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Terran Infantry:
All Unit Info is listed in the following order: Unit Damage and Damage Type, Cooldown, Damage Rate, Upgrade Bonus, Unit Size.
Unit Damage/Type:
The damage is self explanatory. There are three damage types in Starcraft, Normal, Explosive and Concussive.
Concussive Damage deals full damage to small, 50% to medium and 100% to big.
Explosive Damage deals full damage to big, 75% to medium, and 50% to small.
Protoss Shields take 100% from every attack.
Cooldown:
This is the time between one attack and another, the larger the value, the slower a unit attacks. Coold own in measure in 'ticks', each tick is approximately 0.1 in game seconds.
Damage Rate:
To help you see how fast a unit does actual damage, this value has been calculated and is measured in hit points per second. Note that all is measured under in-game time.
Upgarde Bonus:
How much extra damage each upgrade gives the unit.
Unit Size:
The unit size determines how much damage a unit takes from certain attacks. See 'Unit Damage/Type' above.
Terran Marine:
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Damage: 6 Normal
Cooldown: 15 (7.5 with stim)
Damage Rate: 4.0 hp/s
Upgrade Bonus: +1
Size: Small
These guys should populate your army as they can usually fill out the holes of any attack force. Their main problem is how fragile they are. Pair them up with medics and get the range upgrade and this lets them stand a chance against hydras and dragoons. Since they're small, they take half damage from lots of things, which is nice. Stim pack, range upgraded marines with medics can take out lots of things. Marines also fair up well against mutalisks especially when stimed as they have longer range than mutas.
Against Zerg, marines should be a major component for your army. Coupled with medics, they provide excellent support against hydralisks, mutalisks, scourges and zerglings. However they fare less well vs. Dragoons as their range is inadequate. Marines are especially vulnerable to artillery and splash attacks, including Siege Tanks, Reavers, Guardians, Lurkers and Archons. In the med game, Tank support is almost essential in order for marines to survive the threats mentioned above.
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Terran Firebat:
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Damage: 18 Concussive
Cooldown: 22 (11 with stim)
Damage Rate: 8.2 hp/s
Upgrade Bonus: +2
Size: Small
Sturdier than marines, these guys seem good in stats. However, their main problem is that they can't take much damage either and deals concussive, which sucks bad when they deal 4 damage to dragoons. Use them whenever you have problems against zealots and zerglings. There isn't too much use for them but they could take a hit from a dark templar without dying making them pretty useful with medics against protoss players. Also their damage splashes making them pretty nice when those zealots line up to shred you. Still despite the fact that they're supposed zealot killers, if you don't have medics to back them up, they'll still be ribbons when those blades are through them. Don't bother stim packing firebats except to get them up close to their targets.
When going against Zealots, marines, Hydralisks and especially Zerglings, it is good to have one or two firebats in your infantry force. They help soften up the enemy for your marines. Firebats planted next to Siege Tanks also provide good support against suicidal cracklings and upgraded zealots that seek to take out your tanks. Do not mass-produce firebats as they are easily countered by any large or air unit. Firebats are however, especially useful on chokes and ramps such as Lost temple against other melee attackers. (Try having 3 firebats backed up by 3 Medics on Lost Temple. If you block the ramp, you can take out almost any number of Zerglings, even Zealots)
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Terran Medic:
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Healing Rate: 7.6 hp/s
Size: Small
These gals are the greatest thing for terrans in Brood War. They extend the life of your marines and firebats beyond the 7 seconds promised. There are still a few problems with them though. Sometimes as your marines and medics are going to your opponent's base, you suddenly get attacked by zerglings. Your marines are shooting and all, and you realize your medics are still walking towards your opponents base! ARGH!!! Well if you're fast, you can still direct your medics before your marines are all dead. *sighs* To avoid this problem, you might what to deliberate damage your marines first, by using stim packs before a battle. This way the Medics will stay with your marines.
Medics aren't invincible. They have a several things your opponent can take advantage of. First off, they heal about 20 damage during the time of an average attack. Mind you, I said average. A zergling with adrenal glands doesn't count! This is effective against sunkens, hydras and such but not as much against guardians, zealots, and other units that hit heavy. Also if two things or more gang attack one unit, medics can't keep up because only one medic can heal a unit at a time.
If you want to get technical, a medic fully heals 23 damage per period of sunken colony attack pause. This lets marine/medic kill lone sunkens very easily. Medics also can't heal units too far from them and tends to sometimes wander off to heal SCV's or other unimportant stuff. Medics can heal allied units. They can't do too much for units that are killed in one hit. (Be kinda freaky otherwise huh?). Medics/ Marines are also very vulnerable to anything that deals splash damage like Psi storm or lurkers because they're usually tightly packed so the splash will hurt them all. Generally have 1 medic for every 3 or 4 marines.
Restoration is nice if you're up against zerg or terrans. This cures parasites, plague, blind and lockdown, which are very commonly used. Still, you can do without this spell if you want, but it's a handy and cheap investment.
I know a lot of people who love optical flare, I only find one use for it, blinding detectors when using medics to support a Nuclear Strike. I still don't see much need for this spell when you can kill the damn unit and the fact that you have to research this waste of 50 energy? Lame! It's handy against lurkers though when they're marching near your base.
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Terran Ghost:
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Damage: 10 Concussive
Cooldown: 22 (11 with stim)
Damage Rate: 5 hp/s
Upgrade Bonus: +1
Size: Small
These specialized units are weak and I do mean, weak when it comes to damage. That 10 damage doesn't look too great when it's chopped down to 3. This is added on to the terrible delay between their attack, doesn't make them too reliable as core attackers. However, they do have nice range and cloaking (if researched) making them somewhat useful if you like to use them to snipe infantry.
They have lockdown which costs 100 energy and is totally worth it against terrans and protoss. Lockdown will totally freeze one mechanical unit also disabling al it's abilities (even passive abilities like cloak detection) as well as sight for 60 game seconds, which is long enough to put it out for a short battle and even enough to make a difference in long ones.
Nukes are not too great, but if you like employing them (they do hurt when paid off) use them when you're attacking from another front or another expansion. Also if you nuke a building, make sure you finish it because one won't kill them most of the time. If you don't, you may never get the chance again. Your opponent will usually be tipped off. Nukes work better in ally games. In one on one games, there usually is very little confusion on which player the nuke will hit. (d'uh...) Also a good strategy is to nuke opponent's units and follow up with an attack. Still try not to rely on nukes too much.
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