I'm looking for some good board games to buy. More strategic/complex types of games which last 2-3 hours each session.

1. Starcraft board game - Anyone has this? Opinion?

2. Rune Wars - It strikes me as Heroes of Might & Magic, on a board game. Anyone has this?

3. Defenders of the Realm - Simpler but is more cooperative and hero-based, which would be a nice break from the above 2 cut-throat strategy games. Anyone?

4. DUST Tactics - The pawns are simply gorgeous, but I don't think my play group would want to play it. Like a streamlined tabletop wargame.

5. Descent: Journey into the Dark - The pawns are again gorgeous. Like... a gorgeous Heroquest? Like Diablo, on a board game. But I think we want more strategy, not just dice-rolling grinding. We're not looking to play AD&D type games.

Vanilla Descent doesn't really have any leveling aspects, so it's basically just the GM versus the heroes. Although it is supposed to be more hack and slash so the balance does lean a bit more heavily towards the heroes. There are campaign rules in some of the expensions, though. Mansions of Madness might be more what you're looking for if you want some of the RPG aspects without it feeling like a grind.

I've been considering Dust and Tannhauser, myself, but I don't want to plop down the money when I'm as busy as I am at the moment. I haven't really tried the others, so I couldn't tell you much about them. You could try looking up some video reviews. You can usually find some that go through the rules and have sample play sessions so you can get an idea of how they play.

mlai
I'm looking for some good board games to buy. More strategic/complex types of games which last 2-3 hours each session.

1. Starcraft board game - Anyone has this? Opinion?

2. Rune Wars - It strikes me as Heroes of Might & Magic, on a board game. Anyone has this?

3. Defenders of the Realm - Simpler but is more cooperative and hero-based, which would be a nice break from the above 2 cut-throat strategy games. Anyone?

4. DUST Tactics - The pawns are simply gorgeous, but I don't think my play group would want to play it. Like a streamlined tabletop wargame.

5. Descent: Journey into the Dark - The pawns are again gorgeous. Like... a gorgeous Heroquest? Like Diablo, on a board game. But I think we want more strategy, not just dice-rolling grinding. We're not looking to play AD&D type games.

Out of the five you listed, I've only played Starcraft the board game, and I would recommend it right off the bat.
It's actually more like some standard strategy game with resource management board game where they slapped on the Starcraft name to sell it.

It will take more than 2-3 hours, probably like 8.

I look at games like Tannhauser (LOL Hellboy) and I think, "I can get a cardboard box and some dice and some GI Joe figures, and make this game myself." I wouldn't even need to read their rulebook, it's so damned simple. And the GI Joes would look 10x better than their tiny minis.

In terms of dice games, I have to say that the best rules system I've ever seen is Dungeon Dice Monsters. Yes, the Yu-Gi-Oh game. The cancelled one due to low popularity.

Low popularity =/= unfun rules. It may be due to the low production value; the minis were crappier than Happy Meal toys, but with gouge-tastic "collectible" prices. But the rules system combined dice, resource management, board puzzle, tactics, and basic (but not overwhelming) RPG stats.

The other problem with that game is probably... I can just take its rules, get some dice and generic minis, and make my own DDM game with better visual quality. Easy enough when you can go on GameFAQs and download the Gameboy game's FAQ.

@ Joel:
Actually online reviews say the board game does emulate Starcraft build order strategies well, for the satisfaction of PC gamers. And due to the victory status cards etc, the standard-rules games only last 2-3 hrs.

I tend to not judge games based on the complexity of their rule sets or the quality of their minis. I don't buy games just to admire the artistry of the figurines or to spend three hours trying to teach my friends how to play the game before we can sit down for a two hour session.

From what I can tell, Defenders of the Realm is just a variation on Pandemic with some Runebound thrown in and some really ugly, poorly manufactured minis. Dust: Tactics is streamlined to the point where it's even simpler than Tannhauser. And Descent is a dungeon crawler. So I doubt you'll get what you're looking for out of any of those three. I'd say Runewars is probably your best bet.

Hmm, looked up Pandemic, and it seems DotR is indeed just a fantasy-genre rip-off. Not that it matters that it's a rip-off... but indeed, the laziness on the minions minis is appalling for such an expensive game. They only needed to make 4 types of minis instead of 1 type of minis... 3 more simple molds... they couldn't do even that.

If you think Dungeon Dice Monsters is complex, then you haven't tried it out or read up on its rules. I like it precisely for its logic and elegance. The only variations on the basic rules come from the individual monstes (each with its own card), and even those tend to be very straightforward (but complex in tactical application).

I had thought about making a PDF of rules playing DDM on the cheap, be it Legos, generic minis, other franchise-themed minis that you have, or whatever. It's very universal.

Anyways, it seems difficult to purchase board games from eBay while I'm in Singapore. One eBay store wanted to charge me $125 shipping!! The other store didn't reply to my S&H cost query. >:-P

If you think Dungeon Dice Monsters is complex

My comments about rule complexity were in response to your criticism that Tannhauser's rules were too simple.