Hitting the Books
Most of us think that being a Games Developer is all fun, fun, fun – sitting around, drinking coffee, and chucking the odd dice about as you mull over what to call the latest unit of Skaven. Not so (well...not always). Developers often do a lot of research, both in history books and into the past of the ever-expanding game worlds. As the Ogres were mostly brand-spanking new, Phil had to hit the books hard.

"I got as many books on Ogres, Trolls, and Giants (in folklore they are virtually interchangeable) as I could lay my hands on. I begged, borrowed, and stole even more books from the other guys in the Studio. In the end, however, there weren’t all that many books. The relevant notes I could get from them amounted to two sides of paper. There’s not a lot out there," says Phil. "This is strange, because the Ogre is found all over the world, in China, in Japan, where they’re known as Oni, in Europe, everywhere. They’re the big guy, the one who’s going to hit you and take your stuff. They’re the big bully, basically. They’re a very human archetype. Everyone wants to be the pal of the big guy, because then he’s protecting you and not hitting you. This phenomenon makes it easy for people to identify with the Gnoblars too." Phil says that this dynamic is very handy for the game as a whole. Although these creatures are Warhammer Ogres, with their own tabletop spin, they are not so far removed from the realms of fairy tale that they have become entirely unrecognisable.

"Though Ogres in legends tend to be solitary beasts, they do eat people, and everyone knows what they are. So you don’t have to explain to someone from outside the Hobby what an Ogre is like, as you would with a Skaven. They’re universal, which will make them attractive as an army to all gamers."

As in much of Warhammer, it’s fun reading the Ogre book and working out some of the parallels between the real world and the Warhammer one. Phil loves Greek mythology, he explains. As such, you’ll find that the war between the Ogres and the Sky Titans is loosely based on the fight between the Greek gods and their forebears, the Titans. The Greek gods were the children of this infanticidal race of giants, but the gods fought back and won. In the Warhammer world, things took a less rosy turn with the savage Ogres devouring the peaceful giants.

Another Ogre practice borrowed from the (real-life) Greeks is Rhinox lifting. A young Ogre is given a Rhinox calf. He must lift it every day. The Ogre increases in strength as the Rhinox grows until both reach full size. Then the Ogre eats the Rhinox. Ancient Greek wrestlers used to do the same thing with a young bull. See, gaming is fun AND educational.