Ogre Project

Sometimes, it takes a crisis to get motivated. :-)

One of the first science-fiction games I ever played - in the mid 70's - was the original Ogre boardgame (then published as a Microgame by Metagaming Concepts).

Years passed. Steve Jackson, designer of Ogre and its sequel games, bought the rights and published new editions by his own company (Steve Jackson Games). In the mid-80's, I worked for Steve, and did some development work on the Ogre product line - including editing and playtesting the Ogre Reinforcement Pack, and playing an early version of the first miniatures rules (which, at the time, didn't make it into development).

Another decade passes. I move into the computer game field, and whenever I bump into Steve in my travels, it reminds me to try to get an Ogre computer game off the ground as a real-time strategy game. (There was an earlier Ogre computer game, from Origin Systems in the early '80's.) Alas, I'm never able to get the project approved...

More years pass. Ogre miniature rules are finally published. Miniatures, which were available in the past sporadically, are now being sold regularly and reliably by Steve Jackson Games. Then the miniatures rules go out of print, but new deluxe editions of Ogre (and a sequel) come out - these are boardgame versions, but use large poster-like maps and come with miniatures.

I'm always intending to buy some of the models, but the prices seem a bit high so I procrastinate...and then there's the announcement: Steve Jackson Games is getting out of the miniatures business, the miniatures unit is closing, and sales will be halted.

A crisis! And that is how I finally got around to starting my own personal Ogre miniatures project...

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What's Ogre?

In a nutshell, Ogre is the original game in the Ogre series. In a world of the future, it depicts a scenario in which a giant cybernetic tank attempts to defeat a force of infantry and tanks and destroy their command post.

What's the Project?

To acquire and paint up enough models to play the Ogre basic scenario, to model an Ogre terrain board, and to come up with storage for all of the items.