Starcraft: The Board Game

[The Schaef]

I have only played the game once and so my opinion is incomplete.  I will say that if you've played A Game of Thrones, you're halfway there, as the game uses a similar order selection/executino mechanic.

I do not think you have to play the computer game to play/enjoy the board game, but I do think it makes it easier to understand the relationship/balance between the different units in each faction.  Sort of like you don't HAVE to watch BSG to play the board game, but those who do will be immersed into the universe.

Here's the short version of Fantasy Flight games as a whole:
1). huge box stuffed with lots and lots of pieces and parts and cards and tokens.  YAY!
2). high price point.  boo.
3). rich theme.  Generally playable by anyone but people genuinely into the theme will have a wonderful immersive experience.  They try to approximate a board game version of the Starcraft or WoW or Battlestar Galactica experience.
4). the overarching idea of gameplay is simple, but there are a lot of fiddly rules that stand between you and the game.  And they all mesh with each other across several phases of a turn so you have to sort of understand a whole turn to understand how the parts of a turn work.  The first game or two, you're totally lost and get a bunch of rules wrong.  Then it clicks and you wonder what was so hard about it.  Marvel Heroes quickly became Tom's and my benchmark for Difficulty in Explaining Games.
5). the overall experience is good enough that people who hang with it and work out the kinks in the game, I would say have a very enjoyable experience.  I've played several FFG games, struggled through several first plays, but ultimately I don't think there's a game I would rate worse than a 6, and some of them are quite a bit higher.

Specifics about Starcraft in next post.

[The Schaef]

This will make more sense to those who have played Starcraft, but I'll try to speak generally enough that everyone will get the basic idea.

The box is PACKED with goodies.  Some 900 (!) pieces, tokens, markers and cards, including 180 sculpted plastic figures for your units.

The setup is pretty cool.  Players draft a couple planets, and then take turns laying them down.  Adjacent planets get little jigsaw connectors to attach them to each other, and players place their home base.  Then they put "z-axis" connectors, which is basically a portal between two non-connected planets.  So essentially, everybody is very close to everybody else, encouraging lots of fighting and blowing up of things.

The planets have three different attributes in the various "areas", representing minerals, gas and victory points.  The first two are resources you harvest to build units.  They also show the max number of units allowed in an area.

Each player has a combat deck of 18 cards, with attack values for specific units, and "minor" attack values for non-matching units.  So if you have a tank card in hand and attack with a tank, you use the 8/7 value.  If you attack with a marine instead, you still are able to battle but you only get the 5/5 value.  So you always have SOME option to attack/defend.  There is also a technology deck, which is basically more and better cards that you "research" into your deck to give you more and better options in battle.

You have three different actions you can take in a turn: you can build (construct bases, workers or units), mobilize (move your mans around), or research (tech up your deck).  Each turn, the players go around the table and place four order tokens on various planets where they want to execute one of these functions.  Orders on the same planet STACK, and then during the execution phase, they resolve top-down.  That means two things:
1). you have to plan your whole turn, and put down your orders backwards so your first order is on top
2). other players can put their tokens on top of yours and potentially block you from doing what you want to do right away.

So the game is, you put down your tokens, you resolve your tokens, if someone causes a fight then you play your attack cards to resolve it, and then you have a "cleanup" phase where you resolve some stuff, play some stuff, check for victory conditions.

There are a lot of ways the game can end.  15 victory points wins the game.  There are also Special Victory Conditions that each player can meet in the end-game to automagically win.  Event cards are drawn and played by the players each turn: once two of these events called "The End is Near" are played, the game automatically ends and most points win.  Or you can blow up all the other people's mans and be the last one standing.

Each race has two factions, and there's not much difference between the factions within each race except the different victory conditions and different starting units.  But the three races play quite differently: Zerg are about building lots of cheap units and kamikaze-ing everyone at every opportunity, and using special powers every chance.  Protoss are about building big strong (expensive) units and beating down the opponent.  Terrans kind of split the middle.  All three are fairly well-balanced, but Zerg are probably easier for noobs to learn because they are attack-focused.

Even with the little experience I've had, I'm quite excited about this game.  I am a sucker for chrome, and a box full of sculpted pieces from a game I love is an instant winner.  The gameplay is engaging and strategic.  I hope to report back with more info very soon.

[Tsavong Lah]

Sounds awesome. I am surprised I have not yet heard of this game.

[TheKarazyvicePresidentRR]

One question. Nukes? Yes? Very Yes? Or...AWWWWW?

[The Schaef]

Very yes.

Nukes are a card you research into your deck, and then if you play it with a Ghost and he survives, the Nuke auto-kills two other units.  They simulate the build time by making you stick the nuke back in your technology deck to research again.

A little more info now that I've played all the way through and seen how things work:
Instead of building all these different structures from the game, each race has three different buildings they can build, one for infantry, one for ground vehicles, one for flying vehicles.  The faction card has a level one infantry pre-printed, the other two level-ones must be built.  The buildings can be upgraded to level 2 and sometimes level 3 to access higher-end units.  Most units are normal attack units and have support values that apply when they are supporting a front line unit.  But a few have no attack cards and no support values, because they are "assist" units.  The Terran Science Vessel and the Zerg Queen are examples of this; they don't attack but you can research tech to give them cool abilities and then stick them behind an attacking unit.

We played a three-player game with one Terran, one Protoss, one Zerg (me).  One quick lesson learned is that you have to pay close attention to the order in which things happen and plan accordingly.  It is SO EASY to find yourself hosed because you have to build this before you can do that, or you don't have enough workers or resources to do all the stuff you want.  I said you don't have to know Starcraft, and you don't.  But teaching the one non-Starcraft-player did illustrate how much easier it comes together for someone who has played the video game.  To keep them caught up, make sure you take a moment to explain to them how the various units work.

Example: Terrans (our noob).  Infantry are Marines (good all-around), Firebats (ground-only splash) and Ghosts (high-health but need tech).  Ground are Vultures (strong ground-only with good splash), Goliaths (good anti-air, okay vs ground), and Siege Tanks (the big mamas, but I think ground-only).  Air are Wriaths (good all-around), Science Vessel (assist-only but AWESOME tech to take down Toss and Zerg), and Battlecruiser (flying tank).  It becomes more confusing with non-Terran races (Ultralisk is a Zerg "tank", but no "flying tank"; instead you mutate a Mutalisk into a Guardian with a tech card to make him strong against ground-only).

We had fun and it was very strategic, and I cannot wait to play it again.

[TheKarazyvicePresidentRR]

I wanna move to ohio, if only to show up and play these games with you. More questions from the person who thinks turrets are next to nothing in SC.

Do you have turrets? Also Bunkers? And if you know for toss, Additional pylons?

[The Schaef]

Bunkers are a tech that increase the health of your marines and bats.
Turrets are one of three different "modules" to upgrade your base.  Turrets/cannons/spore colonies are "air defense modules" that basically detect cloaked units and stop opponents from mobilizing directly into an area containing your base.  Instead, they have to mobilize to another area on the planet, and then mobilize a second time to attack the base.

Pylons and supply depots are "supply modules" that increase the unit build limit.  Zerg don't get them because their build limit is not 2, but 2x number of buildings (essentially, 2/4/6).

The third type of module, research modules, allows you to use the golden "special" orders, which give a bonus over using plain vanilla orders.

Nearly everything that's in the game is "in the game", it's just that some of it is abstracted so you can focus on building units and moving them around to blow up the other guy's mans.

[TheKarazyvicePresidentRR]

Awesome. I need geekier friends.

[The Schaef]

and richer ones.  I was VERY fortunate to acquire this game as a windfall; if I would have had to buy it, it would still be on my wish list.  It retails for $80, which means it can be had online for MAYBE $55 plus shipping.

[TheKarazyvicePresidentRR]

Oh wow, ouch. >.> I love starcraft but being broke makes it so I can't get it.

[JSB23]

This game looks awesome

[The Schaef]

Update, we got a tiny bit of cash in, so after buying the wife a nice Mother's Day present, and planning ahead for her birthday, I bought the Brood War expansion for this game.  I'll post more when I have time, detailing what's added and changed with the expansion.  Short version is that it's a much more complete game when you play with all the pieces.

[TheKarazyvicePresidentRR]

Wait the original 80 doesn't include my MnMs? Well that is disappointing, how much is the expansion?

[SomeKittens]

More importantly, does it come with additional pylons?!?!?

[TheKarazyvicePresidentRR]

Pfft, Terran>Protoss>Zerg

In order of pretty explosions.

[The Schaef]

Wait the original 80 doesn't include my MnMs? Well that is disappointing, how much is the expansion?

MnMs?  I can only assume you mean Medics somehow.

But yes, you need the expansion.  Not only because it has the Brood War components but also because it greatly expands and enhances the gameplay.  It is the only time I rated an expansion higher on BGG than the base game; that's how much I think BW makes Starcraft a complete game.

The list price is $60(!) but you can get it from places like Boards and Bits for $40 +s/h

[Good Samaritan]

Wow,some dedicated people,at least those who spend 40-60.00 on board games. But,it probally is addicting like redemption.

[SomeKittens]

Marines and Medics.  Incidentally, one of the only games where I use healing units.

[Good Samaritan]

I'll have to look into this game,it seems intresting  .

[TheKarazyvicePresidentRR]

Marines and Medics.  Incidentally, one of the only games where I use healing units.

Correct. Sorry, I love the name MnMs about them. Though now in sc2 its MnMnMs. Schaef will you be bringing this to nats?

[SomeKittens]

If he is, I wanna try.

[The Schaef]

Wow,some dedicated people,at least those who spend 40-60.00 on board games. But,it probally is addicting like redemption.

I said the EXPANSION cost $60.  The base game costs $90.  I scored a copy for 40 in a liquidation sale.

You should see Space Hulk.  The new edition retails for $120.

RR - IF... I go to Nationals, this will absolutely be in my luggage.  But the travel and financial restrictions of having a 2yo and 1yo make my attendance a dicey proposition at best.

[SomeKittens]

You should see Space Hulk.  The new edition retails for $120.

Picked my copy up for $100, looking to resell it.

[Glorfindel 12]

I've seen this game a hundred times at Games by James is it as good as the pc and N64 games and is it worth the 85$?

[Lamborghini_diablo]

I'd personally just wait for Starcraft 2 to drop in 5 days. 

[Glorfindel 12]

I'd personally just wait for Starcraft 2 to drop in 5 days. 

Is it really coming out in 5 days?  That game looks awesome!!!  I'll be one of the first to buy it when it comes out!!!

[Master KChief]

comes out on my birthday. coincidence?

[Glorfindel 12]

comes out on my birthday. coincidence?

I think not!!!

[The Schaef]

I'd personally just wait for Starcraft 2 to drop in 5 days. 

I don't know what that has to do with the board game  :p

It's worth $85 if you love awesome strategy games and can find enough people to get some plays out of it.

[Deist]

I have played the starcraft boardgame and expansion many a times. I  everything Schaef said. Actually two years ago at Metrocon I demoed the boardgame for other people 7 times in 3 days.

The real question is, Have any of you played Twilight Imperium?

[realestkorean]

Schaef, I've looked into the board game a bit. Is it really worth the buy?
I've been an avid Starcrafter since around 2001, so I know the game completely inside and out.

I told my friends about it, and we are talking about maybe pooling our money together from the summer and getting it for our dorm room for fall semester, haha.

I mean, it looks sweet, I just can't decide if i will get like 20+ plays out of it. I like Risk, does that help?

[Deist]

This game has more indepth strategy than risk and is unforgiving. You can definitely get several plays out of it. Also it is not as random as risk (you don't throw dice at each other). Also the expansion is totally worth it. If you can try and find it on ebay or amazon. You will get it much cheaper than retail.

[realestkorean]

That's what I was planning on doing. I'll probably get it. It looks awesome.

[The Schaef]

That's weird, I could have sworn I answered this... oh well.