Starcraft the board game. Disapointing

[chief]

Heres linkage. http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/starcraft.html
Honestly im really disapointed in the game. I was hoping for something diffrent and I really dont like how they did the figures. all in all 3 out of 10 from me if it were on a rating scale.

[netherspirit]

Have you played it? Or are you just basing your judgment on the pictures?

I played it at Gencon and I really think they captured the feel of the computer game. I am looking forward to playing more than 2 rounds of it so, I plan on getting it.

What were you expecting?

[chief]

Well i guess its just not what im used to. I just was hopeing for something else I dont know what but just something. I guess though if I actually played it I would appreciate it more but for now im saying no go for me when its on the shelves.

[oni]

So you haven't played it and you're giving it a 3 out of 10? Harsh.

Can you tell me what you did not like about it? I was thinking it looked interesting.

[chief]

So you haven't played it and you're giving it a 3 out of 10? Harsh.

Can you tell me what you did not like about it? I was thinking it looked interesting.

Well the rating was a first apperance but I guess that I just want to say drop the ratings. I just want to say that the game dosent look as intresting as I thought but I may just have to play it to really get the feel for it and want to get it.

[King's Knight]

I think it looks pretty awesome, and while I'll wait till I can find it in the ~$50 range, I'm pretty excited about it...

[deadeyedan42]

This sounds like fun, I'll have to try it out first though, if not I'll blow my b-day money on it.

[Grungebob]

I get a little overwhelmed by the FFG chitfests!! I think they over produce their games. All the bits are of high quality to be sure, but there is just too much fidly stuff for my taste. Tide of Iron looks so damned cool but I heard that it takes forever to set up a game. WOW is cool but the actual game length combine with setup and take down means It will not likely get played unless folks are invited just to play that one game (which we do not do in Texas as we like variety).

[Dreaded Gazebo]

I'm not going to pass the game off quite yet, but basically I wanted to see Tide of Iron in the Starcraft universe. I wanted something that actually represented a RTS. Nexus Ops is closer in feel than what this looks to be.

It may very well end up being a decent game. Just not at all what I wanted it to be.

[Rodriquez]

I get a little overwhelmed by the FFG chitfests!! I think they over produce their games. All the bits are of high quality to be sure, but there is just too much fidly stuff for my taste. Tide of Iron looks so darned cool but I heard that it takes forever to set up a game. WOW is cool but the actual game length combine with setup and take down means It will not likely get played unless folks are invited just to play that one game (which we do not do in Texas as we like variety).

totally agree there GB,

WoW is a sweet lookin game but setup takes at minimum an hour, and gameplay is 6-8+hrs and than takedown is about an hour.

though I'll likely pickup starcraft bg myself just to have it.

cheers
Rod

[peterm]

I enjoyed World of Warcraft quite a bit. I don't remember set-up for that game taking very long. The game itself takes a long time to play, but it's not something like War of the Ring where you have to put out tons and tons of figures to start. Something like Betrayal at House on the Hill is what I think is an over-produced game. Trying to find each little chit for whatever situation you're in is I think ridiculous, and we usually just use a placeholder chit for "smoke" or whatever. But I don't think a game like WoW has tons of chits - I wouldn't trade the plastic figures for paper pieces, and using cards for character skills, etc. is a good way to add variety. If everyone's thinking about character development throughout play anyway (and not just waiting for his/her level-up to think about it) then the game moves along.

[Rodriquez]

I think it looks pretty awesome, and while I'll wait till I can find it in the ~$50 range, I'm pretty excited about it...

CCGarmoury had it listed on their site I believe fro 55 dollars
I was tempted to order but Im gonna wait and see how much cash I have left after D'con

cheers
Rod

[elf326]

Just got this game. Haven't gotten a chance to play it yet though. Does anybody know what number of players is best to play with? I thought playing with about 3-4 players would be fun without too long periods between turns. One other question. What do you do to teach other people how to play this game without having them hate you and losing energy after almost 50 pages of rules?

[RichardD]

Played it twice over Christmas (it was my Xmas present from the family). I was very pleased with the game - I find most FFG games are either too long, unbalanced, or both. Starcraft seems to be very well-balanced so far, and runs about 3 hours (or less; though this does depend on experience and the number of players).

Yes, it is a chit/bits-fest. There are far too many of them, and your brain struggles to take everything in for the first game. But that's partly the fault of a reasonably poor rulebook, and partly the fact that the rulebook misses out all the helpful advice it *could* have included. Stuff like "In one game, you can't build everything that's in front of you. In fact you'll probably not build more than 25% of the stuff that's in front of you. You won't want - or need - ALL of the technology cards that you can research. You might want all the base upgrades and buildings, but you won't have time to build many units if you're busy building up your base. And you'll lose." Knowing that most of the stuff in front of you represents options and choices makes it a little easier to cope with (and adds longevity to the game's appeal, as you can do different things each time you play).

Things I'd spell out to new players are:

(1) Emphasising how to win, including how special victories occur once the event deck shows a third-stage card on top - and explain that a special victory is probably the most likely way anyone will win.

(2) the turn order, including the order that stuff is built in, is very important. Simple when you just go through things step by step, but bewildering if you're ploughing through the rulebook. Smilarly, the combat resolution order has to be taken one small stage at a time. It'll be second-nature by the end of your first game, but to begin with it's tricky.

(3) placing orders - how they are resolved from top to bottom (so last one placed on a stack will be the first one executed in that stack), that blocked orders will generate event cards (which in turn speed the game to the point where special victories become likely), that you can only place on a planet where you have a base or adjacent to such a planet, and explain what the orders actually do. then remind everyone of the "top to bottom" order again, so what they place first will probably be the LAST order they can do each turn.

(4) combat - amongst the straightforward bits there are some crinkly-edged powers, but the important stuff is the splash damage and cloaking - if you can understand both well enough at the end of your first game to exlpain it properly to newer players, you're doing better than me.

(5) "technology trees" - by which I mean researching technology cards, buying new buildings, units and base upgrades - they cost resources, and they take time (there are limits on how many things you can build each turn, plus you only have limited resources). So players CANNOT expect to use all, or even most, of those plastic units and their powers. Expect to build between 1-3 buildings per player (the big trapezoid bits of cardboard) over the course of the game, 1-3 module upgrades (small squares of cardboard), maybe 75% of your workers (small cardboard units), 3 or 4 transport ships (cardboard units), and I'd be very surprised if anyone used more than 25% of the plastic that's there in fornt of them. Players instead have to concentrate on adding just a few different things to their starting forces - by going for the big air units, for example, they pretty much have to rule out researching and building the big ground units. those technology cards also help pace the game - the more tech cards you want, the more research you have to do; the more research is done, the quicker the event deck gets to stage 3.

(6) attack, attack and attack - there are a number of built-in advantages for attackers (like they get more combat cards, and they get to pick how the units match up in a series of 1-on-1 fights when two bigger forces meet). You probably can "turtle up" and hide in a corner, relying on defensive troops. You will not win by doing that. Like the PC game, you HAVE to be aggressive (that's diferent to "all-out attack, all the time" - but players have to understand that they need to initiate combats).

(7) Starcraft is the sort of game where you can get away with just setting up the game and starting straight away, just playing each step of the turn in order, not worrying about knowing all the rules before you start. Sure, some of it won't make any sense for a bit, but frankly if you read the whole rulebook out to everyone before you start, they STILL won't know what's going on.

Seriously though, I wouldn't recommend playing it three-player as anything expect a learning experience. Starcraft is a game of conquest and conflict, and most such games if played 3-player follow one of tro paths; either two players cpo-operate and wallop the third, or two players fight each other leaving the third alone so that player wins. Both have happened in my Starcraft games.

[elf326]

Thank you RichardD. Especially on the idea of how to teach people the game. :D

[TweetyBird]

I get a little overwhelmed by the FFG chitfests!! I think they over produce their games. All the bits are of high quality to be sure, but there is just too much fidly stuff for my taste. Tide of Iron looks so darned cool but I heard that it takes forever to set up a game. WOW is cool but the actual game length combine with setup and take down means It will not likely get played unless folks are invited just to play that one game (which we do not do in Texas as we like variety).

I feel much the same way. The FFG offerings usually look impressive but are often more trouble than they're worth--for my taste, anyway.

[elf326]

I just recently got a chance to play this game.

My thoughts are:
You guys are right! It's a giant chitfest!
It was more of the cards that me confused though.

Wait, did I just draw from the discard pile?
Where are my cards?

Use a large table and stay organized.

RichardD, the idea of the teaching saved the game hours.

In all, it was a lot of fun.

Tip: Anyone who tries to teach this game: allow people to take a break or three.

I liked this game. If you dislike chitfests, this game may not be for you.

[Hahnarama]

Man all you Starcraft/FFG bashers....I bet if you got a chance to get a free copy you would change your minds....

[RichardD]

Actually, just playing the game might change their minds.

Anyway, there's a good rules summary/reference sheet up at boardgamegeek
http://files.boardgamegeek.com/geekfile_view.php?fileid=29997

[Eckels]

What's the quality and size of the figures? I'm not so much interested in playing the game, but I'd be very interested in having a Zerg Army, if the figures are the proper size. I could always paint them. How much of a variety of figures are there?

[RichardD]

OK quality, quite small, and no variety. I can't think what else they'd be useful for TBH, as the units are all to different scales. I suppose that they'd sort of fit with GW's Epic 40k line, although they are larger than the 6mm scale GW figures. Oh, and you don't get nearly enough to make a wargames army out of them.