News! Hey! Listen!

Okeydokey, before we dive into the action, a few key things have been happening in the SCTMG community this week. Namely….. (Insert drum roll) PREORDERS ARE LIVE. Now you can order directly from the Archon website (https://archon-studio.com/shop/products/starcraft-tabletop-miniatures-game), or you can go through Gamefound (https://gamefound.com/en/projects/archon-studio/starcraft-tabletop-miniatures-game-pre-order) depending on which works best for you and your payment methods. If you want to talk about what bundles to get and how to maximize your (Insert local currency here) let me know. I have talked about this ad nauseum and have a pretty good idea about what is a good buy in point at different interest levels.

Secondly! We here at LoS are looking to start hosting some TTS tournaments for SCTMG. We’re currently constructing discords, structures, and rules for making this as smooth, legal, and enjoyable as possible for all involved but keep an eye out for those starting soon! Maybe we can even have some incentives to make these tournaments even COOLER.

Now…Onto the good stuff (Hell, It’s about damn time)

PREGAME

Soooo yeah, this is definitely one of the lists of all time. I just wanted to play something other than Bio Blob, as my APM was lacking. I sort of just stumbled into this list. I wanted 3 Goliaths to handle light targets, and 2 Marauders with all the fixins to handle anything armored. The thing about Terran, is if you can get the right unit into the right target, you are going to do so much damage. Goliaths with my setup can be quite effective into most things thanks to the Target Lock ability and there being multiple Goliaths. But 4 man Marauders with Stim pack, extra range, and Medic support are going melt anything with the Armored keyword.

There is a lot of Stalkers in this list, and they have a lot of movement. He has key advantages in the realms of movement tech (Thanks Adepts I hate you), speed, and general shenanigans. Having access to Instant on a stick thanks to the tactics cards is horrifying to me. I really, really need my Medics to do work.

We roll up and have Breech as our deployment and Supply Drop as our mission. We are really excited to dive more into the drafting system after this game. Also, we are playing as is proper with Fog of War, neither of us know what the other is bringing.

Round 1

SUPER EXCITING TURN ONE ACTION. Chandler get’s the Supply drop in the top right and will easily snag it with some Adept Ghosts. I continue to abuse Advanced Medic Facilities and leave a Dropship Token between the two top zones. I plan to drop some Marauders there so I measure out beyond 12″ and within 16″ so I can be a menace next turn.

Much more threatening postures. He warps in the two Stalkers in the corner of the terrain, I bring in 4 Marauders spread backwards so that they can be super friendly with the Medics before any damage appears, and Adepts take zones. No one get’s shot or hurt and Chandler goes up 1 point to my 0

Round 2

Chandler’s Stalkers have so much hidden that this truly becomes a game of Whack a Mole and I just do not have the APM to catch them. I don’t have the movement. I don’t have the range. I don’t have the model count. So I just abandon the top side. The Goliath there is out of range, the Marauders stim and move up towards the two man unit of stalkers. Goliaths go onto the zone and we play the game of “Which awful armored target do you shoot now?” his choices are, Marauders with Medic support, or Goliaths with Factory support. The bottom left becomes active and I cannot contest it at all so I just start building the defensive line on the zones I know will come next.

Oh it was almost so tilting, I won’t lie. Chandler took Priority. Shot my Marauders with Instant and did 8 respectable damage, then proceeded to make them hidden and I just had to sit there, with my pants down. Sad about life. I do one damage to a Sentry with the Scatter Missiles and Chandler goes up 3-0. I took a good long think and measured out a few key ranged, I knew that I would not be winning priority this next Assault phase because I had to get down a key Scanner Sweep from my Orbital Command.

Round 3

I drop the Dropship Token between my two right zones, my Marauders are forced to clump up due to some clever Sentry shenanigans. My Goliaths hold position to get more Scatter Missiles. Chandler drops the Stalker in, scooches the two Stalkers back, and holds hidden on the top zone, sadly, this plays a bit into my Command Center, as I am able to drop the scanner sweep and remove all that sweet hidden. The Protoss token is deep in the backline and I know my Medics are in trouble. I don’t know what is coming but I am pretty sure it can kill Medics

Chandler takes priority and is able to shoot into the Marauders. They’re now on a zone and the Surge isn’t as spicy this time, 4 damage goes through. My two Marauder units activate and kill the single Stalker but then Chandlers defense dice GO BANANAS and his two man unit only takes 2 damage on the Shields. Bottom Goliath just SHREDS the Sentries, man, when you get 3 guns, all with a Surge into Light units, turns out it does damage. Whoda Thunk? I score a handful of points and the round ends.

Round 4

Chandler is now sadly forced to bum rush towards the zones, I have so much beef on the zones and it’s so tanky that I have a lot of the power in this stage of the game. Stalkers dip out and try to get through the Goliath on the top stage, I don’t move a lot because I really need the Goliaths to go first and clear up some Zealots.

That’s what I end up doing, my middle Goliath shoots the Zealots and does just unholy amounts of damage (remember, 3 guns, all with a light surge), my bottom Goliath get’s charged by the Zealots and then promptly cleans them up. The Goliath up top does crazy damage into the 2 man Stalker unit and at this point, it’s getting a bit late and sadly the writing is on the wall. Chandler and I vote to talk through the last round as there. We talk out Round 5 and I will be up by a handful, if not 10 or more points and he will maybe kill a Goliath.

Post Game

This game is just so. dang. good. SCTMG is something really special. The rules are tight, gameplay is fun, game is well balanced, and the units feel COOL. This game ended up being a bit unfortunate for my opponent, He seemed to get the trifecta of a bad list matchup, a bad scenario where he also got both Supply Drops on his side early, and a bad deployment. But it was still a blast. It is important to know that pretty soon my list will just not be a viable list. I don’t think spam is going to be as viable as other games due to the nature of Surges and how Air vs Ground targeting goes. Like, nothing in my list shoots up.

Fog of War was such an interesting concept. Having to be so reactionary to how my opponent deployed and not knowing what was coming was very exciting. Made the game great. Leads to needing a very balanced force.

I can’t wait to dive more into the draft system, it feels almost as important as any other part of list building.

Things I did well – I think I chose my target priority well, being all armored helps, I just shoot anything with an armor surge. I was able to keep my Medics safe and in proper position. I had a lot of lucky things go my way scenario wise and I was able to capitalize on that.

Things I could improve on – Obviously this is a delightful list that will just get obliterated after a few more things release for each faction. I think I need to swap around my tactics cards to make sure I have something like Proxy Barracks in every list. It feels very important for how the game is structured.

Things my opponent did well – The clever shenanigans with the hidden keyword were awesome. It truly was like…rug pulled out from under me. Protoss can just do obnoxious stuff like that though and it’s great.

All in all, SCTMG is quickly becoming a favorite game of mine and I cannot wait to get models in my hands! Feel free to reach out for a game on TTS or to talk shop I plan to play all 3 races and at least for a while collect all 3. Stay tuned for more great Star Craft TMG coming up from Line of Sight!