This book came free with the "Battle Chest" but I really wish they had included the game manual instead. (If you want that, you have to print it from the PDF file on the CD.) The "strategy guide" is really a rehashed reference for the different races which could be useful if not for the choppy, amateurish writing, and just the enormous amount of black ink used in printing this book (I half expected my fingers to get black from flipping through the pages). The maps are slightly helpful, but really close to worthless because of the poor contrast and lack of color. So far, I have gone through every mission on my own without the strategy guide, only consulting it after I completed a mission. I found their "strategies" to really lack imagination and in some cases were completely unrealistic. Their main take on each mission is to do as little as you have to in order to win the mission and advance to the next. I find a lot more fun in exploring all the map area and wiping out any enemy that exists. Anyway, maybe the strategy guide for the expansion pack will be better. I recommend not bothering with this one. (StarCraft, though, is a superb game!)