Stargrunt II is a squad level science fiction miniatures combat game. It is published by Ground Zero Games.
Stargrunt II uses the Full Metal AnorakTM game system. Morale and leadership play an important part in the game. Each squad is rated for quality of the unit, quality of the leader, and level of morale. The unit's quality affects things like maximum range they can fire their small arms weapons, their combat ability, and the type of die they roll for morale. The leadership value is used by a unit whenever morale tests are made, or when a unit tries to communicate with another unit in the chain of command.
Combat is easy and fast. Typically, a unit would roll one die for its quality, one die for its small arms firepower, and one die for its support weapon. The opponent would roll one die for range. If one of the attacker's dice is greater than the defender's die, the defender is suppressed. If two or more dice are greater than the defender's die, the defender is suppressed and can potentially take casualties. Any other result is a miss. The dice rolled can be 4-sided, 6-sided, 8-sided, 10-sided, or 12-sided. This is determined by the number of men in the squad and their quality, but it is altered by the defender's terrain.
If a hit is scored, the dice rolled are read a different way to determine the potential number of casualties. For each casualty, an Impact Die is rolled versus an Armour Die to determine if the figure is wounded, killed, or undamaged.
One of the game's interesting aspects is that a unit takes morale penalties if it leaves wounded comrades behind. There is also a chance that a wounded figure can be patched up and put back to work, thus giving a reason to have medics and medical evacuation units.
Vehicles are handled easily and quickly. Tank versus tank encounters aren't realistic at this scale, but infantry versus tanks can be very interesting. Otherwise, light tanks, trucks, and APCs are the order of the day. Also included are full rules for artillery and aerial attacks.
Stargrunt II is a generic game. This means that it isn't married to one particular set of miniatures or one game background universe. My own Plasma Ambush and Ork Hill scenarios use figures from other manufacturers (15mm Traveller and 28mm Games Workshop, respectively). There is, however, an "official" game universe that can be used.
Due to the generic nature of the game, players are free to create almost any force they want. There is no point system in Stargrunt II as it is really best played with scenarios that players make up (as opposed to the even point meeting engagements common to games like Warhammer 40,000. This makes the game a little harder for new players to pick up. A point system may be added in the upcoming supplement Bugs Don't Surf.
Stargrunt II is ideal for playing platoon sized games. This would require, on average, about 40 figures (3 or four squads per platoon, between 6 and 10 figures per squad, plus a command squad and a specialist squad or two). There have been convention games of up to about a company in size (three or four platoons) per side, but these require a lot of space and a lot of time. The time it takes to play the game depends more on the number of units than on the number of figures. Sixty figures grouped into 12 man squads would result in a faster game than forty figures grouped into 4 man squads.
The universe (which some of us have called the Tuffleyverse after Jon Tuffley, the game's developer) has a full range of 25mm miniatures and an expanding range of 15mm miniatures. This universe includes a combined United States/Canada/UK coalition (New Anglian Confederation), an expanded Germany (New Swabian League), a militant France (Fed Stats Europa), and a new Russian/Chinese superpower (Eurasion Solar Union). There are also a number of smaller powers (representing Africa, South East Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, Japan, the Middle East, and a California-Texas union, among others) and the United Nations. There are no aliens in Stargrunt II as yet, but the upcoming book Bugs Don't Surf will include alien rules and more. Alien figures for the background universe (in particular, the Kra'Vak and Phalons) are available.
The "official" line of figures is extensive for each of the major forces, and includes a good mix of figures for the minor forces, in 25mm and 15mm scale. The company puts out a number of excellent 25mm vehicles in resin. This includes tanks, APCs, scout cars, trucks, and drop ships. So far, there is only one 15mm vehicle, and APC. 15mm vehicles would have to be kitbashed from plastic kits or purchased from other manufacturers.
The universe is shared with two other games: Full Thrust and Dirtside II. Full Thrust is the spaceship combat game, while Dirtside II is an excellent microarmour/1:285/epic scale ground combat game. Coming soon is a game known so far as FMA Skirmish, a skirmish game using similar mechanics to Stargrunt II. Like Stargrunt, all three of these other games are generic but they also adhere to the game universe.