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In theory and according to the rules book, Starcraft can be played by 2-6 players. From my own experience and what I heard from others, it does not work at all for 2 players. The random factor gets really high and the game--which takes quite some time to set up--is over within a few moves if one party attacks early on. It is not fun that way.

I have heard from others that it starts getting interesting with 4 or more players. Unfortunately we don't have that many players available, so I am looking for ways to make the game more enjoyable for 2 players. Can anyone provide such house rules or strategies?

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Downvoting because this is asking for recommendations of house rules to solve a problem, as mentioned on meta. The suggested rewrite, in this case, would be something like "What strategies can be used to counter early attacks in 2-player Starcraft?" – Dave DuPlantis Feb 21 '12 at 15:27
@DaveDuPlantis I felt like the question was very borderline on whether it needed editing or not. I made some minor changes to make it less recommendation-y. What do you think of it now? (Also @ Demento feel free to rollback.) – shujaa Feb 21 '12 at 23:24
The first tip in the meta question Dave cites is "focus on what issue you are trying to resolve", which I think this question already did very well. – shujaa Feb 21 '12 at 23:28
@shujaa, it's better, but I think the type of question that works best in this situation is more specific than "how do we make X more enjoyable?" That seems to me to be subjective and not such a good fit for this format. I really don't think asking for house rules is something that fits well; it's specifically mentioned in that meta post, and is more likely to lead into a discussion of house rules. Sticking with the perceived issues - randomness and quick games - and asking if that's an issue with 2-player Starcraft is, I think, a better way to go. – Dave DuPlantis Feb 22 '12 at 0:22

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

The Brood War expansion includes a number of scenarios, one of which is explicitly designed for two players. The gameplay in a scenario is pretty much the same as the core game, except with predetermined galaxy layout and often some form of "capture the objective"-style mechanic added (the two-player scenario, for example, prevents either side from moving onto the Terran's home planet unless they have control of a "bridge" zone first). I don't have the rulebook handy for reference so I don't know if the two-player scenario is entirely playable with only base-set pieces.

Fantasy Flight Games offers this scenario for free download, which is for four players (two teams of two players); there's no reason it can't be played with two players each playing both factions of a team. It does however require pieces from the expansion.

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up vote 1 down vote

Since Starcraft supports Team Play Variant, couldn't you an your opponent each play both people on a single team? (is Team Play also unbalanced?)

Otherwise, you will have to develop some sort of AI, or alternate turns controlling a third player (if that is possible strategically).

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