Bugs Mr. Rico!

Scott, Matt and I have a prodigious number of painted models for the old Mongoose Publishing game "Starship Troopers". We've not played since 2010 and no one wanted to re-read the rule book. So, why not try Tomorrow's War!

So we sat down at the table with some beer, some pretzels and proceeded to start hammering out some ratings. We got as far as the classic movie skirmish between a squad of 8 Light Armor Mobile Infantry (LAMI) who were at best a TL 2 force with a rocket launcher against 12 Warrior bugs in two swarms of 6 each. The

LAMI are pretty stock infantry. 1 Armor die, Basic Rifle and no super special attributes. Sure they had a medium support weapon with their crappy rocket launcher, but we basically subsumed the integral GL as just 'part of the rifle' and not worthy of a +1 firepower die like the good old M203 gets. AS basic infantry they move 4"/8"

Warrior bugs were a little more challenging.

TL: 1
Move: 6"/12"
Armor dice: 2 (These bugs are TOUGH! It also reflects exo-skeletal armor )
Weapons: Claws AP: 3 / AT 2(M) (They torn down the walls at Whiskey Outpost!)
Special Traits: Hard to Kill: D6 (We started with D8, but it was stupid tough to kill the bugs)

The Warriors are all about close combat. Very much like a Zulu impi. They move fast. They close to point blank and slash away. We made the warriors regulars - the hive mind gives purpose and guidance to their tactics and they are bred for the violence of the close combat attack.

Big difference in TW from SST is that ranged weapons cover the table. So the Warriors had a long charge over open ground. The MI did okay, but each round of fire triggered a charge reaction from the bugs, pulling them in closer. One group of Warriors got rolled up with fire and really bad saving thows and defense dice.

But the other group closed to point blank. The MI fail their quality check (they could have run away, but we wanted to see the Close Combat rules in action). Over four rounds of combat the Warriors slowly whittled the LAMI down, until after two morale checks the MI 'break' and 'surrender'. (Though we all know how well THAT works out for the MI.)

So not a bad start. The LAMI are pretty bad troops. (Even as D8/D8) The TW rules don't really support why the MI used fortifications so much in the movie.  If the bugs have to close assault, you don't get cover dice and flamethrowers negate cover as well.

Working of stats for the tanker (which should be a vehicle) and some of the other bugs (Blister/Blaster, Firefries and Hopper/Rippler bugs) and then take a stab at the 'cartoon' MI in the M1A4 powersuits.

Let you know how it turns out!