From: Francois Charton <deef@POBOX.OLEANE.COM>
Subject:      Re: How are these AH games?

Richard Guenther (128983) wrote:
>
> Or just any comments at all on these
> would be helpful.  These are the games:
> [...]
> Starship Troopers
>

A game based on the novel by R. Heinlein, it models several land battles
between terran "space marines" and two alien races: humanoids (guys like
you and me, just a little taller, skinnier, and misbehaving), and
arachnids (big, ugly and hairy spiders, which live in subterranean
hives).

All scenarios work on the same principle: a squad or a platoon of
"starship troopers" are paradropped on the surface of the planet, where
they should carry out some mission and then be retrieved.

Scenarios are graded in complexity, which makes the rules easy to learn,
and the game is not very complex, even when all the rules are added. It
is highly playable and fast moving. Altogether, the game system is
simple, but fun to play.

Flexibility is excellent: designing new scenarios is very easy, and the
large number of options allows for much variety.

However, solitaire playability is very low: IMO, the best scenarios are
those against the arachnids, because all the information about the enemy
is concealed to the terran player.

The layout of the arachnid hive is unknown, and the terrans must guess
where the enemy is; symetrically, the arachnids need to reveal
information obout where they are everytime they want to strike, hence
making themselves vulnerable. Also, the main arachnid weapons are land
mines, which are not suited to solitaire play.

Hope this helps
Francois