tarship Troopers is a science-fiction war game pitting the stalwart forces of the Mobile Infantry against the unending hordes of the Arachnid menace in a tabletop battle to the death.
The game's fictional background is based largely on Robert Heinlein's original Starship Troopers novel, but the look and feel are drawn from the 1997 movie and subsequent animated series. Players assume control of one of three factions—Arachnid, Skinny or Human—and then build their own unique military units. Humans gain access to the venerable Mobile Infantry cap trooper, two kinds of exoskeleton, support ships and fighters provided by the Fleet, and a variety of conventional and atomic weapons. As in the movie, the Bugs are represented by masses of insectoid warriors backed up by numerous specialized bugs, such as the "tanker," which can shoot destructive flames, and the "hopper," which can fly. The last faction, the Skinnies, is a secretive one geared toward raiding and kidnapping colonists for unknown reasons. As a result, only a smattering of their weapons and vehicles are included, and most of these are geared toward disabling opponents.
Each unit in the game has a point value, and players can choose to field relatively small, low-value forces comprised of 6 to 15 troops worth 500 points or massive armies with all manner of specialized equipment, fortifications and weapons worth thousands of points. Regardless of the scale, the game mechanics work the same. Each model in a unit is represented by a handful of values, including "target" (how difficult it is to damage), "save" (what chance the unit has of avoiding the damage dealt), "damage" (how many dice it rolls when attacking an opponent) and "movement" (how far the unit can move, including special options like jump, climb and tunnel). When attacking, a unit rolls its damage dice and compares the total to its opponents' "target" value. If it meets or exceeds that value, a hit is scored.
Each unit gets two actions per turn—for example, it can shoot and move, move twice, or shoot twice—and individual models within a unit have the opportunity to react should an enemy unit move within range on the opponent's round. Gameplay is divided into turns, with each player moving all his or her units on her round before turning play over to an opponent. Games last an hour and a half to two hours.
The power armor returns
Even now, nearly a decade after its release, the film version of Starship Troopers still inspires fierce debates among science-fiction fans, with people either loving it or hating it. This game will do nothing to resolve the debate, though it does throw fans of the original Robert Heinlein book a few bones by adding in jump-capable power armor for the Mobile Infantry and toning down the bright and shiny, 90210-like nature of the Federation's troops.
Although pricey at $74.99, the game does include a heck of a lot of content. The basic set ships with 20 plastic bugs and 16 Mobile Infantry troopers, all of which are unassembled. There are also a variety of status counters, cardboard emplacements and drop ships, and overlays to represent weapon damage. Assembling the plastic pieces is no small task—bugs have 11 pieces, troopers have 14—and the whole set can take even an experienced wargamer 12+ hours to assemble. The final result is loyal to the look of the movie, particularly with regard to the bugs, which look ready to swarm over the table and into the dining room at a moment's notice.
While the game pieces look great, the rule book is another matter. On first read, the rules come across as a hodgepodge that's difficult to get a handle on, and subsequent reads only partially clarify the confusion. For example, the book buries the rules for initiative—determining who goes first—after a lengthy section explaining what actions are available to units. Sprinkled throughout the book are references to other rules and conditions that aren't detailed until much later on. As a result, it's all too easy to lose track of important but obscure rules that are critical to playing the Mobile Infantry units (such as "jump and shoot," which allows a player to move MI units, and then fire on an enemy, or the "readied shoot," which lets a player fire weapons and then reroll any misses).
Mongoose tries to clarify the rules by offering examples of play and a downloadable player's guide, but it's not enough. The examples are either too little (two turns of combat between a single MI trooper and a Bug warrior) or unbalanced (two Mobile Infantry units fighting three Bugs units, which, point-wise, is a 2-to-1 advantage in favor of the MI). The player's guide is a good start, offering answers to some frequently asked questions, but what it really needs is a strategy article explaining how best to play the Mobile Infantry's ground troops and a full-blown, turn-by-turn accounting of a game.
Once players climb Starship Troopers' steep learning curve, they'll find it to be a dynamic, fast-moving game with lots of potential to grow. The mix of the Mobile Infantries' long-range attacks with the Bugs' brutal close-range ones makes for thrilling battles, which become all the more interesting when advanced rules for more powerful battle suits, tanker bugs, artillery and plenty of other high- and low-tech toys are added to the mix.
While the Starship Troopers minis look great assembled, I fear for the future of the all-too-easy-to-snap Arachnid legs. I'd rather have seen Mongoose take the route they did with A Call to Arms and include all of the game units as cardboard cutouts, while selling the minis separately for those who want to upgrade.
—Ken
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