Trashdome - Nexus Ops VS StarCraft: The Board Game

WELCOME TO TRASHDOME!

This is part of a series of bloody matches to the death. Show support for your favorite game so it will do better in the fight. You can support it by writing why you think its the better game and more importantly by betting on it. End your first post in this thread with the title of the game you're placing a bet on (i.e. voting for) so its clear to me when reading it later. You have until Friday when I tally the bets and declare the winner. Counting expansions or not is entirely up to you just as playing with them or not is. I will reserve my bet for any tie-breakers.

Although you should be familiar with both games, there is no rule that says you have to have played both of them. The only rule in Trashdome is this;

Two games enter! One game leaves!

NEXUS OPS

Starcraft tries too hard.

Combat isn't natural. Corey K really loves his card-based combat, and I think this is one of those iterations that doesn't work. MEQ was awesome, and from what I've read about Runewars that one is too, but here it just feels downright unthematic sometimes, especially when you're using a card that has a nice fat Siege Tank printed on it on a Marine.

The game feels like it's going to be an epic battle, but it never does turn out that way. It's a whole bunch of small skirmish fights, which I guess is what Starcraft should feel like, but I just don't like it.

It's also going to get dated really fast now that Starcraft 2 is out.

on the other hand, Nexus Ops is a bit bland and uninspired but hot damn it's an exciting game. It's combat combat combat. Lots of dice rolling, and the combat system is simple, and still requires a bit of thought (which units do I bring where, how do I defend). I love the whole king of the hill bit, it feels like the way Mecatol Rex SHOULD feel in TI3.

Nexus Ops reminds me of TI3, and Runewars reminded me of Nexus Ops (with the whole initiative combat thing) and that's high praise for the little board game that could.

Starcraft gets points for its modular board building and the order stacking but Nexus Ops gets in my good books for just being damn fun whenever I play it and is enjoyed by gamers across the genres. I will say that I have not had much time or opportunities to give SC more plays to grow on me - and that's owning a copy (but only recently) - but then that is really another tick for NO (easier to get out).

Vote: Nexus Ops

Nexus Ops, no contest.

Starcraft is okay, but the combat is way too fiddly and the graphic design is an utter trainwreck.

NEXUS OPS, easily

Mainly because Starcraft sucked. People complain about turtling in most DOAM games, but Starcraft took it too far in the opposite direction, with EVERYwhere being easily attackable and impossible to defend. The card-combat is too predictable, not very dramatic at all; we found that our hands were too large most of the time for there to be any tough decisions. Looking through your tech deck for a new tech is 1/3 of your actions, and it takes FOREVER (granted, this would have improved if we had continued to play). The game is over in so few turns, that you have to come up with a strategy ahead of time and just stick to it; it takes too long to make enough cool upgrades for a unit that you better be focused on that unit from the beginning. The victory conditions are not only too sudden, but too randomly chosen: it's like they designed the game and THEN designed the victory conditions by saying "hmmmm, we could count the number of mineral & gas territories...or just territories...or territories containing VPs..." They don't feel different AT ALL, the asymmetry in victory conditions is pointless. The modular board building, just like in Runewars, is mostly uninteresting, and doesn't really add much to replayability. So some areas have more victory points and some areas have more gas. Yawn.

The figures are completely awesome, though, as is the asymmetry in everything but victory conditions. Nexus Ops could DEFINITELY use some asymmetry.

Starcraft isn't bad, but it's overstuffed. A lot of what's in there feels like it's only there because it was in the PC game, and therefore needed to be in the board game, even if those units/upgrades/actions/whatever don't really get used. The more I play it, the more I get the impression that the game straightjackets you into playing certain strategies every time, despite ostensibly having a good number of different options to pursue.

Nexus Ops isn't one of my favorites, and I'm not sure the concept of a 60-minute A&A is any better than a 90-minute Civ, but I like it for what it is. It feels like it does basically the same thing Starcraft does, just with less prodecure and bric-a-brac.

Vote: Nexus Ops

ah, its always nice to have a trashdome where I own (much less played) both.

Nexus Ops is great for what it is, quick and simple conflict.

Starcraft definetely tries to do alot. its not nearly as accessible. the card combat can be hard to explain to new players initially.

but half the game is the orders planning. that's what sets it apart from generic DoaM games (like NO).


vote: starcraft

Oh noes, another crackledome! You gonna make Mr Skeletor cry ...

Nexus Ops is one of the best AT titles and a very tense design, but Starcraft is just fucking better, especially with the expansion (it's on par with the TI3 expansion). Starcraft TBG is an ingenious design, it's awesome AT, but also eurotard methadone. Since most eurogamers are at least Nerd enough to have played Starcraft on the PC (not Mac btw) and the board game appears to be very nonrandom (but it is not), I've played it for an AT title comparably often with my eurogroup. It's a slap-in-the-face design which just shows why AT is supreme. It's an AT-in-a-brown-box. Hell, it even has player elimination! I don't care much for the theme, but it's very well adapted and even if it only snatched a handful of PC gamers away from their monitors, I say: "fair enough".

Vote: Starcraft TBG

Edit - Obligatory mjl1783 counterargument: I have played all factions of Starcraft, some even multiple times, and never have I used the same strategy or built the same units. Some strategies might look perfect on paper, but the player who doesn't adept to opponents is a dead player. Also, try the expansion, please. I must also say, that every Axis&Allies games is determined in 10 minutes (not including set-up), it just takes several hours and a few dice cramps to finally declare a winner. Axis&Allies in 60 minutes: good idea.

Nexus Ops

The gameplay is simple to teach and fun. This is a great strategy game and no possibility of turtling whatsoever.

Obligatory Schwieg! bitch slap:

I have played all factions of Starcraft, some even multiple times, and never have I used the same strategy or built the same units.

Hey, I've opened Chess games with a Rook's Pawn. There's nothing actually stopping me from doing it, except for the fact that I want to win and it's a stupid fucking move 99.9% of the time.

Unless you won all those games, your counterargument is worthless. Actually, even if you did win them all, it's still worthless since you claim you didn't repeat your strategy from game to game, and thus can't claim that the same one won't work every time.

Some strategies might look perfect on paper, but the player who doesn't adept to opponents is a dead player.

Hmmm... It almost sounds like some of your wide range of different strategies haven't worked...

Also, try the expansion, please.

I'd like to, just haven't gotten the chance.

I must also say, that every Axis&Allies games is determined in 10 minutes (not including set-up), it just takes several hours and a few dice cramps to finally declare a winner. Axis&Allies in 60 minutes: good idea.

Couldn't more with the first sentence more. The second one, not so much. A&A in any number if minutes is a bad idea as far as I'm concerned. I was using A&A interchangably with DoaM, and if you want to swap out the latter term, I stand by my original statement.

Ok, so I've only played one of these games, Nexus Ops, which I also own.
It's ok. But it doesn't rock my socks off like some people around here. I like to be completely absorbed by a game when I'm playing and Nexus Ops just doesn't seem to do it for me.

Starcraft, on the other hand, I haven't played. But I'm pretty certain from the wealth of information I have read about it including the rules to the base game and expansion, that I'm going to love every minute of it.
Loads of chrome, a tight design, kickass theme and a profusion of bloodletting.

Vote: Starcraft

The more I reflect on the games designed recently by CK, I think mjl hits it on the head in the "straightjacket" comment. That's the way that Starcraft, MEQ, BSG, and now Runewars is starting to feel to me. Tons of options, but only one clear way to make decisions if you want to win -- this seems to be a by-product of the "streamlining" games.

Vote: Nexus Ops

Death and Taxis wrote:

Starcraft, on the other hand, I haven't played. But I'm pretty certain from the wealth of information I have read about it including the rules to the base game and expansion, that I'm going to love every minute of it.
Loads of chrome, a tight design, kickass theme and a profusion of bloodletting.

You obviously haven't been paying attention to what your fellow FA:ties have been saying about it .....

haven't played Nexus, but can't see how it could top Starcraft

vote: Starcraft

I haven't played NO for quite some time - lots of new games that needed playing instead - but no doubt about it being fun, fast, and furious. But come on!

STARCRAFT is a hell of a game. Yes, combat is a bit wonky and slow (especially with new players), but it's just so brutal. And because of the length and the fact that at least half the players in a six-player game are usually able to reach their special victory condition, you simply have to fight for those conquest points the entire game. While there's no real benefit from snagging up an early rune in RUNEWARS, for instance, it is a completely viable strategy to grab two conquest points from your STARCRAFT opponent early on even if you can only hold on to them for a turn or two.

Also, I'm really sick and tired of the "it's over just as it gets funny"-argument, which is utter bullshit. The game ends as it's peaking. It ends when you send your tier three units to seal the deal and when everybody is potentially still in the game. STARCRAFT rarely, if ever, overstays it's welcome, and that's a feat you rarely see in epic AT games. But aside from that, if you really want, you can easily play only for conquest points, you can add more cards to the event deck or lots of other stuff which will give you extra turns.

My vote: STARCRAFT