Starship Troopers: I've got a wonderful Grinchy Idea....

Dear Friends:

Tonight I went to my local game store to play a spot of Flintloque (my Ork
Rifles whipped the tails off of some Osterian Dog Soldiers) and the topic of
Starship Troopers came up. All of us were in agreement that the movie sucked
moose genitals and the book was better. (All except one who actually liked the
movie. We had to resort to "TORTCHA" until he agreed with us.) Of course,
being gamers, we decided that it would be cool to game SsT. I mentioned SGII
(as system that the store offered, but no one plays) and that it might be well
suited for our needs. Then we talked about modeling. Galoob came out with some
micromachine bugs. I suggested that we could modify these by gluing weapons
from the Evil Empire's Space Elves onto the toy's claws. Of course, for scale
sake the figures for the M.I. would have to be 15 to 10 mm figs (Do they make
PA figures in that scale? I thought of RAFM's Northern Heavy Infantry for
Heavy Gear, but they don't look beefy enough.) Another idea is to use the Evil
Empire's 25mm Space Marines and use the Galoob "action fleet" sized bug. The
problem with either idea is price. To get a playable sized force, you need to
get anywhere between 16 to 20 bugs. Since both the Micromachines (which only
come with 1 warrior bug) or the action fleet costs about 7 bucks per pack. 140
american dollars for a bunch of plastic bugs? If you were anything other than
a 40k player (who aren't too stable to begin with) I'd say you were nuts. True
I could use cheap plastic spiders found in any joke or toy store BUT I LIKE
THE MOVIE BUGS! (They were the film's only redeeming characteristic.) When we
started talking about scenarios, I hit them with an idea that they really
would like: Capturing the Brain Bug. This scenario is played on too tables.
The first part would be played above ground where the M.I. Troopers were
trying to reach the entrance to a bug hole in order to capture a brain bug
(who is underground commanding it's squads of warrior bugs). When and if the
troopers make it the hole, the players would switch to another table where
they would travel through a maze in to find and capture the bug. (Attention
KR! This would be a
good time to throw in a plug for Geo-Hex's CavernScape system.) Imagine
a game like that at Gen Con. I haven't worked out the rules just yet, I'll
pour over the Novel and the SGII rule book for ideas. If I can work something
out, I'll post it here.

I tell ya, you should look at teh original SST game by AH. One thing about the
bug hole hunt in phase one of your game you could take from there.

There would be no actual bug hole on the table. You would have to you planted
sensors, or a telepath (like in the book) to listen or sense where a "bug
highway" (as rico called the tunnels), comes closest to the surface. Then you
plant a charge and "boom" your in and move to teh second table where I presume
you have teh tunnel complex modeled. (You should find away to cover most of
the tunnel complex until he stumbles into it. WHile4 the SST's are looking for
the whole, the bugs can defend with either:

A. A surface force of bugs, and or,
B. pre-plotted mines to blow up anyone who bunches over a tunnel.

Los

> Mark A. Siefert wrote:

> When we started talking about scenarios, I hit them with an

> In message <346938C1.9F570DE5@csd.uwm.edu>, "Mark A. Siefert" writes:

On gaming SST, didn't the whole compound scene seem very "Zulu" to anyone
else?

In a message dated 97-11-12 10:00:32 EST, you write:

<< On gaming SST, didn't the whole compound scene seem very "Zulu" to anyone
else? >>

I nudged the guy next to me and said, "Just like Rorke's Drift!"

> At 09:23 AM 11/12/97 -0500, you wrote:

Seemed more like a firebase in Vietnam to me.

-Joseph