Monday, March 31, 2014

OGRE's missing Archangel mini

This post doesn't have anything to do with Steve Jackson Games' current moratorium on the sale of OGRE/GEV minis.  Instead, it's a look back to the halcyon days of this line of miniatures, when boxed sets sold for under $20 retail. 

Opening up my set of  Paneuropean Infantry from the early 2000s, I found a checklist for all the planned OGRE Miniatures boxed sets.  As you can see, in addition to the North American Combine and PE starter sets, SJG sold twelve boxed sets of NAC minis and ten sets of PE castings.
The company eventually stopped selling these sets, due to economic factors.  While most of the minis remained for sale individually (or returned with the Wave One minis reprint that was a Kickstarter goal), those from Combine Set 9: Laser Towers and Turrets were not available until the recent Ogre Minis Wave Two reprint.  And a couple of these boxes, Combine Set 8: Divisional Assets, and Paneuropean Set 9: Laser Towers and Turrets, were never even produced (although the Combine structures and the Paneuropean lasers eventually appeared last year with Wave Two).
But it's the last item on the checklist that intrigues me: Paneuropean Set 12: Archangel GEV-MCP and Escorts.  The idea for this unit evidently came from the Ogre Miniatures rules, which described this mobile command post as "a conversion of the massive Soviet transport hovercraft."  It had no attack capability, a defensive strength of 2, and a movement rate of 2/1 in boardgame terms.  GURPS OGRE named this vehicle the "Archangel" and noted that there were only six ever built. 
As far as I know, this ground effect mobile command post was never made into a miniature, and I have no idea what the escorts were supposed to be--judging from the points cost, I'm gonna guess it included at least a couple of hovertrucks, along with infantry and GEVs. 

I think such a vehicle would contribute to an interesting game.  The problem is finding a miniature to represent it.  This thread on The Miniatures Page has several suggestions, including using die-cast toys.  I think that's the route I'll go, if I decide to use a GEV mobile command post in a game of OGRE.

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