Saturday, December 27, 2014

Siege of Monopolis scenario

Here's the OGRE scenario that I ran at Millenniumcon in 2014, cleaned up for your gaming pleasure.  Siege of Monopolis uses Ogre minis, the Designer's Edition rules, a big hex mat from Corsec Engineering, and scratchbuilt terrain from model railroad/diorama supplies and parts from various editions of Monopoly games.  Note there are some special rules that deviate from the standard Ogre DE rulebook.
{I have included designer's notes in bracketed italics.}
INTRODUCTION

The peaceful City of Monopolis rises above the rubble of the Last War, a gleaming center of commerce and industry. But no peace lasts forever. Now invaders march to conquer the city while outnumbered defenders scramble to protect their home.  Join the Siege of Monopolis!

SPECIAL RULES
  • COMBINING FIRE: Units may not combine fire unless all the firing units are within a single hex of one another or the target is within the targeting range of a functioning command post.
    {This gives players a reason to destroy the other person's CP and protect their own.}
  • COMMAND POST: Allows other units to combine fire against a target within the targeting range of the CP.
    • MOBILE CP: D1, M2, targeting range 10 hexes.
      {I had a cool mini I wanted to use.}
    • STATIONARY CP: D2, M0, targeting range anywhere on the map. No terrain bonus. 
  • CRUISE MISSILE: The detonation automatically destroys all Town or Forest within three hexes and damages all Town or Forest four hexes away. It destroys or damages units according to the standard rules.
    {It slows down a game to roll to see whether hexes on the edge of a cruise missile blast are destroyed, so I just changed it to damaged--and besides, I like showing off the terrain I made. I shrunk the blast radius for the same reason, and because with four-inch hexes, my map doesn't cover as much territory as the Ogre DE maps.]
  • HIDDEN INFANTRY: A player may designate some or all infantry units as hidden infantry. They are not placed on the map during setup. Instead, hidden infantry deploy as follows:
    • On any turn, at the start of the defender’s fire phase, the defender rolls a d6 for each unit to be placed. On a roll of 4+, that unit may be placed in any Forest, Rubble, Swamp, or Town hex unoccupied by enemy units. 
    • Multiple hidden infantry units may be placed in the same hex as long as the rolls are successful.
    • Once a roll fails, the defender may not attempt to place any more hidden infantry until the next turn. 
    • Hidden infantry fire normally on the turn they are placed, and move and fire normally after that.
      {I like fog of war, but I wanted to reduce recordkeeping such as writing down which hex your infantry are hiding in (and my map doesn't have numbered hexes). This is a good way to have concealed units while cutting down on paperwork.}
  • LASER TOWER: D4. No terrain bonus. Otherwise uses standard rules.
    {Using a defense factor instead of Structure Points eliminates more recordkeeping and also gets rid of an exception to Ogre's combat resolution system, meaning one less rule for convention goers who may be new to the game, to worry about. Besides, it's fun to see what the attackers do after they've disabled, but not destroyed, the laser.}
  • MINEFIELD:  Covers one hex until cleared.  On-road: Automatically destroys a vehicle or infantry squad or d6 Ogre treads and blocks the road. Off-road: Destroys a vehicle on roll of 6 or d6 Ogre treads on 5-6; slows infantry to M1. If they don’t move or fire, three squads of infantry can clear a mined hex in three turns, six squads in two turns, and nine squads in one turn.
    {Again, less recordkeeping and no need for special units in a convention game. Each minefield is represented on the map by three tokens per hex, remove them as above to indicate progress in clearing the minefield.}
  • SKYSCRAPERS: Town hexes with BPC-reinforced skyscrapers have D8 and treat a cruise missile detonation as if it were one hex further away.  Other than that, they use the same rules as regular Town hexes.
    {I just think the skyscrapers should be a little harder to turn to rubble. And yeah, I like how they look on the tabletop.}
 
FORCES
  • ATTACKER
    • COMMAND GROUP (player 1)
       Mobile CP
       Cruise Missile Crawler x 2
       Mk V Ogre
      {I gave the attackers nukes to see if they would ever use them.  Every time I ran the siege, the attackers used their nukes!}
    • PANZER COMPANY (player 2)
       Light tank x 2
       Heavy tank x 7
       Superheavy tank x 2
    • ROCKET SECTION (player 3)
       Missile Tank x 6
       Mobile Howitzer x 3
    • LUFTPANZER COMPANY (player 4)
       LGEV x 6
       GEV x 8
    • INFANTRY BATTALION (player 5)
       GEV-PC (w/3 Infantry squads each) x 6
       Infantry Platoon (3 Infantry squads each) x 8
       Heavy Weapons Squad (1 infantry squad each) x 4
  • DEFENDER
    • HEADQUARTERS SECTION (player 1)
       CP
       Laser tower x 1
       Minefields x 4
       Mk V Ogre
      {This was a Mark III in the convention game, but I upgraded it here because the defense needs the extra help.}
    • ARMOR TEAM WITH ARTILLERY (player 2)
       Heavy tank x 5
       Superheavy tank x 1
       Missile Tank x 3
       Howitzer x 2
       Light Artillery Drone (w/hovertruck) x 1
    • COMBINED ARMS BATTALION (player 3)
       LGEV x 4
       GEV x 9
       GEV-PC (w/3 Infantry squads each) x 4
       Infantry Platoon (3 Infantry squads each) x 6
SETUP
  • DEFENDER sets up first on the eastern half of the map except for the following:
    • MINEFIELDS: The defender places minefields in six hexes anywhere on the map.
    • COMBINED ARMS BATTALION: These units enter from the eastern map edge on any turn desired by the defender.
    • HIDDEN INFANTRY: The defender may designate some or all infantry units as hidden infantry. 
  • ATTACKER sets up last, up to five hexes in from the west side of the map.  The attacker does not have to bring on all units on the first turn; they may enter on any turn. Units entering on a road get the road movement bonus.
DEFENDER'S ORDERS
  1. Preserve your forces.
  2. Defend the city at all costs.
  3. Keep the attacker from occupying skyscraper hexes.
  4. Keep your Ogre alive; it is needed for the war effort.
  5. Destroy the enemy Ogre to thwart their war effort. 
  6. Keep the road open to the west.
ATTACKER'S ORDERS
  1. Preserve your forces.
  2. Capture the city at all costs.
  3. Keep the attacker from occupying skyscraper hexes.
  4. Keep your Ogre alive; it is needed for the war effort.
  5. Liberate the prison (have one platoon of infantry spend one turn in that hex without moving or shooting).
  6. Destroy power plants (target the hexes containing them directly or through spillover fire).
  7. Occupy the House of Government (have at least one vehicle or infantry in that hex until the end of the battle).
  8. Keep industrial areas intact; do not allow them to become damaged.
 {I didn't keep track of victory points or have any conditions for one side or the other to accomplish. Instead, like in most battles, each side has a number of orders, some of which contradict each other.  I wanted to throw these orders out there and see what the players did with them.}

3 comments:

 Ashley said...

The only thing that I find contradictory is the at all costs that is added to some of the conditions. It's really not compatible with conserve ones forces. Nice looking game and you've inspired me to explore this route – Corsec cloth.

I hope you had a good Xmas and Happy New Year.

Nobody667 said...

Really cool - the monopoly buildings look excellent for a city. The scenario is pretty well written, lots of contradicting orders make for an interesting game for both sides.

Just a suggestion, start with a couple of orders and then have some of them come in after a turn or two - the players will already have plans in motion, but may have to change on the fly. It may help with the feel of 'fog of war' for the players.

Desert Scribe said...

Nobody667, that's a great suggestion! Consider it borrowed for my next game.

Ashley, you're right; it's only the first two orders that directly contradict each other, but it is of course impossible to accomplish everything on the list. It's interesting to see how the players decide to prioritize.

Regarding the Corsec mat, it's nice, but with four-inch spaces, it has about the same number of hexes as the basic Ogre map, so you'll have to adjust your scenarios accordingly.