Bugs!!

[supervike]

Another company that I haven't paid much attention to, and seems to be getting better constantly is Mongoose Publishing and their Starship Troopers line. I have heard good things about the game, but some of the new minis are looking darn impressive....

For instance:

and

Both of these seem massive!....The pics are too, but it wouldn't let me make them smaller...

Check out

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/

[vincegamer]

Although I resent their calling it Starship Troopers - it's connection to the book is extremely stretched - I have to admit they are pretty cool minis. If this is a good game system it's worth looking into.

Arachnids - far more variety than in the book, where they were a colony type creature with only 4 types (brain, worker, warrior, queen), it does make for a more interesting army - at least when you have to take away their technology. I never understood why the arachnids in the movie didn't have tanks and spaceships and artillery like they did in the book.

Mobile Infantry - decent soldier types. A bit too GWcatachanish to my taste but nicely done general human in body armor types. I like that they've included the K9 units. Also, the "Grizzly Exosuits" are much closer to the "gorilla" suits of the book (that all MI wore).

Skinnies - While not like the skinny photographed on the old Avalon Hill "Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers" board game, as an alien species they are very cool. I think they are what the Eldar could have been if they were scarry aliens instead of just space elves.

Forth - No species other than the skinnies and arachnids were mentioned in the book. Three is a lot of intelligent species to be in close contact in space as it is. However, the need to sell product and the consumer's desire for variety means we can probably expect the discovery of several more species. I look forward to what they produce and hope the vehicles are creative and original.

Overall, Great paint jobs and lots of very cool minis.

[supervike]

All I know of Starship Troopers is the cheesy (but fun) movie. Is that world also a 'stretch' of Heinlein's vision?

I assume the book (books?) are worth reading, can you tell me a bit about them in general?

[vincegamer]

First off, Heinlein was writing before the series was commonplace. His books and short stories stand alone, though many of them tie together in his vision of the future (called "a future history") with a couple of recurring characters.

Starship Troopers is not part of the future history.

Starship Troopers won the Hugo Award in 1960 (Heinlein received 8 nominations and won 5 of them over his career).

Very basically, it's a war story.

Starship Troopers follows the military career of Juan Rico, who joins the military to impress a girl and because he can’t think of anything better to do. Totally lacking the skills to be a pilot or the intelligence to get into army intelligence, he’s stuck in the infantry where he learns to be a man while fighting a war against the Skinnies (who later switch sides and ally with the humans) then against the Bugs.

The military aspect is pretty impressive. It’s structurally pretty realistic as R.H. was a graduate of the Naval Academy. The MI wear these powered suits with shoulder mounted nuclear warheads and other nasty weaponry. The suits are fantastic and enhance human motion to a degree allowing them to jump nearly a mile etc. The MI are put into bullet-shaped capsules and fired out of a gun at a planet from an orbiting space ship. The capsule mostly burns up in the atmosphere leaving the armored trooper to land by parachute (no drop ships here).

The other aspect of the book is its political philosophy. If you don’t want that, don’t read the book, or at least just skim it. Philosophy is a big part of it. As a primary example, in this future vision, the only people who can vote or hold political office are retired military. Basically you have to show you are willing to die for your nation if you want to vote. However, use of the military is still controlled by the civilians, just those who used to be military themselves.

You will recognize characters from the film, and the story follows it fairly closely except for totally dumbing down the Bugs and giving them no reason to fight the humans. Also, in the book the sexes are segregated in the military.

If you want more info, wikipedia has a good entry, and there are numerous Robert Heinlein fan sites.

[sebrushworth]

It's a few years ago since I read the book, so my memory is a bit sketchy, but it's definitely a good read, and like most of Heinleins books, pretty short, so you can read it in a few sittings.

I think there is mention somewhere in the book that there are more alien species than just the skinnies and bugs, but they never actually make an appearance.

I like the direction they took the bugs in the movie. Kind of like tyranids, they have technology, but it's all biological.

I think the movie has a lot more depth than people give it credit for. If you look at it as the propaganda of a fascist state, seen from the perspective of a "true believer" (Johnny Rico) I think you see much of the hidden depth that the movie contains that you might miss if you look at it as just another action movie with aliens.

[vincegamer]

but but but

it has Doogie Howser!

How can you possibly take it seriously?

[supervike]

But also Denise Richards (mmmm)...

I also have Starship Troopers 2 which is neither good or fun....

Anyhow, I may read the books, sounds pretty cool.

[vincegamer]

It's funny how you automatically assume the main character is just like you. Thus it may come as a shock that the main character has Protuguese as his first language.

[EricJ]

starship troopers 2 is near the top of my worst movies of all time lists

[Sergeant_Crunch]

Starship Troopers is one of the few books that I go back and read again. Think I've read it four or five times now, which is a lot for me. Usually I read a book and it goes on the shelf to collect dust until it ends up yard sale fodder or donated to the Community Center at whichever installation I'm leaving at the time. If you're looking for an action novel with power suits, this is one of the standards (if not THE standard). If you want an interesting take on political theory, it's a good read, but you can ignore it and focus on the story. FTR, I do not like the movie. The characters and places have the same name, but that's about it in my assessment. My biggest complaint was the complete and utter lack of power armor. How can't you make a movie called Starship Troopers and not have power armor? That approaches blasphemy. Though I can't complain about the shower scene.

To keep this remotely on topic about the minatures, the initial miniatures suck IMO. They're getting better though. If they had started with the power armor they released a few months ago they might have had me hooked. I understand some people play it at the FLGS, but I've never seen anyone actually playing, so I know nothing about the rules themselves. Probably can't get table space from the 40k and WHFB players (it's a tiny store).

[vincegamer]

one of the standards?

This one SET the standard.

It may in fact be the first, but I haven't researched it.

If you like it, then read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Great manual on how to hold an underground revolution. I love that the prisoners on the moon have nothing but rocks for weapons, but a rock hurled from the moon to the earth can do a LOT of damage.

[Sergeant_Crunch]

Armor is another good power-armor book. Can't remember the author's name at the moment though.

[vincegamer]

Do you mean the one by John Steakley?

Here's a review of that book that compares it to Starship Troopers:

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dunes/7470/steakley.html

[Malebolgia]

Does anybody have any gaming experience with this game? I have read several battle reports by now, but they all lead down to the same thing: Bugs will swamp the MI who will try to outgun them and kill the bugs before they do damage. If the MI kill enough before the bugs swoop in, they win. Otherwise the bugs win.

Seemed quite boring to me.

[supervike]

If you check out the Mongoose web site, there are plenty of free downloads for SIGNS AND PORTENTS, which is the in house gaming mag.

I am sure it is all biased, but I think there are at least some battle reports in there. Maybe that would give you more of a flavor.

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/series.php?qsSeries=13

[Sergeant_Crunch]

Do you mean the one by John Steakley?

Here's a review of that book that compares it to Starship Troopers:

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dunes/7470/steakley.html

Yep, that's the one.