Thanks for the excellent review!
Do you think that the early encounters will feel samey in repeated replays? StS is a “slow” deckbuilder in the sense that you don’t acquire new cards every round but only after encounters so you go through your starting deck a few times before you really start seeing new cards. This is fine in digital StS since it plays so fast but I wonder how early game feels on the table. How many rounds do early encounters typically take?
I just checked the Quick Start rules in the rulebook, looks great! Really glad that they have included that. Reminds me of the similar rules in Baseball Highlights 2045 or Space Base and I always play with those.