>-----------------The Starcraft Terran Strategy Guide-----------------<
Hey sorry, I can't do ASCII graphics. If someone wants to do one, ok :)
Version .9
Initial release, don't expect it to be too explosive. I want this to be
concise, large, and informative to all terran players. You can be sure
I'll update it and make it better whenever I can (school is out now!)
-Introduction
-Quick Info
-Units
-Basic Strategy
-More advanced Strategy
-Defeating.....
-Attacking.....
-Credits!
----------Introduction----------
I'll be starting off with the units and how to make them work right.
After that, I'll be showing you how to use several types of units at
once to efficiently attack your enemy.
I am going to assume you know the *basics* of this game (at least what
a Command Center is)
----------Quick Info----------
A few things to know:
One matrix is one spot. One spot is about half the length of a missle
turret. That means a siege tank in siege mode with an attack range of
12 matrixes can shoot down a line of 6 missle turrets (techincally,
even a tiny sliver of movement throws this off a little, but that's the
idea).
-When I refer to attack range, I refer to the matrix distance.
-When I refer to NORMAL damamge, that means it always does that kind of
damage, no matter what (Well, the damamge - any armor)
-When I refer to CONCUSSIVE damamge, that means the unit will do 50%
damamge to medium units (such as hydralisks) and 25% to large units
(like siege tanks or reavers) so a firebat with an amount of 16
CONCUSSIVE damage, it would only do four damamge when toasting a
reaver's hp. Ouch. HOWEVER, remember that even if it's concussive, it
always does it's full damage to a protoss's SHIELDS (minus any armor)
so that's still handy :)
-When I refer to EXPLOSIVE damamge, that means I messed up because I
will never refer to it
because what I'll be telling you won't matter anyway along with it.
-When I refer to SPLASH damamge, that means units around the attacked
unit will also be damaged.
-If I say that a unit is a 'DETECTOR' unit, that means it can see
cloaked units for you as far as it can see by itself.
I'll also remind you of this periodically
We will begin with basic tactics for the units.
First, the ground units (Load little banner thingy)
->->->->Ground Units <-<-<-<-
->->->->Using Them Generally by themselvs <-<-<-<-
->->->->SCV<-<-<-<-
Quick Stats: VERY weak, does 5 damage, no starting armor, and is
somewhat slow. Yet is the most important unit in the game. This unit
gathers minerals from nearby mineral fields and gas from nearby vespene
geysers (heck, it doesn't even have to be close, anything they can
access). SCV's can also repair, and multiple scv's can repair one unit.
USE THIS ABILITY WELL!!!
Upgrades: Diddly squat, even upgrading weapons won't upgrade them.
Upgrading armor will though (1+ each)
**Basic Strategy**
50 minerals each, made at the command center, you need to have alot of
these. Trust me. I've seen players play with the four scv's they start
with, and they wonder in amazement at how I got 12 marines and a tank
so fast. You need lots of scv's. Most vespene geysers made for most
maps are near the command center, so usually no more than four scv's
are needed to be gathering gas for maximum output. For minerals, no two
scv's can mine from the same mineral at the same time, unless they are
NEXT to each other, or on the other side of the mineral. For that
reason, you may want around 1 1/2 scv's for every mineral field you
have. That way, as soon as one scv leaves to deposit the mineral, the
other will start and by the time the scv gets back, it should be almost
done.
If it's not done, the scv will just go find a mineral to gather, which
it normally does pretty fast. On a map like 'The Hunters' I usually
have like 12 scv's mining, which gets me the minerals I need fast
enough.
Another important thing is to use the SCV'S ability to repair. Take
scv's along with attacks to repair your tanks and air units. Repair
your buildings when they are being attacked (if you see 12 siege tanks
though, it's a futile effort)
**Advanced Strategy**
-When a geyser runs out of gas, and you can't find any others (or don't
want to spend the money to build a refinery) then you can keep your
scv's gathering gas there. Instead of getting 8 gas each, they only get
2, but that supply is indefinite.
-If you are being attacked by like zerglings or god forbid, zealots in
an early rush, and your defense was taken out, GET ALL YOUR SCV'S TO
ATTACK! 8 scv's on one zergling will kill it in one hit. 8 scv's on one
zealot will take it out in 4 hits, and the zealot won't be able to kill
more than one or two in that time. Problem is the scv's usually like to
get in different directions, so it's hard to get like 8 attacking at
once, but it's sure better than nothing, because what is more
effective, 8 scv's attacking, or sending one marine out at a time only
to be slaugtered by 5 zerglings before a shot gets off?
-SCV's can use way-points... kind of. Select your group of SCV'S and
hold shift, then press 'R' and click on every unit you want repaired,
while still holding shift. Then, when one unit is done being repaired,
they will move onto the next one you selected. Use this for reparing
your fleets :) Be sure you have multiple scv's so it's faster.
-Try and dropship scv's behind an enemy base (or at least nearby, like
just across an intercepting river) and build something there. It
doesn't have to be a command center (heck, DON'T build a command center
unless minerals or gas is there) but something like a barrack or
factory allows quick access to the enemy base for attacks. If you have
found the enemy, and they haven't found your new building there, you
can make faster attacks.
-If you see a tank or two in siege mode attacking your base, and there
is no backup (happens in dropship attacks near your base) and if you
scv's can access it, get them to attack it! Tanks to EXPLOSIVE damage
(I said it! I'm screwed) so that means they do 35 damage to your scv's.
Not enough to kill, even if upgraded once. A few scv's should make it
there before any die, and because of their point blank attack, their
tank's can't do diddly squad. If the tank's are spaced apart, the tank
will attack the scv, doing 35 damage to the scv, and about 70 of splash
damage to the tank. Two shots will kill the scv, but also the offending
tank ;)
->->->->Marine<-<-<-<-
Quick Stats:
50 Minerals of cost, no gas. Can attack both ground AND air, always
doing six base damamge, no matter what you are shooting. Probably the
best property of this 'lil sucker. Each gun upgrade increases their
damage by one, and each armor upgrade increases armor by one. Comes
fresh out of the barracks.
Upgrades include stimpack, which makes them super hyper as if they just
drank a six-pack of jolt and makes them move and fire twice as fast for
a while. Second upgrade are U-388 shell upgrades which lengthens their
attack range by one.
**Basic Strategy:**
Don't neglect this little guy. The only reason you might is you sent
him by himself, into a swarm of, oh say, 10 zerglings. You think "oh
that gun will take them out" but he doesn't even kill one. Why's that?
For starters, marines only work in large groups! What I mean by large
groups is at the VERY LEAST, six of them. Eight or more usually works
well, unless you are facing absolutely massive numbers.
One zergling, will always kill one marine. The marine can never win,
unless you are consistently running back and forth taking quick hits on
the zergling. Still, not worth your trouble.
Eight marines will kill the zergling before it even attacks one of
them.
Another neat ability of marines are their stimpack abilities
(researched at academy). Individually click on each and activate it
(with the icon in the corner) or select a group of them and do it.
Using a stimpack will make the marine fire twice as fast and move twice
as fast for about 15 seconds. The drawback however, is that each use
will drain 10 hp of their 40 hitpoints, so you can only use it three
times (you can't use it the last 10 as it would kill them) unless you
are playing Brood War and have medics healing them.
Still, the loss of hp is usually worth it. Use stimpacks whenever
engaging another group of units. Don't waste a stimpack on your team of
12 marines to kill one enemy marine. Also, using multiple stimpacks at
once doesn't "Make them super buff" it just erases the last stimpack
and reinstates it, so don't use another stimpack unless the last one
has been used up (you can tell)
The other upgrade, the U-388 shell/gun upgrade increases the marine's
attack range by one. This isn't neccessarily required, but if you are
using any bunkers they will help you. This will allow your marines to
shoot enemies slighty farther away, and get in another shot before they
get near you.
Ideally, you use marines for either initial attacks, or as backup. A
squad of 10 marines behind a couple tanks are very effective. If they
have their shell upgrades, it's even better.
**Advanced Strategies**
-Grab a dropship and dropship marines, and a firebat or two right in
the middle of their mineral field. If they don't have protection there,
you can kill all their scv's and slow their production dramatically.
You might even be able to destroy a building or two before
reinforcements arrive.
-Better yet, drop marines onto a ledge (the Challenger map works well
for this) and they can shoot any peons that are nearby.
-Use a marine or two as a distraction or as lure. Grab a couple marines
and lead them close to the enemy and make them fire off a shot. The
immedietly run them away, to either a spider mine field or your REAL
attack force, and ambush them :)
-Upgrade armor first before weapons. Upgrading armor once allows you to
survive 8 shots from an un-upgraded marine. That's one more shot than
without an upgrade. That's not to say you should upgrade all three
armor levels first, just start with armor and switch back and forth.
-First, don't overuse bunkers, but don't 'underuse' or neglect them. U-
388 shell upgraded marines in a bunker and take out formidable forces.
The reason marines tend to work well is because if something like
dragoons comes along, firebats sitting in the bunker doing diddly squad
isn't going to help.
-Most importantly, never turtle yourself in with bunkers! One near your
command center and one near the entrance is all you need. Stick your
marines in them, but take them out if you are going to attack, and your
attack is being successful. If you see the enemy coming toward you, or
you see them about to attack, then you can grab some marines quickly
and stick them in.
-When you can, have them focus attacks on one unit at a time. If it's
12 marines versus 12 of yours, if your opponent has every marine fire
on another marine (so it's 1vs1) and you keep changing targets by
having all your marines shoot one or two targets, guess who will win?
You will lose some marines, but your enemy will lose all of them.
Summary: Use marines is large groups, always. Use stimpack only when
facing large amounts of enemy forces and as backup.
->->->->Firebats<-<-<-<-
Firebats:
Quick Stats: 50 minerals and 25 gas cost, these guys do 16 base
concussive damage, so attack is limited against larger groups. They
also do splash damage, so you can hurt more than one target at once.
They don't have any special upgrades, but their damage goes up two for
every upgrade level, one for each armor upgrade.
**Basic Strategies**: Firebats are really quite useful, but probably
not overall as useful as the marines. You may see "Whoa! 16 damage!!"
but that's concussive, so you're better off toasting zealots, zerglings
and other small units, which is exactly what the firebat is used for.
Firebats are best used against zealots and zerglings. Two firebats can
kill one zealot, and several firebats and take down a small group of
zerglings. This is all because the firebats can overlap damage, as they
do a 'cone' of damage of ahead of them.
Also, I don't think it's worth using stimpack on them, they are strong
enough already. An exception to this is if you are facing a force much
larger than you, and you know you probably can't really retreat. If you
stimpack your 12 firebats, they could take on like 16 or 17 zealots
killing at least most of them. That's the only exception.
Use firebats as backup with tanks and marines. Because of their
concussive attack, don't make too many of them late in the game. A
ratio of 3:1 as marines:firebats is pretty good. If you know your
opponent is a protoss and you think he'll rush you, make three or four
firebats, and build a bunker nearby. When the zealots come, put the
firebats in the bunker and they'll be toast.
Remember also, that firebats don't cause friendly damage in splash. So
firebats and marines close together aren't a problem when attacking
(not for YOU anyway...)
**Advanced Strategies**
-Like the marines, dropship them into a mineral field. Toast those
peons :)
-Keep them somewhat close together, but not sardine packed. The closer
they are, the more damage they can do (because of splash damage) but if
they are that close together, a single siege tank shot can take half of
them out. A good way to position them is to surround the enemy. If you
are fighting zealots, get some in front of them and try and move a few
behind at least. Then you can overlap your damage well.
-Always have marines with firebats, because a single wraith can take
out a squad of firebats with nothing to shoot back.
-When engaging the enemy, send your marines up to shoot the enemy, and
then send firebats in to engage them from close up. Either way, if they
aim for your firebats, your marines will shoot them. If they aim for
your marines, firebats go up and toast them. This won't work well if
they have massive forces though.
Summary: Don't build firebats in large forces because they won't be as
effective against large enemies in the late game.
->->->->Ghosts<-<-<-<-
Quick Stats: 25 minerals and 75 gas cost. These are your 'spy' units.
Although rather far up the techtree, they are still great units,
although not always required to win the game.
Upgrades (there's alot more then normal, all researched at covert op
extension): Ocular implants: These upgrades persue surgery to the
ghost's eye to enhance vision. You'll definitely want this if you are
planning to nuke, as it will help increase your range. It raises their
vision from 6 to 8.
Lockdown: You may have heard of this. In some ways, it's similiar to
the Protoss's static field. The main two differences are that the
protoss's matrix field can disable ANY unit for about a minute, but you
cannot damage the unit. Lockdown only disables MECHANICAL units (so
useless against the zerg) but you CAN damage the unit! Lockdown also
disables any unit's abilities, so if you lock down a science vessel, it
won't detect cloakers as long as it's locked down (also about a
minute). Using lockdown takes 100 energy, so they can do it twice at
full energy, but you won't be able to use lockdown twice while cloaked
because cloaking will drain too much energy, unless you have upgraded
their energy. However, one exception to lockdown, is you can't use it
on missle turrets, strange (it's a mechanical unit)... so you'll have
to find another way to get past them.
Lockdown is best used for stopping science vessels from detecting you
so you can nuke them (if nothing else is nearby) and disabling
attacking units. You see 5 siege tanks coming at you? Get your ghosts
up there and lock them all down. You see a fleet of 8 carriers coming
at you? Get your ghosts to lock them down. Trying to nuke a base but
that science vessel backed up with 20 wraiths gets in your way? Lock it
down and nuke!
Personell cloaking: This ability takes 25 energy to initiate, and 1
more energy every second to keep it on. This is just like the wraith's
cloaking ability, but is useless around detector units. Always be
cloaked when attempting to nuke, or to infiltrate an enemy base.
Mobious Reactor: Another upgrade upgraded in the cover ops, this
increases the ghost's energy by 50. Handy for giving them extra energy
to cloak, thus more energy for lockdown. Worth getting if you are
planning on using ghosts more than once.
Nuclear launch: You need a nuclear silo (addon for the Command Center)
to launch this. When you choose your target, your ghost will stand
there and 'aim' at the target. A small red flickering dot will appear
on it, and stays there for about 15 seconds. After that, it dissapears
and a nuke comes down. The nuke's damamge radius is about 11, and
causes 500 damage at the center of it's blast, and goes down a little
as it goes out. When the ghost is aiming, you cannot move it, but you
can cancel it's launch. If the ghost is killed while aiming, you lose
the ghost, and the missle. If the ghost is killed, but the red dot
isn't there anymore, the nuke will fall anyway. Yippee :)
**Basic Strategies**
Ghosts do 10 concussive damamge. You could stick them in a bunker, but
it probably isn't as smart. Get your ghosts out there and kill
something. Don't cloak them until you need to, unless they are
traveling alone. Use their lockdown skill on whatever threatens you.
**Advanced Strategies**
-Absolutely get cloak when planning to nuke. Otherwise, heck a probe
could come up and tear your ghost to pieces.
-Get ocular implants if you are getting killed. That usually helps a
little.
-If you keep getting shot down by siege tanks, see the compound unit
section below.
-When using your wraiths to attack, cloak your wraiths, then use a
ghost to lockdown any nearby science vessels to stop detction.
-Upgrade their armor if you can, it can help protect you a little bit.
Armor upgrades raise their armor up 1 every level (starting at 0) and
gun up 1 every level.
->->->->Vultures<-<-<-<-
Quick Stats: When upgraded, this is the fastest unit in the game. Does
20 concussive damage, and can lay spider mines.
Upgrades:
Spider mines: When researched at the tank's machine shop, this gives
every vulture made (and ones already existing) three spider mines. When
used at a location, they set up, where you can see them as a white
round mine, then a couple seconds later they sink into the ground. You
can your allies can see it, your opponent's can't unless they have
detection. Whenever an enemy comes within it's radius (about three) it
shoots out of the ground and flies toward them (bad analogy, not FLY,
just hovers over the ground ;) and slams into the enemy. The spider
mine causes 125 SPLASH damamge. That means one spider mine could kill
like 4 zealots if they were close together. Downside to this? Spider
only has 20 hp, if it is attempting to run into say a mess of
hydralisks, the hydras will destroy the mine before it hits them. See
advanced strategies for more on this.
Ion Thrusters: When researched, this makes the vultures move faster,
making them the fastest unit in the game. You can shoot across from the
bottom to the top of a 256x256 map in 15 seconds.
**Basic Strategies**
First, every terran player should know that even though it's 20
CONCUSSIVE damage, the vulture's canister grenade (it's attack) does
the full 20 damamge (minus any armor) to all protoss's shields. So that
means you can take down a dark templar (40 shields 40 hp) in one shot,
if four vultures shoot at the same time. Vultures also do great against
Archons, because five vultures can deal out 100 damamge per shot, and
that's not even upgraded!
Also, research spider mines when you have time, and set some near your
base (heck, I just put like 12) then, go put some near the enemy's
choke point (entrance to the base). With your extra mines left over if
you have any, or if you get more, you have two options.
1)Set them all over the map, specifically wherever the enemy might
choose to go.
2)Put one spider mine right between some mineral fields. What this does
is that nothing can build on top of a spider mine, so something's going
to have to come down and take it out. Hehe :)
Also, as a note, other vultures, peons, and all flying units do not
trigger spider mines.
**Advanced Strategies**
-If large amounts of units keep killing all your mines as soon as they
get close, put them close together. That way, instead of one being
triggered at a time, you can get like three triggered at once, and that
way, you're sure to get a kill.
-If you haven't understood by now, spider mines are worth the
investment! One vulture and the spider mines will cost you 175
minerals, 100 gas (75 for the vulture, 100/100 for the mines) and that
gets you three mines. Set up say all three near your base, and if six
zealots come running by, chances are you can kill all six, or at least
five. Even if it's five, you've just cost your protoss friend 500
minerals. Not bad at all.
-Although spider mines won't react by themselves to cloaked units, they
will if you put a detector next to them (or comsast). Spider mines are
also great for letting you see a small portion of the map, wherever the
spider mine is.
-If you can find a large enough ledge near an enemy, dropship a vulture
onto it, and stick a few mines there. Then you can make the vulture
attack something down below if you want, and once something kills it,
the enemy loses suspicion, and you have a small part of the enemy to
spy on :) (At least those peons...)
-Make a patch of spider mines, then send a spider to lure some enemies
in. Enemies always attack when faced by an enemy, and always follow it
unless instructed not to.
-If you keep finding that your mines are getting destroyed because they
have detectors, when you see this happening, send a vulture up, and
make it run by the enemies, then back. Unless the player stops them,
they will follow the vulture and run into the mines, and will stop
shooting the mines.
Summary: Keep a vulture or two around to help kill Protoss shields, and
use spider mines well. Use them right, and you'll make your opponent
afraid to move anywhere without detectors. Kill there detectors and
they'll fly into fits :)
->->->->Siege Tank<-<-<-<-
Quick Stats: Simply has the largest firing range in the game. 12!
That's a long way's away. Also does alot of damamge. 30 damage in tank
mode, 70 in siege mode.
Upgrades:
Siege mode can be researched at the machine shop, and allows the tank
to enter siege mode. Siege mode stops the tank and sets it into the
ground. In siege mode, the tank cannot move, but will fire upon any
enemy that comes within 12 matrixes of it. That's a long distance.
Siege mode tanks also do splash damamge, of 70! What I'm saying is one
tank shot can kill several marines close together. If you are going to
use tanks, get siege mode :)
Downside? Um, one wraith can take out say 100 siege tanks. Siege tanks
can't shoot anything in the air.
**Basic Strategies**
First, get siege mode when you get tanks. The doesn't mean to not get
tanks before you get siege mode, but don't get siege mode before the
tank. You with me? When attacking the enemy, several siege tanks (say
like four or five) set up can decimate buildings and coming attackers.
However, you absolutely must get backup for your tanks. Tanks do have a
minimum attack range (about two 1/2) so essentially, one zergling that
makes it up close will tear apart the tank, so make sure you have at
least marine backup.
If you are later in the game, bring some wraiths or goliaths to attack
air units. 8 Marines won't be enough for 4 scouts. 8 goliaths are
though :)
Also, one major weakness of the tank is that it can attack your own
units with splash damamge. If you see a zergling attacking another
tank, what do you think will happen when you try to shoot it with
another tank? Well, besides killing the zergling, you'll hurt your own
tank pretty badly because of splash damamge.
**Advanced Strategies:
-8 words: Use-a-dropship-to-drop-tanks-on-a-ledge. Well, I can't count,
but this is Starcraft. Dropship a tank or two on a ledge that fit if
you can find one, siege the tanks then. Most ledges are near enemy
mineral lines, so kill all their peons. Chances are they'll send some
air unit to come take off the tanks. Before hand, you can also send
some goliaths up or wraiths, or simply let them kill you. If you
managed to kill all their peons (I can usually nail around 10 or so)
then they lost 500 minerals in scv's (maybe even damamge their main
base). If you lost your two tanks, you lost about 150 minerals and 100
gas. Is that an even trade off? Depends on your situation. If you
decide to bring some goliaths, you could even nail their base. Then
that's
another 300+ at the least. Hehe. Heh.
-The Famous tank push! One of those effective strategies. Get backup
for the tanks (8 marines and a few goliaths are always good) and get
ready. You should have at LEAST three or four tanks for this to be
effective. I usually take along five or six. Anyway, get your backup
into a postion near where you plan to move your tanks. Comsat ahead and
see if there is any defense ahead. If you see tanks, then you need to
decide on something. If you see there are less tanks than you, don't do
move on, and get more tanks to come. If there are equal number of tanks
as you, go get more tanks. If you have at least two more tanks then
them, move all your tanks ahead and siege them. Move your backup near
them, and aim all your tanks at the enemy tanks. If you have at least
two more than them, you should get them all.
-This is kind of advanced. SIEGE Tanks in SIEGE mode do EXPLOSIVE
damage. That means larger units take larger damamge. Small units take
about 50% and medium units take 75%. That means a siege tank shot
wouldn't kill an scv unless the tank's weapons were upgraded. Ouch :)
-They will probably send something up to kill the tanks, so move your
backup and take them out (it's important to do this semi-early, or
you'll have 12 battlecruisers as the opposition :). Once you take out
the tanks, kill any bunkers nearby. Then, if you still have at least
four tanks, unsiege two of them and move them up a little bit. Then
siege, kill anything there, and unsiege the two tanks still behind, and
move them in front of your other two. Keep doing this, while moving
your backup force ahead to defend your tanks. This tank push strategy
usually works quite well. If you are attempting this late in the game,
you will need a much more massive backup, and something like eight or
nine tanks. It would also be wise to take an scv or two along to repair
the tanks after their confrontation. :)
-You may be tempted to turtle up in your base by setting 20 bunkers
backed up with 10 siege tanks behind. Not smart. You'll see why below
in the multiplayer strategies.
-When using siege tanks to defense your base, an effective way to do it
is to set the siege tanks not in your choke point, but in a place
nearby to it, maybe on a small extension on the left or right side.
This way, it is harder for units to destroy them, and they will end up
attacking your bunkers. Then, just grab some scv's and repair the
bunkers as they are attacked.
Summary: Siege tanks are exactly what they are: Siege! Don't use them
too heavily for defense, you'll see why later. Get lots and use them
for attacking, and trapping the enemy in their base like the bug in a
jar they are (ok, bad analogy, I know)
->->->->Goliath<-<-<-<-
Quick Stats: Has the power of both an effective ground attack, and air
attack. A great attack of normal 12 damage on ground units, and 20 for
the air!
Upgrades:
Nothing, except when you upgrade their weapons, ground attack goes up
one, and air attack goes up **FOUR**! After three upgrades, the goliath
deals 32 damamge each shot for the air. This is even better than the
wraith, which does 26 damamge at full upgrade!! Goliaths also start
with one armor, and armor goes up one for each upgrade.
**Basic Strategies**
Don't underestimate their power! Many players neglect them (kinda like
vultures) or only get a few. Like marines, you need them in large
numbers (not neccessarily as much as the marines) to work effeciently.
Use them as backup because of their incredible ability to hit air
units. They aren't always as good as attacking because of their speed,
but if you are on the offenssive and your attack is successful, feel
free to bring them close and have them deal out more damage.
**Advanced Strategies**
-When doing tank drops on a ledge, try and bring a goliath or three as
air backup.
-Because of the goliath's rather high NORMAL damage, you can try and
add a few in with marines to help stabilize the attack, but don't
overdo it.
Summary: Use the goliath's incredible air support as backup for your
tanks and marines, but don't overuse them or you'll be overwhelmed.
->->->->Air Units<-<-<-<-
->->->->Wraith<-<-<-<-
Quick Stats: Can hit both ground and air units, ground attack is weak
compared to air attack (8 to 20 normal damage) but wraith can cloak in
the air, so it cannot be attacked by units unless there is a detector
spotting them. Wraiths rock in midsized-large numbers. Wraiths cost 150
minerals and 100 gas.
Upgrades: Cloak! The best use for the Wraith's cloaking ability. Cloak
takes 25 energy initially, then one more per second. The Apollo reactor
also gives the Wraith 50 more energy to work with, extending it's
cloaking time. Both these are researched at the control tower of the
Starport. Gun upgrades raises it's ground laser up one for each level
(starting at eight) and it's air rockets go up two for each level
(starting at 20). Armor starts at one, and goes up one more per level.
**Basic Strategies**
First off, the wraith has a rather weak ground attack (as compared to
it's air attack) so it's not effective against hitting ground units,
unless they can't shoot back or don't have anything else that can. When
you get Wraiths, make sure you get at least it's cloaking ability so
you can cloak (well, duh). Wraiths should never by themselves. Even if
there is no threat against them, even killing a peon would take around
five or six shots, and that's quite some time.
After all this, it may seem the goliath (see above) may be better than
this, after all, all it's weapons excel against it. The Wraith
overpowers it by it's ability to fly, and to cloak. Remember that if
detectors are nearby, or A terran has comsat, the enemy will see your
Wraiths.
Wraiths are good for 'escorting' or backing up units. A tank push with
Wraiths (and some marines below) usually works pretty well. That way,
your tanks won't be killed by something they can't even shoot.
**Advanced Strategies**
-Use your Wraiths to escort Dropships. When I say escort, I mean cloak
them and fly them alongside with the dropships, so if the dropship
comes under attack, you can attack the attacker (with me?..)but make
sure you cloak your Wraiths. Keep in mind dropships fly slower than
Wraiths so you will have to stay with them.
-Use Wraiths to hunt down Zerg Overlords. A trio of Wraiths will take
out an overlord in four shots each. Doing so is like killing a supply
depot for the zerg. Don't attempt this though, if the overlords are
stuck in the corner of their base with heavy defense (see below for
compound uses)
-Carrier's keep killing you? Counter with lots of wraiths. A dozen
wraith can stop carriers without a problem. The reason this usually
fails is because the protoss brings observers along (as detectors) and
they will see your wraiths. Comsat the carriers and aim for the
observer FIRST. If that isn't working, see below for compound uses.
-Same goes for Battlecruisers. Cloaked wraiths will easily take out a
battlecruiser if there is no detection availible.
-Be sure to try and upgrade the Wraith's armor. This is helpful when
facing marines shooting below, or the shots from another Wraith that
sees you.
-Remember that cloaking takes 25 energy initially, then one more. If
you are planning to attack again soon with your wraiths, don't bother
uncloaking them, as long as you plan to attack within.. 25 seconds.
That way you won't waste energy by having to recloak.
-And very important: If someone comsat sweeps you, as soon as you see
that blue ring fly around, run off the side of the screen, and attack
from a different direction. That way you avoid the cloak detection.
Summary: Use Wraiths in groups with their cloaking ability to take out
enemies. When attacking enemies, take out any detectors nearby, but
don't try it if you just ran into a pit of 20 missle turrets, photon
cannons, or spore colonies :)
->->->->Dropship<-<-<-<-
Quick Stats: Well, it's what the name suggests. Dropship. Drop-Ship.
Pick up units and deposit them somewhere else. Each dropship has a
capacity of 8, and small units take one each, medium two each, and
large four each. No special upgrades.
Upgrades: Like I said.. no special upgrade. Only armor, which starts at
one, and goes up one for each leve of upgrade.
**Basic Strategies**
Don't neglect the dropship. If you are in th heat of a battle and you
need to bring some units up, use a dropship. It may be rather slow, but
it will save you time because you won't have to make all your units
wind through water and hills.
The dropship doesn't have a lot of hitpoints as you might think, so
back it up with wraiths or give it a matrix field with a science
vessel.
**Advanced Strategies:
-As above, dropship units on ledges near the enemy's base and toast
them :)
-Make several dropships, and load one up. Then send them all at the
enemy. That way they will end up blowing up dropships with nothing
inside, and you have a fair chance of one making it. Better yet, matrix
field all three of them :)
Summary: Ok, I didn't have alot of tips for them. That's because the
dropship works best when used with other units. See below in compound
uses...
->->->->Science Vessel<-<-<-<-
Quick Stats: Expensive in gas, but one of the most important in longer
games. Has a large cloak detection radius, and a large variety of
offensive, and defensive uses for it.
Upgrades:
Emp Shockwave: Shoots a missle from about 7 range and blows out all
shields and energy. That means if used on any protoss unit or building,
all it's shields are zapped to zero. If used on any unit that uses
energy (Battlecruiser, ghost, Dark Templar) it looses it's energy as
well. This also destroys all protoss hallucinations because
hallucinations take energy.
Irradiate: Shoots a blob of gas onto one target and hurts the target
slowly (Like 3 damage every half second) and hurts anything around it
(about a two matrix radius). If you see a blob of zerglings or marines,
or heck zealots, shoot it and you'll kill a group of them. Try and aim
this for units in the center so it's harder to move them out of the
way. This only works on biological units (units that have... say a
brain) so don't try and irradiate those siege tanks ;)
Defense Matrix (Starts with): This deploys a defense shield on any unit
and protects them.. kind of. The shield has around 250 hp (unconfirmed,
but it's something around there) and lasts about 25 seconds. Damage can
'leak' through the shield, but it's still very effective. Use this on
units leading an attack or on dropships to help protect it for a while.
Titan Reactor: Gives the science vessle an additional 50 energy. Handy
if you plan on using your specials alot.
**Basic Strategies**
The most basic use (and most handy use) for the science vessel is to
use it as a detector. The science vessel can detect cloaked units over
a screen away (better than a missle turret) which is awesome.
When fighting protoss, try and bring a science vessel along to not only
spy for cloaked units (those arbiter cloakers) but to emp any groups of
enemies. The radius of the emp blast is about the size of the
electrical explosion that it produces (you can see it quite well).
**Advanced Strategies**
-This one is pretty neat, make two science vessels, and take them near
an enemy base. Then have one of the science vessel's both both a
defense matrix AND irradiate on the other vessel. Then move the vessel
right over the peon mineral line. They will be wasted as they move
around :) This works even better if you dash the vessel into a group of
overlords, especially if they aren't sped up yet: )
-Three words: Defense Matrix Dropship
-Always take along science vessels when attempting a major attack,
specifically in longer games.
-If you know that a zerg player has horded a load of burrowed
zerglings/hyrdas, take a science vessel over and a couple siege Tanks.
-Protoss archons a pain? Emp them! Then their shields are gone, leaving
them with 10 hp. A marine could take them out :)
-See compound uses below for defeating mass carriers
Summary: Playing later games you'll need the science vessel because it
is your only moving consistent detector (comsat only lasts a while) so
if you are fighting another terran, and you both have an army of
wraiths and a science vessel, aim for the vessel first, and try to
surround your own.
->->->->Battlecruiser<-<-<-<-
Quick Stats: At 500 hp, it is the most expensive unit in the game
(overall by itself) but also one of the most powerful. Flies through
the air slowly, but starts with a base 25 air AND ground attack. Has
the fearful yamato cannon.
Upgrades: Yamato Cannon: This equips the Battlecruiser with a yamato
cannon, which takes 150 energy to fire. It shoots a big yellow/orange
fireball thing that does 260 damage to anything it hits. The range of
the Battlecruiser's Yamato is also very large, 11! That's almost as
much as a siege tank. Armor also starts at **3** and goes up one each
level. Guns start at *25* for both air and ground, and go up three more
each level.
**Basic Strategies**
Try not to ever have just one battlecruiser. They are expensive, yes,
costs 400 minerals and 300 gas, taking 8 food supply, but they are very
powerful. You could just have one if you were using it to yamato some
pesky missle turret or another single target.
But then again, don't rely on a fleet of battlecruisers. Experienced
players can counter it. See below in coupound uses on how to counter.
You should always bring some wraiths with you, or at least some ground
support (like goliaths). An SCV coming along with you is usually
helpful, as you can make it repair battlecruisers when they are
damaged. It is worth repairing your battlecruiser because they take so
long to make (almost three whole minutes)
Use it's yamato gun liberally when needed. If you need to get through a
line of siege tanks, yamato them! One shot takes it out.
Or then again, you can also use your Battlecruisers as backup instead
of a direct attack. Battlecruisers moving along with tanks to take out
air units is very effective. One thing to watch out for it scourges.
They are zerg air units that collide into your battlecruisers doing
over 100 damage. Watch out for them, so bring backup to take them out
before they get close.
**Advanced Strategies**
-Often times when you fight enemies they will try to destroy your
battlecruisers first. That's why it's so important to bring backup.
-Your opponent may try to nuke your battlecruisers if you leave them
alone. A battlecruiser with full upgrades will have 6 hp left after a
successful nuke, so watch out.
-If a ghost locks down a battlecruiser, quickly destroy it with
something else, or you'll have lost 400 minerals and 300 gas...
-If ghosts locks down all your battlecruisers, then...(You guessed it,
below)
Summary: Use your battlecruisers when needed, because of their
incredibly high cost. ALWAYS back up battlecruisers and exploit their
abilities well.
***********************************************************************
*
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-
Well, that's all the units in the game (Hopefully you've noticed by now
I'm not doing Brood War) so we now dig deeper into strategies. We will
exploit compound uses of units to stop and deploy certain attacks and
moves. If you have something you want answered here (game related, if
you have game problems check out the starcraft.org's forums)
-Successfully dropshipping into a peon line
-Stopping a swarm of dragoons
-Stopping the Six-Zergling rush
-Stopping the four-zealot rush
-Stopping the Eight marine rush (Not common though)
-Stopping a fleet of Carriers
-Stopping a fleet of Battlecruisers
-How to get past a turtle (bunkers, tanks and turrets as far as you can
see)
-How to nuke... right
-Why you should not turtle
-Why people turtle anyway, but shouldn't
-Why 63% of all terran games are lost...and how to attack right.
For all the strategies on stopping enemy forces, read them all first,
and figure out which one you believe the enemy is GOING to do. If I
tell you to get a ghost for a certain thing, it's not helpful to do
that after you figure out that you have the enemy force coming after
you. Have this stuff ready in advance, preferably, most of them
attacking the enemy, and the rest (not too much) ready to defend...
however.. if you attack right.. (see below)
***Successfully dropshipping into a peon line***
First, comsat the area to drop. If you see no missle turrets and no
bunkers (quite common) nearby, you're safe to dropship. Make sure you
also check the outer base to see if they've outlined their base.
If they do have missle turrets, grab a science vessel and Defense
Matrix the dropship, then grab a Wraith or two and make them both fly
toward the drop point. Make sure to slow down the Wraiths by slowly
making them move. By bringing Wraiths, not only is it harder to kill
the dropship because of the defense matrix, the missle turrets will be
distracted shooting something else. You might think that if you lose
both your Wraiths (you should be able to get your dropship out of
there) you've lost alot. Well, if you kill all their peons (usually at
least 10 or so) that's 500 minerals right there. Get some buildings (go
for the gas facilities first)
This also works with other units, for example, if they outlined their
base with like dragoons.
To make this even more successful, mount an attack on the enemy (from
the outside) and while the units are distracted, dropship them into the
base.
***Stopping a Swarm of Dragoons**
This tends to be a fun thing that protoss players like to do. Some get
like 50 dragoons and group them, then throw them at the enemy. This
usually works pretty well because of the vast numbers. To beat this..
First, if you had NO defense, you are screwed. Sorry :)
Now I know I said it's not good to turtle, but that doesn't mean you
can't have a bunker behind. This swarm of fury isn't really easy to
counter while it's happening, so you have to prevent it. Ways to
prevent it:
-Swarm spider mines everywhere by your choke point. When you see them
coming, emp them with a science vessel.
-....
Well, I guess that wasn't alot. By using EMP on them, you can
effectively strip them of 80 shield, which is almost half their total
life. Left with 100 hp, two tank shots will kill it, as well as any
dragoon near it.
What's important is that you comsat the enemy and see what they are up
to. If you see them building up mass dragoons, you can either go attack
them with everything you have, or keep building up a larger attack
force standing by as soon as the dragoons are gone.
Another thing you can also try is to nuke them. Try and kill any
observers they may have brought, then just nuke. You will kill almost
every dragoon on the screen, so retreat your troops before the nuke
falls. The dragoons are so large, that if they try to retreat, they'll
still lose some dragoons because of their.... stupidity :)
Another way is to grab your battlecruisers, and emp the one on the
front, and attack them. The one on the front will absorb most the
damage, while you attack the dragoons. Try and have a science vessel
standing by to reinitiate the defense matrix when it gets weak. Better
yet, defense matrix as many of the battlecruisers as you can :)
***Stopping the Six-Zergling Rush***
This happens very early in the game. First I'll tell you, it's
extremely difficult to stop a zergling rush in a small map such as
blood bath. If they know where you are, they can get you before you get
a marine out. So two things:
If playing on a large map, and you suspect a zergling rush, here is my
build order:
1st SCV: Created as soon as game starts
2nd SCV: Mine
3rd SCV: Mine
4th SCV: Mine
5th SCV: Mine
After you have around 48 minerals, the scv should be done. Go make that
one mine as well, and make another as soon as you can.
1st SCV: Mine
As soon as you have 50 more minerals, make another scv. You should have
two scv's being made.
7th SCV: Mine (After it's made, duh)
8th SCV: Have it mine one mineral, then make it Build a barrack near
the command center, but not directly to the right of it so you have
room for comsat later. It's important to get a barrack up as soon as
possible. Make another scv as soon as you can.
9th SCV: Build supply depot
The supply sepot and barrack should finish pretty close to each other.
Have the supply depot scv go mine, and the barrack one to build a
bunker right by the supply depot. Hopefully you've kept everything
somewhat close together.
Now, you can make four marines to stand by if you see zergling coming.
If you placed the bunker too far away, then they will attack your peons
and you won't be able to do a thing.
I usually use this build order anyway, as it gets be started well.
Then, when I have the money, I make another scv, and have that one
build a refinery, then another one build another depot... etc.
If the enemy returns with more zerglings, grab 6 or so scv's and have
them repair the bunker. If they repair the bunker completely, they will
stop and won't repair again, so you need to manually tell them to do it
again.
Do make this work on a small map like blood bath, everything must be
TIGHT. Like almost everything touches each other. This way when the
zerglings attack, you should still have a little time to finish your
bunker.
***Stopping the four-zealot rush***
Well, do the same thing as the order above for zergling rush. You have
to choices: Make more marines (not neccessarily more bunkers) to backup
the bunker you already have. When the zealots come, just shoot them.
You will probably have to bring SCV's over to repair. I can't stress
that enough. Repairing is it's special ability (really) so make it
repair bunkers.
Also, you can go for firebats. You'll need to build an acadamy, so you
can grab the scv building the bunker to build an acadamy as soon as it
can. Then you can start pumping out firebats, provided you have gas.
You should also make an scv build a refinery when you can (Yes it gets
expensive, take it when you can, and when you have the extra money,
make an scv to go mine, or make another supply depot)
And yet another method, wall in your choke points with supply depots.
Then build your bunker behind them. The zealots will get stuck trying
to get through while you shoot them (yes, you can shoot through the
bunkers :)
***Stopping the Eight Marine Rush***
Well, since this is a terran guide, even if you are both of equal skill
and get 8 marines at the same time, you enemy still has to walk over to
your base (if they've found it) and then attack. By that point,
assuming you've kept making marines, you should have more by that time.
Otherwise, the same build order used for the above two rushes work just
fine because don't underestimate the power of the bunker, especially
when supported. Just don't overuse it..
***Stopping a fleet of Carriers***
By the time the protoss get carriers, you should be all the way up the
tech tree. If you know the protoss is trying to carrier rush you, storm
them with tanks and marines while making Wraiths. If they are trying to
rush you, they will not have been concentrating on making a large
defense or an attack force.
If they aren't, and you simply see 10 carriers coming your way, you
should be far up the tech tree. There are several ways to stop this,
but there are a few things to be done in order:
First off, ALWAYS emp the mass of carriers (rarely seen individualy)
first. That way, you will kill any hallucinations so you don't waste
time killing an illusion.
Second, check one of the carriers or interceptors and see what upgrade
level's they are on. This is optional, but if they are at a higher
level than you and you must fight, you'll know to be more cautious.
Oh yeah, try not to ever fight directly over water or out of sight of
land. This can be harder on island games, so try to lure them over to
bare land. The reason for this is so that ground units can help attack
too. Even one marine can make a difference (well... maybe not... but
eight of them would)
Anyway, back to the point. Third, get your ghosts over there. Hotkey as
many ghosts as you can. I sure hope those ghosts have energy, because
you'll be locking down. Call up each hotkey (click on the unit, then
press ctrl+# to hotkey it, press # again. # stands for any numbers 1 to
9/0) then press 'L' then click on a target. That will lock down the
target. Don't bother cloaking your ghosts unless the carriers are
backed up by forces. What should you lock down first? The observer!! 99
out of 100 times, good players will bring observers along to detect
cloaked units. Bring up your comsat (hopefully hotkeyed as well, I
usually use one and two) and scan the area, or defense matrix a science
vessel and swing it by to see the observer.
Many players complain that the mass of carriers hide the observer. This
is not completely true, because observer 'fly' higher than carriers, so
you can always at least see their body when detected. Immedietly lock
it down (when locked down it won't detect anymore) and bring in wraiths
to kill it. Then, lock down as many carriers as you can to stop more
destruction, and just take them on. Most of the time these attacks fail
is because terran players fail to kill the observer (because they keep
changing targets as the observer moves around) and they are taking over
by the carriers.
Another important thing is that some players use arbiters to conceal
all the carriers. Try to lock it down as well, but always aim for the
observer first. If you didn't know yet, the observer is quite small
(the size of two marines next to each other) and looks like it has a
bulb thing on the front of it. Then, take out the arbiters, then the
carriers. If you are feeling lazy, lock down as many carriers as you
can, then bring a ghost in to nuke them. No carrier can survive a nuke
within impact range.
Anyway, ALWAYS KILL THE OBSERVER FIRST (sorry for yelling) because that
means the difference between a win and a loss. If you see multiple
observer, just lock them all down. That's why it's important to use
hotkeys, and to fight over land because ghost's can't exactly lock down
something that they can't even see....
***Stopping a Fleet of Battlecruisers***
One large reason attacks against them also fair is because of the
terran's comsat ability. There are a few ways to get around this. First
way is to use MASS numbers. 12 might cut it, but really, having like
two groups of twelve hotkeyed will end battlecruisers fast. When a
terran comsats to find cloaked units, you see the blue swirly thing
around the screen, then about a second later you are detected. In that
second, move your units out of the way, and around to attack from a
different direction. Battlecruisers are slow (heck, marines *walk*
faster than them) so do it as fast as possible.
Attacking from a different direction (one matrix above you isn't going
to work) will kind of 'cancel' the comsat. Keep yourself moving and
eventually the comsat will run out of energy to detect.
Like the observer, you will also have science vessels to contend with
as detectors. Like the observer, just lock it down with a ghost.
Or, if you are daring, fly a science vessel into the enemy base
(defense matrix it if you must) and emp the comsat. That will drain it
of all energy, and won't be detecting anything for almost a minute.
Whenever you fight large fleets, avoid fighting directly at the enemy's
home base, try to lure them away so it takes longer for them to recieve
new troops, and so they can't build detector buildings as easily.
Again, large numbers of wraiths can take out battlecruisers quite well,
especially if upgraded. Goliaths can work if you lure them to a bunch
of them, but the carrier can simply fly away, so you need Wraiths to
follow. Another way to counter is to counter with you own
battlecruisers. Locate where they are, then have ever two
battlecruisers of yours yamato one of theirs. Don't try this if all
their battlecruisers are well defended at home. The yamato will do a
guaranteed kill on battlecruiser (unless they have scv's repairing, but
rare) and will even the tide of battle.
***How to get past a turtle***
Starting with Terran turtles:
Terran's like to turtle, but that's another matter. One easy way to get
past turtle bases are to nuke them. What's hard is they are usually
surrounded with missle turrets and tanks. Here are a few... "Math"
things. Please read this!!!
If a missle turret is behind a tank, then the missle turret cannot
detect your ghost, and you can attempt a nuke.
If the missle turret is in front of a tank, then you can use your own
tank to destroy it out of the enemy tank's range (you'll have to move
slow)
I've never seen a tank directly next to a missle turret (gotta be
pixels accurate) so it's one of those two. Of course, in weird curves
and turns, this is different. One way is to send a marine in and see
how far it gets before it's shot. That's how far you can get. Then send
a cloaked ghost in and see how far you get before you are shot. That's
your cloaked range. If both of the ranges aren't far enough for you
(even with ocular implants for the ghost) then your safest option is to
send a battlecruiser in to yamato the missle turret, because nothing
else can hit it back except for another battlecruiser.
If you aren't in range still, and you don't have battlecruisers, move
your ghost up to where the dead body was (just before it) and have it
nuke just ahead. This takes some estimating. If you estimate too far
the ghost will move ahead and be shot. If you underestimate, you won't
destroy enough.
Get it somewhat right, and you should be able to kill any missle
turrets and tanks nearby (at least fatally hurt them) and just redo the
process.
If you ARE in range...
Then walk in and nuke.. unless they comsat you (it happens) or a
science vessel comes. If a science vessel comes, grab two ghosts, and
keep them far away from each other and have them both try to lock down
the vessel. If you keep dying, defense matrix one of them.
If they keep comsatting you, you can choose try a couple things. One is
to nuke from a strange location, such as off an island but still in
range. The enemy usually comsats 9 out of 10 times their choke point.
Before you nuke, stick a cloaked ghost in range of the tank, then when
they comsat, they will kill the ghost, They'll usually assume they
killed the ghost that was nuking, and won't check for the red dot
(usually) or they'll go nuts trying to. Then, the nuke will come
down... (Where the !@$# did that nuke come from!?!?!?)
The more ghosts you have in different locations, the more chance of
success (it's not THAT expensive, 25 minerals, 75 gas, if you managed
to get nukes and all that, you should at least have enough for a few
ghosts..)
Then, repeat process. Or, like above, grab a science vessel and emp the
comsat. Then just storm on in.
This is much easier against other zerg and protoss. Get tons of siege
tanks and blow them away, nothing can hit you back (hope you have some
air defense...). If you are playing a team game, pretend the spore
colonies and photon cannons are missle turrets and do the same thing as
above.
***How to nuke... right***
First, bad ways to nuke:
-Get the idea you are supposed to nuke from the silo and you nuke
yourself (doh!)
-Forgetting cloak and running into siege tanks or a bunker (doh!!)
-Making a successfull launch, but before the nuke comes you bring in
all your units to come attack and not only do you kill the enemy units
you kill all your units (You really want this nuke? I think I'll give
myself 500 screen-wide splash damage)
Good ways to nuke:
-Nuke from high ground (dropship! hah!)
-Use multiple ghosts to launch
-Use defense matrix on a ghost
-Use defense matrix on all multiple ghosts
-Nuke the same target from diffent locations (just spread them out and
multi-select and nuke)
When nuking, the main reason nukes fail is because the ghosts are...
killed. (duh...)
They are killed because someone detects them and kills them. You must
prevent detections or do the nuking in such a way they won't possibly
find all the ghosts or which one is the correct one in time (about 15
seconds)
Nuking from high ground help prevent this because even if they detect
you, ground-ground units can't hit you (firebats, zerglings, etc) and
those that can hit things higer will be less accurate at hitting you.
When nuking protoss, always emp the area before the nuke comes to do
more damage.
***Why you should not turtle***
Well, you can... but it's not a good idea. Turtling slows you down
because you work so hard on a defense you don't make an attack force as
well and while the enemy does, you'll be stuck in your base until the
enemy captures every resource spot on the map and comes with unlimitted
resources and units and you will eventully be crushed. It doesn't
matter if you have a 10:1 kill ratio, you will eventually lose,
especially if it's a money map.
Oh yeah, it's pretty cheap to, and besides, how do you 'defend someone
to death'?
***Why people turtle anyway***
People do, because they like to see units come and be toasted as they
laugh as they are hardly hit...initially..
People also turtle so they can build up an attack force without
disruptance. Well, this can work if you're really fast, but still if
someone gets past your defense while you are building your force....
your screwed.
Besides, NO DEFENSE IS IMPENETRABLE so don't over do it.
That's not to say you can't defend at all though. A bunker, missle
turret, and siege tanks are enough for your choke point. A missle
turret or two around the edge can help kill incoming dropships, but
don't overdo it. Read below on attacking to see why.
***Why 63% of all terran games are lost....and how to attack***
They lose because they turtle and never attack. They might attack, but
most players who turtle get like one type of unit (mass cruisers or
carriers) and well, reading above you'll know how to counter them.
'nuff said.
If you don't turtle or defend you might think "Then heck, I'll die",
which is why you attack.
*-*-*-*-Attacking-*-*-*-*
When attacking, always attack with at least two unit types, unless you
are one of those rush people.
To destroy an enemy force, you must overpower it, and to overpower it
you must either have more superior forces, or have forces superior in
size. However, there are exceptions to this obviously, for example, did
you know one Wraith can take out 400 zerglings? Of course you did.
Because zerglings can't shoot air! Oh wait... can they? No, they can't.
Because of that, that's why you must use at least two unit types,
preferably ones that attack both air and ground, so you aren't pummeled
by units you can't even attack on. This is especially important in
later games where you are far up the tech tree.
Also, another strategy on attacking is to split up your forces. Make
two attack forces and attack from different sides. If you have one path
to attack from, put them on opposite sides of the path. It all helps
because the enemy must spread their firepower.
Another effective way is to dropship units behind the enemy, then bring
in more to attack from the front. Then they must attack in two totally
different directions. This is very effective.
Also, don't neglect marines. Always have some. When I say some I mean
at least eight always. I usually have a couple barracks (sometimes
three or four if it turns into a ground battle) with marines coming out
when I have the money and the supply. Always bring some when attempting
a tank attack.
When attacking a base with tanks, where you know enemies are going to
come down, grab a quad of vultures and lay mines all around the area.
Then when they come to attack they will be toasted by the spider mines
(if they don't destroy them, so that's why you make tons of them)
Oh yeah, have a science vessel standing around always, so when you see
that swarm of hydralisks or zealots come, shoot a couple irradiations
and you'll finish them off alot faster.
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And finally, a few more things...
Combos to use your units in:
Marines/Firebats: Marines can shoot far away, firebats to toast up
front. Turns zerglings into carbon based paste quickly.
Goliaths and Wraiths: Toast many air units very quickly, especially if
you use above strategies to pretect your Wraiths. The goliaths rock
because their Air attack is 25% strong than the Wraith when fully
upgraded (both of them)
Wraiths and Battlecruisers: Battlecruisers toast everything while
wraiths defend thim. Especially important against zerg when they fling
scourges at you.
Marines and Wraiths: Kill units on the ground with marines while
Wraiths toast other units around.
Science Vessel and Battlecruiser: Get lots of vessels (like 5) and
defense matrix all your battlecruiser and make them attack. Fearsome if
not countered right.
Remember that any of these can be countered if the enemy has more
superior forces than you.
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Cheats:
Just for fun, these are the cheats that can be used in single one
player games in starcraft, as well as my comments on them. Just hit
enter and type in the cheat while playing (the actual game) and hit
enter again:
Power overwhelming: Makes you invicible. However, if you attack
yourself, you are still hurt, and splash damage still effects you.
operation cwal: Makes everything build super fast. Build a command
center in 6 seconds flat! This also affects the computer player as
well, so beware.
the gathering: gives you unlimitted energy (ghost cloaking/lockdown
energy, etc) but also effects the computer. The computer likes to shoot
lots of yamato shots if this is on...
ophelia: Type this once, then type the name of the race (terran,
protoss, or zerg) then the level number. If you want to go to terran
mission four, you type
Ophelia (press enter)
terran4
If you want to do this for a broodwar mission, just add an ex, IE,
xterran4
black sheep wall: reveals the map, but doesn't spot cloaked units for
you still
war ain't what it used to be: kills the fog of war, so wherever you
move to will always be revealed.
modify the phase variance: lets you build anything, anytime.
show me the money: gives you 10,000 gas and minerals.
breath deep: gives you 500 gas
whats mine is mine: gives you 500 minerals
food for thought: No 'supply limit' but you are still restricted by the
universal 200 supply, just means you don't have to build supply depots.
medieval man: Generic upgrades and abilities are free and researched
something for nothing: upgrades everything one level (do it three times
for max)
staying alive:Lets you keep playing if you win, rather pointless,
unless you like to kill. Can only go on using the end level cheat.
there is no cow level: ends the level, takes you to next one. Must use
if you use the staying alive cheat and you want to go on.
There are a couple other cheats but they are really really useless. If
you really want them, just go to starcraft.org or www.gamefaqs.com and
I guarantee the faqs there will have them.
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That's my faq! I'll be planning to add more to it, specifically
buildings, and more strategies as I learn, discover, and experience
them. Please tell me what you think!
Thanks:
To Blizzard for making this great game!
To Starcraft.org for a great site to show this!
To www.gamefaqs.com for hosting it!
To the current squad I'm in, {MX} for helping me with some experiments.
Seeya! E-mail me at alexis@warstrike.com if you have questions or
comments. Seeya, again! Oh hey, if you want to play a game, e-mail me.
I'll also be seen on the game as Alexis or {MX}~Alexias
