The Company rules

[martin goddard]

Just a reminiscence.

These were a set of sci fi rules by RFCM  back n 1985(?).
They were inspired by Starship Troopers; the book ( not the film).

In the rule book a unit only has a few troopers. Say 10?
The troopers are very powerful.
Opponents were other companies and the Phugs (local wildlife). See the Starship troopers inspiration here?

The main idea in the game was to use order chits so that moves were fixed a few turns in advance.
Shoot, overwatch, observe etc.

There was a  range of figures and phugs too.
For scenery we had a lot of bright red scenery tiles. Lovely.
Table size was about 3 x 3 feet.


martin

[Sean Clark]

It won't surprise you that I have these. The order chits were a nice piece of game design.

I have a few 15mm science fiction figures!

[martin goddard]

Sean, you are the only one I think.
A blaster from the past.
The moulds have now all gone.


martin

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

Back in my Uni days I tried Traveller and TTG's Laserburn rules and figures my mates. I have to admit never coming across these...
The one thing I remembered from Laserburn were 'Dizzies' - distortion fields that scrambled energy weapons and power. You could fire them to cause havoc against an advancing enemy to disrupt their tech or even use one as a protective field if a trooper was incapacitated.
I always found the combination of available 15s never matched my grandiose ideas which were inspired by Frank Herbert's Dune, Heinlein's Starship Troopers, and Pournelle's CoDominium stories, even 2000AD's Rogue Troopers... more recently I always thought Neal Asher's Prador made excellent baddies but could never see a way of gaming within his Polity...

Neil

[Smoking gun]

I have a few packs from this range of figures, both the troopers and Phugs. The Phugs range included a Queen with eggs, Warriors and Workers.

I never played the Company Rules game and have lost my copy of the rules.

Best wishes,
Martin Buck

[Moggy]

Alternative armies do a lot of this type of thing if you are looking for new figures. Think they may even still be doing a 20% off deal right now as well.

Derek

[Flaminpig0]

Just a reminiscence.

These were a set of sci fi rules by RFCM  back n 1985(?).
They were inspired by Starship Troopers; the book ( not the film).

In the rule book a unit only has a few troopers. Say 10?
The troopers are very powerful.
Opponents were other companies and the Phugs (local wildlife). See the Starship troopers inspiration here?

The main idea in the game was to use order chits so that moves were fixed a few turns in advance.
Shoot, overwatch, observe etc.

There was a  range of figures and phugs too.
For scenery we had a lot of bright red scenery tiles. Lovely.
Table size was about 3 x 3 feet.


martin

Still hope to play it some day.
The Phugs were some of my all time favourite 15mm aliens

[martin goddard]

The tricky part (for me )of sci fi  figure gaming is the split.

a. Loads of figures at close range with the shooting effects one would associate with muskets. This extends to making the weapons long in order to give the rifling effect of a long barrel. All very implausible but very popular. It gets even sillier with swords and the like. This option allows manufacturers to encourage players to buy larger forces and engage in medieval type battles.  Dune, star wars, starship troopers (film), alien, star trek, flash Gordon.
To add to the silliness the space ships are still using copper wire connections and big tactile buttons labelled 1-10(11 for very powerful ships)

b. Very few figures which is more plausible. But then a lot of scenery for a few figures is need. I prefer this but it would result in very small numbers of figures sold. Perhaps a 5x3 table with 6 figures (15mm) per side. An easy range to make but a hard one to sell?
The figures would need to be on wire stands or have a glow footprint in order to remain visible to the players.
Starship troopers (the book), the Expanse(?), judge Dredd


The games I would prefer (b) would require a lot of scenery to be bought in order to look nice. That is not going to "score" with gamers I fear.

Maybe a MILL gamette with two forces being moved and placed "relevant" to each other and not to the table. In the same way that galloping cowboys boarding a train are relevant to the train  (nearer/further) with no need to move the train.


Good ramble.

martin

[Colonel Kilgore]

I do like the idea of a The Mill gamette.

In due course, once C&K is done and dusted, of course!

Simon

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

For me, AK47 R seems to offer the same vibe that I had playing 'Laserburn' - more akin to something like 'Battle Los Angeles'. At the end of the day it is still down to forces competing to take and hold ground.

Neil

[Sean Clark]

Well I did once play against a Martian army ala War of the Worlds at the AK47 Brixcon event. Included 3 legged walker things, flying saucers etc. And Stewart has a Snowman army.

But to be honest there are lots of other areas of history I'd rather look at and game. As Derek says Alternative Armies have a 20% off sale. But I'm more interested in the  French Indian Wars, the Boer War, the  Italian Wars, the Boxer Rebeliion, the  US Mexican War, the Alamo, the Seven Years War, the Norman Invasion, the Anglo Zulu War, the Crimean War, the Franco Prussian War, western gunfights,  the Russo Japanese War, the War of Spanish Succession, the War of the Triple Alliance....there may be a few I've forgotten.

Not sure I'll ever to get to play these...but any one of them done in the RFCM style would have me gaming it.

[martin goddard]

The gamette might be the way to go?
I think it is a good thing that we have ideas that need not come to reality.
Creativity need not be fenced in by practicality always.

martin

[Big Mike]

Judging by the age profile of fantasy/sci-fi gaming that presents at Entoyment and Beachhead etc, Martin may be on to a winner with this. As I have never played this genre and fall into Sean's historical camp, it would not be for me.
Mike 

[martin goddard]

The Gnarsh ravagers of thunderblatt 4 take on the snoody snogs of  tibbly  tibbley tibbleeey faction.
You know you want to .


martin

[Flaminpig0]

The Gnarsh ravagers of thunderblatt 4 take on the snoody snogs of  tibbly  tibbley tibbleeey faction.
You know you want to .


martin

Covered by an Osprey book later this year.
Once I find them out my old PP sci-fi figures are  going to be repurposed for Xenos Rampant