StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty/Opening Gambit

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  • Time limit: 18 minutes.
  • Race: Terran.
  • Objectives: train 30 marines, 8 siege tanks, and 8 ghosts. You can lose some units; just make sure you build at least as many as require by the objectives.
  • Bronze: complete the mission within the time limit.
  • Silver: complete the mission within 15:59 (2 minutes left).
  • Gold: complete the mission within 13:59 (4 minutes left).

You must train a specific number of marines, siege tanks, and ghosts within the time limit. To make things more difficult, Zerg units push seven times during the mission.

Zerg pushes[edit]

Zerg units will appear at the top of the map and push at certain times. These times never change, and the units are always the same. The units will appear, wait, and then after a bit move forward and attack. The waves are listed below, however the exact time when a wave reaches your base is dependent on how far up the map you have built. If you are going for gold, you will only have to deal with the first five waves.

Wave # Time when wave spawns Approximate time when wave reaches your base Units sent
1 14:45 ~14:26 6 zerglings
2 12:20 ~12:11 6 zerglings, 2 roaches
3 10:10 ~9:59 6 roaches
4 9:00 ~8:54 12 zerglings, 3 mutalisks
5 6:10 ~6:00 8 zerglings, 8 hydralisks, 2 ultralisks
6 4:00 ~3:47 12 zerglings, 8 hydralisks, 2 ultralisks
7 0:45 ~0:37 18 zerglings, 6 hydralisks, 2 ultralisks

SeaGnome's build order[edit]

Replay here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMPrnuQIQ7Y Narrated/additional info here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSN-MSSQw2Q

  • Theoretical time remaining: 5:14.
  • Down sides: gas expansion is slow.
Start
  1. SCVs until supply 10; continue pushing out SCVs between and during the rest of the mission.
  2. Supply depot #1 at ramp when you get 100 minerals.
  3. Barracks at ramp.
  4. Refinery #1.
  5. Supply depot #3 at ramp.
  6. Upgrade command center to orbital command (supply should be 16; no marines yet).
  7. 2 marines.
  8. Refinery #2.
Wave 1

At least one marine will be present for the entire attack. No repairs necessary.

  1. Factory.
  2. Reactor on barracks, still blocking ramp.
  3. Command center inside your base (~21/22 supply; 2 marines/20 SCVs).
  4. Factory tech lab.
  5. Supply depot #3.
  6. Summon a mule.
  7. Train 4 marines (wave #2 will hit when you have 4 or 5 marines; continue to build marines when you get a chance as you need them for wave 4).
  8. Train 1 Tank.
  9. Research Siege Mode.
Wave 2

You may lose all of your marines during this fight, but your tank should finish in time to save the day, if necessary.

  1. Lift command center #2 and drop it after the wave has attacked (drop it into place by 11:00).
  2. Upgrade command center #2 to orbital command.
  3. Refinery #3.
  4. Constantly build siege tanks until you reach the objective (don't over queue or you won't have enough resources to continue the build order).
  5. Refinery #4.
  6. Move some SCVs to the new base if possible.
  7. Supply depot #4 (10:25 remaining).
  8. Put two SCVs total on Refinery #3 and #4 (~44 supply with 3 tanks, at least 4 marines, and ).
Wave 3

Your siege tanks should be able to handle this wave, but keep your marines along the edge of the cliff to help.

  1. Barracks #2.
  2. Supply depot #5.
  3. Ghost academy.
  4. Tech lab on barracks #2.
  5. Supply depot #6.
Wave 4

Wave four should attack just as you start Barracks #3 (below). Your 3-4 siege tanks will handle the 12 zerglings, and your 8+ marines should be able to easily handle the mutalisks. After this wave you will have the biggest break before the next wave (~3 minutes).

  1. Barracks #3.
  2. Begin building ghosts (~8:47 remaining).
  3. Put one additional SCV on Refinery #3 and #4 (3 total on each).
  4. Queue up additional supply depots and marines when you have money.
  5. Barracks #4 (6:40 remaining; may not be necessary, especially if you don't lose marines at the start).
Wave 5

You should have at least 25 Marines, 7 tanks, 5 ghosts, and 8 supply depots when this wave arrives.

  1. Finish off training each required unit. Tanks will finish first, while ghosts and marines finish together.

Cent's build order[edit]

Note: the author is also known as "c3nty2". Replay here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mj2P_jX7YM

  • Theoretical time remaining: 4:33 (13:37 play time).

This build order is more difficult, particularly because it requires that you block off the wide lane above the natural expansion. In a normal match this would make a little bit more sense (not the best strategy, but viable) because human players can force units through gaps in your walls or ignore enemy fire. This is why SeaGnome's strategy works better (and finishes more quickly): the AI is easy to take advantage of.

Start
  1. SCVs until supply 9 or 10; continue pushing out SCVs between and during the proceeding steps.
  2. Supply depot #1 at bottom left of ramp when you get 100 minerals.
  3. Barracks at top right of ramp with a small gap to block with tech lab.
  4. Refinery #1.
  5. Supply depot #3 at ramp above depot #1.
  6. Upgrade command center to orbital command (supply should be 16; no marines yet).
  7. Barracks tech lab.
  8. Marine
Wave 1

The marine will appear ~5-10 seconds after the first wave starts attacking your buildings. Reinforce them with two auto-repairing SCVs, but check on them to make sure they don't repair one building while another is destroyed.