The Evacuation

The outlying planet of Agria has been abandoned as Dominion forces withdraw to fight the zerg on the core worlds – it’s up to the Hyperion to respond to Dr. Ariel Hanson’s distress call and help evacuate the stranded civilians.

The Evacuation

Escorting 50 refugees and ensuring that 20 refugees do not die are easy tasks, and par for the mission’s course. Locating the zerg cocoons for Stetmann’s research project is a little harder though, as you will have to manage four battles – one at each bunker hotspot, one escorting the vans, and one mobile force to venture into zerg bases.

The cocoons are found fairly close to the road, and are usually guarded by burrowed squads of zerglings and hydralisks. You’ll want to send a mixed group of marines, firebats and medics to help clear these areas out, and only when the van is not making its way up the map. It’s far easier to complete this objective when you’re not being ambushed by nydus worms and air drops.

You’ll find the first cocoon at the roadside when escorting the first van load of refugees. One sits under light guard due west of the road at the southernmost bunker, and the other sits in front of a heavily-fortified zerg base halfway up the map. It’s worth being wary of the base beyond the cocoon site as it is guarded by a mixture of roaches and hydralisks along with devastating spine crawlers, and it will force your units into a bottleneck. It’s better to claim your cocoons, then have this force join the escort in order to keep the refugee vans safe.

Handled with Care

This achievement is very doable in normal mode, and quite easy when played in hard mode. Protecting each refugee van as it travels up the map is a simple matter of:

• building an extra bunker at each zerg choke point;
• ensuring that the van has at least half a dozen armed escorts
• on hard mode in particular, having an SCV run alongside the van, ready to repair it.

SCVs can’t get many repairs done as the vans will not stop, but a quick touch-up every second or so as the SCV makes a dash to catch up to it can make a difference between ambushes. It’s also a good idea to learn where zerg forces will attack from, and send your escort forces ahead in order to draw fire. Bunkers are already placed at two of the entry points, but a zerg base halfway up the canyon and a cocoon site just outside the starport entrance can offer some surprises. You’ll need to send your units ahead in an attack move, repeatedly from left to right.

Sacrifice Nothing

This is the achievement which will test you most on this mission. Success relies upon a quick start, a well-managed army and plenty of SCVs to keep your bunkers repaired. I’d advise the following:

1. Begin producing SCVs the minute Hanson hands over control of the command centre. Be sure to start gathering vespene gas too.
2. As soon as you reach 50 minerals and 50 gas, lift your bunker off and direct it to drop a reactor add-on nearby. This will leave behind a tech lab, but we’ll make use of this again quite soon.
3. Continue training SCVs and drop at least one supply depot down.
4. When the barracks reactor is complete, begin producing four marines in blocks of two. You’ll find that the first refugee van will start to move at around the time these first units are complete. Be sure to order your starter force of medics and firebats to follow the van (by selecting the units and right-clicking the van itself), and bring your marines along for extra support.
5. Order one SCV away from resource-gathering duties and keep it close to the van from the moment it moves off. The van moves slowly enough that you can use this SCV to gather any roadside resources mineral and vespene caches. Be prepared to make a dash, however; at the first turn in the road after the van has left the base, you’ll find an abandoned bunker. If left to its own devices – even if you send your escort force ahead of the van with guns blazing – this bunker will be set alight by zergling attacks and will eventually explode. A lone SCV can repair the bunker and save this achievement for you.
6. Once this bunker (which we’ll call bunker #1) has been rescued, send your two marines inside and direct two more from your base to help fill it. Ensure that your firebats and medics stay with the van, as another zerg ambush waits just down the road.
7. While the caravan presses on, it’s time to swap SCVs. Bring the one which rescued the first bunker back alongside the convoy to repair the van if needs be, and fetch another SCV from your base to fill in at bunker #1. You should also switch to getting SCVs and supply depots out, as these are of a much higher priority now.
8. After a second ambush has been beaten off, you will need to make another dash. Bunker #2 awaits just up the road – near the starport entrance – and it’s set to take quite a pounding. Direct your escort force into another attack move and have the SCV follow swiftly behind; you need to keep that bunker in tact. Beware of an ambush to the right of this bunker too, if you hope to preserve the van for Handled with Care. Your escort troops will manage both ambushes with ease so long as they move quickly, and you’ll also destroy your first zerg cocoon in the process.
9. While the van offloads its first delivery of refugees, direct your escort force to a position just north of bunker #2. This ledge plays host to a couple of zerglings and a hydralisk, hidden from view, and you’ll need to dispose of them before bringing your escort back to home base.
10. There’s now a lull until the next van will be loaded up and sent to the starport. You should take this time to accomplish the following:
    1. Direct those SCVs guarding your bunkers to build a barracks at each of those chokepoints, somewhere close to the road. You may also wish to queue construction of a second bunker at each point.
    2. Collect two more SCVs, relieving them from resource-gathering duties in order to take up repair positions at each bunker chokepoint. This will result in one SCV overseeing each bunker (when the second lot are built).
    3. Construct a few more supply depots – you’re likely to need eight to ten in all – and begin researching upgrades at the engineering bay.
    4. Build a second barracks at the home base, taking care to place it right next to your discarded tech lab. If all goes well, the barracks will finish production and be ready to produce firebats and/or medics right away; if not, lift the barracks off and set it back down again where the wireframe preview shows a tech lab-enabled barracks.
    5. Bolster your escort force with a mixture of marines, firebats and a couple more medics if desired.
11. It’s likely that your barracks at bunkers #1 and #2 will finish construction around a minute before your second escort is due. Be sure to leave enough minerals and gas that you can build reactors at each one. By the time these are done, it’s likely that you’ll be facing further ambush, so it’s worth diving right in to produce marines and medics (if you have the relevant armoury upgrade) behind each bunker. If you directed your SCVs to build more bunkers at these chokepoints, you can begin to populate these too.
12. Be sure to grab another SCV from your base and have him follow the convoy alongside your escort force. You can now rest a little more easily, as it’s likely your bunkers will hold against this second wave of ambushes. Any assistance your escort force can lend to the roadside bunkers will help keep repairs to a minimum.

The mission is now a straightforward run of producing new units at the home base to serve as escorts keeping repairs up on your bunkers, and filling any spare bunkers with marines. I would generally advise the following:

• You can’t train too many soldiers in the field – even if you fill both bunkers, it’s worthwhile making half a dozen marines to stand behind these and help keep zerglings at bay. Every little helps when avoiding the destruction of your bases!
• Keep an eye on the welfare of your repair SCVs. If you can produce medics at reactor-enabled barracks through the armoury purchase, these will be a big help. Failing that, be sure to replace any lost SCVs from those you have gathering minerals at home base.
• Keep topping your escort force up with a mixture of firebats and marines. You need marines on board for later escorts, as you’ll find the van attacked by flying mutalisks. These can only be targetted by marines.
• As long as you manage your economy well, you’ll have plenty of time to produce a second attack force at the home base. This can be handy either as a reserve for your escort, or as units to track down the zerg cocoons as part of the mission’s bonus objective.

Devil’s Playground

A mysterious fellow by the name of Gabriel Tosh has a proposition for Raynor – mine the precarious deposits on Redstone II, avoiding zerg enemies and raging lava surges. There’s a big cash reward for helping out, and there’s an alluring opportunity to study some unique zerg organisms…

Devil’s Playground

Completing these objectives is relatively simple. Gathering 8000 minerals from rich mineral deposits will see you rely upon a mobile force or two (depending on how quickly you wish to mine), and no more than 5 SCVs at each Command Centre if you want an easy time of evacuations come the lava surges. It’s worth knowing that an early objective asks you to locate Tosh’s own mining party; this will supply you with a second Command Centre to spare you from building more. You’ll need to assemble some firebats and marines in order to defend these bases once the mission gets under way; as your miners have to venture further out from your base, they’ll be at greater risk of attack from zerglings, roaches and mutalisks.

The bonus objective tasks you with killing the rare brutalisk, found in the south-western corner of the map. Although it has decent armour and a lot of health, it’s easily killed with marines or reapers and medics. There is a further achievement for killing it by other means, however…

Red Lobster

This achievement asks you to kill the brutalisk by luring it into a lava surge. It’s basically a suicide mission, and requires some canny timing as well as the patience to carefully ‘kite’ this creature away from its starting location. You’ll find that the brutalisk has some company, as zerglings and a hydralisk lay in wait beneath the rocky surface. Clear the area just north of the creature, as in the screenshot above, and lay in at until you’re giving something like a 20-30 second warning for the next lava surge. I opted for a combination of reapers and medics, as they’re agile and can heal each other if struck by the brutalisk. Survivability isn’t a priority for this small task-force, but your attempts to lure the brutalisk will fall flat if it manages to kill all your units!

Reaper Man (Hard)

This is one of the easier hard-mode achievements, and can be accomplished with a force of around 14 reapers and a couple of medics. Really all you need to do is explore the map and locate all of Tosh’s reapers, being sure to poke your nose around any cliff-tops as these are where the extra units tend to lurk. It’s also worthwhile having a squad of firebats and marines to hand; this can be the same one you use to defend your mining operations. Fighting your way to each reaper outpost will require some heavier-duty attacks from these reserves, as reapers can struggle against the hydralisks and spine crawlers which populate the zerg bases.

It’s made an easier achievement by the lack of a time limit. So long as you refrain from mining once your force is established you can take as much time as you want to find Tosh’s reapers, then resume mining operations with an even greater army at your disposal. Of course, once you gather 8000 minerals – and this includes mineral deposits picked up by your armed units – the mission ends and you’ll have lost your chance. While you’re out looking for Tosh’s reapers, however…

The Scenic Route

This hidden Feat of Strength comes your way if you destroy all zerg buildings in the Devil’s Playground mission. It’s surprisingly easy to accomplish, and involves the same map exploration techniques as those which unearth Tosh’s reapers. The only major base you have to worry about is found in the bottom right, and it will be easily destroyed so long as you focus fire on the spine crawlers. You can also play it clever and have your reapers attack from the cliff-sides while a squad of marines and firebats pushes through the main entrance.

Liberation Day

The first of Wings of Liberty‘s campaign missions puts you in control of Jim Raynor and a band of loyal marines. It’s a simple-enough mission: follow an S-shaped path around the map, ensuring that Jim Raynor survives to help his small army stamp any of the Dominion – and Mengsk’s – influence out of Backwater Station.

The achievements for this mission are equally straightforward:

Complete all Mission Objectives

This means keeping Jim Raynor alive, which is easily done – just ensure that the marines are the ones absorbing any heavy fire, and that Raynor never travels unaccompanied. This does get tricky in hard mode, particularly when confronting the Dominion head-on at their base. When a pair of Vikings descend in order to try and quell civilian riots, you will have to time a careful attack alongside the barrage of makeshift grenades. You need to ensure that the Vikings are attacked by the civilians first, then quickly launch a focused attack with your own Marines on one walker, then the other. Act too soon and your marines will be decimated; too late and you’ll have run out of other targets to take the hits for you.

You will also have to destroy eight statues within the level, and while some of these are hidden away it is a simple matter of ensuring that no corner of the map goes unexplored. Watch out for ambushes! Some statues come with a small guard, meaning you will want to scout with your whole army any time you wander down a dirt track.

Raynor’s Back

This too is very straightforward: simply have Raynor kill 5 units; a task made much easier if you seek to destroy all of Mengsk’s statues, and thus unearth more Dominion forces. Raynor will manage this quite easily if you do not mollycoddle him. While you’ll want to keep him alive for the duration of the mission, you shouldn’t rely on the marines alone to attack enemies. Raynor’s attack range is slightly greater than that of the grunts, so you can arrange your squad with those marines as body shields and still have all guns blazing.

Down with Mengsk (Hard)

Though the difficulty is ramped up, even a moderately-experienced player should manage this quite easily. As mentioned before, you will uncover all the Dominion forces by exploring the whole of the map, running hand-in-hand with the destruction of Mengsk’s statues. You can also rely upon the civilian riots towards the mission’s end – it doesn’t matter whether it’s molotov cocktails or machine gun fire that kills them, so long as the Dominion is entirely beaten.

The Outlaws

When Tychus appears with a proposition for Jim, the pair take on this mission to steal an alien artefact from the Dominion operation on Mar Sara. The objective is simply to secure the crane dig site by destroying the Dominion base nearby.

The Outlaws

This is another iteration of a common achievement, asking you to complete all the mission objectives. This means destroying the Dominion base, but also liberating the Mar Saran rebels whose base has been occupied.

Attacking the base on hard mode is made trickier by the Dominion’s use of hellions. The best way to avoid being roasted by these is a combination of large troop numbers – mostly marines, as enough in one go can destroy a hellion before it really has time to spit – and focus fire. You should set your army to attack these units as a priority instead of relying on auto-targeting, or they will scorch whole rows of your soldiers. You’ll also need to apply focus fire once the base is clear of units, as the Dominion will continue to manufacture marines and hellions at the barracks and factory. You can either attack one at a time, or split your force into two and attempt to take the barracks and factory at once. Either way, once you’ve destroyed the Dominion’s production buildings you have a finite enemy to mop up.

Cash Reward

This achievement asks you to gather all the mineral and gas pellets from around the map. This is fairly easy, and contains no real surprises – just be sure to explore the whole map, and you’ll see the achievement ‘toast’ when you’ve found them all.

Be Quick or Be Dead (Hard)

10 minutes is a generous-enough goal to aim for. You simply have to be sure that your Command Centre produces plenty of SCVs so that minerals come in thick and fast. Vespene is important too, as it will help you train medics to support your army. Keep these resources coming in quickly enough and you’ll be in a good position to build two barracks, produce a reasonably-sized army and push through the map in one go. It’s also usually a good idea to train a backup force; when your first army reaches a good point along the map, you can reach for your barracks on a control group setting and produce a few more marines and medics to bulk your numbers up. Continue to do this right up to the push on the Dominion base, as it’s likely you’ll lose more than a few hands to hellions.

Zero Hour

I warn you now: this mission is permanently ingrained to my memory, with 28 autosaves logged as I attempted to complete it on hard difficulty. Survival is very easy, but aggressive moves for The Best Defense… will really push your unit production and attack skills to the point you’ll manage to quote the various NPCs who appear here. Zero Hour is set just outside Backwater Station, with Raynor’s Raiders guarding their newly-liberated artefact from a surprise drop of zerg forces. The Raiders have 20 minutes to mount a defence and keep it up before the Hyperion can enter low orbit and whisk them and their cargo to safety.

Zero Hour & Hold the Line

Once again, you are asked to complete all mission objectives. This is not easily done when trying to achieve the other two achievements, as you are expected to last 20 minutes until evacuation and rescue the three Dominion squadrons. Lasting that length of time simply means setting plenty of bunkers, keeping them stocked with marines and having SCVs patrol the area, ready to repair any damage. It’s doable alongside the second achievement, Hold the Line, so long as you keep plenty of SCVs on hand in this way. You should also take care to have a loose gang of marines wandering the inside of your base, and not just watching the perimeter – during the last five minutes of the mission it is likely that zerg pods will drop right inside, releasing creep tumours and zerglings to cause merry havoc with unprotected structures.

The Best Defense… (Hard)

Advice is unanimous: you should only seek to attack the zerg base to the north-west, as the others are simply too well-fortified.

Be prepared not only to attempt this mission in a separate run from the other achievements, but many repeated runs as you try to build a force which is not only capable of surviving direct assaults upon the zerg bases, but which can be build quickly enough that you can destroy 4 hatcheries.

Victory is a result of determined practice, good timing and tactics on a micro level. You need:

• At last 2 SCVs mining each mineral crystal, as close to 3 as you can get; you’ll also need 3 gathering Vespene;
• Enough supply depots for around 120 units;
• 5 barracks: two equipped with tech labs and the other three with reactors;
• 4 bunkers, filled with marines and with at least two SCVs on hand to repair at each bridge around your base.

You’ll have to spend the first 5 minutes laying the foundations for your army. The zerg will attack twice from the left-hand side of your base, then from the top before a group of 4 mutalisks throw themselves upon your anti-air missiles. There are a few tasks you have to accomplish during this time in order to make the next 15 minutes more tolerable:

1. Immediately spend your starting resources on SCVs at the command centre. Have them queued up to gather minerals, and consider setting a control group so you can add more throughout the first half of the mission.
2. Salvage the two bunkers nearest your command centre. Doing so disqualifies you from earning Hold the Line, but gives a much-needed 200 mineral boost to your economy. You can then put this towards building an extractor, to which you will direct more SCVs soon.
3. You start with 16 marines posted at the perimeter in groups of 4. These happen to be the suggested positions for placing bunkers, too. The top part of your base won’t be attacked for some time, so I tend to split the marines posted here; I send 4 inside the bunker already present there, and bring the other 4 down to the left-hand bridge to occupy that bunker.
4. With your minerals slowly being gathered now, it’s a good idea to grab an SCV and make a third bunker, overlooking the left-hand bridge. Be sure to leave a gap between these bunkers, or you won’t be able to move your troops out! I tend to set this single SCV to four tasks, using my existing marines to fill any new bunkers:
   1. Build a second bunker at the left-hand bridge
   2. Build a ground-to-air missile silo overlooking the chasm, just next to the topmost silo already in place there.
   3. Build two more bunkers at the top-most bridge, with one set back from the front two to block that entrance and provide a little extra firepower.
   4. Take up position between the bunkers and missile silos, ready to repair when needed.
5. While all this is going on and the zerg begin throwing themselves against your defences, you should keep pumping SCVs out and watch over your vespene in-take. The missions starts you off with enough to build a reactor – one should be affixed to either of your barracks. You’ll also need to construct a tech lab once you gather 25 more vespene. The sooner you can do this, the better, as there are good odds your SCVs might start taking damage while repairing bunkers. They can repair each other if you have more than one on duty, but I prefer to have a medic on hand too in case a bunker is breached.
6. Depending on how quickly your resources are coming in, you should expect to have five bunkers (at 150 minerals each) built by around the 14-minute mark. You’ll have to balance this with use of the last building in your base – the engineering bay. It is essential that you invest in firepower and armour upgrades for your ground troops before launching an attack. Remember to keep up production of supply depots (at 100 minerals each), too! You’ll be glad of these come the next stage…
7. The next four minutes will be best served with control groups and hotkeys. With the engineering bay studying your upgrades, you should look to training your medics and marines at all 5 barracks. I find it easiest to mass them at the left-hand bridge; this is the point from which they’ll leave your base anyway, but the extra numbers will also ensure that no zerglings breach the gap, guarded as it is by only two bunkers. Simply do what you can to train medics and marines, ensuring that medics are chosen first – this means that marines will queue properly in the reactor-enhanced barracks, rather than bleeding across and disrupting medic lines.
8. At around 10:30, you’ll see a wave of zerglings break upon the left-hand bridge. This is the point at which you will need to launch your attack. Wait for your static defences to fight the zerg off, then set your group of medics and marines to attack-move in a north-westerly direction across the bridge.
9. At this point in the campaign, you’ll see that the zerg have spread creep right to the other side of your base’s makeshift drawbridge. They will also have placed two to three spine crawlers in the area, guarded by around a dozen zerglings and a hydralisk. Your force will be large by now – around 40 marines and medics – but they can be cut down mercilessly if these encounters are not handled properly. You need to engage as many zerglings as you can before advancing into the spine crawlers’ attack range, and then focus-fire upon each in turn. If needs be, you can run out to the zerglings and hastily bring your army back; the mobile units will follow, but the spine crawlers cannot. Be sure to keep production of marines and medics running as you do this.
10. Once this area is clear it can be worth your while liberating the Dominion forces on a ledge to the left. Send a single unit from your army to meet them while bringing the rest of your forces near to a mineshaft at the end of this path (just below right from where the above screenshot was taken). Be wary of a spine crawler to the south as you pass, and also be sure not to send your units too far into the zerg base ahead.
11. Merge your army with the Dominion reserves and tentatively approach the zerg base. You are looking to engage the roaches and hydralisks at the edge of fog of war, then draw them back – away from the spine crawlers behind them. You may also find that half a dozen mutalisks join the fray – these can be quite devastating to your army, but this is why you should keep up production back at your base. If you feel confident enough in your efforts here, you should then look to focus-fire upon the spine crawlers, being wary of the hydralisks also guarding this base.
12. While fighting continues, hop back to your base in order to merge your reserves with the main army. You need to select all the units here and attack-move them straight to the front, as the zerg will try to rebuild their spine crawlers. Timing counts here too, as your victory depends on this force making it to the battlefront without an ambush from the zerg base to the west. If they are attacked, pull your reserves back to your base in retreat and wait for the attack wave to be dealt with by your bunkers. Should your reserves draw these zerglings up to your main force, it’s very likely they’ll be slaughtered.
13. With numbers restored at the battlefront, it’s time to mop defences up and focus purely on the hatcheries. You’ll need good numbers of marines still alive in order to accomplish this – hatcheries have a surprising amount of health and it’s very likely they’ll still be spawning hydralisks in particular. You should also take great care not to attack the drones. Ideally you are looking to attack the nearest hatchery, focus-fire upon one above it and to the left, then retreat to the mineshaft again. If all goes well, you’ll then have another opportunity to bring reserves in.
14. Hop back to your base as before and bring this third set of reserves up. By this time you may find that bunkers are being strained – it’s worth checking on the state of your SCVs, and bringing a few more down from resource-gathering to ensure that bunkers remain in tact.
15. Merge your force once more and hold ground at the mineshaft, ‘kiting’ the odd hydralisk and roach away from the zerg base as before. The zerg army will attempt to rebuild exactly as the base was before you destroyed its key components. You can catch the spine crawlers while they’re still being built, and so long as you kept the drones alive, you’ll also see the hatcheries being rebuilt (see right). Pick the spine crawlers and new units off when you can, being careful not to strike the drones, and then once the hatcheries are rebuilt you’re free to destroy each for a second time.

Four hatcheries down, and you have yourself the Mar Sara Mastery achievement, as well as a nifty portrait of the Adjutant! Completion of the mission is now just a matter of holding out against a tidal wave of zerg units and creep.