I, uh, just impulse purchased Starcraft.

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I started going throught the general campaign again, doing all of the "other" options in the choice missions. So since I helped Dr. Hanson, sided with Tosh, and took out the zerg air defenses the first time through, this time I'll cleanse the colony for the protoss, side with Nova, and take out the Nydus Worm tunnels this time through.

I've already done two of those three - and I must say that I liked the alternate better in the first two missions. Granted, this is more a result of my playstyle. I don't like that there is a mega ship you have to disable before it reaches your base in the help Dr. Hanson mission. Sure, in the alternate, you have to clear out the zerg before all the colonists get infected, but it seems like it's not nearly as timed of a mission.

As for Nova - she's like a super ghost. While I am not thrilled with the "snipe" ability, Nova's snipe is the bomb - she one-shot kills just about everything, but that's because her snipe does about double the damage of a typical ghost's snipe attack. I've never been great at micro-managing units anyway, so who knows if I'll like ghosts better. I never used spectres much anyway, so it can't be any less advantageous.

This mission I'm most interested in repeating is the last of the Zeratul missions - when you have to lose eventually. I think with a second attempt at that mission, I can do much better than the first time. I made several mistakes the first time through (even though I successfully completed the mission and saved the archives), that I think I can correct with a second go.

First, I don't think it's advantageous to go for those bonus crystals in the early going. I never really ran out of crystals the first attempt, and I'm unsure if developing and defending that second base gets you all that much, when you consider the thousands of crystals you spend setting up and defending that base. The Nexus alone is 400 crystals, and then when you factor in pylons and photon cannons, you're talking into the thousands that you have to mine just to break even. I'm unconvinced that you wouldn't be better off spending those crystals on additional troops for you own base.

There's a few other things that I can correct with foreknowledge. I think I'm just going to carpet the outer courtyard area with photon cannons and rely more on air units - most notably carriers as they can attack both air and ground units that won't be hindered by them. To do this, I have to make sure I construct the upgrade that allows you to build carriers earlier (it's like the one building you don't start with), and construct an additional two structures that allow you to build carriers so I can have three in production at all times. And of course, work on all of my air upgrades.

The second issue that hurt me the first time through was I was unaware that you don't have enough pylons in your inner base to maintain a 200 troop capacity once the outer courtyard falls. Once you realize this is the case, it's too late. You need a constant supply of new troops arriving to stave off the continuous hybrid waves that come once the outer courtyard falls. The few minutes it takes to drop additional pylons causes you to fall behind and you are quickly overwhelmed.

I know you cannot hold them off forever, and even though I have completed the mission before, I think I can last a heck of a lot longer with another try. I'm also trying to do all the bonus stuff for acheivement points this time through. I like doing "full clears" on missions that aren't timed - even when I don't necessarily have to clear the screen to win.

 

on the last of the Zeratul missions, I found that a combination of collossus' and carriers did a good job cos the colossus's do a good job of slaughtering the en masse of ground forces which pile in while the carriers do a good job of taking out everything else and of course built photon cannons everywhere, I didn't find a need to seek out another resource location. After a while its as if the computer gets bored and the forces you face are just so powerful that nothing can hold them off, when it gets to that point you won't be worrying about pylons.