Ogre Miniatures Rules

  

The Ogre Miniatures rule books stands as the central pillar for playing Ogre on wargame terrain.  It is both a testament to the popularity of the original game, and the levels that one can stretch a set of rules to convert them from being a hex map board game to one that can be played on a green tabletop.  I have a confession to make though, I have never played Ogre Miniatures on the wargame table.  Why, because I don't have a big enough table to play the game as written, and I also have certain reservations about the conversion.

The ground scale of Ogre Miniatures is two inches to 1500 metres, or approximately one mile if you prefer Imperial.  At that ratio the miniatures are at best tokens, and at worse things that are far too large, which get in the way of playing the game; in short gonks.  Also, because the original game is based on hexes that are units of area, the miniatures game conversion causes for me problems around measuring a straight line distance versus counting areas.  This is a problem one also encounters when playing BattleTech.  The two systems of counting distance are sufficiently different in their assumptions that for me they break the flow of the game.

If I lived in an ideal world where I had a house with a dedicated wargames room, and the financial resources to throw at my hobbies that meant I could do whatever I liked, then I would use Kallistra's Hexon range, which would meet my needs to have nice looking terrain, and no need to muck around with converting rules that changes the flavour of the game being played.  I also think that the Ogre miniatures line are the Redheaded stepchild of Steve Jackson Games.  I believe this because they don't fit within what SJG see as their core products, namely games using paper and card.  However, I also think that the miniatures played on the hex map boards are the epitome of the hybrid board wargame. 

So here's hoping that Ogre Miniatures go from strength-to-strength now that the Ogre Designer Edition has reinvigorated interest in the line.

  

Dalek Size Comparison

I posted here about the Daleks one can now get by buying a copy of Risk, see here for details.  When I posted my news on TMP a while back there was a general discussion that revealed a third option, namely using Dr Who mobile phone charms that offer Daleks.  So I went and bought one and have taken a size comparison picture for you all to judge for yourselves.

So from left to right we have a Dalek from Risk that measures 16mm, my white metal Daleks that are 14mm, and the mobile charm Dalek that measure 18mm.

Without doubt the latter is rather charming, if you will pardon the pun, being prepainted and all.  However, the cheapest I've seen was around £2 per figure, and up to £8 per figure, or even more if you try and buy them from Germany.  That's $3 to $12 dollars per miniature for my American readers.  At the cheaper end for a nicely painted model it's steep, but bearable.  Above that I think you would have to have more money than sense to go down this route.

The Risk Daleks are plain, need work to add details, and of course painting.  However, for £40, or about $60 equivalent I guess, you would get 126 New Who Daleks, and 84 New Paradigm Daleks too.  On the bangs per buck level this is quite attractive, but remember you have to finish and paint them.

I think I shall keep an eye out for more cheap Dr Who mobile phone charms, because with a bit of modification to the base they could be reduced in height enough to be compatible with my white metal Daleks.
  

Blast-Tastic

 

I had meant to do a couple more posts in January, but for various reasons, like it became February for one, I failed to do so.

First off I would like to announce that I shall be taking my Ogre MIB roadshow to Blast-Tastic, which is a new SF wargames show to be held in Bristol in October. You heard it here first.

So, this weekend I was inspired to do some painting, as I would very much like to be able to run an extended Ogre game from using one of the GEV scenarios. Of course to do that I will need more North American Combine models, and a Pan European Ogre.

The top picture shows the first of the now completed Combine models that only need varnishing before I can field them.

The above picture shows the Pan European Fencer with a few friends.

Some new additions being light GEVS and light tanks, with some more heavy and super heavy tanks, standard GEVs and personnel carriers to add depth to my current force.

Once the above have dried over night, I shall start the first of three washes that I use for weathering.

Another New Year

Cute Tachikoma model I found on eBay that would be suitable for 25mm games.  I really wanted it to be smaller for using with 15mm figures.  Still it's cute and sits below my monitor screen to bring a smile to my face every time I look at it.

Another year has rushed by in a flurry with the usual responses of where did all the time go?  I've been less than one hundred percent focussed on this blog over the last year, and given my need to write more books and try to sell them, this is likely to the pattern for this year too.

However, saying that I saved off all my thirty-seven posts here and discovered that I have written 9,464 words during the past year.  Not quite a post per week, and if I compared the word count to any of the previous years I'm sure the total would be well down, but such is life I'm afraid.

Last year I covered a lot of ground and I see a lot of unfinished projects in passing, like my armour forces that I started painting for the Mummerset Campaign, which remains a work in progress.  I also spent a bit of time getting to know the Heavy Gear universe and learning the rules with the intent of using them for a VOTOMS inspired campaign that came to nothing.  I still have a whole load of VOTOMs to paint, languishing on my workbench.  I even missed the launch of Robotech, which was down to a combination of money and time.

For me the big highlight of the year was getting my BattleTech article into the final issue of Battlegames before it folded and he went onto become the editor Miniature Wargames.  I've written an Ogre article in a similar vein for Miniature Wargames, but I'm waiting for a copy of the Ogre Designer Edition to arrive to take pictures for the piece.  Keeping fingers crossed that it will arrive soon.

Played a bit of Dropzone Commander, but money and time prevents me from taking a bigger interest in the universe.  I'm finding it hard enough to keep up with painting stuff for Ogre; I need lots more North American Combine armour and infantry to be able to play GEV scenarios. I'm also working my way through Gruntz with plans for Daleks and mecha and other SF madness.  I'm also working on a review of Gruntz, but want to have played more games so that I'm writing from a more authorative position, since Miniature Wargames has taken to grading reviews by how much the reviewer has played the game.

I've been to Salute and SELWG this year, along with Dragonmeet, and of course GeekFest.  On the general popularity of posts this year the posts on Risk doing Daleks came top with nearly a thousand views a piece that can be read here and here,  I checked back through the blog post counts and discovered that the number one most viewed piece in in fact one I wrote about the Classic BattleTech forum talking about ammo and explosions.  Go figure.

So, another year has flown by and what do I have to look forward to.  More posts about Ogre, as it is my current obsession.  Daleks and Gruntz, but this will be some time given my priorities.  Spaceships; just as soon as I get around to dusting them off and taking pictures of my three fleets.  I meant to do that last year, but you know how it is?  As always thank you all for taking the time to read my posts, it means a lot to me.  Have a nice one now.
   

Ogre Haul

Well this year was not one of over whelming wargaming goodies under the tree, but what was lost in quantity was made up for with quality. 

Besides getting a copy of Risk: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, I also got Charley's War: The End; the highly acclaimed Pat Mills story, illustrated by the late great Joe Colquhoun. The tenth and final volume of the story, which is a must read for everyone who has an interest in WW1, especially as this year is the 100th anniversary of the start of a war that changed the face of Europe, and the world.

Not a Xmas present as such, as I ordered some Ogre miniatures back in October, but due to the amount of Ogre Designer Editions that had to be posted by Steve Jackson Games there was a little bit of a back log at Warehouse 23 that meant delays on getting other stuff out.

Still I am very happy with my Doppelsoldner, Ninja, Mark 3, command post ,and spare Fencer turret arriving in time for Xmas.

So, well done to all the staff at Warehouse 23 for doing such an excellent job, and  I do hope all the staff had a nice break over the holiday period.

Dalek Invasion Earth

Well today I managed to persuade my beloved non-wargaming spouse to play a game of Risk: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, which I had been given for Xmas.  In the excitement to set-up the game board and play I had forgotten that there were already rules for two player games; after I had dealt three factions out, with the third being nominally controlled by the plush toy kitten's.  They represented a neutral Dalek faction that would attack with each of us controlling their forces on alternate moves.

What is nice about the new editions of Risk is that there are ways to end the game in a reasonable period of time.  In this case the game ends on the eleventh regeneration of the Doctor.  You track his regenerations by using a Clara token that progresses each time a player's turn begins, with some of the slots making you roll a D6 to see if he takes another regeneration if you fail the roll.  So games can theoretically be much shorter than eleven rounds.  Ours was over in two hours, which was mostly down to having to read the special rules, refreshing my memory on how the game plays and taking the pictures for the blog.

The other twist to this version of Risk is the TARDIS moving randomly around the board and wherever it lands no movement or fighting may occur.  Other bits of chrome are the Mission cards that give one bonus Daleks for conquering certain territories, and Power cards that can either reduce or increase the number of Daleks one gets at the beginning of your turn, on top of the usual amount that one is entitled to.  One of the Power cards allows you to move the TARDIS to another territory.  However, after counting the cards at the end of the game the odds are you will lose Daleks more often than you will gain them.

As usual every territory you successfully invade gets you a card that you save up and cash in for more Daleks, based not on sets, but on the number of stars on the card.  More stars equals more Daleks.  Our game ended with the plush toy kittens having the most territories, but if the Doctor hadn't regenerated then my partner was about to hand in a heap load of cards and sweep all who stood in their way off the board.

Of course I know that the rabid Dalek fans who are reading this really want to know if the miniatures in this game fulfill their need for 15mm scale Daleks for wargaming.  The answer is yes, but I would want to replace the plunger arms with pins as the moulded Daleks do not have plungers on the end of the arms.

As you can see above the small Daleks are very compatible with my old white metal ones from thirty years ago.  The mid-size ones appear to be a good match for 20mm games, and the large for 28mm wargaming.  However, do note that two of the five factions are mouldings of the New Paradigm Daleks and they suck.  More details on contents here and where to buy it here.