Rearguard Action
by Daniel Jew
March 9, 2018
The defenders in this scenario seek to disengage and fight another day. Their adversaries, however, have other plans . . .
Maps. Use G2 South.
Setup. The defender begins on the east side of the board and needs to exit off the west edge. The attackers will enter the map from the east edge.
Defending Force Tango: The defender places four armor units, of any kind, anywhere on the map except in the half-hexes closest to the entry edge. Any of these may be traded for three infantry squads. These units will need to be differentiated from Force Zulu in some manner: use unique units (e.g., they are the only Missile Tanks on the board), a different faction's units, or place markers on the specific units.
Defending Force Zulu: The defender places another six armor units and nine squads in, or east of, hex column 20. These six armor units cannot include any unit with more than M3 (e.g., any type of GEV).
The defender may take a maximum of six Light Tanks total in Forces Tango and Zulu.
The attacker chooses 12 armor units and 15 squads to enter on Turn 1 from the entry edge. He may inspect the defender's setup before choosing his units. The half-hexes count as a hex of movement.
The defender moves first.
Special rules. Neither side may take Cruise Missiles. Do not use the terrain and bridge destruction rules (sections 13.01 and 13.02 of the Ogre Designer's Edition rulebook) or Ogre exchanges (section 13.03 of the ODE rulebook).
Escape. Defending units may exit the board off the west edge. Attacking units may exit from the east edge. Units that leave may not re-enter the map.
Objectives and victory. Each defending unit from Force Zulu that escapes off the west edge scores double its standard victory point (VP) value for the defender (e.g. a Heavy Tank that escaped would score 12 VP). Units from Force Tango do not score VPs upon escaping, but escaping may prevent the attacker from destroying that unit (and thus, scoring points against the defender)!
The defender also scores the standard VP for every attacker destroyed (e.g. killing a Heavy Tank would score 6 VP).
The attacker scores the standard VP for each defending unit that is destroyed (e.g. killing a Heavy Tank would score 6 VP).
The game ends when there are no more defending units on the board. The player with the higher VP total wins.
Expanded scenario. The defender gets six armor units as Force Tango, and nine armor units and 15 squads as Force Zulu. He is limited to a total of 10 Light Tanks.
The attacker gets 18 armor units and 24 squads of infantry to enter on Turn 1.
Fuzzy Wuzzy option. Try playing without the Light Tank limit.
Ogre option. Allow both sides to field Ogres (exchanging as per section 13.03 of the Ogre Designer's Edition rulebook).
Play balance. Add one armor unit to Zulu to balance the scenario toward the defender. Add two armor units to the attacker to balance the scenario the other way.
Playtesters: Henry Cobb, Daniel Jew, Drew Metzger, David Rock and David Walend
The Ogrezine PDF, combining all of these articles with additional new material, may be purchased on Warehouse 23.
