"Bugs, Mr. Rico, millions of em' ! "

Greetings All, This weekend I bought a GW Epic Tyranid Swarm boxed set. I have
no interest in Epic 40K but they looked like they could serve another use. I
have some of the Scotia/ Simtac powered armor troops to use as Mobile
Infantry and I now have my Bugs for a "Starship Troopers" game with Dirtside
II. The Tyranid set includes 50 Termagant figures, they are now basic Bug
warriors. I plan to rate them as powered armor but with standard infantry
weapons. The 25 Hormagaunt figures will be digging workers and the 25
Genestealers will be basic workers. Bug workers are classed as line infantry
but may only attack in close combat with 2 chits. The 25 Gargolye figures are
going to be some sort of flying Bugs or maybe I won't use them in order not to
confuse the gamers that know "Starship Troopers". I would rate them as line
infantry but give them 12 MP as a VTOL for movement per Steve Gibson's
infantry rules. There are also 5 Tyranids with swords, 10
with large guns and 5 Lictors (?) with praying mantis-ish upper limbs.
These might be mixed on a stand with 2 guns, 1 sword and 1 Lictor on a
stand as a heavy weapon/ assault group with 4 MP , APSW for fire, 4
chits for close assault, and 6 points to kill. As the Bugs are telepathically
controlled they are not subject to the regular morale rules. They do not have
to take a reaction test for close
assault. The Bug Brain commanders are rated as veteran quality-
leadership 3 and Bug warriors use the vehicle column of the confidence level
chart. I don't want the Bugs to completely ignore morale but I don't think it
will effect them much. One Brain to 6 warriors might be a good ratio or
possibly one Brain for the entire force and let the Bugs decide each
activation how many warriors or workers to move. The Mobile Infantry could be
classed as regular powered armor with some
additions. Each MI stand may make two GMS-H attacks in a game. The
missiles may be regular armor piercing, HEF, or nuke with the ammo type
designated for the stand. The standard MI stand may jump 12" instead of its
regular movement and may only jump on alternate turns. Scout and command MI
stands may not fire in infantry ranged fire but may jump every turn. Now, if I
can find a used copy of the "Starship Troopers" boardgame for the Bug complex
rules and the digging and engineering rules I might have something. Any
comments and information about the Tyranids would be appreciated.

> Now, if I can find a used copy of the "Starship Troopers"
boardgame for
> the Bug complex rules and the digging and engineering rules I might

That I have. :)  _Starship Troopers_ was a great game!

A quick summary (from memory, so forgive any errors or omissions):

The Bugs have a hive with 5 combat brains, 1 master brain, and one queen. The
Hive is usually arranged with the brains around the queen in a cluster (the
game used hexes, queen in the center, brains around perimeter). Alternate
arrangements were sometimes encountered (the only one described was a straight
linear arrangement, brains in a line, the master brain was adjacent to the
queen).

In the game, each combat brain controlled one heavy weapon platform, 5
soldiers, and 5 workers (used as decoys). These troops were limited to that
brain's tunnel complex and breaches from it, they could not enter another
brain's complex, above or below ground (they could stay on the surface over
another's area). The master brain had no units and no complex, but variants
granted both, or allowed the MB to pick up control of units whose brain was
destroyed.

The tunnel complex was one prime segment of I think 10 hexes (maybe 6) in a
straight line from the brain. There were a couple secondary segments, I'd have
to go home and look these up to be sure of how many and their length. Tunnels
could not intersect. Each brain has an "engineer Bug", which cannot exist
outside of the tunnel complex. Each turn, the engineer could dig a 1 or 2 hex
segment of new tunnel (must be attached to old, may not intersect existing).
Instead of digging tunnel, the engineer could also open a new breach to the
surface.

Some comments on your material. The MI didn't have normal ranged weapons, all
fighting was done with bombs, missile launchers, or close combat weapons (like
the hand flamer). I guess the bombs would be considered close combat too, you
had to drop it off, then leave. I'm pretty sure all of the marauder armor was
equipped with HE launchers, and in the terms of the battle, they had unlimited
ammo. I know that the command and scout COULD be equipped with launchers, but
I don't know if it came standard. In fact, I don't remember for sure how many
HE launchers a unit received.

The MI don't translate well to the DS scale, since you're talking about single
troopers bouncing around at wide intervals, and tossing nukes around. I guess
if you said each stand represents one trooper, that would work.

Interesting idea.

If you need more details of the engineering or tunnel rules, let me know, and
I'll dig my copy out.