Eye of the Warp

Epic Ogre:
Heavy Metal Cybernetic Warfare

by Kenneth Peters

 

History

The Dark Age of Technology gave rise to many wonders. Mankind reached the stars and developed technologies that allowed him to reshape the face of entire star systems. But it was not always a time of peace and discovery. For on the periphery of human expansion war flared between human and alien. What would later be called the ‘Alien Wars’ embroiled much of the fledgling human empire and saw mankind turn his newfound scientific and technological ability again to the art of war.

The mighty Titans were one such product of these developments, and they saw action throughout human space. But it was the breakthrough developments in neural net artificial intelligence’s that led to the most feared weapons of that era. Encased first in modified tanks then into multi-ton monster vehicles – these soulless cybernetic killers became the most feared weapon on the battlefield.

Although officially known as Autonomous Cybernetic Armored Vehicles, in common usage they were referred to from a name drawn from the darkest tales of Earth’s past. They were called Ogres…


Initiative

Each Ogre is treated as an individual, and they make a separate Initiative roll from the rest of the player’s forces. They receive a +1 bonus for this purpose. If there are multiple Ogres, each Ogre rolls separately, ties are rerolled.

 

Orders

Due their robotic nature and construction, Ogres do not require orders as such. They may always move at maximum rate and fire in the first fire segment.

 

Morale

Ogres are robots and are not programmed to feel fear. They never take morale checks for ANY reason.


Ogre Weapons

An Ogre has a number of different weapon systems, each with its own particular capabilities. The Ogre’s record sheet will show the particular combination of weapons each Ogre has. In general, the bigger the Ogre, the more weapons it starts with.

Indirect Fire
All Ogre weapons with the exception of the AP batteries may be fire indirectly if there is a spotter available or the Ogres conning tower has a LOS.

 

Main Battery

An Ogre main battery is a large railgun. It fires tactical nuclear warheads usually referred to as ‘tacnukes’.

 

Tacnukes

A near miss by a tactical nuclear weapon is almost as dangerous as a direct hit. To represent the tactical nuclear warheads fired by vehicles in the Ogre universe a barrage template is used to determine the exact area of a particular attack’s effect.

Using the Templates

Each attack using the template is divided into two areas. The impact point – or strike zone – receives the full strength of the attack. Any other targets under the template are hit with spillover fire. For rules purposes the impact point of a tacnuke is assumed to be a 1cm diameter area at the templates center. Generally speaking only if a target is directly at the templates center it is hit with spillover and not a full strength attack.

For each attack, each unit beneath the template receives either a full strength attack or spillover fire – never both.

 

Spillover Fire

Units in the spillover zone suffer a half-strength attack. This means that half as many attack dice are rolled and the target save modifiers are halved. All results are rounded down to a minimum of one (1) attack die and/or 0 TSM.

Units defend against spillover fire as for a normal attack, except that units without a save receive a 6+ save if in some sort of cover.

Buildings ignore spillover fire unless the attack was aimed at a unit that is actually in or on the structure. In that case, the building is affected as if it were the target (full strength attack).

 

Friendly Fire Isn't

Friendly units can be affected by spillover fire if they are close enough. This is resolved as for a normal attack.

 

Secondary Battery

Ogre secondary batteries are similar in nature to the main batteries, but slightly less powerful and more lightly armored.

 

Missiles

Each Ogre missile is a one-use weapon. Once a missile is fired it is gone. The missile saving throw only applies if the missile is still being carried by the Ogre. If a missile is destroyed before it is fired, the Ogre cannot use it in an attack obviously. Individual missiles carried by an Ogre are fired and targeted separately.

Some Ogres mount their missiles externally, and can fire any number of their remaining missiles each turn. Thus, an undamaged Mark V can fire up to six missiles in a single turn.

Other cybertanks, such as the Fencer, carry their missiles internally, and require missile racks (see below) to launch their attacks. If a unit has missile racks, its missiles cannot be targeted separately.

 

Missile Rack

The missile rack is a specialized system for firing Ogre missiles. Each missile rack may fire one missile per turn. Therefore, an undamaged Ogre Mark IV, with three missile racks, can fire the missiles each turn. The missiles for this system are stored in bays within the Ogre itself and can only be fired through the missile racks. Missiles stored within an Ogre cannot be destroyed. If all of an Ogre’s missile racks are destroyed, it may no longer fire any missiles remaining in its storage bays. The destruction of a missile rack destroys one missile at the same time.

 

Antipersonnel Batteries

The AP batteries are only truly effective against thin-skinned targets, such as unarmored command posts, civilian buildings, transport vehicles…and, of course, infantry.

A unit that mounts multiple AP batteries may not shoot them off one at a time, for a long series of attacks against the same target. Each unit must declare all AP fire at the same time against any number of given targets.


Movement

Terrain Modifiers

Ogres are able to cross terrain most armored vehicles would not even have a chance of moving over. This includes under water, through swamps, and over broken terrain on a nuclear battlefield.

TERRAIN CHART

Terrain Type

Ogres

To Hit Modifier

Woods / Forest

Normal

-1

Craters, rough ground and other difficult terrain

Normal

-1

Buildings

Impassable

-2

Razor wire / Fences / Trenches

Normal

0

Under Water

Special*

-3

*While an Ogre cannot float, it can crawl along the bottom of any body of water at half movement. A submerged Ogre may not attack, not even other submerged units. It may only be attacked by other tacnuke weapons and artillery.


Tread Units

Tread units represent the current status of the Ogre’s treads and motors. A "tread unit" is not a physical item of any kind – it is a unit of measure. When all of an Ogre’s tread units are gone, the Ogre may well have some treads and motors left…but not enough to move it! In some cases ‘tread units’ may not be treads at all but hovercraft units or even vectored thrust units! Though these are very rare.

Damaging Tread Units

Attacks may be directed at an Ogre’s treads to destroy tread units. Every successful ‘kill’ on a tread unit destroys one tread unit.

The Ogre does not expend tread units simply by moving. It does lose tread units when it rams enemy units or suffers falling damage. Most ogres start with a move of 20cm. When its tread units are reduced by 1/6 their original number, the Ogre’s move is reduced by an equivalent percentage. With each subsequent destruction of 1/6 of the original tread units, another block of movement is lost, gradually slowing the Ogre down.

The Ogre Mark IV, Ninja and a few relatively rare units are faster then most Ogres. Each such unit starts with a movement value of 30cm, which is reduced for the loss of every 1/8 of its original tread units.

When all of an Ogre’s tread units have been destroyed, the Ogre may no longer move. The Ogre can still fire at any target within range of its remaining weapons.


Targeting

Ogres are unique battlefield units and this is represented by the way in which they are targeted and damaged.

 

Hit Locations

Each Ogre is divided up into multiple hit locations, representing different sections on the cybertank. When fired upon the enemy must nominate one of these sections to be his target.

 

Template Weapons

Weapons with a template may not attack an specific area on the Ogre, instead they are placed on the Ogre model itself and hit any item under the template. Some weapons are handled a bit differently however.

Barrage Weapons
Standard explosive rounds are not very effective against the armored bulk of an Ogre. To represent this all BP totals from barrage weapons are halved for the purposes of determining if the strikes hit

 

Doomweaver Templates
Ogres are unaffected by Doomweaver templates in any way.

 

Vortex Missiles
A vortex template or missile hits D4 areas on the Ogre. The Ogres player may choose which areas are actually hit. Each hit allocated to the track units result in the loss of D6 tread units.

 

Stasis Fields
Ogres are too large to be affected by Stasis fields.

 

Tacnuke Template
Tacnukes only affect one target on the Ogre and are declared in the same manner as any other direct fire weapon.

 

Psychic Attacks

Only physical psychic attacks can affect an Ogre. It has no crew thus attacks such as Mental Blast have no effect.

 

Other Weapon Notes

Harpoon
The harpoon has no effect on an Ogre.


Hit Charts

Ogres do not use hit charts as such, instead they use a Ogre Record Sheet. Unless specified otherwise by a particular scenario, this sheet is not a secret – any player may see the current status of the Ogre.

 

BPC Armour

All Ogres are armored with BPC: biphased carbide armor. Formed of artificial diamond fibers in a carbon matrix, a thick enough layer of BPC can resist even an atomic explosion – and Ogres carry meters of BPC plating.

All Ogres roll 2D6 for all saving throws instead of the usual 1 die. This represents the incredible strength and durability of the armor.

In addition only weapons with a TSM of at least –1 have any chance of affecting an BPC armored unit.

 

Tracks Down

In any terrain or situations where an Ogre gets a defensive bonus from terrain it counts as "tracks down" even if the attacker can "see" its chassis and target it normally.

While "tracks down" the Ogre's track units count as having a saving throw of 2+ on 2d6.

 

Damage

Ogres are incredibly resilient, able to continue on despite massive damage. Like unstoppable mechanized juggernauts of destruction they rumble across the future battlefields.

 

SAVING THROW (2D6)

Component

Save

Sensor Tower

2+

Tracks

6+

Main Batteries

2+

Secondary Batteries

3+

Antipersonnel Batteries

5+

Missiles

3+

Missile Racks

2+

 

Disabled Components

With the exception of track units and missiles, an Ogre component may not actually be destroyed if it fails its save. Instead it may be disabled for a short time before the repair systems and backups kick in. To check to see if a component is disabled roll on the Disabled Vehicle chart, with the same modifiers.

If a disabled component is disabled again, it is destroyed.


Firing

Line of Sight

Some Ogres posses a ‘conning tower’, which is in actuality a complex system of sensors mounted on a mast for better line of sight.

The Ogre may trace line of sight from the top of its sensor tower if it is still operational and fire all of its weapons normally (even if totally behind cover).

Enemies may still fire at the sensor tower but it does receive terrain bonuses for whatever cover the Ogre is behind.

 

Anti-Aircraft

The Ogres incredible reaction speeds and advanced targeting systems allow it to fire at flyers in the same manner as anti-aircraft weapons. Only AP batteries may not be used in this role. There is no penalty to hit or range reduction for the Ogre when its weapons are used in this way. Weapons fired in the flyer phase may not be fired again later in the turn.

 

Snap Fire

If the Ogre player wishes it may ‘snap-fire’ any or all of its weapons during its opponents movement phase in the same manner as any weapon on first fire orders. There is no penalty to hit associated with this. Weapons that snap fire may not be fired again in the turn.

 

WEAPON DATA CHART

WEAPONS

RANGE

ATTACK DICE

ROLL TO HIT

TSM

NOTES
Main Batteries

150 cm

1(T2)

2+

-6

Tacnuke
Secondary Batteries

120 cm

1(T1)

3+

-4

Tacnuke
Antipersonnel Batteries

60 cm

1

4+

-1

Ogre Missile

250cm

8 BP

3+

-3

12 cm Template

Close Combat

Ogres are terrible to behold in close combat. Guns blazing, they usually just roll right over enemy units without slowing down, crushing tanks under their treads and scything down infantry with point blank shots from their AP batteries.

 

Swarming

Due to their massive bulk and massive armaments (not to mention their almost invulnerable BPC plating) Ogres never count as being outnumbered in Close Combat.

 

Losing a Combat Round

If the Ogre loses a round of close combat the attacker may destroy a component of his choice or knock out D6 tread units.

 

Pinning

Ogres may only be pinned by Titan or Praetorian class units.

 

Hiding Behind Ogres

Ogres are so large that they may actually block line of sight! To represent this even a large Ogre may be hid behind (as detailed in the Hiding Behind Hulks rule) even if it is still active. In fact you can even hide behind enemy Ogres, though that is usually not the safest course of action…


Ogre Mark III

The first really successful front-line unit, the Mark III became a mainstay of both Federation and Combine forces. It has 1 main battery, 4 secondary batteries, and 8 anti-personnel batteries. It also carries two large missiles in exterior launching tubes. It starts the game with 48 tread units.

 

Ogre Points: 100
CAF: +14
Size: 7

Sensor Tower
O O
2 Missiles (External)
O O
1 Main Battery
O
4 Secondary Batteries
O O O O
8 Antipersonnel Batteries
O O O O O O O O

48 Tread Units
Movement starts at 15cm
O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 13)
O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 10)
O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 8)
O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 4)
O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 2)
O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 0)


Ogre Mark V

Larger and more formidable than any of its predecessors, the Mark V is outfitted with 2 main batteries, 6 secondary batteries, 6 missiles, and 12 AP batteries. It starts the game with 60 tread units.

 

Ogre Points: 150
CAF: +16
Size: 8

Sensor Tower
O O O
6 Missiles (External)
O O O O O O
2 Main Battery
O O
6 Secondary Batteries
O O O O O O
12 Antipersonnel Batteries
O O O O O O O O O O O O

60 Tread Units
Movement starts at 15cm
O O O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 10)
O O O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 8)
O O O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 6)
O O O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 4)
O O O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 2)
O O O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 0)


Ogre Fencer

The Fencer had nothing comparable to an Ogre main gun. Instead it carried two "secondary" batteries and 8 anti-personnel batteries. Its main armament consisted of its four missile racks. It carried 20 missiles in its internal storage bay. The Fencer starts the game with 48 tread units.

 

Ogre Points: 140
CAF: +16
Size: 8

4 Missiles Racks
O O O O
20 Missiles (Internal)
O O O O O O O O O O
O O O O O O O O O O
2 Secondary Batteries
O O
8 Antipersonnel Batteries
O O O O O O O O


48 Tread Units
Movement starts at 15cm
O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 13)
O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 10)
O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 8)
O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 4)
O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 2)
O O O O O O O O (Movement drops to 0)