New Scenario: GEV Escort

[Tim Kauffman]

Originally Posted by Misplaced Buckeye

Tim, just to humor an old ogrenard, did you attempt the scenario with GEV Aces also so stay to the original only. Unfortunately my gaming area will be in disarray for the next next few weeks due to some personal issues so I'm living vicariously through the forum for now.

I finally was able to run one play through of GEV ESCORT with a friend at a local and newly opened Gamer's Cafe. Side choices were left up in the air, and he wanted to run the OGRE, so I was Paneurope. We wanted to start with the most basic game first so we played the OGRE Mark3 Attack and for unit choice went with "The game will move faster if the defense uses only Infantry and the four types of armor units in the original game. Heavy Tanks, Missile Tanks, GEVs and Howitzers." Since my opponent had four GEVs, I figured I would want at least more GEVs than he had to counter them.

This Scenario, with the added Combine GEVs was a lot of fun! The game literally went like described in the preface, about biting your nails, and trying to get as many GEV pilots as possible out alive as "heroes". Well, Combine didn't pull that one off, because Paneurope has the best pilots, even though I lost all my GEVs as well. ;)
I see these "Heroes" from this scenario as a possible optional doorway to GEV Ace progression if players choose to do so. The whole Ace thing is still open for tweeking, ect. but this looks like a clear opportunity to me to bridge FanMade to official canon. So, that's what the next play throughs will be doing. We will gradually be running progressively more skilled GEV Aces with each new play through.

The official Scenario seemed so solid and balanced we feel confident it's a good segue into the FanMade realm of GEV Aces. I want to introduce "Riding The Shockwave" https://www.flickr.com/photos/128248...7665009212262/ rules, ect, but that will be later play throughs. For example, Riding The Shockwave, as a WIP rule will give a GEV Ace additional movement range depending on how much shockwave they have ridden and how successfully. EQUITARE TREMERE

Our game...well, watch the video and you'll see how much fun it was and how close it was. This was only one play through, but if it's any indicator, it's still spot on balanced with the additional Combine GEVs. Thank You Steve for another solid and awesome Scenario!

GEV ESCORT...Official Scenario Play Through:
https://youtu.be/TzctnVqBvV8

The owner of the GAMER's CAFE stopped by our table as we were playing GEV ESCORT with a smile on his face. He mentioned how he used to play the OGRE Microgame all the time back when it originally came out, he remembered the game fondly. He is around our ages also. I told him briefly about the OGRE DE KickStarter in 2012, and that we were using that to play the scenario, and that SJGs released a updated reprinting of the original OGRE Microgame and mentioned the OGRE site here.
He was very enthusiastic about wanting to get a copy. Then to really MIB him, I mentioned it was at the original price from the 70's. He was like, oh, wow! I have to pick that up again! :D
I'll continue doing what I can with what I have, but will just say that time can be a very nasty and sneaky little thief...a relentless foe always getting in your way, preventing and delaying progress on things of interest.

[Tim Kauffman]

Just some suggestions on the Scenario I noticed which may or may not matter:
______________________________________

2.03 Paneuropean Units. Where it states: "The defender may also upgrade his CP to either a Mobile Command Post (D1) or a Hardened Command Post (D2)."

...it may help to include that upgrading costs the player, and also include how much for each upgrade. Or at least a pointer reference to where it's stated in the rules. I can't find any rules for this anywhere. 3.05, 3.05.1 and .2 don't say anything about cost of upgrading a CP, other than "a scenario may give a regular or mobile CP a defense strength of up to 3." So, if it is all relative, and costs the same for any different upgrades, you would always take the one that made the toughest CP. If there are costs for each one, that makes the upgrades functional in the Scenario because you pay more for more CP toughness.

______________________________________

Also, obviously it is to the defenders advantage to place their CP as far away from the enemy as possible, on the last row of hexes, which is fine, however, nobody would ever want to have it any closer for obvious reasons. So, how about rewarding the defender with a certain amount of VPs the further away from the last hex row they place it, and closer to the enemy it is? This would give some incentive to place it closer to the enemy at the start of the game. It would be a little something especially for experienced players to try out, but the greener players could as well.
______________________________________

...and a possible typo in the cool Scenario opening dialogue? "redline" should be "red line"?
______________________________________

Also, under 5.01 "More GEVs" maybe name it "GEV Escort Squadron"? This has 6 GEVs, up from the original 4...which is close to what a possible squadron would be, minimum (considering WW1 squadrons counts...of course OGRE isn't WW1, but it may have some similarities). Which means the original 4 escort is not really a squadron...which raises the question, how many GEVs does it take to form a squadron? Maximum and minimum? Would make for some interesting info of the OGREverse.

And under 5.02 "Alternate Armor" maybe name it "Armored Escort" instead?

[Tim Kauffman]

13.04 Mines

This had me thinking it may be interesting to give the Paneuropean defender some mines to use around their CP parimeter.
They detonate on a 6 for normal units or a 5,6 for OGREs. It would add even more nail biting for the Combine player. :)

Is there a point value for mines? How does one determine how many to use in a game or scenario so they are balanced with the attackers forces?
I can't find anything on this anywhere.

Maybe something like you get 4 mines for each AU point spent?

I really want to try these out in this Scenario.