by filwi
I've got a friend whose motto in life is: 'Always try everything twice before rejecting it - you might have done it wrong the first time'. So I've tried Starcraft a number of times when it came out and now a final time with the expansion and I can, with utter conviction, say that I hate it. Here's why:
1. Too steep learning curve
I don't mind a game with a steep learning curve. I like Caylus although I had quite a lot of trouble with optimizing my moves during the first few games. I love Race for the Galaxy. But in Starcraft I've noticed that you need to know a ton of units (and their names and what they look like), a ton of cards and a ton of strategies merely to survive. Or as a friend of mine, who likes the game and has played it a number of times, says about it: 'We played with two beginners and won before setup was completed'. How much fun is that?
Let me give you an example from my last and hopefully final game of Starcraft: I was at my local gaming group when a player (let's call him 'The Owner') came up with his copy of Starcraft + expansions begging for everyone to play. As we'd just finished a game and were, counting The Owner, six players we agreed. I was reluctant to do it as I didn't really like the game but I did have it ranked as a '5' here on BBG: Slightly boring, might be convinced to play.
So we set up for a 3 vs 3 game (good, I like team wargames) and The Owner dumped his base world right next to my own base world, placing his transport in a position to attack me the first time. I've played before. I'm aware of this and my team mates even went through this with me. And I placed my orders considering this. But not considering enough. Apparently I should have placed an attack order at the bottom. Really intuitive, right? Let the enemy get a foothold, let him build a base and then attack, right? I was pushed out of the game before it had even started. Not my idea of 'fun', especially since The Owner gives me one of those 'oh, didn't you know that, you poor, poor idiot?' speeches.
Oh, and if you're going to say that I should have read the rules - I did. Reading through the rules twice before I played the first time worked for Twilight Imperium. I can't see why it shouldn't work for Starcraft as well.
2. Too slow / has too much downtime
I don't mind downtime, I play EuroFront for heaven's sake. But I do very much mind non-significant downtime. I'm not going to talk about Analysis Paralysis (although Starcraft is a prime candidate for just that) but the major problem of a totally sequential game where most actions won't impact you. If two out of six players are fighting chances are you're not one of them. And if each combat takes a couple of minutes (more, much more with inexperienced players) that's a couple of minutes when the game is locked and everyone else is waiting for something they have no interest in. I spent more time this last game sitting and talking about other games (and yes, planning Eurofront strategy) than playing. That's simply ridiculous.
3. It's not a war / building game
I loved Starcraft (the computer game) when it came out and played it at all hours. I loved the feeling of expanding your territory, defending against impossible odds and, finally, when you were strong enough, sending your army out for the ultimate battle. Then I tried multiplayer and hated it. See, Starcraft, for me, is a game of building and fighting. Mulitplayer Starcraft is a game of reaction and speed-clicking. No matter how good your strategies are, if you're playing against someone who's faster than you with the mouse and able to direct workers/troops into action and thus utilize them to their fullest while your troops stand around waiting while you're off doing something else, you're going to lose.
The same with Starcraft the Boardgame. It's not a game of expansion and conquest, it's a game of order placement. No matter how good your build strategy is, no matter how great the combat cards in your hand are, if you don't outthink your opponent in the placement of orders you're going to lose. So order placement is the key of Starcraft. Everything else is just icing on the cake and most of the icing has nothing to do with the main mechanism - you could remove the combat cards, research and/or resources and still have a game that plays almost identically to what you've got now. That, for me, is a design failure.
4. The decisions aren't significant
This is tightly tied in with the above point. As the order placement decides the game everything else is secondary. Thus you get ten minutes in which you make your four (the number of orders you place) significant decisions followed by forty minutes in which every decision is either made by someone else or insignificant - it doesn't matter what troops you produce as the combat resolution process is pretty much random. It doesn't make sense to produce a worse type of troop when you can build a superior - why make Zerglings when you can build a Mutalisk? Only in the event of you having a single mineral to spare AND build capacity to spare AND nothing better to build with it would you build a Zergling. That makes the entire Zergling unit meaningless.
Compare this to Twilight Imperium, which is a pretty similar game and still a bit of a clunker, and you'll see that every decision there is significant, from the distribution of order token to the placement of your forces, and this is the reason why I can spend 4+ hours on TI3 but not on Starcraft.
5. It's too modeled on the computer game
I'm guessing that if Starcraft wasn't a franchise we'd see a number of items removed from the game. For example, workers aren't significant - they play a very minor role in the game. Most of the units aren't significant, aren't really used and only add to the clutter and learning curve. Many of the techs aren't significant and aren't used. And yet, as those units exist in the computer game they exist in the board game even though a board game must be more streamlined than a computer game in order to be playable. As it stands, there's a huge amount of bookkeeping for the players to do, huge numbers of nearly identical units to learn the abilities of and nearly identical cards to remember. And that's something that's as far from fun, in my book, as you can get.
6. The Combat Cards
I'm not going to describe the combat cards, there are plenty of comprehensive reviews that go in depth about this mechanic. Suffice to say that if you research new and more powerful combat cards it dilutes your deck and lessens your chances to draw a combat card that will match the troops you've got. That, to me, is a big drawback - when I spend resources and time on reserach I expect my forces to be better than they were before, not more random. This is also the reason why you can't field a mix of forces - build too many different forces and purchase too many different techs for them and you'll end up with cards that you are never able to use.
Add to this the frustrations that if you don't have the correct combat card and your opponent does the most meager unit will destroy your powerhouse and you've got, at least for me, a clear deal breaker.
7. Information clutter
I don't mind some flavor in my games. In fact, as I love games with a strong story element you can say that I love flavor. But here the flavor goes on to make the game unplayable. I'm talking about the sheer number of different units, most of them looking somewhat like each other. You'll need to be a Starcraft nerd in order to even know what unit you're holding. The same goes with all the different icons - too much clutter, not enough overview. Throw in an expansion or two and you've got clutter mania. In my last game I was unable to tell the thirty (forty five??) different units apart in order to see what unit did what. And as the units morphed into each other, providing the owner had this tech or that precondition, I was at a total loss to tell even my own twelve or fifteen units apart and had no chance to follow what the hell my opponents did.
The same goes for the rules. There are too many variations, exemptions, flow changes etc. etc. There's no way, unless you've played a large number of games, to know how things work. Why should I spend 10 hours in complete boredom in order to start learn everything when I can pick up a game with an intuitive information flow and start enjoying myself from the first minute?
8. It requires too much space
Playing with six people we put two large tables together (think larger dining room tables) and there still wasn't enough space to place everything in a way that was comfortable for everyone. It also meant that we had to constantly ask each other 'do you have this or that mod on your base', 'where does this Z-axis link go', 'what are those forces there' etc. Not only did it slow the game down but it telegraphed your moves to everyone else. That's a big no-no to me and very frustrating to boot.
9. It's too long / It's not for casual players
I don't mind long games (see the part about EuroFront above) but a game where I spend most of my time waiting should be much, much shorter than this - if I'm spending my time being bored I don't want to spend hours upon hours of it. My last game I threw in the towel after two hours (we'd gone through one and a half turns) and my remaining area was taken over by one of my allies. The remaining four players (out of six, one other newb had been knocked out of the fray in the second turn even though he was getting a steady stream of advice from one of the experienced players - not The Owner) played until four in the morning. That might have appealed to me as a teen but now I've got a family and a job, both of which I prioritize above gaming.
10. It doesn't feel like Starcraft
When I first saw Starcraft and fondled the pieces I was completely blown away. It was so true to the game, so true to the world, the essence of Starcraft distilled into plastic and cardboard. But once I started playing that feeling went down the drains. There wasn't enough connection between what the miniatures looked like and what they could do. There was no feeling of desperation as you throw your horde of Mutalisks against that Battlecruiser, in fact there's no possiblity of throwing a horde of Mutalisks against
My second time I figured I'd really get into character, play as a Protoss would. That went down the drains too as those who didn't, not caring about alliances and Starcraft canon, rolled over those who did. This third time I said screw it, I'll just treat it as any other game and forget that it's Starcraft. And you know what? That removed the last shred of fun, leaving an empty husk of a game not worthy of my time.
Conclusion
All in all I believe that Starcraft is a game that should never have been made. Or if made, should have been playtested and refined for at least another two years in order for FF to release something playable. As it stands now this is a game for the computer game geeks who were totally enamored with the Starcraft mythos and who might overlook the board games glaring flaws. It is also aimed at those who remember how much fun they had playing Starcraft in their youth might buy it for the looks, play it once and never again (I'm in this category). Everyone else who's in their right mind should stay far, far away.
And that's why I now rate Starcraft the Boardgame a solid '2'."
you can sold it? i'm weeling to buy it...
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