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Malebolgia
08-30-2007, 09:56 AM
Preview: the Terrans

by Corey Konieczka
Evicted from their home world of Earth, the terrans of the Koprulu sector have survived and even flourished. The ranks of the terran military are comprised of armored infantry, land vehicles and enormous warships, all of which are designed and fielded with an eye towards flexibility and adaptability. Of all the races in StarCraft: the Board Game, the terrans have the most different unit types. Each of these units has a wide range of abilities and serves a particular role for the terran military.
Terran infantry are produced by the Barracks building, and every terran player begins with a basic Barracks. Terran infantry are not especially powerful, but they are relatively inexpensive and can be upgraded by a variety of advanced technologies. For example, all terran infantry can use the bunker upgrade. The bunker is a reinforcement card that provides any terran infantry unit with a defensive boost when present at a friendly base. When protected by their bunkers, terran infantry can survive assaults from much more powerful foes.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/images/Starcraft%20Images/Figure%20Images/Terrans/marine.gif Marines make up the backbone of the terran military. These relatively inexpensive units come in large quantities but lack the survivability of some other units. One advantage that Marines grant terran players is that they are the only basic starting units that are able to attack both land and air units. Even against an opponent that has claimed air superiority, a terran player can survive.


http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/images/Starcraft%20Images/Figure%20Images/Terrans/firebat.gif The Firebat is a close combat melee unit armed with twin flame throwers. They can pack quite a punch against enemy ground units and can take a little more punishment than Marines. Both Firebats and Marines can use the Stim Pack upgrade which grants them substantial firepower at the cost of making them extremely vulnerable.




http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/images/Starcraft%20Images/Figure%20Images/Terrans/ghost.gif The last type of terran infantry is the specialized Ghost unit. Ghosts have a wide variety of upgrades available including Cloaking (making them impervious to attack), Lockdown (enabling them to take enemy mechanical units out of commission), and Nuke (which destroys enemy units at the end of the battle).

While terran infantry are excellent all-around units and form the backbone of most strategies, their vehicles, produced by the Factory building, are the true elites of the terran ground forces. Terran vehicles are more powerful, more expensive, and more survivable than infantry … but they also tend to be more specialized.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/images/Starcraft%20Images/Figure%20Images/Terrans/vulture.gif The Vulture is a fast one-man hoverbike equipped with an anti-personnel grenade launcher. While decently powerful against ground units, the Vulture’s main power lies in the fact that it is the cheapest mechanical unit and can benefit from both the repair ability (increasing its defense) and the Spider Mine upgrade (which causes ground splash damage against non-cloaked units).

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/images/Starcraft%20Images/Figure%20Images/Terrans/goliath.gif The Goliath is a mechanized walking vehicle with powerful mounted weaponry. While the Goliath is also useful against ground units, its main power lies in its devastating anti-air hellfire missiles. The Goliath has some of the highest attack values when attacking enemy flying units.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/images/Starcraft%20Images/Figure%20Images/Terrans/siegetank.gif The Siege Tank is the most powerful ground unit available to the terrans. While it is only effective against ground units, it is covered in thick armor and can be upgraded with the powerful Siege Cannon. The Siege Cannon has an extremely powerful ground attack which can cause massive splash damage, potentially destroying multiple enemy units.

In addition to their infantry and mechanized forces, the terrans also sport an impressive navy. Built at the Spaceport building, terran flying units are effective at destroying ground and air targets as well as functioning in a support role.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/images/Starcraft%20Images/Figure%20Images/Terrans/wraith.gif The Wraith fighter is the standard terran flying unit. These units have decent attack strength and are even better when attacking other flying units. Like the Ghost unit, Wraiths can also benefit from the cloaking ability, making them the perfect unit for reconnaissance.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/images/Starcraft%20Images/Figure%20Images/Terrans/sciencevessel.gif The Science Vessel is a support unit. While it has no inherent attack strength, it has a wide range of special abilities. These include the Defensive Matrix (increase friendly units defenses), EMP Shockwave (cancel opponent's abilities or Protoss shields), and Irradiate (harm enemy organic units). Science Vessels are an affordable and effective support unit for any strategy.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/images/Starcraft%20Images/Figure%20Images/Terrans/battlecruser.gif The largest terran unit is the mighty Battle Cruiser. These flying fortresses can lay waste to enemy ranks while taking quite a bit of punishment. Once upgraded with the Yamato Gun technology, the Battle Cruiser can single-handedly deal more concentrated damage than any other unit in the game.

In addition to all of these specialized units, the terrans also have two racial abilities, both of which provide a variety of benefits. The liftoff ability allows terran players to move their bases to other areas on the same planet. While this ability is circumstantial, it can often be used to save a base from certain destruction.
The terrans have another ability that reflects their versatility. They have the highest combat card hand limit out of all of the races. This enables them to diversify in units and store cards until they are required, as well as potentially giving them great depth of effectiveness with a smaller number of unit types.

More info:
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/

EricJ
08-30-2007, 11:26 AM
they should write a tutorial about how not to photograph miniatures :(

goblyn13
08-30-2007, 11:27 AM
They look kinda like the erasers I had when I was in grade school. Didn't erase very well.

DrEvilmonki
08-30-2007, 11:36 AM
I like them!







Nah just kidding

supervike
08-30-2007, 11:39 AM
They were selling this game at GENCON, and I saw lots of folks playing it there.

With all the pieces, it looked like it would take forever to just set up....I have no proof of that, just my casual observer.

EricJ
08-30-2007, 11:44 AM
what I want to know, is are there really gamers who think "wow, this game is great on the computer, and sure I can easily multiplayer there...but what I really want is to be able to play the game where I have to move all the pieces myself, and nothing is automated and I can accidentally knock it over and ruin the current game, that's way better than having the computer handle all the fun logistical parts of the game"

Malebolgia
08-30-2007, 12:08 PM
Sitting with your buddies around a table with the game, some beer n' pretzels is way, way, way better than any online game...even if the mechanics aren't as good as the pc game.

JonasD
08-30-2007, 12:25 PM
well, they got huge footprints to fill:
The Doom Boardgame.
I git that myself and yes: Setting up takes loads of time, but it's sooooooooo cool! :D
These minis, what size are they? The look tiny or really bad

Hinton
08-30-2007, 12:46 PM
Sitting with your buddies around a table with the game, some beer n' pretzels is way, way, way better than any online game...even if the mechanics aren't as good as the pc game.

Agreed. I would much rather sit down at a table with a few friends and run an RPG or something like that than sit a computer and play an MMORPG. There's just something about sitting there, having fun and enjoying the company of good friends (or at least people that you can tolerate for a few hours).

Malebolgia
08-30-2007, 01:21 PM
By the way, I think these models are 10-15mm models and not 28mm so that explains the lack of detail.

supervike
08-30-2007, 01:42 PM
We've played a few games of Tannhauser, which, to be honest, plays like a 'first person shooter' as a boardgame.

But, there is something to be said for the visceral feel, being around the table, not being hypnotized by a TV or computer screen....

Computers are great for games, but I too admit that I think the idea of playing on a real table with real opponents, having to rely on real imagination at times is very appealing to me.

EricJ
08-30-2007, 01:48 PM
Although I agree that it's fun to sit around with friends, it was always a ton of fun to all bring laptops and network game for an evening. lots of chatting about the game, etc...I mean I played a lot of non-computer games with them also, but some games I think are just better set up for computer gaming!

Vytis
08-30-2007, 03:11 PM
Networking is a lot of fun, but for many, they'd rather have something physical to touch..However, FF Games has been able to do fabulous recreations of online networking staples, so I suspect that this will be good too. And its a lot more fun exchanging ribaldry over a board, and having it feel as FUN than in networking, where you can have some real jerks simply because its easy to type an insult when the person cannot pound you senseless.

That being said, I do both!! I do limit my network gaming to what you say, though, Eric, and only do it with people I'd probably board game with :) We all KNOW that we're joking when we type our insults, or teamspeak it even

thewartoad
08-31-2007, 03:15 PM
When a company makes a game like this...In my opinion the game pieces should be pre-painted...not this. They look like pieces from sorry or some other cheap game.