The
Starship Troopers Game
Here's where you're
going to find something very interesting connected with the Grandmaster.
It's the Starship
Troopers Game, dating back from 1976.
 |
This is not a book cover. It's the Starship Troopers Game issued in 1976. |
I learned that many people found them difficult to read, that's why I have added this transcript:
This game is based on the military axiom
that final victory depends on the willingness of brave men to stand and
fight and hold - or die trying - despite all fancy technology, all superweapons.
In the long run the infantry is always the "Queen of Battles".
Unlike most wargames, STARSHIP TROOPERS
is laid many years in the future. Some planets unknown today are the war
theaters for this game.
The playing units of the Terran Federation,
the Mobile Infantry, are an elite corps akin to the US Marine Corps or
US Army paratroopers. The M. I. humans wear powered jumpsuits that enable
them to leap over obstructions such as buildings. They are armed with advanced
weapons that give each infantryman firepower roughly equivalent to a platoon
today. Brought to the battlesite by spaceships, M. I. 's are ejected into
space above the battle area in capsules. The capsules enter the atmosphere,
the M. I. 's emerge and parachute down to form up to do battle. Casualties
are always suffered --- but M. I. 's do not leave injured comrades
behind when their ship sends down a space boat to make a pickup.
M. I. 's are versatile. They can make
a quick strike, do enormous danger in a few minutes, and return to their
starship. Or stay down for full battle - conquer or die.
The enemies are nonhuman aliens. One
sort are the Arachnids (something like giant spiders) who live a communal
life and have a social structure resembling an ant or bee colony. They
have at least the following castes: Queens, Brains, Warriors, and Workers.
Only the Warrior class fights, but Warriors are directed in their tactics
by one or more Brains. Arachnids are underground creatures, burrowing tunnels
in which they live and work. It is therefore necessary to go down and destroy
(or capture) the Brains and Queens as well as the Warrior caste.
Skinnies are a humanoid race that fights
the Terran Federation early in the war. At a later phase they are allied
with the humans to fight the Arachnids.
I hope that this game will prove stimulating
to game players. Let your imagination range as widely as possible; there
are no precedents for such battles.
Robert A. Heinlein