StarCraft (1998)

Reverse campaign

This was a player made series of maps that recreated the original and brood war campaigns only you play as the bad guys. Same maps, same heroes, same objectives, only now you have to stop the AI from completing those objectives. You usually start with a small base and much of the map controlled by an npc ally, representing the generic enemies the player would face during the normal campaigns. They usually have to be protected and will help out a little, but will definitely be wiped out without help. The good guys usually have 2 to 4 colors all inside a massive mixed base and put out astonishingly effective attacks, making these maps much more difficult than the standard campaigns.

Terran

1st 2 maps were easy. Then was the 30 min time limit where the Terrans have to hold out until evac. This was so much harder as Zerg under the pressure of that time limit, and being limited to low tech. What I did was use 2 groups of hydras to wipe the bunker from 1 choke then hold off counter attacks long enough to build a hatchery and put down some sunkens. They had so many units, including marines on high ground, that I felt I needed a defensive line to lure them to. Zerglings died way too fast and I did not bother with mutas. Then the mission about saving the crashed Duke. They had 2 colors and attacked my ally with a shocking amount of marines and vultures combined. I won but lost most of my units, so I loaded to set up a sunken choke instead of hydras. They only did that 1 big attack and left me alone for the rest of the match so I wonder if loading ruined the AI. I played it again later and yellow + red only did 1 big attack, with later attacks being in response to me attacking. Purple steadily attacked with either a fleet of wraiths or 2 cruisers while having no base, and green eventually started breaking the siege around them. Then the mission about putting the psi emitter into the enemy base. The AI was dumb and let the scv carrying it die early on so I sent my own to swipe it and hide it in my base. To be fair they kept making new scvs to go where they lost it. The good guys had 4 colors that were all doing regular attacks. Rather than put defenses at my base, I built them on high ground chokes to protect the ally. Those spots also had resources for expansions. I constantly had to worry about defending along the whole length of the map but it was fun having high ground chokes. They sent everything: mass infantry, tanks, wraith solo and entire squadrons, battle cruisers 1 to 3 at a time, and frequent nukes. At one point red sent a group of like 8 cruisers and I was shocked. I have never seen the AI build up player numbers like that, plus there were wraiths and ground forces attacking at the same time. I won without many losses. The ground forces were minimal threat while I had 3 of my own cruisers, 12 wraiths and 2 science vessels that cast defense on the wraiths. Wow though still not as difficult as a real player could be. Attacking them was tough because they were hitting my force with constant attacks. Even on slow speed and having everything hold position it was tough to keep up and I lost a lot of tanks to mines. The goal was killing Kerrigan who was a 2000hp monster, and was no match for 5 cruisers. The other missions were not difficult, including the final about protecting the big cannon. I set up a defensive base right outside the ene. my base while they regularly sent the hero cruiser, wraiths and drop shops for the cannon. I used a few nukes, including dropping 1 on that hero.

Zerg

Stage 1 was incredibly easy because I started with a wraith and star port while the enemy only had 1 spore colony. I wiped out their workers and hatchery but they snuck zerglings to attack my base the 1 way I did not defend. My workers had to kill most of them. Then as the Protoss fighting both other factions, which I believe was the stage Kerrigan was captured by Zerg. I was picking at terrans with air and storms, and when I loaded the game it advanced the plot thinking Terran was defeated. The 1 color to the south gave up but I still had to beat red. Meanwhile the Zerg began fighting both of us. Once red was secured I set up my forces outside the Zerg base. I had something like 8 zealots, 8 dragoons, 12 scouts, 4 carriers, 1 arbiter and 4 templars. The amount of troops they attacked me with was Insane. A swarm of 20 to 30 mutas followed by 100+ hydras. The templars got a lot of kills with storm but I lost more than half of my force. I had to build up a turret line and build the groups back up while still dealing with hordes of hydras until they ran out of steam and I was finally able to start destroying buildings. Next was the stage with the super killer hydras. The enemy regularly attacked with waves of them but they were easy to defeat with hallucinations as decoys then dropping multiple storms. I had a defense line set up there with turrets, zealots and dragoons while scouts continually harassed and baited them into attacking so they could not build up the Insane numbers of last map. Once I had a few carriers I had enough firepower to push. There was the Zerg vs Zerg mission, which was fairly difficult, especially with how badly mutas and guardians did vs scourge. I had to commit to a full ground attack so hydras could deal with scourge. Then the mission about escaping dark templars, the only time I actually lost and had to restart. My main base was overrun by a huge ultra + hydra attack, with big groups of mutas and guardians also in play. There seemed to be a lot of randomness with this stage and I corrected my failure by building more probes early on for faster income, and rushing storm, which was key for dealing with these huge attacks. This was still extremely difficult with having to protect 2 bases, and the npc ally base, while regularly escorting the darks to the 3 exit points. There was a very tight time limit and little margin for error, but at least letting a dark die did not fail. Not sure how many deaths could be tolerated without failure but the longer the map went on the more huge attacks had to be dealt with. Next map had 4k hp infested Kerrigan regularly attacking, as well as the usual big attacks. The best was to deal with her was distract with hallucinations, then send scouts and an observer. If she was not in range of a ground target she would run away and be slowly ground down. The final 2 missions were both about protecting an asset while most of the map was controlled by npc allies with my base way far away. My base was well safe so I set up turrets and troops in ally territory, regularly fending off big attacks and sending my scout fleet after the big air swarms. I did a lot of hit and run with scouts, picking off isolated units and buildings while luring anti air to my turrets. Committing all my forces to attack had me suffer a lot of casualties and need a steady supply of reinforcements. Zealots got ground down, which led to dragoon losses, which led to scourge getting through to the Capitol ships. I probably should have made a 2nd full control stack of zealots and 2 reavers in a shuttle. The final mission was especially tough as I barely held up the attack, with everything dying other than continuous zealot and scout reinforcements. Even the templars were forced to become archons after running out of mana. I probably could have done it with fewer losses by setting up a close turret line and doing hit and run.

Protoss

Early missions were easy as they never built enough to be a threat. It got difficult at the one where Tassadar and Raynor had to be saved. Their starting force attacked me early while I was still building economy, and a little later they attacked with a lot of zealots that I barely held back. Lost a lot of the starting sunkens. Then I failed because the heroes escaped even though I had a queen with broodling specifically to kill them, and a full group of mutas. The thought crossed my mind that I should send them to the beacon but I misread the objective. Next try I built extra sunkens and hydras earlier to counter the attacks, but the enemy never did another serious attack to my base. I got Tass early with broodling. Then I researched transport to build a hatchery at the beacon, intending to set up sunkens and a canal to move my hydras there, but Ray attacked before that could be set up and he got queened. The next stage was very difficult, the one where Tass had to get to the beacon inside the Zerg base. The entire map was either Zerg or Protoss with each landmass being cut off from ground. I had 2 islands in the corner and immediately set up a 2nd command center on the smaller for more gas income. It was 4 enemy colors in total in a 3 way fight, plus a separate color for Tass and his massive scout group + 1 carrier, who regularly spawned in to go for the objective. They would eventually grind their way through the Zerg, so I tried to help a little with wraiths. The entire Protoss island was covered with cannons so it was tough to find a landing spot. I found a spot way on the opposite end of the map which had no buildings and was cut off completely by a ridge. I made a strike force of 12 wraiths, 1 science, 3 dropships, 4 tanks, 3 goliaths, 1 ghost and 1 scv. I landed there and kept a low profile until building a few missile towers, then set up the siege. There was nothing they could do and I easily wiped out their forces, starports and nexus. They eventually ran out resources. Meanwhile I sent the dropships back for another load of units to be escorted by 4 cruisers. Before I could move units into the base proper, the Zerg sent a drop assault against my small base, going for the weakest point in my missile tower line. All I had there was 4 marines, a science, and 3 wraiths. They landed 1 hydra and a lot of zerglings. Not a huge force but the bunker was not where they were. I lost a lot, almost losing the academy and nuke silo, which had a nuke! The wraiths eventually killed everything while scvs rushed to repair and rebuild. Only then could I start moving past the ridge on the offensive. There was no resistance so I just had to pull back idiots from rushing cannons and set up siege to kill them. Then Tass and his fleet spawned right in front of me. He ate a bunch of yamoto shots, I lost numerous units, and then won without even having to attack the other Protoss color. If I had known that would happen it would have been epic to time a nuke to land on top of that fleet just as it spawned. The next map was the most difficult yet, about arresting Tass. The enemy regularly attacked with the 3 super heroes and I finally figured out the coding. They must be scripted to attack at certain times or hp/shield thresholds, and teleport back to base at another threshold. They were brutal at first but later they warped away faster than a normal unit would die. I had zealots and dragoons set up at a bridge to meet them, later with arbiter giving invis. Invis made regular attacks and Tass easy, but Fenix killed the ships if zealots did not tank, and Zeratul was a menace that killed a lot of zealots. I had to use hallucination. A few units slipped by to attack my base and the group of 4 cannons I started with never actually seen any action. Later I made a 3rd base with 4 cannons to cover that flank. By the time I had 12 scouts the enemy did a big attack with carriers and other units. I lost almost all those scouts and never made my own carriers. Instead I made 2nd star gate and 2 groups of scouts. I was able to destroy a couple of their cannons with a reaver shuttle but then they stationed troops to prevent me. They expanded to the left and had a pointless middle base with no resources. It was constant back and forth picking off probes and other units in that expansion, then luring the counter attack to my ally. I needed a constant flow of replacement scouts too. I started alternating attacks between the 2 scout groups at opposite ends of the map to lure units away. I ran out of minerals at my starting bases and seriously considered swiping those of my ally. Instead I took the last free expansion right outside the enemy base and made several cannons while the scouts held off a few attacks. From there I destroyed their outpost and moved all my ground forces up when the ally did a big assault. I intended to slowly pick stuff off with reavers but with ally units tanking cannons I did a full massive assault. I forgot an observer though so Z killed a lot. Then was a timed mission to prevent enemy from reaching the prison. I set up ground forces at the only ramp to my plateau and the enemy sent a regular stream of spread out single file units. I put more cannons at top of my base to help with air attacks. My scouts bounced around defending and trying to attack, but made no progress on attack. I built up a carrier fleet but made the mistake of letting them pick at the stream of marines, which led to regular interceptor losses. Then when the timer was near the end a massive combined force of every terran and protoss unit, including the hero battle cruiser, attacked. I lost everything except a couple zealots and a reaver at the prison, even throwing shuttles into the enemy to buy time, just barely winning. The enemy fleet was just seconds away from the prison. Next map was about defending cerebrates from dark templar. I started with 2 guardians and got a head start on clearing enemy defenses. The challenge here was 2 large mixed color bases that attacked with the usual ground and air fleets, plus another color with clearly infinite money that did regular attacks with several dark templars and like 20 dragoons. This was very difficult to defeat without taking significant losses, even with a line of sunkens, ultras, hydras and bringing the air units back to help. Even used plague on them once, and AI used dark cloud which at least made it easy for ultras to defeat the dragoons. Unfortunately it also prevented my other units from attacking. I tried to wipe out this color with air force but kept getting sandwiched between dragoons, so I wiped out one entire side so my guardians could attack the center from a ridge to pick off dragoons safely. Then the final mission to protect over mind, which was so brutally difficult and took so many hours that I needed breaks. I started with every building, lots of resources and lots of workers, 1 ally and 4 enemy colors. Attacks came from every direction and it was too much for me to handle both attack and defense at the same time, so I often had to load to make sure my attacks were timed in between other stuff happening. I set up 2 defense lines with colonies and 12 hydras each. I set every rally point to the over mind so I could easily find what I built, keeping a reserve of mutas and drones to replace losses. I did have to build some other defenses at other directions as the game went on, but most attacks came to my initial lines. I went for Terran first because they were much more difficult to defend against. Siege tanks, nukes and cruisers were a constant thorn that needed ultras and air to defeat, while protoss were held off by just the colonies and hydras, with help from the npc ally. As mutas got hurt I turned them into guardians and eventually had 2 full groups of them, sending 1 to help defend. It was very slow going as I wiped out 1 base, frequently retreating from the near constant cruiser spam. I did use scourge but they were not that reliable. The best way was to lure them into spore colonies then attack with mutas and hydras while the colonies took the damage, since they were cheap to replace. Finally I took over that base and set up colonies, needing to pump out drones to replace frequent losses. I prioritized star ports to cut down on cruisers and eventually wiped them out. I lured the hero cruiser all the way to that outpost and it single handedly wiped out every spore and muta, even taking a plague and scourge. Of course I replaced them and killed it. The last Terran base was already crippled and put up no resistance. I set up 3 new outposts with defenses and began attacking Protoss, which did not go well because of scouts and carriers. Lost some guardians and they counter attacked my new outposts. Then I added the other group of guardians and the ultras and hydras from the Terran line and went for the Protoss main base. There was a ridge so my air retreated over it to escape the dragoon horde, which made them go around to my ground forces. From here my air swept through the entire enemy destroying all production while the ground forces took the counter attacks. I skirted around the hero carrier to save him for last, setting up parasite to spot and multiple defilers to spam plague. Soon though the npc ally attacked (they actually did a good job wiping out some outposts for me and cleaning up buildings I left behind), so I swarmed it with 2 full groups of mutas and hydras, winning easily. Then with everything dead and no victory I checked the objectives to see that Zeratul had to be killed. Found him easily in the corner and won with some crazy stats. Over 3 hrs, which probably meant double at slowest speed. Over 600 units produced, almost 300 lost and almost 2000 killed.

I played this extensively back in the day and it rivals Warcraft 3 as the best RTS of all time, at least of the ones I have played. I remember playing the campaigns multiple times and plenty of skirmish matches against the AI, including online with others. I played so much that I used to do weird tactics, like having a fleet of 12 science vessels to spam irradiate. I was never into pvp though there was one time I dueled a guy because he apparently insulted my gf of that time and she demanded satisfaction. He likely never knew since I casually suggested the 1vs1. That was a fun game. I was Zerg on the bottom and he was Protoss on top. I only had 1 base with a mixed force of almost everything. I had 1 or 2 queens set up a spy network on his units with parasite so I knew what he was doing. I knew when and where he took a 2nd base near mine, when he built cannons at the choke to my base, and when he amassed his force to attack. I don't remember exactly how many zerglings and hydras I had; maybe 2 control groups of 12 each, or maybe a bit less. I know I had them separated into 3 or 4 control groups with about 2/3 of them borrowed. Then I had I couple ultras milling around, and 12 mutas plus 12 guardians hidden outside my base to the south. He approached my base with a lone scout, only seen that fraction of my forces and committed his to attack. I waited until they were fully committed before hitting unburrow and sending in the flyers. I absolutely decimated his force. Then I quickly moved everything out to take out his expansion and soon after the main base. I took the expansion for my own and set up a tunnel to move troops faster. There was nothing he could do to recover from the loss of so many troops. My swarm fell over his base and it was game over within a few minutes of his attack. I also played custom maps though the only I specifically remember was an elemental rpg. In that map you controlled a single powerful unit to kill weak units and gain xp to evolve into a more powerful unit. I played it multiple times as every element and liked water the most. I believe it had dragoon but I forget what else. I remember fire started with the firebat and spirit started with dark templar, and I think earth ended with ultralisk. Unfortunately at some point in the early 2000s I loaned my CD to my cousin and never got it back. RIP one of my all time favorite games.

Until recently when I learned the game was free on battlenet. So I got it and played through the campaigns again, absolutely loving it. I had forgotten just how amazing the story, characters and cinematics were. I was also impressed with the level design, especially how often the win condition was not destroying every little thing. That got old fast in Warcraft 2. The Terran campaign had excellent story and world building but it was a little on the easy side and had too much Terran vs Terran. Should have been more play vs high level Zerg and especially Protoss, like a final mission being stuck between 2 Zergs and 2 Protoss. Terran is my least favorite faction of the 3. I loved their ability to repair and had an SCV or 2 go along with my attack force to keep hp up. I usually had 8 to 10 workers on minerals and 3 per gas mine, adding 1 or 2 if the mine was further away (this for all factions). Though with Terran's flying buildings I did not have to worry about the command center not being as close as possible to the gas. I pretty much only used flying to move my command center to new resources rather than build a new. I know flying buildings can be used to reveal high ground but I never bothered. Terrans were the best at defense with bunkers being the overall best tower. The only issue was they needed marines inside, which made them expensive and cost supply, plus more for infantry upgrades. I did have to limit how many I built and put missile turrets nearby for detection and along the perimeter in case of air attack. The AI was pretty good at finding weak spots to sneak attack. I very much appreciated how the basic units only cost minerals, which was kinda the equivalent of lumber in Warcraft. Gas was far more limited and slower to gather so it was great to have options to fight without it, though all the basic units were unique enough in their own right to be tactically useful. Much better design that footmen and grunts. Marines were the only basic unit that could attack air and they were very good as a Jack of all style unit. Their flaw was in how many casualties they took, which required a constant stream of replacements, which was best from multiple barracks. But I didn't play like that, rather I wanted to use combined arms and commando tactics to minimize my casualties. I mostly used marines for defense. On 1 map where the enemy was on a different island I used wraiths and an SCV to establish a foothold by their gas mine and put down a couple bunkers of marines. I did not like their stim ability but might as well use it if they will die anyway. I never built any firebats and did not find them all that useful because they pretty much only countered zerglings. Marines tended to get torn apart by zerglings while firebats could hold their own. I guess it could be worth putting a few in with a marine control group when fighting zerg, and put 1 in each bunker that might be swarmed. The best use I got out of them was during the Protoss campaign mission with Tassadar and 2 zealots. Against the huge swarm near the end I set up a choke point with firebats in front, marines behind. I only lost 1 bat.

Terran vehicles were much better than infantry because they could be repaired. Vultures were pretty cool, like a NOD recon bike. They could kill small numbers of zerglings without taking damage by kiting, but did not fare well against ranged attacks. Their 3 mines were very powerful and I seen videos of pro players using them to screen tanks. I did not build many during the campaign and skipped them entirely for the later levels. The goliath was another unit that I entirely skipped. There were a more powerful version of the marine that could be repaired. I remember using them back in the day and they are certainly a cool unit but I just saw no need for them this playthrough. I handled all of my anti air needs with a squadron of wraiths. I could see wanting some goliaths or marines on hand to take out scourges chasing the wraiths, but the wraiths could simply cloak and Zerg detectors could not keep up. I loved having a group of 6 to 12 wraiths as my main tactic was using them to kill air and any ground targets they could pick off while supporting siege tanks. Wraiths might be the best overall fighter craft of the 3 factions given cloak and repair though I ended up not using them in the final Protoss mission. Tanks were the best Terran unit and were a cool way to showcase future tech by combining main battle tank and artillery into the 1 unit. I had some in siege mode (usually those that needed repair) with others in front in tank mode, all in the same control group. The artillery wiped the floor with ground units and out ranged defense structures while the regular tanks output more consistent damage. I added a few battle cruisers during the final mission; they were powerful, expensive and slow. I definitely used mass BCs back in the day but it took a very long time to get that many of them. As a supporting unit they did a lot of precision damage and the yamato cannon could 1 shot problems from long range. Otherwise they did not outrange defenses, and their slow speed made them very vulnerable. Scourges especially countered them. Lastly the 2 spellcaster units. Ghosts were cool but their cloak was of limited use with their low mobility, damage and hp. They could take out weaker units very efficiently (like workers and marines) but were not much use against buildings and vehicles. I barely used them, other than Kerrigan, but the AI certainly annoyed me with its ghost spam. It was easy to counter nukes with the comsat scan or fast science vessel. Zerg had plenty of overlords to detect, so the nuke was probably most viable vs Protoss. I didn't bother to use any nukes. Their lockdown annoyed me when they used it on my lone science vessel that I was using to reveal them. Otherwise though it was just a minor nuisance; paralyze 1 mechanical unit was no big deal in a group but could counter a tiny force. Useless against Zerg, probably best against arbiters, carriers, battle cruisers and science vessels so having a few around could change the tide of a battle. Too bad there was no way to fake the laser dot for the nuke to make it more viable against players. The science vessel was my go to scout since it could detect and was fairly fast. Irradiate was good to pick off units over time, especially queens, ultras, archons and templars. Defense matrix worked like unholy armor, making a unit invulnerable for quite a while. I could do a lot with a lone tank or cruiser that was invincible but more often I used it to save a unit during a big fight. Their last ability EMP drained mana and would be a good way to stop other spellcasters before they used a spell. I'd rather kill them though.

The Zerg campaign had a lot of cool lore and the best movies, but I found the last few missions dragged a bit being all vs Protoss. Would have liked to fight high level Terran, or even better both factions at once. Maybe even do 3vs1 with a combined force of Terran and Protoss ambushing a Zerg civil war. The Zerg were my favorite faction, both conceptually and in how they played. There was just something about the flow of their tech tree and way their units worked together in battle that clicked with me more than the other factions, and I loved how much novel innovation went into their mechanics. Building all units from larvae units created by the town hall equivalent rather than building unit training structures was great and encouraged taking other bases. The overlord unit providing supply instead of a building while tripling as both the mobile detector and transport. Workers turning directly into buildings required more workers overall than the others and put additional pressure on troop production. Passive hp regen for all units and structures worked like free Terran repair albeit much slower. It could be a problem for structures because they took forever to heal. It was usually better to build a new structure rather than rely on regen since a determined attacker will eventually wear it down enough to die. And the creep which mainly just limited how far away defense buildings could be built. Both sunken and spore colonies were adequate for defense but prime examples of needing a new building to protect them when wounded. I built a few of each around the base, often like a wall. Pro players used other buildings in front of them to block melee attacks. I never bothered with that and I would likely rather put a double row of colonies. Zerglings were a lot of fun to use and could output surprising amounts of damage given how easily they died. Attack move was best for melee units while ranged were better told to focus on specific targets. I had 1.5 to 2 control groups of them and they needed frequent replacements. Individual zerglings were also useful to reveal the fog of war when buried. Ultralisks pretty much fulfilled the same role just concentrating the stats into 1 big unit. I liked having a group of 2 to 4 to supplement rather than replace the zerglings, which were easily slaughtered by area attacks like firebats, siege mode and reavers. Hydralisks were one of the best units in the game, despite being individually weaker than a goliath or dragoon. They were fast, vicious, and their smaller size gave better path finding, making them extremely effective. A control group of 12 was a must, and a 2nd group when possible. Mutalisks were the least effective of the fighter units and seemed a bit more focused towards ground attacks than air superiority. I had a group of 12 with others available as replacements. I once sent a group of 12 against 1 carrier, focusing on it rather than killing the interceptors first and lost 3 mutas. So I think they need 2 control groups to be most effective. I cycled wounded ones out of the group to safely regen, or transformed them into guardians (free full heal!), which were probably my favorite unit in the entire game. A lovely long range bomber that decimated all ground forces but could not attack air and were too slow to avoid damage. They absolutely needed solid anti air defense. The scourge was the Zerg anti air unit but I greatly disliked them for being a suicide bomber. They cost quite a bit of gas too, which was all gone once they exploded whereas a muta could perform for as long as it does not die. I would much rather have multiple groups of mutas, hydras and spellcasters working together than invest in scourge. Their best use is probably taking out an arbiter before it can recall drop into a vulnerable position. Carriers and BCs were weak to scourge but faster aircraft could evade and pick them off. Infested terrans were the ground equivalent. Again not a fan of suicide units and never used them, but they could be devastating against any unprepared force. They wreck melee units. I loved queens. They were great for scouting and setting up parasites to reveal the map. I liked infecting transports that often flew around different bases and gave me heads up when they were going to attack. Parasites were also good on workers and powerful combat units. The queen's most powerful ability 1 shot any ground unit and spawned 2 weak units similar to zerglings. Don't think it worked on reavers but it was great against ultras tanks, goliaths, zealots and dragoons. Fucking annoying on the AI. I didn't use it that much unless there was no need for more parasites, and even then it was best used in combined arms to help in a bigger battle. A help message told me that ensnare could reveal invisible units. I did not know that. That made queens a bit more useful and put less reliance on overlords but I never needed to use it. It would be far more useful against a player like me that loves using hit and run with fighters. Their other spellcaster I did not even remember at all, which shows how much I used them back in the day. I played around with defilers a bit but ended up mostly skipping them in the final levels. Being a fairly slow ground unit limited their ability to commando, so they had to be support for full armies. They would be more useful with a faster transport. Plague was kinda like good old death and decay only it was not channeled and could not actually kill. It was best against capitol ships and other very high hp units. Also good against defense structures but guardians were better. Dark cloud prevented ranged attacks from hurting units in it so it comboed very well with zerglings, but hindered the hydras. Could also be put on top of hydras to protect them. I didn't use it at all but can see the potential. It would not be helpful against melee and I think splash damage from vultures, siege and reavers do not count as ranged.

Then was the Protoss campaign. They had the best music and were an incredibly cool culture and species. The final mission was the coolest in the game due to controlling both Terran and Protoss, but the campaign was overall lacking in vs Terran. The Protoss featured stronger more expensive units than the other factions, which meshed well with my style of minimizing casualties. Their main gimmick was regenerating energy shields on every unit and structure, which gave them significantly higher effective hp and some degree of "healing". The actual hp values could never be restored though so it felt less effective than Zerg healing and Terran repair for long term preservation. I really had to micro units out of the fight when their shields went down. Their other main gimmick was warping structures in without workers having to stick around, and needing to build within the radius of pylons. I usually spread my pylons out to give plenty of buildable area and put them in front of cannons to obstruct melee. Photon cannons were a great jack of all defensive structure with good offense, but were easily destroyed. They were important to put around the base to protect vs flank attacks and cloak, and to defend the entrances. I always built 1 shield battery to quickly recharge shields. It worked especially well when defending the main entrance. I did not use them on cannons but apparently they also work on buildings. Definitely will incorporate that into future play because it will significantly improve the durability of cannons. Zealots were by far the most powerful basic unit and a group of 12 was terrifying. They had a bit more trouble than zerglings spreading out so all could attack and were an important tank to draw fire from more vulnerable units. Dragoons were great Jack of all units that could take a few hits with their shields but went down surprisingly quick from concentrated attack. They especially struggled against melee units. I always had a group of 8 or so. Sometimes I rotated wounded zealots and dragoons to base defense as they were less likely to die there. Reavers fulfilled the artillery role with powerful splash damage attacks that could out range towers. Their design was weird though because they looked and moved like insect larvae. Almost like they were originally designed for the Zerg but reskinned to Protoss. They were also weird in that each shot cost minerals and had to be manually built like building a unit from a structure. In that way the reaver was almost more like a mobile building. I used a single reaver paired with a shuttle for commando attacks but overall found them tedious to use. Scouts were one of my favorite units, especially against zerg and with the upgrades from the fleet beacon. They were very good at flying around doing their namesake and at anti air. Their shields even allowed some low risk attacks against ground anti air. I mainly used them for anti air and to pick off defenseless ground targets while luring anti air units to my ground forces. The observer was the Protoss detection unit that was permanently invisible itself. It would be far more useful if it was not so slow and fragile. Not the best at scouting and struggling to keep up with other forces, they were great to just park or patrol somewhere to keep the fog revealed. The carrier was the ultimate Protoss unit and probably the coolest unit in the game. Like the reaver it functioned more like a mobile building with interceptors that cost minerals. It was a 1 time thing though until the little ship was destroyed, which was not easy because of the way they zipped around and went back inside the carrier, which spread the damage out amongst them. Carriers were very powerful and had high shields and hp but could be taken out by concentrated anti air. I liked keeping my group of scouts nearby to screen them. They were also very expensive and slow to build, plus more time to build the interceptors before they were combat ready. I remember using big fleets of 8+ back in the day but the most I had in the campaign was 5, and only 3 during the final mission. Templars were the most mage like of the spellcasters with their psionic storm that functioned very similar to old school blizzard. It only hurt units though. Hallucination created decoys to absorb damage but I only used it during that non base mission with Tassadar and 2 zealots. I hardly used templars at all in favor of air units and a reaver. Their last ability was to merge 2 templars into an archon, which was a powerful short range jack of all unit that had extremely low hp but a ton of shields. This made them more like the regenerating zerg and they countered plague. They were kinda similar to ultralisks in that they did the melee tank role better than basic units. I used lots of them back in the day but I did not use any this playthrough. The arbiter was the most durable spellcaster in the game and had incredibly useful abilities. They had a cloaking field which affected all allies nearby except themselves, which could result in a lot of shenanigans when the enemy had no detector. They could teleport entire groups of units to them which made them much better than shuttles. I did not use recall during the campaign but can see how useful it would be to move units suddenly to a flank or vulnerable position. Or back to base. Their last ability stasis hit a large area and prevented frozen units from doing anything or being attacked, but could also hit your own. Freezing half of an enemy force would lead to 2 overwhelming victories, or freeze the entire force to allow time to muster enough to defeat them. Maybe it could be useful to freeze a near death carrier or other arbiter after moving it away a bit to avoid hitting other friendlies. The last unit was the dark templar but it was not buildable until the expansion. They were permanently invisible melee assassin types that did huge damage but were not very durable. I put them ahead of my base to devastate incoming attacks and to devastate any base uncovered by detection. Unfortunately they did not last long when detected and were not good against the Terran comsat.

The final Protoss mission was the ultimate conclusion to the game. I split my attention and resources between both factions, building up bunkers with marines and missile turrets to defend the Terran base while amassing a force of zealots, dragoons and scouts. I did not secure the left flank of the Terran base and the zerg snuck a force of mutas and ultras along the edge of the map to target my scvs. I lost a few and Jim in his battle cruiser worked overtime defending the base. I made a starport to get a science vessel for each base, and drop ships to move troops around. I got a probe to the Terrans to fill that gap with cannons, and sent siege tanks down to support my Protoss force, which was now at a 2nd base to the west. I had dragoons holding on a ridge above a zerg base, even in range to hit the hive. I rotated them around to give shields a chance to recharge and these dragoons had like 30+ kills each. My scouts continually harassed and lured hydras in range of the ridge while my zealots protected the 2nd base with support from cannons, as some zerg tried to get at my dragoons. The siege tanks helped this strategy immensely with their longer range. With their addition the hatchery was destroyed and I moved everything up. Zeratul and the dark templars kicked a lot of ass and I kept them on the flank away from the main force. Tassadar in his carrier was down to red hp from scourge that flew right over the dragoons and had to spend the rest of the game hiding at base. If he was caught alone he would have died for sure. Most of my zealots died from friendly siege tank fire so I had the survivors hold position next to the tanks. It was not long from when I left that ridge to the overmind being defeated. By the end I think I had 5 tanks, 10 dragoons, 4 zealots, 8 scouts, 2 arbiters, 1 science vessel and 2 carriers with a 3rd built but never seeing action.

I changed the game speed as needed; fast for mundane stuff and slow for battle to better micro. I would have preferred using WSAD to move the map around but that could not be changed from the arrow keys. Using the arrows and mouse to move the camera was a little awkward, and the unit path finding was not great, otherwise the game had such amazing design and production quality that it approaches a perfect 10.

9.5+/10