StarCraft Tabletop Miniatures Game wave 2 pre-orders open August 31, while most of the world still waits for their starter sets to show up…
Archon dropped the wave 2 reveal and a wave 1 shipping update on the same day, which makes for a weird combination if you ask us.
Archon says wave 2 pre-orders open August 31, roughly two weeks before the ANZ shipment is supposed to arrive; Canada was only reaching port in mid-August on the same schedule, and even though the USA was earlier in the shipping window, plenty of people here still don’t have thier boxes yet either.
So if you’ve followed the shipping window on this game, that’s probably not surprising.
Archon has at least been pretty open about where the containers are. Still, we’ve spent plenty of time questioning whether this game can even make an impact, and the studio’s track record came up too.
The whole situation is frustrating because the first StarCraft models themselves look good, and so does this new wave too.
Terran Finally Gets A Gun That Makes You Move First
- Siege Tank and Immortal: the game’s first 150mm large vehicle joins a 100mm Size 3 walker built to soak up damage.
- Lost Temple terrain: High Ground and Ramps matter because most units can’t climb, turning those ramps into places armies have to fight over.
- August 31 pre-orders: wave 2 opens while ANZ wave 1 wasn’t expected until mid-September on Archon’s timeline.
The Siege Tank looks like it’ll change how Terran armies hold their ground, and best of all, it’s the first large vehicle in the game, sits on a 150mm base, and can be built two ways:
- Tank Mode: an armored frontline vehicle that moves up with the rest of the army.
- Siege Mode: artillery meant to punish packed formations and control big chunks of the table.
- Spotter coordination: friendly units can call in fire, letting the tank threaten targets that might otherwise think they’re safely out of range.
That spotter rule is probably the interesting part because you can work around a gun that only threatens what it can see. But a gun using somebody else’s line of sight is a much bigger headache. Archon says the tank doesn’t chase you; it makes you move, which fits pretty well.
A 150mm base also takes up a lot of table, and compared with how this game scales next to other miniatures lines, the Siege Tank is honestly where StarCraft starts looking a lot less like a small skirmish game and more like a complete one.
The Immortal Wants You To Waste Your Whole Turn On It
Protoss players have been missing something that can stand there and refuse to go away, and that’s basically the Immortal’s whole job:
- Size 3 walker, 100mm base: a tough body that’s built to take hits instead of avoiding them.
- Twin Photon Disruptors: weapons aimed at heavily armored targets.
- Damage reduction: meant to take the opening hit and still be on the table afterward.
Damage reduction lives or dies on the actual number, and Archon hasn’t published that yet. Putting the Immortal on an objective could force an opponent to spend most of an army clearing it.
However, if the reduction is modest, though, you may just be paying a lot of points for something that’s merely annoying. We’d wait for the dev blog before deciding on which, but it’s still an obvious addition if you’re already running a Protoss force out of the first box.
Zeratul Stopped Being A Convention Handout
Zeratul has more history than the other releases here. His miniature has been floating around as a trade show promo for a while, and now he’s getting proper rules to be fully playable:
- Shadow movement: lets him get where he needs to go without taking the long route.
- Ranged evasion: shooting at him isn’t supposed to be the easy answer.
- Melee spike: he’s built to remove valuable targets rather than chew through piles of bodies.
Wave 1 armies already have support models that can fold once they’re isolated, so Zeratul has targets. More interesting is what he does to deployments before he ever reaches one.
Your opponent has to bunch up, guard vulnerable pieces, and spend effort protecting models they’d rather be using.
The Ravager Hands Your Opponent A Problem Before It Lands
The Zerg probably get the mechanic we’re most interested in testing. That’s because the Ravager comes from the Roach strain, and Corrosive Bile marks a spot on the table instead of immediately hitting, giving your opponent time to react.
Do they leave the position they wanted and move toward the rest of the Swarm’s lines, or stay put and eat the hit? Can they even get away before Zerglings lock them down? Instead of just rolling damage, you’re forcing the other player to make a choice.
Either way, an area denial game mechanic on a faction that already wants to surround things could change how games are played far more than another stat bump.
Lost Temple Terrain Changes Games You Play With Wave 1 Models
The terrain pack is based on the Lost Temple map, as most units can’t simply climb a cliff:
- High Ground: firing positions that cost your opponent something to contest.
- Ramps: the main way up for most armies, which makes them obvious places to fight over.
- Transport abilities: units that can bypass a ramp suddenly have a much more valuable trick.
A Siege Tank sitting on a cliff is a much bigger problem if most of your army can’t reach it, while infantry can end up fighting over a narrow ramp because that’s the only route available.
Anyone who’s priced out a decent terrain collection for another system knows terrain tends to be the thing people skip, so a pack based on a real StarCraft map with rules attached has an easier buy than another box of generic ruins.
Final Thoughts on StarCraft Tabletop Miniatures Game
Adding a vehicle class and vertical terrain rules in the second wave is a fast expansion, and we’d rather see that than watch a starter box sit untouched for two years. Terran gets artillery, Protoss gets a damage sponge and an assassin, and the terrain gives everybody another interaction on the table instead of just handing each faction a bigger version of what it already had.
Now it’s a question of whether shipping catches up before Archon starts talking about wave 3. If new pre-orders keep opening while some regions are still waiting on the previous wave, that eventually stops being a one-off delay and could sour people on the game and the company.
Also keep in mind that prices still haven’t been announced for any of these boxes, so that will be the next big thing to watch for later in the month as well.
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Are you pre-ordering StarCraft Tabletop Miniatures Game wave 2 on August 31, or waiting until wave 1 actually lands in your country?
