Here are the 3 variants my gaming group has tried to help make teching strategies more viable and encourage the development of Tier 3 units.

Variant 1:

Research orders allow for the purchase of two technologies as with gold research order (though the restriction of one card remains).

Variant 2:

Advanced deployment: Players start with a second Tier 1 building

Variant 3:

On turn 1, you can play gold orders, but execute them as normal orders (i.e. 3 builds on the first turn).

Variant 4:

On turn 1, no additional transport can be built.

My comments on each:

1. We found that Variant 1 provided the Zerg with the biggest advantage. With both the devourer and gaurdian being a Tier 3 technology enabled unit, the zerg are provided with a good advantage. What we found was a savings in orders, to give provide more opportunity to make use of build orders to advance down the building trees.

2. Tried this one once. It really didn't achieve what we were looking for. The extra building actually swung the balance of power to that of 'rushers' instead of giving a boost down the technology/unit tier trees.

3. For those that desired to 'turtle' and tech, this provided the initial boost required to get ahead, to move down building tree to get a more powerful unit, so at the start of Turn 2, you can build a Tier 3 unit (flyers mainly). Though after 3 games with this variant we found that you either a) had to really cripple an opponent on the first turn with a rush or Tech in the same manner. That extra build on the first turn was quite poweful. Tier 3 units at the start of your 2nd turn was quite powerful, as in the video game, the building times / technology trees create a type of a timed escalation clock. With this gone, it made many Tier 1 or 2 units obsolete, something that really detracted from our games.

4. We found this variant to be quite decent, though it really hampered those that favored the rush, but not so much. It allowed to people to either a) plan to defend the rush right off, or b) made them feel safe enough to get a head start on turn 1 to get some heftier units for turn 2 in knowing that there would be no surprise attacks. It just slows the game play down just enough to provide a boost that is needed.

Conclusions:

We felt that Variant 1 was the best overall choice. Variant 2 and 3 really messes with the escalation clock, something that we really didn't enjoy. Improved Research orders, over the course of the game, provided us on average 2 1/2 more orders. These additional orders were key in providing extra build orders to advance down the technology trees.

Variant 4 came in at a close second. That extra first 'more or less safe' turn really allowed for people to get a head start on their initial army. In doing so, come the end of the game, we saw a boost in the number of Tier 3 units. This slightly slows the game play down.

Variant 1: I think it would be even better if player had to choose to buy additional technology INSTEAD placing any cards in his hand or drawing 2nd Event card. In order to prevent this gold order being overpowered.

Variant 2: Good way to speed up the game, not to tech-up. Unfortunately, not quite fair to every faction.

Variant 3: With expansion, yo are allowed to execute special orders if you build R&D module earlier. It's cheap (cost of 2 or even 1 mineral with gold build), so I don't see any needs to use that variant there.

Variant 4: That may be a death sentence in some galaxy setups. If you put your starting transports in wrong way, you may lose the game early even without that restriction.

Another suggestion of variant, which (I believe, because it hasn't been tested yet) could be a Fast Tech variant. Reccomended for people who don't like Normal Victory (by Conquest Points).

Variant 5:

At the end of Galaxy Setup, when all bases, transports and units are set, for each area containing Conquest Points choose randomly one resource token (gas or mineral) and place onto it. This will indicate what kind of resource token(s) you will gain instead of CP(s) from those areas, according to the numbers on them. At the end of step of Regrouping Phase, in which you gain CPs, you are allowed to spend some of your resource tokes to do one of the following :

- upgrade one building

- build one module

- buy one technology (no event & combat cards, just with reshuffling your deck)

Another way to gain resource tokens is to harvest them during execution of Build order. You do it just by placing your worker on any resource card (obeying the standard rules), taking in exchange an appropriate resource token. That should be allowed because of Terran leadership cards, which allow to gain resource tokens without controlling any CPs.

Because resource tokens are very powerful (they allow to boost up your economy without need of using workers), it should be IMO limited in each Execution Phase . Especially when RT are so common. Below my suggestion how to set up the limit:

Terran, Protoss - starting limit 2, +1 with each built Supply module

Zerg - starting limit 1, +2 with each new Tier 1 building

Example: Jim Raynor has 4 resource tokens and 1 Supply module built. During current Execution Phase he may spend summarily 3 resource tokens of his choice while executing his orders. He decides to use 2 of his resource tokens during 2 differen t Build orders and 1 token to purhase a technlogy during Research order.

When another building or module increasing limit is built, it is increased when the next order of that player is revealed. In Regrouping Phase, using resource tokens is not limited by Execution Phase rules. Faction tokens normally used to count CPs can now be used to mark how much RT players spent in current Execution Phase, after which that counter is reset to zero.

When Arcturus Mengsk plays his Stage II Leadership Card "Tactical mastery", he also should choose corresponding resource tokens for new CP areas randomly.

When you execute special Build order, intead using a discount you make take one resource token of your choice.

If you decide to play with cards "The End Draws Near", you can use the rules for draws to find the winner.

In each other case player would normally gain CPs from e.g. Event Cards, he is allowed to choose instead resource tokens of his choice.

"Industrial strategy" Event Card should be discarded at the start of game or read e.g. as below:

"At the start of each Regrouping Phase: You receive one resource token of your choice for each two modules you built."

Fell free to test and criticise