A yet-to-be-named Mini Expansion v0.25 | StarCraft: The Board Game

Guido Gloor

(haslo)

Switzerland
Ostermundigen
Bern

The statement below is false.

The statement above is correct.

Looks interesting

Did you playtest the racial powers?

A minor typo: It's supposed to be Heroic Heroes, not Heroic Heros.

Posted Thu Aug 18, 2011 2:49 pm
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Joshua Love

(FaydeShift)

United States
Clarkston
Washington

I've only play tested thus far with a home-brew AI. Normally I play the game every week or 2 at work, but it's my vacation this week (and thus the time to actually do anything). So far it works pretty good (I havn't played enough to find any kinks). Zerg's creep is a little slower than I had hoped, but it does really give the feeling of a "spreading" Zerg infestation.
I do like the Protoss Gateway rush ability though, as it allows you to get a unexpected reinforcement on a planet, however, I worry about it being a little useless in the long run save the fact that you don't have to use a maneuver Order to further reinforce a new planet. So I may be looking for a new Protoss power to replace it.

I personally felt that Terran's Lift Off ability was my favorite. While it sounds a little "cheap", I think it represents the feel of the PC game a lot better, and gives Terran a quick advantage. How big of one, I don't know. Playing vs Zerg though is interesting, as they both of somewhat contrasting powers (Zerg prevent Base's from being built, and Terran can move Bases).

Again, I still need to play test it with real people, but I mainly uploaded it for the purpose of "blind" play testing as well.

Wow... That's not a typo, that's just a oversight/misspelling, lol. "Heros" looks perfectly legit, lol. Thanks for catching it.

Posted Thu Aug 18, 2011 7:29 pm
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Joshua Love

(FaydeShift)

United States
Clarkston
Washington

So far I play tested a couple times (mostly Zerg right now). I liked the Creep ability and it works exactly the way I had hoped. It seems kind of useless until you get attacked on a planet and someone wants to get a foothold on your planet. Especially effective with a anti-air module.

I also tested with Protoss and their ability for constructing buildings with only one probe needs to be clarified in that putting a probe in your unavailable workers pool could look a little weird. I ended up placing my probe for this task on the upper left of the faction sheet (on the faction logo). Just make sure you put it back during the regroup phase.

Lastly, I tested out the Super Workers. I found them particularly useful for Protoss, as a lot of their units cost more. But I also thought they made low-resource planets a more viable option, as you can essentially buy more with less actual resources available to you. So far I think their cost justifies them, but keeps them from being over powered. More to come.

Still need to test out the Heroes, but I am trying to test these elements one at a time. Anyone else tested them out?

Posted Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:04 pm
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Joshua Love

(FaydeShift)

United States
Clarkston
Washington

We played a full game with all races using the new racial powers, the Super Workers and the Heroic Heroes. All worked very well. Sadly, no one was able to get to many points for their Heroes, as the game was over before we could use them to their fullest extent.

So, racial powers:

I personally used the Protoss powers almost every turn, and were very helpful, and everyone agreed they were balanced. I personally felt that the new abilities mimicked the PC game nicely and did not add any complexity or length to the game.
Everyone really liked the Zerg abilities, specifically the Spawn Drones. I was worried that it would slow them down, and it did to a point, but later in the game they get extremely dangerous, as they get 2 free workers, even if they do not build buildings, which happens often after the first couple turns. The Creep ability also worked wonderfully, and really made the rest of us non-zerg players feel like Zerg were infesting the map more so than normal. The creep is easy enough to counter, as they instantly loose 1 every turn there is no base, but it makes for slower footholds on Zerg planets. Really mimics the PC game well in this aspect.

Lastly, the Terran powers were used a LOT (specifically lift-off). There was one turn where the Terran player was in danger of being attacked and used the flexible tactics ability and it prevented a pretty heavy hit to his planet. The Lift Off ability I think is what the original power of Terran should have been. It was so practical!

The Super Workers were really only heavily utilized by the 2 Protoss players, for obvious reasons. Still, Terran and 1 Zerg player used at least 1 of them. Everyone agreed that they were a good addition so far, and because all races could buy one, it was pretty balanced. It also made a player who was stuck with a low-income planet more likely to keep caught up in the games. One player specifically chose a low-resource planet with the Super Workers in mind than no one would have chosen otherwise.

The Heroes still need more testing. While I think they were a hit so far (and the new rule made almost everyone choose their hero in the second stage), no one got past 1 or 2 "levels" for their hero due to time. I may need to either increase the power of trade-ins, or lower the amount needed to trade in. We'll see after a couple more test runs though.

Anyway, all in all, everyone enjoyed the new rules and options that they came with. Everyone also agreed that they would rather play with this new expansion than without it. The game didn't take longer, nor did anyone feel it got bogged down with the new rules. I was really happy with it. It did not change the game dramatically, but it opened up some new strategies and counters you could use.

Posted Wed Aug 31, 2011 6:46 am
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Joshua Love

(FaydeShift)

United States
Clarkston
Washington

Forgot to add something (I will add it on the next release of the rules), but any time the Zerg Creep occupy a area containing gas or minerals, a non-zerg player may not gain the resource cards associated with those areas until the Creep has cleared. Even if you have a base on the planet. This came up during our game, and I felt it was the most natural answer to this question.

Posted Wed Aug 31, 2011 8:58 am
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