The book itself is 33 pages of typing paper fun covered with a decently sturdy cardboard cover (monchrome green) with cartoony drawings of bugs about to mix it up over a kernel of corn. Clipart and other cartoons are interspersed in the text and the rules are set out in a logical, well organized manner WITH a working table of contents. The last couple of pages are very useful and welcome play-aids that include a turn sequence summary, bug summary, unit cards and terrain effects table.

You'll need some semi-standard miniature gaming stuff to play the game. In addition to a table or other playing surface you'll need 6-sided dice (d6), tape measures or rulers, pens/pencils, scratch paper, and poker chips or something else to represent food, and any terrain (including nest structures) that you want to put out. Last but not least, you'll need something to represent your bug army---anything from paper counter cut-outs to the even better cheapy-doo plastic bugs from your favorite discount store.

Because there is such a large selection of plastic creepy-crawlies to choose from in the dollar store, bugs are placed in functional groupings based on their shared characteristics for game terms. Players can field colony insects, bees (I know geek bug experts--but it's a game delineation), aphids, beetles, carnivores, flying carnivores, spiders, flying raiders, slugs/snails, worms, caterpillars/grubs. These groupings serve as a common language for players to understand that spiders do "this" in the game while worms do "that".

Individual bugs are rated in a number of characteristics (statistics) that should be pretty intuitive to RPGers and wargamers alike. If a statistic is marked "0", then that bug cannot use that characteristic---e.g. locusts can't build anything because their engineering stat is "0".

Leadership affects how well a bug can recruit other bugs to join his army (from offboard not the opponent's pieces). Defense and Attack are used during to determine individual combat attacks and represent a bug's ability to defend itself (shells, armor, etc.) and ability to inflict damage on an opponent, respectively. Movement is a straight translation to inches per turn movement allowance. Wounds is the number of hits a bug can endure before being removed from the game and Gathering represents how well a bug collects resources.

Turn Sequence is by phases, numbered 1-6 with a roll for initiative each turn. Additionally, some bugs have Interrupt abilities in their description. These abilities can be used to interrupt the regular game turn. You only need to concern yourself with these if the bugs that are in play have any of Interrupt abilities. For example, a bee defending its hive can interrupt attack in return to simulate bee aggressiveness, natural sting, defense of the hive instincts, etc.

What a bug does during one or more phases during a turn can limit what it can do in other phases. For example, a bug with raiding skill can do all of the following in a single turn: Raid, Move, Attack and Gather.

Construction and recruiting require more concentration, thus limiting a bug's actions if these special abilities are used during a turn. For example, a bug with recruiting skill (used to lure new bugs into your forces) has to concentrate on this skill almost exclusively and can only move and recruit (attacking or gathering are not allowed for that bug) during a turn if the player elects to use the recruiting skill.

Phase 1 is Maintenance/Raiding. All bugs (except for your army's general) gotta eat or they'll take their chitin-covered carcasses elsewhere to find an army that will feed them. In game terms, any bugs you can't pay off by feeding during this phase will skeedaddle on you immediately. Bugs with the "Raiding" ability also have to be fed but if they pull off a raid during their turn, the next turn they don't cost you any food---because they're so full from their raids this turn, see?

Phase 2 is Movement. You can move your bugs up to their movement allotment in inches. Some bugs can move faster than others (snails and slugs being the slowest in the game). Terrain affects movement, too so moving across a featureless plain on the gaming board produces faster movement than, say, climbing a hill or moving through leaf litter (jungle).

Phase 3 is Construction. Only bugs with engineering ability may use this skill. If they construct, the only other action they may take is to raid during that turn. Construction is important in the game because of the neat, er, constructions that bugs can build (and only engineering skilled bugs can tear down enemy structures).

Tunnels, caches and hive areas are different constructions that a bug general can have his troops with engineering abilities to construct. These structures help defend his army and the ever important food supply. Tunnels ease friendly movement and restrict enemy entrance into the nest. Hives grant defenders an advantage during defense of the nest and each hive in a player's control adds a bonus to his ability to recruit new bug enlistees---after all, hives are considered the sign of a successful bug civilization. Caches serve to store food and to aid in defending food from invading bugs. Spiders also have the ability to build traps to catch enemy bugs.

Recruiting is Phase 4, when all bugs on the active player's side who have limited their actions can try to convince bugs off of the gameboard to join their army. If the dice rolls are successful (remember hives help influence these results), then for every successful recruiter, a new randomly drawn bug will join the player's army.

Attack is Phase 5 and usually takes place at close range of 1 inch or less (aphids can squirt acid at up to 6"). Attacking involves an attacker and a defender (duh). Attack bonus equals the defender's Defense score subtracted from the attacker's Attack score (yes, negatives are possible). This bonus is then applied to a 2d6 roll that is compared to a quick table. Results range from no effect, to fleeing, to multiple wounds being dealt out.

Gathering is the last phase of a turn. Bugs with the gather ability roll dice equal to their stat and the result is the number of food units gathered by that bug (hence the poker chips). That food will be available for a future maintenance phase only if the gathering bug (during a subsequent turn) carries the food to either a cache or directly to his general.

Games may be scenario driven (a sample scenario is provided) or "open" where each player basically does his/her level best to completely wipe out the opponent. Victory objectives such as kill the enemy general or destroy/steal half the enemy food supply are very helpful in focusing the game on more than hack and slash (though those games are fun, too).

Overall, Bug Strife is a solid, well presented set of rules that allows players to play an enjoyable, inexpensive miniatures game. The maintenance phase adds a whole new dimension to wargaming as valued warriors may desert if the player doesn't wisely manage his foodstocks. At the same time, replacing losses and building up defenses requires food expenditures. You can pick up this solid little wargame and miniatures for less than the price of many miniature wargames rules or a single regiment.

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