Ogre at Endgame

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Saturday afternoon Ogre session with a few folks from the Ogre Launch Party West. We played Situation T (which I came in 2d), Breakthrough, and a game of Classic Mark III.

Ogre is a pretty simple game, and the realism is best understood to be "physics in the Ogreverse," but it does have a surprising amount of playability. The scenarios are simple enough to learn to play, but they have also been brutally play tested to provide a high degree of balance. The balance is mitigated with enough die roll randomness to keep experienced players on their toes, and allow inexperienced players a shot at an occasional win. This is not a bad thing.

This isn't to say that each faction is as easily played in every scenario. For example, with two beginners playing Classis Mark III, the Ogre player is almost certainly going to win. But with two experienced players, the defense will almost always take out the Ogre (experienced players are encouraged to balance the scenario by dropping 2 armor units).

Not really a big fan of Exercise T though, seems like too much of a shoot 'em up.

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What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

  • Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
  • Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
  • Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
  • Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
  • Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
  • Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
  • Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
  • Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

  • Have a solo game ready to play.
  • Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
  • Referee a game in progress.