StarCraft (Original Version) Terran Units

I love this game. I play this game with delight despite the fact that it was released on March 1998, over 15 years ago. This game is a lot ore complicated than the ones that I've written about so far, so I will do this post as best as I can. Man, this post is going to be longer than usual.

StarCraft is a strategy game created by Blizzard Entertainment which puts you in command of your choice of one of the three races: Terran, Zerg, or Protoss. If you play in campaign mode, the objectives may vary, but in multiplayer, the sole goal is to obliterate the enemy base and their units. After Starcraft, there also is an expansion pack called Brood War. Starcraft 2, the sequel of the original, was released in 2010. This post will explain to you about the Terran.

Terran
The Terran are humans who have been exiled by the government due to overpopulation in the 21st century. They are sent to colonize planets in space. Technologically and pshychologically, they are in the middle of the three races, lower than the Protoss but higher than the Zerg. The units available in Starcraft for Terran are written below. I don't think that I will be able to include every single unit though.


T-280 Space Construction Vehicle (SCV)

SCVs are the basic unit that you will start out with in the game. SCVs are used for mining minerals, harvesting gas, and building structures. SCVs have more HP than the other starting units, the probe and the drone, so they are formidabble in early rushes. They also can attack, and may win against a zergling if the SCV attacks first.






Marine

Marines compose the bulk of most Terran front-line forces. They are the cheapest and easiest units to produce. Marines are generally equipped with powered armor suits and rapid-fire C-14 rifles. The suit provides full life-support and NBC protection, allowing marines to deploy into environments that would otherwise be deadly to human life. Marines are useless alone, but can be very effective in groups.

Firebat

Firebats are armored troopers who shoot barrages of fire at their enemies. The firebat's attack is most effective against groups of small-sized units, for it deals concussive splash damage. Firebats are most effective in the early game, as all of the base units for the three races are small. Later on, when more massive units come out, their effectiveness begins to dwindle. Supported by medics, firebats can stand up to zealots despite the large difference in health between them. With stim packs and medics, firebats can easily defeat swarms of zerglings. The firebat's attack is ranged, but it still works under the defiler's Dark Swarm. Their attack also deals full damage against Protoss shields, regardless of the size of the unit.

Medic

Medics are units which have the ability to heal friendly or allied units. However, they cannot attack so they are vulnerable to enemy units. Medics are most effective when healing marines or firebats during their use of stim packs, a drug that increases the firepower of the marine or firebat. It is always good to have one or two medics when going around in groups.









Ghost

Ghosts are powerful psychics who are trained to be assassins. In the game, ghosts are able to cloak, which enables them to walk past most enemies unnoticed. They also are capable of using the skill 'Lockdown', which prevents enemy units from moving or attacking  for a period of time. Ghosts are the only unit which can call a nuclear strike, a powerful attack which deals 500 damage to everything around an area at the expense of the ghost's life. Ghosts are useful for picking off individual units as most units are helpless against a ghost without a unit or structurethat has the 'Detector' ability.

Vulture

Vultures are ideal for scouting and dealing with small-sized ground units such as zerglings, zealots, marines and firebats. Given that vultures are not very durable, they are most effective when using hit-and-run attacks to harass the enemy and are not recommended for large scale attacks. Vultures are also effective hunters against units such as high templar, defilers and other ground-based spellcaster units and can get rid an expansion base's workers in little time.  

Goliath

Goliaths are most useful against medium and large-sized air units such as Battlecruisers, scouts, wraiths, and Carriers. Their ground attack isn't as great, two or three marines having greater firepower. Goliaths are best used in games where the opponent relies heavily on aerial units, as they are effective in destroying them and becoming moving missile turrets. Goliaths aren't as good against small-sized air units such as scourges and mutalisks but when with a few marines, the problem is solved.

Siege Tank

The siege tank is the most powerful land unit among the Terran. They have two modes: tank mode and siege mode. In tank mode ,the siege tank is decent against large ground units and in groups, certainly capable of dealing with medium and small units with ease. Arguably, it's still not as efficient as a group of marines, especially if a force is being moved by dropship (which can carry 2 tanks or 8 marines).

The siege tank is most useful in siege mode though, fusing a powerful attack with the longest range of any ground unit in the game. They are useful with bunkers, adding devastating firepower to  The tank's siege mode range is greater than its sight range; supporting a tank with spotters is useful.

However, their Arclite Shock Cannon deals splash damage as well, and may end up killing some of your own units instead.

Wraith

The Wraith is best against large-sized air targets. With the Apollo Reactor a Wraith can remain cloaked for over 3.5 minutes. The ground attack and cloak make Wraiths are useful for harassing the workers of poorly defended expansions. They are also useful for picking out lone units scouting before the opposition can react.  Wraiths, however, have a weak ground attack, are fairly fragile against most units, and easily damaged. While this is compensated with the cloaking ability, Wraiths are not very massable due to their cost.

Science Vessel

The science vessel is a terran mobile detector. Like most other spell casters, science vessels have no direct form of attack. Air units such as scourge, wraiths or scouts are ideal for dealing with the slower science vessel. The science vessel can be built at a starport. They are detectors, which enable them to detect cloaked enemies such as wraiths and also are effective against Lurkers, which burrow themselves under the ground.

Dropship

Dropships are transport shuttles which have the ability to transport units to other locations. They can either hold 8 marines, 4 goliaths, or 2 siege tanks. Dropships are useful for transporting units to the battlefield but cannot attack, which makes them vulnerable to enemy fire. Scourges wraiths, and scouts are effective in destroying them, for they are faster than the dropship and do a significant amount of damage.

Valkryie

The Valkyrie fires rockets in salvos of eight. Each rocket has a base damage of 6 (explosive) and causes splash damage to enemy units within a 3x3 matrix around its detonation. The rate of fire overcomes the weakness of the damage type against small and medium-sized targets. However, since target armor affects each rocket individually, high armor units such as battlecruisers and carriers are particularly resistant to the Valkyrie. Valkyries are best used against tightly packed groups of low armor targets, similar to the corsair. This makes them especially deadly against wraiths, mutalisks, overlords, guardians, queens, corsairs, shuttles and dropships. They are not very efficient against groups of scouts however, since the scout has an additional 100 shield points along with its 150 hitpoints and the scout's missiles being one of the most powerful in the game.  Valkryies cannot attack ground units, making them vulnerable to nearly every ground unit in the game except for units such as siege tanks, vultures, zealots, firebats, and zerglings (all which cannot attack air units).

Battlecruiser

Battlecruisers have a staggering 500 hit points, making it the only standard unit able to withstand a nuclear strike. Battlecruisers are devastating against many air and ground units, for their armor makes many unit's weapons ineffective against them. Their Yamato Cannon is their ultimate weapon. Researched at a science facility with an attached physics lab, the Yamato Cannon deals 260 damage, turning most units to dust.  However, battlecruisers are slow which makes it very difficult to run away in the case that things are turning to the worst. Some units are effective against the battlecruiser though, such as scouts and mutalisks.

Well, I suppose that that's all of the units for the Terran in Starcraft. Next time, I will write about the its of the Protoss, and then the Zerg. After that, I will write about the three races' structures. So long for now!