Ogre (game)
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Ogre is a board wargame first released in 1977, as the first Metagaming Microgame by Steve Jackson and has been reprinted many times since, most recently in 2000. 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 concept was strongly influenced by Keith Laumer's novel Bolo (1976), and Colin Kapp's short story "Gottlos" (1969).[1] The Ogre itself is named after the large and strong mythological beast ogre.
Its basic premise is that of one player controlling a large number of pieces while the other player controls only one.
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 number 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 ("ground effect vehicle"—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.
[edit] Spinoffs
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 more realistic map terrain rules than Ogre's "clear land and craters" system, as well as rules for overrun combat, spillover fire, and cover. It also introduced a points-based victory condition system which made possible a variety of symmetrical and asymmetrical scenarios. (G.E.V. still featured the Ogre unit, with detailed rules governing Ogres, and two new types of missile-oriented Ogres were introduced in this game.)
Other games based on Ogre include:
- Shockwave, an expansion that introduced new unit types including cruise missiles and a map that could be used with the G.E.V. map,
- Ogre Miniatures, an adaptation of the game to miniature wargaming,
- Diceland:Ogre, a paper dice game,
- Computer adaptations, including the 1986 release by Origin Systems for Apple II, Amiga, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, and Macintosh.
