Starship Troopers

Update!! - M-8 Ape Suit

This is a very cool model, though a little tricky to build. Note at the base, a bit of wishful thinking on my part - the ripped off arm of a 'bug'. Nope. This guy lasted two turns, got swarmed by about 8 Warrior bugs, and that was all she wrote!

That follows Murphys Laws of Wargaming. Rule #2. If it's your newest, shiniest, most impressive model, it's dead in less than three turns!

Enjoy!



I was up at our local to run a game of Trench Wars the other night, however fine weather, local schools closing for summer, and the beginning of the vacation season put a damper on our game. That is to say, I had one player show up - and he was only there for "an hour so" to watch.

My friend Bill was putting on Starship Troopers by Mongoose Publishing and with no players for Trench Wars, I was able to dive into this game.

I have always be a Heinlein fan and felt that SST was one of his better works. I hoped that the game would provide some of the feeling of the storyline.

To be honest, I'll have to play it again to get a better feel for the storyline/game/movie/CGI intersection of "feel".

I did like the game though!

My buddy Steven, who came to watch Trench Wars, played Skinnies and one squad of Mobile Infantry. I played Mobile Infantry. Rob, a new player at our shop, played Bugs with the able assistance of Bill, the Game Master.

The game seems a tad technical, but that's only because every new game we play is slightly different from every other game we play! I'll get used to it with time.

One funny incident in the game involved poor timing in shooting and a poor choice of targets.

It was our turn (MI and Skinnies) and our fort was being overrun. I had a single trooper with a triple-barrel grenade launcher and was preparing to fire grenades down a bug-hole and seal it - when my buddy Steven laid down fire with a template weapon the Skinnies use - and it killed my poor grenadier! I thought about it afterwards, that I should have fired my grenades first, then if he simply had to take the shot, fine!

He laid down fire across two Bugs and it went directly across my Grenadiers' noggin. I rolled his save - and he failed. Dead grenadier, never fired a shot.

Another interesting occurrence was when a "Hopper Bug" dropped into the fort and ripped off my Lieutenants' head. Ouch.

At the end, we had a total of 4 MI remaining, and 4-6 Skinnies, and we still had nearly 2 squads of 5 Bugs remaining - plus stinkin' Hopper Bugs. Now, the Hoppers wouldn't have been so bad, however we had no anti-aircraft weapons. Thanks Bill! ;-)

We might have been able to pull out a win, but it would have been desperately close. Much like the book and movie!

I liked this game, so I picked up an M8 Ape Suit to aid my Mobile Infantry - that I have yet to purchase! Box set is about $75.00 U.S. - but it's the best way to go. You get 16 MI (2 squads) and 20 Bugs in the box set, along with rules, templates, etc.

If you buy a box of MI, you only get 8 guys, and it runs $20.00 U.S.

In the box of Arachnids (Bugs!) you get 6 bugs for $20.00.

So, for $75.00 you get the rules and $80.00+ worth of figures! Nice Deal in my humble opinion.

Give it a go!