Sample unit calculations with Henry J. Cobb's cost formula.

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 to apply the GEV unit calculator for various special cases.

For the superheavy tank the first and second attacks are strength 3, range 3. The third and fourth attacks are strength one, range one, ap and doubled in overuns. Defense is five, moves as superheavy, movement three hexes, transports 2 Infantry externally (don't check the Internally? box). Final cost is 13.59 VPs, 2.5 armor units, as expected.

To account for partial damage to Superheavy tanks as per 13.07, simply select defense type Ogre/robotic. Yes it is impacted by D results, but the first X is unlikely to kill it so it balances out. Final cost is 17.26 VPs, "three armor units".

An ordinary infantry platoon has three attacks of strength one, range one, doubled in overruns. Defense is 3 as infantry, move of two hexes. Final cost is 5.71 VPs, "one armor unit".

A heavy weapons platoon has six weapons to keep track of, so let's fold them into four slots. First attack is 1/1 (doubled in overruns), second is 2/1 (doubled in overruns), third is 3/4 (ammo 1, not doubled) and the fourth is 6/4 (ammo 1, not doubled). The rest is marked as standard infantry for a final cost of 10.55 VPs, "two armor units".

The GEV-PC if it did not carry infantry would be atk 1/2, D 2, M 3/2 as GEV, 3.87 VPs, half an armor unit. Adding in three squads external transport brings it up to 5.37 VPs, 1 AU.

The Light Artillery Drone is first calculated as a manned unit so atk 2/8, D1, M0 as lt tank for 5.97 VPs, one armor unit. The dronification is then done at no cost as the immunity to D results on itself is counter balanced by a need for a control circuit.

A standard laser turret is attack strength 2, range 30 hexes, doubled in overuns and blocked by terrain. Note that structure points are NOT listed on this chart, so what is the defense value? Well first buildings are like Ogres in that they do not suffer from D results. Hence the laser turret must be a move zero robotic unit. The laser turret's structure points must act in some way like a defense X Ogre component. Whatever X is, an attack of strength X against it would destroy it a third of the time so simply find some attack that would generate 30 structure points of damage in three attacks. Since each attack automatically does twice its attack strength in damage each attack, an attack strength of 5 will do 30 points of damage in three attacks. Hence 30 SPs equals defense 5. However after the first 20 SPs the laser cannot fire so just like for manned units suffering from a D result the final 10 SPs count as half value. Take 20 + 10/2 structure points and divide by 6 to get a final effective defense strength of 4. Final cost is 10.75 VPs or two armor units.

The laser tower works exactly the same way, but with range 60, and effective defense 3. This gives a final cost of 12.83 VPs or "two and half" armor units. This is a bit low, but does not take into account the laser tower's extra abilities for missile defense, so is acceptable.


$Revision: 1.5 $ Typo on laser turret. -HJC