Henry J. Cobb's alternative mine rules

The material presented here is my original creation, intended for use with the OGRE system from Steve Jackson Games. This material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games.

Here's how I would nudge the 13.04 mine rules over to better fit with the rest of the systems and so reduce the edge cases that are special to mines.

The mine unit

Each mine is a single robotic unit with very limited capabilities. It has a single weapon with attack value three that is only usable in overruns (and is not doubled in overruns.) It has a defense value of one, but is stealthed as a Ninja, so in all cases it defends exactly the same as a Ninja's AP gun would. (Including by cruise missile explosions, but they can also be rammed as a size class one vehicle.)

A side effect of the stealthing is that mines emplaced before scenario setup are completely hidden rather than merely 13.05 camouflaged. For each hidden mine the owner notes down the hex location and a mine detection number between one and six. Overruning a mine always reveals it, but the mine gets the first shot of course.

The mines themselves have zero movement, so by the GEV unit formula they come out to about 1 VP each.

Finally each mine is a size class one unit that can be transported by anything that can carry infantry squads internally. It takes a truck or a hovertruck one full turn of not moving or firing to load or emplace one mine in its current hex. Each engineer squad can carry one mine instead of a demolition charge or other cargo.

Detecting Mines

Ordinary infantry squads (but not militia) have a minimal mine detection capability. Each dismounted squad that neither moves nor attacks may indicate one adjancent hex at the end of its turn and roll one die. All hostile hidden mines in that hex with a matching mine detection number are revealed. (So after a dozen turns of scanning one hex there is only an 11% chance of a given mine remaining undetected.)

Engineers are much better at this. At the end of a turn of not moving or firing, an engineer squad can name one mine detection number and all hostile mines in adjacent hexes with that mine detection number are revealed. Engineers also ignore mine stealth when using ranged fire against revealed mines.

Ogres (and to a very limited extent Superheavies) can also scan for mines. Each intact AP gun can be used to scan as if it were an infantry squad on any turn that the Ogre (or Superheavy) neither moves nor attacks. AP guns can also engage mines in ranged combat at full strength. (Doubled in overruns of course.)

The Vulcan, Ninja, and certain other special Ogres have advanced scanners and their AP guns can be used to scan for (or attack) mines as if they were engineer squads. So an intact Vulcan (or a Ninja that has lost no more than 2 AP guns) can detect all adjancent mines in a single turn.