Post a Comment On: Fawcett Avenue Conscripts

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I have played Steve Jackson's game Ogre since it was a Metagaming pocket game in the late 1970's. I even got a detention from the Principal at St, Paul's High School once, playing Ogre with a friend instead of attending study hall. For those unaware, the game is a fast playing sci-fi game pitting giant, A.I.-controlled atomic supertanks (the "Ogres") against futuristic combined arms forces consisting of various tanks, hovercraft, artillery, and powered Mobile Infantry. Each armour or infantry unit (or each Ogre subcomponent, like its main battery, or its tread units) has a rating for move, attack, and defense. A simple CRT gives odds for the results of (combined) attacks, which include destruction, disablement, or NE. Any reasonable Ogre attack will disable or eliminate a unit, but there are a lot of enemy units trying to slow it down and pull its teeth. The original vehicle designs, by Winchell Chung, have stood the test of time. The tall sensor tower of the North American Combine Ogres, and the sleek Paneuropean tanks and blowers, have become iconic. In recent years, Steve Jackson Games started producing 6mm scale plastic models of the various Ogres and Paneuropean ground forces. They have future plans to do Combine tanks, hovercraft, etc. My first Ogre is a Combine Mk. III.  To start my Paneuro collection, I completed a battalion of Mobile Infantry; each of the 42 models represents a single 4-6 man squad, and each of the 14 3-model stands is a platoon. They are supporting 8 Heavy Tanks; fast, hard hitting AFV's, whose sole weakness is the relatively short range of their tac nuke shells.After assembly, I primed all the units with GW Chaos Black, and laid in flat white zenithal highlighting with an airbrush. I went with a traditional Combine = red, Paneuro = blue paint schemes. For the Ogre Mk. III, the base red was accomplished with a light spray of Army Painter Dragon Red primer. I then laid in several glazes of GW Druchii Violet for shading. I painted highlights and some light weathering/damage using various artists' oils, especially Cadmium Red, Cadmium Scarlet, Cadmium Yellow, and Peach Black.
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For the Paneuropean forces, the base blue of the tanks and infantry consisted of several washes of GW Drakenhoff Nightshade. I then laid in highlights and details with oil paints, and did some light weathering with powders. The infantry bases were finished with GW Martian Ironcrust, to simulate the blasted landscape of the Ogre Designer's Edition map board (seen in a couple of the photos).
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The relative sizes of the Paneuropean models against my Combine Ogre Mark III can be seen in the comparison photos. I had actually prepped the Ogre for last year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XII, but only started painting it last month; it does not count for this year's Challenge, only the tanks and MI do. I have assembled all the models in Ogre Miniatures Set 1, to which set all the above models belong. Next to be painted for Ogre Miniatures are an Ogre Mk.V, some GEVs (armed hovercraft), Missile tanks, Howitzers, and a Command Post. From Ogre Miniatures Set 2 I also have in queue a few Paneuropean heavy units, a couple of Super Heavy Tanks and an Ogre variant, a missile-rack armed Fencer. Check out all the OIgre Miniatures models available from SJG  here:  http://www.warehouse23.com/products?taxons%5B%5D=558399032-sb
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Anyways, (42 x 0.5) points of 6mm  Mobile Infantry, and (8 x 2) points of 6mm Heavy Tanks should come in at  a modest 37 points for The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XII. Add 20 points for Caprica (Doomed). The mark of a good Ogre player is how they handle their infantry, but the poor bloody MI are going to die as fast as you send them in, Bi-Phase Carbide battle armour notwithstanding. This should total 57 points for my first entry into this year's Challenge.