Force mining's a rule that I've always liked for being there, and have even considered to be quite useful in hypothetical situations but I've never gotten around to using it in a game. So far I can see 3 reasons for Force mining:

1. Getting extra resources in order to accelerate builds or tech runs.
2. Depriving an enemy of an area
3. Using it to gain resources from a safer area card in order to not risk workers in more contested ares.

1 seems useful, but quite risky seeing as how many Refinary bombardment cards there are in the event tech, what seems like an early lead might just end up as crippling your economy. 2 is an interesting option, but requires you to not only have a base in that planet but to also control the areas that you want to drain. Also there's the possibility that you might take the planet back later only to find it useless.

All in all I can't really see it being overly useful that often. Any thoughts or stories about using Force Mining in game would be appreciated, as it's a fun little rule that I would really like to use in game effectively.

In our first few games, force mining was used fairly often, I know I used it in a Scorched Earth strategy.

- An enemy force captured a mineral area with some of my workers on it, so before the round ended, I double force mined it to both deprive him of minerals and save my workers.

I've seen it used less often in the last few games, but I think that may be because of better planning, so we now often have minerals/gas in the order we need, (just always wish we had more workers) or we know better the things we can buy with gas, and place orders accordingly, so we seldom have the problem of wasting a worker by not force minig.

*slaps forehead* I missed the line saying that any workers on a fully depleted resoure card are returned to the unavailable workers pool. Ok that makes it seem a lot more viable in my eyes now.

Thanks a lot for pointing that out.

My pleasure, I also think that that's the best use of it, and the nastiest.

Indeed, that is the way I use it as well: save those precious workers if the planet gets overrun. It also deprives your enemy of resources :-)

I might also partially deplete some small areas (1 resource) in round one to get the extra resource I need. Will never do this with larger areas because of the cards that let a player deplete an area one step further: beware of those.

Also, the Jim Raynor faction has the special victory condition that relies on owning resource producing territory, and this can be used to make life difficult for him. I know using it in that regard is a bit narrow and specialized, but I could see it being annoying, especially in a smaller player game.

Actually, it may make ir easier for Jim Raynor, because he can still win with exausted areas and the enemy won't like to have to fight over useless areas.

From the faq

Q: If an area has been fully depleted of resources, does it still count towards players’ special victory conditions?

A: Yes. For example, Jim Raynor needs to control six areas containing gas and/or minerals; this includes any area that has a printed gas or mineral icon on it.

So bad luck for you guys, go tell jim you messed up the rules for him and he would have won. lol.

My friend and usualy SC opponent Force Mines his areas all the time. Mostly though it's because he doesn't plan out his economy all that well. As the original poster said, I hardly ever use it for fear of getting hit with a Refinery Bombardment card. The one time that I did use it, I thought I was being clever and denying my opponent resources for next turn. My opponent simply withdrew and left me with a useless plot of land...

I don't think I have ever used it except to deny the resources to an incoming opponent. It is risky otherwise.

I am using "forced mining" all the time, especially on planets with high ressource values. Try this strategy out: deplete all nearby planets in range of your enemys base. Hold at least three planets with high ressource values and build up your main strike-force to weaken the defenses of your enemy. With every gameround, where your opponent runs low with minerals and gas, the better your chances to destroy his forces.

High ressource values is the key for winning or loosing a SC-game, especially for protoss players due to the high ressource-costs of their units.

Dagoma said:

Yikes, I think i just lost my Rules Lawyer merit badge. Thankfully I wasn't referencing a specific play, it was only theorizing, so no one got shafted.

Sometimes, I force-mine those 1-mineral areas to get that extra lot in. An opponent who happens to draw "refinery bombardement" will be tempted to execute a different event card instead.

The trick to return your workers from a threatened area is also nice.

Depleting areas in all planets available to an opponent may sound good, but if he lets you pull it off, he's playing crappy anyway: he would have to kick you out of there, build his own base, and force-mine it before he gets kicked out again. Imagine repeating that for all planets accessible to him? Unlikely, unless he can grab only one world due to a blind z-route.

I never used it. Just more rules. I like Starcraft more with some less rules, so more thinking about your orders.

Players rarely force mine during my games. Probably because they want to see themselves having as high a turnover as possible instead of irremediably destroying a resource that they might need later.

Partially depleting a resource seems to me as a last resort move since in my group, refinery bombardment cards are more likely to be played when partially depleted spots exist. They are the most likely cards in those situations except "Double Time" or free unit cards.

I remember one game when I forced mined 2 areas in a row, it was in the last turn.

One unit came make the difference between winning and losing, so don't even hesitate when you know the game is about to end and that you are in the last turn (just make sure you are in the last turn, because force mining too soon can cripple your all game, in the end this game is all about resources and building capabilities).

I used force mining only one time, during my second game. In my opinion force mining are usually bad option for players speccially in first turns. You can easilly lose your resource area if you partially deplete it.

I didn't know that force mining can save workers, it could be useful and i will try it soon:)

I use it fairly often. In early turns, it can make the difference between having one more area next turn or not, or having that air defense module to deny the enemy killing your base, or having that tech you really need a turn earlier. And I use it whenever I can if I know I'm gonna lose an area soon, to save workers and deny the area's resources to the invader.

Really, it's pretty useful.

I use it farily often. I suppose it will come more to use with Aldaris' (?) new Leadership ability.

Well I'd love to use it, but I just can't find any chance because all the players are so unaggressive!

I've never seen a game without force mining. The drawback that you lose the ressource card is not as bad as it seems, in the early game you usually need more gas then minerals. Therefore, losing a 1mineral card to gain a speed bonus is a good deal in my book. Furthermore, it is sometimes bettere to fully deplete a planet to save your workers and deny the card to your opponent.

Just so. Especially the 1-mineral-areas are mostly a good deal to deplete, because you get out three minerals for which you would need three rounds otherwise - and in SCTBG, three rounds is an eternity.

I'm just wondering, what do you mean by "save the workers"? Under what condition does this occur?

When you have workers on a resource card and that area has been conquered by the enemy the workers are destroyed at the end of the game round, so by overmining that area the workers are returned to the unavailable worker pool. In this way the workers are at least not destroyed. This tactic can be rather useful.

Absolutely, especially when you are going to use the planet permanently either way.