New to this shindig!

[pewpewtolinlazers]

Hello

Ive been playing GW WH40K and WHF for most of my life (since 8, im 24 now) and after collecting up more little people with guns, claws, and chainswords than i can shake a stick at, I have heard about SST.

Ive decided that I am probably going to try SST for a variety or reasons, ranging from stagnation of my pool of gaming buddies (college ended and law school folk dont seem to like wargaming), to a desire to try something different, new, and perhaps wildly interesting (and many other personal and GW centric reasons in between).

A good friend showed me the mongoose site, and the SST stuff, and I've got to say that the whole system, but especially arachnids look pretty cool. I may be getting some stuff from arachnids, kind of looking around to get a feel for things.


I played fantasy (2-6) 2-4 ed 40K (prefer 3), and am familiar with the rules, I keep hearing that SST is more fast paced, less dumbed down (4th ed is so dumbed down in some aspects that it boggles my mind), and has a different feel to its gameplay for the most part.

I like the idea of MI, but I have an IG army, and really dont want to make any more little men with guns (i have a substantial 200+ that ive amassed over the years), and the arachnids just look so bad-ass.

What are skinnies? I didnt see them in the movie, and its been a VERY long time since I read the book.. (i think it was the summer of my 12th year)

Someone point me in the right direction, info as to gameplay, figs, etc. Also, I'm in the MD, USA area if anyone knows of a place to play round here.

Let me know some info, I appreciate any input I can get re the system, the arachnids, other armies, etc.

Thanks

 

[MaxSteiner]

Hmmm... well to be honest Mongoose kinda axed (A little strong perhaps but the result was the same) the game before anyone got into it enough to make websites or anything... And a recent automatic purge of the forums means that all of the discussion that went on, and there was loads, has been deleted.... Alot of the supporters have pulled back and are waiting for the prepainted V2 which is out sometime this year, but that wont come with Army lists or anything apparantly...

That said the games definatly the most fluid and fast paced wargames I've played in a loooong time (I can't bring myself to play warhammer anymore these days thanks to it).
In 40k/WFB terms think of it as two actions per turn and an unlimited overwatch within 10 inches, meaning that close quater combat is alot more dynamic than the current WFB one round then the cheapest unit breaks system, whilst movement can be blisteringly fast.
All of this kinda lends itself to battles up and down the table, with plenty of oppertunities for ambushes and sneak attacks.
Movement wise each army/troop generally has a special movement, for instance bugs can tunnel MI can jump. Theres also the option of taking airbourne troops such as hopper bugs or TAC fighters with the flight phase handled kinda like the magic phase from 4th edt WFB.
As for the Skinnies... Apparantly they're kinda broken. But the entire model range was inconsistant and without a cohesive style (Also if you ask me they were the reason for the restart...)
That said, the rules are being altered for the new edition, with alot of the rules being simplified (Still not sure wether thats a good t hing or not to be honest)

For more info:
Theres a couple of Yahoo groups that might be worth signing onto.

Theres some battle reports here: http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/topics.mv?id=82

And Mongooses inhouse magazine has some excelent articles, as well as some of the stats for the last couple of troops:
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/series.php?qsSeries=13

 

[pewpewtolinlazers]

i have a friend who, should i choose to buy, would sell me arachnid stuff, non-painted (I love to paint and model the stuff) at a decent price.

Version two will be prepainted? Will it be possible to obtain NONpre-painted materials? I really dont know if I like the idea of not painting my models IMO.

 

[Col_stone]

they have said that they would keep the old minis in production, pick it up, the rules arethe best i've had!!

and a word of warning, don't get regular plastic glue,, get humbrol liquid poly (brush on kind) or superglue

 

[BuShips]

Welcome to the forums here, pewpewtolinlazers. While the game rules have been out for under two years, there are quite a few choices for you to consider. The original rules are going through some changes, as well as the way the miniatures are to be marketed. I'd do enough research to get a feel of what you want to play with, and then jump on in. Mongoose Publishing thought the rules mechanics were worth using in a near-future infantry and armor setting so they have used the original Starship Troopers (SST) rules to create a new game called Battlefield: Evolution. The reason I mention this is that when they did that they came up with enough ideas that they liked alot to apply those concepts and tweaks into a version "2.0" of SST, which is just down the road a bit (April?, I may have forgotten though). Mongoose had decided to go with a new process in prefinishing and assembling the game miniatures for BF:E and has also re-tooled many of the models for SST in a similar offering. They have also decided to keep the previous minis options available for those who have the inclination to glue and paint their armies up. I'd call it a win-win for the customer, as all of the minis will be reused and compatible with either set of rules. I can't tell you to wait for "Starship Troopers: Evolution" but that might be something to consider. Either that, or go ahead and choose to assemble your bugs and use the current rules (which worked well enough to win some awards and acclaim) and then try out the newer take on the rules additions. The Skinnies, as you thought, were right out of the book, and draw upon that canon for the purists to make good use of. One thing I'd even suggest would be to find a DVD package called "Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles" which was made after the movie by the same producer/director, but made-for-TV and created using computer animation. The scripts are very well written imho and have some surprises. I was impressed by the entertainment value, and it adds much new canon content that btw Mongoose relied heavily upon. Thus, the background for the SST game is a rich mix of all three of these sources, and you can build your army based upon your likes and perspectives of the material. As far as buying an entire collection of new troopers with guns, I'll leave that to you. You might build up a Bug army first and then decide which (or both) sets of rules to go with, with the optiion that if you really really get hooked you can add the human armies later as reinforcements. I'm more of a modeler here than an experienced rules veteran, so others here will be better than me to ask how the rules questions go in depth. From what little I've played and read of it, the game has a very deep and rich set of play options to study and to use.

 

[MaxSteiner]

Another thought is that you could use your existing Imperial guard as a LightArmoured platoon, to increase the points of the MI you get in the starter, that way you can concentrate on building a big bug army (Which can get a little expensive) and still have a secound force to play against.

To do that you'dneed to purchase the Klendathu source book at some point, but the upside is it comes with a campeign to play through.

 

[tneva82]

Alot of the supporters have pulled back and are waiting for the prepainted V2 which is out sometime this year, but that wont come with Army lists or anything apparantly...

What do you mean? Rulebook will have platoon system similar to current one and stats will be put in PDF. What army list is missing?

 

[tneva82]

they have said that they would keep the old minis in production, pick it up, the rules arethe best i've had!!

And for new models with no equilavent in old models(flyers, sprites etc) is easy enough solution: Spray paint(you DO undercoat your models anyway don't you?), paint. Problem solved.

It's not like Mongoose is going to send polices to your houses if you paint over :lol:

By the way. For pewpewtolinlazers. If you have somebody interested in starting MI(since you seem to be interested for arachnids) don't worry about SST:Evo coming too much and wether you should wait or start now. Just gather enough money with MI player to buy starter set or two anyway. Those things are steal anyway with just models concidered. It's more like you get rules for free in addition to models :lol:

 

[Makoto]

Not to mention templates, tunneling counters and bunker parts. Yup, the starter set is an excellent investment.

And welcome around ^^

 

[Mr Evil]

yup box set is worth a buy, but evo is around the corner, basicly more dynamic rules, but if you play the present then when the next set comes forth your have A an army and B a good grasp of the tactics.

its far more dynamic and tacticle than 40k in my mind, you have so much choice what to do. and less rules cover more abilities.

 

[pewpewtolinlazers]

just as a size comparison issue, to what degree do my GW figs match up to thte SSt stuff, from what i know SST is 30 mil, while GW is 28 mm. How big of a diff in size is there when the models are painted and arrayed? What of size for the arachnids, MI?
Thoughts?

Thanks for all the responses. I really want to get all my ducks in a row bfore i commit to anything. (As much as hobbies const, I want to know everything I can before i jump in)

Also, I was looking through the downloadable rulebook sections here on the page... whats this reaction business about?

 

[Mr Evil]

not a great deal unless your talking about space marines, for 9foot high super humans, GW never got the height right !!!

 

[Col_stone]

http://www.weetoysoldiers.com has lots of great comparisons

 

[MaxSteiner]

Alot of the supporters have pulled back and are waiting for the prepainted V2 which is out sometime this year, but that wont come with Army lists or anything apparantly...

What do you mean? Rulebook will have platoon system similar to current one and stats will be put in PDF. What army list is missing?

What I mean is that Matt said that the army lists will no longer be in the book.
I can appreciate that in all liklyhood they'll be available to download through S&P, but thats going to be staggered to coincide with the release schedual, so, at the start at least your only really going to have the info for LAMI and Exo's and the warriors.
Also due to the constraints of space (Particularly as BF:E releases and SST:Evo releases coincide) there wont be the amount of fluff that to me constitues an armylist.
So rather than an armylist what you'll have is a collection of unit stats spread over various issues of a monthly magazine...
I can deal without it, but when the book was announced all that time ago we were told it would contain all the infomation required to run the game, including fully fleshed out armylists for all four races, now that we wont Im taking a little while to adjust to the fact.

 

[pewpewtolinlazers]

awesome comparison, obviously the cap troopers have had their vegetables, standing eyeballs over the space marines. LOL.

Can someone show me a comparison with an arachnid? are they bigger than the cap troops (obviously making them tower over hapless guardsmen). Are they primarily H2H based?

Thanks for that site, it showed me a bunch of cool stuff.

 

[roughneck GIR]

I could get you a comparison pic, but my camera is currently in another town . I can give you a mm scale comparision though. Warrior 54mm tall and the cap trooper is 36mm tall from the bottem of feet to top of helmet.

 

[pewpewtolinlazers]

WOW 54!! that is friggin huge. Im guessing that they tower over the Cap troops eh?

 

[roughneck GIR]

Totally, I was amazed when I built my first warrior when it over sized multiple caps at once! Massed morita fire never felt so comforting against these bugs. Well anyhoo, I could probably give you the scale comparision picture (the camera came back), but I should probabley go to sleep now though. Oh, btw where abouts are you located?

 

[pewpewtolinlazers]

DC/MD area. Question. Are they plastic? Also, do they look too cartoony? Are they ABS plastic? I havent heard good things about ABS. Advise?

 

[Hiromoon]

Ah-HA! Do you know Eagle and Empire?