Archon opened StarCraft Miniatures Game Wave 3 preorders while Wave 2 is still arriving, and that timing is a little weird.
Archon went from Wave 2 pre-orders on August 28 to opening Wave 3 pre-orders on October 12. The problem is at six weeks, and plenty of folks are still checking their door for their last Wave 2 box.
Still, there’s some really cool stuff in this one. Archon Studio’s Wave 3 brings Tassadar, Zagara, and Nova to the table, along with the Defiler, High Templar, faction dice, and the Raven. So, if you’ve been playing the video games for decades, that’s a pretty solid lineup for sure.
StarCraft Wave 3 Brings Some Real StarCraft Heavy Hitters
- What’s happening: Archon opened StarCraft Miniatures Game Wave 3 preorders on October 12 with six miniature expansions ($309 for all six) and three $20 faction dice sets.
- What we have seen so far: Wave 2 opened August 28 and has started shipping, but community coverage as recently as October 12 still showed Wave 2 miniatures arriving, after a rough Wave 1 rollout involving roughly 300,000 boxes.
- What’s next: Wave 3 starts shipping November 2 for Europe and the UK and November 9 for the rest of the world, with fulfillment taking multiple weeks.
You’ve got to give Archon credit, the minis look great and they lean into the nostalgia. Here’s what each faction gets:
Zerg
- Defiler: $49
- Zagara: $49
- Zerg Custom Dice Set: $20
Terran
- Raven: $69
- Nova Terra: $39
- Terran Custom Dice Set: $20
Protoss
- High Templar: $54
- Tassadar: $49
- Protoss Custom Dice Set: $20
Zerg: Defiler and Zagara
The Defiler ($49) is a classic StarCraft support unit, and the box comes with Plague and Dark Swarm. You also get templates and tokens for those abilities, so they’re not just buried on a card somewhere.
Zagara ($49) gets you the Broodmother herself, plus a Bile Launcher miniature and a Bile Bomb token. We’d bet she’s the first box a lot of Zerg collectors grab.
Terran: Raven and Nova Terra
The Raven ($69) is the priciest miniature in the wave, but you do get the flying support vehicle and an Auto-Turret miniature with it. So is the bigger mini enough to justify that price? We’re curious what players think.
Nova Terra ($39) is the cheapest miniature expansion in Wave 3. Her box comes with Nova, a Holo-Decoy, a Sabotage Drone, and extra unit, mission, deployment, and tactics cards. A hero that’s recognizable at that price is an easy buy for Terran players.
Protoss: High Templar and Tassadar
The High Templar box ($54) comes with four High Templar miniatures and Psi Storm accessories. It’s one of the beefier troop boxes in this wave, so if your Protoss need more psychic firepower, this one’s a no-brainer.
Tassadar ($49) comes with two Force Wall miniatures and some extra cards. He’s one of the most iconic characters from the original game, and a wrecking ball in the games too, so getting him on the table is a big deal for Archon.
Custom Faction Dice
Then there are the dice to round things out, with Zerg, Terran, and Protoss each getting a Custom Dice Set at $20 a piece.
Taking Wave 3 Money While Wave 2 Is Still Arriving Is a Different Conversation
To be fair, Wave 2 has started shipping, so saying none of it has shown up wouldn’t be true. But StarCraft tabletop community coverage was still showing Wave 2 miniatures arriving as recently as the day these new preorders went live.
Which means we’re looking at customers who could be paying for a third preorder before their second shows up. Archon says Wave 3 starts shipping November 2 for Europe and the UK, then November 9 for everyone else, and it’ll still take several weeks to get those orders out the door.
Announcing future releases isn’t the problem. Plenty of companies show off what’s coming next. It’s asking people to pay for it while you’re still sending out existing orders, which raises questions and could start slowing the game down.
Final Thoughts on the StarCraft Miniatures Game Wave 3
For a game with this much nostalgia behind it, going with this lineup of heroes and classic support units makes sense.
That said, getting people playing with what they’ve already bought will do more for the game’s future than any Wave 4 tease.
A miniatures game needs folks painting and playing at their local store, not just refreshing for the next preorder. Once Wave 3 starts shipping in November, we’ll find out whether Archon can keep releases on track without running into the same shipping headaches players dealt with at launch.
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Are you excited enough about StarCraft Miniatures Game Wave 3 to preorder now, or are you waiting until everything you’ve already bought actually turns up?
