ShadowenSnores in the morningLoserdomRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
So what's peoples' opinions on the laboratory and armory upgrades? What ones are essential? What ones suck? What ones work really well with other ones (or with the lack of other ones)?
Keep in mind I suck so hard I have to play Casual on all but the earliest single-player missions, so these probably aren't the best choices.
Armory - Base Bunker: Projectile Accelerator and Neosteel Bunker. To me, this is a no-brainer. The Terran Campaign discourages turtling through use of time limits, but it does have several "survive long enough" missions. Missile Turret: Hellstorm Batteries. Giving a unit an area attack without affecting main damage seems, to me, to be all but necessary. SCV: I've tried both--in general, they're both very useful, but if I had to pick one, I'd go with Advanced Construction. Dual Fusion Welders is very, very useful in mech-heavy builds, but I don't do that very much, and in any case Science Vessels (which I prefer; see below) are more mobile, able to keep up with units that need repair, and better able to defend themselves. Terran Building: Orbital Command. The ability to harvest minerals faster without affecting supply or draining your minerals is awesome.
Armory - Units Marine - Stimpacks, Combat Shield. Again, no-brainers. Stimpacks are pretty much required for any but the most basic Terran play--even I know that--and the Combat Shield lets them do it more. Medic - Stabilizer Medpacks. In all but a few missions, infantry survival is important. Being able to keep them alive twice as well makes things so much easier. Firebat - I don't get much use out of Firebats after early missions, what with increasing anti-air becoming more necessary and increasing air-to-ground being a feature of all factions, but when I do use them I always enjoy Incincerator Gauntles. FWOOSH. I don't get Juggernaut plating when, for a little more, I can get Stabilizer Medpacks and have Medics that work twice as well on both Firebats and Marauders. Marauder - Marauders aren't just heavy fire support--Concussive Shells is great. I don't get Kinetic Foam since, for a little more, I can get Stabilizer Medpacks and have Medics that work twice as well with both Marauders and Firebats, and Reapers and Marines and SCVs and Ghosts besides. Reaper - Reapers I never got much use out of aside from their "You got Reapers!" mission on Redstone, but if I had the spare credits lying around and couldn't afford anything else, I got U-238 rounds, because I found that you could rarely go wrong by upgrading a unit's range.
Armory - Vehicles Hellion - Similar to Firebats, I never used Hellions much as the game progressed, but Twin-Linked Flamethrower and Thermite Filaments both were savage and relatively inexpensive upgrades. Vulture - The thing that really irritated me about Vultures in 1 and Brood War, and that I very much anticipated being rectified in II (I was assuming Vultures would figure in the singleplayer), was that Vultures weren't much use aside from scouting and spider mines--and they had a limited supply of spider mines. It made even less sense to me in light of the Reaver and Carrier. Replenishable Magazine makes me feel better, and even satisfies me flavor-wise: arguably Vultures wouldn't start with it, but humans are great imitators, and would after a few years have figured out how to mimic some things the Protoss do... Goliath - I always liked the Goliath. Because of this, by the late game, they would often have both the Multi-Lock Weapon System and the Ares-Class Targeting System. This made the choice before the last mission rankle a bit, but as it turned out whichever you pick you're still going to get some use out of being able to fire both weapons at once. Diamondback - The Diamondback was a fun unit idea, and the train job mission was a fun way to use it. Imagine my surprise when I never really came back to the Diamondback, though I threw it a Trilithium Power Cell bone late in the game when I'd gotten all the more useful and less expensive upgrades. Siege Tank - Maelstrom Rounds were a luxury, but they were a goooood luxury. I didn't get Shaped Blast because I found that my defense setups rarely lead my boys into the line of fire, and the way the campaign was arranged there was little need, at least on Casual, for Siege Tanks on offense.
Armory - Starships Medivac - As if I wasn't bad enough at multiplayer already, when the choice came I decided that Medics with the other transport were a better option than the Medivac, so until the very end of the credit-earning missions I didn't get anything. I figured the game might throw a few free ones at me, though, so I got the Rapid Deployment Tubes, assuming that speed would be a necessity. Didn't get much use out of them. Wraith - I didn't use Wraiths much, and even when I did, for various reasons I didn't need to cloak them much. The poor Wraith languished un-upgraded. Viking - Vikings were cheap enough that while Ripwave Missiles would have been useful, I was able to mass-produce them enough that area-effect wasn't necessary. The Phobos-Class Targeting System, however, is yet another example of my "range is awesome" philosophy. Banshee - Everything the Wraith was not, the Banshee was. I generally got both Cross-Spectrum Dampeners and Shockwave Missile Batteries. Battlecruiser - I rarely got good enough, nor did most missions last long enough, to get Battlecruisers in any number, aside from the first mission you use them, so upgrading them wasn't very attractive to me.
Armory - Dominion Ghost/Specture - The Crius Suit and Nyx-Class Cloaking Module were, of course, necessities. When playing with the Ghost, Snipe meant that Ocular Implants were beyond useful, but Shockwave, to me, curiously meant that Psionic Lash was not.
Research Console - Protoss Level 5
Here's a little thing about me. I'm a terrible Starcraft player. I have little doubt that anyone else in this thread could flatten me inside five minutes. The really vicious players might be able to do it in ten, blindfolded. But I have at least a basic grasp of the theory. And I know that armor is important. It can save a unit's life if we're talking, say, Marines or Hellions against Spine Crawlers. But I also know that the best players play at the fastest speed, can launch rush attacks while defending their base and expanding, and do up to 300 APMs at the extreme end of skill. So more armor and hit points helps...but fast attacks kill. For that reason I go with ultra-capacitors.
Level 10
The way I play, terrible as I am, getting enough Vespene gas it isn't a problem. My problem is keeping my mineral count high without overtaxing my supply depots. Orbital Depots speed up my base and unit production at least as much as more Vespene would.
Level 15
When I have Automated Refineries, that jumps me six SCVs ahead in my training queue in most maps. An extra 1:42s and 300 minerals at the start of a game can make the difference between a clear victory and just scraping by, or between just scraping by and going down to defeat. But, again, I suck.
Level 20
I'm more comfortable with the Science Vessel, not least because it works even better than Dual Fusion Welder-equipped SCVs for repairing your stuff, being more mobile. I won't deny the Raven, though, has some abilities that can be devastating; I just can't get the hang of them. (Again, I suck.)
Level 25
Is there any contest? Is there really? I mean, I know I'm a horrible player, but the ability to quickly train any infantry, if you have ways of transporting them (and one way or another, you will), seems more useful in the campaign, especially given the number of defensive missions there are, than the ability to put them where you want instantly once they're trained. Granted, if you can reliably achieve line of sight on an enemy's resources or a weak point of their base...but I can't. So, it's Tech Reactors, hooooooo!
Research Console - Zerg Level 5
Shrike Turret: In general, in combination with Neosteel and Projectile Accelerator, and later in the game Dual Fusion Welders, I don't even notice that my bunkers might not be as tough.
Level 10
Planetary Fortress is useful in multiplayer, I know that. However, in the campaign, if the Planetary Fortress sees use, it generally means you've lost the mission or your expansion. Plus, if you upgrade to a Fortress, it negates Orbital Command, which is awesome. Meanwhile, Perdition Turrets fit neatly between two bunkers (which, as you can tell, I'm very fond of) at a choke point, tuck themselves out of the way when not in use, and ruin the day of most ground units.
Level 15
Generally, I find that against the enemies the campaign throws at you, infantry work just fine as anti-infantry. If you really need to fuck up a cluster of them, that's what the Spectre's Shockwave is for. Plus, I find the Hercules crammed with an MF'nM ball more useful than the Medivac.
Level 20
Given my fondness for Banshees, as you can imagine I usually go with the Cellular Reactor. Combined with the Cross-Spectrum Dampeners, Cloakin', all day, erryday. Regenerative Bio-Steel is all right, but I'm not a very mech-heavy player.
Level 25
The way I see it, flyers are already highly mobile. By the time they're range, they're gonna be able to hit me anyway (especially those damn brood lords). The only nearby Zerg units I need to slow, therefore, are usually ground units on their way to being in range of my Bunkers, and when I want to do that I'll turn my Concussive-Shell-equipped Marauders loose, which has the added bonus of actually doing damage. Taking control of an Ultralisk or other big bad unit at just the right moment, on the other hand, is fun.
Please feel free to point at laugh at my dumb and suck.
Again, this challenge requires you to lose as little units as possible. Gold is sub 9 or so and this guide will show you the way.
Round 1 – Zergling Rush
The given tip for this challenge is to make use of bunkers but I think learning to block off the flow of enemy units into your base is more vital for success. Make sure that you go to Options -> Gameplay and toggle Display Build Grid to make sure you have a tight wall.
For this particular round, you'd want to start by sending 2 SCVs far south of your base to build a barracks first and then an engineering bay to completely wall off the path to your base. Hotkey your command centre to keep producing SCVs.
This is a nice spot for a zergling tight wall. Note that I have my command center hotkeyed to build more SCVs while I watch over wall construction.
If you time it right, the zerglings should start to arrive when your engineering bay is done and your barracks almost complete. Now depending on luck (unless someone knows how to remedy this), your SCVs may end up at the other end of the wall and /or get destroyed by the zerglings before your barracks is complete. Do not panic, at worse, you end up losing 2 SCVs and what you need to do is (preemptively) send more SCVs over to repair your wall. Zerglings take a relatively long time to destroy structures so you should have ample time to act. Once you get your barracks up and running, start producing marines and set the rally point on the right side of your wall. With your wall intact and marines out shooting at the zerglings, you will win.
Expected losses: 0~2
Round 2 – Zealot Rush
For this round, you can't just wall off your base via natural choke points like we did in the last round so we have to improvise and create our own choke point.
First off, you'd have to build a barracks as soon as possible to get marines. Note the position of the supply depot and position your barracks just under it. Also, remember to hotkey your command centre and build SCVs whenever you can. Next, build your engineering bay to finish off the choke by placing it just to the left of the bottom vespene geyser. Once your barracks is complete, begin building a bunker and 2 marines.
An example of how I walled myself in with my buildings. Note that the bunker is about 3x3 squares and with the barracks add-on and the supply depot, it is hard for more than 2 zealots to be attacking the bunker at the same time. This reduces the number of SCVs required to repair the bunker.
The first Zealot should arrive before your bunker or your marine is complete and will start attacking the nearest structure. Just take note of when your marine is appearing out of the barracks and when he does, the zealot will chase after him. Keep the marine moving around your base until your bunker is complete and then load him in. As long as you get enough SCVs repairing and getting your marines from the barracks into your bunker, that is all the defense you need. Note that zealots will sometimes switch targets to SCVs which are repairing as well so get ready to micro send the zealot on a wild goose chase or get more SCVs repairing your bunker.
You should focus on filling up your bunker with marines and keeping your bunker alive before thinking about progressing. If you manage to wipe out the zealots in your base with your bunker intact, all that is left to do is to make a sizable force to push out and demolish the Protoss for the win.
Expected losses: 0
Alternately, just A move your SCVs into the zerglings (you'll lose 4 or 5) and then fill a bunker with marines and you win. Ta da!
The zealots are even easier. Slight micro to preserve your SCVs when they again attack move. Start filling a bunker, repair it. Once a second one is up and full they won't even get to the bunkers.
Then pick a weapon of choice to eliminate the buildings. Or mass marines. Or whatever. I chose siege tanks just to be safe.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
So where should custom maps go and how exactly do you play them?
Is it through the Map Editor? That worked but it seems really dumb.
am i dumb?
Playing custom maps downloaded from anywhere is a pain in the rear. You have to load the map up in the editor, Publish the map (File > Publish...) to battle.net using your login, and then go in the game and it will be listed under something like My Published Maps or something in the drop down for choosing a map. And you can only have 5 published maps at one time.
So what's peoples' opinions on the laboratory and armory upgrades? What ones are essential? What ones suck? What ones work really well with other ones (or with the lack of other ones)?
Medic healing is probably the best upgrade in the game. Medic+marine with stim and shields is the warm gooey glue that will hold together almost any strategy.
For pure fun factor, I like G8 Reaper Charges and perma-cloaked Ghosts. Firebat armor will help a lot on some of the Zerg-oriented missions.
2x SCV production and Auto-Refineries are surprisingly well-balanced against each other - the former gives you a higher resource curve over a period of time between initialization and saturation of a resource node, but Auto-Refineries basically give you six free SCVs, indirectly, and free up supply. Both kick ass.
Wraiths have probably the only truly unappealing upgrade choices. A little more energy I won't need on a unit I don't use? Sign me up!
EggPuppet on
0
ShadowenSnores in the morningLoserdomRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
I will say this about Wraith upgrades:
If you get both the Wraith upgrades, both the Banshee upgrades, and the +100 energy Zerg tech upgrade, you might actually have a pretty neat thing to do with your Starports late in the game. Doing it with Vikings would be a lot cheaper, but wouldn't have cloaking. It also wouldn't be as devastatingly effective a strike force as pure Banshees, but IIRC, Wraiths are slightly faster than Banshees, allowing you to savage aerial defenders before the Banshees arrive and fuck shit up and still make decent headway against ground-based detectors.
Shadowen on
0
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
So what's peoples' opinions on the laboratory and armory upgrades? What ones are essential? What ones suck? What ones work really well with other ones (or with the lack of other ones)?
Medic healing is probably the best upgrade in the game. Medic+marine with stim and shields is the warm gooey glue that will hold together almost any strategy.
For pure fun factor, I like G8 Reaper Charges and perma-cloaked Ghosts. Firebat armor will help a lot on some of the Zerg-oriented missions.
2x SCV production and Auto-Refineries are surprisingly well-balanced against each other - the former gives you a higher resource curve over a period of time between initialization and saturation of a resource node, but Auto-Refineries basically give you six free SCVs, indirectly, and free up supply. Both kick ass.
Wraiths have probably the only truly unappealing upgrade choices. A little more energy I won't need on a unit I don't use? Sign me up!
The instant supply depots (oh look, I'm supply capped. bing bing, problem solved) and tech reactor are also amazingly awesome.
Producing two battlecruisers at once? yes please.
Also, UrQuanLord88, holy crap you need to update your PC so you can play SC2 with better graphics.
Dhalphir on
0
INeedNoSaltwith blood on my teethRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
I play online on lowest settings even though I can run it fine on Ultra
Yeah, I picked the tech reactor, thinking it was just for the barracks for some reason.
All the sudden "holy shit double EVERYTHING".
In my last playthrough,
I left the Haven mission to next-to-last. (I could probably have done it a little earlier, but I wanted to see what Dr. Hanson had to say to various developments; as it turns out, she doesn't have much to say after the Media Blitz mission.)
I'm not too sure where to ask this, but with all the blizzard threads we have, figure it's better not to add another.
Has anyone tried contacting customer service lately at blizzard? I sent a ticket on Monday and other than the we got your message, you are in the queue message, I've not heard back. I tried calling yesterday but they said estimated wait time was over 40 minutes...
I'm having problems with my bnet account and in turn have not been able to play SC2
(Just wondering if anyone has had luck contacting them...)
Again, this challenge requires you to lose as little units as possible. Gold is sub 9 or so and this guide will show you the way.
Round 1 – Zergling Rush
The given tip for this challenge is to make use of bunkers but I think learning to block off the flow of enemy units into your base is more vital for success. Make sure that you go to Options -> Gameplay and toggle Display Build Grid to make sure you have a tight wall.
For this particular round, you'd want to start by sending 2 SCVs far south of your base to build a barracks first and then an engineering bay to completely wall off the path to your base. Hotkey your command centre to keep producing SCVs.
This is a nice spot for a zergling tight wall. Note that I have my command center hotkeyed to build more SCVs while I watch over wall construction.
If you time it right, the zerglings should start to arrive when your engineering bay is done and your barracks almost complete. Now depending on luck (unless someone knows how to remedy this), your SCVs may end up at the other end of the wall and /or get destroyed by the zerglings before your barracks is complete. Do not panic, at worse, you end up losing 2 SCVs and what you need to do is (preemptively) send more SCVs over to repair your wall. Zerglings take a relatively long time to destroy structures so you should have ample time to act. Once you get your barracks up and running, start producing marines and set the rally point on the right side of your wall. With your wall intact and marines out shooting at the zerglings, you will win.
Expected losses: 0~2
Round 2 – Zealot Rush
For this round, you can't just wall off your base via natural choke points like we did in the last round so we have to improvise and create our own choke point.
First off, you'd have to build a barracks as soon as possible to get marines. Note the position of the supply depot and position your barracks just under it. Also, remember to hotkey your command centre and build SCVs whenever you can. Next, build your engineering bay to finish off the choke by placing it just to the left of the bottom vespene geyser. Once your barracks is complete, begin building a bunker and 2 marines.
An example of how I walled myself in with my buildings. Note that the bunker is about 3x3 squares and with the barracks add-on and the supply depot, it is hard for more than 2 zealots to be attacking the bunker at the same time. This reduces the number of SCVs required to repair the bunker.
The first Zealot should arrive before your bunker or your marine is complete and will start attacking the nearest structure. Just take note of when your marine is appearing out of the barracks and when he does, the zealot will chase after him. Keep the marine moving around your base until your bunker is complete and then load him in. As long as you get enough SCVs repairing and getting your marines from the barracks into your bunker, that is all the defense you need. Note that zealots will sometimes switch targets to SCVs which are repairing as well so get ready to micro send the zealot on a wild goose chase or get more SCVs repairing your bunker.
You should focus on filling up your bunker with marines and keeping your bunker alive before thinking about progressing. If you manage to wipe out the zealots in your base with your bunker intact, all that is left to do is to make a sizable force to push out and demolish the Protoss for the win.
Expected losses: 0
There is no need to have two different builds for this mission though, the one you use for the protoss is just as effective against the zerg. Personally I throw down two barracks creating a tight wall between the already placed supply depot and the lower geyser, both placed as far down as possible allowing marines a place to stand and a spot for an scv to repair the depot the zealots always will try to hit. The final piece is putting a supply depot to the right of the geyser to make a completely tight wall around the lower end of your base. Two barracks making marines quickly makes the little fortress unassailable.
For the protoss part one thing to do is send an scv to their base near the rocks before they have all their stuff placed, especially the second gateway, and place the scv there which will prevent the probe from making it for a while. Otherwise just do the same build and if needed wall off the top with a bunker but the zealots will usually go for the lower depot or raxs if you have marines behind shooting at them.
When the first zealot pops out just kite it around with the scv until you have a few marines out and your lower wall finished, stopping the probe from building the second gateway multiple times is quite fun too. And once it has done it's job just run it away since the zealots chasing it will leash back after a while.
Argh... this is fuckin terrible. My internet is to screwy to play any online games with... because of such I've been forced to play A.I. in skirmish mode.
I haven't played many A.I. or skrimish matches. Less then 10 I would bet... but I can already beat the insane level AI. It just does the same thing over and over and over and (in eerily human fashion) rage quits even when all is not lost.
Sigh I wish I could play online.
Wishpig on
WARNING: Picture below may cause spontaneous growth of facial hair and/or body hair.
Alright. So I beat the campaign, and went back and did all the optional missions that I didn't do the first time around. But my archives still say I've only beaten 24/26 missions. Do I have to start a new game in order to get the achievement or w/e for finishing all 26 missions?
Alright. So I beat the campaign, and went back and did all the optional missions that I didn't do the first time around. But my archives still say I've only beaten 24/26 missions. Do I have to start a new game in order to get the achievement or w/e for finishing all 26 missions?
Theres a
Secret mission. I dunno if that counts, but it may be your problem.
Wishpig on
WARNING: Picture below may cause spontaneous growth of facial hair and/or body hair.
Alright. So I beat the campaign, and went back and did all the optional missions that I didn't do the first time around. But my archives still say I've only beaten 24/26 missions. Do I have to start a new game in order to get the achievement or w/e for finishing all 26 missions?
Theres a
Secret mission. I dunno if that counts, but it may be your problem.
Yeah I know about that, but adding up the missions I don't think it counts. Plus, the number is off by two.
SJ on
0
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
The missions where you make a choice count as two missions. You'll have to go back and choose the other option in another campaign, I think.
Dhalphir on
0
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
The Day/Night mission (can't remember the name)
Has anyone had any success on Brutal with not using bunkers at all to defend and just using medics and infantry?
There isn't enough room for more than 2-3 bunkers in each choke point and if I put SCVs behind the bunkers, there isn't enough outgoing firepower to defend. if I put infantry behind the bunkers, the SCVs can't get in there to defend.
So where should custom maps go and how exactly do you play them?
Is it through the Map Editor? That worked but it seems really dumb.
am i dumb?
Playing custom maps downloaded from anywhere is a pain in the rear. You have to load the map up in the editor, Publish the map (File > Publish...) to battle.net using your login, and then go in the game and it will be listed under something like My Published Maps or something in the drop down for choosing a map. And you can only have 5 published maps at one time.
Ugh, thank you! I was wondering about this but could not find a solid answer on the intertubes.
Alien Queen on
3DS: 4742 5205 9601 - Boss Lady - Pokemon Y - In game name: Kira
Ok so instead of just nitpicking UrQuanLord88s stuff I'll throw up something of my own.
Easy way to do Path of Ascension (Protoss challenge). Barring terrible luck this should give a gold rating with half-decent micro scoring three perfect zero loss rounds.
Wave 1.1
Enemy troops: 13 Hellions
Your troops: 9 Stalkers
Tactic: Place 8 of your stalkers on the right side cliff using blink with a lone stalker on the low ground and out in front, this is will be our bait. As the Hellions advance retreat the bait and blink it up to the others after you take a bit of damage, focus fire the Hellions one by one until their numbers drop down to 5-7 or the pylon gets dangerously low on life, then blink down and clear the rest.
Wave 1.2
Enemy troops: 50ish marines
Your troops: 3 Colossi
Tactic: Place the three colossi on the left ridge fairly far forward near the tree, as the marines pass the colossi will roast them. If placed far forward enough almost all marines will hang on the colossi instead of continue on towards the pylon, mop up the stragglers that do.
Wave 1.3
Enemy troops: 12 Marauders
Your troops: 2 Colossi, 1 Sentry and 14 Zealots
Tactic: Make a line of zealots in front of the pylon with the sentry slightly ahead, put one colossi on each wing of the zealot line but slightly forward. As the marauders advance drop 4 tight forcefields in a line in their path as they come into range of the colossi forcing them from a ball into a line while continually taking fire from the colossi and retreat the sentry out of the fight. When the forcefields go down charge the zealots into the marauders. This is the most problematic fight of the first wave and the only one where there might be 1-2 losses so be prepared to retreat units that take too much damage, having the zealots on a hotkey becomes important
Wave 2.1
Enemy troops: 10 Thors
Your troops: 7 Carriers
Tactic: Place the carriers in a fairly long line or slight concave in front of the pylon, avoid bunching them up. Make sure to focus all carriers on a single thor at a time starting with the one that will be coming out in front and retreating any carrier that starts to get low, they can re-engage almost immediately but they need to get out of the AI's targeting envelope first.
Tactic: Place the Immortals in a line near the marking between the statues and advance them when the battle start. They will clear all the siege tanks on their own and the only thing needed is to disengage the ones that loose their shield and starts taking life damage.
Wave 2.3
Enemy troops: 3 Battlecruisers
Your troops: 6 Void Rays and 1 High Templar
Tactic: Have the high templar use feedback on all the BCs and then retreat it, focus-fire the VRs on a single BC at a time and disengage those that get damage only to re-engage them moments later.
Wave 3.1
Enemy troops: 1 Battlecruiser and 5 Vikings
Your troops: 4 Archons, 3 Stalkers and 8 Zealots
Tactic: Have your forces behind the pylon and move out once the vikings get in range of the pylon and starts to transform, archons in front and stalkers in the back. The Stalkers are optional and can be shifted to the Wave 3.2 and the Zealots are only here because we don't really have anywhere else to put them but they can help with the transformed vikings and then pulled back immediately or simply left out of the fight completely.
Clear the vikings and start on the BC being careful to retreat any archon that starts to get low shields.
Wave 3.2
Enemy troops:14 Hellions and 14 Reapers
Your troops: 3 Colossi and 5 Stalkers
Tactic: Same placement as in Wave 1.2, it should sort itself out with minimal input.
Wave 3.3 (Hardest fight to clear with no losses)
Enemy troops: 8 Marauders and 11 Siege tanks
Your troops: 4 Phoenixes, 7 Immortals, 1 Sentry and 1 High Templar
Tactic: Phoenixes in one control group placed near the green zone, they will be continuelly lifting as many tanks as possible during the fight not worrying about killing them as much as keeping 4 in the air all the time so shift-command them right at the start.
Immortals are placed in a line in front of the pylon and will be the main attacking force. The high templar should try to get as many good storms off as possible on the marauders and the first siege tanks and then retreat. The sentry can drop forcefields in front of the marauders to keep them in the storms but the making sure the storms go out tend to more important. The Immortals will clean up the attackers on their own so one can switch to controlling the phoenixes and retreating damaged immortals.
Has anyone had any success on Brutal with not using bunkers at all to defend and just using medics and infantry?
There isn't enough room for more than 2-3 bunkers in each choke point and if I put SCVs behind the bunkers, there isn't enough outgoing firepower to defend. if I put infantry behind the bunkers, the SCVs can't get in there to defend.
I beat that mission on brutal by building 3 perdition turrets at each entrance with SCVs behind them to repair, and then just brute forcing the buildings outside to win before the waves get strong enough to kill the turrets. Also if you are roaming at night you can take out a lot of forces before they even get to your base (though online one side at a time for that).
Has anyone had any success on Brutal with not using bunkers at all to defend and just using medics and infantry?
There isn't enough room for more than 2-3 bunkers in each choke point and if I put SCVs behind the bunkers, there isn't enough outgoing firepower to defend. if I put infantry behind the bunkers, the SCVs can't get in there to defend.
I beat that mission on brutal by building 3 perdition turrets at each entrance with SCVs behind them to repair, and then just brute forcing the buildings outside to win before the waves get strong enough to kill the turrets. Also if you are roaming at night you can take out a lot of forces before they even get to your base (though online one side at a time for that).
Or just do it after you get reapers and mass them.
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
I was thinking of just putting a ball of MMM at each entrance, then when day breaks, move out and destroy a settlement with each ball, then retreat.
EDIT: Are all of the infested units considered Light? Seems like you'd struggle against the Abberrations.
Dhalphir on
0
Tynnanseldom correct, never unsureRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
Yessss, Sarah Kerrigan portrait!
Regarding last mission on Brutal:
For my second playthrough I chose the Hive Mind Emulator instead of the Psi Disruptor. Holy crap does that make the last mission smooth if you choose to destroy the nydus network. All you need is a mess of marines and medics at each choke with a few bunkers, a roving band of vikings (plus some over your mineral line, just hanging out), and about twelve to fifteen Emulators strewn around your perimeter. Bind all the devices to one control group and just snap up every mutalisk and brood lord that gets close enough.
Path of Ascension(Silver: Lose 20 Units or less/Gold: Lose 10 units or less)
Wave 1
13xHellions vs 9xStalkers
This round is all about micro-managing your Stalkers and it would be good to learn to make use of the alt key to show health bars or go to Options->Gameplay and set 'Show Unit Status Bar' to either Selected or Always depending on your preference.
You'd want to start the round with your stalkers in as much of a horizontal line as possible so that they are all in range when the fight starts. Do not worry too much about this, however, because what is more important is that you make full use of the Stalker's blink ability. Whenever a Stalker's health points is low or if you notice one particular Stalker getting damaged faster than the rest, use its Blink ability to move it away from battle. As long as you keep injured Stalkers from death, you should be able to destroy the Hellions without any loss.
Expected Losses:0
55xMarines vs 4xColossi
Colossi are very strong against masses of small units, especially light infantry. Positioning in this round is key as well. You would want 2 Colossi on each side of the path leading to the pylon. This would force the ball of marines to split up and form a wedge shape, which is perfect for the colossus' shape of attack. As usual, if you manage to micro injured colossi behind ones with full health, there should be no losses.
Expected Losses:0
12xMarauders vs 14xZealots+1xColossus+1sentry
This round is probably the trickiest of the 3 in this wave. Position your Colossus in front with your sentry behind it and move your zealots to the side. Ideally, you would want to create an image of an Archon and place it next to the sentry. Wait for the Marauders to engage the Archon and the Colossus before sending in the zealots. If possible, get your sentry to move in with Guardian Shield up for added protection. Done right, you can avoid any loss but I always expect at least one.
Expected Losses:~1
Wave 2
10xThor vs 7xCarriers
Positioning helps a lot again. Move all your carriers to the right side of the area, just above the ledge. This is important because Thors have a longer range than carriers and the ledge would hide the carriers until the Thors are in range. When the first Thor touches the line, it is time to attack. Just right click one of them and, again, make sure to micro the injured carriers away from the battle.
Expected Losses:0
12xSiege Tanks vs 7xImmortals+1xHigh Templar(optional)
Immortals are a perfect counter to siege tanks as long as their shields are up because they take no more than 20 damage each hit. Similar to the 1st round of the first wave, make sure you spread your immortals in a line and just micro the injured ones away from battle. You don't have to use the High Templar here but Psyonic Storm is always good for additional damage.
Expected Losses:0
3xBattlecruisers vs 6xVoid Rays+1xHigh Templar(optional)
Use waypoints by selecting all your Void Rays, hold down shift and right click each Battlecruiser. Do the usual death prevention micro you have been doing for the previous rounds and since Void Rays do increasing amounts of damage over time if left damaging the same target, you should have 3 Void Rays with full health and fully charged up lazer, absolutely tearing up the Battlecruisers. If you did not use your High Templar previously, he is great here to cast Feedback on each Battlecruiser.
Expected Losses:0
Wave 3
5xVikings+1xBattlecruiser vs 4xPhoenix+8xStalkers
There is a trick to this round which will help a lot. Position your Stalkers at your pylon and let the enemy forces come to you while making sure you keep your air units away from the Vikings (They have an obscene ranged air attack) as much as possible. The Vikings should reach your forces faster than the Battlecruiser and will land to fight your Stalkers. When you are sure that they are transforming, send your Phoenixes for the Battlecruiser. Again, micro injured units away from battle.
Expected Losses:0~1
14xReapers+14xHellions vs 3xColossi+4xArchon
Put your Colossi in a line and 2 Archons flanking each side. This time, your Archons should be taking most of the damage so be sure to look out for their shield strength. Pull them back when injured while your Colossi destroys the enemy.
Expected Losses:0
11xSiege Tanks+6xMarauders vs 7xImmortals+8xZealots+1xSentry+1xHigh Templar
Probably the hardest round in this challenge for me. I suggest positioning your immortals in front, your templar and your sentry just behind that line and your zealots at the flank. Use hallucinate to conjure up two colossi and move them on top of the siege tanks once the marauders engage your immortals. When the Siege tanks start to siege up, that is the time where you send in your zealots from one side and you can cast Psyonic Storm on the other side.
Expected Losses: 0~5 Zealots >:[
The last round is usually my Archilles' heel but since it is rather easy to avoid losses in all the previous rounds, you should be able to get gold easily!
For the Swarm
For the Swarm (Silver: Lose 20 Units or less / Gold: Lose 10 units or less)
The hardest of the micro-managing challenges solely because the Zerg you have to keep track of so many squishy units. Luckily, with abilities like burrow and fungal growth, it is relatively easier to take units out of the fight. Another thing to note is that Zerg ground units gain a movement speed bonus when on creep, so it is actually advantageous to wait for the enemy to come closer to the spire.
Wave 1
5xColossi vs 3xUltralisks
Ultralisks do extra damage to armored targets like the Colossi but Colossi do pitiful damage to Ultralisks. This round is pretty straightforward if you are familiar with keeping units alive, espeically if you have done the other two challenges. Attack move, micro injured units away from battle.
Expected Losses:0
1xImmortal vs 10xZerglings+1xUltralisk
Immortals actually do very well against Ultralisks and quite poorly against Zerglings. However, I found it to be a ton easier to lose no units for this wave if you send in the Ultralisk first, to take the brunt of the damage from the Immortal and then the Zerglings. Otherwise, it is rather difficult to keep Zerglings alive especially when the Immortal kills a Zergling in 2 hits.
Expected Losses:0
8xVoid Ray vs 21xHydralisks+1xInfestor
Hydralisks are your only anti-air units this wave, so they'd have to do against the Void Rays. The key to not losing any units this round is to keep track of your unit health bars (Several options for this can be found via Options->Gameplay). You should use the Infestor to fungal growth half of the Void Rays before engaging them with the Hydralisks. Then, it is really just the matter of keeping track of low health units, selecting them and pressing 'r' to burrow out of sight. Expect to lose a couple of Hydralisks at first but with practice, you shouldn't lose any units at all.
Expected Losses:0~2
Wave 2
19xZealots vs 20xRoaches
Just like Round 3 in Wave 1, all you have to do here is burrow injured Roaches when they get low. Piece of cake with practice but expect to lose a couple if you aren't up to speed yet.
Expected Losses:0~2
5xVoid Rays vs 11xMutalisks
There isn't anything special for this round because you only have 1 type of anti air unit again. Queue up attacks for each of the Void Rays and micro injured units away from battle, etc.
Expected Losses:0
9xStalkers vs 2xUltralisks+1xInfestor
Ultralisks do additional to the armored Stalkers but this time Stalkers do additional to Ultralisks as well. Use your Infestor to split up the Stalker force with Fungal Growth to make things easier.
Expected Losses:0
Wave 3
10xStalkers+2xImmortals vs 4xUltralisk+2xBroodlords
Broodlords are just wonderful when the AI is involved because the enemy units usually get stuck on attacking the broodlings instead of units that matter. To get great effect with this, let your Broodlords engage before sending in your Ultralisks and micro-manage appropriately.
Expected Losses:0
4xArchons+10xZealots vs 12xRoaches+3xBroodlords+1xInfestor
Again, you can use the same fungal growth trick with your Infestor and you can also neural parasite one Archon. Let your Broodlords engage before sending in your Roaches for another easy round with no loss.
Expected Losses:0
4xCarriers vs 14xCorruptors
This is exactly like Round 2 in Wave 2.
Expected Losses:0
Dusdais ashamed of this postSLC, UTRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
So this secret mission thing. If I don't stumble upon it while playing through, is that locked out afterwards? I really don't want to miss anything, but experience has taught me that googling for such things leads to spoilers (I'm maybe halfway through at this point).
For my second playthrough I chose the Hive Mind Emulator instead of the Psi Disruptor. Holy crap does that make the last mission smooth if you choose to destroy the nydus network. All you need is a mess of marines and medics at each choke with a few bunkers, a roving band of vikings (plus some over your mineral line, just hanging out), and about twelve to fifteen Emulators strewn around your perimeter. Bind all the devices to one control group and just snap up every mutalisk and brood lord that gets close enough.
Posts
you truly are a useless warrior then!
Arrrgh! My kingdom for a horse!
Keep in mind I suck so hard I have to play Casual on all but the earliest single-player missions, so these probably aren't the best choices.
Bunker: Projectile Accelerator and Neosteel Bunker. To me, this is a no-brainer. The Terran Campaign discourages turtling through use of time limits, but it does have several "survive long enough" missions.
Missile Turret: Hellstorm Batteries. Giving a unit an area attack without affecting main damage seems, to me, to be all but necessary.
SCV: I've tried both--in general, they're both very useful, but if I had to pick one, I'd go with Advanced Construction. Dual Fusion Welders is very, very useful in mech-heavy builds, but I don't do that very much, and in any case Science Vessels (which I prefer; see below) are more mobile, able to keep up with units that need repair, and better able to defend themselves.
Terran Building: Orbital Command. The ability to harvest minerals faster without affecting supply or draining your minerals is awesome.
Armory - Units
Marine - Stimpacks, Combat Shield. Again, no-brainers. Stimpacks are pretty much required for any but the most basic Terran play--even I know that--and the Combat Shield lets them do it more.
Medic - Stabilizer Medpacks. In all but a few missions, infantry survival is important. Being able to keep them alive twice as well makes things so much easier.
Firebat - I don't get much use out of Firebats after early missions, what with increasing anti-air becoming more necessary and increasing air-to-ground being a feature of all factions, but when I do use them I always enjoy Incincerator Gauntles. FWOOSH. I don't get Juggernaut plating when, for a little more, I can get Stabilizer Medpacks and have Medics that work twice as well on both Firebats and Marauders.
Marauder - Marauders aren't just heavy fire support--Concussive Shells is great. I don't get Kinetic Foam since, for a little more, I can get Stabilizer Medpacks and have Medics that work twice as well with both Marauders and Firebats, and Reapers and Marines and SCVs and Ghosts besides.
Reaper - Reapers I never got much use out of aside from their "You got Reapers!" mission on Redstone, but if I had the spare credits lying around and couldn't afford anything else, I got U-238 rounds, because I found that you could rarely go wrong by upgrading a unit's range.
Armory - Vehicles
Hellion - Similar to Firebats, I never used Hellions much as the game progressed, but Twin-Linked Flamethrower and Thermite Filaments both were savage and relatively inexpensive upgrades.
Vulture - The thing that really irritated me about Vultures in 1 and Brood War, and that I very much anticipated being rectified in II (I was assuming Vultures would figure in the singleplayer), was that Vultures weren't much use aside from scouting and spider mines--and they had a limited supply of spider mines. It made even less sense to me in light of the Reaver and Carrier. Replenishable Magazine makes me feel better, and even satisfies me flavor-wise: arguably Vultures wouldn't start with it, but humans are great imitators, and would after a few years have figured out how to mimic some things the Protoss do...
Goliath - I always liked the Goliath. Because of this, by the late game, they would often have both the Multi-Lock Weapon System and the Ares-Class Targeting System. This made the choice before the last mission rankle a bit, but as it turned out whichever you pick you're still going to get some use out of being able to fire both weapons at once.
Diamondback - The Diamondback was a fun unit idea, and the train job mission was a fun way to use it. Imagine my surprise when I never really came back to the Diamondback, though I threw it a Trilithium Power Cell bone late in the game when I'd gotten all the more useful and less expensive upgrades.
Siege Tank - Maelstrom Rounds were a luxury, but they were a goooood luxury. I didn't get Shaped Blast because I found that my defense setups rarely lead my boys into the line of fire, and the way the campaign was arranged there was little need, at least on Casual, for Siege Tanks on offense.
Armory - Starships
Medivac - As if I wasn't bad enough at multiplayer already, when the choice came I decided that Medics with the other transport were a better option than the Medivac, so until the very end of the credit-earning missions I didn't get anything. I figured the game might throw a few free ones at me, though, so I got the Rapid Deployment Tubes, assuming that speed would be a necessity. Didn't get much use out of them.
Wraith - I didn't use Wraiths much, and even when I did, for various reasons I didn't need to cloak them much. The poor Wraith languished un-upgraded.
Viking - Vikings were cheap enough that while Ripwave Missiles would have been useful, I was able to mass-produce them enough that area-effect wasn't necessary. The Phobos-Class Targeting System, however, is yet another example of my "range is awesome" philosophy.
Banshee - Everything the Wraith was not, the Banshee was. I generally got both Cross-Spectrum Dampeners and Shockwave Missile Batteries.
Battlecruiser - I rarely got good enough, nor did most missions last long enough, to get Battlecruisers in any number, aside from the first mission you use them, so upgrading them wasn't very attractive to me.
Armory - Dominion
Ghost/Specture - The Crius Suit and Nyx-Class Cloaking Module were, of course, necessities. When playing with the Ghost, Snipe meant that Ocular Implants were beyond useful, but Shockwave, to me, curiously meant that Psionic Lash was not.
Research Console - Protoss
Level 5
Here's a little thing about me. I'm a terrible Starcraft player. I have little doubt that anyone else in this thread could flatten me inside five minutes. The really vicious players might be able to do it in ten, blindfolded. But I have at least a basic grasp of the theory. And I know that armor is important. It can save a unit's life if we're talking, say, Marines or Hellions against Spine Crawlers. But I also know that the best players play at the fastest speed, can launch rush attacks while defending their base and expanding, and do up to 300 APMs at the extreme end of skill. So more armor and hit points helps...but fast attacks kill. For that reason I go with ultra-capacitors.
Level 10
The way I play, terrible as I am, getting enough Vespene gas it isn't a problem. My problem is keeping my mineral count high without overtaxing my supply depots. Orbital Depots speed up my base and unit production at least as much as more Vespene would.
Level 15
When I have Automated Refineries, that jumps me six SCVs ahead in my training queue in most maps. An extra 1:42s and 300 minerals at the start of a game can make the difference between a clear victory and just scraping by, or between just scraping by and going down to defeat. But, again, I suck.
Level 20
I'm more comfortable with the Science Vessel, not least because it works even better than Dual Fusion Welder-equipped SCVs for repairing your stuff, being more mobile. I won't deny the Raven, though, has some abilities that can be devastating; I just can't get the hang of them. (Again, I suck.)
Level 25
Is there any contest? Is there really? I mean, I know I'm a horrible player, but the ability to quickly train any infantry, if you have ways of transporting them (and one way or another, you will), seems more useful in the campaign, especially given the number of defensive missions there are, than the ability to put them where you want instantly once they're trained. Granted, if you can reliably achieve line of sight on an enemy's resources or a weak point of their base...but I can't. So, it's Tech Reactors, hooooooo!
Research Console - Zerg
Level 5
Shrike Turret: In general, in combination with Neosteel and Projectile Accelerator, and later in the game Dual Fusion Welders, I don't even notice that my bunkers might not be as tough.
Level 10
Planetary Fortress is useful in multiplayer, I know that. However, in the campaign, if the Planetary Fortress sees use, it generally means you've lost the mission or your expansion. Plus, if you upgrade to a Fortress, it negates Orbital Command, which is awesome. Meanwhile, Perdition Turrets fit neatly between two bunkers (which, as you can tell, I'm very fond of) at a choke point, tuck themselves out of the way when not in use, and ruin the day of most ground units.
Level 15
Generally, I find that against the enemies the campaign throws at you, infantry work just fine as anti-infantry. If you really need to fuck up a cluster of them, that's what the Spectre's Shockwave is for. Plus, I find the Hercules crammed with an MF'nM ball more useful than the Medivac.
Level 20
Given my fondness for Banshees, as you can imagine I usually go with the Cellular Reactor. Combined with the Cross-Spectrum Dampeners, Cloakin', all day, erryday. Regenerative Bio-Steel is all right, but I'm not a very mech-heavy player.
Level 25
The way I see it, flyers are already highly mobile. By the time they're range, they're gonna be able to hit me anyway (especially those damn brood lords). The only nearby Zerg units I need to slow, therefore, are usually ground units on their way to being in range of my Bunkers, and when I want to do that I'll turn my Concussive-Shell-equipped Marauders loose, which has the added bonus of actually doing damage. Taking control of an Ultralisk or other big bad unit at just the right moment, on the other hand, is fun.
Please feel free to point at laugh at my dumb and suck.
Is it through the Map Editor? That worked but it seems really dumb.
am i dumb?
Round 1 – Zergling Rush
The given tip for this challenge is to make use of bunkers but I think learning to block off the flow of enemy units into your base is more vital for success. Make sure that you go to Options -> Gameplay and toggle Display Build Grid to make sure you have a tight wall.
For this particular round, you'd want to start by sending 2 SCVs far south of your base to build a barracks first and then an engineering bay to completely wall off the path to your base. Hotkey your command centre to keep producing SCVs.
This is a nice spot for a zergling tight wall. Note that I have my command center hotkeyed to build more SCVs while I watch over wall construction.
If you time it right, the zerglings should start to arrive when your engineering bay is done and your barracks almost complete. Now depending on luck (unless someone knows how to remedy this), your SCVs may end up at the other end of the wall and /or get destroyed by the zerglings before your barracks is complete. Do not panic, at worse, you end up losing 2 SCVs and what you need to do is (preemptively) send more SCVs over to repair your wall. Zerglings take a relatively long time to destroy structures so you should have ample time to act. Once you get your barracks up and running, start producing marines and set the rally point on the right side of your wall. With your wall intact and marines out shooting at the zerglings, you will win.
Expected losses: 0~2
Round 2 – Zealot Rush
For this round, you can't just wall off your base via natural choke points like we did in the last round so we have to improvise and create our own choke point.
First off, you'd have to build a barracks as soon as possible to get marines. Note the position of the supply depot and position your barracks just under it. Also, remember to hotkey your command centre and build SCVs whenever you can. Next, build your engineering bay to finish off the choke by placing it just to the left of the bottom vespene geyser. Once your barracks is complete, begin building a bunker and 2 marines.
The first Zealot should arrive before your bunker or your marine is complete and will start attacking the nearest structure. Just take note of when your marine is appearing out of the barracks and when he does, the zealot will chase after him. Keep the marine moving around your base until your bunker is complete and then load him in. As long as you get enough SCVs repairing and getting your marines from the barracks into your bunker, that is all the defense you need. Note that zealots will sometimes switch targets to SCVs which are repairing as well so get ready to micro send the zealot on a wild goose chase or get more SCVs repairing your bunker.
You should focus on filling up your bunker with marines and keeping your bunker alive before thinking about progressing. If you manage to wipe out the zealots in your base with your bunker intact, all that is left to do is to make a sizable force to push out and demolish the Protoss for the win.
Expected losses: 0
Streaming 8PST on weeknights
The zealots are even easier. Slight micro to preserve your SCVs when they again attack move. Start filling a bunker, repair it. Once a second one is up and full they won't even get to the bunkers.
Then pick a weapon of choice to eliminate the buildings. Or mass marines. Or whatever. I chose siege tanks just to be safe.
Playing custom maps downloaded from anywhere is a pain in the rear. You have to load the map up in the editor, Publish the map (File > Publish...) to battle.net using your login, and then go in the game and it will be listed under something like My Published Maps or something in the drop down for choosing a map. And you can only have 5 published maps at one time.
R*SC: BladeCruiser
Check out my GTAV-PC custom race tracks inspired by real life racing circuits!
For pure fun factor, I like G8 Reaper Charges and perma-cloaked Ghosts. Firebat armor will help a lot on some of the Zerg-oriented missions.
2x SCV production and Auto-Refineries are surprisingly well-balanced against each other - the former gives you a higher resource curve over a period of time between initialization and saturation of a resource node, but Auto-Refineries basically give you six free SCVs, indirectly, and free up supply. Both kick ass.
Wraiths have probably the only truly unappealing upgrade choices. A little more energy I won't need on a unit I don't use? Sign me up!
The instant supply depots (oh look, I'm supply capped. bing bing, problem solved) and tech reactor are also amazingly awesome.
Producing two battlecruisers at once? yes please.
Also, UrQuanLord88, holy crap you need to update your PC so you can play SC2 with better graphics.
'cause it's just easier
All the sudden "holy shit double EVERYTHING".
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
In my last playthrough,
So yeah, fucking swarm of Vikings.
Has anyone tried contacting customer service lately at blizzard? I sent a ticket on Monday and other than the we got your message, you are in the queue message, I've not heard back. I tried calling yesterday but they said estimated wait time was over 40 minutes...
I'm having problems with my bnet account and in turn have not been able to play SC2
(Just wondering if anyone has had luck contacting them...)
For the protoss part one thing to do is send an scv to their base near the rocks before they have all their stuff placed, especially the second gateway, and place the scv there which will prevent the probe from making it for a while. Otherwise just do the same build and if needed wall off the top with a bunker but the zealots will usually go for the lower depot or raxs if you have marines behind shooting at them.
When the first zealot pops out just kite it around with the scv until you have a few marines out and your lower wall finished, stopping the probe from building the second gateway multiple times is quite fun too. And once it has done it's job just run it away since the zealots chasing it will leash back after a while.
I haven't played many A.I. or skrimish matches. Less then 10 I would bet... but I can already beat the insane level AI. It just does the same thing over and over and over and (in eerily human fashion) rage quits even when all is not lost.
Sigh
Image by Sharpwriter on deviantart.com
I watched the replay of each one later, and what do you know... I was, like, always 4-10 workers behind. Everytime, even if we're both 1-basing.
Clearly I have a problem.
Theres a
Image by Sharpwriter on deviantart.com
Yeah I know about that, but adding up the missions I don't think it counts. Plus, the number is off by two.
There isn't enough room for more than 2-3 bunkers in each choke point and if I put SCVs behind the bunkers, there isn't enough outgoing firepower to defend. if I put infantry behind the bunkers, the SCVs can't get in there to defend.
That's weird. I went back in the archives and did the other option for all of them.
Ugh, thank you! I was wondering about this but could not find a solid answer on the intertubes.
Easy way to do Path of Ascension (Protoss challenge). Barring terrible luck this should give a gold rating with half-decent micro scoring three perfect zero loss rounds.
Enemy troops: 13 Hellions
Your troops: 9 Stalkers
Tactic: Place 8 of your stalkers on the right side cliff using blink with a lone stalker on the low ground and out in front, this is will be our bait. As the Hellions advance retreat the bait and blink it up to the others after you take a bit of damage, focus fire the Hellions one by one until their numbers drop down to 5-7 or the pylon gets dangerously low on life, then blink down and clear the rest.
Wave 1.2
Enemy troops: 50ish marines
Your troops: 3 Colossi
Tactic: Place the three colossi on the left ridge fairly far forward near the tree, as the marines pass the colossi will roast them. If placed far forward enough almost all marines will hang on the colossi instead of continue on towards the pylon, mop up the stragglers that do.
Wave 1.3
Enemy troops: 12 Marauders
Your troops: 2 Colossi, 1 Sentry and 14 Zealots
Tactic: Make a line of zealots in front of the pylon with the sentry slightly ahead, put one colossi on each wing of the zealot line but slightly forward. As the marauders advance drop 4 tight forcefields in a line in their path as they come into range of the colossi forcing them from a ball into a line while continually taking fire from the colossi and retreat the sentry out of the fight. When the forcefields go down charge the zealots into the marauders. This is the most problematic fight of the first wave and the only one where there might be 1-2 losses so be prepared to retreat units that take too much damage, having the zealots on a hotkey becomes important
Wave 2.1
Enemy troops: 10 Thors
Your troops: 7 Carriers
Tactic: Place the carriers in a fairly long line or slight concave in front of the pylon, avoid bunching them up. Make sure to focus all carriers on a single thor at a time starting with the one that will be coming out in front and retreating any carrier that starts to get low, they can re-engage almost immediately but they need to get out of the AI's targeting envelope first.
Wave 2.2
Enemy troops: 12 Siege Tanks
Your troops: 7 Immortals
Tactic: Place the Immortals in a line near the marking between the statues and advance them when the battle start. They will clear all the siege tanks on their own and the only thing needed is to disengage the ones that loose their shield and starts taking life damage.
Wave 2.3
Enemy troops: 3 Battlecruisers
Your troops: 6 Void Rays and 1 High Templar
Tactic: Have the high templar use feedback on all the BCs and then retreat it, focus-fire the VRs on a single BC at a time and disengage those that get damage only to re-engage them moments later.
Wave 3.1
Enemy troops: 1 Battlecruiser and 5 Vikings
Your troops: 4 Archons, 3 Stalkers and 8 Zealots
Tactic: Have your forces behind the pylon and move out once the vikings get in range of the pylon and starts to transform, archons in front and stalkers in the back. The Stalkers are optional and can be shifted to the Wave 3.2 and the Zealots are only here because we don't really have anywhere else to put them but they can help with the transformed vikings and then pulled back immediately or simply left out of the fight completely.
Clear the vikings and start on the BC being careful to retreat any archon that starts to get low shields.
Wave 3.2
Enemy troops:14 Hellions and 14 Reapers
Your troops: 3 Colossi and 5 Stalkers
Tactic: Same placement as in Wave 1.2, it should sort itself out with minimal input.
Wave 3.3 (Hardest fight to clear with no losses)
Enemy troops: 8 Marauders and 11 Siege tanks
Your troops: 4 Phoenixes, 7 Immortals, 1 Sentry and 1 High Templar
Tactic: Phoenixes in one control group placed near the green zone, they will be continuelly lifting as many tanks as possible during the fight not worrying about killing them as much as keeping 4 in the air all the time so shift-command them right at the start.
Immortals are placed in a line in front of the pylon and will be the main attacking force. The high templar should try to get as many good storms off as possible on the marauders and the first siege tanks and then retreat. The sentry can drop forcefields in front of the marauders to keep them in the storms but the making sure the storms go out tend to more important. The Immortals will clean up the attackers on their own so one can switch to controlling the phoenixes and retreating damaged immortals.
US: Nazacra.554
SEA: Nazacra.554
Or just do it after you get reapers and mass them.
EDIT: Are all of the infested units considered Light? Seems like you'd struggle against the Abberrations.
Regarding last mission on Brutal:
Did you do the secret mission and the 3 missions with alternate paths?
Wave 1
13xHellions vs 9xStalkers
This round is all about micro-managing your Stalkers and it would be good to learn to make use of the alt key to show health bars or go to Options->Gameplay and set 'Show Unit Status Bar' to either Selected or Always depending on your preference.
You'd want to start the round with your stalkers in as much of a horizontal line as possible so that they are all in range when the fight starts. Do not worry too much about this, however, because what is more important is that you make full use of the Stalker's blink ability. Whenever a Stalker's health points is low or if you notice one particular Stalker getting damaged faster than the rest, use its Blink ability to move it away from battle. As long as you keep injured Stalkers from death, you should be able to destroy the Hellions without any loss.
Expected Losses:0
55xMarines vs 4xColossi
Colossi are very strong against masses of small units, especially light infantry. Positioning in this round is key as well. You would want 2 Colossi on each side of the path leading to the pylon. This would force the ball of marines to split up and form a wedge shape, which is perfect for the colossus' shape of attack. As usual, if you manage to micro injured colossi behind ones with full health, there should be no losses.
Expected Losses:0
12xMarauders vs 14xZealots+1xColossus+1sentry
This round is probably the trickiest of the 3 in this wave. Position your Colossus in front with your sentry behind it and move your zealots to the side. Ideally, you would want to create an image of an Archon and place it next to the sentry. Wait for the Marauders to engage the Archon and the Colossus before sending in the zealots. If possible, get your sentry to move in with Guardian Shield up for added protection. Done right, you can avoid any loss but I always expect at least one.
Expected Losses:~1
Wave 2
10xThor vs 7xCarriers
Positioning helps a lot again. Move all your carriers to the right side of the area, just above the ledge. This is important because Thors have a longer range than carriers and the ledge would hide the carriers until the Thors are in range. When the first Thor touches the line, it is time to attack. Just right click one of them and, again, make sure to micro the injured carriers away from the battle.
Expected Losses:0
12xSiege Tanks vs 7xImmortals+1xHigh Templar(optional)
Immortals are a perfect counter to siege tanks as long as their shields are up because they take no more than 20 damage each hit. Similar to the 1st round of the first wave, make sure you spread your immortals in a line and just micro the injured ones away from battle. You don't have to use the High Templar here but Psyonic Storm is always good for additional damage.
Expected Losses:0
3xBattlecruisers vs 6xVoid Rays+1xHigh Templar(optional)
Use waypoints by selecting all your Void Rays, hold down shift and right click each Battlecruiser. Do the usual death prevention micro you have been doing for the previous rounds and since Void Rays do increasing amounts of damage over time if left damaging the same target, you should have 3 Void Rays with full health and fully charged up lazer, absolutely tearing up the Battlecruisers. If you did not use your High Templar previously, he is great here to cast Feedback on each Battlecruiser.
Expected Losses:0
Wave 3
5xVikings+1xBattlecruiser vs 4xPhoenix+8xStalkers
There is a trick to this round which will help a lot. Position your Stalkers at your pylon and let the enemy forces come to you while making sure you keep your air units away from the Vikings (They have an obscene ranged air attack) as much as possible. The Vikings should reach your forces faster than the Battlecruiser and will land to fight your Stalkers. When you are sure that they are transforming, send your Phoenixes for the Battlecruiser. Again, micro injured units away from battle.
Expected Losses:0~1
14xReapers+14xHellions vs 3xColossi+4xArchon
Put your Colossi in a line and 2 Archons flanking each side. This time, your Archons should be taking most of the damage so be sure to look out for their shield strength. Pull them back when injured while your Colossi destroys the enemy.
Expected Losses:0
11xSiege Tanks+6xMarauders vs 7xImmortals+8xZealots+1xSentry+1xHigh Templar
Probably the hardest round in this challenge for me. I suggest positioning your immortals in front, your templar and your sentry just behind that line and your zealots at the flank. Use hallucinate to conjure up two colossi and move them on top of the siege tanks once the marauders engage your immortals. When the Siege tanks start to siege up, that is the time where you send in your zealots from one side and you can cast Psyonic Storm on the other side.
Expected Losses: 0~5 Zealots >:[
The last round is usually my Archilles' heel but since it is rather easy to avoid losses in all the previous rounds, you should be able to get gold easily!
For the Swarm
For the Swarm (Silver: Lose 20 Units or less / Gold: Lose 10 units or less)
The hardest of the micro-managing challenges solely because the Zerg you have to keep track of so many squishy units. Luckily, with abilities like burrow and fungal growth, it is relatively easier to take units out of the fight. Another thing to note is that Zerg ground units gain a movement speed bonus when on creep, so it is actually advantageous to wait for the enemy to come closer to the spire.
Wave 1
5xColossi vs 3xUltralisks
Ultralisks do extra damage to armored targets like the Colossi but Colossi do pitiful damage to Ultralisks. This round is pretty straightforward if you are familiar with keeping units alive, espeically if you have done the other two challenges. Attack move, micro injured units away from battle.
Expected Losses:0
1xImmortal vs 10xZerglings+1xUltralisk
Immortals actually do very well against Ultralisks and quite poorly against Zerglings. However, I found it to be a ton easier to lose no units for this wave if you send in the Ultralisk first, to take the brunt of the damage from the Immortal and then the Zerglings. Otherwise, it is rather difficult to keep Zerglings alive especially when the Immortal kills a Zergling in 2 hits.
Expected Losses:0
8xVoid Ray vs 21xHydralisks+1xInfestor
Hydralisks are your only anti-air units this wave, so they'd have to do against the Void Rays. The key to not losing any units this round is to keep track of your unit health bars (Several options for this can be found via Options->Gameplay). You should use the Infestor to fungal growth half of the Void Rays before engaging them with the Hydralisks. Then, it is really just the matter of keeping track of low health units, selecting them and pressing 'r' to burrow out of sight. Expect to lose a couple of Hydralisks at first but with practice, you shouldn't lose any units at all.
Expected Losses:0~2
Wave 2
19xZealots vs 20xRoaches
Just like Round 3 in Wave 1, all you have to do here is burrow injured Roaches when they get low. Piece of cake with practice but expect to lose a couple if you aren't up to speed yet.
Expected Losses:0~2
5xVoid Rays vs 11xMutalisks
There isn't anything special for this round because you only have 1 type of anti air unit again. Queue up attacks for each of the Void Rays and micro injured units away from battle, etc.
Expected Losses:0
9xStalkers vs 2xUltralisks+1xInfestor
Ultralisks do additional to the armored Stalkers but this time Stalkers do additional to Ultralisks as well. Use your Infestor to split up the Stalker force with Fungal Growth to make things easier.
Expected Losses:0
Wave 3
10xStalkers+2xImmortals vs 4xUltralisk+2xBroodlords
Broodlords are just wonderful when the AI is involved because the enemy units usually get stuck on attacking the broodlings instead of units that matter. To get great effect with this, let your Broodlords engage before sending in your Ultralisks and micro-manage appropriately.
Expected Losses:0
4xArchons+10xZealots vs 12xRoaches+3xBroodlords+1xInfestor
Again, you can use the same fungal growth trick with your Infestor and you can also neural parasite one Archon. Let your Broodlords engage before sending in your Roaches for another easy round with no loss.
Expected Losses:0
4xCarriers vs 14xCorruptors
This is exactly like Round 2 in Wave 2.
Expected Losses:0
Streaming 8PST on weeknights
Basically.
Last mission spoiler pic: