SJ Games Ogre News

Slightly Heavier Metal

Okay, kids, it's time for another Good News/Bad News situation. Allow me to hit you with the Bad vibe first. The price of metal has gone up. Ogre minis, being made of metal, are more expensive to produce. What that means is come June 2nd, the individual Ogre minis will increase in price slightly. We're looking at about a 10% increase. Yeah, bleah, not exactly happiness. If you've been on the fence about filling out your army for The Last War, now is the best time to pick up those Raptors you've had your eye on.

This only affects the individual minis, mind you. The boxed sets will remain at their current prices.

The Good side? Your Ogre collection just jumped a little bit in value! Score!

(Hey, come on, lemme have my silver lining here, huh?)

-- Fox Barrett

Return From The Darkness!

It's been more than two years since any new Ogre support. We are happy to announce that that is changing.

A new edition of Ogre, with high-quality components, will ship later in the year.

A PDF edition of Ogre Miniatures will be available soon from e23. This will not be a brand-new edition; it will be a scan of the first edition, with the addition of many pages of new rules, record sheets, other play aids, and complete errata.

And a new version of Ogre Miniatures Lite will be available very soon as a free e23 download. Ogre Miniatures Lite is not intended as a stand-alone rules set (though it really does get most of the rules, and a lot of tactical advice, onto the two sides of a letter-sized sheet). It's intended as a quick reference for the experienced player and a quick-start handout to help new players, whether at a convention or in the living room.

For frequent updates on the new projects, visit the Ogre forums.
-- Steve Jackson

Peace On Earth, Goodwill Towards Giant Self-Aware Nuclear Tanks

Few things say "Christmas" like depleted uranium shells.

Well, the color they tend to make things is pretty Christmas-y.

Celebrate the holiday season with a bang. A very big bang from the primaries of an Ogre Mark V. These high-quality ornaments, etched from maple wood by laser, are sure to delight that wargaming fan in your life. If you find that you are the wargaming fan in your life, well, what are you waiting for? It's a tiny, laser-etched Ogre you can hang on the tree!

-- Wayne

Miniatures Available

Have you checked Warehouse 23's miniatures supply recently? Gray Cat Castings is keeping them well stocked. Now is the time to fill out your Ogre army!

Ogre Miniatures News

Many fans of both Ogre and Ogre Miniatures have been wondering, some quietly, some not, about the status of SJ Games' miniatures production. Although in the past I have prided myself on maintaining a positive flow of information, of late I've expressed naught but silence.

The short answer to your questions is: SJ Games has ceased production of all miniatures. Several new miniatures (the Vulcan, the Doppelsoldner, and the Ninja) were indeed sculpted and mastered, but we weren't able to produce them before the final shut-down date. We are talking to a new caster, and I expect to have more news before the end of the month. Rest assured that the new caster will be able to produce the aforementioned figures.

Now, for those of you who have more free time and curiosity, I can expand a bit. In the second quarter of 2003, I watched the sales numbers of miniatures (all miniatures, I should note, not just Ogre) slowly sink. Alternatives to in-house casting were examined, and the decision was eventually made to close the casting department.

Around this time, our Traffic Manager decided to move on to other pursuits, leaving SJ Games without a key person in the command structure. I was moved over to the Traffic Department, and was quickly swamped with the tasks of maintaining the physical building, shipping both to Warehouse 23 customers and distributors, and closing down the Miniatures Division. Still, I had high hopes for releasing the new Ogre figures before the end of the year.

Then, the decision was made to move the warehouse to Las Vegas. Obviously, this required a whole lot of extra work that I had not planned on. Inventory needed to be counted, massive amounts of shipping materials needed to be purchased, and many, many, many pallets needed to be shipped and coordinated.

The area that was the casting room was stripped to make the extra room necessary to ship the massive number of pallets. This was done, unfortunately, before the new Ogre figures had a chance to enter production. It was my planning that failed on this point, a fact I'm not at all happy about. However, the move to Las Vegas was a solid business decision, and the timing was right, despite the stresses it inflicted on me.

Now? I'm back in Austin, after spending most of four weeks counting, packing, and shipping our inventory (and all of last week setting up the new warehouse!). I've got a list of "over-due" projects as long as my arm, and I'll be attacking them as fast as I can. At the top of that list is getting a signed contract out of the new caster, and being able to announce it. Only slightly less important is re-establishing the lines of communication between SJ Games and the Ogre fans.

In summary, I've been busy, but I am very sorry that we weren't able to get the new figures out as promised. Thanks for sticking around.

Paul Chapman
Steve Jackson Games
Traffic Manager
paul@sjgames.com

Miniatures Division Closing

As you may have read on the August 9th Daily Illuminator, the Miniatures Division will be closing at the end of the month. What does that mean for you, our loyal fans?

Not much, for the moment. We don't want anyone to miss their opportunity to fill out their collections, so we'll have the figures available for several months. The target is to run dry in December. We'll keep you informed which figures are getting low.

Any announced sets (Uplift Miniatures, Transhuman Space Miniatures, and Dork Tower Miniatures) will be released on schedule. In fact, Uplift Miniatures ships next week.

Of the "rumored but unannounced" figures, we have a few that are close enough to release that we will release -- specifically, the Ogre Vulcan (and it's Heavy Drone), the Ogre Ninja, the Doppelsoldner, and the Ogrethulhu Swimmer. We also will release more Off The Wall Armies, as well as a couple of special Munchkin related figures. Unfortunately, that means there are some units we just never got to, like the Mobile Command Posts, GEV-Mobile Command Posts, and Cruise Missile Crawlers.

Not all of these figures are available for preorder through Warehouse 23 right now. Don't worry, we'll be putting up new figures every week for the next month or two.

It's been an excellent experience, and I'd like to thank everyone involved: Richard, Steve, Chris, and Doc. A special thanks goes out to Ed and Al at Reaper for help above and beyond.

I'm sure you have questions not covered here. As always, I'm at paul@sjgames.com for email, but I'll also be hunting questions on the Yahoo Ogre groups, and on the forums of both Pyramid, and The Miniatures Page.

Paul Chapman
Miniatures Division Manager
paul@sjgames.com