Space Infantry: Resurgence

Space Infantry: Resurgence is a reissue of an older Lock & Load title with a small but persistent cult following. Its reference point is Starship Troopers the film — not Avalon Hill’s splendid asymmetric shootout, and not Heinlein’s militarist dystopia — and it wastes little time getting you into the boots of a mission.

You begin by building a squad with a points system. Pick the personnel, load them up with guns, medkits, grenades, and every useful little item you think you will need. Naturally, you are certain you have planned for everything. You have not.

Then the mission starts, and you must complete it before the clock runs out or the squad does. The pressure needs no elaborate machinery: every casualty narrows your options, every delay matters, and the kit selected before the action began now has to earn its space on the table.

The core rules take ten to fifteen minutes to learn, with the remainder settling into place during the first mission; the rulebook, in other words, does its job well enough. This is not a forgotten masterpiece returning to conquer the galaxy, but it is a clean, straightforward mission game that knows precisely what it wants to deliver.