StarCraft: Brood War/Zerg Mission 10: Omega

This mission is quite difficult, although arguably not as difficult as Zerg Mission Eight "To Slay The Beast." You are surrounded on all side by enemies - Two Terran foes in Mengsk and DuGalle, and a powerful Protoss enemy in Artanis's forces. On the brighter side, however, you start off with a considerable amount of minerals, and your base is not wholly indefensible in spite of having three entrances. This walkthrough will show you the most straightforward method for winning this mission.

Setting Up Defenses
The first thing to be done on this mission is to get your starting Drones mining, and building the next generation of Drones at your two Hatcheries and 1 Hive. This first group should go to mining; a continuously strong stream of resources is crucial to this mission, and ultimately you want at least 2 Drones to each mineral patch, along with four Drones on the Extractor.

With the second group of Drones built, send a few of them to collect resources while sending the others to build Sunken Colonies at each entrance to your base. You'll want at least two at each entrance before the Three Enemies come knocking at your door (and they will, and fast, although their first attacks will not be very big). Expect the UED to bring 4 Marines, a Medic and a Goliath, Artanis to bring two Zealots and a Dragoon, and Mengsk to bring 4 Marines and 2 Firebats in that order. Notice that after this first wave, there is usually a lull for a couple minutes in attacks. Don't depend on it, but use it to your advantage if it occurs. You need to get at least six Sunken Colonies at each entrance to your base (with an Overlord for detection), in addition to one on the southeast "prong" of the fork that the platform you start on makes around the northeast entrance to your base. You also need to build more Spore Colonies; they tend to be strongest in groups, so for every other or every 2nd Spore Colony, build four more right next to it. That should be enough to handle the immediate air threat you will face (namely, Mengsk's annoying groups of 10-12 Wraiths, the UED's Battlecruisers, and the Protoss's Scouts).

One trick with base defense on this mission is to research Burrow at a Hatchery, get a group of 12 Hydralisks, and burrow 1 such group out in front of your Sunken Colonies at each entrance. Place an Overlord nearby (incidentally, start researching the Fast Overlord upgrade as soon as possible) for detection. When Mengsk sends a ground force including two Tanks, or the Protoss sends a Reaver with their ground attacks, you can unburrow the Hydralisks and quickly kill the Tanks/Reavers before either helping to finish off the rest of the force, or re-burrowing them. Oddly enough, they tend to be far more effective than Lurkers, since the computers will immediately scan for Lurkers if they attack, whereas they won't scan for burrowed units even if you just attacked them with such units.

The AI Offensive
Make sure to keep an eye on your base throughout this entire mission. Mengsk generally has three different types of attacks in this mission: 2-3 Tanks with about 4-6 Ghosts, 6-8 Marines, and 4-6 Firebats; air attack groups of 10-12 Wraiths; and Nukes that usually come three in a row. Mengsk is particularly fond of nuking your Spore Colonies, so make sure to IMMEDIATELY have detection on the ramp leading from the west (from his base) so that you can kill the ghost before the nuke drops. A good idea is to have an Overlord patrol back and forth. The Protoss attacks will generally be stopped by a good set of Sunken and Spore Colonies, but you will need to deal with the occasional Reaver, as well as a very nasty combination of Corsairs casting Disruption Web on your Spore Colonies while groups of Scouts attack them later in the game. DuGalle generally sends out two types of attacks: mixed Marine/Goliath/Medic forces (and these get EXTREMELY nasty late game if you let him live long enough), and an air force of Valkyries/Battlecruisers. Keep the Valkyries away from your Overlords, as they usually come in a group of about 4 and will severely damage your Overlords. The Battlecruisers can be handled by the Spore Colony clusters, but you will need to be careful with them, and with anti-ground base defense on the northeast entrance to your starting base. While all of this is happening, don't panic- you will never get simultaneously coordinated attacks from different entrances.

Preparing the Attack
While the above defensive matrix is being set up, you need to get at least one more Hatchery at your main base, so you can build forces of 12 units at a time (More is even better. Just remember that the more Hatcheries you have, the faster reinforcements can be built and sent). Start getting upgrades for Hydralisks, and build a second Evolution Chamber so that you can research Zerg Missile Attack Upgrades as well as Carapace upgrades. At the same time start building Queens.

At the same time as that, start churning out 12 or more Hydralisks at a time. Hotkey them into groups of 12, then take them to the northeast entrance, the one that faces the UED and into which they usually funnel their ground attacks (ENORMOUS groups of Marines with Medics and Goliaths). Burrow them down the ramp, in order to save space. Prepare at least 7 force groups of Hydralisks (12 each, for a total of 84) for your first wave of attack on the UED.

Do you have your groups? Here's where the fun begins. Unburrow your units, and sent them in the northeast direction towards the heart of the UED (White Terran) base (which lies in an alcove near the top-right corner). You will have to move your force groups north and then to the right in a kind of hook shape, although you can avoid this if you simply have your Hydra groups use the 'attack' command to attack anything on the way to the heart of the UED base.

The UED will put up some resistance, but Hydralisks really are their bane. They have pathetic anti-ground in the form of Marines, Goliaths, and three Siege Tanks, and are heavily oriented towards air units, which massed Hydras chew up quickly. Keep in mind, though, that the UED has Science Vessels that use Defensive Matrix, particularly on the Battlecruisers. He also has Firebats and Ghosts, which are more annoying, but they don't really put a dent in your overall strength; the safest way to deal with Ghosts in this attack if you cannot get a surviving Overlord up to your force, is to simply ignore them. Try not to have Overlords stray away from your Hydralisk groups; the UED has numerous Missile Turrets, Goliaths and Valkyries to kill air units. (all told, the UED base has a total of 48 Missile Turrets). DuGalle's base is actually split into two parts: a smaller part on a planet about 1/3 of the map to the west of the northeast corner of the map, and the heart of his base, which can be reached in the northeast corner. You might want to split off one or two forces from the main group, and send them up onto the smaller plateau to destroy structures and enemies; it helps divide the UED's defense.

Your first attack may not be successful, but don't fret about it. Simply replace Hydra groups as they die with brand new ones at your main, and send them up constantly. If all your forces are dying in a straight line, just simply replenish your force, and run them down again. Keep attacking until you've destroyed all of his unit-producing structures, at which point DuGalle appears, announces his surrender, and then all the UED buildings and units become neutral. "Kerrigan, I am here to offer you terms of surrender. It is my wish that you allow my men to live."

At this point, you have probably built up a stock of resources but have no income flowing into because the main base's resources ran out. Build 1-2 expos in the former UED base areas; the UED leaves behind an enormous amount of minerals and gas for you to use in your war machine. Just make sure to include an Overlord and at least 8 Hydralisks at each of the expos until you can get Spore Colonies up. Mengsk is fond of sending his large Wraith attacks at your expos.

So who's next? The Protoss, of course! The Protoss are somewhat bizarre in that if you attack their main base from the southwest, the Protoss will simply crush even an enormous force (for example, if you attack that way with 8 groups of 12 Hydras each, you may still lose). However, they are more vulnerable to a back attack, so what you need to do is rebuild a giant Hydralisk force. You should get 8 or 9 groups of 12 Hydralisks, which shouldn't be too onerous.

Once your attack is ready, send them south from where the UED was, in a general attack towards the south-eastern corner of the map. The Protoss have two relatively small bases in the way, but these will be annihilated in the sea of Hydralisks you bring. Don't forget to sneak in some Overlords as well; Artanis uses groups of Dark Templar and an Arbiter or two. Always have at least four or more, as Overlords are likely to be Mind Controlled by Artanis's Dark Archons (definitely don't bring Ultralisks for this reason) or ripped apart by the Corsairs. There's no real reason to do a drop, so keep your vulnerable Overlords empty. Your first attack force, like with the UED, probably will not be enough to wipe out the main Protoss base from the back, but you can do damage while continuing to build huge waves of Hydralisks to replace them. The toughest area in the Protoss base is probably the place with all the Stargates, where the Arbiter is. That is where you will lose many of your Hydralisks before reinforcement Hydralisks come in. Once you destroy all of the Protoss production structures, Artanis appears and says "Savour this victory, Kerrigan. For the Protoss shall never forget your treachery. We shall be watching you." Now all the Protoss go neutral as well.

Finally, you have to deal with Mengsk (The Red Terran). Mengsk is extremely difficult simply because he has an almost impervious ground defense. If that doesn't sink in, keep in mind that this has been tested by sending two 100 fully upgraded Zergling forces at Mengsk, and he utterly annihilated them. You need to go air. It is rare for anyone to successfully take him down from the ground only, simply because of his numerous Siege Tanks and Spider Mines. The majority of Mengsk's Siege Tanks are often located on the south end of his base.

It is possible to attack Mengsk through ground, but expensive and requires lots of units. Here's how to do it: use your remaining hydralisks and mass them on the southern platform right so the southwest of your base where the two entrances to Mengsk's base are. Push across the northern bridge and destroyed the defenses in between the two higher platforms. Use the queen's Spawn broodling to get rid of the tanks on top of the elevated platforms. Push out of the canyon so you are in the open. This was the hardest part right now. You have a bunch of hydralisks, but Mengsk sends so many units. You have split him in half, but you are also being attacked on two sides. Most attacks will come from the north with siege tanks. You need to hold this position. Make sure you keep on sending hydralisks right in as reinforcements. So the question remains: how can you deal with these siege tanks and spider mines, marines, wraiths, all this stuff? The solution is the Lurker. Build 12 lurkers. Move in with about 12 hydralisks to shield your lurkers as they borrow around the tanks. The lurkers should run over their defenses. Now use your hydralisks to run over the remaining defenses. Use your lurkers to destroy tanks, and don't be afraid to lose them. Once the tanks are gone, hydralisks will run over everything else.

If you haven't done so already, build a Spire and start upgrading, then build second Spire solely for pushing air upgrades as well. Once the Spire is built, turn it into a Greater Spire, and start pumping out Guardians and Devourers. You will need a lot of the former.

You will ultimately want to have at least 12 Guardians and Devourers, as well as Overlords for detection. Get 36 Guardians and 18 Devourers for quick completion. Killing Mengsk requires patience, so begin at the very top of his base, then slowly creep down with your Guardians with this force. Make sure to send re-inforcements, and above all relax; this map has so much money there is almost no chance of you running out of it barring some utterly horrific resource management choices. Start at the very top, because that is where Mengsk keeps his main production structures.

Once you've wiped out Mengsk's unit producing facilities, he will appear and makes his surrender speech as well. "Congratulations, Kerrigan. You've beaten me again. Just remember that I am out there, waiting for you to slip up. Because I know sooner or later you'll make a mistake. And when you do..." At this point, if you followed the order correctly, you have won the Campaign!

Alternate Strategy
This strategy is fundamentally very similar to the one outlined above, but uses less static defenses at your base. Initially you will put your drones to work mining minerals and spawn three more at the hatcheries available to you. Two will go to work mining minerals while the 3rd makes a sunken colony at the northern, undefended portion. Hotkey your four hydralisks to #0 and build more drones to mine and double up the sunken colonies at the other two entrances. Get four drones on gas early. When the attack comes your static defenses will hold off the first rush except you will need the hydralisks to help you against the Protoss as two zealots and a dragoon will succeed in wiping out one of the sunken colonies unless you get the hydralisks over to help in time.

Finish your economy by spawning as many drones as you can and having them work on the mineral (you'll have four on gas). Spawn your first overlord, then finish your defense by putting a 3rd sunken colony at the SW and E entrance, but sneakily put an additional sunken colony in the NE near the entrance where the white UED makes its attacks. The goliaths will often get hit by that sunken colony and then make suicidal attempts to drop on the raised NE area. You should also put a sunken colony in the W as sometimes ghosts can get dropped in that area by suicidal drop ships and they will start nuking. If you put your spire in that area, nukes can be bad news. The real key to your defense, however, is a squadron of 12 mutalisks (hotkeyed to #0) to act as a Rapid Response Team. They will easily wipe out Mengsk's tanks from the SW, provide the extra strength needed to handle the Protoss attacks and can help defend against the UED attacks (try to show up a little late to the battle as the Goliaths can kill a few mutalisks if you show up too promptly).

After you fend off the second rush, move your mutalisks to the southern-most spore colony and then a little bit SSW to reveal additional mineral. Build a hatchery there and get an economy going. Build light static defenses such as spore colonies in the south (slightly spread out because the corsairs often neutralize them) and three sunken colonies on the east (also spread out as reaver attacks may eliminate them all if they are tightly bunched). Also build two sunken colonies on the west side but don't go overboard here as most attacks will be sieged tanks that the sunken colonies can't reach. Use your Rapid Response Team to take them out.

After the next rush you will build your attack force. Add another hatchery near your initial three and start pumping out hydralisks. Rally the hatcheries to the empty zone just north of your base and make 9 platoons of 12 hydralisks. Make the overminds you need from your expansion hatchery and rally them to your main base. Your ground ranged attacks and mutalisk attack strength should max during this time. Morph the spire into a greater spire and work on defensive carapices for your ground troops as well. Get your hydralisk upgrades, too. The next rush will come before you have all your troops ready so the UED attack will get stopped almost immediately as you have large numbers of hydralisks there, but your Rapid Response Team will have to help fend off the Protoss and DuGalle forces.

Once you have 9 platoons of hydralisks start your attack against the UED position. Your hydralisks can handle everything except for the three siege tanks. Send you Rapid Response Team on a suicide mission into that area (right-click on the first tank and shift-right click on the other two). You should spawn a new Rapid Response Team to replace them right away. Queens/Spawn Broodling is also possible, but don't bother with them.

On your way to the UED position you will notice another mineral/gas location. Get a hatchery on that as you'll need the gas, but before making the extractor make a spore colony and three sunkens in the east as the Protoss often attack there with large numbers of dark templar and you're unlikely to have an overlord there. Build replacements for your hydralisks and eliminate the overlords that got blinded during the first rush by replacing them with ones that can see. From there you will have no problem eliminating the rest of the UED position but be sure you take out all the factories (there's a StarPort a little to the south of the main base) and also return to the original site of the UED as many times SCVs have started rebuilding there. You'll know you've gotten everything when you get contacted for terms of surrender.

Carefully move your hydralisks back towards your main base, grouping them just to the east of your first expansion. Spawn additional hydralisks to replace the ones you've lost and then start in on the Protoss. Overlords are crucial here as dark templar are common and don't skimp because dark archons often mind control your overlords. Launch your hydralisks into the Protoss position and if you're lucky they'll make it all the way to the Stargates before dying out.

With the Protoss knocked down you can turn your attention to the west. You should have your mutalisks completely upgraded by now and you can make two squadrons of Guardians and two of Devourers (convert your Rapid Response Team to save mineral and gas). If you're running low, you can get more gas from the former UED bases. Launch your attack against DuGalle from the Spore Colonies in the West by attacking with your Guardians straight west. Your Devourers will only scoot in when Science Vessels make their predictible irradiation of the Overlords accompanying the teams and to deal with Wraiths. Once you've eliminated part of the base swing your attack to the NW and take out the two StarPorts you find. Once those are gone the Devourers can return to your main base while the Guardians clean DuGalle out.

Finally use your Guardian/Devourer team to eliminate what's left of the Protoss threat. You're done!

Another Alternate Strategy
If you wish to avoid Mengsk's nuclear attacks right from the start, it is doable, though you need to be quick to begin with. First, build up static defenses as per the original strategy (and maybe a little more), plus the same handful of Hydralisks at each entrance. Take the southern expansion and put up appropriate static defenses - this base is indeed prone to harassment, but crucial if you're going to get air units quickly. Tech up to a Greater Spire as soon as possible, then start building Mutalisks. You'll want at least 24, but 36 is nicely doable. Morph 12 into Devourers and morph the leftovers into Guardians, then send them westward at Mengsk along with a sixpack of Overlords. If you have enough Guardians and good enough management, you'll wipe out Mengsk without dropping a unit.

While this is happening, you should be maxing out your supply cap on Hydralisks. These will be used to take on both the UED and the Protoss, in whichever order you wish. I'd suggest the UED first. In any case, if you haven't mucked around, Mengsk's (former) base should still have plenty of resources lying around, so expand there when you start running dry in your main.

Once you've amassed enough Hydralisks, send them up to the UED base alongside what's left of your air attack (hopefully all of it). The biggest concerns you have here are the Science Vessels and the Battlecruisers. The Science Vessels will abuse Irradiate something fierce, which can easily devastate even a large Hydralisk army if you're not careful. Nip them in the bud as soon as possible, and if you get hit with Irradiate it's usually best to retreat the Irradiated unit and let it die (even if it's an Overlord - you should have heaps by now anyway). The Battlecruisers will fall to the Devourers' Acid Spores combined with the Hydralisks' attacks. Make sure to also use the Devourers to protect your Guardians from Valkyries - while not absolutely vital, Guardians are certainly useful for this part plus the push against the Protoss.

Once you've picked off the UED, your force will probably be battered, so go ahead and regroup. Seven dozen Hydralisks, plus a dozen each of Overlords, Guardians, and Devourers is easily sufficient to finish the job - there's no kill like overkill! Just be sure to focus fire on Templar and Archons of both flavours as they all pose their own annoyances, particularly Dark Archons Mind-Controlling your air units. With luck, though, the Protoss will send their entire army at you as soon as you start attacking their base, meaning they'll be ostensibly defenceless. Scrap the rest of their buildings and enjoy the ending!

Base

 * West side of the map
 * Starts with 18 Siege Tanks, and will still produce more
 * Specializes in Wraiths and Ghosts
 * Spider mines are placed throughout
 * Three Command Centers with Nuclear Silos attached to them are located on an inaccessible-by-ground plateau; another reason to send air attacks
 * Extremely difficult to approach via ground, but falls easily to air assaults

Attacks

 * Mixed Infantry/Tanks
 * Wraith groups
 * Nuclear Missiles (They come quite late in the game; if you defeat him fast enough, you may be able to avoid all of these)

Base

 * North side of the map
 * Missile Turrets are spread everywhere
 * Starts with 6 Battlecruisers
 * Specializes in air units
 * Starts with only three siege tanks and will probably not produce additional ones
 * Heavily designed against air, but more susceptible to ground assaults
 * Uses a group of ghosts, but rather ineffectively

Attacks

 * Marines/Medics/Goliaths (Medics will blind your Overlords, so look out)
 * Battlecruisers/Valkyries
 * May occasionally use Wraiths

Base

 * Southeast side of map
 * Arbiters will require you to use Overlords
 * Dark Archons use Mind Control and Maelstrom whenever possible
 * Gateway forces are the specialty of this tribe
 * Dark Templar can be numerous
 * Both air or ground assaults may be equally challenging

Attacks

 * Zealots/Dragoons/Archons/Dark Templar, with or without 2-3 reavers
 * Scouts/Corsairs
 * Carriers