Prelude – Orders – Protoss – Zerg – Terrans – Wrapup

The last of the three race posts, for the race that maybe should have come first – after all, the Terrans are the SciFi humans every SciFi world needs. They’re descendants of today’s humans, too. Which I find somewhat boring, I’m a human in real life already. Nevertheless, the Terrans are a very tempting choice for StarCraft.

Sorry for the delay in publishing this post – it was ready very soon after the Zerg one, but then that accident thingy happened (I’ll write another post about it in the next couple weeks, too), and now with painkillers and concentration problems, reading through it to make sure it was ready to publish took forever. In fact, I guess this sole paragraph took about half as long as the rest of the post did (including pictures). As always, feel free to point out mistakes and errors and alternate strategies.

Generic Terran Strategy

The Terrans are neither incredibly aggressive nor incredibly defensive. That makes them the strategic middle ground between Protoss and Zerg – and very flexible regarding what long-term strategy they pursue.

The cheapest of the three new Brood War modules for them is the assist module, and indeed the Terran assist units are pretty strong and really are what can make the Terrans truly shine.

Something that is true for any race, but in particular for the Terrans: Watch what your opponents are building, and keep building counters to their strong units. The Terrans are particularly strong in that they have tons of counters available for many situations – making them particularly dangerous in an experienced player’s hands, but a bit harder to come to grips with for a beginner.

Strategic Focus

The Terrans have, unlike the Zerg with their tech building and the Protoss with their support unit building, three buildings that have full unit lines that work against both ground and air, with both the Barracks and the Factory being ground-based. Every line can be made to work. I’ll mostly skip Medic and Science Vessel tech in the descriptions here, as they apply to all strategies and are described further down.

Let’s start with tons of Marines, something that doesn’t really work in the computer game but just might in the board game. You can build a small army pretty quickly, and unlike Zerglings they can attack air and have Stim Packs, stronger attack cards (albeit with lower health) that still work later in the game. Get plenty of Marines, some Firebats (since the Marines no longer have splash damage with Brood War, the Firebats have a reason to exist now as well), and add in enough Medics to make good use of your tech. You best supplement them with Science Vessels then. Make sure to suplement with Ghosts, for more units and for more available combat cards.

• Tech – if you want to stay with Marines, you’ll need quite a few things. For one, you’ll have to protect them – Bunker obviously, but Medics help out pretty well, with Heal and Optic Flare. And Science Vessels, with Defense Matrix. For the attack, you’ll need Stim Packs, and Irradiate is always nice. Consider researching the techs that have good minor combat values, Nuke (7/4) and Yamato Gun (4/7). Since you have so many cards in your deck after all that and probably want to recharge some reinforcement tech, also get Improved Reactors.
• Strengths are similar to the Zergling rush, you’re fast. But the Marines can sustain their damage and survivability longer because they have more tech that helps them with it. Where the Zergling rush is only a first-few-turns thing, Marines (if supported well) can well prove worthwhile throughout the game. Did I mention that a Marine (Yamato Gun minor values, Defense Matrix, Bunker) can have up to 11 health? Anyway, this strategy probably works best for Jim Raynor, as he has better Leadership cards supplementing the Marines.
• Weaknesses are simply, lack of air-bound units, lack of plastic miniatures (just 6 Marines, 3 Firebats, 3 Medics), and lack of unit space – as any weenie strategy, being only able to have 2-4 defenders in an area might hurt with low health values. Unlike Zerg, Terrans don’t have Pneumatized Carapace either and thus have it harder to overwhelm enemies. The tech dependency also bloats your combat deck, making it less probable that you draw the cards you need (although that’s moderated by Restoration, Improved Reactors, and the Terran’s bigger hand size). And you can only use 8 out of 20 combat cards.
• Variants are mostly, in what order you get which tech. If you want to play your Marines offensively (and suicidally, they’re cheap), get Stim Packs first and save the Bunker until later. If you mainly want to keep what you have, get the defensive stuff first. You can also supplement your Marines with Vultures (maybe with Spider Mines, they use 3 more combat cards) or Wraiths (with Cloaking Field, they use 6 more combat cards), and you’re pretty close to Ghosts with Nuke.
• Countermeasures consist of single strong units that survive against Marines (Ultralisks, Carriers, Battlecruisers, Lurkers, etc.), cloaking (Dark Templar, Wraiths, Lurkers again) with hit-and-run, or splash (Psionic Storm, Irradiate, Siege Tanks). Make sure you either take away the Marines’ advantage (their number) or make sure it doesn’t matter because you have even more health than they can penetrate even with support.

Then, there’s the vehicle-based ground force. Ultimately, it leads to Siege Tanks, who (with both collateral damage and ground splash damage) pack quite a punch. Unfortunately, they’re not much better than Reavers who are potentially available earlier (also see this thread). This line brings Goliaths against air, Vultures and Spider Mines for splash damage, and pretty high health values (plus the repair card for another +1 health) with immunity against some anti-biological things like Irradiate. Nevertheless, you should probably bring along some Marines as well, because while your vehicles are resilient, they’re not as tough as Protoss units can be. You might want to substitute them with Wraiths early on as well, since enemy air won’t sleep (and you do want those air-only conquest point areas).

• Tech is, again, plentiful. Spider Mines for Vultures, Siege Mode for Siege Tanks, and probably Charon Boosters for Goliaths are bare necessities. If you get Wraiths, always take Cloaking Field, and that alone makes it even worthwhile to pick up Improved Reactors. You can back up the mechs and tanks with either Medics or Science Vessels (or later, both), depending on the enemy.
• Strengths, collateral damage with the Siege Tanks, plenty of splash, and strong armor. That’s about it – you do pack a lot of punch per unit with this strategy. And, you’ll be able to use 17 out of 20 combat cards.
• Weaknesses against air are all over the place – Siege Tanks and Vultures can’t even attack air, and the Goliaths aren’t the super duper anti air thingies they should be if you rely on them alone. Furthermore, you don’t get any assist units with your primary building (the Factory), so make sure you have enough build orders to help out with a tier 2 Barracks or Starport.
• Variants are somewhat limited, the Terran vehicle line just has those three types. Get more or less Marines along with your vehicles, mix and match according to enemy unit configurations (more Siege Tanks if they stay on the ground, more Goliaths if they don’t).
• Countermeasures are, who’d have thought, mainly air-based. The strong ground splash damage all over the place makes staying on the ground somewhat suicidal. And make sure you protect your bases with an anti-air module, you don’t want that collateral damage to hurt you as much. Fun: Dark Swarm.

Next, we have the flyer strategy, focusing on getting to Battlecruisers quickly. The Terran Wraith is pretty strong already, this line has the earliest access to the strong Science Vessels, and Battlecruisers keep arguing with the Carriers about who rules the sky. Wraiths with their tech-induced cloaking can be hugely annoying. If your enemy has air troops, Valkyries are just scary. If your enemy has many ground forces, Vultures can make tremendous sense as a supplement.

• Tech, do get Yamato Gun, and Cloaking Field, and Defensive Matrix! Your Science Vessels are only operational if they have tech, so look into EMP Shockwave and Irradiate. Keep your hand supplied with Improved Reactors. If you go for Vultures, do improve them with Spider Mines.
• Strengths are that the units involved are indeed rather strong, and even more resilient due to the Terrans also having some +health cards.
• Weaknesses, the strategy is pretty slow and expensive. While Wraiths can be aired fairly quickly, until a reasonable fleet of Battlecruisers dominates the sky, some time passes. Also, you only have 9 combat units, with 3 Wraiths, 3 Valkyries and 3 Battlecruisers, only 6 of which work against ground targets – so maintaining a bigger empire could prove challenging, you will have to supplement with Marines or vehicles.
• Variants are mix-and-match things with other strategies. Get Medics to support you with tech, or Marines to help out with mass, or vehicles for strong ground level support. Essentially, the flexibility of the Terrans comes to full fruition here, but it comes at the cost of many build orders because no real natural variants exist for this strategy.
• Countermeasures are everything that’s anti-air – Devourers, Scourges, tons of Hydralisks or Goliaths, Dragoons with Singularity Charge. Relying on strong units, the strategy is also susceptible to splash damage from Psionic Storm, Plague and the likes.

Specific Units

Pretty much every unit has been covered by now, except the Ghost. Unfortunately, they’re not stronger than Marines for regular combat although they can have cloaking. Their only real use is the Nuke technology. If you want to get that to work, you need…

• A tier 3 Barracks
• Ghosts
• The Nuke tech
• A reasonable attack vector

For the attack vector, either you have a weak enemy unit that doesn’t kill your Ghost with 6 health – potentially, every single unit bar unsupported Marines without Stim Packs can have sufficient strength here. Or you need a mechanical unit that you can Lockdown. Or, you can survive through Cloaking Field, if you have an area to withdraw to. Finally (thanks Blarknob), a Medic with Flare can keep you alive. Add an enemy with a defensive module, and you’re in a tight spot. All these preriquisites, and all you get for it is 2 dead units, not even collateral damage. It can be strong, but only if you have isolated tough enemy units.

It is possible to house rule this, maybe you want to do that. A way to make Nuke work after all could be by using Jim Raynor and his Covert Operations leadership card. If you do get it to work, your opponents will certainly be surprised – it’s worth trying for that alone.

(The Nuke image is out of the Starcraft II Fansite Kit.)

Other Tech

The hidden strength of the Terrans lies in their assist units and unit tech, so they need some getting used to before they can shine. The generic techs we haven’t mentioned yet:

• Improved Reactors looks like it makes less sense for Terrans due to their inherently higher hand card limit, but the recharge ability is even better for such a tech-dependent race. Also, since you’ll probably research a lot of tech, you’ll also have a bigger deck than other players. Get it early, and use it well.
• Scanner Sweep is the Terran way to gain detector. It’s not as awesome as Observers, but probably better than the Queen. Downside, you have to keep researching it regularly if your opponents exploit cloaking, but the upside is that you don’t need any particular unit in skirmishes for it to work. If you have Science Vessels (with built-in detector), maybe you want to skip this.

I said before that I wanted to get back to Science Vessels and Medics. Here they are:

• Science Vessel techs are worth taking apart a little, since not every one is worth it in every situation – you don’t want those you can’t use, as they’ll just bloat your combat deck. Science Vessels are awesome overall though, never play Terrans without them.
  • Defense Matrix is always good, a free +1 health.
  • EMP Shockwave is strongest against Protoss, and makes sense if your current enemies use assist units
  • Irradiate is strongest against Zerg, or Marines, while fairly useless against everything else – although, as Mark T pointed out in the comments, it’s still a +1 attack card that costs just 1 gas to research
• A similar reasoning applies for Medic techs, as bloat is bad, and Medic techs can decide games:
  • Heal, only take this if you build on Marines and Firebats.
  • Optic Flare, if your opponent builds strong units, it’s useless against rushes but can bring Carriers and Battlecruisers to their knees.
  • Restoration whenever you build more than one Medic, it’s awesome.

Factions and Leadership Cards

Jim Raynor is a rebel. He can survive against the odds, and make the best of limited resources – meaning, if he gains power, he can grow even larger (due to higher efficiency) than others. Not Zerg-like, but certainly faster than Arcturus Mengsk. His leadership cards are all opportunist – also meaning, the opportunity for using them well is not always given, but if it is, they’re really efficient.

• Stage 1 decides whether Raynor goes for Nuke or only maybe does so. The rest is still fairly open at this point.
  • Raynor’s Raiders, the special victory, does mean that he has to control a fairly large number of areas – if unlucky, he needs more than 3 planets to fulfill it. But he can be incredibly spread out, with everybody else going for conquest points and him only snatching remote 1-2 resource areas, and still win. It’s worth a try. True to the lore, too.
  • His Storage Facilities are perfect if you ever find yourself struggling with resources or areas. Even if you have no areas at all, you can have 6 minerals and 3 gas (or 4 minerals and 5 gas) at your disposal. Or you can save up for a big investment and then produce a Battlecruiser armada at once. Very flexible, maybe best used for getting out of a tight spot, but incredibly useful if you’re ahead as well.
  • Covert Operations are the Nuke plan I talked about. Particularly great: You don’t need transports to land your Ghosts. A big threat in your backhand, use it well and don’t forget about those Ghosts. This lets you skip the first two steps of “making Nuke work”, only leaving the Nuke tech and the attack vector to you. Also (thanks cybek), this card gives you tons of starting units, perfect for a Marine-centered early-turn strategy.
• Stage 2 either brings Jim Raynor to support you when things go well, or helps you out with resources and special orders.
  • Jim Raynor is probably the best support hero in the game. He gives everybody +1 attack – particularly if you have tons of Marines, well worth it. His own combat values are not that astounding, albeit still solid. Don’t waste him.
  • Make do with Little, a very good card name. I saw Raynor survive in 2 areas thanks to Storage Facilities and this one, despite efforts from all neighbors to destroy him. Also, by strict reading of the card you don’t need a base to build that transport, so you can hop planets fairly quickly (also see here).
• The stage 3 cards continue the tradition of being opportunist and occasionally awesome.
  • To the Bitter End is great if somebody is about to win soon, and it essentially means 2 free conquest points for yourself. If you’re behind, catch up, if you’re in front, charge ahead, if you’re close to your special victory, deny others their normal victory (even if they already have enough conquest points, since leadership cards are resolved before normal victory is checked).
  • The Psi-Disruptor gives you breathing space, and occasionally means your enemy will destroy his main force. Try to make them retreat to a planet that can’t support their numbers. I’ve seen it happen: A huge army of flyers, forced to retreat to a planet (one of those space stations) with only 2 air-allowed spaces in one area. That was fun.

Arcturus Mengsk, the I’m-not-sure-if-benevolent dictator. He’s certainly power-hungry, not really my type. But, his leadership cards make overlooking that fact tempting, as they do promise what he’s after: Power. Yummie. In a way, his leadership cards are opposite to Jim Raynor’s: Arcturus Mengsk benefits most from them when he’s already strong, so see to it that you never get into a situation where you can’t use them properly.

• Stage 1 is all about where you want your special privileges early on.
  • Terran Dominion, the special victory condition, lets you claim just two planets to win. Try to strike where nobody expects you to, have just one planet coming stage 3 and maybe obviously threaten another one, then see to it that you can sneak to another weakly defended planet through a Z-Axis connection.
  • Emperor Arcturus I is similar to the Queen of Blades’ Glimpse the Future – as it mostly affects setup. Being able to choose your planets is a pretty powerful tool, although they can be taken away. Don’t just take two high-resource planets, as they’ll have many connections (remember the Game Prelude post).
  • The Sons of Korhal, which is the star order. Unmatched in long-term flexibility. Although I hear it’ll be errata’d to have to be played face-up, it’ll still be powerful. Don’t know what you want to do yet? Star order. Want 4 build orders? Star order. Need 2 special mobilize orders? Star order. It really is powerful.
• Stage 2 doesn’t work well if you’re currently weak, but can well establish a position of power if you’re in one already.
  • The Norad II, only take this if you have or want to get Yamato Gun. The +1 health alone won’t save him, and if you have Yamato Gun already you can take it (or maybe some tech card?) into your hand, too. If you don’t have a hugely strong position, take this one anyway.
  • Tactical Mastery is best if you have a big empire at this point. More, somewhat free, conquest points, overtake everybody and leave them in the dust. Just don’t place them too tempting or you (or rather, the planets you formerly were on) might become prime invasion target.
• Finally, stage 3 is all about the final push. At this point you should really get both Battlecruisers and Siege Tanks, the strongest of the Terran’s land- and air-based troops. You’re a dictator after all.
  • Terran Civilization is mostly good if you want to diversify and surprise your opponent. You have strong air, but no Factory, and your enemy’s Dragoons spoil it all? Surprise them with Siege Tanks in the next round. The special build orders can be good as well – keep in mind that you shouldn’t really place any build orders since you’ll gain more flexibility if you don’t (kinda like with Deathblow). If you expect the game to take more than 1-2 turns still, a solid choice.
  • Scorched Earth Policy has two parts, and the good thing is that both of them are great. Supplement your forces with what they don’t have, but make it short-term – and if you have Battlecruisers, make them even more destructive than they already are. It’s really everything a dictator needs, a one-shot, but a very powerful one. Together with Norad II, you can have 3 Battlecruisers without even a Starport.

The United Earth Directorate, a faction that didn’t come with the expansion itself but was shortly after added by FFG on their homepage as bonus content (direct link to .pdf). Did I mention I love FFG? I’ll have to make a post about how great their customer service is some day. Anyway. I didn’t playtest these yet, so everything I say to them is just guesswork. They look like the middle ground between Raynor’s focus on getting out of a tight spot, and Mengsk’s focus on maintaining power.

• Stage 1
  • Eliminate Alien Target looks like a very special special victory condition, it’s closer to The Overmind than any other special victory condition. Probably makes going for collateral damage and Siege Tanks well worth it.
  • Advanced War Machines is a nice head start for air- or vehicle-based strategies.
  • Special Funding is similar to Storage Facilities and probably best if you’re in a tight spot, or saving up for something big. It’s more of a head start as well though, like Advanced War Machines.
• Stage 2
  • The Element of Surprise probably works particularly well if people didn’t anticipate the change to stage 2 just yet. So it might be worth working up to it with research orders.
  • General Dugalle prevents opponents from retreating, basically. Which must be lovely for defense, but not really working for the offense.
• Stage 3
  • The Time for Victory, more like “let’s dig in” – if you have a good position and want to fortify it, that must be the way.
  • Orbital Bombardment finally is more of an offensive card, although it doesn’t destroy any units it can push an opponent back and force them to place more build orders than they planned to in order to get back to former strength.

Prelude – Orders – Protoss – Zerg – Terrans – Wrapup