That Starship Troopers stuff

[night owl]

Back when this game first came out, I bought some stuff for it. There wasn't much out back then.

I got the boxed set, a box of MI guys and a couple of boxes of the warrior bugs. thewarstore.com was selling an intro deal with that in it.

Because of various circumstances, that stuff wound up on a shelf. I never really did anything with it. I kind of looked at the book. The models are still in the boxes.

iirc it comes out to 8 squads of MI with 8 in each and 32 warriors.

I dug this stuff a few days ago. I may as well do something with it. Put it together. Maybe make the into viable armies One of the local stores has a bunch of stuff for this game at 25% off.

Unsurprisingly, a bunch of stuff has come out since I got these models. There are army books and more models and it looks like there are new rules too.

What would I need to make these starter forces into viable armies and how much money would it cost give or take?

There isn't much of a local player community. This game never really caught on here. I would probably have to provide both forces, teach people and do demos. Any advice here?

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

You'd need to put a lot more money into the bug army than the MI. 64 MI is the bulk of a platoon - and a fully kitted MI squad is in the region of 300 points (you'll need three minis to use as officers though), and all you'd really need to round the force out is a couple of Marauders and a CHAS for heavy support.

The problem with Bugs is that the warriors are dirt cheap in terms of points, but much more expensive to buy due to the size of the models. I don't play bugs so I can't tell you what you'd need for sure, but a warrior bug mega swarm box would get you up to 50 warriors (500 points right there), and then you could get some of the specialist bug types to flesh the army out

 

[Aniyn]

For bugs, you'll probably need that swarm box of warriors, a tanker of sorts, a plasma and maybe a brain. Flesh that out with some ripplers/hoppers, blister/blaster/firefries and you'll be well on your way.

Mi are a bit different in that they're actually 5 whole armies in themselves, and for that you'll need to figure out what you'd like to play before you can figure out what you'll need to buy.

 

[night owl]

This is sort of a secondary thing. I don't have a lot of spare money to put into this.

I can make the bug army a bit cheaper by giving them a bunch of tunnel stuff but it looks like that is going to be the expensive one.

One thing I don't want is to wind up with a gazillion warrior bug models. It gets into more money than I can really afford. Putting them all together, painting them and storing them is also a problem.

How does this game play at 500 or 750 per side?

They must have added a bunch of MI options since I got this stuff. I assume they are in the army book. It was pretty new back then so it's not surprising.

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

The MI army book contains lists for Power Armour, Marauders and a new unit type called Exosuits, which are modelled after the Book MI, they're fast and heavily armed. There's seperate books listing Pathfinders (elite recon/special forces troops) and Light MI (the guys from the movies)

The bugs get one army book listing a wealth of new options, most of them VERY nasty.

As for playing small games, i wouldn't want to play below 1,000 points. lower than that and you'd probably lose your whole army in one turn.

 

[Guy_LeDouche]

The smaller the game, the more likely it is for the MI to win. For Bugs to pull out a victory, they have to have forces (warriors) that can be "sacrificed for the greater good" (so to speak.)

Money wise, a Bug army will be a bit more expensive.

 

[tneva82]

You'd need to put a lot more money into the bug army than the MI. 64 MI is the bulk of a platoon

We are talking about TWO textbook platoons barring officers there...Add officers and you have nearly 4000 pts MI right there with some additions(one pee-wee nuke and few traits should do the trick).

So yeah. Bugs are what needs more serious boost

 

[night owl]

You'd need to put a lot more money into the bug army than the MI. 64 MI is the bulk of a platoon

We are talking about TWO textbook platoons barring officers there...Add officers and you have nearly 4000 pts MI right there with some additions(one pee-wee nuke and few traits should do the trick).

So yeah. Bugs are what needs more serious boost

:shock:

opps

Big correction. I made a typographic erro in my initial post

That should be 3 squads of MI with 8 in each for 24 total.

What about the lists that are in the book that came with the boxed set?

 

[mthomason]

What about the lists that are in the book that came with the boxed set?

If you're not playing existing SST players there's nothing to stop you using those lists. They're a little outdated now, but would work fine if you are playing within a single group. You could always pick up the M.I. and Arachnid army books later to update everything, or just hang on for the new SST Evo rules due out next year - and of course you'd have to avoid buying any new models not covered by the main rulebook.

 

[tneva82]

opps

Big correction. I made a typographic erro in my initial post

That should be 3 squads of MI with 8 in each for 24 total.

What about the lists that are in the book that came with the boxed set?

Lol Well atleast you aren't THAT overboard with MI then. 3 squads so 1 more squad and 2 officers(you could get pair of marauders or maybe pair of exo-suits for officers. Would give bit of variety and heavy firepower while avoiding trouble of getting 2 cap officers alone which can be bit pricey. M8 'ape' lietnaunt and M9 'chickenhawk' NCO for example would give you nice firepower and tough lietnaunt to ensure chain of command survives even under heavy losses among cap squads) and you pretty much have 2k list right there(or 3k if you go for heavy nukes. Those eats points like wonders ). Of course 3 squads is enough for 2k list as well if you want to go for heavy nukes or use the cardboard counters for aircrafts.

Boxed set lists are for one not so comprehensive and out of date(MI cap trooppers have different point cost etc) though can work as nice guidance at the beginning.

 

[night owl]

Buying only the models in the main rulebook still gives me lots of options.

I have a couple of dumb question.

iirc you have to have an officer in your MI army. I can't find any officer model. What do you use for an officer? Are there specific officer models? Some other way of designating them? What about the junior squad NCOs? (corprorals?)

I saw some female CAP troopers for sale at the game store. I am assuming these are mechanically the same as the other ones and are there to give more variety and 'realism'. Given the background as I understand it, a force that 'happens' to be all men is rather improbable.

 

[night owl]

Lol Well atleast you aren't THAT overboard with MI then. 3 squads so 1 more squad and 2 officers(you could get pair of marauders or maybe pair of exo-suits for officers.

So all I need is another squad and a couple of maruaders to get up to 2k points? I thought it would be a lot more than that.

 

[tneva82]

Lol Well atleast you aren't THAT overboard with MI then. 3 squads so 1 more squad and 2 officers(you could get pair of marauders or maybe pair of exo-suits for officers.

So all I need is another squad and a couple of maruaders to get up to 2k points? I thought it would be a lot more than that.

My 2k list was:

4 squads of 8
marauder officer
cap officer
CHAS

Replace CHAS by upgrading cap officer to marauder officer(avoids need of buying separate model as well) and add traits(my list was light on those) and you have 2k cap list right there.

And nukes...Well when those cost 300 pts piece you will rake up points REAL fast with those

As for cap officers: Heroes of MI box has suitable models or just convert from cap box. I think those are pretty much only choises you have.

 

[night owl]

My 2k list was:

4 squads of 8
marauder officer
cap officer
CHAS

Replace CHAS by upgrading cap officer to marauder officer(avoids need of buying separate model as well) and add traits(my list was light on those) and you have 2k cap list right there.

I can easily afford that. MI will be cheaper than I imagined. That frees up some cash for army books and more bugs.

I am definitely going to need more of tham. I may go for stuff like a tanker bugg or something just so I don't have so many. 50 warrior bugs is not too bad but 100 is more than I care to deal with.

 

[Quark]

For the record, my group found the game almost un-playable at 500 points. If you go that low I'd recommend just using Warriors and Light MI. This game's really meant for more large scale battles though.

 

[tneva82]

MI will be cheaper than I imagined.

One of the main advantages MI have :lol:

My tournament army would cost 115 euro in the more pricey way(buying cap troopper boxes invidually rather than 2 starter sets together with arachnid player or using arachnids yourself).

I am definitely going to need more of tham. I may go for stuff like a tanker bugg or something just so I don't have so many. 50 warrior bugs is not too bad but 100 is more than I care to deal with.

My 2000 pts bug list btw has 40 warriors, tanker, plasma, 6 blasters and 5 firefries. Plus 3 tunnel entrances(or was it 4) and 3 tunnel markers.

Just to give some idea on what sort of amount you need to have for 2k bug army. Unfortunatly there doesn't seem to be any cheap method of raising points for bugs apart from mega swarms(or buying starter sets together with MI player). What you win by having expensive model point wise you lose in cost in money.

But yea I would definetly suggest getting tanker. More variety the better. I would also recommend adding some shooting. Plasma bug would give you nice BIG center piece or alternatively maybe some firefries(nice to threaten marauders). Just so that it's not just charge up and kill in close combat for arachnids.

 

[gorkamorka]

There are plenty of people here that have a load of bugs that they wouldn't mind getting off of thier hands.

Its a buyers market for bugs, and a swarm deal at this time is liken to the book deal pre Announcement.

You can do alot with two or three squads of MI. and the support of a box or two of Exosuits, a couple of extra Marauders,or an extra couple of squads.

Build what you have and wait till the beginning of the year. Use paper proxies until then, or Poker chips.