The Company Rules

Miniatures Sci-Fi Rules Review

reviewed by Stephen White

D6 Sci-Fi Skirmish in 15 mm

For some years now I have been searching for a set of Sci-Fi rules which didn't take six weeks to learn, gave a tactical game and still scored 9 out of 10 on the "Fun-O-Meter"! Rules for the Common Man in association with Peter Pig have recently released these and for me they pretty much hit the mark.

The game is set in the year 2222 and in principle involves the Mining Corporations versus the Alien Phugs (a vicious beasty with a kick like a carthorse), but there's plenty of scope for piracy, cops and robbers, or marine vs. marine. Each move is divided into 8 parts and flows well. There are order chits, of which each character or group must have one. This is the principle order but it doesn't stop your troops doing other tasks, just that more effort is expended on the part of the move most crucial e.g. Movement. Phugs don't need orders - they just keep coming. Nasty!

On the shooting side it makes a pleasant change not to be bogged down in endless weapon categories and the modifiers are kept to the minimum. Range weapons are fixed to Light, Heavy and 2 Ballistics, one of which, if you are not careful, can lock on to your own troops at a later date. Aaaaah! Close Combat seems to have been kept to the more powerful creature or weapon - the more likely it is to do damage. I can highly recommend you don't charge a Phug Queen with her Warrior Guards. Stamina is also very important, with the higher training and quality of your troops the better the stamina. It is often better to withdraw badly shot up troops rather than lose them to bad morale.

So what of them. I've played the game 4 times now, 3 solo and one hilarious game with my wife who ran into the sitting room with a wounded Phug Queen and refused to come out until we changed the rules. Random events allow Phugs to appear from tunnels and Bomag Drop Ships to bring in reinforcements.

The rules are available from Peter Pig and cost £ 2 + P&P. They also do a great range of figures to cover these rules along with Frei Korps 15 who also do marines, aliens, and predators, which would make for different scenarios. All in all these rules gave an action packed game with a few good giggles thrown in and at £ 2, what the heck!

Reviews

Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #110
Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 1995 by Solo Wargamers Association.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com