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Originally Posted by sir_pudding
My response is that Tac-Air was an excellent game about the kind of warfare you are talking about, at roughly the same scale as Ogre. Go play that.
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I have, though I didn't care for it as I recall. And
my response is that your arguments are very unconvincing.
The problem as I noted earlier is that the game rewards tactics that would not rationally be used on a battlefield like the one that GEV describes. None of your explanations change that, I'm afraid.
Even worse than the magical teleporting GEVs is the problem I mentioned previously:
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But what happens is that enemy tanks moving on a defensive position can force the defenders to retreat (or launch an attack despite being badly outnumbered) without ever firing a shot.
The attackers move to a position that is out of the defender's range, but close enough to move into the attacker's range next turn. This is 3-5 hexes if the target and attackers are heavy or light tank.
If the defenders stay in their position, they will be attacked and possibly wiped out by the attackers in the attackers' next turn and the defenders won't be able to fire until they've absorbed this attack. If the defenders are outnumbered (the usual case with defenders), they may be wiped out or badly damaged.
So, the defenders can withdraw so that they cannot be engaged by the attackers on the next attacker turn. Poof, a defensive position has been eliminated without the attacker firing a shot. Worse, the attackers can use the exact same "tactic" next turn.
"We have to retreat sir; they're gonna attack us on their turn!"
Or, the defenders can launch an attack (also giving up their defensive position).
Either way, the defenders are forced out of a defensive position solely because of the artificial turn sequence.
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None of your arguments seem to convincingly explain this tactically absurd situation either.
Personally, I just think that it's an artifact of a fast and simple sequence of play that was perfectly good for the situation described in Ogre - a pitiless giant tank driving towards a command post.
But when it was expanded into a tactical armored game (a sort of sci-fi Panzerblitz, which is a compliment), the sequence of play wasn't as robust. But it is
generally good enough.
The genius in GEV is the lack of line of sight requirements. That eliminates the most egregious problem with a "ugo/igo" sequence of play - panzerbushing. But unfortunately, it doesn't eliminate the exploit I described.
I'd also add that there's an almost endless of things I really admire about Ogre/GEV. The ground units are superbly well balanced against each other (except for the lt tank; I think it should cost 2/3 of an armor unit). The disabled mechanic allows for a simple, temporary erosion of combat capability. The overrun mechanic is classic. It's so good that I pretty much stole it for A Fistful of TOWs (and gave due credit in the designers' notes). Infantry, especially in GEV, work very well. And on and on.
But my tremendous regard for the game doesn't blind me to my friend's legitimate complaints about implausible tactics.
Fortunately, the solution is simple and takes very little additional time. I'll be using it going forward, though not for classic Ogre games.