Starship Troopers (1976)

Science fiction wargame based directly on Robert A. Heinlein's classic novel Starship Troopers.

Scenarios are set in the Terran/Arachnid war which forms the background of the novel.

One player takes the Terran side and deploys his MI (Mobile Infantry) units directly on the board, nearly always by the Initial Drop Procedure.

The other player, as the Arachnid Player, uses an Alien Control Pad sheet to record the placement of his underground central Hive cell complex and the attached tunnels radiating outward. Tunnels are used to move the Warrior units, along with Worker units mixed in as expendable decoys, to locations where they can pop up to the surface through a breach hole and attack the Terran units. Completely unseen, and only paper recorded, Engineer units are used to create the breachs and, later, to extend the tunnels.

The 'third side' of the war is the Skinnys. In early scenarios they are fighting on the side of the Arachnids. In later scenarios, after succesful negotiations with Earth, they switch over to the Terran side. They're only effective fighters within the confines of their small city terrain on the board (and not very effective at that).

The game is set up in a "Programmed Instruction" system of scenarios to slowly introduce the game concepts. Scenarios range from Scenario I, which starts players off with a basic MI raid on a Skinny city (just like the book. "Torres died on the way up") to Scenario VII, The Battle of Klendathu: the final Terran assault on the Arachnid Homeworld.

Avalon Hill Complexity rating - 5

From "The Avalon Hill General Index and Company History, 1952-1980"

Starship Troopers (1976)
Designed by Randall Reed

SST was fortunate in that it came out during the height of the science fiction craze sparked by the phenomenal success of the STAR WARS movie. The similarity of the title obviously helped it to the top of the sales picture in 1977. The unique game system using charted movement and setup on a pad replica of the mapboard was quite popular but play balance problems have surfaced of late. As a result, a revised rulebook is pending.

The GENERAL Index Article List:

• The GENERAL Vol.13,No.6
  • Starship Troopers – “Digressive Examination” (Strategy and Discussion) Phil Kosnett
  • Starship Troopers – “Solitaire Troopers” (Variant) Jay Reese
  • Starship Troopers – “...And Now A Word From Your Local Playtester...” (Variant) David Fram
  • Starship Troopers – “Saga of the Bug War” (Variant) Richard Hamblen
  • Design Analysis - Starship Troopers Game as Literature
  • The Question Box - Starship Troopers
• The GENERAL Vol.14,No.5
  • Starship Troopers – “Of Bugs, Beams, and Breaches” (Strategy) James Stahler
• The GENERAL Vol.15,No.1
  • Starship Troopers – “Mission Scenarios” (Variant) Arnold Hendrick
• The GENERAL Vol.15,No.5
  • Starship Troopers – “Starship Troopers Expansion: Scenario 8” (Scenario) by Bill McLaren
• The GENERAL Vol.15,No.6
  • Starship Troopers – “Scenario 4 1/2: Skinny Civil War - Another Starship Trooper's Scenario” (Variant Scenario) Charles D. Maison
• The GENERAL Vol.16,No.5
  • Starship Troopers – “Blood & Guts Starship Troopers” (Strategy) Vern Paxon
• The GENERAL Vol.17,No.4
  • Starship Troopers – “Bug Forts and Terran Tanks” (Variant) Steven Sanders, Jimmie Long*

Moves Article Index:

• Number 32, April/May 1977
  • Starship Troopers / StarSoldier - "Starship Trooper/StarSoldier: A Comparison of SF Treatments" (Review), Phil Kosnet

Panzerfaust and Campaign Article Index:

• Number 76 November-December 1976
  • Starship Troopers / War At Sea / Caesar at Alesia / Lankhmar / William the Conqueror - 1066 / Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes / Mind War / War of the Sky Galleons / Atlantis 12500 B.C. / Edgehill 1642 / Crete 1941 / Tunisia 1943 / Der Fuhrer / Avalanche: The Salerno Landings / Battle for Midway - Decision in the Pacific, 1942 / Burma - "Thumbnail Analysis" (Review), Don Lowry