OGRE after all these years

Hi Kids,  Something large this way comes, and its a boardgame!  Fed Ex drivers are sweating under the strain, kidney belts are in sudden demand, set the shock absorbers to extra firm and rig some extra beams under the table, my copy of the Kickstarter Designer's Edition OGRE has made the trip all the way from China!  Yowza!!  I'm a huge fan of this game, have been ever since I bought a Metagaming copy for US$2.95 at Reed's Hobby Shop in Winston-Salem, NC back in the late 1970's. In fact, I've made a habit of continuing to buy copies of this game when I find them, so I've probably got at least one of everything, including Diceland Ogre, Gurps Ogre, Ogre Delux, Ogre Reinforcements, the Ogre Book, GEV, Shockwave, Battlesuit (yes, the Space Gamer version too), Miniatures, Macrotures* (grrrrrrrrrrr**.....), Helltank and Helltank Destroyer.***  Got a bunch of the minis too, including a ChiCub from GZG.  I have even kitbashed an Ogre Ninja like the one in the Ogre Book story.  ("Go Toronto Bluejays!")

 Yes, it is a big box.  And even with the huge box, the counter sheets had to ship shrinkwrapped to the outside.

 Back in the good ole days, reprinted just to bring into focus what a few dedicated Americans can accomplish.  This was included in the kickstarter bonus goals, IIRC.  There were so many goals and it was so long ago I really can't remember all the details.  My original 1970's purchase was this size, but was a second edition copy with a color cover.  If there's a groundswell of interest, I might dig out all those other versions and do another post.

 Always dug this poster, but I hope Osprey stops using cutaway drawings for their vehicle books.

 The four packs of counter sheets, each one a little under an inch thick.  That's roughly 20mm for you metric types.  The Ogres themselves are snap together counters, everthing else is a 2D top-down picture.  I'm thinking of ordering the new size old style black and white counter sheets, but I'm not sure Warehouse 23 has any left, and they cost $25 too!  Ouch!

 The latest version of the original map, its pretty honkin' big too!

 And there are four versions of the GEV style maps, too!  Yes, they are also pretty honkin' big.

 I'm considering playing Ogre Miniatures on these maps.  Everything except an Ogre should fit in the hexes.  I'd hate to scratch them up, though.

 They are some really high quality good looking stuff!

 Some can match up geomorphically, but not in all directions.  This one is the original one from GEV, just 1000% bigger.

 All the rules you'll ever need. There's even an ap for smartphones now.

And it even comes with counter trays!  Yes, this edition must be the crowning glory of all sci-fi gamers!  I've heard they are already starting to show up on ebay, in my humble opinion you might as well just get one direct from the manufacturer.  Can you dig it?  Yes, I knew that you could!

 

*Macrotures were a "line" of miniatures SJ released a long time ago, just like the 1/285 miniatures only bigger, they were 1/60 scale.  Unfortunately, the GEV was the only vehicle ever released.  Pretty weak, considering there were only three vehicles in the basic game.  I would have dearly loved to have the Heavy Tank and the Missile Tank to go with my GEV's, but them's the breaks.  And I would stand in line to kill or die for a 1/60 scale Ogre.  Maybe I can kitbash one out of a locomotive or a lawnmower.  I still have a hankerin' to use my proxy vehicles and power suited infantry and play Ogre in 25mm scale out in the yard.  Maybe someday.....  Armorcast used to make 6" craters out of resin.  No other terrain needed!

 

**Yes, this still annoys me.

 

***Helltank and Helltank Destroyer were two games Metagaming released after they lost the rights to Ogre, both involved huge tanks in the not-too-distant future.  They are pretty good games, too.   And I consider them in the same ballpark as Ogre/GEV, hence their presence.

My Little World passes 100,000 Page views

My plan for the year was to generate enough content to push My Little World of Dementia to over 100,000 page views and it has hit the mark two months early.

We hit 100,000 page views in the beginning of October and passed another milestone, gaining 100 followers.

Last, we hit the most page views in a month breaking 10,000 with time left in the month. I would like to thank everybody that takes the time to look and a special thanks to Chuckaroobob for his contributions.

ColKG

Iron Warriors Against Dark Eldar, 40k league round 14

Round 14 of the 40k league was Aginst Jim B and his Dark Eldar. This is the last series of battles for the League. We have gone up to 1850 points. I reavmped my army list to add more bodies and go for more rolls on the Chaos Boon table. Not exactly a game winning strategy but I think it would be more fun.

My Army list was
Huron Blackheart, Warlord
Nurgle Daemon prince with chaos mutation, wings, level 2 psychic and Black mace.
10 chaos cultists
2 x 10 chaos marines with plasma gun and las-cannon, champ with chaos mutation
10 model Havoc squad with four autocannons and a champ with chaos mutation
7 model raptor squad with two meltaguns and a champ with a combi melta gun and chaos mutation
2 Nurgle Obliterators
2 Heldarkes

The scenario was Emperor's Will and Vanguard deployment starting with Night fight.

I rolled for Huron's warlord trait and was able to infiltrate two units. I chose the two chaos marine squads to outflank. I castled up in my corner, with Huron joining the Havoc squad and the cultists in the ruin next to them. The Heldrakes, Daemon prince, Raptors, Obliterators and one Chaos marine squad start in reserve.

Jim's List consisted of
 Haemonculus 4 wracks in  a Venom x2
10 warriors in a raider with racks
Duke Sliscus, Haemonculus and 8 warriors in Raider
5 Wyches in a Venom
5 trueborn in a Venom
5 Trueborn in a Raider
3 Ravagers
2 beastmasters with 3 Khymarae and 3 Razorwings.
 The Dark Eldar deploy behind cover

I ended up having to deploy one of the chaos marine squads to have the correct number of starting units on the table. I put them forward and named them squad Speed Bump.

Jim seized the initiative and went first. All the Dark Eldar move out.

After a very bad round for squad speed bump the champion falls, first blood to the Dark Eldar.

My turn one the Havos return fire and destroy the Wyches Venom.

Turn two the Beastmasters move closer

The Haemonculus and his wracks disembark and burn down the cultists with liquifiers.

My turn two I fail to bring on any reserves and only take a few pot shots at the Dark Eldar.

Turn Three the Dark Eldar move into better firing positions.

The last cultists fails his leader ship and bolts off the table.

My turn three the Clockwork Heldrake arrives.

The Raptors arrive and drop behind the Duke Sliscus' Raider.

The chaos marine squad arrives from outflank beside the Dark Eldar Objective defended by a Haemonculus and 4 wracks.

The obliterators drop into ruins and target a ravager.

The Raptors unload their meltas and destroy the Duke's raider. The explosion kills one of the Raptors.

Huron leaves the building and takes the fight to the enemy. He charges the venom and destroys it.

Dark Eldar turn four. The Duke and retinue get down from the ruin

Then charge the last Raptor to finish them off.

After killing several chaos marines with liquifiers, the Haemonculus and wracks charge out. They fight and lose some models but stay in the fight.

The Beastmasters charge into the wounded Huron. Huron challenges but the beastmaster refuses. Huron goes first and chops them all down.

My Turn four the second Heldrake arrives and destroys the trueborn raider with a vector strike.

Huron moves around the Trueborn and flames the haemonculous and wracks in the ruin. The flame kills the Haemonculus and wrack with liquifiers. Huron then makes the charge roll into the ruins.

Huron finishes off the Wrack squad and stands triumphant.

Then he consolidates into the corner to get some cover. He wasn't hiding, he was getting cover, right?

The Chaos Marines kill a wrack and saves their own wounds. The Wracks fail their morale test .

The Chaos marines catch the wracks and run them down. They consolidate and only roll one inch.

Dark Eldar turn Five, Huron had a good run but ends up splintered to a wall.

The Ravagers move around and finish off the chaos marines near the Dark Eldar objective.

The Havoc Champion falls near the Chaos objective.

more Eldar move up and add insult to injury on Huron.

The Warriors with racks move between the two ruins and fill the daemon prince full of darts.

End Dark Eldar turn five. The Heldrakes rule the skies. In my turn the clockwork heldrake turns and flames the last trueborn squad in the center of the table.

My Turn five, The Bone Heldarke vector striked the raider destroying it, then flamed the warrior squad, killing a few. Then the daemon prince charged them. He killed several, then blew one up with the Black mace. They broke and he caught them.

We roll the game ends.

Jim Wins the Game three to one. Neither of us has an objective, we trade Slay the Warlord and Jim has First Blood and Linebreaker. It was a great game.

Jim ended up with one warrior left, a venom and three Ravagers left. I only had the Daemon Prince and the two untouched Heldarkes.

Jim was not very happy with the Heldrake but I was finally able to see why they are in every competitive army.

ColKG

Reaper Ghoul Witch on Cauldron for Zomtober

For the last model for the Zomtober painting challenge I went with a figure that would involve a bit more painting than the first three ghouls. The model is the Ghoul Witch on cauldron from the Reaper Dark Heaven Legends line. I picked it up a while back with a bunch of other Reaper models, when a shop discounted its already discounted clearance items. It has a lot of character and has many gaming uses. I added a 20mm square base so that I could add it to my Warhammer Vampire count army as either a Necromancer or Strigoi vampire. I can still see using her in Call of Cthulhu games down in the Bayou or as a Leader in Zombie/Horror games.

This model took me awhile longer to paint. I didn't have a guide to use like I did for the ghouls. I started out with a shadow grey base coat like the ghouls but decided that I needed to do some thing different to make her stand out.

I went back over the grey flesh with elf flesh and the wood and hair scorched brown. Then used a chestnut ink/future wash.

Later, I went over the flesh with a rotting flesh highlight. All the hair, fur and wood have been given a vermin brown drybrush. The mouth of the witch and ghoul have been touched up with red gore. The loin cloth was given a highlight of tanned flesh.

I went over the hair, fur and wood with a graveyard earth drybrush and then back over the hair, fur and chicken foot with bad moon yellow. I used a white on the skulls, the teeth, nails and voodoo doll. The wand skull and nails were a bit too bright so I went back over them with a chestnut ink/future wash. I went over the snake with ghostly grey and the snake mouth, eyes and witch mouth with a blood red highlight.

Final touch up were white drybrush on the snake, bone necklace, skull, teeth, nails, and Voodoo doll. I added a last elf flesh highlight on the loin cloth and used rotten flesh for the stew left in the cauldron.

The rear view shows the loin cloth better and the talons digging into her flesh holding the frame on.

It is a nice model with a lot of character. I definitely don't want to wade out of the bayou on a moonless night to find her waiting by a fire next to the old moss covered shack in the clearing.

ColKG