Two weeks ago, looking for an SD Card, I saw Starcraft: The Board Game at the top of the shelf. I’ve been very curious about this game, since I’m a big fan of the computer version since 1998, and I can’t wait for the second version to be released this year (hopefully). After some logistics issues with the store, I managed to buy my copy. I waited patiently for two weeks for my first game, until the big moment came last Sunday’s afternoon. Almost two hours reading the rules and another three for our first three player game allows me to give you my first impressions. Let’s see what I’ve found:
Before you read any further, it’s very important that you know I’m a heavy eurogamer at heart. My favorite games are Age of Steam, El Grande, Die Macher and Power Grid. Things like Ticket to Ride, Battle Lore, Puerto Rico and Carcassonne bore me to death and even after 5 plays of Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition, I couldn’t enjoy it. I do appreciate good components, but what matters to me mostly about a game are its mechanics and the gameplay (Age of Steam is not the most beautiful game on the market).
COMPONENTS
Cheap
AmazingI’m not a big fan of FFG. They rely too much on components to hide fiddly and boring mechanics. I love Arkham Horror, but it’s the Cthulhu theme that really pulls me in because the game is as fiddly as it can be, not to mention how boring is for non-cthulhian-fans and non-roleplayers gamers. Either way, I do respect FFG for those amazing components they produce, and even if the games costs more than the average Eurogame, a retail price of 79.99 for the most well produced game I’ve ever seen is worth every penny I spent on the box. Seriously: AMAZING.
Cards are high quality and even if they are meant to last, they are easy to shuffle (something that you will have to do plenty of times in the game). I’m planning to buy some faction-colored Ultrapro sleeves for each deck, but only because I love to keep my games near mint, not because it is needed. Art and design are just amazing. Cards are pretty easy to read and identify the use of during gameplay.
Chits are superb. After punching lots of chits out of the frames, I bagged them since I couldn’t manage to fit them inside a plastic organizer. Drawings are a vivid copy of the computer game units and buildings, and even if some of the buildings are not present in the board version of the game, they aren’t really needed to enjoy what’s inside the box.
Planet tiles are actually the board of the game. They come in a sturdy material ready to last for many games without getting folds on the corners. The art is pretty good, and the symbols on the board are clear enough to make the gameplay easy to follow, just like in the real eurogames!
And now, what obviously can't be overlooked: Miniatures. I’ve seen Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition Miniatures. I’ve seen BattleLore miniatures. I’ve seen Doom Miniatures. I’ve seen Heroscape Miniatures… but STARCRAFT miniatures are just awesome. They are extremely detailed miniatures. They come in colors, one for each player, and I regret that I don’t have the skills to paint them, but those miniatures are the most beautiful I’ve seen in a game, because they are a perfect replica of what you see on the computer game. Flying units come with a transparent supports giving them the feeling of being above the ground, floating in the air… that’s just NEAT. My first complaint about components comes here. Some of my flying units were split away from their support during shipping. They are more fragile than they should be, but I bought a tube of Krazy Glue and made some repairs. I’m not the most skilled man on earth to paste miniatures parts together, but I did my best and the result was just fine. I even stored the Krazy Glue tube in the gamebox to repair any further combat damage.
Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition-sized Box. Huge, but it’s needed to store the game components after opened. And here comes my second complaint. How come FFG, who have produced high quality and practical boxes like the one for A Game of Thrones, are not capable of putting a couple of extra production bucks into a really good box capable of storing the high quality components provided with the game? I just don’t get it. Anyway, after everything was bagged, they fit in the box just like I fit into a S sized T shirt… meaning that they BARELY fit. If you remove the box insert, then the components will start to bounce from once side to another leading to further combat damage to those awesome, but fragile, flying miniatures.
Overall, I’m more than satisfied with game components: The best among any game I own.
The Rulebook, just like previous FFG rulebooks, is overwhelming. Even though, it’s pretty easy to understand the game from the 40 pages full of illustrations and very well explained game situations (examples). In our case, it first took a two-hour session to read through the rulebook before we actually started playing the game. It was worth it, since the game became pretty clear, making our first experience outstanding. The rulebook does a wonderful job making a game that at first sight, might look as fiddly as Twilight Imperium, look easy.
GAMEPLAY
Fiddly
ElegantI must say that, as a Heavy Eurogamer, I received the biggest surprise here. I love elegant games. The more elegant, the more I like it. The only exception to this rule will probably be Arkham Horror, but it doesn’t count since I just play it to be chased down by mythos creatures before I die by being devoured by a Great Old One. I didn’t think that FFG would ever produce an elegant game… but with Starcraft: The Board Game, they have done just that.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not El Grande or T&E, but this is a game where, during the first play, you are always thinking about what’s going on with the game itself, instead of being smashing your head against the rulebook trying to understand how those complex rules interact with each other. Everything is pretty straight forward, yet, the complexity level of the game is enough to keep my Heavy Euro Mind interested for the three hours it lasts.
Starcraft: The Board Game is taken to the galaxy level, instead of the inside-of-a-planet level that is used in the computer game. Each player chooses one faction among the six available (2 Terrans, 2 Zergs and 2 Protoss), picks two planets, and following a clockwise order the galaxy is created, with each player choosing where to place his initial base on those planets. Each planet is divided into areas that provide Minerals, Gas, and Victory Points. Your faction starts to grow, building new units, headquarters and developing technologies… to realize that sooner than expected, your forces will be clashing against your opponents'. The objective of the game is to get 15 victory points before your opponents, or to achieve your faction's special victory condition during the third phase of the game. Whether you like it or not, the game has a built in clock that will end it after some turns, and if no victory condition has been achieved, the player with most victory points will become the winner.
I don’t intend to teach Starcraft: The Boardgame here, there are very good reviews doing that, instead, I will address specific parts of the game that are mostly misunderstood by some negative reviewers, taking away the most important and innovative aspect of this wonderful game: Planning and Combat.
In the planning phase, each player places an order token on the planet where he wants to take some action: Building (to get more units or buildings), Mobilizing (to invade and conquest), or Researching (to develop technologies),. The thing is that, on each planet, any number of players can place orders, creating an order LIFO (last in first out) stack, meaning that the last player to place an order on a planet will be the first to execute it. This is just brilliant: The first player to place a token on a planet, is the faction who acts more quickly on THAT planet, and has the privilege to act AFTER every other faction on the planet, RESPONDING to any action taking by other players. In other words, you have won the initiative roll, and every other player has to declare its actions before you so you can make you best call, for the benefit of your faction on that planet. I know that other players actually get to act before you, but since only at the end of the turn the victory points are counted, acting last will always give you the chance to retake an area lost to a previous combat.
The second aspect of the game that I want to talk about is the combat. During the execution phase, when a mobilize order is executed and a player reaches an area where enemy units are placed, combat takes place. Pairings are made between the attacking forces and defending units, one by one, forming the FRONT LINE of the combat. Remaining units (not in the front line) are called support units, and will support the front line unit they are assigned to. Each set of paired front line units (along with their support units) forms a skirmish, and will have to be resolved one by one as if they were different battles. This leads to an amazing micromanagement during combat, giving huge detail of what would happen in the computer game.
In Starcraft: The Board Game, each player has two decks: A Technology deck and a Combat deck. The first one is where the new technologies are picked up when you take a research action, and the second one is the deck you actually use during battle. The thing is, when you develop a new technology, you get to move cards from one deck to another so that your new technologies are available for your next combat. Since you have a maximum hand size that must be met at the end of each turn, a key mechanic in this game is hand management. Save the most important cards for your most important battles. Cards get recycled when your combat deck is exhausted, so your new technologies will be with you for the rest of the game.
The player moving to the area is called the attacker, and the player already present in the area is called the defender. Each player has built during the game a hand of (Combat?) cards (drawn at different times) and this is the time where things become more interesting. As a general rule, the attacker gets three cards, while the defender only gets one card before assigning cards to each skirmish, making an aggressive way of playing (attacking more, defending less) the right way to victory. This leads to an enormous amount of interaction between players through direct confrontation. What comes next is the attacker assigning cards to each skirmish, and then the defender doing the same. Cards are revealed at the same time. For each skirmish the front line unit’s total power is calculated and compared with the health value of the enemy unit, and then casualties take place, eventually making one faction the winner of the battle. If the attacker doesn’t exterminate EVERY defending unit in the battle, the attack fails and the attacker must retreat.
Both aspects, order stack and combat, make Starcraft a fresh new game with interesting mechanics that definitely worth at least to try.
WEIGHT
Very Light
Very HeavyDue to its elegance, Starcraft TBG gives you the chance to actually think about what’s going on in the game. Tough decisions have to be made during the planning phase when order tokens are placed, even moreso when many players are interacting on the same planet. Also, Hand Management requires you to make pretty tough calls when selecting cards for each skirmish. Again, I must say that this game is Heavy enough to fulfill my Heavy Eurogamer’s needs.
LUCK
No Luck
Pure LuckThis game makes you draw cards from your combat deck, which is shuffled from time to time and that for sure brings some luck to the table. How much? Not so much to make it chaotic but instead just enough to give this game a High replyability value. As a Magic player, I’m used to (and really enjoy) the luck given out by card decks. It can be minimized with good Hand Management skills.
Another luck factor in the game is the initial planets you get right before forming the galaxy. That is, if you have a planet with resources but no victory points, you will have to play more aggressively than the player who got the 2 Victory Point planet. This creates a balance in the game, where some are trying to conquer, while some others are trying to protect. Brilliant.
PLANNING
Pure Tactics
Pure StrategyI’ve identified three types of planning in Starcraft: Long Term, Short Term and Tactics.
Long Term Strategy is present here because just after setup, you can see the whole galaxy on the table and determine what’s going to be your plan to step on those victory points areas at some time in the game. Also, it will let you figure out what your opponents might be doing as their long term strategy according to their initial positions. Obviously, it would be very dumb to design your game plan by taking your opponent’s actions for granted.
Short Term Strategy comes each turn during the planning phase. Here, you plan your turn, you place your order tokens above or below your opponents in order to react or to be proactive according to what you think they are going to do. This is just brilliant. A Short Term Strategy different from Tactics.
Tactics comes in this game in the form of reacting to what your opponents have just done after you have placed your order tokens. Let’s say you used a Building Order on a planet to build some Zealots, but your opponent placed his token after you and mobilized to that planet a group of Mutalisk. You can change the units you were going to build to a couple of Scouts and prepare for action with the right unit.
Starcraft: TBG, is probably the only game I know where three types of planning are clearly present.
INTERACTION
No Interaction
Lots of InteractionDon’t want to interact in Starcraft TBG? Then be prepared to be INTERACTED ON. Whether you like it or not you will be facing enemy units, and as I’ve said before, you are better off facing them as an attacker than a defender. In Starcraft TBG THERE WILL BE WAR. If you are not a confrontational type of player, stay away from this game. Heavy Eurogamers have games like Struggle of Empires, Shogun and so forth to quench the war thirst, but now I will add to my list Starcraft: The Board Game.
THEME
Abstract
Lots of ThemeThe most thematic game I’ve ever played. Obviously it’s not like the RTS computer game, but the Starcraft feel was perfectly captured by the mechanics.
Zerg Regeneration? Ok, draw combat cards at the end of each combat you are engaged in.
Protoss Shields? Ok, draw two extra cards when you are defending from an attack.
Want to avoid transports taking units right to your base? Build defenders like photon cannons or spore colonies.
Ok, I’ll be honest: you enjoy this game a lot more if you know the computer game. But this is why this game is so thematic.
LEARNING CURVE
Easy To Learn
Hard To Learn“Easy to learn, but hard to understand” is what I think about this game. I think this game is much more easy to get if someone teaches you how to play, instead of chewing through the whole rulebook, but you will begin feeling the game during the very first play. Further games will give you more experience about how to make the combat pairings, which technologies to develop, and so forth.
OVERALL
Last night, I played the game for the second time. This has become my favorite amerigame right after the first game. I can see myself playing this game for many years from now, it’s just like the feeling I had after my first Age of Steam game. This is the most thematic game I’ve ever played. Starcraft TBG will be enjoyed the most by gamers who also have played the computer game. Even sounds from the computer game come out of players' mouths during the battles. “Give me something to shoot!” “Nuclear Launch detected!”
10/10
MY LIFE FOR AIUR!
Posted Fri Mar 28, 2008 5:35 pm
for shipping that review all the way over here!
)
) Here comes the micromanagement. You're going to be succesful in a combat if you make the right calls when selecting your units for each battle.
