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Olympica

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By Walter O'Hara

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NEW!  Victims of the Webmind Variant available on this site.

NEW!  Jump Buggies and Sinkholes: New Olympica Units available on this site.

NOTE BENE ON THE VARIANTS: (Important) Users may may freely use and download this variant, and these counters, for their own purposes. This variant (and the art contained therein) is provided free of charge. It may not be resold or republished in any fashion, and must retain the original copyright attribution listed below.

This is a pretty underrated little game.  I just picked it up, and found it to be a lot of game for your money, still easy to find, and pretty cheap too.  Olympica pits a desperate UN Invasion Force, armed with infantry, tanks and a mighty big drill, against the "Webbies," a group of zealots inhabiting a colony on Mars with the intention of setting up a "MindWeb" that will take over the Solar System as we know it.  Will the UN push through the Webbie forces in time?

OLYMPICA is copyright, Metagaming Inc 1981.

Designer: Lynn Willis
Development: Keith Gross

This gameset is very close to how the designer wanted it.  I scanned the counters and cleaned them up in a paint program before making them into electronic counters, so the artwork is pretty close to the same.  The map was painstaking-- each one of those rock tiles had to be done individually.  Since there is some hidden movement/placement in the game, I reveresed the backs of the Webbies and typed "Web Unit" on them.  That way you don't know if it is a dummy or not.

Olympica Turn Sequence

Web Player-Turn (Review Previous Turn Replay, make these moves in sequence)

A: Compulsion Phase: Move one UN unit by up to 3 hexes
B: Tunnel Phase: Place Available tunnels as desired (Advanced only)
C: Reinforcement Phase: Enter up to 4 previously eliminated Web Infantry
unites: map-edge entered alternates each turn.
D: Movement: Move units, Resolve close assaults
E: Ranged Combat: Make and resolve ranged combat attacks
F: DUST removal Phase: Remove DUST Markers from all Web units.
Send the PBeM *.gam file to your UN opponent

UN Player Turn (Review Web Player Replay, make these moves in sequence)

A. Drop Phase: Make drops with available units, if desired
B. Movement Phase: Move unites, resolve Close Assaults
C: Ranged Combat Phase: Make and resolve ranged combat attacks
D: DUST removal Phase: Remove DUST Markers from all UN units.
E: Second Movement Phase: Move light inf. again an resolve Close
Assaults.

Move the Game turn Marker on the turn track display.

Send the PBeM *.gam file to your Web  opponent

The Action

actionOLY.jpg (44522 bytes)

The graphic above shows a bizarre little engagement near the web artifact.  A group of Heavy and Light Infantry, supported by a lifter, have just made a drop.  Two tanks are advancing on the web area of uncertainty.  An unrevealed web unit is on the board. 


How to get the files

Download Gamebox:

Olympica Gamebox (zipped)

Download Scenarios:

None that I know of.

But WAIT!  There's MORE!

Related Links:

Not really applicable here.  I suggest trying the Vindicator site (on the Emporium main page) to contact Michael Friend, the publisher of the first version of Vindicator.   One of the back issues has a variant map for Olympica.  If I get my hands on it, I'll add it to the set, honest.

There are some back issues of Interplay that have Olympica material.

Hey, check out this bitchin' Victims of the Webmind variant I concocted.

And... this new page postulating some New Olympica Units!

This page content copyright, Walter O'Hara 1998