Pre-orders for Wave 3 of StarCraft: Tabletop Miniatures Game are now live, and this time three of the franchise's most recognizable heroes are leading the charge. Archon Studio is adding Tassadar, Zagara, and Nova Terra to the game, along with the Raven, High Templar, and Defiler as new support units for each faction. The wave also introduces the first custom dice sets for the Terran, Protoss, and Zerg, and everything is available to order now through the official store and local game stores.
Archon is pitching this wave as a shift away from straight frontline fighting and toward tactical command, with heroes who shape the flow of a battle and units built around buffs, debuffs, and area denial. In its newsletter, the studio described Wave 3 as being "packed with tabletop showstoppers," highlighting a Raven that flies on a clear flight stand, High Templar with four assembly options, and Zagara herself. Check out the official Wave 3 trailer below:
The Heroes Of Wave 3
Each faction gets one new hero in a Hero Expansion Set, and all three boxes come with the Fire in the Sky mission card and the One Bridge to Close deployment card, so every army gets something new to play on the table.
Nova Terra is the Terran pick and the cheapest box in the wave at $39 (35 euros, 29 pounds). The Dominion's finest Ghost operative comes with her Sabotage Drone and a Holo Decoy miniature, along with separate unit cards for Nova's Stealth Mode and Assault Mode. The box also includes a Marauder Commando unit card and the Nova Covert Ops tactical card, which lets Terran players lean fully into her band of vigilante operatives.
Zagara brings the Broodmother to the Zerg side for $49 (45 euros, 35 pounds). Her box includes Zagara, a Bile Launcher on a large 100mm base, a burrow token, and a bile bomb token, plus unit cards for Zagara, the Bile Launcher, and Vilelings, a Zergling variant. On the tabletop, Archon describes her as the ultimate force multiplier. Her Broodmother ability lets her pick a special bonus once per round for all units of a specific size, while Infested Drop lets her base work as an entry edge to drop a new unit right onto the front lines. The Zagara's Swarm card rewards players for outnumbering their enemies in close combat, and the Bile Launcher is the first structure in the game that can hold objective markers. It can also fire at almost any spot on the table without line of sight, so opponents will need to keep moving once a marker goes down.
Tassadar rounds out the heroes for the Protoss at $49 (45 euros, 35 pounds). The Executor who sacrificed himself to destroy the Overmind on Aiur comes with two Force Wall tokens, a Tassadar unit card, a Twilight Templar unit card based on the High Templar, and the Templar Caste tactical card.
New Support Units For Every Faction
Alongside the heroes, each faction is getting a support unit that fits a very specific role on the battlefield. Here is what is in each box:
- Raven (Terran): $69 (59 euros, 49 pounds), includes the Raven and an Auto-Turret miniature, their unit cards, and the Vanadium Plating tactical card
- High Templar (Protoss): $54 (49 euros, 39 pounds), includes four High Templar miniatures, a Psi Storm blast template and token, a unit card, and the Templar Archives tactical card
- Defiler (Zerg): $49 (45 euros, 35 pounds), includes the Defiler, a burrow token, a Plague blast template, a Dark Swarm token, a unit card, and the Defiler Mound tactical card
The Raven is the most expensive box in the wave and the successor to the Science Vessel, with a sensor suite that reveals cloaked and burrowed units and the ability to drop auto-turrets in the middle of a fight. The High Templar bring Psionic Storm to wipe out packed infantry and Feedback to shut down enemy spellcasters, which should make them a priority target for anyone facing the Protoss.
The Defiler makes its return from the Brood War days, and Archon has kept all three of its signature abilities. Dark Swarm lets nearby friendly units make evade rolls against every attack in the assault phase, with an extra bonus for size one units like Zerglings. Consume lets the Defiler destroy a nearby friendly model to lower the biomass cost of its abilities, and Plague uses a blast template to deal non-lethal damage to a group of enemies, hitting harder the more biomass is spent. As Archon put it, it is better to sacrifice a Zergling than a Roach.
Custom Faction Dice
The last piece of Wave 3 is a set of custom dice for each faction. The Terran, Protoss, and Zerg sets each come with 20 dice finished in colors and insignia that match the army, and each pack costs $20 (17.50 euros, 15 pounds).
Shipping And What Came Before
Wave 3 pre-orders opened on October 12, and shipping starts on November 2 for Europe and the UK and November 9 for the rest of the world. Archon notes that shipping will roll out over several weeks from those dates, and orders that mix pre-order and in-stock items will ship together once everything is available. Every model comes unpainted and unassembled.
The new wave arrives about two months after Wave 2, which opened pre-orders on August 28 with Zeratul as a playable hero, the Ravager, the Immortal, and the Siege Tank, the game's first large vehicle on a 150mm base. That wave also added the Lost Temple Ramp terrain pack and new Starter Sets for all three factions. The game first launched earlier this year with Founders Edition starter sets led by Jim Raynor, Sarah Kerrigan, and Artanis, and Archon plans to keep releasing a new wave every two to three months, with new factions such as the Tal'darim or the Dominion coming down the line. The game is officially licensed by Blizzard Entertainment.
Are you striking from the shadows with Nova Terra, or is Zagara and the Swarm the first box you are adding to your army?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.