I find that the randomized planet tokens is very imbalanced. Even if you use the expansion rule "more starting planet tokens" you can just end up with 3 poor planets with little resources like "VYCTOR V, EREBUS STATION, AVERNUS STATION", while your opponent can end up with a very rich planet like "PRIDEWATER".

I think a way to balance this is to seperate rich planets, randomize them, and each player can select one of them. Then he can randomize the rest and use them as the second planet pool of choices.

I suppose that when you get down to it, the best rule to deal with such simple balancing is "Whatever works for you". By "you", of course, I refer to both you and your playmates. Most likely, the best method to deal with this problem is much like you have suggested: place aside all "high worth" planets and deal one randomly to each player, then shuffle the ramining "high worth" planets with all other planets and have each player pick one randomly (or possibly 2). This way players are ensured to possess at least a well-supplied homebase planet, but ensures that neutral planets are versatile.

Such planets/stations can be excellent in some game modes / variants.

Vyctor V - perfect for Normal Victory; small, easy to defend

Erebus St. - as long as you have a base, you can execute all your orders there as if they were special (gold). This means that (with discounts) you may use even 9 of your workers with only that station. It is even better if you are Raynor and you have chosen "Storage Facilities" LC! What's more, you may use it like Vyctor V.

Avernus St. - the only station which have both CPs and resource cards.

But you are right. There are modes / variants which e.g. make CP areas useless. In standard games players are often forced ot build air units (due to air-only CP areas). You can do something with this by own game variants.

On the other hand, without such diversification SC:BG would not be so interesting. In video game you are forced to scout what your enemies do; here you can see all their moves, advantage, weaknesses etc. during the whole game. It's like watching "Battle reports" or replays.

Thanks for that cyb3k, your comments are excellent. But the problem is, even if you are playing for normal victory, you cannot stand for long without having sufficient resources. If another player with more resources decides to build up and attack you on the first turn, your chances will be very low for survival.

Also I don't mind the diversity at all, but it's just that every player should star with equal or at least close starting conditions. and while it is true you have to scout your opponent in SC the video game, you still know they have the same starting resources as you do

Another possibility could be to randomly divide the planets evenly between players ( everyone gets the same amount of planet tokens) and then they each get to pick 2 out of what they have to place as normal.

The problem with this suggestion EMELT is that, while is will most probably work if there are 2 players, its chances of not fairly distributing the planets increase with increasing the number of players. As a matter of fact, if there are 6 players, this won't work, as there are only 12 planets! (without the expansion).

Thanks for the suggestion anyway. It is still a very good option if there are 2 players only

There's a variant in BW allowing to draw randomly 3 planets per player and to place all of them during galaxy setup. This make galaxy significantly larger.

You could mix this with EMELT's suggestion (draw X planets and choose only Y), but do not divide all planets between players, it's giving them too much choice! What's more, there's a Mengsk's LC allowing him to choose starting planets, so that it would be overpowered then.

The starting planets that you end up with should help you develop the strategy that you want to employ. Each planet has its own pros and cons. For example, if you end up with Pridewater and Dylar IV then you may want to focus on purchasing units, buildings, or modules. But keep in mind that your resources will be sought after by your opponents. If you have Vyctor V and Abbadon, then you may want to focus on a strategy that brings in as many conquest points as possible because you don't have many resources to draw from. Then, get as many Event Cards as possible by playing one or two research orders each round of the game to go through the Event Deck as soon as possible. You can also find ways to get some or all of your order tokens covered by opponents orders so that you are forced to take even more Event Cards.

This way, the game will end before your opponent(s) know what hit them If you have only one opponent, this will be much easier to go through the Event Deck quickly. If you have more than one opponent, then they will have to fight amongst themselves for those resources, and before they know it you have ended the game and won because you were way ahead of them in conquest points and the Event Deck has been exhausted.

There are a multitude of strategies that can be employed that depend on how well you know your opponent(s) and how well you can adapt to not getting the starting position that you prefer.

...And a conquest points strategy might not be the best option either, depending on your starting position.

I played a 3-person game about a week ago where the game ended with only one battle having ever taken place. In that game, there was a major standoff between two planets where an invasion never took place because I was the only one who chose the Special Victory condition, so I raced to Stage III and won the game before my opponents knew what hit them and before I could be attacked. They were focused so much on building up an invasion force and preparing for what was thought to be an imminent attack on their conquest points areas that they forgot I just needed to control all of the areas on two planets to achieve the special victory condition. I was never interested in invading; I just made it look like I was. You should have seen the looks on their faces when we got to Stage III and I said, "I won. Game over."

"Huh? This super-huge army doesn't get to do anything at all???", their faces exclaimed without words. "It was a sure thing."

That's just one example of how you can adapt to an opponent's strategy.