# 5150: Star Army – Platoon Leader tags: #game/wargame/5150-platoon-leader ![[5150 - Platoon Leader (cover).jpg|600]] The middle of the command ladder, where you actually know a few of the names. **5150: Star Army – Platoon Leader** is the **[[5150 - Wargames]]** line's platoon-scale command game — the step where the reaction engine and the IGO/UGO old school get explicitly put side by side so the book can argue for the former, and where your force is a handful of squads under a leader whose job is keeping them cohesive when the shooting starts. ## Setting You command a platoon of the 5150 universe's ground forces — squads of **Stars** and **Grunts** in **Exo-Armor** or **Battle Tactical Armor** (with the **High Altitude Drop** option for the ones who come in hot), organized squad → platoon → company, with the racial flavor of **Symons**, **Grath**, and **Zhuh-Zhuh Armored Infantry** in the lists. ## Mechanics The book is explicit about its engine: a side-by-side of **1.2 IGO UGO** (the old "you go, I go" school it's happy to leave behind) against **1.3 the THW Reaction System**, then it spends the rest of the page count on the later. The **In Sight** test stands in for initiative, **Group Cohesion** and the **Chain of Command** decide who holds and who folds, and a leader can **Assume Command** when the named one falls. ### Cohesion & command Platoon play is a balancing act of **Squad**, **Platoon**, and **Company Cohesion** rolls, keeping the chain unbroken, and deciding when a leader risks himself to steady the ranks. ## Editions - **5150: Star Army – Platoon Leader** — the platoon-scale command game, by **Ed Teixeira**. *In the library.* ## References - [5150 – Two Hour Wargames](https://www.twohourwargames.com/) - [5150 – Sci-Fi Games — Rebel Minis Press](https://rebelminispress.com/collections/sci-fi-games)