I love Ogre. I had the original classic micro box game back in the day when I was a kid. Bought 6th Ed and Battle Box [x2 to get more miniatures!] as an adult. I'm sad I missed out on the Designers Edition. How monster do I want my monster to be? All the monster. All of it! Great review. Thanks.
I've been bingeing on your channel recently as even though I'm 5 years older, I'm enjoying the many echos of my gaming experience through your videos. Microgames were very much part of it and I still have my old copies of some of them , Car Wars, Illuminati, Invasion of the Air Eaters and its sequel, the Air Eaters strike back. What is amazing me, having lost touch with a lot of this, is how the games I played decades ago have progressed. I played G.E.V. a lot in my counters and hexes gaming days, but seeing it still going in its form with a deluxe map and models blew my mind. Looking forward to more content from you.
Perhaps worth mentioning that there have been several ranges of miniatures for Ogre/GEV over the years. Martian Metals cast them in metal in two waves, one in 1977 and second larger release in 1981. In 1982 SJG contracted T-Rex Miniatures to update the older MM sculpts and do casting for them, followed by Grenadier being licensed to produce them in 1983. By 1992 Ral Partha had the license, which they kept producing until casting was moved in-house at SJG in 2000. The range was considerably expanded at this point, including oddball stuff like the Ogrethulhu minis. In 2004 casting was contracted out to Grey Cat Casting. Up to that point everything was in metal, often multi-part and needing some assembly. The newer "giant hex" Sixth edition has had two sets of plastic minis to date, with a third set (consisting solely of two very large Ogres) having a botched production run (mispacked treads, possibly very dodgy plastic used) that's theoretically going to be fixed when then run a crowdfunding project for a fourth set. They'll sell you "set 3" on the web store but I'd caveat emptor and all that.
VERY good video review. I've been playing OGRE (and later, GEV) since it was a Metagaming micro-game. I was so very happy to see Steve resurrect it under his own company banner. Unfortunately, he couldn't purchase the rights to The Fantasy Trip (comprised originally of the micro-games Melee and Wizards) but finally secured them a little over six years ago and Kickstarted the absolutely incredible Legacy Edition. But I digress. In 2013 Steve Jackson Games Kickstarted OGRE Designer's Edition. You pretty much get 95% of that edition by buying the currently available OGRE and Battlefields. Mostly it was the extras in the goals that differentiate that version. I believe that OGRE entered a golden era with the launch of the Designer's edition which has continued up to the present. Most recently they just completed the crowdfunding of the 4th edition of the miniatures. (Specifically, the North American Combine units and the MK I and II Ogres.) Right now the minis are in short supply. But as of this writing, Set 1 is still available (and they are the really neat glow-in-the-dark plastic version) as well as the MK III and MK V Ogres. That's all you need to play the original OGRE game with miniatures if you want.
I've just recently finished painting my Set 4 minis from the KS. One thing you can say from the various Ogre releases - you get a lot of bang for your buck! Or should that be boom....
Ok wow this is Shannon Applecline levels of research and effort. Great work. This is probably the definitive overview for OGRE editions.
Thank-you!
I love Ogre. I had the original classic micro box game back in the day when I was a kid. Bought 6th Ed and Battle Box [x2 to get more miniatures!] as an adult. I'm sad I missed out on the Designers Edition. How monster do I want my monster to be? All the monster. All of it! Great review. Thanks.
It's definitely a monster. The micro set is very much more transportable! But yes, with a game like Ogre - only "all the monster" will do 😉
I've been bingeing on your channel recently as even though I'm 5 years older, I'm enjoying the many echos of my gaming experience through your videos. Microgames were very much part of it and I still have my old copies of some of them , Car Wars, Illuminati, Invasion of the Air Eaters and its sequel, the Air Eaters strike back. What is amazing me, having lost touch with a lot of this, is how the games I played decades ago have progressed. I played G.E.V. a lot in my counters and hexes gaming days, but seeing it still going in its form with a deluxe map and models blew my mind. Looking forward to more content from you.
And it's still developing! SJG have recently gone through another Ogre Kickstarter. Anyway - welcome, and I'm glad you're enjoying my efforts 🙂
Played GeV/Ogre in the early 80s….was awesome.
Great fun. And still playable today!
Perhaps worth mentioning that there have been several ranges of miniatures for Ogre/GEV over the years. Martian Metals cast them in metal in two waves, one in 1977 and second larger release in 1981. In 1982 SJG contracted T-Rex Miniatures to update the older MM sculpts and do casting for them, followed by Grenadier being licensed to produce them in 1983. By 1992 Ral Partha had the license, which they kept producing until casting was moved in-house at SJG in 2000. The range was considerably expanded at this point, including oddball stuff like the Ogrethulhu minis. In 2004 casting was contracted out to Grey Cat Casting.
Up to that point everything was in metal, often multi-part and needing some assembly. The newer "giant hex" Sixth edition has had two sets of plastic minis to date, with a third set (consisting solely of two very large Ogres) having a botched production run (mispacked treads, possibly very dodgy plastic used) that's theoretically going to be fixed when then run a crowdfunding project for a fourth set. They'll sell you "set 3" on the web store but I'd caveat emptor and all that.
All good info, thank you :)
Played this game back in the day. It was a lot of fun!
And it still is :)
definitely to watch later tonight
And now I watch! I've heard of this.. but don't know anything about it except it has one big tank
Yep, definitely a big tank!
VERY good video review. I've been playing OGRE (and later, GEV) since it was a Metagaming micro-game. I was so very happy to see Steve resurrect it under his own company banner. Unfortunately, he couldn't purchase the rights to The Fantasy Trip (comprised originally of the micro-games Melee and Wizards) but finally secured them a little over six years ago and Kickstarted the absolutely incredible Legacy Edition. But I digress. In 2013 Steve Jackson Games Kickstarted OGRE Designer's Edition. You pretty much get 95% of that edition by buying the currently available OGRE and Battlefields. Mostly it was the extras in the goals that differentiate that version. I believe that OGRE entered a golden era with the launch of the Designer's edition which has continued up to the present. Most recently they just completed the crowdfunding of the 4th edition of the miniatures. (Specifically, the North American Combine units and the MK I and II Ogres.) Right now the minis are in short supply. But as of this writing, Set 1 is still available (and they are the really neat glow-in-the-dark plastic version) as well as the MK III and MK V Ogres. That's all you need to play the original OGRE game with miniatures if you want.
I've just recently finished painting my Set 4 minis from the KS. One thing you can say from the various Ogre releases - you get a lot of bang for your buck!
Or should that be boom....
This was an awesome review, now I’m actually wanting to try the game out!
Go for it!
Many thanks for this fascinating dive into the Ogre world
Thank-you 🙂 Ogre makes for a fascinating drive, too. It'd make the daily trip to work more interesting, at the very least!
Great review as always. Thanks.
Thank-you!
good video, thankyou.
Thank-you!