Starcraft – Units Strategy Guide

Last Revision: 1/14/00

 == Starcraft Units Strategy ==

This is my first time publishing a FAQ, so please forgive any minor errors. I 
am a perfectionist, and so if there is anything I have missed, forgot to 
include, or just plain screwed up on, please let me know so I can fix it. You 
can e-mail me at kaminari11@aol.com.

I. Version History
II. Terran Units
III. Zerg Units
IV. Protoss Units
V. Brood War Units
VI. Defensive Buildings
VII. Credits/Disclaimer

== I. Version History ==

Original Copy
This is the first copy with strategy for all units for all three races.

Revision 1:
Minor details such as how some spells work and how they can be used were 
added/modified.

Revision 2:
Addition of Brood War units in section 5.

Revision 3:
Details about some units were changed and ways of using some spells were 
added. 

Revision 4:
Corrections made due to more experience.

== II. Terran Units ==

Marine:
     The Marine is the basic Terran unit. It has a good range and decent Hit 
Points at the beginning. They are the only one of the three basic units 
(Marine, Zergling, and Zealot) that can attack air enemies. Later on in the 
game, Marines will mainly be used as the people inside your Bunkers providing 
your defense. Firebats and Ghosts also work, but I recommend Marines as they 
have good power and speed. The Stim Pack ability, which must be researched at 
the Academy, subtracts 10 Hit Points from the Marine, but in turn provides 
great speed and firing rate. This can be used when you are outnumbered and 
want to take out as many enemies as possible before dying. I love using 
massive Marines in attack as they have little weaknesses as a group with the 
exception of Psionic Storm and a few others. Reavers don’t work very well as 
they tend to form a circle around their target.

Firebat:
     The Firebat is a strong ground unit with its powerful flame-throwers. 
These can’t be used against air units, but they do plenty of damage to ground 
ones. They also can use Stim Packs, which makes their slow flame bursts even 
better. They are extremely weak to air attacks, and so they should be paired 
with Marines most of the time. A Firebat or two in each of your Bunkers is a 
good idea if you have Missile Turrets nearby. I don’t tend to use them very 
often because their damage is reduced against units with "heavy" type armor. 
They are only good vs. Marines, Zerglings, Firebats, Medics, Zealots, and 
both types of Templar, which makes them vulnerable to every other unit in the 
game.

Ghost: 
     The Ghost is a weak fighter by itself, but it is the only unit which can 
"nuke" the enemy, which is one of the most useful tactics in the game. The 
Ghost has the ability to cloak itself, which makes it invisible to enemies 
unless they have Detector units nearby. The Ghost’s Lockdown ability 
paralyzes a mechanical unit so it can’t do anything. This is useful against 
some of the more powerful air units such as the Battlecruiser and the 
Carrier. The units can be damaged while in Lockdown. The third and final 
ability is to launch a nuclear strike. This requires an armed nuclear silo, 
which takes up 200 minerals and gas as well as 8 of your supplies. The Ghost 
chooses an area to nuke, and after a brief time the bomb drops and causes a 
huge explosion that is very damaging. It is highly recommended you cloak your 
Ghost before attempting this so you won’t lose your Ghost or waste your bomb. 
NEVER send your Ghost in alone for an attack, send a few troops in with it so 
they can distract the enemy long enough for the nuke to hit.

Vulture:
     The Vulture is the basic mechanical unit for the Terran army. It is a 
fast unit, and once Ion thrusters are researched, it is the fastest unit in 
the game. Its weapon does average damage and can’t target air units. The 
Spider Mines it can produce do extreme damage if they work. They are 
vulnerable once they come to attack, and they only have 20 Hit Points. They 
can "see", so if you leave them at a key area they can continue to view it 
for you after your Vultures have left. This can be used to watch over key 
locations such as base expansions and gaps in defenses. Like the Firebat the 
damage is only strong versus lightly armored enemies, so I only usually use 
Vultures for Spider Mines or as backup for Marines since they don’t cost gas.

Siege Tank:
     The Siege Tank is a very powerful unit with good armor. I highly advise 
you to get the Siege Mode upgrade as soon as possible. While in Siege Mode, 
the tank does 70 points of damage each shot, with tremendous range. Putting a 
few tanks in Siege Mode at each of your entrances is a good idea. The only 
real weakness the tanks have is an air attack and cloaked units. Luckily, the 
Missile Turret can fill in both of these spots, so build some Turrets to 
accommodate your Siege Tanks. When attacking enemy bases with Siege Tanks, 
bring along Marines to cover the tanks. This tactic works extremely well 
against those dumb newbies that rely on clogging the entrance with buildings 
for defense.

Goliath:
     The Goliath is the last ground unit on the technology tree. It has a 
decent ground attack and an excellent anti-air attack. If you post a few 
Goliaths on the edges of your base, you can hopefully prevent air transports 
from dropping off anything. If they do, the Goliaths should be able to take 
care of the job with their machine guns. It is a well-balanced unit. They 
also provide good cover for Siege Tanks.

Wraith:
     The Wraith is the "basic" flyer for the Terran. It has a good air-to-air 
attack and a decent ground attack. The main purpose of the Wraith, though, is 
to cloak like the Ghost does. It has no other abilities, and, unlike the 
Ghost, is a good fighter. If the enemy can’t detect your Wraiths, they can do 
some serious damage. They also make good escorts for your Dropships.

Dropship:
     The Dropship is the transportation unit for the Terran. It is a fast 
flyer, and has average armor. It can carry from 8 Marines to 2 Siege Tanks. 
Any ground units can ride, but some take up more space than others. The 
Dropship has no weaponry, and so you should take care in using it. If the 
Dropship is killed, all units inside it also die without getting a chance to 
fight. If a Dropship is about to die, unload the units inside as quickly as 
possible. At least they will get to do something…

Science Vessel:
     The Science Vessel can be deceiving. It has no attack, and has average 
Hit Points. Its spells are very useful, however. Defensive Matrix puts a 
force field on a unit, and any damage dealt to that unit will be reduced to 
one point. It will wear off after 30 seconds or 250 points of damage, 
whichever comes first. If you use it on a Dropship, it can load and unload 
with minimum difficulty. EMP Shockwave drains all shields from Protoss units 
and takes all energy from any units. It can be used to stop Yamato blasts, 
de-cloak units, or drain Protoss buildings' shields, which is usually half of 
their life. Irradiate slowly takes life away from the target and the units 
around it, but it only works for a short time. It does up to 250 points of 
damage. It’s great on Overlords! Against the computer you can Irradiate an 
Overlord hovering over enemy Drones and the Irradiation will damage the 
Drones under them. As soon as the Drones take damage they stop harvesting 
money and serves as a double-bonus. One final note, the Science Vessel is a 
Detector, and it can move very quickly, and that alone is a reason to have at 
least one in every base.

Battlecruiser:
     The most powerful unit for the Terran (in theory) is the Battlecruiser. 
It has high Hit Points and armor. They are expensive, so bring along SCVs to 
repair them so you won’t lose them as easily. Science Vessels can also put 
Defensive Matrix on them to make them last longer. The Yamato Blast is very 
powerful and devastating range. It can hit a Missile Turret or a Photon 
Cannon, kill it in one shot, and stay far enough away to not get hit back. 
The Spore Colony has a bit more HP, and so just one Yamato Blast won’t kill 
it, but 2 blasts will do it in. The problem is the Battlecruiser is SO slow! 
It takes a long time to move around and to fire. Keep them around in groups 
of at least 4 to prevent enemies from destroying them easily and wasting your 
resources. The laser equipped on it has nice damage, but it’s slow to fire. 
If you keep it at your base to Yamato Ultralisks and Reavers that pose a 
threat. I would not recommend massing up Battlecruisers as an attack strategy 
as they are easy to kill and most players should be ready for them.  Use them 
to back up other units or to induce fear among players. If a bunch of Marines 
and one Battlecruiser attack a person’s base, most of the time they ignore 
everything and focus heavily on the Battlecruiser, even though the Marines 
are dealing more damage. This alone makes the cost of the Battlecruiser 
worthwhile.

== III. Zerg Units ==

Zergling:
     The Zergling is the basic Zerg unit, and it is quite a little pest. You 
get two Zerglings for each egg, and so each one takes half a supply. Since 
they are so cheap to produce, they are great for rushing the enemy or 
swarming them with a large pack of Zerglings. Once it is researched, the 
Zerglings can burrow. They can’t move or attack, but they can hide and 
regenerate (unless detected). If you burrow a few Zerglings near extra 
resources, you can prevent easy expansion by your enemies. Zerglings en masse 
are extremely weak to Spider Mines, Siege Tanks, Reavers, Lurkers (even if 
detected) and Psionic Storm as they tend to clump together quite nicely and 
are vulnerable to splash damage.

Overlord:
     The Overlord has three functions: To provide control (which is like 
Supplies for the Zerg), detect cloaked and burrowed units and, once upgraded, 
transport ground units by air. It seems powerful, but if you lose the 
Overlord while it is transporting, you not only lose the units inside but the 
supply it provided too. They are the slowest of the 3 transports, even if you 
upgrade their speed. Keep them posted around your base to spot Wraiths or 
Observers trying to sneak in.

Hydralisk:
     The Hydralisk is the first Zerg unit that can attack from a distance and 
hit air foes. The Hydralisk Den can be obtained fairly early in the game, and 
as a result, you can have a Hydralisk rush right after your Zergling rush if 
you plan it right. Hydralisks can stop Terran buildings from retreating and 
can wipe out Overlords while the Zergling can do neither. Hydralisks also 
have more than twice the Hit Points of a Zergling, which makes them a better 
investment. The Hydralisks can also burrow. Hydralisks work well in swarms 
late game just like Marines, and they also provide excellent cover for 
Guardians, Ultralisks, or transporting Overlords.

Mutalisk:
     The Mutalisk is the first attacking flyer for the Zerg. It can attack 
both ground and air units, and does the same damage to both. The attack also 
"bounces" off the target and does a slight amount of damage to any nearby 
targets. Mutalisks are considerably fast, but they are weak. They do well in 
large groups, and the "bounce" in their attack is useful against a large 
group of enemies close together. Once a Greater Spire is obtained, Mutalisks 
can become Guardians or Devourers. Be careful as Mutalisks tend to stack on 
top of each other and are very weak to Psionic Storm. The 3 Brood War 
air-to-air units (Valkyrie, Devourer and Corsair) were created to combat 
Mutalisks in my opinion. They all have slight splash damage that devastates 
packed Mutalisks.

Guardian:
     The Guardian is obtained by mutating a Mutalisk. Its attack has huge 
range and damage, but is slow to fire and can only target ground units. The 
Guardians also move SO slowly, it really is a pain. They are also the slowest 
regenerating unit of the Zerg. They are useful for taking out Bunkers and 
other defensive buildings because they can stay out of their range and still 
do massive damage. Always have them backed up by Hydralisks or Mutalisks to 
prevent easy kills for your opponent. Have the backup hang far enough back 
that the target of the Guardian is not attacked by the backup and so they 
won’t end up too busy to cover the Guardian.

Scourge:
     Like the Zergling, you get two Scourges per egg and each takes up half a 
supply. They are kamikaze fighters, running into air targets and doing 
massive damage. They are fast suckers, and a group of about 4 can take down a 
Battlecruiser or a Carrier, which is very handy to have around. Keep a pack 
of 12 Scourge around at all times, it won’t cost you much and it can save you 
when fighting powerful air enemies. They also make good scouts.

Queen:
     The Queen has no regular attack but has 4 spells. First, it can infest a 
Terran Command Center in the yellow-to-red zone of health; turning it into a 
Zerg structure and letting it produce Infested Terran units. Infesting takes 
no energy. The next technique is to launch a Parasite into a unit. It does no 
damage, but as long as the host lives, the Zerg player can see everything the 
host does, which is useful on transports and gathering units. You also gain 
its detection abilities. The only way to remove this (without killing the 
unit) is the Medic’s Restoration, and computer enemies are too dumb to keep 
Parasited units away from their base. Ensnare causes units in its area to be 
covered in green slime that really slows down units and their attack rates. 
It also reveals cloaked units in the area too, and it stops Stim Pack use (if 
you would ever need to do that). The last ability, and my favorite, is to 
Spawn Broodlings. This causes a player to lose a ground unit and give the 
Zerg player 2 Broodlings in its spot. Useful on powerful ground units such as 
Ultralisks and Siege Tanks. This doesn’t work against robotic units or either 
form of Archon.

Broodling:
     You get two Broodlings from using the Queen ability (see above). These 
things are much like Zerglings but weaker. They have an energy bar that 
slowly decreases. When it gets to zero, the Broodling dies.  The Broodlings 
are usually not the intention of using the Spawn Broodlings ability, it’s 
usually used for instant death. The Broodlings are only a bonus.

Infested Terran:
     The Infested Terran is obtained by infesting a Command Center (see 
above). Like the Scourge, Infested Terrans are kamikaze units, but instead 
they attack ground units and buildings with a massive explosion. They can 
burrow like other ground Zerg units, which is nice for surprise kamikaze 
attacks. They can take down a Bunker, Sunken, or Photon Cannon in one shot as 
well as any units protecting it. They only have 60 HP, so have a few 
Zerglings or Hydralisks distract the enemy while the Infested Terran moves 
into place. Terran/Zerg alliances should have the Terran player loan a 
Command Center to the Zerg guy for infestation as these are worth every 
mineral.

Ultralisk:
     The massive ground unit known as the Ultralisk is very powerful in 
attack. It is the only ground unit that can’t burrow. Its claws can’t hit 
flying units either. They are good for attacks, but they must have support 
for air enemies, so pair them up with Hydralisks or Mutalisks. They tear down 
buildings with extreme ease and should follow up any attack by the Zerg. They 
also induce fear like the Battlecruiser (see above).

Defiler:
     The Defiler has no attacks but has spells, which makes it similar to the 
Queen.  The Consume ability kills a friendly Zerg unit and gives you 50 
energy in return, which is nice to use on Zerglings towards the end of the 
game when you aren’t going to use them anyway. Plague drains the life off the 
target unit at the rate of 25 points of damage/second, but it won’t kill it. 
The Plague will do a total of maximum 300 damage. This works extremely well 
against Terran because it brings the buildings down to 1 HP and the burn 
effect on buildings will kill them off. If used properly this can kill the 
blockade defense or all the Supply Depots a player has for only 150 energy (3 
Zerglings worth). Dark Swarm causes ranged attacks within and outside the 
Swarm not to function properly. The Swarm doesn’t affect some units, and if 
you want me to send you a list of these units, please e-mail me. Finally, the 
Defiler can burrow.

== IV. Protoss Units ==

Zealot:
     The basic Protoss unit and the most powerful of the three basic units. 
However, it costs 100 minerals instead of 50 for the others. They are very 
useful throughout the game if you upgrade their weapons systems at the Forge 
and their legs at the Citadel of Adun. If you do so, they become fast killing 
machines, and still cost 100 minerals which isn’t much towards the end. Their 
main weakness is air attacks, which all they can do about is run. 

Dragoon:
     Dragoons are the first long-range unit (besides the Photon Cannon) 
available to the Protoss. They can shoot air enemies, but are weak fighters. 
When paired with Zealots, they make a good team, but put more Zealots than 
Dragoons in about a 3:2 ratio. Try to upgrade the Dragoons’ attack range with 
the Singularity Charge upgrade as soon as you can. The role of the Dragoon is 
to fight at a distance, and the better the distance, the more effective they 
are. Ever since version 1.04, Dragoons have increased range and decreased 
cost, making them a considerable force. Backed up by a few Zealots, Dark 
Templar, and Archons, they can win the game for you.

High Templar:
     The High Templar has no attack but have three spells like so many other 
units in the game. The first spell is Psionic Storm, which blasts electricity 
over an area. This hits ground, air and cloaked units whether you can see 
them or not. It’s a nice spell and only costs 75 energy per casting. This 
works well against swarms or against units that "stack" on each other such as 
Guardians, Mutalisks, Carriers, and Battlecruisers. Hallucination makes two 
copies of the target. The copies can do the 5 basic commands (Move, Stop, 
Attack, Hold Position and Patrol). They do no damage with their attack, and 
have a mana bar similar to the Broodling mana bar. When the mana bar runs 
out, it runs out of HP, or a spell is cast on it, the copy pops. These copies 
of the unit can be used to draw fire away from real units or used as scouts. 
This is great against Dark Archons that try to Mind Control the 
Hallucination, costing them all their shields and 150 valuable energy. The 
last spell melds two Templar together to form an Archon.

Archon:
     You get an Archon from combining to High Templar together (see above). 
These are extremely powerful units that can hit both ground and air for 
massive damage. They are expensive and time-consuming, but well worth the 
investment. A pack of 12 (which requires 24 High Templar to be sacrificed) 
can destroy a whole base by itself. Don’t underestimate these guys. They are 
hovering which means they aren’t affected by Spider Mines, and they are 
immune to many of the game’s statuses such as: Ensnare, Irradiate, Parasite, 
Spawn Broodling, Maelstrom, Plague, Dark Swarm, and others. However, an EMP 
Shockwave takes away ALL of their shields leaving them with 10 Hit Points. 
This is obviously not a good thing.

Shuttle:
     The transport ship for the Protoss is the Shuttle. The problem is the 
units are so big you can fit only a few at a time.  The Shuttles are fast and 
have good armor and Hit Points, however. A strategy I learned from the 
Blizzard web site is to drop in some of the powerful but slow Reavers (see 
below) which is called the "Reaver Drop". Enough bad jokes about the name, 
please. They are the fastest of the 3 aerial transports. 

Reaver:
     The Reaver has no weapons by itself, but manufactures little Scarabs, 
which it launches at great distances for great damage. Each Scarab costs 15 
minerals, and it adds up fast. The damage it deals is worth it, though, but 
if the Reaver dies you lose all the Scarabs inside it too. They Reavers move 
slowly and so I suggest the "Reaver Drop" mentioned above. Reavers can 
eliminate massive swarms. I can’t remember how many times my force of 6 
Reavers and a few Cannons held off 100+ units and lived to talk about it.

Observer:
     The Observer is always cloaked with no energy bar and can detect other 
cloaked units. This makes it a good scout and can be placed at key locations 
for easy monitoring, and the fact that it flies makes it even easier to 
place. It has no weapons and weak armor, which is a crucial flaw. Once 
detected, it’s dead meat. Sneaking one into an enemy base early on works very 
well, so make sure to have some Detection all around your base if you against 
Protoss.

Scout:
     The basic flying combat unit for the Protoss. It has a good ground 
attack and a powerful air attack too. Like its name implies, they make good 
scouts. They are pretty expensive, and so you shouldn’t send them into battle 
needlessly. They can be upgraded to make them last longer and fight better, 
and I would strongly recommend doing this as soon as your money supply allows 
it. Don’t bother having them fight ground-to-air units unless you greatly 
outnumber the enemy.

Carrier:
     This powerful flying unit has no real weapons but can manufacture little 
Interceptors for 25 Minerals apiece. Unlike the Reaver’s Scarabs, the 
Interceptors come back once they have shot the enemy with their lasers and 
are sent out once again. Fully upgraded Carriers can carry 8 Interceptors at 
once, launching them at enemies for a devastating attack. The Interceptors 
can hit both air and ground targets. If an Interceptor comes back to the 
Carrier it is automatically repaired instantly. Like Battlecruisers they can 
induce fear, but I would not take the popular newbie route of massing 
Carriers.

Arbiter:
     This flying unit is very strange. First of all, it has spells but also 
has a regular attack similar to the Dragoon’s. Any of your units within a 
certain distance of the Arbiter become cloaked until they leave the field. 
The Arbiter will not become cloaked, even from another Arbiter. The Arbiter’s 
two spells are handy to have. Recall instantly teleports the targets to the 
Arbiters location, putting them in the cloaking field at the same time. 
Stasis field puts the target in a bubble that cannot be affected by anything 
until it wears off. The unit in Stasis cannot do anything and nothing can be 
done to it. This is especially useful to protect your units from a nuke 
(Great thanks to GTDBastion for pointing this out)

== V. Brood War Units ==

Medic:
     The Medic has no attack, but has three spells like some other units do. 
The first is called Heal, and like its name, can heal biological units. This 
is automatically triggered when one of your biological units nearby is 
damaged. They can also auto-heal allied units, which works great if you have 
a Zerg ally. The second spell, Restoration, cures any status on the target 
except Stasis Field. This works well on units with Parasites that you want to 
keep and units in Lockdown. The third is Optical Flare, which blinds the 
target and reduces its sight to 1. If used on a Detector, its Detection goes 
away, which is useful on pesky Science Vessels, Overlords, and Observers. 
However, if any non-Blind unit is around, they can "see" for the blind unit, 
so use this ability wisely.

Valkyrie:
     The Valkyrie is an air-to-air unit that shoots Halo rockets that do good 
damage with some splash damage. It is good to use against air units, but 
can’t hit ground unfortunately. This is a major weakness, but paired with 
Wraiths, the Valkyrie can be a formidable foe. They were made (in my opinion) 
to battle Mutalisks, and they do so quite well.

Lurker:
     The Lurker evolves from the Hydralisk. It has no regular attack, but can 
attack while burrowed, making it the only Zerg unit that can. Its attack 
shoots spines rippling across the ground hitting everything in a line. If you 
don’t bring a Detector along with your attack force, you will lose a lot to 
the Lurker. It’s a good unit and serves as a good backup ground defense for 
your Sunken and Spore Colonies. The splash damage from the spines can rip 
through swarms of ground units, even if the enemy can detect them.

Devourer:
     The Devourer evolves from the Mutalisk like the Guardian does. In 
addition to the high damage from the Devourer, Acid Spores are left on the 
target. These have 3 functions: 1) they disable cloaking like Plague and 
Ensnare do 2) they cause the target to fire slower and 3) for each spore on 
the target the enemy takes 1 extra point of damage per attack. For example, a 
target with 8 spores on it will take 8 extra damage any time it is hurt. The 
old rumor that the attack takes 1/3 of the life off is NOT TRUE!

Corsair:
     It seems that every race got a new air-to-air unit, and the Protoss got 
the Corsair. Its attack is weak, but it fires VERY quickly, and makes them a 
formidable opponent. They have a spell called Disruption Web, which acts very 
similar to the Defiler’s Dark Swarm. These can disable Bunkers, Colonies and 
Cannons used for defense and this is able to nullify a lazy player’s defense. 
A pack of 12 Corsairs make great Overlord hunters, as they can fly past the 
flank defense, hit the Overlords fast and hard, and take almost all of them 
down before reinforcements can arrive. This is tough to prevent but having 
multiple (I’m talking around 3-4 dozen) Hydralisks can help protect your 
Overlords. The Acid Spores from Devourers cause the Corsair to slow down it’s 
firing speed, and (once again, in my opinion) this devastates Corsairs more 
than any other unit.

Dark Templar:
     The Dark Templar is almost the same as the heroes in the original game. 
It is always cloaked with no mana bar. It has a very strong ground attack 
with its sword, but it is slow to use. It is a very powerful unit and one of 
my personal favorites. Another good reason besides the Lurker to bring a Detec
tor with you on your attacks. Two Dark Templar can merge into a Dark Archon. 
Computer opponents may opt to skip the initial Zealot rush to head straight 
for Dark Templar, which is horrible if you haven’t got a Detector yet. These 
guys don’t work very well against the Zerg, as they have Overlords everywhere 
that detect.

Dark Archon:
     The Dark Archon is another unit with no attack but three spells. 
Feedback takes away all the targets energy and deals damage equal to the 
energy taken. It doesn’t take shields like EMP does, though. Works wonders 
vs. Battlecruisers, Medics, Queens, and Defilers, but not so well against 
Wraiths and High Templar because they are easy to kill already. If you can 
hit an enemy Dark Archon with this before they hit you, it works wonders. 
Maelstrom stuns units for a short time so they can’t do anything. It has an 
area of effect about the size of Ensnare. This only works against biological 
units and I don’t really see much point to it. The last and most powerful is 
Mind Control. The target becomes one of your units until they Mind Control it 
back or it dies. It is not a status and so Restoration won’t work. The down 
side is that after it is used, all the Dark Archon’s shields are drained. 
Mind Controlling doesn’t work on Spider Mines, Scarabs or Interceptors. A 
very useful way to Mind Control is to Mind Control a flying transport. You 
get the transport and all the units it carries with one spell, which is very 
useful. One final note on Mind Controlling, if you Mind Control a unit, you 
get all the upgrades it had for free. For example, if you Mind Control a 
Zealot with the Leg Enhancements and you didn’t have that, all your Zealots 
would automatically get the speed upgrade. If you are tricky enough to Mind 
Control a Drone or SCV, you have access to 200 more supply for that race and 
also to every unit in the game. 

== VI. Defensive Buildings ==

Bunker:
     The Bunker can hold 4 units for the Terran. It can hold Marines, 
Firebats, Ghosts, SCVs and Medics. Marines, Firebats and Ghosts can fire from 
inside the Bunker while staying protected by the Bunker. Being in a Bunker 
also increases your attack range by 1, and so Ghosts in a Bunker can attack 
Guardians! (Note: Ghosts only deal 1/4 their normal damage to Guardians due 
to their high armor, so they would hit them for 2 1/2 points of damage a 
shot. Use something else to swat away Guardians) SCVs and Medics can take 
cover in the Bunker, but can’t attack or heal. You can keep an SCV protected 
in the Bunker and have them pop out to repair it and hide back in, which I 
have found to work if you have enough Bunkers. 

Missile Turret:
     The Missile Turret can shoot only air enemies but does so on its own 
without need for units to be kept inside. It can also detect cloaked and 
burrowed units within its range. Pair up Bunkers and Missile Turrets to cover 
most weaknesses. Having Siege Tanks in Siege Mode behind them can also cover 
range and provide a solid defense.

Sunken Colony:
     The Sunken Colony is morphed from a Creep Colony. It can use its 
tongue-like structure to stab at ground units. The Sunken Colony also extends 
the Creep (that purple stuff you have to build on) for a certain distance 
around the Colony. For new Zerg players: Sunken Colonies work much better for 
early defense than Zerglings. Have a few Zerglings around to keep the enemy 
away from the Sunkens so they can deal the high damage and stay protected.

Spore Colony:
     The Spore Colony is like the Sunken, but it attacks air foes instead. It 
also extends the Creep, but unlike the Sunken Colony, the Spore is also a 
Detector so it can find cloaked and burrowed units. Pair these up with Sunken 
Colonies to have a balanced defense. They are the strongest of the 3 anti-air 
buildings (Missile Turrets, Spore Colonies and Photon Cannons).

Photon Cannon:
     The Photon Cannon is the only defensive building for the Protoss, but it 
can attack both ground and air units plus it can detect. However, a Pylon 
must power it, and if the Pylon is destroyed the Photon Cannon can’t do 
anything. A good ratio of Photon Cannons to Pylons is 3:2 so the Photon 
Cannons can still operate if one Pylon is destroyed. Try to Keep the Pylons 
and Photon Cannons together in large groups to keep everything working. Don’t 
clog your base entrance with them so your Zealots and Dragoons can get out, 
and so you aren’t relying on them too heavily, which leads to your opponent 
kicking the living crap out of you with Siege Tanks or Reavers.

== VII. Credits/Disclaimer ==

First of all, I’d like to thank my mom for always being there when I needed 
help with grammar and complimenting me on my fast typing. It’s always a help. 
I’d also like to thank (which one of his screen-names should I put?) 
GTCvDeimos for "training" me as a newbie, clarifying some problems with the 
FAQ and always putting up with the dumb questions I asked. Thanks to 
R415aZn895 and s_rudiyanton for clearing up some details for me such as the 
cost of Interceptors and how the Plague works. I’d also like to thank 
Blizzard for FINALLY bringing Starcraft to the Macintosh so I could enjoy it 
without going to my friend’s house. I’d also like to thank Crosshair101, 
because he always found new ways NOT to use units and I am always finding new 
ways to beat him (want to hear some funny stories about this guy? e-mail me). 
Oh yeah, I’d like to thank MetalGearB for letting me play Starcraft on his PC 
until it came out for the Mac. He also helped a bit with the Brood War units. 
Look for me on battle.net under either Kaminari11 or Clemente4. Any 
criticism/comments is appreciated, and I’m always looking for a good 
challenge. 

This FAQ is copyrighted by law and may not be copied in any way or have links 
going directly to the part without my written consent. Just e-mail me at kamin
ari11@aol.com and ask. I’ll usually say yes, but ask anyway. If you don’t and 
I catch you, I believe I have the legal right to sue you. Just ask & it will 
make both of our lives easier. Thanks for reading!