks

Combine Force:
Starts off board, may bring in elements as he sees fit... At least with this draft!
36 Armor Units for the main force with
one Mechanized Infantry Battalion
9 GEV-PCs with 3 SP of Infantry on each GEV-PC

So thats the setup thus far. Needs play tested with other human players to determine the balance and deal with those issues.

So far, I just started about three turns of solo play with the following force:
6 Super Heavy Tanks (about two companies)
12 Heavy Tanks (about one Tank Battalion)
12 GEVs (Battalion)
6 LGEVs along with 6 Lt. Tanks to make a Light Scout Squadron along with the Mechanized Infantry Battalion above.

I kept the attacks against the militia forces at range, and still had trouble with wiping them out if I didn't combine attacks. Towns are great defensive positions! Still, I didn't get very far, and still haven't determined what the final objective should be. Should the Combine player just seek to penetrate the Paneuropean line? Should the Combine player first take the capital and hold out against a Paneuropean counter attack? These and more to be decided later! Especially after some human play tests!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Map Symbology, Real symbology for use in Wargaming

Wiki APP-6A, US and NATO map symbols.

Handy for making board game counters! Use a scalable vector graphics program! I recommend Inkscape. I'll go ahead and post some more as time moves on and I get to work on some.