HI

I have been busy in the pass few months preventing me from finishing this variant. Meanwhile broodwar was released making my variant non-broodwar compatible yet. But now it's finished and it works well.

Starcraft lite is a variant to the original starcraft game. You need the basic starcraft game and print the sheets I supplied with the variant. The objective of this variant is to make the game easier to play in order to reduce the amount of brain burning and speed up the game play. The secondary objective is to make the game look closer to the video game.

The rules and print out can be currently accessed by the following links:

http://ariel.bdeb.qc.ca/~ericp/boardgame/pdf/SCliteRules.pdf

http://ariel.bdeb.qc.ca/~ericp/boardgame/pdf/SCLiteSheet.pdf

The files have also been submited on Board Game Geek and they are waiting for approval. So if the links above does not work, try next week on BGG.

Any comments, playtest and bug report of this variant would be greatly appreciated.

I hope some people will enjoy it.

Looks interesting, although honestly I do think that the order system and the dice-less combat are the two main strengths of the game...

I'll look at it anyway though, of course

I have an opposite opinion, the 2 mechanics I hate most is the order and combat cards system. What I love most, is the building/resource management mechanic and the asymetry between each race.

The order mechanic is the worst one because on my point of view, it makes actually no sense to think about what you are going to do in reverse order. We actually never do that in real life. Also half of the time, the localisation of the orders has no impact on the game (ex: researching and upgrading base), so why bother localizing them. Third, people will most of the time always to the same 2 or 3 order pattern.

For the combat cards, the mechanic is not bad but it could be a game in itself (like dominion for example). Also knowing your combat results in advance will not incite you to attack if you know you are almost sure to loose. Personally, I would have prefered combat cards to be like bonus or power up given by technologies. Still, In my variant, you can always replace dice by dice cards to get the same feeling.

Finally, adding everything together ( orders, combat and ressource management, and everything else) makes it so heavy think that you need to keep of information and decision on a piece of paper to make sure you do not forget anything. So it's really brain burning and it does not make the game enjoyable.

Anyways, That's my point of view. Still I hope you like my variant. The files are also now available here at BGG:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/fileinfo/38387

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/fileinfo/38388

thank you

The order mechanic is the worst one because on my point of view' date=' it makes actually no sense to think about what you are going to do in reverse order. We actually never do that in real life.[/quote']

You're missing the point . The reason these orders are placed in this way is EXACTLY in order to simulate real life.

Imagine you're playing the PC game. You intend to build a group of lurkers and send them to the enemy protoss mining expansion, kill the nexus, workers and a few zealots guarding it, and then build a base of your own. So, if you were to translate that into SCB, you'd have to use 1 build order for the hydras, 1 build order to make them lurkers, one mobilize order to send them attacking, and one build order for the base.

But the catch is that the further in time you think ahead, the more things can happen to affect your plans. The orders you execute the latest, those are the most unreliable.

For example, you did manage to build the lurkers in the PC game, but on the way, you bump into a bunch of dragoons with observers and they kill your lurkers. How are you gonna be able to carry out your intended orders, of killing the expansion and building your own base?

It's the same with the order stack. The closer they are to the top, the easier it is to predict their result. If one of the enemies' action messes up your plan, the result is the same, in the BG or the PC game: not what you expected.

The combat cards and order system are two of my favorite things about this game as well.

The combat cards in particular really resonate with me, I feel like I have real control over the outcome of a battle but there is still a random element involved.

Well, I really appreciate an effort you must have made to prepare this, especially - rules. A good piece of work..

Unfortunately, I was not able to test rules in play, but after reading, I don't like many of them.

Very nice idea of setting up the galaxy shape . But setup of starting planets really sucks. The last player (that who places first his base) in worst case will be surrounded from all sides. The actual galaxy setup makes such situations improbable. Consider setting up starting base during revealing planet tokens put on navigation routes. This should really improve your version of Galaxy Setup, it will fit even to original Starcraft (BG) then.

Executing phases simultaneously will probably cause that in key moments of the game players will argue with others and wait to make their actions last; this forces to execute those phases clockwise, starting from FP. It's really unfair in your system (and could be avoided by keeping the mechanism of orders).

Mobilize phase - those rules makes the expansion, defense, any inter-planetary actions hard and very slow IMO. And not quite fair, because players can do nothing to execute own turn faster or later than others.

Techtree - well, here everything is similiar to video game. That was your objective, and you archieved it. But putting combat values together with Techtree sheet is not a good idea (you need to look at it during combat often and this may be difficult, with those all tokens on it). However, it's easy and cheap to print a copy :-D

Tokens - what tokens? How to mark exactly bought things on Units sheet? Hot spots on planets? Using only elements from SC:BG box? My presumption: by "depletion" tokens.

"Hot spots" - whoa, i need workers to gain CP? Rules for this poinst are one of the weakest part of this mod. I really don't like them because:

- they makes CP areas useless

- "Hot spots" are totally random so they don't influence the strategy as much as CP areas, but can quarantee a victory for any (lucky enough) player

- it is not really clear where to and who should set new Hot spots

- IMO military forces should be only involved in "conquests"

Drawing event cards - well, this system doesn't need it at all to work. Besides, Your suggested deck is not so important and powerfull as that available in Classic game. And is much more random, because you need to reshuffle it after each round.

Combat system - perhaps it is better in faking battles known from video game, but it is IMO definitely not as intuitive and exciting as playing cards facedown... You mentioned the Variant has "less things to think", but it definitely has much things to COUNT... I can't believe this makes the game faster and so fun as Classic one. Also using dices makes it all too random, too lucky, and too unpredictable to me (what kills the strategic part of game). You could use the coin as well (because you only need the result: "Yes" or "No" ).

PS: I don't understand well how "targeting kills" works. Can I destroy units like Ulrtalisk (lots of HP) with targeting them by multiple units?

I'm asking because I think that I found a "small" mistake in rules (in rules of attack capabilities/strength):

"For example: a marine will never be able to destroy an Ultralisk or a vulture will never be able to kill a flying unit."

Thanks for your comments. I recently had a chance to play the original video game and following this, I will need to change some things in my variant. So the rules posted above will not be the final version. Example of changes:

- Cloaking makes you invicible if there is no detector.

- tech tree errors : ex: Ultralisk now requires hive.

- Borrowing will not work like cloaking.

- Inplementing stuff from the expansion: New units, heroes, stock piling, etc.

For example, you did manage to build the lurkers in the PC game, but on the way, you bump into a bunch of dragoons with observers and they kill your lurkers. How are you gonna be able to carry out your intended orders, of killing the expansion and building your own base?

SImple, you change your plan. In in the middle of the plan execution something goes wrong, you can still decide to change production, designate new targets, etc. In fact the order system should represent what you want to prepare yourself against. I have experience in the video game many situation where: OK, I am building troops to attack my opponent, but meanwhile an ennemy force comes in. So I decide to use my force to defend a base instead. So I don't lose everything, but if I did not produced any troops now I would have lost my base. SO in real life and the video game, there are situation where you can readjust your path.

The combat cards and order system are two of my favorite things about this game as well.

The combat cards in particular really resonate with me, I feel like I have real control over the outcome of a battle but there is still a random element involved.

I like having tech upgrade on cards and that might be what I inted to do in my next version. I am thinking about making a dice less combat system. The problem is if you know that it's impossible to win, you would never attack. What I was thinking is that all tech upgrade add hidden cards to your hand ( they are not drawn) then when you fight you reveal your cards and resolve the battle. The problem is once a player has revealed their cards, you know what tech they have and you know if you can win or not. So it will create

Galaxy setup: It had happened many times to my that I got stock in a loop of warp point preventing me from attacking anything else than 1 planet. When players place navigation routes, it can create these loop holes. Right now I did not had any problems with setup, but I could put some toughts on it.

Simultaneous orders: If indeed there is a problem, you can resolve the same order in clockwise order. It might depend with who you are playing with.

Mobilize: I agree that interplanetary attack is slow. So you expand very slow. But kicking out invaders and defending your planets is fast.

Techtree and chips: I realise that I could replace the faction sheet with cards for each unit, tech and module for the next version. This way, for battles, I could place the unit cards close to each other and place the units on the card. So It might get easier to resolve.

What is a Tokens: ANything you want: glass bead, bingo chips, pennies, etc.

"Hot spots": I don't like it either. The original objective want to prevent the "sit and wait and win" syndrome by camping conquest points. Giving points by conquering base was a way to promote attack. I tought that finding a third way to force the player to risk going out would be interesting. Frist they were given for free by controling an area but I tought it was too easy. Also since interplanetary mobility is not so hot, it was had to contest other players planet. So either I will remove it or replace it with something else. In the expansion there are scenarios, I could use stuff from that expansion.

Combat and targetting: Like I said, I might do a no dice system. As for targetting, in the version poste here, Indeed you could not kill a unit stronger than you. Then I realised that in the video game, a group of marines could kill a carier. So I decided that units could combine their attacks by adding their assist value to another unit. For example a vulture : at 5 helped by 2 marines +1 each, can kill an ultralisk with 7 health. So 3 units is used to kill 1. If I use randomness, only the units that hit can target, all other units must assist. If I don't use randomness, it does not matter who hits or not.

An argument To justify the use of randomness: It has occured to me many times in the video game that the units were not well placed according to the ennemy's formation, and some units could actually not had a chance to attack the ennemy and they died. Dice rolls are used to represent this kind of situations that could occur and that you must deal with since you cannot plan everything.

Anyways I still like your comments and I hope the next version would be much better.

Thank You

Just some quick comment. another idea I had for the next version was to index the actions you could do to the number of bases you have. Most people suggested that it could create a run away leader syndrome. The idea is simple: On each turn:

Each base allow you to do

1 interplanetary movement

2 produce up to 3 units (protoss is 2)

3 produce a technology.

4 and even maybe play an event cards.

So the more bases you have the more you can do and and more you are able to attack and crush your opponent. Making an elimination game less impossible. It Forces your ennemies to capture your bases to power you down. To prevent player elimination, If 1 player lose all his base, the game ends and the player with the most VP wins.

I would probably test it because it looks neat.

Usually, the more bases you have, the more difficult is managing them. In video game, you often need to upgrade the base first to construct units there.

So only 1 interplanetary movement supports this rule.

Construction is somehow limited by resources and number of workers, additional limit is not so important.

Researching multiple technologies is a quite big advantage. Try to increase costs in such cases.

Events are independent from players, so their bases should not influence them.