Terran

One of the three playable races in the the Blizzard game StarCraft and it's expansion; Brood War. The Terrans in this game are misplaced humans from earth, and have taken to a cut throat/pirate/mercenary type existence. The Terrans, quite unlike the Protoss and Zerg, are not a unified race. Factions of the Terrans are in constant conflict over mining rights to moons, territorial boundries, and economic matters. The factions have no hesitation to engage in armed conflict with anyone or anything that gets in the way of their seemingly number one goal, that being profit. Much like the Ferengi in the Star Trek universe, they want to do whatever it takes to keep their profit running in. But this is only the beginning, as the Terrans are a much deeper and passionate people than an outsider would initially assume.

The Terrans know that they do not belong in this part of space. They know that somewhere, sometime long ago, they came from another part of space. How the Terrans arrived is unknown to them, but we know is that the Terrans we know now were sent from earth as part of a deep space exploration mission. Their ship, The Norad, crashed on a planet, obviously awakening everyone aboard. From the survivors, a civilization arose. The Norad's computer banks were damaged in the crash, thus destroying the source and history of the Terran mission. Thus, the current Terrans we know are in a constant state of inner turmoil; knowing where they are going, but not knowing where they have been.

The mindset of the Terran way of life is the most for the little. Get the very most out of something and move on. Put the very least into it, yet get the most use out of it. This mentality is a strength, but yet can be a weakness in some cases. This way of thinking is present in or around all aspects of a Terran existence.

When looking at the archetechture of the Terrans, it is easy to see that beauty or gracefullness was not kept in mind while building. It seems that the buildings were designed with only one thing in mind: effeciency. A look at the the Terrans' primary buildings will show that they were designed for on the move functionability. Boosters, landing pads, and compactability are all key when building a Terran building. The majority of the buildings in a Terran settlement can be moved and resettled in another location if need be. It's this roaming attitude that has allowed the Terran species to survive in such adverse conditions where others could not. Space does not seem to be an issue for the Terran architects. Instead of including all important functions into one building, the Terrans instead opt to build additional support buildings to implement upgrades and research new technology. This sprawling tendancy can make creating an effecient Terran base difficult for some players. Also, building more than one of the same building is often needed in order to keep up with other races tech tree.

When taking a look at the units of the Terran species, it is clear to gather that the Terrans themselves are relatively weak. No unit is a stand alone Terran, as opposed to the Protoss Zealot, Dark Templar, High Templar, or the entire Zerg unit tree. Terrans as a biological model are very weak. Minimal stress can be exerted on a Terran body before it is destroyed. A Terran cannot be exposed to a vacumn for extended periods of time. Terrans cannot fly, have limited physic abilities, and possess almost no natural fighting adaptations. To make up for this lack of adaptation, the Terrans have designed an ingenious series of ground and air based units to accomodate their means. For the Terran himself, a suit was designed to allow contact with vacumn environments, harsh terrestrial climates and Terrans are the only species to harness and control the invention of projectile weaponry. Terrans are the only species to utilize guns, missles, lasers, and the tactical nuclear warhead in their weapons arsenal. Terrans, much like the Protoss race, adapted a superior aerial fleet to defend the skies of the Terran settlements. Using technologies such as fusion reactors, cloaking, lasers, and yamato cannons the Terran airfleet is arguably the most dominant in the sky. To make up for the limitations that nature has given them, the Terrans have created their own offensive and defensive aresenal to get their objectives complete.

The tendancy of a Terran commander is to turtle in the territory provided and wait to be attacked. This is what the Terran buildings seem to built for as the defensive structures for the Terrans are bunkers and missle turrets. Both of these are key to keeping your units safe while letting structures absorb damage from the attack. In order to successfully challenge a Protoss or Zerg commander, a Terran commander must take to the offense. Using the superior air support and air units themselves, a Terran should find that controlling the skies isn't difficult. However, the natural instincts to be left alone and wait to be discovered are what has crippled the Terran race in the past.

The Terrans are a stubborn race, and will not be conquered without a fight. Where they lack in physical prowess, they make up for in technology and a will to live. A Terran will die without second thought for his world, his family, his beliefs. His devotion to his way of live makes him a more formidable opponent than any seige tank or battlecruiser ever can.

In a Melee game of StarCraft: Brood War (who actually plays Vanilla SC?), Terrans are the race that require the most micromanagement. Every Terran unit has an ability that has to be weaned from it, be it Stim Packing, Spider Mine laying, repairing with SCVs or, in the case of the underused Valkyrie, running away after firing a barrage.

Against Zerg, Terrans can opt for many different strategies. The Terran can try a Bunker Rush (in which the Terran builds a Bunker near the opponent's base, loads it with Marines and repairs it as it gets attacked), the classic Marine and Medic attack/containment (in which the Terran builds a group of Marines and Medics and then attacks with them or camps outside the Zerg's base), a Wraith Rush (in which the Terran tries to kill as many Overlords as he can with Wraiths to irritate the Zerg) or Metal (in which the Terran builds Factory class units).

Against Protoss, Terrans commonly wall in (that is, they build a Barracks at the choke point and climb up the tech tree while staying safe within the main base) use the Factory class units to counter the Protoss' force of Zealots and Dragoons (Vultures counter Zealots, Siege Tanks counter Dragoons, Spider Mines deal heavy splash). Occasionally a Protoss will encounter a Terran that uses Infantry units. This strategy is rare for a reason: Infantry are easily defeated by Psionic Storm or a few Scarabs from a Reaver, or even a group of them. If a Terran player can accept these sacrifices or counter these methods (through EMP Shockwave, which eliminates the High Templar's energy or Lockdown, which disables the Reaver), this is an effective strategy because of the relative cheapness of Infantry units.

Against other Terrans, the game is unpredictable. Many Terrans opt to play a different race when presented with the Terran vs Terran matchup. Terran vs Terran games can go in any direction, but the most common endgame involves a very underused unit, the Ghost. In the Terran vs Terran endgame, Nuclear Missiles and Lockdown are both used consistently unlike a vs Zerg game, where there is nothing to Lockdown and Nukes are easily spotted by passing Overlords or a game against a Protoss, where Ghosts are usually tossed aside because they aren't needed that much and the Vespene Gas is better spent on Siege Tanks or upgrades.

Overall, the Terrans are a fun race to play. It's fun to see a group of Marines and Medics march upon a Zerg base and wipe out the units there. It's great to see a skilled player wildly command his Vultures to hit and run their opponent into submission. Terrans are awesome.