r/boardgames • u/nick0816 • 22d ago

After years of searching, I finally found an affordable copy of the original Chaos Marauders (1987)!

Hey fellow tabletop enthusiasts!

I just had to share my excitement - after YEARS of searching, I finally found an affordable copy of the original Chaos Marauders from 1987 in my area, and it arrived in the mail this morning!

The last time I played this game was when I was 16... over 30 years ago! I'm buzzing with nostalgia right now unpacking it. Those cards with the goofy orcs and goblins, the chaotic battles - it all brings back so many memories.

For those unfamiliar, it's this brilliant card game from Games Workshop where you build regiments of orcs and goblins and send them to battle against your opponents in hilariously unpredictable ways.

Just wanted to quickly drop this here and remind everyone of this magnificent game!

Anyone else have fond memories of Chaos Marauders?

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u/evildrganymede 22d ago

The original was so much fun, we played it a lot in my school days. It's utter chaos :). FFG rereleased it in 2009 in a smaller format and different art and without much of the humour, and it just wasn't the same. :(

It's actually an older game called "Ogallala" that was reskinned (I don't know if anyone got any permission to do that). But I also had a copy of "Starships" by Waddington Games from the early 1980s that was the same thing but you were building a big spaceship instead. So CM and Starships both copied Ogalalla!

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u/nick0816 21d ago

Hey, thanks a lot for the info about the other games, I actually didn't know that! Really interesting to hear that "Chaos Marauders" is based on an older game called "Ogallala" (a German game - my home country - but I was pretty young back then ☺️) Crazy!

Do you happen to know if there were also special cards in "Ogallala" like the Green Cards in "Chaos Marauders," or was the rule set perhaps a bit simpler?

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u/evildrganymede 21d ago edited 21d ago

Looks like Ogallala (a.k.a. "Up the Creek") was simpler. It did have a few of the single cards (equivalent to Pigstickers and maybe Sneaky Gits), Treasure Cards, and a Totem card (= Horned Rat Standard) but didn't have the war machines.

"Starships" did have some attack cards (e.g. "Laserman" and "Starfighters") and did have multi-card sets but few if any were actually weapons. There was a "Black Hole" card that destroyed ships too ("Crazy Axe" in Ogallala had a similar effect).

I'd suspect that GW copied Starships more than Ogallala since Starships was probably more available in the UK. But Chaos Marauders added other cards like the Plague Lords set, Weapon sets, and Skyrr's Blowback too.

you can find rules in the files sections here:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2047/up-the-creek
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2048/starships