Continental Siege Aircraft
by Greg Costikyan
10.0 Introduction
"Continental Siege Aircraft" is a variant of Ogre adding bombers, fighters, anti-aircraft units, and the airborne equivalent of Ogres to the game.
11.0 Aircraft
11.01 This rules section deals with the rules common to all aircraft. The following three sections deal with the individual aircraft types, and the last deals with anti-aircraft units.
11.02 When the players choose to play one of the standard scenarios using air rules, bombers, fighters, and AA units are all considered to be armor for point purposes. The strengths of bombers and fighters are given below.
Bomber Fighter D3, M5 D4, M6 6/0 4/3
11.03 At the beginning of a game, all aircraft enter from an edge of the map. Which map edge an aircraft enters on is determined by the initial positions of the owning player's units. Thus, in a straightforward, defense vs. Ogre scenario, any aircraft would enter on the defender's map edge, and so on.
11.04 Aircraft move in a manner different from normal units. Firstly, aircraft are considered to face towards a single hex juncture (see illustration, below). [I have to scan this in. Basically, they face towards a hex's corner rather than edge.] A hex juncture is defined as the point at which two sides of a hex intersect. The "nose" of an aircraft counter must always be set pointing towards a single hex juncture.
11.041 When an aircraft moves, it must move into one of the two hexes to its front. The aircraft must determine which of the two hexes it will move into every time it moves a single hex. For instance, an aircraft starting in hex 0508 pointing towards the hex juncture formed by hexes 0507 and 0407 could move to either of those hexes (0507 or 0407). If, for instance, it moves to 0407, it could then move either to 0406 or 0307, and so forth. The players should note that this rule essentially means that an aircraft can move to any hex in a sixty-degree arc to its front.
11.042 At the end of an aircraft's movement, i.e., after it has expended all its movement points, it may change its facing by one hex juncture. That is to say, it may change its facing from one hex juncture to one of the two adjacent hex junctures. In the illustration below [argh], the aircraft could change its facing from C to either A or B – or, for that matter, leave it at C.
11.05 Aircraft may ignore terrain. They may freely move through crater hexes and rubble hexsides.
11.06 Aircraft may freely move through hexes containing other units and stack with other units. Note that this is an exception to rule 5.02, which states that no unit may end its movement in the same hex as any other unit. Aircraft may end their movement stacked with other aircraft, and/or with ground units.
11.07 All aircraft must move as many hexes as they are able. Thus, an aircraft with (for instance) five movement points must move five hexes. Unlike ground units, aircraft are forced to move their full movement allowance every turn.
11.071 Fighters are given a movement allowance of 6; however, a fighter may move either 5 or 6 hexes, at its owning player's option. This is an exception to 11.07.
11.08 The only ground-based units that can attack aircraft (aside from AA units) are Howitzers and Ogres.
11.081 An Ogre may attack aircraft with its missiles and with its primary batteries. Secondary batteries and antipersonnel weapons, however, are ineffective against aircraft.
11.082 Howitzers have their attack strength halved when attacking aircraft.
11.09 A "D" result prevents an aircraft from attacking or dropping bombs. It must still move normally in all ways.
11.10 If an aircraft leaves the map, keep track of its position and bring it back by the quickest route possible.
12.00 Bombers
12.01 Bombers are aircraft designed to deliver a load of explosives or tactical nukes to a specific target. They do not carry weaponry other than their bombs.
12.02 Each bomber is considered to carry three bombloads, and may therefore make only three attacks in a single game. After a bomber has made its three attacks, it becomes useless and is removed from the board.
12.03 Bombers release their bombloads whilst moving, not during the combat phase. A bomber may release a bombload in any hex that it moves through in the course of its movement. Any unit in the hex in which a bombload is dropped immediately undergoes an attack by the bombload, which is considered to have an attack strength of 6.
12.04 An aircraft may release as many of its bombloads in a single hex as its owning player desires. It may release bombloads in any patter at any time during its movement.
12.05 After a bomber releases a bombload, it may continue moving. Attacks by bombers are resolved in the movement phase, so an aircraft that has not expended all its movement points must continue to move after releasing a bombload.
12.06 Bombs are considered to have no effect on aircraft; they may only affect ground units.
12.07 Bombloads have their attack strength halved (to 3) when infantry units are bombed, because infantry tends to be more dispersed than armor.
12.08 Although when all other units are bombed, a bombload's attack strength is treated as a single unit, as is the fire of normal units (see Sec. 6.09), a bombload may split up its attack strength when attacking an Ogre.
12.081 A bombload's attack strength may be split into as many as six parts. The way in which a bombload's strength is split need not be into equal divisions – thus, a bombload's strength could be split into one attack at a strength of 4, and one of 2. Each of the parts of a divided bombload's attack may attack a different part of the Ogre. Example: A bombload's attack is split into one attack with a strength of 2, and four at 1. The 2 is used to obtain a 1-2 attack on the main battery. The four 1s are used to obtain 1-1 attacks on four succesive antipersonnel batteries.
12.082 Although a bombload's attack strength may be divided, a single weapon system of an Ogre may only undergo one attack from a bombload. Thus, a bombload's strength could not be divided so that, for instance, one weapon system underwent three 1-1 attacks. If any single weapons system of an Ogre is attacked, the attack strength points devoted to attacking that weapon system are totalled in a single attack.
13.0 Fighters
13.01 Fighters are aircraft designed to intercept bombers, and to protect bombers from intercepting fighters. As well, they are capable of strafing ground units.
13.02 Unlike bombers, fighters make attacks in the normal manner. They do not carry bombloads, but simply attack enemy units. However, a fighter may only attack enemy units in its forward arc (see illustration). A fighter's forward arc is all those hexes that a fighter could move into if it were moving; i.e., a fighter's forward arc is bounded by the two hex rows that can be traced from the two hexes in front of a fighter.
13.021 A fighter's forward arc does include the hex it is in; thus, a fighter may attack aircraft in its hex.
13.03 Fighters may attack either aircraft or ground units. However, a fighter's attack strength is halved when it attacks a ground unit.
14.0 Flying Fortresses
14.01 Flying Fortresses, also known as Continental Siege Aircraft, or Ogre Magi, are the airborne equivalent of Ogres. There are two types of Flying Fortresses: CSA-10 and CSA-15.
14.02 Flying Fortresses have "propulsion units" which are treated exactly like the tread units of an Ogre. Attacks against propulsion units are the only way to bring Ogre Magi down. Each Flying Fortress begins with a movement allowance of 4, and, in keeping with 11.07, must move four hexes each turn. When a Flying Fortress has lost a certain number of propulsion units, its movement allowance falls to three, at which point it must move three hexes a turn... and so on. Note that its MA falls one point for every quarter of its propulsion units it loses. Eventually, its MA may fall to zero, at which point it comes crashing to the ground and is destroyed. (No, it may not ram units in the hex where it crashes!)
14.03 Flying Fortresses have two types of bombs: one type (listed in the Record Sheets as Bombloads) are treated in exactly the same manner as are bombers' bombloads. The other type is antipersonnel bombs.
14.031 Antipersonnel bombloads are dropped in the same manner as regular bombloads. However, antipersonnel bombloads have no effect on armor units; that is to say, they affect only infantry and CPs.
14.04 Flying Fortresses are equipped with air-to-air missiles. These may only be used on enemy aircraft; they have no effect on ground units.
14.05 Flying Fortresses are equipped with two types of guns – main and secondary. These fire in the same way fighters' guns do; i.e., they may only be fired in the forward are of the Flying Fortress.
14.06 Flying Fortresses attack and are attacked in the same way as Ogres. That is, attacks on Flying Fortresses must be directed against specific weapons, and the Flying Fortress is not destroyed until it loses all its propulsion units.
Example of Flying Fortress Record Sheets
CSA-15
4 Bombloads (6/0, D3) o o o o 3 Air-to-Air Missiles (6/5, D3) o o o 2 Main Guns (4/3, D4) o o 6 Secondary Guns (3/2, D3) o o o o o o 18 Antipersonnel Bombloads (1/0 against Inf and CPs only, D1) o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 60 Propulsion Units (M4) ooooo ooooo ooooo (M3) ooooo ooooo ooooo (M2) ooooo ooooo ooooo (M1) ooooo ooooo ooooo (M0, fall down go boom)
CSA-10
2 Bombloads (6/0, D3) o o 1 Air-to-Air Missile (6/5, D3) o 1 Main Gun (4/3, D4) o 4 Secondary Guns (3/2, D3) o o o o 12 Antipersonnel Bombloads (1/0 against Inf and CPs only, D1) o o o o o o o o o o o o 48 Propulsion Units (M4) oooo oooo oooo (M3) oooo oooo oooo (M2) oooo oooo oooo (M1) oooo oooo oooo (M0, look out below)
15.0 Anti-Aircraft Units
15.01 Anti-Aircraft units are ground-based units designed to destroy aircraft. Although they can be used against ground units as well as aircraft, they are less effective when attacking ground units.
15.02 There are two types of AA units – Light AA and Heavy AA. Their stats are indicated below.
Light AA Heavy AA D2, M1 D3, M0 6/5 8/6
15.03 AA units have their attack strength halved when attacking ground units. They use their full attack strength only when attacking aircraft.
15.04 Note that a Light AA unit has a movement allowance of 1, while a Heavy AA unit is immobile.
