i have not play either starcraft or twighlight imperium, but i do know quite a bit about twighlight imperium from reviews and such. i was just wondering if anyone out there could tell me a bit about star craft; the simularities to twighlight imperium if they played both, i really like playing board games, and i am happy i am fianlly getting away from all the video games, but sadly all the games i won't are expensive (i am talking around 100$) and i just do not have that kind of money so i need to cross some board games off my list.

Can anyone tell me a little bit about star craft. one more question; it seems like it has just foot soilders, is there ships in this game?

Thank you

I have not yet had a chance to play Twilight Imperium, but from what I know, there are perhaps a couple of similarities but they still remain two distinct games. There is a overview video from FFG of StarCraft: The Board Game available for download at this location:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=7&esem=4

The video is 5:33 in length. I have used it many times to explain the basic concept and mechanics of the game, without having to summarize it myself or go into too much detail about the specific rules.

If I didn't already own StarCraft: The Board Game, I'd buy it again in a heartbeat. Of course, being addicted to the video game when it was popular 10 years ago surely helps (which I still play from time to time.) I just played the board game again yesterday. It is definitely worth the purchase. The Brood War Expansion is a must-have, but it is better appreciated when you have played the original version a couple of times. The only downside to the game is finding people who are interested and have the time to play it.

Depends what you look for in Twilight Imperium.

It is to a certain degree a shorter version of the combat side of TI. However TI has a lot of other stuff going on as well with the more complex order and economy system. Personally I prefer StarCraft OR a economy game like Puerto Rico/San Juan/Race for the Galaxy, but everyone has his own tastes.

aside from a slice of theme (alien space battles for galactic domination), an odd resemblence for unit production (can only make so ans o many units per action, costing this much resources which are avaliable on map areas you need to control) and the fact taht you can... research technologies? Pretty much nothing alike.

There are many games who might qualify as "Twilight Imperium Lite" (such as Nexus for the combat or even citadels for the strategies), but certainly not StraCraft.

TI has a much broader sense of strategical and political activities as well as more dinamic pieces that alter the gameplay.

been lookin' at both these games...but which one to pick up?

facepalm said:

Starcraft and TI are nothing alike, except that they are both sci-fi. Twilight is a big, long, struggle for galactic dominance that encompasses combat, politics and technological advancement. Starcraft, much like the computer game it comes from, is all about combat. That's not to say it's bad, mind you. I think the SC BG does a great job of capturing all the stuff I like about the video game in an essentially turn-based format (which is an accomplishment that should not be disregarded.)

Starcraft has a greater degree of detail on the planetary side while TI has a greater degree of detail on the space side. In TI, planet combat is relegated to a few dice rolls between two opposing forces after space combat is over. In SC, planets are divided into sectors and, although battles are still 1 on 1, it is possible for more than two players to have a presence on the same planet (though rare in my experience.) So the struggle to control a planet in SC might well be vied between several players.

There are ships in SC, but they're really just flying planetary units, not space ships like in TI. Interplanetary travel in SC is done via "bridges" that players build from one system to an adjoining system by way of token units modeled after the APC units from the game (Overlords, Dropships and I forget what the protoss one was called.) Combat units move from one planet to another across a joint where that player has an APC unit, but no battles actually occur in space.

SC is also a great deal shorter than TI (on the order of 4 hours instead of 13. =P)

They're both good games, but they have quite different play styles. If you like fast and bloody conflict, SC will do that better than TI. If you like to have room to negotiate with players and pursue a variety of different avenues to victory, TI does that, SC doesn't.