Ogre (game)
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Ogre_microgame.jpg
Ogre microgame cover image
Ogre is a board wargame first released in 1977, as the first Metagaming Microgame by Steve Jackson. After he founded his own company,Steve Jackson Games, Ogre and its sequel, G.E.V., were published there, along with further expansions. It is an asymmetric-forces hex-map game set in the late 21st century pitting one player's giant unmanned robot tank against the other player's headquarters defended by a mixture of conventional tanks, infantry, and artillery.
The game is still in print as of this writing, and many current gamers have fond memories of it. It is noteworthy for the elegance of the basic idea - that of one player controlling a large number of pieces while the other player controls only one - and for the surprisingly resonant background story, art (done, in the original edition, by Winchell Chung ) and game fiction provided with its various incarnations.
The game uses a hex-grid map depicting barren terrain with only ridgelines and large, radioactive craters as obstacles. The defender sets up his forces in the more congested part of the map and the Ogre enters the opposite side at the beginning of the game. The basic version features the Mark III Ogre, while the advanced scenario gives the attacker the larger, more powerful Mark V Ogre versus an increased number of defenders. The defender is specified a certain amount of infantry and 'armor units', but gets to decide the exact composition of his armored forces himself.
The different types of units encourage a combined-arms approach with each type being better than the others in different aspects. Heavy tanks have high attack and defense with moderate speed and low range. Missile tanks have moderate attack and defense with moderate range and low speed. G.E.V.s (short for "ground effect vehicles" - roughly heavily armored hovercraft) have very high speed (moving twice per turn), low attack, low range, and moderate defense. Howitzers have very high attack and range but are easily destroyed (once an attacker has managed to get close enough), immobile, and expensive.
Ogre spawned a sequel, G.E.V., focusing on the G.E.V. hovertank and the other "conventional" armor and infantry types. G.E.V. introduced somewhat more realistic map terrain rules than Ogre's "clear land and craters" system, as well as rules for overrun combat, spill fire, and cover. It also introduced a nuanced points-based victory condition system which made possible a variety of symmetrical and asymmetrical scenarios.
(G.E.V. did not neglect or forget about Ogres; in fact, it put forth detailed rules governing Ogres in its more detailed game mechanics, and two new types of missile-oriented Ogres were introduced in this game.)
Further games based off of Ogre include Shockwave, an expansion that introduced new unit types and a map that could be used with the G.E.V. map, and Ogre Miniatures an adaptation of the game to miniatures rules.
Several computer adapations of this game have been written, including one by the commercial game company Origin Systems.
External link
- Steve Jackson Games' Ogre page (http://www.sjgames.com/ogre/)