The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Okay, so it's not a roleplaying game...

...but every now and then you want to do something different.

I bought this game for my son who really loved the movie. He was very pleased with the game but of course, now I had to play it.

Good Stuff

There are actually a lot of things that are good about this game. For one thing it is very easy to learn. It makes a great first game for somebody who has never played a wargame before. The rules - start to finish - take up only 15 pages. They are also done as programmed instruction which means that you learn a few rules, then play a scenario with those rules, then you learn some more rules, then play a scenario adding the new rules. For an experienced gamer this is totally unecessary as the rules are pretty basic but as this was purchased for a new gamer it is perfect.

You would think that a game that was this simple would be boring but since this is the first game that I could play with me son that he really understood completely it's a lot of fun. There are tactics that you need to learn.

For example, the bugs have very few ranged attacks and ALWAYS attack last do there is no reason to "defend" with the bugs. They MUST advance on the Troopers quickly to be effective. This doesn't mean that they can't use the terrain to their advantage.

The troopers have a little more range (not much though) and always attack first. Also, if they don't move their firepower increases so sometimes it's better for the Troopers to stand and fight to decrease the numbers of bugs in their immediate area rather than trying to complete their objective right off.

So, with this simple game a young gamer can learn some basic tactics and have a lot of fun with the total carnage that is likely to ensue.

Drawbacks

The main drawback to the game is that the pieces are standups rather than standard carboard counters. I'm sure this was done to make it more cisually appealing but it makes it easy to get confused when you have a large number of bugs surrounding a group of troopers. They would have been much better off with cardboard counters.

The other thing is the mapboards. They look great but they have large hexes so you get a limited amount of terrain to play on. This is offset slightly by the inclusion of terrain pieces that can be added to the board but it doesn't help that much.

It's not a game that I would bring to the next meeting of your veteran gamer friends but I can think of worse games that you could use to introduce a young gamer to the wonderful world of wargames.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Starship Troopers (1997)
Author: Ben Knight Category: Wargame Company/Publisher: Avalon Hill Game Company Cost: $30 Page count: N/A Playtest Review by Jay Adan on 02/24/98. Genre tags: none	Okay, so it's not a roleplaying game... ...but every now and then you want to do something different. I bought this game for my son who really loved the movie. He was very pleased with the game but of course, now I had to play it. Good Stuff There are actually a lot of things that are good about this game. For one thing it is very easy to learn. It makes a great first game for somebody who has never played a wargame before. The rules - start to finish - take up only 15 pages. They are also done as programmed instruction which means that you learn a few rules, then play a scenario with those rules, then you learn some more rules, then play a scenario adding the new rules. For an experienced gamer this is totally unecessary as the rules are pretty basic but as this was purchased for a new gamer it is perfect. You would think that a game that was this simple would be boring but since this is the first game that I could play with me son that he really understood completely it's a lot of fun. There are tactics that you need to learn. For example, the bugs have very few ranged attacks and ALWAYS attack last do there is no reason to "defend" with the bugs. They MUST advance on the Troopers quickly to be effective. This doesn't mean that they can't use the terrain to their advantage. The troopers have a little more range (not much though) and always attack first. Also, if they don't move their firepower increases so sometimes it's better for the Troopers to stand and fight to decrease the numbers of bugs in their immediate area rather than trying to complete their objective right off. So, with this simple game a young gamer can learn some basic tactics and have a lot of fun with the total carnage that is likely to ensue. Drawbacks The main drawback to the game is that the pieces are standups rather than standard carboard counters. I'm sure this was done to make it more cisually appealing but it makes it easy to get confused when you have a large number of bugs surrounding a group of troopers. They would have been much better off with cardboard counters. The other thing is the mapboards. They look great but they have large hexes so you get a limited amount of terrain to play on. This is offset slightly by the inclusion of terrain pieces that can be added to the board but it doesn't help that much. It's not a game that I would bring to the next meeting of your veteran gamer friends but I can think of worse games that you could use to introduce a young gamer to the wonderful world of wargames. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Starship Troopers (1997)

Good Stuff

Drawbacks