On Monday, Games Workshop released the long-anticipated core rules for Warhammer 40k 11th edition as a digital download – and within a few hours Archon Studio had published the free digital rulebook for its own StarCraft Tabletop Miniatures Game. While these rules have been available in a web-based beta format for some time, the new PDF rulebook is packed with full color illustrations, and should make for a much more convenient reference resource at the tabletop.
With that said, the only way you’ll have any StarCraft TMG miniatures at the moment is if you’ve been able to attend a games convention at which Archon had a stall. I’ve been gradually building up a host of Zerg which I received as review samples at Adepticon this March, but most potential players are waiting for their pre-orders to be fulfilled. But there are plenty of wargaming nerds – myself included – who like to tuck up with a nice rulebook as bedtime reading.
Although the PDF – which you can download from this link– is longer than the new 40k core rules, that’s actually because it has some big sections that 40k doesn’t. The first section of the book is an illustrated battle report giving an example of play; the back contains 14 pages of points costs for units and tactical cards, and 13 pages of recommended map layouts. Very nicely, the table of contents hyperlinks out to all the pages it references, and every page has a link back to the table of contents.
I can’t work out if the timing of this release is a coincidence, or a response to GW dropping the 11th edition rules. StarCraft TMG will be battling with 40k for space on store shelves and for gamer’s attention, so Archon has a reason to rush this out now that the 11th edition rules are public. But the PDF looks pretty well complete – did it really have this PDF lying around, finished but unpublished? That feels like relinquishing a lot of control over the game’s marketing strategy.
My initial demo of StarCraft at Adepticon was very promising, and I’m keen to get into some bigger battles and properly test the game. If you’re planning to buy into it – or you’re now wavering because of the changes to 40k – come and chat about it in the Wargamer Discord community.
Source: Wargamer
