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Terrans are the human counter parts of starcraft. They have midocre technology and weapons,
and a solid balance between numbers and power. Terran units have a flaw, though. Once a Terran unit becomes damaged,
it remains damaged until it is repaired or healed. No terran unit can regenerate health. This keeps your SCV's and Medics
busy constantly. Terran buildings themselves have some unique qualities that set them aside from the other two races:
1) Mobility; most terran buildings can lift off the ground and move to a new location, although very
slowly.
2) Versatility; Terran structures can be built anywhere, they are not restricted to
areas like the zerg creep and the protoss pylons.
3)Degeneration; Unfortunately, Once a Terran structure is pushed into the 'red
zone', it will continue to deplete one health point at a time until it finnally blows up, unless
it is repaired first.
Ground Units
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| Marines work best in large numbers... |
The first unit available to you in a terran army is the Terran Marine, outfitted with your basic hazardous
environment powered suites for battle on temprately dangerous planets or in the vacuum of space. They tote a semi-automatic
guass rifle, termed by the Terrans as the "Impaler" for the armor peircing rounds it fires. The marines come cheap at two
for a dollar(50 minerals a peice) and require one supply per personnel; this comes for a reason. Quoted from the Prima's Strategy
Guide, the marine's average expected life-span in battle is about seven seconds, and they're not joking! With only 40 hit
points and a base attack of 6, a single marine isn't going to be dishing out much punishment against anything much stronger
than a drone, so send a set of medics with them to add to their chance of survival. However, marines do fairly well
when firing from the protection of a bunker, and a good handfull of them can chew through light aircraft with relative ease.
Also, with the addition of the medic to your infantry, you are free to use the marine's stim pack ability to double the marines
firepower and running speed without having to worry about sudden side affects such as instant death in battle.
Despite the marines relatively low stats, it has multiple uses in mid to late game. They make a very
cheap and efficient backup unit for the rest of your army. Because of their low cost and reasonable offensive ability, they
are a choice unit to have hanging around your base to help backup your regular defences and they hold their own well when
coupled with high-end units such as goliaths and siege tanks. All in all, no functional Terran army should have less than
a dozen marines at any one time
| The firebat |
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Firebats are the Terrans' one and only form of melee combat. They sport tougher armor than the marines
and double flame throwers mounted on each wrist. The firebats attack does splash damage, making this unit ideal to use against
masses of smaller units such as zealots and zerglings. If you're having some trouble keeping the melee attackers from leveling
your bunkers, swap a few of the marines out for a firebat or two. The firebat also features the stim pack ability, once
researched, and can be used to quickly turn the tide of a one-sided battle. Although firebats have a high attack power, it
diminishes greatly when used against heavily armored enemies. Also the firebat has no way to protect itself when confronted
with an airborne enemy, so don't send them against your enemy without ranged backup.
| The Ghost |
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The Terran Ghost is one of few spell casting units that are capable of defending itself but
it has such a feeble attack that the results are rarely worth the cost of producing the ghost in the first place. But
they do have a couple, more practical uses:
Personel Cloaking: The ghost can cloak for a short period of time, depending on its mana reserve.
The cloak is useful for recon purposes and launching a nuclear weapon. Beware of detectors; the ghost isn't exactly beefed
up with health points, so it won't last long if spotted.
Lockdown: This spell temporarily disables any mechanical unit, leaving them open to attack. The affected
unit is unable to attack or respond, leaving you the time you need to kill it or get away. Any unit caught in a lockdown is
lost from the control group it is set to.
Nuclear Strike: With an armed nuclear silo, the ghost can paint a target for a nuclear strike. When
a ghost starts a nuclear strike (it is wise to cloak the ghost, making it harder to find) all players recieve the message
"Nuclear launch detected". The ghost is unable to attack or move while painting the target, leaving it vulnerable. If a player
kills the ghost before the nuke hits, the nuke is stopped and the nuking player looses the nuke, and the resources it took
to make it. But if a nuke hits, it usually desimates all but the toughest buildings and every unit,
with the exception of an upgraded Battle cruiser, within its blast radius. Cloaked or burrowed units are not protected
from a nuke. Try, however, not to rely too heavily on nukes because experienced players will simply find the ghost and
destroy it.
| The Medic |
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The Medic is the new addition to the Terran force. At first glance, a medic may not seem
like such a great unit, but its use is unsurpassed in the Terran infantry. The medic unit has no attack value, but keeping
a few of them mixed in with your marines and firebats can mean the difference between victory and defeat in the early to mid-game.
Medics automatically heal any friendly biological unit thats nearby at about the same speed the SCV repairs buildings
and vehicles, as long as its mana reserve holds out. Aside from keeping your marines happy, the medics also provide some handy
spells:
Restoration: This spell is the medics second most valuable asset. This spell cures almost any battlefield
alliament. Restoration cures many problems including parasite, acid spores, plague, lockdown, ensnare, maelstrom, irradiate,
and probably something else I forgot to list. The only problem a medic cant fix is optical flares.
Optical flares: This is the medics only way to attack, even if it doesnt actually harm the HP of
a unit. A unit exsposed to the optical flare is permanently blinded, meaning they can only see one square matrix. This makes
getting by lone units much easier. If ever the opportunity arises, hit an enemy detector unit with optical flares
to revoke thier detecting ability. Be advised, a blind unit can still fire on you, as long as it has something else to
spot for it, so you wont make much trouble with an optical flare and a group of siege tanks.
Although no picture is available, the SCV is very important because it is your
gathering unit; just don't rely on them for a solid defense. It's much more efficient to use them for what they were
made for, building and gathering gas and minerals. The SCV cannot be assigned another tasks while they build a structure,
they must stay and build until it is finished or until you press the cancel button. The SCV also repairs the terrans buildings,
sometimes stopping them from burning to the ground. It is always a good idea to keep a few SCV's just behind the front line
of your defenses to keep your tanks dent-free and the bunkers at full health. That said, you might as well send a few with
any large mech force. It can be alot more cost effective to repair your fleet of battle cruisers and siege tanks
than to replace them.
| The Vulture |
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The Vulture is the first Terran vehicle available to you. It's uses are limited due to
its low attack power, and the fact that it can't attack air targets doesn't help much either. It does make good backup for
marines and firebats but dont go crazy building them, because they are easy to destroy. But with thier speed upgrade, they
are the fastest units in the game, which make them good quick response units for a sprawling base. Vultures also have a unique
ability. With the spider mine upgrade, each vulture comes with three free spider mines. Spider mines are cloaked to enemies,
unless they use a detector to spot for them. Spider mines come with a built-in detector, so cloaked units are not safe from
spider mines. When a ground unit happens to wonder near a spider mine, it will pop out of the ground and scury towards the
targeted enemy and exlpode, ussually killing the enemy and many units around it. However, mines wont get set off by hovering
units, like a probe or an archon. Due to the vulture's explosive attack type, they are better for use against small,
lightly armored enemies, such as zealots or zerglings.
| The siege tank(in siege mode) |
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The siege tank is the crowning glory of the terran ground force. The siege tank packs a nice punch
of 30 HPs per hit in tank mode and a whopping 70 HPs of damage in siege mode. Large groups of seige tanks can mow
down fields of incoming enemies before they even reach your front line. They have a nice stock of health points to back them
up, and, in siege mode, they bost the longest attack range in the game. They are great for breaking enemy blockades and backing
up your bunker denses. Due to their powerful splash damage, choke points and siege tanks get along well. Also, unlike the
Protoss Revear, the siege tank can fire over any terrain so long as the target is in range. But because the siege tank is
a large unit and it has a minimal range in siege mode, they are particularly suseptable to fast melee units. When using tanks
to attack in force, send some backup, such as marines and golaiths with them to protect them from swarms of small units and
airborne enemies alike. Did I mention that seige tanks are incapable of firing at air targets?
| The Goliath |
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Goliaths are the mobile missle turrets of the terran force. The goliath acts somewhat like a beefed
up marine with a bigger gun. Their autocannons pack more of a wallop than the Marine's rifle, and their air defense system
is second to none. With the charron booster upgrade, they can fire at enemies effectively from a distance, enabling them to
match the long range of the zerg guardian. A mix of 4 goliaths and 8 mutalisks is a good thing, if you're terran. Goliaths,
also because of thier size, are subjectable to swarming enemies, so dont send your dozen goliaths against a zergling horde
or you'll recieve some unfavorabable results. Also, the AI of the goliath isn't the best in the game, so make sure they
have a clear path to their destination or you'll have a traffic jam in no time.
Air Units
The Wraith is the first in the lineup of the Terran air fleet. The wraith is your
lightweight fighter, capable of firing at land and air targets, although the ATS laser is a weak counter against a solid ground-based
defense. The wraiths do better in groups, and their speed makes them handy for quick backup against an incoming enemy fleet.
The wraith best use is against other airborne targets; a group of them do especially well against fleets of capitol ships.
Once researched, the wraith also has the unique ability to cloak as long as its mana reserves allow. This makes the wraith
a good early recon unit, and it helps keep this relatively weak unit safe from ravaging anti-aircraft fire.
The Valkyrie Frigate is the Terrans air-only attacker. It launches a halo of missles
at once and they cause splash damage, enabling a couple of them to take out whole hordes of air units at once. Although
their airspeed isn't the greatest, they are particularly devestating on slower, lumbering air units like transports, gaurdians,
and capitol ships; making them a solid counter for any air attack. But don't make too many of these for a frontal attack
force because, unfortunatelly, they cannot level buildings or even fire on ground units at all. The Valkyrie
isn't exactly cheap either, so try not to leave them unprotected if you don't want to pay for them more than once.
The Battlecruiser is the capital ship of the Terrans. It is an effective fighter
and can be as devastating as carriers when bunched together. But battlecruisers have one major limiting factor: Cost. The
battlecruiser is one of the most expensive units in the game, costing 400 minerals and 300 gas. The heavy armor is hard
to penetrate, even for the most destructive air defense systems. It boasts a strong air and ground attack of 25 base points,
and it comes with 3 points of armor without an upgrade. The battlecruiser also has a handy trick for u to use when things
start turning ugly. When upgraded, the battlecruiser can employ a powerful yamato cannon. This spell is especially
effective when your fleet is outnumbered by another fleet of powerful units. Use the yamato cannon to level missle turrets, photon
cannons and other land based anti-air defenses from a safe distance. Keeping a few battle cruisers at home can help
to thin out key units when you get attacked. But just because the Battlecruiser is big, flashy and expensive, doesn't
mean its invulnerable. It is surprizingly slow, and can be killed easily if its outnumbered badly, so always keep some support
units nearby to help bail it out of a bad situation.
The science vessel is the terrans only form of mobile detection, other than the
comsat station. This fast unit has a far sight range, which makes it good for recon. Unfortunately, the science
vessle has no form of attack, so an undefended one is soon a dead one. But to help make up for that, they are spell casters,
and thus are able to weild a few little tricks, once researched.
The EMP shockwave is an area spell that effects units with energy or shields. The shockwave drains
energy and shields, making this a very effective weapon against the protoss.
Defensive matrix makes the targeted unit nearly invinsible for a short period of time.
The defensive matrix dissapates after a certain time limit, or until the unit has taken too much damage and the shield
fails. An unit in a defense matrix can still be hit, just not with the full power of the hit. You must hack away at a unit
in a matrix one HP at a time. this ability comes in handy when you need protect key units in a tight battle or to get a dropship
over a huge defense network of missle turrets.
Irradiate is a spell that effects only biological units, making this an effective spell to use on
the zerg. Irradiate spreads a cloud of poisonous gas over the targeted unit, damaging all units around it and eventually killing
the infected unit. Irradiate can effectively break up an attack, because units being hurt by the cloud will run in random
directions, trying to escape the gas.
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