Line #3 TabletopGame/StarGruntII


1	''Star Grunt II'' is a squad-scale science fiction infantry skirmish miniatures {{Wargam\|ing}}e produced by Ground Zero Games in the UK. Like its fellow GZG products ''TabletopGame/FullThrust'' and ''TabletopGame/DirtsideII'', it is designed to be generic enough to handle whatever minatures and settings the players happen to prefer, and the ruleset has been used for games ranging from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII to UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror and all points in between, along with a wide variety of science fiction universes. Also like other GZG titles, ''Star Grunt'' features fairly straightforward rules, is designed for quick game play, and tends to be unforgiving of tactical blunders.
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3	One thing that sets ''Star Grunt'' apart from many other similar games is the emphasis placed on real-world constraints as morale, cover, suppressive fire, and mission importance; overall, it is often better to have well-led, highly motivated, but less experienced troops with inferior weapons than poorly led, unomtivated, heavily armed elites.
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5	The rules are available as a free .pdf from [[http://shop.groundzerogames.co.uk Ground Zero Games' website]]
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9	!!Provides Examples Of:
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11	* ArmorIsUseless: Averted; good body armor can keep your troops alive.
12	* AwesomePersonnelCarrier: APCs and infantry fighting vehicles are probably more common than actual tanks on the table.
13	* {{BFG}}: Crew-served and vehicle mounted weapons. In the former case, the weapon itself can be damaged or destroyed if the team carrying it takes fire.
14	* BigDamnGunship: On-table air support generally takes the form of VTOL gunships that serve the same role as attack helicopters.
15	* ColdSniper: One or two snipers on the table can tip the battle.
16	* CombatMedic
17	* CurbStompBattle: Close assaults by power-armor squads against ordinary troops tend to be this.
18	* EnergyWeapon: Mostly taking the form of sniper rifles, or crew-served support weapons.
19	* GatlingGood: Related to MoreDakka, some squad and platoon support weapons are tribarrels or full on Gatling weapons.
20	* HollywoodTactics: Averted. Trying to just march down the field in the open will get your men slaughtered, assuming their morale doesn't cause them to run before then. The game heavily favors fire-and-maneuver tactics like those of real world modern armies.
21	* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: In this case, 'better' meaning simpler and easier for the average soldier to take care of, as well as avoiding the problems of power source and waste heat inherent to EnergyWeapons. The latter exist, but but are relegated to support roles like sniping and anti-armor work.
22	* MoreDakka: Generally useful, but seldom enough to win the battle by itself.
23	* TheNeidermeyer: The worst quality squad leaders are probably these.
24	* OneHitKill: Everything, even the mightiest tanks, are vulnerable to this under the right circumstances.
25	* PoweredArmor: Played straight, ususally used by elite assault troops and such.
26	* SergeantRock: The best quality squad leaders are these.
27	* ShoutOut: Many in GZG's miniatures lines, like the 'Hover ACAV' miniature that strongly resembles the combat cars from ''Literature/HammersSlammers'', or the free trader crew set that is a clear homage to {{Series/Firefly}}. Also, the working title for the [[DevelopmentHell still-pending]] supplement containing rules for alien races is [[Film/ApocalypseNow ''Bugs Don't Surf'']].
28	* StandardSciFiArmy: Played straight; this game focuses on the infantry, especially the [[TitleDrop grunts]].
29	* TheSquad: The basic unit of game play. Each figure represents one man, but they move and fight as a unit.
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31	Tuffleyverse, the setting shared by all three of Ground Zero Games' games, contains examples of:
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33	* TheBerserker: The Kra'Vak have something they call ''roh'kah,'' an aspect of their physiology that substitutes for a human's fight-or-flight response, and essentially forces them into escalating versions of this when under great stress, especially life-or-death situations. The worse the situtation gets, the madder they get; left unchecked, it can reach LeeroyJenkins levels, as they become (temporarily) too enraged for rational thought. It's thought to have evolved as a survival trait against the native predators of their [[DeathWorld home planet]].
34	* BizarreAlienBiology: The Kra'Vak go through a life cycle in which they go from being asexual to male to female back to being asexual over the course of about 40-50 years (and they can live to be 150), in addition to the ''roh'kah'' mentioned above; the Phalons have three sexes, male, female, and neuter, a carapace shell, and a single eye with three seperate lenses; the Sa'Vasku are basically big hyperevolved jellyfish-looking things.
35	* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Especially in Human-Phalon relations.
36	* ChinaTakesOverTheWorld: Or a big swath of the Asian mainland, anyway, including most of Russia.
37	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: A major problem when dealing with the Phalons. Even for other Phalons.
38	* DividedStatesOfAmerica: A second American Civil War in the game's backstory briefly went nuclear, leading to Anglo-Canadian intervention and to the formation of the New Anglian Confederation, an amalgamation of the three countries under the British Crown.
39	* MiddleEasternCoalition: The Islamic Federation.
40	* NicknamingTheEnemy: "Kravs" or "Kraks" for the Kra'Vak, "Shellies" for the Phalons (because of both their outer shells and the vaguely snail-like designs of their starships), and "Spikeys" for the Sa'Vasku (again, for the shape of their ships). There's also at least one mention of Eurasian Solar Union forces referred to as the "Euries" by New Anglian infantry.
41	* OrganicTechnology: The Sa'Vasku don't so much build starships as breed them, while the Phalons use artificially created organic materials the same ways that humans use plastics and metals.
42	* PoliticalOfficer: The Eurasian Solar Union's military is said to have these. The Kra'Vak are an inversion: they have ''Sia'na,'' a small caste made up of those who from some quirk of their genes aren't affected by ''roh'kah,'' who act as moderators on Kra'Vak commanders and keep them from [[LeeroyJenkins throwing away lives and equipment in futile attacks]] brought on by [[TheBerserker screaming blood rage]].
43	* ReportingNames: For all the alien species' ships, and the names are even aliterative (K-for-Kra'Vak, P-for-Phalon, and S-for-Sa'Vasku), courtesy of the United Nations Defense Intelligence Agency.
44	* StarfishAliens: The Sa'Vasku, almost literally. In 'verse, no human has ever seen an actual Sa'Vasku; the closest anyone's ever come is encountering one of the quasi-robotic bio-constructs they use to interact with the 'younger races.'
45	* UnitedEurope: Averted; Europe is divided into the New Swabian League (Germany and most of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire), the Scandanavian Federation (which includes a reluctant Finland), the Romanov Hegemony (mainly Slavic Eastern Europe), and the Federal States of Europe (dominated by France, but including Spain, Italy, and most of the rest of the Continent).
46	* UsefulNotes/UnitedNations: The fifth major human power because somewhere along the way, they got their own military (the United Nations Space Command), which polices the Sol system and some of the other Core systems. They also coordinate and help lead the fight against the Kra'Vak invasion.

Context TabletopGame / StarGruntII