September 16, 2017: Ogre Invades .*.*. Indiana University?!

[RoboAdmin]

September 16, 2017: Ogre Invades .*.*. Indiana University?!

Read this article on the Illuminator.

[sparky00]

I'm not sure if Ogre qualifies as one of the earliest wargames, but IMHO it is definitely one of the best. Ever.
I played many wargames - Blue & Grey, Luftwaffe, Wooden Ships & Iron Men, Cross of Iron, endless scenarios of Squad Leader, massive Civil War games with whole armies of 15MM figures, etc.
I enjoyed all of them, but none were as good as Ogre. They all had massive, intricate rulesets, complex, multi-phase turns that took forever and required hours ( days, weeks) to play. At times they were downright tedious.
Ogre always retained its simple ruleset, fast play & excellent balance. One could play a scenario in an hour or less, so it was easy to try out different strategies & tactics. The significant chance component always kept things interesting. The very definition of the wargame.
Its great to see Ogre being used to teach game design, as its one of the best designed games ever (that's why it still has fanatical fans after 40 years). I've always believed that Ogre deserved a bigger player base than it has had (the "historical" strategy guys scoff at it) and this exposure is certainly a step in that direction.

[Steve Jackson]

I agree with Sparky00 - it wasn't at all one of the earliest. Early yes, but not the earliest. I think that honor would belong to the extensive SPI line and some of the Avalon Hill games. Ogre was in large part a reaction to the complexity of those games. I liked 'em too, but they took TOO LONG to play.

[sparky00]

The Avalon Hill wargames were gorgeous - nice, colorful counters, beautiful heavy maps, great cases. I played & owned many of them.
They were, however, expensive (on paper-route money), complex & very time-consuming to play.
Rule argument should have been considered a turn phase in itself- somewhere in the 17-phase-turn between LOS calcs & morale checks.
The little $3 game with the cut-em-yourself counters and paper map was my favorite from the day I brought it home. It still is. Even through a cross-breeze could be catastrophic, it was always just more fun to play than any other strategy game.
It is so nice to be able to play Ogre with the beautiful, large counters on those gorgeous, heavy maps. I just love setting up the game and playing it with the ODE & O6E components. Way better even than those pretty Avalon Hill games of years ago. Now, rolling 7 consecutive 1's & a 2 make it pretty hard to trap a Mk III, but that's another story.
Thanks so much for creating Ogre & for your commitment to keeping Ogre in production & expansion.
I do everything I can to spread the word and entice others to play.
Hopefully we can keep this "bigger & better than ever" trend going.
Thanks again,
Erik Krieger
sparky00