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GAME PROFILES:
STARSIllP TROOPERjSTARSOLDIERA Comparison of SF Treatments
by Phil KosnettAs so many of us are, Phil Kosnett is an
ardentdevotee of things science-fictional. He's tryingto arm-twist
me into creating a space for aregular science-fiction column in
thismagazine which would cover science-fictionand fantasy gaming
[see the Feedbackquestions in this issue]. To get you in themood,
he now goes on about the two latestplanet-pounder sf simulations.
[Twist, twist].
-RAS
SF wargames have been around for at least adecade. Almost all
deal with ship-to-shipcombat or the conquest of galactic empires.SF
games dealing with ground combat havebeen rare, and most have been
set on Earth inthe near future:' Invasion: America andJagdpanther's
Jacksonville 1997 areexamples. But now the science fictionaudience
has been treated by SPI and AvalonHill to two fine games on the
man-to-manlevel. It's about time, and it's a pleasure.Avalon Hill
has published Robert Heinlein'sStarship Troopers, based on the very
popular,Hugo-winning novel published in 1959. SPl'sgame is
StarSoldier, which has its future-history base in the StarForce
universe createdby Redmond A. Simonsen. It should be saidright up
front that this gives StarSoldier agreat advantage as a wargame-the
back-ground and combat system were invented forthe express purpose
of making wargames.Heinlein had other things in mind. A bit
ofbackground is in order.Starship Troopers is the story of Juan
Rico, anaive 22nd Century rich kid who enlists on alark. Relegated
by a lack of skill and brains tothe Mobile Infantry, Rico slowly
becomes atough, wary combat soldier, an officer.Heinlein follows
the "Evolution of a Soldier"through Basic Training and combat,
throughOCS and back to battle. On this level StarshipTroopers is an
exciting, occasionally touchingnovel of war and its effects on one
man.On another level Troopers is another matterentirely. The
society to which Rico belongs isso dominated by the military that
onlyveterans can vote or be citizens. War is notconsidered an
unavoidable horror, but theultimate expression of man's skill and
valor.At times Heinlein shifts the action into aclassroom so that
he can literally lecture onthis right-wing militaristic theory, as
well ason conservative, strict methods of law enforce-ment. In the
field, the Mobile Infantrymennever question their leaders or the
sloppydiplomacy which put them there. While theTroopers show
remorse for their deadcomrades, not once does a Trooper showregret
or even get sick over killing thousandsof intelligent aliens.
Heinlein depicts thisremorselessness by ingraining his
characters'
environment with racism. As the Britishconquered and slaughtered
"Wogs," and theAmericans were told to kill "Gooks," the M.1.kill
"Bugs". The M.1. also display whatHeinlein calls "honor" and what
others havecalled a remarkable lack of the urge
towardself-preservation. At the end of the book, theHuman fleet is
preparing for the last battle-the assault on the Bug homeworld.
Thetechnology exists to simply annihilate theplanet, but instead
thousands of Troopers willland and die in an attempt to rescue a
fewhundred Human prisoners of war. Honor?Poor arithmetic? Take your
pick. Of course,negotiation is out of the question.
The object of all this preface has been to pointout that
Heinlein had more on his mind thanwriting a war novel envisioning
future tacticalground combat. He didn't even try; he simplydid what
SF writers have often done; he fellback on an historical situation.
When theM.I. blast the Bugs out of their tunnels, it isthe Marines
blasting the Japanese out of theirtunnels, on Okinawa or Iwo Jima.
Take awaythe nuclear weapons, put in flamethrowertanks, and there
is very little difference. Thehumanoid "Skinnies" play the part of
stereo-typical Italians in World War II, with littleinterest in the
war and even less ability. Theyeventually switch sides and go with
the"good" guys.Simonsen developed the StarForce rationaleas he
developed the game. In fact, themechanics came first, an obvious
aid. InSimonsen's universe, the dominant factor isthe power of the
handful of female telestheticswho have the power to transport
themselvesand their TeleShips across several light-years,instantly.
The telesthetics control interstellartrade, and their pacifistic
nature prevents truewarfare from breaking out. Wars are limitedto
minor organizational struggles within andbetween the Human,
humanoid L'Chal Dah,and non-humanoid Rame races. To control
aplanet, a force must neutralize the stellarsystem's protecting
StarGate and telestheticsand then project a "Heissen Field"
whichknocks out everyone on the planet. Everyone,that is, but the
StarSoldiers, who wear aprotective suit. The invader's
StarSoldiersland by Gravity Sled to pacify the StarSoldierbases and
cities while the planetary defensestrade laser blasts and missile
salvoes with theorbiting StarForces. Casualties are light, warslast
days instead of years, and the civilianssuffer nothing more than a
bad headache andperhaps increased taxes. Very civilized. Yet itis
still war, and a disturbing question arises. Ifthe telesthetics
have such compassion for eachother that "even while on opposing
combatteams, (no telesthetics) have ever deliberatelycaused another
member's death," why dothey allow the StarSoldiers to kill each
other.
Simonsen makes it clear that the telestheticminority controls
interstellar trade andcommunications; surely they could preventwar
entirely. Of course, with the appearanceof the fanatic,
mass-murdering Xenophobes,the rules change.Star Soldier is clearly
a better situation for awargame than Starship Troopers. I am
notsuggesting that Simonsen is a better SF writerthan Heinlein;
that would be akin to sacrilege.But once again Heinlein was not
primarilyconcerned with the combat technology aspectof the story he
was telling. He probably hadn'teven heard of the then year-old
Avalon HillCompany in 1959. The StarForce/StarSoldiersystem was
built expressly for wargamepurposes. A handicap for Avalon Hill,
but onethey overcame.
CORKSCREW & BLOWTORCH:STARSHIP TROOPERS
Troopers is a success for Avalon Hill. AHdecided a couple of
years back to find a gamethat would expand their bookstore outlets
bylinking to a well-known book. They choseStarship Troopers,
negotiated with Heinlein,and published the game. While I am not
privyto AH's marketing reports, it is hard to thinkof a better
title choice than Troopers. As forthe packaging-well, Heinlein's
name isprominent and the cover painting is, uh, "eye-catching".
Let's leave it at that.Troopers is a success for designer
RandyReed. Reed set out to make the game asfaithful to the
situation as portrayed byHeinlein as he could. He succeeded
beyondmy expectations or those of anyone withwhom I've discussed
the game. He left a fewthings out of the game and added a few,
andhe improved the situation with almost everychange. In the novel,
the tactical situation ishopelessly one-sided. The Mobile
Infantry-men in their powered armor have over-whelming firepower
and mobility, and theSkinnies and Bugs can only sit in theirbunkers
and tunnels respectively and awaitthe Humans. Counterattacks can be
only localbecause the Humans have the speed to retreatfrom any
large concentration and the power toeliminate it immediately. Reed
hasn't curedthis problem by a long shot, but he has at leastadded
alien Heavy Weapon units to give theBugs and Skinnies somewhat more
firepowerin more concentrated form. Reed also addedmore terrain
differentiation to the plainswhere Heinlein's Troopers fought, just
to jazzthings up a little. And so on.Troopers is a mild success as
a game. It can bea lot of fun for the Human player. He has
tocoordinate his M.1. with his CombatEngineers, use various
conventional andnuclear bombs to kill Bugs and seal theirholes, use
nerve gas, set listening posts to
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divine the pattern of the Bug tunnel complex,take care of the
wounded and men withdamaged suits, try to anticipate local
counter-attacks, and sometimes even collect his troopsand evacuate
by Retrieval Boat at the end ofthe scenario. This requires an
organizationalskill unnecessary in most wargames. The Bugand Skinny
Players have less to do, and it canbe boring sitting in a tunnel
with nothing to dobut explode nuclear mines and wait for theHuman
engineers to breach your tunnelceiling.
The basic mechanics of Troopers are, sadly,quite familiar. The
Human Player-Turn is asimple Movement/Ranged Weapon Fire/In-hex
Combat/Second Movement, with thealien Player-Turn being Ranged
Weapon/Movement/In-hex. The counters, even moresadly, have those
three old numbers, Attack-Defense-Movement on them. A Marauder-the
basic M.I.-is a 4-6-6. The Bug Warrior isa 6-3-1. With 50% Movement
in the secondphase, the Human has a 9-1 speed advantageon the
surface. Some race.The basic Human combat unit is the
54-manplatoon. Any number of these men will beequipped with HE or
nuclear rocket launcher,bombs, or listening device in addition to
handflamers (the basic combat strength). Inaddition there are
Combat Engineer sectionswhich lack powered armor combat suits
andare worthless in a fight, but are the only unitswhich can breach
the surface and break intothe tunnels. Without Engineers, the
Humanscan only enter Bug breaches, presumably con-taining Bugs.The
basic Bug unit is the Complex. The centerof a Complex is a Queen
hex surrounded byfive Combat Brain hexes and a Master Brain.A main
tunnel extends ten hexes from eachCombat Brain with side tunnels,
so the tunnelsystem resembles a circle with 1/6 missing.Each Combat
Brain tunnel link has fiveWarriors, five decoy Workers (0-1-1), and
aReed Heavy Weapon (18-8-3). The HW isbasically a very heavy tank
with powerfulenergy beams. Bugs have unlimited move-ment within the
Brain link, but cannot movebetween links until new tunnels are
built, andof course they only crawl on the surface.Before each
game, the Bug player builds hisComplex with the links separated,
deploys hisconventional and/or nuclear land mines inthe Complex
area, and that's the extent of hisstrategic planning. The Complex
con-struction is the Bug's one and only chance tooutsmart the
Human.The Bug Complex contains 55 unit counters,each representing a
"group" of Bug Warriors,Workers, or vehicles, maybe about ten.
Themost advanced scenario puts two BugComplexes, two M.l. platoons
and sixCombat Engineer sections, six unarmedEngineer Air Cars,
sixty-two bombs anddemolitions, six listening devices, twoRetrieval
Boats, and a Human telesthetic(Special Talent, or S&T counter)
to divine thetunnels, plus casualty markers and so forth,all on a
map 43x34 hexes (1462 square miles).Usually only about half that
many countersare on the map at any time, especially as the
\I
Bugs are usually off-map, in the tunnels. Still,it's kind of
crowded. Not that there's anythingwrong with that. Juggling who's
got the listen-ing device and the platoon leader's out ofbombs and
better watch that Bug breach andsend a squad to guard the wounded
and dumpa gas bomb down that hole just in case-isvery different
from what a gamer usuallyconcerns himself with. The feeling
offrustration Heinlein stresses in the problemsof running a platoon
comes through verynicely.There are some nice applications of
familiardevices: the Worker units which act asdummies for the Bugs
and Skinnies; thecasualties which have to be guarded fromalien
capture. And there are very originalrules for combat in tunnels,
listening devicesand clairvoyance, and Retrieval Boats. TheBug
Command Control rules relate to thecapture of Brain Bugs, which can
create theinteresting situation of a captured Brainsuiciding by
ordering his Warriors to fire onhim, thereby eliminating the whole
Bug link.The M.l. Drop Procedure is disappointing,though. The M.I.
drop from orbit essentiallyas paratroops, and while the rule is
faithful tothe book, it is inferior to drop rules in gameslike
Highway to the Reich and Airborne!.
Physically Troopers has its ups and downs.The box cover could be
a lot better; it couldhardly be worse. The counters are
brightlyprinted but the silhouettes are not detailedand the
numerals tend to dominate thecounters. The map is "pretty" though,
andthe rules booklet has a number of illustrationswhich add
flavor-diagrams of suits, draw-ings of Skinnies, documents referred
to in thenovel. Much of it is worthless to someone whohasn't read
the book, I'll admit. Take yourpick. The rules are done in a
ProgrammedInstruction format, which means the scen-arios are
arranged to add complexitygradually. Nothing new, but there is
anAddenda which adds the complexity of thefinal scenario to the
earlier ones, givingyou an
5
"Advanced Basic" game. One thing I hateabout the rules is that
there is a notice aftereach scenario which reads, "STOP! READNO
FURTHER. PLAY SCENARIO "thatreminds me of my College Board
exams.Shudder.There are, of course, things in Troopers whichtrigger
my variant-oriented mind. Reedremoved the K-9 Corps and its
wonderfultalking Neodog scouts. Granted they werenever intended to
be an important tacticalforce, they would add a little to the game.
Andthe most serious flaw in the game-as-a-gameis that there is
simply no chance of a Bug orSkinny offensive. Heinlein never talked
abouthow the Bugs would capture a planet, thoughhe discussed their
bombing Terran cities andthe battles between Bug and Terran
fleets(space navy, of course). The Arachnids havethe ultimate
trench mentality. They may bethe Japanese, but they don't even have
thespeed for more than an occasional, easilycrushed small-scale
banzai charge. A scenarioof a Bug attack on an established
Humanground base, perhaps in armed Air Cars orsome sort of
high-speed Heavy Weapon molevehicle, would have provided
considerablevariety. As it is now, playing the Bugs is anexercise
in boredom. I'm not saying the Bugscan't win; a good Bug player can
keep a badHuman player from invading the tunnels bywell-timed,
well-placed raids and judicioususe of mines. But with comparably
skilledopponents, the Human will soon developtactics that will
assure a careful, methodicalvictory.Randy Reed and his playtesters
have done agood job. Starship Troopers is a challenginggame; it is
in some ways a different game. Butit is a failure as a science
fiction game. Themechanics are old and tired. The combatsystem and
the CRT would be at home inalmost any 20th Century tactical game.
Thosethree damn digits on the counters have nobusiness being there.
Except for thoseconcerning the tunnels, there are almost norules
which haven't been seen a dozen timesbefore. Change the counter
silhouettes andthe historical background and call it Banzai!There
is no blame to be shared by Heinleinand Reed, and I'm sure Reed
could have donea better job by starting from scratch with a setof
parameters of his own. Science fiction hasbeen defined as "The
effect of change uponpeople and society." In Starship Troopersthere
is no change in organization, tactics, orthe use of weaponry from
that used in the hillsof Iwo Jima in 1945, and I just can't
believewarfare will not change in two centuries. Justlook at the
last two.
SOMETHING NEW: STARSOLDIERStarSoldier is the offspring of
designer TomWalczyk, developer Brad Hessel, and Simon-sen, who
contributed ideas and nagged a lotabout keeping the game
futuristic. In this thethree succeeded.StarSoldier is set in the
period from 2405 to2785, several centuries after St arshipTroopers,
and the technology is superior. AnM.l. fights in his powered armor,
a suit whichincreases his strength, allows him to leap tall
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6
buildings in a single bound, and containsenough nuclear and
conventional firepower towipe out a 20th Century armored division.
Italso serves as a spacesuit.A StarSoldier has his Active Battle
Dress. TheABD has all the capabilities of powered armorand then
some. It enables the wearer to fly at2S00 mph and be unaffected by
high gravity.It screens out energy emissions, making theSoldier
invisible to the eye and to anyelectronic means save those of-
anotherStarSoldier in ABD. ABD can convert analmost unlimited
amount of energy to a directfire beam, defensive screening,
movementability, or power to launch or deflect guidedand unguided
missiles. And furthermore,ABD is intelligent-a fully aware
computercircuit is built into it, and a stupider brain isincluded
in each guided missile. The ABDalso has a considerable ability to
repair itself.The tactical mission of the StarSoldier isdifferent
from the Trooper's. Instead ofattempting to wipe out all the aliens
on aplanet, the Soldier is just trying to neutralizethe enemy
military to prepare for a negotiatedpeace. Fighting centers on the
locations ofground bases, which serve as repair andsupply bases,
centers for anti-ship planetarydefenses, and havens for key
civilianpersonnel. There is no front.
The team decided in doing StarSoldier tocombine familiar aspects
of Sniper! andPatrol (SPI's 20th Century man-to-mangames), with
original mechanics. Happily theoriginal mechanics became more
prominentduring development, and most of the 20thCentury mechanics
were left to antiquity. Themost obvious aspects that remain are
thedefinition of Soldier functions as Tasks, andthe chart which
shows how many "Move-ment" Points each Task requires. Actuallythe
points are called (logically) Task Points,and each Race's Soldiers
have a standard TPAllowance in addition to an EfficiencyRating-
kind of a measure ofhow good a raceis at soldiering. The Recovery
Rate shows howmuch punishment a Soldier can recover fromwith the
aid of his Active Battle Dress. Thesethree numbers are the basis
for just abouteverything the StarSoldier does. He does a lot,so
let's go through it gradually.Movement is either at High Level
Airborne,Nap of Earth, or Ground Level. The last canbe below the
surface in lake hexes; naturallyABD can swim underwater (or
under-methane- the rules include a great section onnon-earthlike
environments). Vulnerability islowest at Ground Level, what with
hiding inthe trees (uh, pardon me, "organic cover")and such, and
NOE is almost as good with farbetter mobility. At High Altitude,
vulner-ability is great, but on a clear day you can fireforever.
You can always see forever; sensorsare all-knowing, and for once it
makes senseto know the whereabouts and condition ofunits forty
kilometers away across a mountainrange.Fire Combat is ranged fire,
something likeTrooper's use of rocket launchers. FireCombat is also
an exercise in mathematicswhich is very tiresome. Not that the
jI
calculations are complicated. You get AttackStrength by
multiplying Efficiency by theTask Points expended. You subtract
theDefense Strength, which is Range Atten-uation plus Target
Counter-Measure TaskPoints plus Movement of target effect
plusTerrain Value. This has to be calculated atleast once or twice
per Game-Turn, usuallymore often, depending on situation andPlayer
tactics. The developer, Hessel, admitsthey got a little carried
away, but the systemworks. It is difficult to get a positive
Firenumber for the CRT, which means thatlaunched weapons are
usually used atanything but very short range. GuidedPositron Bombs
(nuclear missiles) can missthe target hex and land elsewhere. Free
FlightMissiles aren't vulnerable to scatter, but theycan be shot
down in flight by the targetStarSoldier. In addition to inflicting
damage,launched weapons can temporarily jam theelectronics of an
ABD and delay recovery; thisis called (archaically) "stunning." In
additionthere are Homing Missiles which can besowed like land
mines, but they move whenthey locate a target! Finally, the
Xenophobesuse Neutron Bombs which vaporize Soldiersoutright-the
Xeno's, remember are the mostbloodthirsty race.
~ Future-History Simulation Game the time is: 2451 A.D.
Combat results were originally Kill, Wound,etc., but that was
changed to a moresophisticated system in playtesting. Now a
hitreduces TP Allowance by X number, whichonly reduces the number
of things a Soldiercan do each Turn and the speed or power
withwhich they are done. Recovery Rate is thenumber of Points which
can be regained perGame-Turn. For example, the L'Chal Dahhave 12TPA
to the Human 9, but the Humanscan recover 3 Points a Turn to the
L'ChalDah's one Point. (Incidentally, each raceexcept the Xeno's
has Androids-self-aware,fully possessed of initiative, basically
differentfrom their makers only in construction, butincapable of
Recovery. I haven't quite figuredout why an ABD can repair itself
but anAndroid cannot.) If a Soldier's TPA isreduced to zero, then
he/she/it dies, as life
support is neutralized. This rarely happens,so StarSoldiers
rarely die.Contrary to the Developer's Notes, this systemof combat
results has been seen before, in (toname one example) Lou Zocchi's
Star Trek/Alien Space system. Each ship has X numberof engine
factors which feed Y number ofphasers and Z number of defensive
shields,plus special weapons. Damage knocks outengine boxes (which
is just like losing TPA) ordamage can apply individually to one of
theother systems. Soldier needs this factor: theability to have the
missile launcher or theCounter-Measure system or
communicationsknocked out specifically. Perhaps a CriticalHit
Table, with a small chance of a systems hitevery time TP A is
reduced.Finally, there are Opacity Grenades, whichcreate a field of
what is mis-labeled "smoke"which blocks Fire and slows
Movement.There are other weapons in the game besidesthose of the
StarSoldiers: Support Platformswith Laser Cannon, Orbital Fire
Support andOrbital Opacity Bombs from TeleShips.There is even
provision for the completelyalien Rame (telepathic, with a
mergeablemassmind and no individual identity) to useKiller Swarm
tactics which greatly improvetheir capabilities when operating in
the samehex (kilometer).
The map represents about 750 square miles,and ·there are never
more than twenty-twoStarSoldiers on the map. The map is thusmuch
less crowded than Trooper's. Soldiersoperate independently and the
chain ofcommand takes on different meaning than ithas today.
Fireteam Leaders don't give ordersas a primary function; they are
coordinators.Sensor data and instructions from off-mapand
off-planet are transmitted through themto the other Soldiers. The
loss of a Leaderforces the Soldiers to tie into the
off-mapsuperiors individually, delaying action. Theeffect in the
game is to allow Soldiers inCommand Communication a first shot
attheir enemies without Communication, allow-ing them to take out
the enemy first. TheRame, of course, are never out of
Commun-ication-a mass-mind has no need forelectronic message
devices. (CommandControl is an element noticeably, and
pre-dictably, missing from Starship Troopers.Heinlein stresses the
importance of theofficers; the counter-mix is sure to
differ-entiate between officers and Marauders, butthere is no
Command system. I guess AH hasdecided against Command Control as
amatter of policy. Pity.) The game has no Panicrules as Star
Soldiers are not likely to get theirorders fouled up that way,
though oncecasualties reach Preservation Level theEfficiency Level
is halved. Remember, thewars are fought only until one side decides
itisn't worth fighting, which usually happens ina few days. Any
casualty is very demoralizing,and it doesn't take much punishment
to reachPreservation Level. I would suggest onechange to the
present rule. Instead of justcounting Task Points to determine
Preser-vation, I would give a bonus when a Soldier isactually
killed, as it happens somewhat rarely.
[continued on page 101
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Starship Trooper/Starsoldier[continued from page 6)
Naturally Android death would count less.(Xenobhobe scenarios
are fights to the death,and Preservation is ignored.)Tacked at the
end of the rules is the StarForceLink, which enables owners of that
game toplay out their strategic battles on a tacticallevel. This
can be a very time-consumingthing, and most people probably won't
try itmore than once. I guess if the link were notthere, though,
people would complain. Itinvolves l00,OOO-Soldier Strike
Commands,small portions of which are represented inthree
StarSoldier scenarios, in representativeactions. If one side has
800/0casualties in thethree scenarios, 80,000 men of each
StrikeCommand are considered casualties.Obviously it would be
almost impossible toshow every one of the circa 10,000
battlesfought for the planet. I say almost because itwould be
feasible to begin such a series withthe understanding that it would
be completedby your firstborn male child, but otherwise itwould be
ajoke to think about. One very nicepart of the Link game is that if
one side inflictstoo many civilian casualties, the
TelestheticsGuild may end the war, rendering the killersthe losers
regardless of the strategic situation.All things considered,
StarSoldier is physic-ally attractive. The counters are very
nicelydetailed. The map is mediocre, though theurban hexes are very
imaginative, resemblingTinker-toys. But Simonsen outdid himselfwith
the cover illustration. After months ofbad-mouthing the Starship
Troopers COYe£RAS was determined to best it. RAS camewith a
striking shot of two Human SSoldiers being attacked with what are
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bolts of concentrated high energy or very largeJell-O
molds.There is a third tactical ground game Imention out of
fairness. Attack Wargaming'sRift Trooper is essentially Starship
Trooperswith the names changed. It is physically notbad (for
Attack, that is) and there is someeffort made to make the game
different andfuturistic. Effort, I said; not success. It has
apassable cover sheet, and that is the extent ofwhat I'll say about
Rift Trooper except that ithas three maps and the tunnel combat
rulescould be worse and it is ridiculouslyoverpriced at eight
dollars. And it camebefore the AH Starship Troopers, so claims
ofplagiarism I've heard from customers aregroundless and
unfair.
Both Starship Troopers and StarSoldier havevirtues and flaws.
Both games are worthowning if you're an SF fan, and eren if
you'renot-for variety s sake. But two things are>eIJ clear: 5
Sob:Iier is - -and S
science fiction wargame must be innovative tobe good. The
customers seem to agree. Thedesigner must be, to some extent a
sciencefiction writer, inventing situations andsolutions with as
much imagination aspossible. It's best when the science fiction
iscustom-made for the game.
SF wargaming is in good shape today andlooking better all the
time. MetagamingConcepts, the first all-SF wargame company,is
surviving and turning out some good games,as well as publishing far
and away the bestscience fiction wargame 'zine I've seen.
(Sendacard to Metagaming at BOX 15346, Austin,TX 78761 and they'll
send you an issue. Tellthem where you heard of them.) SPI
iscranking out SF at a healthy pace, Outreach,After the Holocaust,
StarSoldier, BattleFleet .Mars, all within a very few months. And
therewill be others. After fifteen years of almost no
rofessional science fiction wargames, it is apleasnre to see
them coming at last. As long as
igners remember that science fiction isc::t:!=i«:£lt., and must
be treated differently, we
-:::.-~ see some of the best wargames ever.