StarCraft: Tabletop Miniatures Game, How to Start

How to start StarCraft: Tabletop Miniatures Game: pick one of the three factions, learn the rules from Archon Studio's free PDF, and build toward a 1,000 mineral army from the expansion sets, beginning with the faction's core unit box. Archon's game puts Blizzard's Terran, Zerg and Protoss on the table as 32mm colored plastic miniatures, and the expansion range lets you build the army you want one unit at a time.

What is StarCraft: Tabletop Miniatures Game?

It is a two-player wargame by Archon Studio, the Polish studio that molds its own hard plastic, adapting the StarCraft real-time strategy games. Each player fields one faction. Armies are bought with Minerals, the same currency the video game uses: a small game runs to about 1,000 minerals and an hour on a small table, a standard game to 2,000 minerals and about two hours. Vespene Gas, the second resource, buys tactical cards rather than units, so the card play sits on top of the army list the way tech sits on top of an economy in the original.

A standard game lasts five rounds. Inside each phase players alternate, activating one unit at a time, and passing early hands you the first player marker for the next phase, so holding back is a real decision. A supply system keeps part of your army in reserve and brings it in during the game, which does the job fog of war does on a screen. Combat is dice pools of six-siders against a defense roll: quick to learn, and the unit cards carry the numbers.

Do I need a starter set, or can I begin with expansions?

The rules are a free download from Archon, so the rulebook itself costs nothing. What an expansion box does not contain is dice, general tokens or a play mat: each expansion holds its models, their bases, the unit and tactical cards for that unit and an assembly manual. Archon's faction starter sets supply the dice, tokens and reference cards, and most players will begin with one. Once you have a set of dice and tokens, though, every army you build is expansions, and that is where the range below comes in. The Lost Temple terrain set adds the mat and the walls, and it works for every faction.

Which faction should I choose?

Choose the one you played in the video game. The tabletop version keeps the feel of each.

Zerg win with numbers and speed. The swarm closes fast, burrows out of sight and heals through the Queen. Eighteen Zerglings in a single box is the game's way of putting a swarm on the table, and the models come in purple plastic so the brood plays straight off the sprue.

Terran are the balanced, familiar army: Marines in a firing line, Marauders to crack armor, Medics to keep the line up, a Goliath for anything that flies. Blue plastic with clear effect parts.

Protoss are few and strong. Zealots hold the front with psi blades, Adepts and Stalkers shoot over them and blink or shade around the flanks, and Sentries throw up force fields that stop movement cold. Fewer models per box, each doing more.

What should a Zerg player buy first?

The Zergling set, eighteen models with the Raptor and Swarmling build options, is the backbone. Add Hydralisks for ranged spines behind the swarm and a Queen to spread creep and mend the brood. Roaches make the tough middle when you go past 1,000 minerals, and Primal Kerrigan with her Omega Worm unlocks Kerrigan's Swarm as a faction of its own.

What should a Terran player buy first?

Start with the Marine set: nine models, the core of most Terran armies. Marauders give the list its anti-armor punch, Medics keep both squads standing, and the Goliath covers the air. Those four boxes together are the 1,000 mineral Terran force Archon itself describes as the entry point. Jim Raynor and his Point Defense Drone turn it into Raynor's Raiders.

What should a Protoss player buy first?

Zealots are the first box, the melee line every Protoss force is built on. Adepts, with their shade model, add ranged fire against light targets, and Stalkers add the blink. Sentries and their force fields come next for control, and Hierarch Artanis with a Pylon leads the whole thing.

Do the miniatures need painting?

No. Archon molds each faction in its own color, so a built army reads as Zerg, Terran or Protoss from across the table without a brush. They are hard HIPS plastic on sprues, so they need clipping and gluing, and a plastic cement such as Tamiya Extra Thin welds the joints. When you do want to paint, the colored plastic takes primer like any other kit, and the hero models are where most players start.

What about terrain?

StarCraft on the table needs walls and cover the way the video game needs chokes. The Lost Temple set gives you fifteen plastic ruins (wall sections, corners, pillars, foliage, vespene geysers and a warbanner) and a 54 by 36 inch cloth mat printed with the classic Lost Temple map. Archon rates it as enough terrain for a 1,000 mineral game, which matches the first army you will build from the sets above.

Where do I go from here?

Every set in the range is in the StarCraft collection, grouped by faction. Build a 1,000 mineral list from your faction's unit boxes, play a few games on the Lost Temple mat, then add the hero set and the second wave of units when you want a 2,000 mineral game.