\TACTICAL ANALYSIS AND VARIANT:

7

STARSOLDffiRDoctrine, Tactics, and Capabilities

by Steve List

One of the most difficult things to do whenconfronted with a new game system is to get a"handle" on just what it is that you should beattempting to accomplish each Game-Turn.Reading the rules and the player's notes is ofcourse a necessary first step, but it usuallydoesn't provide enough of a feel for whatyou're supposed to be doing. StarSoldierbeing one of our more exotic new games, it'sprobably fortunate that Mr. List has writtenthe following.

-RAS

As the. designer points out, StarSoldier isderived from Sniper! and Patrol. But beyondthat, don't lean on the family tree. Theconditioned reflexes for those games are nottoo applicable here. The similarities are viableonly to the extent that StarSoldier is a si-movegame in which the counters representindividual "men." The turn sequence seemsfairly standard in that units conduct directfire and launch missiles, resolve effects ofdirect fire, move, and then resolve effects ofmissile fire. What is new is that each of theseactivities consumes "Task Points," of whicheach individual has a limited supply eachturn. He can do anything he wants as long ashe has the points to spend on it, while damageto each individual is quantified by reductionsin his Task Point Allowance. He is not "dead"until his TPA falls to zero, and short of that,there is the possibility of recovery to fulloriginal efficiency.The importance of terrain varies. In theprevious games, it was something to be livedwith and died in. But StarSoldiers seldom die;they just fade away. Terrain can be traversedeasily or with difficulty. Troops can be inGround Mode and pay full movement costs;but in return they get defensive benefits andfull countermeasure efficiency. Troops inAirborne Mode at High Altitude can seevirtually anywhere and move freely, but getlittle defensive strength from thin air andsuffer from halved efficiency for counter-measures. The compromise is to be Airborneat Nape of the Earth. This does nothing foreM efficiency and cuts down the Line of Fire,but allows full airborne mobility while gainingthe defensive benefits of terrain. (Of course,the Rame love to be at NOE.)In brief, if you don't need to move around, goto ground and get full eM. Otherwise, stay atNOE. High Altitude buys you nothing butvisibility, generally not desirable in thatanything you can shoot at can (and probablywill) shoot at you. Line of Fire is not soimportant anyway, as the bulk of the damageto the enemy will be done by Launched

STARSOLDIER TASK CHART[fromrules]

TaskPoints

Code Expended Description[MV) varies Movement, hex-by-hex,

across the map. TaskPoint expenditures varywith the terrain andmovement "Mode."

[GD) 3TP Grounding. The act ofor converting to Ground

OTP Mode (the Star Soldierequivalent of "hittingthe dust").

[NE) 3TP Nap of Earth. The act ofmoving to AirborneMode from GroundMode, only slightly abovethe terrain surface.

[HA) 3TP IDgh Altitude. The act ofmoving to AirborneMode from Nap of Earthat a higher altitude(about 5 krn),

[LP) 3+TP Launching a GuidedPositron Bomb toward aspecific target hex.

[LM) 3TP launching a Free-FlIghtMlssUeCluster toward aspecific target hex.

[DF) varies Direct Fire aimedagainst a specific targethex.

[RF) varies Restricted Fire aimed ata specific target soldier.

[OF) varies Opportunity Fire pre-allocated with no specifictarget, in the anticipa-tion that one will presentitself sometime duringthe Movement Phase.

[CM) varies Counter-Measures. Avariety of techniquescarried out to confuseEnemy detection efforts,in order to weaken orprevent attacks.

[SE) ITP Search a particular hex;seeCase 13.43.

[TR) 3TP Transport a woundedSoldier or non-com-batant; see 13.44.

[LG) 3+TP Launch Opacity Gren-ade (Standard Game, see18.0).

[LH) 3+TP Launch Homing MissUe(Standard Game,see 19.0).

rLN] 3+TP Launch Neutron Bomb(Standard Game, see24.0)

Weapons, with Direct Fire used to polish offindividuals with badly reduced TPAs. Sinceno LOF is required for missile fire, hole up inmountainous or wooded terrain to avoidenemy DF and spend all your TPs on LW andClvl.There are always exceptions to the rule.Heavy Weapon soldiers have doubledefficiency in direct fire tasks and are wasted ifthey can't employ it. A few of these soldierswith good fields of fire should be spottedaround when available and plotted to useOpportunity Fire to swat away enemy busy-bodies at High Altitude trying to draw a beadon your missile launchers.For defensive purposes, mountainous andurban cover are the strongest. Next best isorganic cover (woods); such terrain willcraterize from missiles, but as long as it lasts itwill protect you from missile near-misses,besides giving a decent defense strength. Theother terrain (rough, clear, crater and lake)should be used onlywhen nothing else is avail-able, while being on the ground in clearterrain isjustifiable only if you really need theeM efficiency or can't afford to fly. A finalnote: anybody who relies on terrain and eM toprotect himself from the Xenophobes andtheir neutron bombs deserves to be vaporized.These bombs don't care what kind of terrainyou are in, and eM can be overcome byshooting a lot of bombs in your generalvicinity in the hope that at least one willscatter into your hex. If that happens, there isno chance of survival.Terrain is not the only aspect of the game thatcan be approached in a variety of ways;weapons can as well. Rules permitting, everysoldier has every type weapon at hisdisposal-not being stuck with a machinepistol when he needs a grenade launcher, ineffect. So what weapons are best? As noted,HW units per se are most efficiently used forthe various direct fire tasks, but that DF is notin itself decisive. Neglecting for the momentsupport platforms and the orbital stuff,consider the "man-carried" ordnance avail-able.

DIRECT, OPPORTUNITY ANDRESTRICTED FIRE

Except for a Rame Killer Swarm, the largestattack strength which can be generated fordirect fire is 24 (6 TB x 4 Efficiency), and thisis unlikely as it leaves the firing unit with noTP for self protection. Practically, an expen-diture of 3 or 4 TP will be more common, sofigure 12 or 16 factors for Rame or HW units,6 or 8 for others (except the Xenos, of course).As a typical target, take a soldier on theground in the woods at a relatively short rangeof 15 hexes, with a total eM value of 4. Hisdefense strength will be 3 (woods) +2 (rangeattenuation) +4 (Clvl) = 9, making him

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impervious to the weaker fire, and leaving theRame HW attack at a differential of 3 or 7respectively. Seven is not a bad differential.There is only one chance in 36 of the targetescaping any damage, and one chance in six ofkilling even the hardiest species in the game.Three is not so good. While there is still achance of killing any possible target, thetarget is much more likely to be unharmedand more likely yet to be only moderatelyhurt. To achieve this modest result, the nonetoo numerous Rame/HW unit must expend atleast half its permissible TPs and place itselfin a position where it is also vulnerable to fire.The primary use of DF should be to keep youropponent honest by causing small butannoying TPA losses. Direct fire cannotbecome decisive until your units makethemselves vulnerable to counter-fire. Suchuse should be delayed until the enemy isunable to exploit this vulnerability againstyou.

HOMING MISSILESThese are cute little gadgets, probably themost effective weapon in the game. To defeatthem requires large TP expenditures for CMand defensive Opportunity Fire, and unless itcatches you in decent defensive terrain, it willlikely do a lot of damage when it hits. Theseare also the only weapon other than forms ofDirect Fire which can hit a moving target.They can also be deployed as mines, but aword of caution is in order. Remember thedefinition of "acquisition horizon" and theTPA of 6 the missile has. Don't place it whereit could acquire a target too far away to reach,or which is likely to be moving away at thetime of acquisition.

f0D GUlDEDPOSITRON BOMBSAnother handy item. These can only be firedat specific locations and are thus uselessagainst targets on the move. But whenever yousee an enemy soldier in Ground Mode, chucka few in his direction and he is unlikely tomove in the next phase.

I ~,-"I FREEFLTGHTMISSILES

Unlike positron bombs, these are limited to arange of only ten hexes. In general, they arenot as good as positron bombs either, but ifthe target is expending more than 5 TP's onCountermeasures, a free flight bomb is morelikely to get through.

lot={)loPAClTYGRENADES

These are not a weaponperse, butin the rightcircumstances might be invaluable. They can

be used as a "smoke" screen to shield anotherwise vulnerable unit from direct fire.But, like smoke, it is a passive device and canonly be effective when circumstances and theenemy are accommodating.

I c:o I NEUTRONBOMBS

These are the only Launched Weaponsavailable to the Xenophobes, and they can beused by no other species. They are also themost powerful weapon in the game, since theydestroy anything they hit and turn evenmountains into craters. Similar in use topositron bombs, they are more likely toscatter. As noted, the only defense againstthem is to avoid being where one lands, andthis means moving a lot since the Xeno willprobably saturate the area and hope bombswill scatter into occupied hexes.

I9'I SUPPORTINGHEA VYWEAPONS

Chief among these is the Support Platform.This can be thought of as a tank, but it isfunctionally just a Star Soldier who is nearlyinvincible, always stays at High Altitudeand posesses a Direct Fire weapon of 24strength points which costs no TP to fire.Beyond that, it's not so special. Obviously, theSupport Platform should be used in the DFrole, while doubling as a missile launcher.

I ~K IHUMAN ANDROIDSTARSOLDIER

Orbital weapons are also available in the formof explosive and opacity bombs and laserbarrages. Except for the increased scatterpotential of the bombs, these are merelysuper-powerful forms of the weapons dis-cussed above. Like artillery or close airsupport in a conventional game, they canbecome overpowering and take all the "fun"out of combat. Androids are not reallyweapons, but inorganic StarSoldiers. Theyare a liability in combat in that they have noextra abilities to compensate for theirinability to recover from damage, and sodepress your preservation level. In mostcircumstances, don't use them if you have anoption.

HUMAN [00I ~ "ISTARSOLDIER ~ •••~A HUMAN HW ll\.

STARSOLDIERWhat about the "men" who wield theseweapons? Each of the four species in the gamehas some weakness, but most have aparticular strength to make up for it. TheHumans, for example, have a mediocre TPAof 9, which means they cannot expend themaximum of 6 TP in each Stage of the gameturn. Likewise, their Efficiency Rating of 2 isgood but not great. Their strongest feature isthe Recovery value of 3, a full one third of theTPA. By avoiding further damage orstunnings, a Human can in one stage recover a

significant part of its lost TPA and rally fromnear death in three. When fighting non-Humans, this allows him to cheat a little anddevote fewer TP's to defensive measures thanhe might otherwise, in the expectation thatany damage suffered willbe of short duration.

~~ L'CHAL DAH STARSOLDIERThe L'Chal Dah have the maximum TPA of12,and an Efficiency of 2. This allows them tomatch a Human task for task and then some,and it means they can take more damagebefore being killed. The weakness they arestuck with is a low recovery rate of 1,which means the extra TP must be devoted todefense to avoid damage in the first place.Once one is seriously hurt, the advantage of agreater TPA is gone and he is of little morevalue than an android.

I~1!!jI RAME ST ARSOLDIER

On the surface, the Rame are in poor shapewith a TPA of only 6, even though they havean excellent Efficiency of 4 and a reasonableRecovery rate of 2. The Rame do not come inHeavy Weapons versions, either, so theEfficiency of 4 is the best they have. But theyhave an ability which transcends that; theycan form a "Killer Swarm" that is in effect asingle soldier with a TPA of 18. In each Stageof the turn, one member of the Swarm can useall 6TP for offense, while the third splits his toprovide CM in each stage. Or, as a maximumeffort, a Swarm could generate up to 72strength points of DF in a single stage. Ofcourse, if the Swarm is to move, each membermust expend TP for the task, somewhatreducing the group total for other uses. TheRame also possess two other tacticaladvantages: they are always in CommandCommunications and their CM Efficiency ishalved when on the ground, rather than whenAirborne. In most situations, to be at NOE isthe strongest defense posture they can take.

¥~ XENOPHOBE STARSOLDIERXenophobes have absolutely no redeemingvirtues, which may make it hard to findanyone willing to play their side. They have areasonable TPA of 9, but Efficiency andRecovery rates of only 1. They are defensivelyweak and unable to generate much DirectFirepower, and then have only one LaunchedWeapon to use. Of course, that one is the re-doubtable Neutron bomb; but to be at alleffective, it must be used en masse.One of the most attractive aspects of thisgame is the variations in the combatantsthemselves. When you attempt to out-guessanother species, it is not enough to know whatyou would do in his shoes. First, you have tofigure out if he is even able to wear shoes.

Expanded CapabllitiesScenario 31.0 of StarSoldier sets up a uniquesituation in that it is the only one representingcombat between two intelligent species whichhave never encountered each other before.Unfortunately, much of the flavor of this typeofcombat ismissing in that each player knowsthe full capacities of the other; the unknownhas been defined in the rules.The purpose of this article is to provide asystem for players to use in secretly generatingthe species capacities and deciding whatweapons will be available to the StarSoldiersthey will use. Guidelines are included to keepeach player in the dark as much as possible topreserve the groping nature of this situation.While the rules below are intended specif-ically for scenario 31.0, they can obviously beextended to any situation the players maydesire.Scenario 31.0 is as written except that rule31.32 is deleted and 31.2 is modified asfollows: The Alpha player may select a forcecomposed of units whose total "SpecificTactical Value" (defined below) is no morethan 120. The Bravo player may select a forcelimited to a total STY of 100. In addition, hemay spend up to 4 of his 100 points forHoming Missiles to be used as mines at a costof one point each, if such weapons are avail-able to him. Either player may make use ofsuch missiles as launched weapons, if they areavailable to that player. The PreservationLevel for each player is 600/0of the total TPAof all his units (except for certain androids-see below) plus a modifier for any supportplatforms.

GENERATING SPECIES CAPACITIESTPA: Roll three dice; halve the total,dropping fractions, and add S. This will resultin a value between 6 and 14. If the TPA isgreater than 12, then that species can expendonly up to 7 TP in either stage of thegame turn.Efficiency: Roll one die; halve the result,dropping fractions. However, no species canhave an efficiency of less than 1, and if theTPA as determined above is 6, that speciesmay add 1 to its efficiency rating as well.Recovery: Roll one die; halve the result,rounding fractions upward.

A VAILABILITY OFSTANDARD WEAPONS

Roll one die once for each item listed to see if itis available.DieRollNeeded Weapon1-3 Homing Missiles1-4 Guided Positron Bombs1-5 Free Flight Missiles1-4 Opacity Grenades

A VAILABILITY OFSTANDARD FEATURES

1-4 Support Platform1-5 HeavyWeapon Star Soldier1-4 Android Star Soldier

-,A VAILABILITY OF SPECIAL WEAPONS

AND CAPABILITIES1 Neutron Bomb

1-2 Expendable Androids1-2 Self-repairing Androids1-2 Airborne CM Efficiency1-2 Group Mind31-2 Telepathic Command

Communications1-2 Telepathic Attack 1,31-2 Clairvoyance 1,2,31-2 Prescience 1,2,31-2 Telekinesis 31-2 Teleportation 31-2 Telepathic ImmunityThe Specific Tactical Value for a standardStarSoldier is the sum of the TPA, Efficiency,and Recovery Rate. From this subtract one foreach Standard Weapon which is not avail-able. Add one for each Special Weapon andCapability which is available. For example,for Humans, the STY is 9+2+3=14; for theRame 6+4+2+(2)=14; for the Xenophobes9+ 1+ 1+(1-4)=8.The STY for a Heavy Weapon soldier is theStandard STY plus the Efficiency value. ForAndroids, it is the standard STY minus therecovery rate and minus any special cap-abilities with the numeral 3. If the playerhas self-repairing androids, he may subtractonly the difference between the android andorganic recovery rates. The STY for a SupportPlatform is eight times the standard STY.

DEFINITIONS OFSPECIAL CAPABILITIES

Expendable Androids: These androids haveno regrets about being munitions; as a result,damage to them does not reflect in theplayer's Preservation Level, nor is their TPAincluded in determining that level.Self-repairing Androids: These are more"alive" than the usual androids and have arecovery rate of 1.(Note that aplayer can roll the diefor only oneof these android types, not both).Airborne CM Efficiency: Apply rule 23.2, thatis, the Efficiency rating for CM is halved whilein Ground Mode and normal while inAirborne Mode.Group Mind 3: Apply rules 23.1, 23.3 and16.22. Units may form Killer Swarms, shareCM and are always in Command Commun-ications. Note that only the latter provisionapplies to androids. These may never takepart in a Killer Swarm or share CM in anymanner with other units.Telepathic Command Communications:Apply rules 23.3 and 16.22 only. Note that if aplayer has Group Mind, he has this capabilityas well.Telepathic Attack 1,3: Each soldier mayattack one or more enemy units by telepathicmeans. For each 2 TP expended by theattacking unit, the target unit is deprived ofthe use of one TP for that Stage, though itsTPA is not reduced.

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Clairvoyance 1,2,3: Each soldier can pick asingle enemy soldier or Killer Swarm toinvestigate. The opposing player must thenreveal what tasks that soldier/swarm isplotted to do, if it is in Command Commun-ication, if it is an android, and if it hassuffered a reduction in its TPA. He need nottell how many TP's are to be expended oneach task or by how much the TPA has beenreduced.Prescience 1,2,3: This is similar to Clair-voyance, but the only information given iswhat hex the soldier/swarm is plotted tooccupy at the end of the movement phase.Telekinesis 3: This allows the player to usemental influence on material objects. He maymodify by one in his favor all die rolls forscatter/interception of all launched weaponshe fires or which are fired at him. Thisrequires no TP cost.Teleportation 3: In either stage of agame-turn, two or more units may cooperatefor teleportation. A unit must expend one TPfor teleport movement, which allows it tomove anywhere on the board to the same hexand altitude as the friendly unit aiding itsmovement. The moving unit may continuemoving normally after teleporting. The aidingunit must expend at least one half of thenormally allowable TP's in the stage (i.e., halfof the 6 TP's most units can spend) for eachunit it assists, and it can spend TP's on noother activity but CM in that Stage. If eitherthe moving or aiding unit suffers a Stun orTPA loss as a result of direct fire in that Stage,the teleport is aborted.Telepathic Immunity: All forms of telepathicactivity indicated by the numeral (1) aboveare useless against units with telepathicimmunity. The telepathic player need not beinformed of this, however. He can go onmaking telepathic attacks fruitlessly withoutbeing told they have no effect; but if unitsinvestigated by Clairvoyance or Presciencefail to do what they say they will, he shouldcatch on. However, all androids automat-ically possess telepathic immunity, and onlyClairvoyance can distinguish androids fromorganic units.Explanation of numerals:(1): This capability is useless against unitswith telepathic immunity as explained above.(2): These particular abilities (Clairvoyanceand Prescience) require considerable effort.The investigation performed applies only tothe first Stage of the game turn, but theperformance of the task requires the full turnto complete and recover. The investigatingunit must expend at least one-half of its fullstrength TPA in the first Stage, and allremaining TP's (and at least one) in thesecond, so that a unit whose TPA has beenreduced to half or less its original value cannotuse this ability. The investigating unit cannotexpend TP's for any other purpose in thatgame turn; and if, due to a combat result, itcannot expend at least one TP in the secondStage, it will suffer "psychic shock." As anexample, a unit whose normal TPA is 10 hasbeen reduced to 8. To use Prescience, it mustexpend 5 TP in the first Stage and the

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remammg 3 in the second. As a result ofcombat in the first Stage, it suffers a TPA lossof 6. Since it could safely lose only 2 of the 3TPs it had available for the second stage, it isaffected by psychic shock for the next 4 gameturns. The effect of psychic shock is that theunit is treated as if it were dead; it cannotexpend TP's or cover TPA losses. It will notsuffer any additional TPA loss, however,unless it is attacked after it has gone intoshock. Note that a unit may be able to useboth Clairvoyance and Prescience, but not inthe same game turn. If only one player's unitshas one of these capabilities, he need not plotthe activities of his units until his opponenthas done so and he has conducted hisinvestigations. If both players have one ofthese abilities, then both must plot all theiractivities, then each investigates. At thatpoint, each player may change the plot of oneof his units for each unit of his that used atelepathic investigation. He may not changethe plot of any of his own units which eitherwere investigated or made an investigation.(3): Androids may not possess any of thesecapabilities.

MISSILE WEAPON LOAD LIMITSStarSoldiers presumably are not pack horsesand do not carry an indefinite number of

expendable weapons. The cover art suggeststhis is the case, so I propose the following loadlimit: 18 points for a standard soldier, 24 foran android or Heavy Weapons soldier, andunlimited for a Support Platform. EachHoming Missile or Neutron Bomb counts as 3points, Guided Positron Bombs as 2, FreeFlight Missiles and Opacity Grenades as 1.Soldiers/platforms can transfer as muchordnance as they want between themselves byeach party expending one TP while they are inthe same hex at the same altitude at the sametime. A soldier may also take whatever hewants from a friendly soldier/platform byexpending 2 TP, if they begin the movementphase in the same hex at the same altitude. Inthis case, the giving unit need expend no TP,and could even be dead. A record ofwhat eachsoldier carries can be kept on paper or byplacing an appropriate marker on the unit'sTPA track.

TACTICAL SECURITYSince this is the first contact between aliens,neither player should know what thecapabilities, capacities and weapons availableto his opponent are, at least not until theyhave been used against him. Players shouldnot be allowed to see each other's TPA tracksor be told when a unit dies. Dead units should

be left on the board in the same location theyoccupied at the time of demise. (This makesplaying dead a legitimate tactic). The onlywayto determine if a unit is really dead is toconduct a Search Task in its location.

To further obscure things, a player may useany type of counter to represent his soldiers,such as an android for a regular soldier. Thecorrect unit type must be recorded on paper(i.e., the plot sheet) however. Also, "IND"markers should be placed on the unit TPAtrack rather than on the board. How is theother guy to know who is in CommandCommunications?

As can be seen, use ofthese rules requires thatplayers have enough decency to avoidcheating. Hopefully, the uniqueness of goingup against a totally unknown foe will be soattractive that no one will feel the need to winby foul means.

SUGGESTED TASK CODESTA: Telepathic Attack; TL-M: Teleport-ation-Movement; TL-A: Teleportation-Aiding; CV: Clairvoyant Investigation; PS:Prescience Investigation; TR: Transfer ofOrdnance.

Starship Trooper/Starsoldier[continuedfrom 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-SoldierStrike 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 a joke 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 coverRAS was determined to best it. RAS came upwith a striking shot of two Human Star-Soldiers being attacked with what are either

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 Stars hip Troopers and StarSoldier havevirtues and flaws. Both games are worthowning if you're an SF fan, and even if you'renot-for variety's sake. But two things arevery clear: StarSoldier is an innovative gameand Starship Troopers is not. Soldier isscience fiction and Troopers is just a 20thCentury land game with funny silhouettes onthe unit counters. Soldier may not be a "greatstep forward" in game mechanics in the senseof the Kursk orPanzerblitz systems thatbegatso many other games; the mathematicalmechanics of StarSoldier have few appli-cations elsewhere, as the designer states, and Iagree. Which is fine. There's nothing wrongwith the "cold bath" method of design,foresaking convention. It is risky, but forevery innovative bad game (Combined Arms,Kriegspiel, Dixie) there is an innovative goodgame (Frederick the Great, Terrible SwiftSword, StarForce). Science fiction is aninnovative genre, at least when it's good. A

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. (Senda card 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, BattleFleetMars, all within a very few months. And therewill be others. After fifteen years of almost noprofessional science fiction wargames, it is apleasure to see them coming at last. As long asthe designers remember that science fiction isdifferent, and must be treated differently, wemight see some of the best wargames ever.