Japanese Oni's

[DSumner]

While this is loosely related to this top, have any of you seen the Old Crow cargo ship miniatures? I think they would work out perfectly for an Ogre Transport. And while I'm thinking about it, would any of the various powers design a new type of vessel specifically to transport Ogres? Say a LSC, Landing Ship, Cybertank.

[Tickled to Death]

Originally Posted by DSumner

While this is loosely related to this top, have any of you seen the Old Crow cargo ship miniatures? I think they would work out perfectly for an Ogre Transport.

Old Crow stuff is very nice (sculpting and casting). Not sure they would work on the same table as an OGRE though (OM mode on!). WIll have to check their dimensions.

[Tickled to Death]

Having checked on the Old Crow website certainly stuff like C6617 and C6620 are long enough to hold an OGRE, and probably wide enough too, but they don't look futuristic enough for me, and the landing craft are probably too short to fit an OGRE in (although I do like the look of the C6609 Hover Landing Craft).

Probably the best fit for OGREverse stuff would be to add an OGRE tower to some of the catamaran designs to make cyberships.

[dirtysnowball]

There's a description in Ogre Miniatures of supertankers being used to move Ogres, but I don't think Ogres are actually big enough to need such a massive transport. Up to Mark IV at least they'd fit inside the 134m x 15m well deck of an early 21st century Landing Ship Dock. As long as you take the helicopter deck off to make some headroom.
I think some sort of LSC would be essential for anyone planning to make an amphibious assault with Ogres, but the complication would be that you'd really prefer to deploy your cybertanks safely over the horizon from hostile territory and have them drive ashore. That's how it always seems to work in the background fluff and scenarios like Icepick. Maybe you could sling an Ogre between the two hulls of a catamaran ship and just drop it into the ocean with drogues attached to keep it upright as it sinks to the seafloor.

The PanPac website also has a nice photoshopped image of an Ogre being carried semi-externally on what you'd assume is a specialised transport submarine, and this looks quite credible to for situations where deploying Ogres more stealthily is important. Because it looks so cool we'll ignore how noisy and unstealthy this arrangement would be because of flow noise over the unstreamlined Ogre :-) If it was to spend an extended time submerged the Ogre might need to be specially sealed up.

[DSumner]

Originally Posted by Tickled to Death

Having checked on the Old Crow website certainly stuff like C6617 and C6620 are long enough to hold an OGRE, and probably wide enough too, but they don't look futuristic enough for me, and the landing craft are probably too short to fit an OGRE in (although I do like the look of the C6609 Hover Landing Craft).

Probably the best fit for OGREverse stuff would be to add an OGRE tower to some of the catamaran designs to make cyberships.

I've got no problem with the look of the transports, and some of the smaller hovercraft, hydrofoils (I need to repost my Hydrofoil rules) and catamarans look very nice. Long ago, I posted rules for a fast catamaran type transports, and the Old Crow stuff would fit the bill (and are pretty close to what I picture them looking like). I could see Nihon Naval Infantry using them to make an Oni supported amphibious landing.

[DSumner]

Originally Posted by dirtysnowball

There's a description in Ogre Miniatures of supertankers being used to move Ogres

That's the reason I thought of using the Old Crow minis.

Originally Posted by dirtysnowball

I don't think Ogres are actually big enough to need such a massive transport. Up to Mark IV at least they'd fit inside the 134m x 15m well deck of an early 21st century Landing Ship Dock. As long as you take the helicopter deck off to make some headroom.

Hence my question about a specially designed Ogre transport ship. I'm thinking it would basically be a modified version of a standard amphibious transport vessel.

Originally Posted by dirtysnowball

I think some sort of LSC would be essential for anyone planning to make an amphibious assault with Ogres, but the complication would be that you'd really prefer to deploy your cybertanks safely over the horizon from hostile territory and have them drive ashore. That's how it always seems to work in the background fluff and scenarios like Icepick. Maybe you could sling an Ogre between the two hulls of a catamaran ship and just drop it into the ocean with drogues attached to keep it upright as it sinks to the seafloor.

Actaully I'm thinking the ycould just roll right out the rear of the ship's deck well. The amphibious transport would sit just over the radar horizon, blast the coastline with cruise missiles (taking out any long range lasers in the process), and launch it its Ogres. Once they'd "softened" up the target, Marines, and GEV's would sweep in behind them.

[Tickled to Death]

Originally Posted by dirtysnowball

There's a description in Ogre Miniatures of supertankers being used to move Ogres

That's true. The Old Crow minis still look a little 'dated' to my mind though.

[dirtysnowball]

Originally Posted by DSumner

Actaully I'm thinking the ycould just roll right out the rear of the ship's deck well.

I thought of this (or overthought this), but the ship would have serious stability issues as thousands of tonnes of Ogre rolled back and then dropped off the stern. Easier to have the Ogre stay at the ship's centre of mass all the time. A less traditionally configured ship would also be better able to recover an Ogre from the seabed with winches (hopefully not something to try in combat).

[dungeonmasterjax]

Originally Posted by Glenn Jupp

Road bonus, perhaps?

Problem there is that even with all those treads to distribute weight out and lower the Ogres #/'2, your talking a lot of weight. Most roads and bridges just won't support them.
Hitler ran into this problem with the King Tiger, Ferdinand (Elefant) and proposed Maus, the bridges just weren't strong enough, and the tanks were limited in the area they could hunt in, unless they found a firm riverbed shallow enough to ford.
Makes an intersting angle to the bridge issue. Will post on that thread as well.

David Drake.

[piningforthefjords]

CP Gamma (aside from being a great Ogre fan site) has pics of Old Crow minis here.