After Action Report

[Corbeau]

I went down to the local game store on Friday with my trusty copy of Ogre/G.E.V. (with Shockwave and Battlefields, of course), hoping to convince someone to try it. I got a much better turnout than expected, as three people volunteered to play. So I set up a scenario on the Shockwave map (chosen at random from all the available maps) with two Ogres vs two defenders. Unfortunately one of the Ogre players had to leave only a couple turns into the game (before any real combat), so it came down to one player with two Ogres vs two defenders.

What follows is the report I typed up for Boardgamegeek.com, a very handy site whenever questions about practically any game come up.

It was a fine day for Paneurope. The sun was bright, the sky was blue, the grass and trees were a wonderful spring green, and the Combine was falling back across Northern Europe. The light shone off the massed columns of Paneuropean Armor assembled to protect E-Sector's new command centre, which was coordinating an offensive that was even now exploiting the breach in the Combine lines. Jamming was too heavy for a CP further away to effectively direct the action, but the Combine Armor was engaged on the front line and should get no chance to threaten E-Sector. Unfortunately, the Combine did not need conventional armor to pose a threat. Not when, unbeknownst to the Paneuropeans, the Combine had Ogres in the sector.

The Paneuropean defenders were spread out over a 24 kilometer front roughly 15 kilometers to the north and west of the CP. Forty Infantry Squads, a dozen Heavy Tanks, and half a dozen each of Missile Tanks and GEVs formed a force ready to shred any Combine armor that might penetrate the front line. They were caught completely by surprise when two massive Mk III cybertanks rumbled out of the river on the east flank of the Paneuropan defense line, barely 30 kilometers north of the CP.

As the Ogres rumbled forward at full speed, the Paneuropeans scrambled to reinforce the right side of their line. For a few minutes it was chaos, but soon the tanks were moving and the infantry bounding, all towards the doom approaching in the east. As the Ogres neared a stream only 18 kilometers from the CP, the Paneuropean front line of armor surged forward with infantry in their wake. Nuclear fire surrounded the Ogres as they rolled over the stream and into the massed Paneuropean forces, and then the gates of hell opened wide.

The following minutes became an incoherent mess of images that the survivors would rather forget. A Heavy Tank scoring a direct hit on one Ogre's main battery at point-blank range a moment before being obliterated; wave after wave of infantry charging, firing, screaming, falling back, and finally dying under storms of flechettes; a Missile Tank on the edge of the fray disintegrating as it catches an Ogre missile head on; pair of GEVs disappearing, surrounded by a firestorm, and yet miraculously rising unscathed from the craters as the Ogres rumble away; ever thinning lines of tanks rushing toward doom in a wasteland of fire and death.

In the midst of the carnage one of the Ogres suddenly broke off, carving a path of destruction through the Paneuropean armor charging in from the west. The Paneuropeans faltered, and suddenly the second Ogre was driving south past the remnants of the eastern defense line. Harried by the surviving GEVs and a few tanks too stubborn to give up, the Ogre bore down on the CP. Even as its brother ground to a halt in the killing fields, mashed to a pulp under the weight of the Paneuropean pursuers, the Ogre unleashed all the firepower it had remaining.

Where E-Sector's secure command centre had once stood, only a radioactive crater remained.

The Ogre then turned, and began to make its way back north. But it could not escape, hemmed in both by the defenders that even now harried it and the reinforcements that had slagged its companion. The Ogre crushed a few tanks that strayed too close, but could neither escape nor destroy the relentless GEVs that picked apart its massive treads. Finally, almost tiredly, the Ogre ground to a halt for the last time.

But it had won. For E-Sector's defenders, it was bad enough. Less than half of the Armor remained and barely a quarter of the infantry had survived, leaving a shattered unit to withdraw toward safety. For the Paneuropean high command, it was even worse. The loss of the CP gave the Combine a major, if temporary, edge. Without central coordination, the whole Paneuropean line was driven back from the territory that they had won only hours earlier. The entire costly operation had gained nothing for the Paneuropeans.

The Ogres had proven their worth yet again.

This game was either decided from the start or decided in our strategic choices. The terrain was problematic for the defenders, as the Ogres were able to use a swampy area as a barrier to the western troops, which I controlled. I actually was able to engage with all of my forces, but effectively a turn or two later than I would normally have had. My teammate and I did not manage to get a significant "first shot" on the Ogres either.

However, the scenario was going to be tough no matter what. The problems with taking on two Mk IIIs with two times a standard Ogre defense are twofold. First, the Ogres can stack at will and the defenders cannot, giving the attacker a significant advantage. Second, the defender has to chew through a lot more treads than if taking on a single larger cybertank.

With the mistakes and imbalanced combined, the defenders didn't even come close to saving the CP. Even so, everyone had a great time and the game produced a lot of speculation and thinking. Plenty of "what-ifs" flying around, including whether the defending side should have bought a Howitzer. I hadn't actually played with Ogres in GEV in a long time, so it was a brutal reminder of the power of Cybertanks. If you can get first shot on a group of armor, they'll probably lose a lot of firepower. If you wack an Ogre, it'll wack you right back and run you over as a bonus. You have to accept appalling losses to kill an Ogre (out of 12 Heavy Tanks, only 1 survived this game).

And on a side note, my order of Ogre miniatures arrived that afternoon. They are a refreshing change from the Battletech stuff I'm used to, where practically everything comes in 6+ pieces. I mean yeah, my Mk VI Ogre does have plenty of pieces, but that's fine with me. You're not going to need as many Ogres to play GEV as you would 'Mechs to play Battletech.

[piningforthefjords]

Right on! People like you will keep Ogre alive!

I'm glad you got interest in the game, especially with the paper version.

I laughed when I read your after action report. Anything in Ogre that starts with "it was a beautiful summer day" I know will end totally differently! I really liked your report.

I agree Ogres on the GEV maps are a handful.

One question - your 4 player kill the CP scenario - how did you incorporate 4 players into it? Was it attacker/defender/attacker/defender, or attacker/attacker/defender/defender?

[Corbeau]

Thanks for your comments. I'm glad that my writings can produce some enjoyment.

As for the turn order, we simply did shared turns with strategic discussion. Each player had specific units, however, and had final say on what they did. My teammate made a few attack choices that I would have done differently, for example. It worked well and quickly, I thought.

The key was that we used half Combine color counters for the defenders, since we didn't need colors to define the Ogres. :)

[draknoir2]

Corbeau... are you former USAF?

[Corbeau]

No. Not even close, in fact. Never been in the military and don't plan to ever be there in the future. Heck, I'm not even old enough to be "former" military.

[draknoir2]

Originally Posted by Corbeau

No. Not even close, in fact. Never been in the military and don't plan to ever be there in the future. Heck, I'm not even old enough to be "former" military.

The thread title reminded me of my old job... I wrote plenty of them.