The OGRE Miniatures line is into its third year of production (or re-release, depending on your point of view), but until very recently Steve Jackson Games had failed to supply models to support scenario objectives beyond the generic, "stop the OGRE," "kill all the other guy's units," and, "blow up the enemy command post," style of smash-em-ups. Resourceful players could of course fudge by making do with units from other games or counters or the like, but for the OGRE purist, here was a gap waiting to be filled.
The January release of Last War Set #1 - Convoy, with its wheeled truck models, was a nice first step toward filling the void, but the militaries of the OGRE-verse aren't prone to using conventional vehicles to move cargoes hither and yon. Fortunately Steve Jackson has released Combine Set #10 - Fast Convoy, so that players with Combine affiliated forces will have military vehicles to protect from their PanEuropean foes across the gaming table.
The set is packaged in similar fashion to all the other releases in the line: a videotape case containing the miniatures sandwiched between a couple of layers of protective foam. The foam inserts are the newer grey rather than the older black, which had the advantage of being die-cut. The set "label" is a paper sheet rather than the more rigid posterboard slipcase used in past sets.
The set contains six Combine hovertruck models and two new portable artillery units: Light Artillery Drones, or LADs. Additionally, the set contains six miniature cargo pallets sized to be carried by the hovertrucks; four of the pallets are assorted cargo, while the other two are disassembled LADs.
The rules for the LAD are printed on the back of the label, north of the ISBN and barcode, while the game stats are printed on the inside of the label as part of a "Combine Unit Reference Sheet" (which also contains stats for a random-seeming selection of other Combine units). I have yet to use the LAD in play, though my read of the rules is that the LAD is portable, but not that portable. It takes three turns to deploy a LAD (the unit can fire on the fourth), which is a pretty long time in an OGRE combat. Players would be better served using the LAD as an emplaced unit, and availing themselves of its portability mostly as a way to run it off the board before the enemy can kill it (and earn victory points). Of course, one can easily envision scenarios where the objective is to deploy several LADs while under fire.
The hovertrucks are all one-piece models. They seem a bit chunky-looking compared to the leaner, sleeker Combine combat hovercraft models (GEVs, LGEVs, and GEV-PCs); roughly the difference between a fishing trawler and a speedboat. The models are attractive, but don't have quite as much interesting detail as some of the other Combine armor units.
The cargo pallets are exactly the same size as those included with Last War Set #1, and are interchangeable with pallets from that set... though a fast-moving hovertruck looks rather silly carrying a rounded canvas top pallet. The pallets have enough detail that they're likely to be challenging to paint. I was fascinated to see that one of the pallets is a "repair kit" for a damaged OGRE: it contains what look to be a replacement secondary battery, some ammunition, and a trio of replacement antipersonnel batteries.
The LADs are two-piece models, consisting of a base and the artillery gun itself. On the whole the assembled LADs seem a bit spindly and fragile, without a lot of heft to them. The gun piece is rather small and light, and likes to roll around unless it's secured in some way: I'd recommend gluing it to its base before priming and painting. I wish the piece had come attached to a metal sprue.
All of the models in the three sets I purchased had a great deal of flash on them. Judicious use of an X-acto knife was required to clean them up before they could be primed. Fortunately there weren't any horrendous mold lines, such as has been a problem on other Combine units, so a lot of sanding and filing wasn't necessary.
OGRE hovertrucks are poorly armored and move somewhat more slowly than combat hovercraft (GEVs and LGEVs; they move at a pace with GEV-PCs). This makes them challenging to defend: even fast (tracked) armor units will have a hard time keeping up with them, but combat hovercraft will have to hobble themselves in order to provide a useful screen. The availability of this set opens up all kinds of interesting scenario possibilities to the OGRE miniatures enthusiast, and the models are attractive enough that even a casual player will appreciate adding them to his collection.
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