The game Ogre is set in the late 21st century, if I remember correctly. In the game universe, the two primary adversaries are the Paneuropean Union (think EU on steroids) and the North American Combine (NAFTA on steroids).
"Ogre" was the name given to the Combine cybernetic tanks that dominated the battlefield. The tanks were pretty much self-aware (like Laumner's Bolos) and a real pain to destroy. The three units pictured above are an Ogre Mk I (top), an Ogre Mk VI (bottom left) and an Ogre Mk III (bottom right).
The short barreled cannon are "primary batteries" which I always thought of as large plasma guns although I think the game considered them to shoot large nuclear projectiles. The longer guns along the back of the lower two units are "secondary batteries", slightly smaller and shorter ranged than the primaries.
The boxes with the red-tipped objects are missile box launchers – single shot missiles. They are the heaviest ordnance carried by Ogres. The three red domes along the center aft section of the Mk VI are "missile racks" – internal missile launchers with magazines of about 20 or so missiles.
The small protrusions along the sides of the Mk III and Mk VI are antipersonnel batteries that are only good against infantry and unarmored structures.
To destroy an Ogre one must destroy each weapon individually and all of the treads, all of which are armored. They do take some killing….
The basic Ogre game pits a single Ogre Mk III (bottom right) against an armor battalion consisting of 12 points of armor and 20 infantry squads. An armor point is a tank, missile tank, GEV (hovertank), etc. A howitzer counts as 2 armor units. The goal is for the Ogre to destroy the command post and escape off the map.
It's a fair fight.
The "advanced" Ogre game pits an Ogre Mk V against an armored division of 20 armor points and 30 infantry. The Mk V has two primaries, six secondaries and six missiles.
The follow-on game to Ogre was/is GEV. It's a more wide-ranging "traditional" sci-fi armor game.
I believe you can still purchase "Pocket Ogre" from Steve Jackson Games for around $3 USD or so. The Ogre miniatures line have been out of print for a long time with little to no hope of ever being brought back. I've got my fingers crossed that the Polyversal Kickstarter actually funds so I can breath some life back into my Ogre miniatures.
Ogre is a great game to introduce youngsters to wargaming as you can let them run the big mean tank with all the cool weapons. Lots of fun blasting and ramming all of the smaller units. On the other hand, learning how to pick apart an Ogre without getting creamed can be a good challenge.
Regards,
Scott Chisholm
