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| The set up. North American Combine forces are on the top right of the picture ready to sweep forward, the Pan European Federation bottom left forming a defensive line. This is the basic 16 armour units and 18 infantry platoons, and I should've given more thought to the Combine's deployment. |
If SJG were still pushing Ogre as game that they wanted demoed then their would be more incentive at one level. Though to be absolutely frank the rewards versus cost of being an MIB are at best marginal. And again I don't demo the game for the freebies SJG send me, they are for me bunce.
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| The ceasefire agreement has collapsed and now the North American Combine have escalated their attack by bringing on the big guns, in this particular instance a Mark 3 Ogre. Rolled for when the initial attack failed to see if the attack escalated. |
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| The Mark 3 sweeps down the flank and is about to destroy a howitzer. At this point the valiant freedom loving Pan European defenders think they are going down hard. |
NB: To answer Clive's question of why I brought so many extra painted miniatures than needed for the game the simple answer is just because more is always better. The other reason is choice. Had anyone wanted to change the ratio of units they could've have. I believe that allowing choice is a good thing.
Finally, another blog with a report about Blast-Tastic! here.
It's a real shame that the game is out of print. I would love to have a copy, but I expect they are going to be rather expensive...:(
ReplyDeleteAt this point in time eBay is your friend. I did a quick search and found a copy for £119.00 including P&P.
DeleteIt is definitely a pity how SJG has neglected this line. I gave up being an MiB for the simple reason that I would no longer get points for demoing the SJG games that I know and like, none of which are Munchkin, which is the only thing they really seem to care about.
ReplyDeleteI truly wish they would have spent that $1,000,000+ on getting a more modest line of games and expansions into print, rather than a big-splash special edition that came and went so quickly.
I think I will be having a similar career trajectory with SJG too. Sad, as I love Ogre and GEV, and games like Awful Green Things etc.
DeleteAs for the Kickstarter. That was I believe a steep learning curve in how not to run a Kickstarter, because while in principle the stretch goals were reached there was no long term strategy. There again I believe there was no goal other than to have a new edition. Looking at the maps and pieces as they stand there was enough product for at least three stand alone games, possibly five (five maps acting as the core component for five games), which not only have created buzz, but also depth. Losing the miniatures just a consequence of shallow marketing strategy.
If this was a fair world we would at least see the Ogres kept in limited production, but it's not going to happen anytime soon.
Hi, I'm pretty sure all those maps had already been released in other supplements. All SJG did for the DEdition was make them larger.
DeleteNaturally I kickstarted a copy!
"Have a base set you can keep in print" is a key lesson that I'm pretty sure SJG has learned. I speculate that the powers at SJG think of OGRE as basically a board-and-counters game rather than a map-and-miniatures game, and as a board-and-counters game it probably isn't a long-term runner even with the nifty cardboard bits (which I love); as a miniatures game, maybe with a slightly updated set of rules, perhaps it could, but that really isn't the sort of game they produce and they understandably don't want to let it out into someone else's hands.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm not a game publisher, and I'm not even on casual chatting terms with as many of them as Ashley is.
Wish I had been there, sounds like it was a great day
ReplyDeleteThere is always next year. BTW Happy Birthday.
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