Copyright 2007, Samuel Penn.
Redistribution and use in source, binary and printed forms with or without modification is permitted. See the full license text for details.
The default way of determing troop quality in Stargrunt is to simply pick it randomly for each squad. A better way is to base it on the scenario, though this requires effort and thought before hand.
The following is an attempt to provide a random determination of troop quality, based on the type of troops involved. It is also meant to provide some balance between large squads and small squads, by representing small squads as being elite units, and large squads as somewhat inferior.
Generally, high quality units tend to be small, whilst poorer quality units tend to rely on numbers to try and improve effectiveness. This isn't always true, but it can be used as a rough guide for determining troop quality.
For each platoon, determine the size of the squads in that platoon and randomly pick 5 activation markers from the pools shown below. Platoons consisting of 4 or fewer squads get to discard any extra markers (their choice which). If there are more than 5 squads in the platoon, then pick enough markers for the entire platoon.
A platoon consisting of 4 men or less per squad gets to pick from the following pool. Such platoons consist of elite units.
Platoons with 5 or 6 man squads pick counters from the following pool. This represents typical well trained units, such as heavy armour troops or specialists.
Platoons with 7 or 8 man squads represent typical trained armies, and pick from the following pool.
Platoons with 9 or 10 man squads are generally poorly trained.
Platoons with squads larger than than 10 men should be reserved for untrained hordes, with little or no real military experience. If they're lucky, they may have some charismatic leaders, but that's their best hope.
The following modifiers can be applied for special unit types.
A command platoon can be assumed to have a better leader, and can shift the leadership value on a single counter by one level (minimum 1).
Powered armour tends to be reserved for well trained troops, so one counter can be shifted up a quality (e.g, Veteran-2 becomes Elite-2).
If a platoon has one or more specialist characters (e.g. snipers or observers) attached to them, then the specialists get to pick from a pool of their own (one for all the platoon's specialists) of the same type as the rest of the platoon.
Each specialist picks two counters, and chooses one of them, placing the discarded one back in the pool (so it can be picked again by the next specialist).
If a specialist is assigned at the company or brigade level, then something else needs to be worked out.