StarCraft

Many Thanks to Janvier for having a nice dinner with me, and tipping me off to buying the StarCraft board game for cheap!

I don't have any pictures of my initial play through *curse my phonelessness!* but I will attempt to give my initial impressions.

First of all, the little plastic units are GORGEOUS.



My neighbor G and I were very impressed at the time that we spent poking all the little cardboard bits from their blisters and arranging the units by race. I immediately announced my choosing of Raynor's rebel forces, while he quickly commandeered Kerrigan's armies.

Then we spent 2 hours reading the rules, which in the end was too much reading for what is a very simple concept. Each turn consists of planning, in which you place your orders, execution, in which you execute said orders and resolve combat, and regrouping, which is basically sorting the aftermath.

As an example, when we were stumbling through the concepts, our first turn took 20 minutes. The 2nd turn took 5.

And I couldn't tell you how long the third turn was, because by then the game was over.

We had four planets in a linear A-B-C-D configuration:

Braken -> Tarsonis <-> Torus <- Halycon

He placed his base on Braken, one planet away from the front line. I placed mine on Torus, planning to leave my other planet in reserve as a resource gathering operation. On the first turn I had built dropships that connected Torus to Tarsonis, whereas he had to move his forces from Braken, which cost him the turn.

The first attack was mine. My forces on Torus shortly made quick work of the Tarsonian defenders, but unable to press the attack fully due to lack of resources, I ended the turn.

He quickly built a response force of zerglings and hydralisks, as well as sending his reserve units to the front.

Meanwhile, I had received a siege tank.

With the tank leading the charge, supported by 5-6 infantry units, I utterly destroyed every single zerg unit on the planet. Losses were minimal, and victory was mine.

It was only after I was preparing research for the next turn (assuming that he would be able to muster enough units for a heroic last stand) that he reminded me that I had already won, due to special victory.

I instantly felt bad.

But the game is excellent! And fast with two players. To be fair, this was a 2 round skirmish on a highly linear map. Any more entry points and things would have gotten very interesting very fast as his higher production capabilities swarmed my flanks. I had a lot of fun despite the high learning time, and I definitely want to play again

THANKS JANVIER!!!