"Gaming Starship Troopers properly?" Topic

So, had a very long discussion about Starship Troopers the book recently with a friend, and this got me thinking about gaming the battles presented in the books. Extremely well armed and mobile MI vs much more numerous opponents, basically. I know there was the Mongoose Game, but that took most of it's cues from the movie (terrible) and cartoon (less terrible), and it's not what I'm looking for. There was also the Avalon Hill game, which by everything I heard was excellent but I don't own it!

I think to get the scale right you'd need to go 6mm, 15mm at the most. MI troops were typically spaced out about half a mile from other members of the squad, so you'd need a combination of small models and large boards to get the right feel.

For the MI themselves I like the new 6mm Powered Armor infantry from Brigade Games. Anyone have ideas on good bugs (or skinnies) in 6mm?

As for rules, anything out there that might capture this feel? I suppose I could try to scare up a copy of the Avalon Hill rules and convert them to minis….

-Will

I've looked at doing a "proper" Starship Troopers game a few times using 6mm.
I thought it might be fun to do the Skinny "demonstration of power" strike but I could never find anyone that made Skinnies or good proxies for Skinnies in 6mm.

The other rule set that hits the meme is Metagaming's "Olympica", though it is basically AH's game "lite", and is also hex-based.

For Skinnies in 6mm, I'd see if you could scare up any of the 10mm infantry from AOG's GROPOS. Very skinny for their scale…

Bugs will depend on your own take on them. The old Epic Tyranids may be worth a look, as well as the odd insect from Reaper, Heresy's Hellmites, Dark Age's Broodlings and Puds, and the 6mm movie bugs from GZG.

Well, I went the other direction. I liked the movie and the cartoon series. I picked up Gzg bugs. I already own some Tankers. I used Gzg and Adler Dark Star 6mm infantry for everything from LAMI's, Mobile suit infantry and Walkers. I love Gzg's 6mm walkers. Very cool. Plus there is a nice Bug army list already created that will work perfectly for SST bugs from the movie.

Frankly, the book was rather limited in actual combat. The AH boardgame was better. But you won't find the bugs to fit it unless you go two legged.

Thanks,

John

The Mongoose game was actually good at playing this type of game. The heavy powered armored troops were close enough to the book suits and the bugs are interesting to play on their own. When played well, you'll have a small force of hard and heavy humans versus hordes of tunneling/flying monstrosities.

Pick up the rules and use them for 6mm without changing ranges.

A quick look at ebay shows almost 20 copies of the AH SST game. Sells at or below $20 USD regularly.

For minis rules, you're going to need some kind of hidden movement tracking for the bugs, maybe even a double-blind system.

Much as I like the AH game, it was awfully tough to be bugs in that game. The MI unit density was really low. It works as a board game, but as a mini game expect to have a handful of pieces on a really large table.

The Mongoose game had good 'generic' tunnelling rules. It needs something to re-create 'bug highways'. Hardly the end of the world.

For it to be fun, I think you would need lots and lots of these:

link

Dan

The game includes hidden movement using maps sheets provided in the game.

I have a copy of the original Starship Troopers from Avalon Hill which I would part with if you are interested. It would give you a basis for your work and a frame work for any rules for miniature games too. PM me if you are interested.

EDIT: I noticed you don't have PM ability – ask the Editor to contact me.

I dont think you can do the bookl right in any scale. Rico spoke of 5mile jumps between tossing nukes.
so whats it gonna be? 10mm on a gymnasium floor?

Thanks for the fast responses everyone!

I thought it might be fun to do the Skinny "demonstration of power" strike but I could never find anyone that made Skinnies or good proxies for Skinnies in 6mm.

Also hard since we never do get a real description of them- tall and thin humanoids are about all we know about them.

Bugs will depend on your own take on them. The old Epic Tyranids may be worth a look, as well as the odd insect from Reaper, Heresy's Hellmites, Dark Age's Broodlings and Puds, and the 6mm movie bugs from GZG.

Good point, I'll check out all those sources- I'll admit I never did form a clear mental image of the bugs, other then spider-like. I do remember I was pretty sure the the warriors were armed though, unlike the 'chompers only' movie versions (which did look pretty cool I admit).

Frankly, the book was rather limited in actual combat.

What combat there was I found a lot more compelling then the 'charge everywhere guns blazing' tactic that was the only thing humans did in the movie. But I digress.

Pick up the rules and use them for 6mm without changing ranges.

Hmmm, that's not a bad idea. I know Mongoose did add quite a bit more heavy equipment later on.

For minis rules, you're going to need some kind of hidden movement tracking for the bugs, maybe even a double-blind system.

Yes, this would be an issue. Bug-in-Tunnel movement would be pretty easy (the bug player simply has 'bug-holes' he spawns forces in at), but decoying MI with workers would be tougher. I suppose the best idea would be to use the same miniatures for workers and warriors, with their true nature marked on the bottom of the base and invisible to the MI player.

Thanks for the ebay tip, I'll keep an eye out!

Much as I like the AH game, it was awfully tough to be bugs in that game. The MI unit density was really low. It works as a board game, but as a mini game expect to have a handful of pieces on a really large table.

That is sort of the effect I'm looking for though. :)

link

Chupacabra?

-Will

Thinking further about it, I wonder if you couldn't do something with the Goal System rules from Supersystem. Make the MI individual heroes with their weapons, armor, and movement powers modelled by name-changed superpowers, and make the bugs henchmen groups with lots of extra bodies. The "warrior hidden in the worker swarm" thing could be represented by the way henchman offense drops slowly in proportion to casualties – you waste a lot of fire snuffing harmless workers rather than the key targets. I've done something like this with WW2 and it worked pretty well, although the table wasn't quite as spacious as it sounds like you're after.

And Khurasan does make a nice range of book-inspired Bugs and MI in 28mm. 15mm too, if you're willing to use Space Demon nymphs or THEM-style giant ants as Bug proxies – he's already done the MI in the smaller scale.

Another possibility is to game at two scales – a big strategic map (maybe using the AvHill game with mods) that generates tabletop skirmishes using just one or two MI versus a horde of Bugs that are either attcking or defending a relatively immobile objective (tunnel entrance, science team, landing boat, etc). Or have the lone MI start surrounded in the middle of the table and have to escape – the classic Bug ambush at skirmish scale, and nukes don't help much at arm's reach.

The "lone MI" tabletop game would be a bit like Ogre, actually.

IMO go with 15mm scale.

Here is what you would need

For the bad guys

Ground Zero Game
6mm bugs

Khurasan Miniatures
15mm Parasachnid Bioweapons
15mm Ogre Beetle

For the Good Guys
15mm Terran Federal Marine
15mm Federal Marine Special Assault Brigade in Power Armour

Rebel Miniatures
15mm Titan Marine Mk.I HAMR Suit
15mm Earth Force Mk.I HAMR Suit

Its GW bugs vs imperial guard.Play it 28mm .

I agree almost entirely with MiniatureReview. 15mm is a good way to go with plenty of figure options.

I personally would use GZG's NAC for the MI and Pole Bitwy also do bugs that I think would mix well with Khurasan's offerings.

You can see Pole Bitwy's bugs on Dropships blog here;

picture

Hope this helps

Regards

Chris

6mm would open up options for a huge table full of bugs…and who would not want a full table of bugs?

15mm is also a good scale/size for a fun game.

But for the full affect of the bombs and such I would think the 6mm would be more appropriate.

Hey Tom (MiniatureReview), if I were to do a game set for Bug Wars, let's say 15-20 Terrans vs some higher number of bugs, and sell it at say a 10% discount, what would you want to see in the box? (That can include the ogre beetle, it's ready for sale I just need to space my releases).

Everyone's input on what I can add to such a box welcomed.

Everyone's input on what I can add to such a box welcomed.

If you're doing the book, all you really need are MI and Bug warriors & workers, which are visually identical except for the weapons. Khurasan already does a set like this in 28mm, In 15mm, the MI are covered, and I still think the Space Demon nymphs or giant ants are both decent bug proxies. Unless you want to look like the movie, the ogre beetle (nice as it is) isn't needed – no tanker bugs in the book, just hordes of the smaller stuff.

Which is the problem with gaming it true to the novel – not a ton of variety, and one side hardly needs any figures at all.

My suggestions:

1) Use 15mm figures, but 6mm ground scale. Mobile Infantry are, well, mobile, so you need a ground scale that covers large distances. Bugs by contrast won't be anywhere near as fast.

2) Represent bug movement using scanner blips so the MI player has no idea of the forces he's facing unless he actually gets close enough to inspect them. When inspected, replace the scanner blips with bug models representing the type of bugs present, and chits/tokens to represent the relative strength of the forces.

3) Limit ammunition for the MI. The weapon ranges will be sufficient to pick off large groups of bugs (or blips) from distance. Limit ammunition so they can't just clean the table indiscriminately. The MI player should be forced to use his mobility to jump into a blip group, determine whether it's workers/warriors/brains, and fight accordingly.

4) Once engaged at close range, limit the ability of the MI to jump out of combat. This gives the bug player the change to bog the MI down until they can bring a large enough force to bear to destroy them.

I've been planning something similar in 15mm. I want to convert Avalon Hills' Starship Troopers (which I own) to miniatures. I'm thinking of a hex map as a grid reference to track the bugs' hidden underground movement, but not use the hexes for normal movement. I'm thinking of several different figures from Khurasan to use as bugs, primarily "Those giant spiders" and Parasachnid Bioweapons, one as warrior and the other as workers. I figure that's easier to tell them apart and I could leave it up to the bug player to decide which is which and let the Terran learn the hard way for a bit of fog-o-war effect. So far for Terrans I'm using my old Ral Partha Galactic Grenadiers figures.

Unfortunately this is still just plans due to a new house and all…

Thinking further about it, I wonder if you couldn't do something with the Goal System rules from Supersystem.

Oh, that's an interesting idea- a lot of the MI traits and Bug traits could be replicated with 'power effects'.

I do like the Khurasan stuff (I have some of the 28mm bugs for use as BIG bugs in 15mm), if I go 15mm or 28mm they are definitely high on the list.

Two scales might work as well, though it would make the game a bit longer.

Its GW bugs vs imperial guard.Play it 28mm .

Er, that might be true of the movie, but it's definitely NOT true of the book.

But for the full affect of the bombs and such I would think the 6mm would be more appropriate.

Yes, for a game where tactical nukes are an option small scale seems to be a requirement.

My suggestions:

All good ideas, some neat ways to help balance out the fight! You've got my creative juices flowing….

-Will

You young pups! Waaaay back in the Permian Epoch of wargaming the granddaddy of all sci-fi miniatures games -Starguard- had powered armour infantry that functioned quite analogously and well as SST THE BOOK powered armour while the telepathic insectoid Dreenoi functioned analogously to the SST THE BOOK Arachnids. This game included in its original format tactical nuclear munitions for the human forces, and yes, the Dreenoi conveniently operated from subterranean tunnel complexes and used energy weapon technology (but diverged after that in physique and the use of jet packs for tactical mobility).

Starguard figures are still around, are all 1/72 scale (true 25mm as in 1 inch = 6 feet), as is the game in its current percentile dice-driven iteration:

tin-soldier.com

15mm is indeed IMHO the ideal scale aesthetically and practically given the scale and scope of the combat and combatants described in the novel, and IMHO it shouldn't be too hard to modify (for example) Khurasan's splendid Arachnian nasties as warrior bugs by adding a simple item like a small plastic elongated bead with a bit of wire to create the lethal armour-piercing beam weaponry used by the Arachnids in SST THE NOVEL, while leaving the majority of the rest as worker drones.

Just my two yuan's worth on the matter…

Leland R. Erickson
Grayhawk Studios
grayhawkstudios.com

15mm is probably best for visual appeal, but 6mm would be cool for the sheer epic scale of the terrain.

You can use the GZG UNSC, NI, or power armored troops for the latter, or some of the Adler Dark Star troops.

None of the silly insertions by shuttles though.

Drop pods are the only way to go.

I just wish someone would produce troops with backpacks, or grav belts for 3-D flight. The 15mm.co.uk figs are okay, but some of the recent releases would look a lot better in my opinion, with jump-packs.

I've always been interested in fighting other troops on the ground, e.g. planetary defense force troops defending a world, than bugs, using the true mobile infantry with aerial flight capabilities for each man/woman.

Could you play the game with the bugs operated by the GM or even automatic rules? The number of bugs/number of turns could be determined by some random method?

Garcias,

Glenn

Some 6 mm infantry/M. I. figures from Brigade Models

link for infantry

OR

link

Gracias,

Glenn

Personally, I like the old Scotia figures.

Gracias,

Glenn

Wait, wait, wait!

"…For the MI themselves I like the new 6mm Powered Armor infantry from Brigade Games…"

Brigade GAMES makes 6 mm figures? Where? Where?

Or is this a cruel soul crushing typo?

Gracias,

Glenn

All good ideas, some neat ways to help balance out the fight! You've got my creative juices flowing…

It helps that I only finished reading the book last week, so it's still pretty fresh. The game mechanics seem to me to be almost an inversion of classic Space Hulk, in that the MI player would have great mobility and the bug player, in the absence of similar mobility, would have to position his forces very carefully to prevent the MI player using that mobility to pick off his forces bit by bit. It's not an exact inversion, of course, because genestealers never had tactical nukes.

In the AH game, time was a limiting factor for the MI. Those pick-up ships weren't going to wait around forever. Land. Destroy. On the Bounce to the PZ!
That helps mitigate MI movement superiority.

Here's a relatively simple approach:
Dirtside2 rules.
MI are combat walkers (orbital insertion).
Bugs are almost always in defense and can use the hidden counters and dummies to help make MI's job tougher.
Warriors are Power Armor infantry. Workers are Militia infantry.

The thing I really find perplexing about the movie is that the humans are drastically outnumbered by warrior bugs, which in turn are fast, hard to kill, etc… and for some reason the only way to bring down *ONE SINGLE WARRIOR* is to surround it with an entire squad's worth of assault rifles and hope for the best.

They came to a planet infested with giant armored bugs, and they didn't bother with tac nukes or anything above an AR to engage them with?

Actually, they used tac nukes and airstrikes. I prefer the combat in the cartoons which Mongoose incorporated with the movie.

Well yes, they did have tac nukes and airstrikes… but there were a number of scenes where one squad was trying to take out a single warrior bug with just ARs. All indications were that very few tac nukes were passed out, and perhaps they should've been issued a number of anti-tank weapons…

It's a movie. They weren't concerned that wargamers would complain about lousy tactics. The bugs were awesome! The infantry tactics were silly. But the troopers looked cool. I liked the action in the movie and accept the Mongoose conversion of the movie with the cartoon. Things tend to fall into place in a more coherent manner when doing do.

Bottom line is you have a choice of taking the movie/cartoon background and making it work for you. Or you can take the combat from the book which basically is boring. Even using the AH model isn't a whole lot better. Just get past the movie. You'll feel better!

Thanks,

John

It's a movie. They weren't concerned that wargamers would complain about lousy tactics.

Sorry, I don't buy that as a defence. :) It's not a matter of wargamers being picky. If the script has the characters doing something really, really stupid for the sake of 'plot'(eg. engaging heavily armoured opponents without heavy weapons), it undermines the whole movie. Aliens is another example. I love that film, but there is no way even an inexperienced officer would send troops into that reactor space unarmed. If Gorman were actually that stupid he wouldn't be able to breathe and walk upright at the same time. Also Wolf Creek… but that's another rant entirely.

Or is this a cruel soul crushing typo?

It is a typo- I meant Brigade MODELS. Very sorry! The guys you link to are the ones I have in mind though. :)

Bottom line is you have a choice of taking the movie/cartoon background and making it work for you. Or you can take the combat from the book which basically is boring.

See, I just don't understand this- I found the movie VERY boring (and stupid, but mostly boring) when it came to combat (and everything else)- nothing interesting from a wargaming standpoint. Guys with guns vs. dumb animals doesn't really do it for me. I only saw a little of the cartoon so I can't judge that too well. But the book struck me as an extremely different and interesting model of warfare to try to play on the tabletop. But to each his own.

-Will

Just my two yuan's worth on the matter…

And a very useful two yuan! I admit 15mm is my inclination (already have a fair number of 15mm guys), and converting bugs with beam weapons shouldn't be too hard….

Drop pods are the only way to go.

Definitely! Another balancing factor (or scenario idea) could be the MI have the chance of a bad drop, meaning they are too spread out and/or have damaged suits right in the scenario starts. This would give the Bugs a few turns to position themselves as the MI get organized.

It helps that I only finished reading the book last week, so it's still pretty fresh. The game mechanics seem to me to be almost an inversion of classic Space Hulk

Hmmm, that's a great point, I had not thought of it that way. The whole 'sensor blip' thing does translate well for Starship Troopers.

In the AH game, time was a limiting factor for the MI. Those pick-up ships weren't going to wait around forever. Land. Destroy. On the Bounce to the PZ!
That helps mitigate MI movement superiority.

Another good point. The Bugs do have spaceships and so on in the books, so your transport can't loiter around forever- must of the scenarios would be time-limited. In addition, no one is going to want to be stuck on a Bug world as their suit starts running low on power….

-Will

But the book struck me as an extremely different and interesting model of warfare to try to play on the tabletop.

The model it brought to mind for me was a mash-up of two films: Ang Lee's Hulk (jumping through the desert miles at a time) plus the Warmonger suit from Iron Man (power armour with rockets/jets for mobility).

Hi Jon,

Hmmm game set for Bug Wars.

For the Good Guys
(10) Terran Federal Marines
(5) Federal Marine Special Assault Brigade in Power Armour

The good guys could also use some type of Heavy one man Armored Walker (Marauder Suits).

For the Bad Guys
(20-25) Parasachnid Bioweapons
(2-3) Ogre Beetles

I think the bugs could use 2 more sculpts to round them out. Something like a queen bug and some larger Warrior bug. I think the Parasachnids make the perfect worker bugs. The Warrior bugs would be about twice their size or about 1/2 the size of the Ogre Beetle.

The queen bug would be about 1/3 smaller than the Ogre Beetle, but bigger than the warrior bugs.

It would be cool if the Warrior Bugs looked similar to the Starship Trooper bugs. picture

Maybe adding 2 additional pincers would make different enough to not have to worry about copy right infringements.

Or maybe something like these beetles, but somehow do a sci-fi slant to them.
link
picture

The Warrior bugs would be about twice their size or about 1/2 the size of the Ogre Beetle.

That would make them pretty humongous, as it is the Paranoid bugs (or whatever they're called) are not a lot smaller than the movie warrior bugs, which I prefer as they were IMO rather too big in the movie. In the book they are roughly as long as a human is tall, maybe just a tiny bit bigger.

The Parasachnid Bioweapons would be the ones that do most of the dirty work. The Warrior bugs would be the ones that go up against tanks and such. Of course they could deal some very nasty blows to any infantry they would run across.

From what I remember the bugs had guns in the book? GZG do some Ixx warriors but they're 15mm.

"It's a movie. They weren't concerned that wargamers would complain about lousy tactics. "

It was also a propaganda film to recruit more MI, so bore very little relation to what they actually did.

Want to know more?

I laughed like a drain when I saw it the first time, very funny.

Good point Martin. I forgot about that. The Arachnids made the movie worthwhile if nothing else. the animated series was quite cool and introduced a very good tactical element. I simply don't understand how gamers can throw out the baby with the bathwater on this subject. The bugs are cool and the MI come into their own combining the movie with the animated series. Some folks are just too hard to please, i guess.

Thanks,

John

As Glenn said:

"Could you play the game with the bugs operated by the GM or even automatic rules? The number of bugs/number of turns could be determined by some random method"?

That seems pretty easy to me to set up, for either side.

As the MI commander, you have recon of the terrain on the planet below, determined randomly, or as desired.

Then, create some equidistant points on the game table for the bugs to appear from, either using a grid system, or other design, as desired, e.g. circular layout, triangular, etc. Each point on the game table has a corresponding number for either a chit, or a die roll, for the bugs to appear.

For the grid system, use the center point of each square foot on the table as the enemy deployment point(s). On a 4' x 6' table, you can have as many as 24 points for enemy forces/bugs to appear.

Create a TO&E for the bugs/enemy forces.

Then, as the commander of the MI, you have to plan your drop, or shuttle landing zones, either with, or without recon intel, as well as your evac points too.

Roll a die to determine the length of the game, e.g. point at which the MI's need to evac the planet to prevent: being left behind; follow-on reinforcements for the bugs/enemy to appear; when you run out of air for your troops on a world without a breathable atmosphere, etc.

Without previous intel will be the most challenging, since the MI need to determine their landing/drop zones without any info as to the enemy's whereabouts.

With some intel, they get X number of bug/enemy units placed first, according to their TO&E and random die rolls for position (note, as desired, rerolls can either be accepted, or ignored for the placement of units – say a D20 for the 20 dropzones, and if a 7 is rolled three times, which would be rare, then that is the location of a concentration of enemy forces). You can also play it that bugs would never permit such a concentration to take place, if desired, instead. The concentration can either be good, or bad, depending upon the MI's deployment, numbers, and if they have nukes.

A concentration in one position will be hard to deal with by a spread out MI deployment, especially if they don't have nukes. If they do, the balance changes to the MI's favor, since nuking one location will take out a lot of enemy forces.

If there is some intel, roll for a percentage, probably using 2D6-2 x 10% to force a number distribution like a bell curve (e.g. with this system, the average intel is about 50% of the enemy forces, and a min/max range of 0% = no intel, to 100% intel). Adjust, as desired, for different scenarios.

Based upon the above, that percentage of the enemy's forces will need to be deployed in advance, before the MI's plan their drop zones, e.g. if a 5 is rolled on the 2D6, then the result is 30% (= 2D6-2 x 10%). Therefore, if a bug unit has 10 groups of bugs, three must be deployed first, before the MI's plan their drop, since their location is known.

Of course, some areas of a game table may be more vital than others too, e.g. cities that need to be protected from a bug infestation, rare weapons or minerals that need to be retrieved, etc., so you can add that into the mix too.

If you want to play the bug side of things, just reverse the above deployment process.

To make things more challenging, perhaps the enemy/bugs have intel too, either via spies, or psionic abilities, so they might get to deploy some of their troops/bugs after each MI deployment as well, to make things more difficult for them also.

To add even more fun, if drop pods are being used by the MI's, use little, round slips of paper, and drop them from about 3 feet above the tabletop to deploy the men/squads – they should be numbered to keep track of the units. Any that fall off the side of the table are lost. Any that fall in dangerous terrain may be injured, or lost as well, e.g. in a lava field, a swift river, a built-up area, etc.

Enjoy!

IIRC, the entire Roughnecks *platoon* from the book was 54 or so guys.

I think you could get away with 9 or 10 suits in the boxset (squad+section leader and a command suit). I like the Special Assault Brigade models, and it'd be great to have enough for 8 individual poses.

Also, a heavier suit than a basic 'Marauder' would be cool. Call it a 'Reaper' suit, comparable in size to the Felid Baron's Command battledress. Remember, there are at least 3 different suits in the book Mobile Infantry: Marauder, Scout, and Command. A heavy-weapons suit makes sense, even if it isn't purely canon. I'd also like visually-distinct Scout and Command suits. Scout suits shouldn't have both the flamethrower and missile launcher of a SAB suit, and command suits should have bigger jumpjets or something.

Then you'd need a metric crapload of worker bugs. Only one warrior for every 50 workers. probably 98 workers and a pair of warriors, maybe one bigger bug. That's a bit heavy on the noncombatants, so you might be able to get away with only 48 workers, a pair of warriors, and a bigger bug.

@Top Gun Ace- nice ideas! Sounds like a good scenario to me.

Also, here's some Starship Troopers (or 'Shrimps', for some reason) visual concepts I like quite a bit:
picture

I like the tan Marauder concept and the bugs in particular (bugs with guns!).

Some folks are just too hard to please, i guess.

I don't think it's being hard to please- the movie is just not what I'm looking for in terms of game play (or entertainment), and the Mongoose background doesn't grab me either. It's the books vision of combat operations that I think is interesting, so that's what I'm trying to game.

-Will

I have to agree.

A game with little tactical thought required, where you just stand in place and fire at the oncoming hordes, hoping you hit and kill them before your ammo runs out, is a bit one-dimensional.

Another idea would be to run a smaller scale advanced recon game where there are just a few bugs about, and you have to get across a board, or sneak into their facility in order to complete your mission. Getting back out again alive is optional.

"You don't want to live forever, do you, Marine"?

For that, just 2 – 4 MI in suits would be good, with random encounters of bugs of varying numbers, types, and combat capabilities. Hopefully, you can avoid the really fierce ones, since setting off a nuke is sure to put all the others on the board on notice that attackers are present, and will probably blow your mission.

Of course, you'll also need to stealthily take out any sentries, eliminating them quickly, so they can't alert their fellow bugs with their pheromones. If you kill them on the first round, with a headshot, or similar, they can't send out a warning message. If not, any bugs within a 12" – 24" radius will be alerted to your presence.

Of course, a devious, and tactically sly individual may do that on purpose to decoy some bugs to another portion of the board, assuming his compatriots buy in to the whole MI propaganda about life, and dying for your cause.

Waaaay back in the late 90's I wrote a set of SST rules for Dirtside II. From players' comments, they seem to do well in replicating combat from the book. link

Will, I am sorry if I came across too strongly. I hope you find what you want and have a great time gaming it.

Thanks,

John