Ogre - Designer's Edition
Yes, it is huge.
After spending a few hours punching out counters and constructing Ogres, Son#2 and I took the game out for a spin. Of course he insisted on playing the MK IV named DOOM, with the rubber ducky on the conning tower.
MK IV has a move of 4.
And I've lost units before they've even had a chance to fire.
CHARGE!
Just like old times... GEVs swarming.
I'm not exactly sure why, but his original tactic seemed to be "I'll let you come to me." After letting him do that a couple times, I reminded him his objective was to destroy the CP, and dawdling isn't going to get him any closer.
He put the pedal to the metal.
Ho Ho! I have not heard about that game before. Is it like Battletech without figures, John?
"We do not stop playing when we get old, but we get old when we stop playing."
After I saw your post about this game I did some research and discovered that the game really has a large number of components and they are all huge. That's a ton of paper and cardboard!
When I was young I had the original micro version packaged in a zip bag.
Last edited by richarddaystrom; 12-05-2013 at 10:45.
I can't say for sure, since I've never played Battletech. What I can say is that it's a fairly easy to learn wargame that dates back to '77, famous for being the very first "Microgame", and the game that launched Steve Jackson's career. The original looks like this.Originally Posted by Nightbomber
It can also be played as a miniatures game.
Mine was from Kickstarter, but you should be able to find copies through Steve Jackson Games' Warehouse 23.
http://www.warehouse23.com/info/ogre.html
Played the miniature version a long time ago at my local club ,probably about 20years ago actually.
No -- it's 30 lbs. of paper and cardboard.
At least, that's what the packing sheet said. ;)
Now if only SJG could find someone smart enough to understand "we want a reprint of PB _Car Wars_, not some entirely different version whose only commonality with the original is a few vehicle names"....
Car Wars - YES!!!! Now you're talking!
Zooming around Midville/East Midville on my Kawasaki Kamikaze (2 heavy rockets and one point of armour!), looking for pedestrians to mow down..... happy days!
The Ogre Designer's Edition is a "monster" game in every measurable respect.
Never heard of it until now. Wow....that is a huge game!
Hmmm... with that large a map one could fly WoG planes in for an attack! What's an Ogre's AA rating?
Indeed, it is. This is from our second game, and it is only half of the maps that I have for it.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
The howitzer didn't even get a chance to fire. Same goes for ALL of the missile tanks. Not looking at all good for me.
By now I have taken out all of his long range weapons except for one secondary battery, and one missile rack. He thinks he is going to win on the next turn.
But with a few lucky hits, I reduce him down to AP. It doesn't matter, even without the AP he can still win just by ramming the CP.
Now I must try to keep him for getting off of the board.
Of course, you can make your own miniatures table for OGRE.
First move - a Mk V comes ashore.
...and runs into an INF and HVY defence...
How to make the table (with costs)
Ingredients: (All prices in Aussie Dollars - halve or less for US)
1 Cheap TT Table ($120)
1 Tin Acrylic Desert-like paint ($38)
1 Tube cheap artists acryllic blue (for river)($2.80)
1 Tube cheap artists acryllic red oxide ($2.80)
1 Tube cheap artists acryllic burnt umber ($2.80)
1 Cheap Spraycan Ivory paint ($2)
2kg Moulding Plaster ($12.95)
1 Black Permanent Marker ($4)
2 sq feet lino or cork floor covering (~$6)
1 bottle expensive modellers white paint ($4)
1 bottle expensive modellers black paint ($4)
1 bottle expensive modellers yellow paint ($4)
Thick cardboard for making hex template (nil)
About 3 meters (10 ft) of aluminium foil. ($1)
Plastecine (Silly Putty) to make master of crater. ($2)
Tools:
Plastic butter container or similar for mixing plaster
1 old breadknife, ditto
Various large paintbrushes
Paint Roller
Stanley or large exacto knife for cutting template
Ruler in cm or 1/16" for measuring template]
Pair of compasses for making template.
Tins snips or pruning shears for cutting lino/cork.
Directions: Use Roller and desert-like paint on tabletennis table. Give 3 coats, allow 1 day to dry between coats. Feel free to add splodges of burnt umber and red oxide to break up the colour a bit. When the paint's dry, spray patches of Ivory on the clear area. Paint the odd hex or two with Burnt Sienna or Red Oxide, mixed with the basic desert colour. Then paint the river.
Prepare a cardboard hex template: each hex side should be 6.5 cm, or 2 5/8 inches. This can be done best by using a pair of compasses to make a circle, then using the compasses to make the 6 vertices.
Spend seemingly forever putting hexes on the table with the black permanent marker, drawing around the template. Then for the masochistic, number the hexes. Finally, very carefully draw in the locations of the craters and debris fields. This is tedious, takes a long time and is terminally boring. But worth while.
Now make a crater out of plastecine. After it's finished, use it to stamp a mould out of aluminium foil. Use some more of it to support the centre, so the plaster won't crush it. Now make a crater. Repeat 14 times, making new moulds each time from the master, being careful to conserve the bits of plaster still adhering to the foil. Also conserve the bits in the bottom of the flexible plastic butter container - just flex it a bit to get it out.
Now use the tin snips to make strips of lino/cork about 6-7cm long and 2cm wide, rounded at the ends. You'll need about 60.
Mix up batches of plaster , with the irregular chunks of plaster debris added to give it some chunky texture. Apply to the strips to make ridges of debris, using the dried-up chunks-in-the-botom from one batch to make the next.
Paint the debris and craters with the tin of paint you used for the basic board. Make "Boiling lava" effect in each crater bottom by first painting outlines of circles in red oxide, then white centres, then yellow feathered between the white centre and the red edge. Wash the debris with very heavily thinned black paint. Drybrush the debris and crater sides with burnt umber.
Total cost: $200 parts :-), probably 30 hours labour :-(
Here's a rare one. Even die-hard OGRE fans might have some difficulty recognising it.
Standard Fencer-A
Legionaire / Mk III
Fencer C (Upgunned in the field - 2 secondaries and a main)
Fencer D (4 secondaries, only a few made in the Toulon plant)
Showing differences between Mk V and late production Huscarle
Heavy Assault wave
I've got my Kickstarter Ogre plus some extra sheets sitting in the front room as I type - SWMBO still won't give in to my pleading (and that of my brother and nephew) and let me open it now rather than at XmasNever mind - 'twill make an awesome Xmas Day / Boxing Day game (which is a tradition in my family - my brother & I and now my nephew play a boardgame over the holidays)
Also have miniatures up in the loft - must get them out.
Ogre Ninja?Here's a rare one. Even die-hard OGRE fans might have some difficulty recognising it.
C'mon now, that one isn't real.Fencer D (4 secondaries, only a few made in the Toulon plant)
At least, not as real as my AA-gun Dolphins.
In that case, you should at least ask SWMBO to get you a couple sets of the new counters that have come out since the Kickstarter ended.I've got my Kickstarter Ogre plus some extra sheets sitting in the front room as I type - SWMBO still won't give in to my pleading (and that of my brother and nephew) and let me open it now rather than at Xmas
Very neat, but that 30 hours of labor takes it beyond my level of dedication.
It's time to chew on those treads.
I eventually get him down to a move of 3.
And then a move of 2.
Which brings us back to the original pic. I think he was really hoping to get away mostly unscathed, and I wasn't going to let that happen. But he enjoyed it, enough that we played two more games afterward, only using the maps from GEV and Shockwave, and us teaming up against "computer" controlled Ogres.
At first glance I thought maybe Ninja as well, but with a closer look, realized it's the original miniature of the Mk IV.Here's a rare one. Even die-hard OGRE fans might have some difficulty recognising it.
Sadly, the guy in charge has already screwed up -- it's going to be 2" scale, which effectively halves the playing area available. And the munchkins are already trying to add bugs like "exploding dice" and other video-game rubbish.
The only hope is for the KS for _CW_ to fail miserably, thus proving "what the gamers want is _CW_ without the rules-FUBARs left by Blankenship, Oines, Searle, and Sheeley [PTOOI!]".
Correct. Only a few were made, none put on sale. Rare as Hen's teeth.
The blurb behind it:
The re-designed version was considerably smaller, based on a Mk.III not Mk.V sized chassis.One of the so called "early" Mark IV's which suffered from numerous drive train problems before the Mark IV's were extensively redesigned. Only approximately 30 of these were produced. The 1st 15 had problems sufficient to prevent their deployment and were either dismantled or kept as training/defence units. The remainder were dispatched to the various theaters for combat testing of how to employ Mark IV's. Units served in Europe and Siberia with good results, despite unusually high maintenance requirements.
Photo: Wareheouse 23
Last edited by Zoe Brain; 12-06-2013 at 19:07.
Ahhh... as in this:
Unreleased Partha Models
Prototypes – some more finished than others – were created for several more models, and a few escaped and found their way into the hands of lucky collectors. The masters were acquired by SJ Games in 2000. Of these, the Combine infantry were refinished by Richard Kerr and released; the Combine superheavy and mobile howitzer were modified somewhat; and the Combine LGEV had only minor changes. The Paneuropean GEV and MK IV will be resculpted completely.
Our second game was two Ogres versus a Fencer and some combined infantry and armor. #2 was running the Fencer, while I ran the human troops. The Ogres were more-or-less on autopilot, heading toward our two CPs as best they could. Things got tense when one of the Ogres finally made a run for one of the CPs. We had taken the movement down on one, and the weapons down on the other, so the task became one of rushing back and forth between two Ogres trying to finish them off. The highlight looked like this:
My surviving infantry, with 1 GEV and a few LGEVs, saved the day.
For our final game of the day we did a clash of the titans. Yep, Ogres vs Ogres and a Doppelsoldner. To be more specific, a Mark VI and a Mark IV versus two Mark Is, two Mark IIs and Son#2 at the helm of the Doppel. It was a blast, and I suppose that city fought in and around was leveled by the time the game was done (I didn't slow things down by worrying about spillover fire results on a city hex, but suffice to say there were plenty of 4-1 attacks directed at objects in those hexes).
She has - I was allowed on to Warehouse 23 yesterday and bought the extra counters and the carryallShe is pretty understanding of my fixations on WoG and Ogre etc. (she also let me pre-order Series 7 for my birthday
I am working on "the battle of Jutland with OGREs"....
Outstanding!
While the Designer Edition does look pretty nice, I already have quite a few of the metal miniatures and $100 would buy a lot more GEVs and a couple more Ogres, almost all of which are available again. I wouldn't catch up with Zoe, but luckily we aren't in an arms race.
Yeah , I figure as many units, and as big as map, as this will take, everyone will be out [of the room] standing [because there's no room for chairs]. ;)
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