The Best Brood War Unit Part II- Terran

The Best Brood War Unit Part II- Terran

This post isn't super late night so hopefully my spelling and grammar is less atrocious. But maybe not. Anyway, let's do the Terrans, or humans for those not familiar with the game.

Terran Marine ****

At first glance this should be a five star. Only 50 minerals, one of the cheapest units in the game. Ranged attack, upgrade that can speed up their attack rate substantially for a period, giving a cluster of them crazy DPS. They can be healed by medics, loaded into dropships and deployed to harass bases and put into bunkers to serve as defense, or offense if you are cheesing. Did I mention they are super cheap? BUT, the have some hard counters. They are basically useless against Protoss after the early game because reavers mulch them. The economics doesn't work out so well when a 15 mineral scarab kills five. Psi Storm is a huge problem as well. Zerg can take out an army of marines with a few lukers. And against other terrans, siege tanks and vultures are a potent counter. The 40 hitpoints just isn't enough to cut it. This isn't Starcraft 2 where they get a shield upgrade to increase their hitpoint total. Still, you can build them from the start of the game for low cost so we will go with 4/5.

Terran Firebat ***

This is one of those units that is really useful when it is useful, otherwise it is useless. Firebats are a strong counter to zerglings early game due to their splash damage. They are cheap, 50 minerals and 25 gas and can hold off many zerglings. Since they can stimpack, they are pretty decent at wiping out enemy workers as well. Lastly, since all of their damage is splash, they are the only terran unit that can consistently attack enemies under dark swarm. A single dark swarm and lurker can lock down a massive terran mech army, but a few firebats clear it. But that is where firebats utility ends. They just can't hold their own against most units. Protoss gateway units crush them. Terran mech crushes them. Useless gainst ultras, not great against hydras. And they can't shoot up. They get three stars because they counter defilers, otherwise this would be a two star unit.

Terran Medic ****

Heals marines and firebats, vastly improving their cost effectiveness and staying power. They are the only thing keeping mutas and zerglings from destroying early game Terran armies. They can heal each other as well, and are cheap, 1 control and 50 minerals/25 gas. They can't attack, but they do have some spells. If your micro is good you can use restoration to undue debuff spells. They are the only unit that can do this in the game. Optical flair doesn't get a lot of use but eliminating a detectors ability to detect is kind of funny. They are a force mutiplier, but not five stars because they don't have a use if you go mech.

Terran Ghost **

On paper this should be an amazing unit. Only 1 control, long range, ability to lock down a mech unit, cloak and drop nukes. Also the smallest footprint in the game so they can slip through narrow gaps. But their damage is garbage, its 10 concussive which really means a small fraction of that against most units. Second, lockdown is just too difficult to pull of, ghosts have low HP and die before they can get to a carrier, siege tank, battlecruiser, etc. Since dps is nonexistent, the only use of cloak is to get close enough to drop a nuke. And nukes are the only reason this isn't a one star. They are expensive, but if an enemy is heavily turtled it can be the most cost effective way to break static defense while at the same time melting workers. But yeah, high opportunity cost and very few use cases means this is a unit you will rarely see in competitive play. You have you get a science facility and covert ops and then research techs to even make them useful, plus a nuke silo which means no comsat station on that command center. It's really a borderline 1 star unit. But nukes are cool. For computers on the other hand, I'd say this is a four star unit. They can micro in parallel, so they can use an entire swarm of ghosts to lock down units like dragoons and capital ships in mass, making an army useless. Humans just can't pull that off.

Vulture *****

Builds quickly, only requires a factory and costs only 75 minerals. That's one of the cheapest units in the game, barely edging out the marine in cost. It has the fastest speed in the game when upgraded, making it great for scouting. 20 concussive damage means it can't do much against bigger units, but makes very quick work of small units so they can clear worker lines fast. Oh. And spider mines. Each one gets 3 spider mines when upgraded. That's three traps that deal 125 splash damage. So for a single vulture you get a unit that great at scouting, decent combat ability, and can lay traps that can take out hundreds if not thousands of resources worth of enemy units. Even if the spider mines don't land, they zone out the enemy and provide scouting. Protoss have to spend so much time just going around the map clearing mine fields, and you know exactly where their army is. The cost effectiveness of this unit is unparalleled. So why isn't this over, we declare vultures the best unit in the game? I think basically it is just because they cost 2 control. That means it has the same supply opportunity cost as a siege tank, goliath, or wraith. Early and mid game this isn't an issue, but late game they hog too much supply for their damage output. Also, the concussive damage means they barely touch static defense or large units. Watch vultures attack an ultralisk... it is comical. Overall though, compare it to a zealot. It's 25 minerals less, much faster, and can lay traps. Vultures are incredible.

Siege Tank *****

If you've ever watched professional terrans play, you know siege tanks are the backbone of the terran army. So many games come down to whether or not the opponent can bring down their siege tank count. They have the highest range in the game, deal 70 damage, and unlike lurkers can still attack and deal decent damage when they are unsieged. Defensively, they can make locations unassailable. Offensively, they can destroy enemy fortifications from a distance, melt ground armies, or keep opponents trapped. They have a few counters. Beefy zealots with the speed upgrade do well. They can do friendly fire damage so drops can be an issue. Queens are a cost effective way of addressing them. They can't attack up. Still, for sheer damage output and power, tanks are unmatched. If you don't believe me, watch a line of siege tanks get attacked by a clump of dragoons. Easy five star, without them terrans wouldn't be viable professionally.

Goliath ****

This unit is kind of a jack of all trades master of none. It has a decent ground attack, a very good air attack especially with the range upgrade. But its damage pales in comparison to the siege tank, its anti air lacks splash, unlike valkyries, and its more expensive than a vulture. Still, 100 minerals and 50 gas isn't bad. Overall a great support unit. It can protect siege tanks, snipe drop ships, overlords, arbiters, queens, etc. In large numbers it can hold of mutalisks, but I'd avoid trying to go mass goliath vs mass muta for too long because stacked mutas scale better due to the goliaths' lack of splash damage. If Terrans really fuck up and let Protoss mass carriers, mass goliaths can save their ass. For the price of one fully loaded carrier you can get five or six goliaths.

Terran Wraith **

In a standup fight these units are dogshit. They cost more than a mutalisk and do less damage. They get absolutely shredded by anti air. However, they can cloak which makes for some fun harassment. Some players like Leta have worked wraiths into their build for very entertaining games. Many commentators would probably give wraiths three stars, but I just can't do it. One ensare and your cluster of wraiths is dead. Marines, dragoons, high templar, archons, goliaths, hydralisks, mutalisks, scourge corsairs, valkyries, devourers, etc just absolutely crush them. If you are really good you can get an enemy by surprise who didn't build any anti air. But their ground attack is pitiful and their air attack is... fine. And they cost as much as a siege tank. I just can't see many circumstances where I'd rather have 11 wraiths than 11 siege tanks.

Science Vessel ****

Exceptional support unit. Defensive matrix is an underutilized ability. If you add it to an infantry unit spear heading an attack it it gives them incredible durability. Suddenly a marine has 290 hitpoints instead of 40. If your siege tank line is getting attacked a few defensive matrices can turn the tide of the battle. Then there is EMP. If the enemy has a cluster of casters, like queens or high templar, you can wipe out their energy. It also takes out Protoss shields, neutralizing archons or severely diminishing the tank ability of a protoss gateway ball of units. Lastly, irradiate is only 75 energy and it kills any bio unit except for an ultralisk. Also deals AOE damage to any bio units near that bio unit. So it can delete a lurker or a deflier, making it pay for itself very quickly. Where irradiate really shines is against stacked mutalisks. Since it has AOE damage, it hurts the entire stack, forcing the opponent to rapidly separate them otherwise they can lose the entire cluster. So with three very useful spells, why not five stars? Two reasons. One is cost. A science vessel costs 225 gas and 100 minerals. The minerals are whatever, but thats more than two siege tanks worth of gas. Second, they are nice juicy targets. Two scourge can take one out, meaning Zerg can pay 75 gas to eat up 225 Terran gas. Dragoons and goliaths can make short work of them as well.

Battlecruiser ***

500 hitpoints, solid damage output against air and ground. Can one hit scourge, protecting it from them much better than carriers can. Yamato cannon is an ability that can delete a static defensive structure or unit. So, why not higher? They are stupid expensive, stupid slow, and take a stupid amount of time to build. You need to get a barracks, then a factory, then a starport, then a control tower and a science facility. Then a physics lab. Then wait forever for them to build after spending 400 minerals and 300 gas. Then wait forever for them to ponderously fly across the map to your enemy. Only really works as a very late game unit when you have a lot of resources and entrenched positions you are dealing with. Excellent unit in the campaign though, when you are fighting large computer controlled bases and have access to an abundance of resources. I think the first time I beat the original final mission in Starcraft, where you have to take out the Overmind, I just built a dozen Battlecruisers. Flew directly south, then west, cut through the hydras, scourge and spore colonies that stood in my way. Yamatod the Overmind and then finished it off with lasers. Kinda made the final mission a letdown honestly. But that's only because the computer is too dumb to recongize you are building them and establish countermeasures. Otherwise I'd have been greeted by dozens of scourge, hydras and spores.

So yeah, Terran factory units reign supreme. Vultures and Siege Tanks are contenders for top units.