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OwlCon: Ogre

OWLCon is a RPG/Boardgame/Miniatures convention held every year on the campus of Rice University in Houston, TX.  I was able to make the trip and participate for Saturday only.

This is a great convention! It has a mix of RPGs, boardgames, and miniatures so everyone can find something that fits their tastes.

I showed up for the morning session of OGRE in the dining area of the small cafe. It was convenient for me because the day just doesn't begin for me without a cup of coffee!

Basically, the game was HUGE! A series of five boards lined up side-by-side. The same scenario was setup on each board with three players per board. Two attacking players commanded on MkV Ogre each while the third player ran a fencer.  The GM handled the infantry units, GEVs, laser towers and howitzers on all the boards.

I played one of the MkV's. My co-OGRE was commanded by young paduwan Daniel. Our opponent was William.
The Order of Battle was as follows:

2x Mk V Ogres

Vs
1x fencer
with
2x laser towers
1x Nuclear plant
5x Medium GEV
5x heavy tank
3x howitzers
3x missile tanks
10x infantry
1x command post

Each map board is a separate battle and no unit could move to another board. The objective of the MkVs was to destroy the Command Post and move off the opposite side of the board. Victory Points for destroying units .  fencer players get 30 points if Ogres never get off the map after 12 turns.

Turn 1-2:

I moved forward over the forests and fields with my Ogre and while padawan Daniel drove down the highway to the more populated towns. We had a thin concept of the strategy we would use. One of us would try to take most of the damage while the other made a break for the CP. The GEVs started to advance against us and the fencer made a bee line to the city in the center of the map. The laser towers fired on us and destroyed a primary weapon on my Ogre.

Turn 3:

GEVs moved into optimum range and stayed out of range of my secondary guns. With nothing else to fire at, I shot at the scientific station just to rack up victory points. Meanwhile, padawan Daniel cleared out the GEVs attempting to prevent his advance.

Turn 4-5:

The Fencer ducked into the town for cover and started firing missiles. I was still out of range to do effective damage so I wiped out those annoying GEVs.

Turn6:

By this time, my MkV had taken significant damage. This left Daniel with a slightly damaged MkV to move rapidly toward the CP. I started bombing the town where the Fencer tried to hide and turned it to rubble.

Turn 7-8:

The Fencer and my MkV played a short game of duck-n-dodge. The Fencer tried to stay out of gun range and repeatedly shot at my treads. I tried to keep moving while staying on the roads to keep up my mobility. 

Turn 9:

Daniel finally got into firing range of the howitzers and destroyed them with multiple missile strikes.  My MkV had nearly lost all its treads.

Turn 10-12:


Daniel destroyed the CP but inexplicably, spent two turns squashing infantry entrenched in the city hexes?  Curse the inexperience of youth!! After some convincing, Daniel moved his Ogre off the map as per the objectives.  The Fencer and assorted GEVs finally destroyed my remaining treads and my Ogre was completely stopped.

Steve Jackson, who was attending the convention, stopped by to personally congratulate the Ogre drivers who made it off map. Which did not include me but I was able to have a short chat with him anyway.


Comments

  1. Thanks for the batrep! Sounds like a fun time, and I hope you can make it over here for some more OGRE.

    ReplyDelete

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