Another Casey Joneski debacle

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Apparently, Steve Jackson Game's Ogre Designers Edition (ODE for short) is one of these things which a very large number of otherwise "serious" wargamers have purchased, surreptitiously. I keep running into people who bought a copy, but haven't yet played it. Even curiouser, I've spoken with some of these same people in the past, and they haven't mentioned that they, too, couldn't resist 28 lbs of Ogre-y delight.

In any case, three of us, Al, Andrew and I, met up at the local store to get in a few games of ODE. Lately, we've focused on the train scenarios, because they seem lopsided, which means none of us understand quite how to play them.

Game 1: Me attacking Andrew. I split 15 GEVs, some to the east, some to west, some up the middle. The GEVs which went up the middle got slaughtered. The GEVs that went east, pretty much got slaughtered. To the west, wasn't able to catch the train in time.

However, I did manage to sneak one GEV through the woods and cut the train tracks, whence the train went off the eastern edge of the board. Result, draw.

Game 2: Another Casey Joneski, Andrew taking on Al. Andrew took his GEVs all the east and all the way west. After some tense moments, it turned out to be a win for Andrew, as he diverted then destroyed the train, and got 8 GEVs off the south edge. It was close though, coming down to a couple of die rolls which would have taken out one last GEV to get a draw. The lesson in this game is never count the infantry out until the game is completely over.

Game 3: The Train scenario, Al attacking me as defender. I took a mobile howitzer and two super heavies, the rest GEVs. Al made a hideous blunder by leaving open a stack of GEVs early on, and the super heavy took out 3 of 5 right away, and another shortly thereafter. It went downhill for Al after that.

In all, good times.

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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.