OGRE: the video game.

Hear that rumbling, coming from the horizon?  The Ogre approaches:

Ogre, the classic game of future tank warfare, will come to PC via Steam next year in a hex/turn based adaptation by experienced Steam developer and publisher Auroch Digital. Ogre raised nearly a million dollars on Kickstarter for its giant Designer’s Edition, and one of the stretch-goal promises was “We will do a computer game.” Here it comes. Work on the project will begin immediately, and the game should be released in late 2017.

Not a real-time game, then.  But, you know? It might work out, at that.  If it was a RTS I’d be spending most of the game firing blindly at everything at once and then flipping my Ogre into a ditch.  Whether the game would let me do that, or not.

Ooh. Gonna be an Ogre expansion from SJG coming out this year.

Ogre Designer’s Edition, of course, being that huge-as-heck wargame that I totally geeked out about when it got Kickstartered… a few years back? Sheesh, time flies, huh? Anyway: Steve Jackson Games will be putting out an expansion later this year, with a hard cap of $65 on the retail price. New maps, more buildings, possibly the Ninja ‘stealth’ Ogre.  And yes, the concept of a ‘stealth’ tank that’s bigger than my house raises eyebrows in-game, too.

More about it all here.

Some interesting stuff here from SJG about the OGRE sponsor sheets.

Basically, one of the Kickstarter sponsorship levels was the right to make and sell your own specialized sheets of Ogres (often with scenarios added).  You would think that these would all be processed by the sponsors right away, because that level of sponsorship was not cheap.  But not quite 100%

…an update on the status of the various sponsored counter sheets created by third parties in support of the new Ogre edition. The biggest lesson we learned from those was: it’s risky. Some of the counter-sheet sponsors performed their obligations flawlessly. Some had problems but are working through them. Some seem to have fallen off the map.

The problem, with 20-20 hindsight, is that it’s possible to have enough money and enthusiasm to sponsor a counter sheet, and even take orders, and still not have the ability to follow through.

Something to keep in mind, if you were planning a crowdsourced project in the near future.

Got My Ogre Sixth Edition Nihon Empire: North American Division sheets!

Roy Kubichek was one of the Kickstarter donors who bought the right to get their own sheets – and he’s selling ’em as we speak. The sheets are so people can recreate the last events of the OGRE timeline before society collapsed to the city-state level (the invasion of North America by a revived Japanese Empire); they’re flat, not 3D, so Roy got a goodly number of units on each sheet. Check it out.

Moe Lane

PS: You may find Roy’s main site… congenial.

So I just *started* putting together the OGRE 3D figures.

For people without the game: basically, they’re punch-outs on cardstock that you have to assemble yourself.  It’s not difficult, but there’s a freaking lot of them.

…No, really, there’s a lot of them.  The assembly sheet explicitly says not to punch them all out at once and then assemble; that way lies madness (direct quote).  And given how many Kickstarter sheets were added (although I could have sworn there was supposed to be a Kaiju in there somewhere)… I’m not gonna be able to fit all the pieces in the assigned spots in the box.  I dunno what I’m going to do about that.  Plastic bags, maybe?

Moe Lane

PS: Mind you, I plan to keep getting minis for this game, so there’s that.

PPS: I’m a little vague today, too.  Not enough sleep last night either, apparently.