term% cat index.txt OGRE(6) Games Manual OGRE(6)
NAME
ogre - war game
SYNOPSIS
/usr/games/ogre [ogre type (3 or 5)]
DESCRIPTION
Ogre is a game of tank warfare in the 21st century. You command a
force of infantry, armor, and howitzers pitted against a giant cyber‐
netic tank, the Ogre. Your mission is to destroy the Ogre, or at least
render it immobile, before it reaches and destroys your command post.
A more complete reference on how to play can be found in the Ogre rule
book for the Metagaming MicroGame, now distributed by Steve Jackson's
company. Here's some very sketchy and incomplete documentation for
Ogre players:
The game has the following phases:
1) Initialization. The player's armor units, infantry, and command
post are placed on the map. Nothing can be placed on the leftmost 7
columns of hexes, or on craters (*'s), or on any unit already placed.
Valid commands are:
w e
a d (hex movement keys)
z x
place a:
H howitzer
T heavy tank
M missile tank
G GEV
I Infantry unit (attack strength 3)
C Command Post
on the space currently pointed at by the cursor. Note that these are
capital letters.
Units are displayed as these characters, except infantry, which appear
as '1', '2', or '3' depending on their attack strength.
2) The Ogre (an O) now appears.
3) You are given the opportunity to move all your vehicles and infantry
that can move. The cursor motion keys are used to move the unit indi‐
cated by the cursor. Additionally, 's' or ' ' can be used to let a ve‐
hicle stay motionless. No vehicle can move through a crater hex, or
into a hex occupied by another friendly unit on its last turn, although
it can move through a friendly hex on its way elsewhere. Moving
through the hex occupied by the Ogre is an attempt to ram the Ogre.
This reduces the Ogre's treads by some amount, and destroys the unit.
4) You now fire all your vehicles in range at designated targets on the
Ogre. The following commands are used:
m fire at missiles
b fire at main batteries
s fire at secondary batteries
a fire at anti-personnel guns
t fire at treads
The odds of destroying the target are displayed, but no action is taken
until 'r' is used, or until you run out of attack points (except for
attacks on treads - see below). (In the odds display, '+' means a sure
thing.)
p Pass. The unit is passed over, and given the opportunity to
fire later.
r resolve all allocations so far, and display the results. This
is implied by 't', as tread attacks cannot be grouped. A re‐
solve is done automatically when you run out of attacking units.
5) Second movement phase for GEVs. Just like step 3, except that only
GEVs can move.
6) The Ogre moves. If it runs over any of your units, they are damaged
or destroyed.
7) The Ogre fires at all units in range. Destroyed units are removed
from the map. Disabled units are displayed in lower case, and may not
move or fire until the end of the NEXT Ogre attack.
Steps 3 through 7 are repeated until either a) the Ogre has no movement
points left, in which case you win, or b) your command post is de‐
stroyed, in which case the Ogre wins.
MISCELLANEOUS
The display "a/r Dd Mm" means the unit concerned attacks at a, at range
r, defends at d, and moves m hexes per turn.
The Ogre by default is a Mark III. An argument of '5' on the command
line makes it a Mark V, and gives you more armor points.
The game can be interrupted at any point with a control-C. There's now
no way to restart.
The paper game is copyright (c) 1977 by Steve Jackson. This computer
implementation is copyright (c) 1984 by Michael Caplinger.
AUTHOR
Michael Caplinger, Rice University (mike@rice.ARPA), from a Microgame
of the same name published by Metagaming of Austin, Texas, and written
by Steve Jackson. This implementation is not authorized in any way by
Mr. Jackson, and should not be sold for profit.
SEE ALSO
termcap(5)
BUGS
The Ogre sometimes gets confused and doesn't know where to go, so it
oscillates from one hex to another, and then back.
OGRE(6)