A S
United States
Unspecified
California
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At the collapse of negotiations, the Combine found itself arrayed along a major north-south freeway along the western edge of the theatre. The Combine command had devoted a token defensive force comprising on howitzer and one infantry company to their remaining intact urban center, as their main force was arrayed around the paired Combine command posts located in the woods some 22 kilometers down the freeway. Seeing the impending failure of negotiations, the Combine plan was to push east, making a river crossing and sending a message by destroying the city on the other side.
On the eastern side of the collapsing DMZ, Paneuropean armor and infantry arrayed along a jagged front, following a connecting freeway between two small lakeside cities. The Paneuropean command posts were split, one at the uttermost southeast corner of the theatre, the other near a city and a host of defending Paneuro infantry. The European plan involved an armored push along the north-by-northwest freeway, meant to allow a flexible course of action once intelligence came in as to the whereabouts of Combine forces.
As intelligence reports poured in, Combine commanders saw that they had a deceptively free path east toward their target hamlet. Unfortunately, the concentration of armor a mere handful of kilometers to the north meant that the Combine push wouldn't make it there uncontested. Regardless, the combine forces sped off, led by GEVs with infantry hitching a ride on their hulls. Mindful of the range of a Paneuro mobile howitzer they'd detected, the GEVs eased off on their throttles just outside of its engagement range.
Seeing the rush of Combine signals heading east, the Paneuros repositioned, their armor and infantry crashing through the woods while GEVs screamed south along the river, forming a screen ahead of the hamlet. Farther north and east, Combine missile tanks rolled along the freeway, doglegging to the east on their way south. Sensing an opportunity, the Paneuro commander detached two infantry companies and a missile tank along the northwestern freeway, in hopes of assaulting the poorly defended Combine city.
The Combine push continued apace, with the GEV screen splitting in two to go around several kilometers of difficult forest. The infantry companies dismounted on the way, preferring not to be dropped off directly under the guns of the Euro defenders. Meanwhile, the rest of the armored column rolled along behind, stretching out as missile tanks fell behind the faster MBTs. The GEV probing attack marked first blood, as the two westernmost Paneuro GEVs on the river were felled by concentrated nuclear cannon fire. Flush with this initial victory, the Combine GEVs darted back toward the main column, dispersing in anticipation of the Euro counterattack.
Rushing to head off the assault, PE heavy tanks rolled southeast and engaged the northern pincer of the Combine GEV assault, supported by a GEV and a missile tank, with an infantry company bringing up the rear. The heavies exacted vengeance on the Combine GEVs, using their open firing lines to take two of them apart. The PE supporting units were less successful, failing to find the range on the remaining GEV or its associated infantry company. To the south, a lone PE GEV swung out to make an attack run on its opposite number in the Combine force, lighting up a Combine GEV and leaving it burning on the rolling fields. A near miss from the PE mobile howitzer rang the bell on a Combine GEV, putting it onto autopilot while its crew tried to recover. PE forces behind the engagement line continued to race along the freeway, trying to reposition in time to defend the hamlet. Meanwhile, the PE infantry detachment tasked with taking the isolated Combine outpost to the northwest continued to rush forward, now finding itself uncomfortably within the range of the city's defending howitzer.
Looking to crush the PE counterattack, Combine armor pushed northeast, taking the risk of bunching up in hopes of maximizing their concentration of firepower. The assault was spectacularly successful, the massed fire accounting for both PE heavy tanks. Curiously, the lone missile tank survived a tremendous fusillade, although its crew was in no position to mount a defense, suggesting it would not be long for this world. Continuing the lower-key tit-for-tat south of the woods, a Combine GEV darted forward and sent a hail of micronukes at its PE counterpart on the river, sending it spinning across the water, its crew stunned. To the north, the lead PE infantry company disappeared in a nuclear inferno as the howitzer clearly found their range.
Reeling from the loss of their heaviest armor, the European command ordered its infantry companies into the maw of the Combine armored assault, buying time for the remaining tanks to take up defensive positions around the hamlet. Missiles arced out from the hamlet, landing among the Combine heavies, disabling one of them. A PE GEV backing the infantry assault rang the bell on a Combine GEV, lifting some heat from the infantry. The infantry companies themselves did not have much more success, temporarily hobbling one Combine heavy. The pounding fire support from the first PE mobile howitzer was joined by fire from its compatriot, now moved close enough to the action to join in. The fire support did its job, killing one of the immobilized Combine tanks and hammering another into submission. Having done its best to aid the counterattack, the lone active PE GEV pulled back, leaving the infantry companies to see to their own defense.
Not wanting to stall in the shadow of the biggest Paneuro guns, the Combine commanders ordered their remaining active heavies forward to assault the hamlet, setting up in firing positions across the river as GEVs swung around the south side of the woods to complement their assault. As missile tanks rolled up in support, the Combine infantry fell upon their European counterparts, hoping to mop them up in short order. Finding the howitzers out of range, the lead Combine tank leveled its guns on the riverside hamlet, savaging the paired missile tanks there, hulling one and disabling the other while at the same time leveling the town. The Combine GEVs nailed their opposing number, clearing the river itself entirely. On the north side of the combine armored thrust, a trailing heavy tank mopped up a disabled European missile tank, nearly denuding the Paneuro forces of armor west of the river. The attack on the abandoned Paneuro infantry was a bloodbath, as micronukes and the big stuff from the missile tanks flattened their exposed positions, killing them to a man. The Combine main thrust seemed clear to proceed. To the north, the Combine howitzer was not as accurate as before, causing casualties but leaving the bulk of the Paneuro infantry up and moving. Sensing an opportunity, the two Combine GEVs to the south sprinted across the river, making for the secondary Paneuro command post.
The Paneuro forces were now in full retreat, hoping to salvage a bad situation. An armored column of mobile howitzers and missile tanks pulled back along the main freeway toward the primary command center, as a full company of armored infantry struck directly south to cut off the combine GEVs. Backed by fire from a missile tank, the infantry splashed one of the GEVs. Heavy missile fire from a retreating howitzer brought the other GEV down, a scant five kilometers from its goal. Unfortunately, fire from the other retreating howitzer did little to slow the main Combine armored advance. The lone remaining Paneuro GEV hooked northwest, hoping to make an end run around the Combine advance and take a stab at the Combine command posts. On its way, it lit up a disabled Combine GEV, leaving a scorched hull in its wake. Far from this action to the south, the Paneuro assault on the Combine city was truly under way, as the missile tank rained fire into the city, probing for but failing to find the deadly Combine howitzer.
Having cleared the west bank of defenders, the Combine assault force reformed, moving northwest in a rolling mass of heavy armor and infantry. The Combine heavies leveled their cannons across the river, killing one missile tank and disabling another, leaving it immobile long enough for a Combine missile tank to find its range and kill it as well. In the northern salient, the Combine infantry held their position in the city, banking on their howitzer position to do the killing. The howitzer delivered, taking out the solitary missile tank, leaving two squads of Paneuro infantry to try their luck at taking the city. Near the Combine rear, one infantry company repositioned itself along the freeway, preparing to catch the marauding Paneuro GEV if it threatened the command posts.
The Paneuropean forces continued their retreat, the two mobile howitzers and remaining active missile tank forming up around the primary command post. The Paneuro infantry moved up to support the missile tank in pouring fire into the one bridge spanning the river, but they were unable to bring it down. In the meantime, the paired mobile howitzers walked their fire into the head of the Combine armored column, disabling the lead tank. In the north, the Paneuro infantry swung wide south of the city, risking more howitzer fire to avoid coming under the guns of the Combine infantry. The lone Paneuro GEV continued to roar along with its throttle wide open, finding the freeway and screeching to a stop there, just outside the Combine infantry's engagement range.
Afraid of losing the bridge, the Combine command ordered the armored column toward the bridge at full speed, leaving the former column leader behind. One company of Combine infantry splashed into the river, hoping to avoid taking fire in the process. With few targets available, the only action from the Combine column was a hail of fire from its missile tanks to eliminate the disabled Paneuro missile tank that was stranded near the damaged hamlet. The Paneuro counterassault finally collapse in the north, as the Combine howitzer found the infantry on an open road. The Combine infantry defending the command posts continued to redeploy, hoping to catch the Paneuro GEV in any attempted assault.
Choosing a patriotic end, one squad of Paneuro infantry ventured onto the river bridge, demolishing it in place and falling to the river below, taking any survivors out of the fight. Fire from the remaining PE artillery pieces destroyed one Combine heavy and disabled another. The Paneuro GEV running amuck in the west made its move, screaming in to engage one of the combine infantry companies at close range. The surprise assault was a startling success, completely destroying the infantry company. The Combine flank was suddenly in danger!
With their line of advance cut off, the Combine armored column reversed direction, hoping to make it back in time to save the command posts. Meanwhile, the remaining infantry company moved to block the roving GEV, while another infantry company set off down the north-south freeway with the same goal in mind. Two companies of Combine infantry continued forward, one risking the river other artillery fire, the other taking position in the scarred hamlet and destroying the remaining pristine buildings. That objective, at least, was secure.
Safe from the main Combine assault force, the Paneuro artillery focused its fire on the infantry detachment making its way into the city. Caught on the open water, they were easy pickings. The Combine detachment within the city watched helplessly, forced to weather its own round of punishing but ultimately ineffective artillery fire. In the Combine backfield, the intrepid Paneuropean GEV failed to pound its way through the Combine command post's defenses and was forced to retreat to a safe distance, out of the reach of Combine infantry.
The Combine force continued its westward repositioning, the armored column moving at full speed across the open land between it and the freeway on which the lone Paneuro GEV now waited. The Combine infantry company that made the river crossing slowly advanced, looking for a chance to make a break for it and assault the less-defended Paneuro command post before the mobile howitzers took them out.
That was not to be, however, as the Paneuropean howitzers and missile tank poured fire into the wrecked European city, eliminating this last vestige of the cross-river assault. The GEV made another attack run on the command post, once again failing to damage it and being forced to pull back to a safe distance.
As the remaining Combine forces closed in, the GEV made a break for the east, only to be splashed by a maximum-range shot from the northern Combine howitzer.
Although the results of the engagement were not decisive, historians tend to agree that the day went to the Combine forces, as they inflicted serious casualties on the Paneuropeans while accruing slightly less serious casualties themselves, and managed to inflict the desired punitive strike on the Paneuro citizenry. However, the inability to manage the final cross-river assault forced them to give up on their hopes of eliminating the Paneuropean command, and fighting in the area would continue for months and months afterward.
Combine VPs: 101
Paneuropean VPs: 66
This was the basic Ceasefire Collapse scenario from the GEV rulebook.
Once the Combine broke the Paneuropean counterattack, this seemed like it was going to swing much more decisively in the Combine's favor. Unfortunately, the early loss of the entire Combine GEV force combined with the ability of the Paneuropean side to cut off the only bridge access to their stronghold meant that there was no hope of successfully taking the Paneuro CPs and artillery.
This is an interesting scenario by dint of its having a symmetrical setup (equal force point totals) with asymmetric dispositions (one force able to start along a broad, even line, the other having a jagged front with half its territory behind a major river).
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Matthew Jones
United States
Forest Grove
Oregon
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Fantastic session report. In my mind's eye, I was there.
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Barry Kendall
United States
Lebanon
Pennsylvania
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Vivid. Violent. Vigorous.
I'm having vicarious sensations of radiation poisoning. Off for some KI tablets.
You probably played with the map and counters, but thanks to your excellent descriptive ability and record-keeping, I was picturing a game with miniatures played out on a large "Heroscape" hex-terrain battlefield.
I'm getting the itch to break OGRE/GEV out again!
Thanks.
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A S
United States
Unspecified
California
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Barry Kendall wrote:
You probably played with the map and counters, but thanks to your excellent descriptive ability and record-keeping, I was picturing a game with miniatures played out on a large "Heroscape" hex-terrain battlefield.
I'm getting the itch to break OGRE/GEV out again!
Thanks.
Glad you liked it. Yes, this was a straight hex-and-counters game, played with the GEV map from the copy of the set I picked up sometime in the 80s. I had a sudden desire to revisit OGRE/GEV, and decided to start by cracking out the basic set and playing the most generic scenario in it. I'm trying to decide what to propose as the next one -- maybe the train scenario, which I remember being annoying for the train player the last time I tried it, back in the early 90s.
The record-keeping on this scenario was pretty straightforward -- almost everything in the report was written "on the fly" following each player turn. I'll have to see if that's still feasible for some of the more complex scenarios; certainly, when I do session reports for WotR or Axis & Allies, I have to just take notes and reconstruct the story afterward.
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Lance McMillan
United States
Lakebay
Washington
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Very cool AAR. Thanks for posting.
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A S
United States
Unspecified
California
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I just realized that I think we had some infantry riding on GEVs in this game, which is a goof -- infantry can only hitch a ride on Light and Heavy Tanks in the GEV rules. I don't think this seriously impacted the game this time around (ah, knocking off the rust).
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