Laser Squad

Overview

Laser Squad is a turn-based strategy game from the late 80's designed by Jullian Gollop, Target Games.  The basic premise is squad-based assault, assassination or rescue missions. 

You start the game by selecting one of the missions.  In the original 8-bit versions the game came with 5 missions with an expansion pack which was available by mail order supplied two extra scenarios and some new weapons on the disc or cassette.

Original Missions

The Assassins

This mission saw you take a 5 man squad into the enemy hideout to assassinate a weapons manufacturer by the name of Sterner Regnix.  The boss was hidden somewhere in the hideout and was protected by a number of roaming security droids.

Moonbase Assault

You are given a slightly larger squad in this scenario.  You start outside the moonbase and must enter and infiltrate the base using the available airlocks.  Once inside you have to destroy a number of computers to wipe out their data.  Enemies line the corridors protecting their moonbase.

Rescue from the Mines

This scenario involved rescuing three of your squadmates who were being held captive in the Metallix mines.  Once rescued your goal is then to escape.

The Cyber Hordes

Your job in this scenario is to defend a station against an attack from an advancing droid invasion.  Protect the base's cores and survive.

Paradise Valley

Escape scenario involving the capture of blueprints for an advanced starfighter.  Escape with the blueprints and don't let it get into the enemies hands.

Squad Based Tactics:

Each scenario gives you a different size of squad to start out with.  The Assassins is a small-scale skirmish and infiltration so you start off with only 5 squad members while in Moonbase Assault the size of the base is considerably larger so your squad size is increased to allow better strategic deployment.



 


Before you deploy your squad you must first select their armour and weaponry.  This is where the strategy begins as you have

limited amount of resources to spend on armour and weaponry. The Armour can go from grade 1 to 4 and costs between 6-19 creds.

Once you have equipped your squad with armour you manually select the weapon(s) each unit will carry, including secondary weapons, extra ammo and grenades.

Platforms

Originally released in 1988 on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and then quickly released on the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Amiga, Atari ST and MSDOS PC shortly after.

Laser Squad 2

The prototype of the sequel was shown off to many publishers and was picked up my Microprose and became the X-com series which first started with UFO: Enemy Unknown (or X-com: UFO Defense)