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Wednesday 21 January, 2009
Starcraft: The Board Game is a multiplayer strategy/conquest board game for 2 – 6 players. The game is based on the highly popular real time strategy game of the same name. Players choose a faction belonging to one of three unique races (Zerg, Protoss and Terrans). Each race has two factions, and each faction has its own special abilities, units, and victory conditions. Victory is achieved either by destroying the other players, having 15 conquest points at the end of a turn, or by achieving a faction’s special victory conditions.
Initial Setup:
After choosing a faction, players are given a player card corresponding to their chosen faction. These cards give detailed explanations of the faction’s special abilities, special victory conditions and starting units. Then, each player picks two planets at random and arranges them however they choose. Next, players choose the location of their home base and place their starting units on their home planet. Afterward, players can choose which adjacent planet they want their transport to carry units to.
Placing Orders:
After the initial setup is complete, the players begin placing orders. Orders can only be placed on planets where the player has friendly units or on planets that have transports going to them. Each player plays four orders one at a time in a round robin fashion. Multiple orders can be placed on the planets in a stack. The first order on the stack is always executed first. One player can place an order on top of another player’s order blocking them from executing their order. When the players have placed all their orders, the players execute one of their orders until all orders have been executed. When all orders are executed, the turn is over. There are three types of orders: build, move, and research. During a build order, the player can build a base, new units, or new buildings, which allow players to build better units. During a move order, players can either rearrange units on a planet, move units to another planet, or attack. During a research order, players can look for new technology cards to use during battles.
Victory:
There are three different ways that victory can be achieved. Present on some of the planets are conquest points. Players can build bases on the spaces that have conquest points. If a player has a base on a space with conquest points at the end of a turn, the player gains that number of conquest points. If a player gains 15 conquest points, that player wins. Though highly unlikely, victory can be achieved by destroying the other players completely. Victory can also be achieved by meeting the special victory conditions listed on the player card.
Gameplay:
First Session:
For our first session of Starcraft: The Board Game, we played a game with three people. All of us were first time players. One of us, coincidentally the owner of the game, had played the original PC game. The other player and I had never played the original game before. Since this was the first time any of us had ever played the board game, setup took about 30 minutes. We had to continually consult the rulebook to make sure we fully understood the rules of the game. The game progressed slowly for the first couple of turns. We had to refer to the manual frequently, and we kept putting our orders in the wrong place. I advanced my troops to the nearest planet to try and claim more conquest points, while one player just made troops and held his position. The one player who had already played Starcraft before quickly made heavy ground troops and attacked the troops I had just moved. He easily destroyed my troops. It seemed like he had a huge advantage over the rest of us. The other player just sat in his happy corner and did nothing. Due to one of the player’s special victory conditions, the game ended before anyone really accomplished anything.
Second Session:
For our second session, we played with three players again. This time only one of us was new to the game. Setup and explanation of the rules took only about 15 minutes this time. Even with less inexperienced players, the flow of the game still seemed to drag along. It seemed like the same player who had the upper hand last session, still had the upper hand during this session. Again, due to a player’s special victory conditions, the game ended before anybody could really do much.
Final Impression: I really enjoyed the strategy aspect of this game. But the sheer volume of rules, obnoxiously long set up time, and the slow pace of the game detract from the gaming experience. Both sessions seemed to move along at a snail’s pace until ending abruptly, leaving the winner with no feeling of accomplishment. In my opinion, the PC game is far superior to the board game.
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