After Action Report: October 7, 2018

[TheAmishStig]

While up visiting family, I got to break out Ogre again...still not asked for by name, but asked for all the same.

Managed to get in 2 games with my nephew...one a heavily-stilted Mk.III Attacking [he's 7, so I gave him a Mk.V defensive force to insulate against uncooperative dice and ensure he'd take out a Mk.III], the other Dogpile.

For Mk.III he played the defenders, and took a very eclectic mix...two MHWZ, one HWZ, one SHVY, and then a smattering of MSL, LT, HVY, and a single GEV. He completely ignored my guns unless I pushed him in that direction...which to my surprise, worked out better than I'd expected. I really enjoy playing with him, because it forces me to think about the game in terms of "What should I do to make the game look close, without ever being a real threat to him", plus he's constantly doing "random little kid is random" so relying on "A clever opponent will, so I'm going to..." doesn't work, and that can be pretty eye-opening.

For example, If I was playing to be competitive I would've done a lot more playing the odds instead of going for outright kills, and spent more time nibbling at the edges instead of gleefully scooting up a lane he left wide open then showing him how to box me in and bring the pain.

It was also nice to get to play the Ogre for once, most times when I'm showing the game off I end up as the defenders, as the appeal of being a terrifying juggernaut is oh so tempting.

In the end, the withering assault was way too much to bear, especially paired with 'screw around so he feels awesome'. The Ogre had 1 primary and 3 secondaries left when it finally ground to a halt, but he had MSL still in play and out of reach so that was game over.

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The second game, Dogpile, he wanted to be the Ogre and have me show him what I was talking about with ganging up on parts and etc. It was...savage.

I've never seen an opening salvo go that poorly for the Ogre; he concentrated fire and managed to get a few troops, but was stripped down to less than half his starting armament on turn 1. By turn 3 it was all gone, and at that point it was a game of "spread out so he can't crush us all" and hammering on the treads until it stopped moving. Poor kid was having too much fun trying to squish things to take advice such as "take out a big gun or two in the corners to get yourself places to hide" and "Break out and nibble at the edges, don't dive into the thick of it". But he went into it knowing he was supposed to lose, so there was lots of "Oh no!" but no pouting / being sore in the end.