Don't let the rule book in Starcraft frighten you, Susan. It's chock full of examples and they explain things VERY carefully. It could have easily been half the size, but I for one like the way they did things; you can always skim over the things you already understand. The game didn't seem that hard to figure out, although I'm sure it will take a couple of games to get all the unit and technology types clear in your heads. But probably not a terribly complex game.

As for the theme, it's hard to say how that will work for you. Have you played A Game of Thrones? That's the game that Starcraft most reminded me of, because of the way the orders are placed. Starcraft adds some tweaks to this and it has a more detailed unit construction system, but it isn't too far removed from that game. Anyway, it seems to be pretty much hack 'n' slash, except in a sci-fi setting and with enough design detail to keep it from being a standard dicefest. It's a game I'd like to play sometime, but I definitely want to try before I buy and no one here has ponied up the bucks to purchase it. Maybe another one to play at Gulf Games.

Starcraft was well worth the price of admission and is a really fun game. If you've played the computer game years ago, you'll pick up the game and the "tech tree" advances for each race quickly enough (you'll also catch yourself making all the game noises and saying the catch phrases).

As far as what the game is like - its not like anything. It has tons of "similar" mechanics to other games, but its not really like AGoT (which I love). The orders are placed secretly using order tokens (vaguely like AGoT) and each player has certain unique abilities - that's the extent its like AGoT. It has tech "trees" for each race. There seems like a lot to take in at first, but once you play, you'll get the basics of the game quickly. Print off the teaching rules from the geek and use the outline for each step and you'll then spend your time deciding what upgrades to make.