Let me start this off by saying, I am a big fan of the OGRE boardgames from SJ Games. I have both OGRE/GEV and SHOCKWAVE, the games from which most of the components of this supplement come and enjoy both of them thoroughly. That said, I was very happy to see the reinforcements pack arrive this past weekend.
If you're looking for new OGREs that can teleport or starship counters or maps of an asteroid field, you're gonna be a little disappointed if you don't read the contents carefully. The counter sheets and the maps ARE NOT NEW! They are found separately available in OGRE/GEV and SHOCKWAVE. This is, after all, a REINFORCEMENT pack.
What you get for your duchats is this: 4 counter sheets of OGRE and GEV units, 2 maps and an instruction booklet (tri-fold with information on both sides). Two of the counters sheets come directly from the OGRE/GEV game. The other two come from SHOCKWAVE, a supplement that introduces super heavy tanks, GEV personnel carriers, missile crawlers and other neat introductions to the OGRE/GEV universe. NOTE: You have to have SHOCKWAVE to get the rules for these units as you are assumed to own that supplement in order to use the counters from it.
Reinforcement counter sheets are a great idea for a couple of reasons. One, the little beauties tend to get lost, destroyed and frayed through the course of dozens of battles. Tabletop war has its casualties, too, you know. Two, if you happen to actually have pieces left from OGRE and SHOCKWAVE, you can have awesome multi-player games giving everyone enough pieces to have their own armies (see the scenario BODY BLOW below).
The maps are, again, not new either. One comes from GEV. The other is from SHOCKWAVE. However, don't think that because they're not new creations that they're not of worth as much. Using the rules provided in the provided instructions, you can arrange them to have some really expansive games.
Which brings me to the scenarios and rules. In addition to the towing rules (yep, you can tow tanks and OGREs if your towing vehicle has the power), you can now add OGREs in lieu of armor units in certain cases. OGRE armor equivalents are provided in a table, which takes the guess work out of the equation for those of us who've tried to pull this off by ourselves.
The scenarios outline some really cool variant missions to play out. THE DAY AFTER lets you play out a race to tow out out the most OGRE remnants littering three separate, interconnected maps.
BODY BLOW is a simply mindboggling mission where commanders take charge of huge units to defend/attack a fortified city position; the set-up says at least 1 hour plus 4 or more hours to play (there are four maps locked together for this battle royale!). Please note that, this mission is really only for experienced players. More specically, its for veteran OGRE players who have always wanted to see what it's really like to command massive forces.
The third and final scenario is called FAKE OUT, which takes place again on three maps locked together to make a huge battlefield. The forces are a well armed, yet very slow defending force versus a smaller, yet considerably more mobile attacker.
One of the cool things about this mission is that the attacker (Combine forces in this instance) selects his force and THEN rolls [or selects if prefeable] to see what his or her mission is. This mission is recorded secretly and checked at the battle's end.
I like this last mission the best since it really simulates the ambiguity that real commanders face on the battlefield. Is that tank force really going to attack my weakened flank? What exactly are those vehicles doing in my northern sector? I don't have anything there and the terrain is really going to bog them down. Hmmmm.
I do have one bone of contention to pick with this product. Steve Jackson Games, please give us die cut counters for this and all other OGRE products!
I've brought that point up before about the OGRE game on RPG forums and have been scolded for asking such a thing. Sorry, but sitting down with scissors to cut out my gamepieces out just doesn't add to my enjoyment of the product. For the price that's being asked for the product, I think it's a justified request.
Bottom line: I liked the supplement a lot! If you've got OGRE/GEV and you understand how to play it, you're not going to be disappointed by this product PROVIDED you read its contents and know what you're getting ahead of time. Again, it's not a lot of new stuff, but it's high quality. Now go kill some OGREs!!!
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)