After Action Report: September 15, 2018

[TheAmishStig]

A comedy of errors meant that instead of 4-6 people playing out of my usual haunt, two of us ended up keeping a MtG event company at a different store.
Turned out for the better, though! We got a couple "oooh, what's that?" out of it, to where I need to talk to them about setting up a regular rotation. We only got one game in: a long-time friend who was first-time player in the Mk.III attacking scenario.

I did what I normally do in the situation of "I'm trying to hook my friends"...used it as an excuse to try something new, because losing is preferred in that situation. And lost I did! Thanks to a lot of playing "patient zombie" on the part of the Ogre, I got to demonstrate the time-honored tactic of defender desperation: "I'm running out of time, charge! Throw your shoes at the sodding thing if you have to, just hit it with everything!"

The defense was 2 HWZ, 3 HVY, 3 GEV, 2 MSL, and 20 INF, against an incoming Mk.III. The infantry hung back to do a one-two punch with the big guns (set up for overlapping fire), while the rest advanced in a staggered formation, hoping to get minimal losses while baiting it into a position where they could pounce.

Instead, he did a masterful job of nibbling at the edges long enough I had to throw everything that was left at him to get something done.

By the time we started dancing just outside the howitzer umbrella...some stragglers unable to get away, so went down fighting...it was down both missiles, the primary, a secondary, and 2 treads. Not M2...2 treads. The HVY and MSL did a good job of picking off guns, but the GEVs and INF ended up being little more than fodder. And in typical me fashion, the HWZ operators couldn't hit water if they were firing due east out of Boston harbor, being flattened under-tread by an Ogre without a care in the world.

In the end? Total Ogre Victory. Or to paraphrase Steve: The CP was the reward for wiping out the enemy force, not a target in and of itself.

We then spent about an hour talking about how "Smash the CP on the orange map" is not the end-all be-all of the game...it's just the beginning. Went over different cybertank types, a quick overview of how terrain works...about the time I was busting out the G/S maps to show off geomorphing, we started attracting attention. Possible new recruits for next time.