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Credits and Contents

CREDITSAuthor

Matthew Sprange

EditorTed Chang

Cover ArtChris Quilliams

Internal ArtEnrique Diaz, Rhonda Libbey, Sergio Villa Isaza, Chris Waller, Robert Chase, Alejandro Villen, Iordanis Lazaridis and Empty Room Studios: Bob Cram, Jeff Cram and

Dan Howard

Figure PainterAdrian Walters

SculptorsBob Naismith, Chris Jackson, Steve Saunders, Ben Saunders,

Paul Muller

Miniatures ManagerIan Barstow

Production DirectorAlexander Fennell

ProofreaderSarah Quinnell

Starship Troopers: The Skinnies Army Book TM & (C) 2006 TriStar Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved. Mongoose Publishing Ltd. Authorised User. Reproduction of any part of this work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. Printed in China.

CONTENTSIntroduction 2The Skinnies 3Skinnie Physiology 12Know Your Enemy 15The Skinnie Military 17Hobby Section 21The Skinnie Army List 26Skinnie Leaders 27The Skinnie Army 34Weapons & Equipment 48Heroic Traits 53Emplacements 56Arachnid Control 57Skinnie Reference Guide 59

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Introduction

INTRODUCTIONBattered and drawn across a huge area of space in his war against the Arachnids, Mankind does not see the other alien races gathering their forces, ready to make their own claims on his worlds.

For too long, the Skinnies have been treated as a second class, inferior race by humanity, primitives who can barely sail across the sea of space. They have been used and discarded by the Fleet and Mobile Infantry in man’s relentless battle against the bug. Promises have been broken and non-aggression treaties ignored. Humanity has stirred a hornet’s nest, one that threatens to destabilise the balance of power in the galaxy.

No longer willing to exist peacefully alongside their neighbours while armies clash across dozens of worlds, the Skinnies have mobilised their forces with the intention of protecting their territory and expanding their reach across the stars.

The battle against man and bug has turned into a War of the Species and only one will survive to become the dominant force of the galaxy.

The Skinnies Army BookThis army book provides a full update to the Skinnie list found in the main Starship Troopers rulebook. Here you will find all the tools you will require when fighting the Arachnids, Mobile Infantry and new alien races lurking at the far edges of civilised space.

The Skinnies Army Book contains the following sections:

Forces of the Skinnies: Overview of the Skinnie army, including its place in their society and the technologies this race employs.

The Hobby Section: Photographs of gorgeously painted Skinnie models.

Army List: The complete Skinnie army list, allowing you to use all the units, equipment and vehicles in the Starship Troopers miniatures game.

New Rules: Including new Heroic Traits, psychic powers and other rules.

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The Skinnies

THE SKINNIESThough the Federation has been aware of the presence of the Skinnies along the borders of human-held territory for some years, little attention has been given to these aliens. The war against the Arachnids has gone hard and the Road to Victory has failed. No Sky Marshal has given the Skinnies much thought beyond how they can be used as a weapon aimed at the bugs.

The Skinnie worlds, or the Hegemony, as it has become known, have been viewed as a buffer zone, shielding the Federation’s flank from the growing Arachnid presence along its borders. However, the Skinnies possess many worlds that are rich in resources and many Sky Marshals have viewed them hungrily, willing to accept any risks when invading systems belonging to a primitive race. Humanity’s encroachment on the Hegemony, driven by an absolute need to defeat the Arachnids, has turned a potential ally into a bitter enemy.

Visiting the SkinniesAs a whole, the Skinnies are a fractious race, comprising tens of thousands of clans, tribes, sects and warbands. Each has its own culture, government and social structure, its own laws and its own view on the rest of the galaxy. In many regions, these individual sections of Skinnie society live together, more or less harmoniously, and their larger settlements are an example of eclectic living. On more remote Skinnie worlds, these tribes and clans may exist in isolation, each Skinnie primarily defining itself as part of that structure.

In theory, the Skinnies are united by an over-arcing, race-wide government through which all clans and tribes are represented, forming the Hegemony. However, this is a tenuous system at best, dominated by the most powerful and better represented factions. In the past, a single tribe has managed to gain dominance of the entire Hegemony, while at other times, an uneasy alliance of three or four factions work together to ensure no one gains enough influence to rule the others without question. This has led to planet-wide wars but the stabilising influence of an overall government is beginning to pay dividends for Skinnie society and such outbreaks of violence are far less common now.

Military might still remains a key to power for many factions, be it proved against other Skinnies or neighbouring races in the galaxy. Slaves, too, mark a faction’s power base and a wide-ranging expedition to alien worlds can greatly elevate a tribe

or clan’s standing within the Hegemony. As such, there has always been a constant flow of slaves into the Hegemony.

Within each faction or tribe, a system of internal rulership exists below that of the race-wide government but it varies greatly across the Hegemony. Some are dominated by hereditary kings or chiefs, while others are commanded by elders or have elected councils. Among the more barbaric, a simple ‘might is right’ doctrine can work well. A visitor travelling into the Hegemony may therefore find much that is confusing. They could be presented to a king but may have no way of knowing whether they are dealing with the ruler of a small town, an entire world or a major dignitary of the Hegemony. When all is said and done, leadership among Skinnies is usually a triumph of the individual rather than organised society.

Each faction will often find itself rising and falling by the Skinnie that best defines its leadership. An ailing elder can sink a tribe or clan into obscurity for years while a slave who

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The Skinnies

has bought his freedom and then elevates himself to great power can bring every Skinnie who follows him to greatness. It is not uncommon for a great leader to emerge from a tribe, its power growing immensely during his lifetime, only to fade away just as quickly upon his death.

The rise and fall of ambitious individuals is the chronicle of Skinnie history as a whole.

The NationsBeyond the division of tribes and clans, there lie the Skinnie nations. There are perhaps a hundred such nations, all nominally united under the banner of the Hegemony. However, the nations are not a simple stratification of Skinnie society, nor are they always defined geographically or by allegiance to a single leader or set of ideals.

A nation is usually a collection of tribes or clans that have a common set of interests – normally, these interests revolve around the city, continent or planet they inhabit but this is not

always the case. A powerful religious movement, for example, may form its own nation and yet have constituent members strung throughout the entire Hegemony, living within the geographically defined nations of others. This can, of course, create a truly chaotic state of affairs with a single Skinnie belonging to a tribe that may have its power base situated light years away, owing its allegiance to a nation that defines the entire Hegemony as its territory. Yet this Skinnie may live and work within another nation based in his home city that could be hostile to his own nation. In theory, each Skinnie belongs to one tribe and one nation, though convenience and practicality often takes precedence.

The one thing all Skinnie nations have in common is that they can all be defined by an ever-shifting balance of power. A single very powerful or very remote tribe can form a nation unto itself, while another nation may be ruled by a king whose role is decided by single combat among champions. The differences in the structure and rulership of a nation can be as varied as that of an individual clan.

A Brief History of SkinniesThe Age of Tribes: Before the Skinnies developed the technology to lift them from their homeworld of Ptolemy, a multitude of tribes dominated their society. The Time of Peace put an end to millennia of world-wide warfare and counter-conquest, though it would never completely unify the Skinnies.

The Age of Hegemony: Once the Skinnies started exploring their nearby worlds and star systems, the Age of Hegemony came upon them. A centralised government was put in place, representing every tribe, clan and other faction, though this was quickly destabilised and replaced with the current system – no tribe or nation is automatically guaranteed representation within the Hegemony and must instead seek to consolidate its power base.

The Time of the Headless Tribe: When the Arachnids arrived, the Skinnies fought. Like the humans, they initially underestimated their enemy but when their most powerful ruling tribe, the Gen’Tak, were wiped out by a single invasion, they retreated the bulk of their armies and fortified their most valuable worlds. This had the effect of turning the Arachnids towards weaker human systems but the damage had been done. Without the centralised core of power coming from the Gen’Tak, the Hegemony has become destabilised and a period of fractious rule now exists, with many tribes competing for power, some desperate enough to stoop to assassination or starting wars in order to rule.

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The Skinnies

equivalent of Citizenship or, sometimes, SICON, but this is a fallacy. Comprising representatives from most nations within the Hegemony, the Council is more of a forum than a ruling body.

All nations have, in theory, a right to representation though how large a voice they have usually depends on their overall standing and status within Skinnie society. Small nations may have a single, insignificant, representative while very large ones tend to have either dozens of delegates or a single, renowned individual speaking for them. Small nations are leaned upon by the strong while past alliances can cause friction as a nation moves from one camp to another. The nations, therefore, tend to form ‘clusters’ within the Council, often ultimately ruled by a single, very powerful nation.

The Skinnie LanguageThe spoken word of the Skinnies is difficult to comprehend even in concept. Formed by alien mouths, the speech has never been successfully duplicated by human interpreters of the Federation and even computerised translators have had only limited success.

This is compounded by the fact that dialects can vary wildly across nations and tribes, making them appear as completely new languages and further throwing human study of the tongue into confusion. Among themselves, Skinnies seem to have no problem with communication, even between tribes normally situated light years apart.

The current Federation theory is that the Skinnies have a psychic capacity that overlays the spoken word, forming a context that humans can never understand. Some SICON scientists have begun to postulate another theory, however. It is suggested that Skinnies have an understanding of the core of their language that enables them to integrate with one another. On first encountering a new tribe, some time will be spent communicating only in base concepts which, in itself, is usually enough for a Skinnie to get what he wants. As time goes on in the company of other Skinnies, he will gradually pick up the nuances of individual dialects by instinct so that communication becomes seamless.

Throughout this study of Skinnie society, culture and military capability, human equivalents have been substituted for real Skinnie terms in order to better familiarise the reader with the concepts covered.

Every nation has the right, in theory, of representation in the Hegemony’s Council. However, as is the case with much of Skinnie politics, this is rarely clear cut either. A nation may dispatch a champion or set of delegates to the Council in order to speak for its people, while others send their overall leader who will both rule the nation and speak for it within the Council. There has never been a clear ruling of whether a nation has one voice in the Council or many and so some nations, at times, have sent dozens of delegates, while others believe that a single voice is ultimately more powerful. It has even been known for a nation to relinquish its representation in favour of another, either through bribery or threat.

The CouncilAt the heart of the Hegemony lies the Council. The Federation often assumes that the Council is the Skinnie

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