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The Terran race is back baby! And they are sure to make another run for survival in SCII. For those that never played the original StarCraft, the Terran race is made up of the descendants from a colonization attempt centuries earlier launched from Earth. At first the survivors of the expedition established three bases on three separate planets in what became Terran space, with each planet having its own government.

Eventually the most corrupt of the governments, the Confederacy, was overthrown by a man named Arcturus Mengsk during the chaotic and destructive Zerg invasion. Out of the destruction rose a single Terran government called the Terran Dominion which was ruled by the iron fist of the now Emperor Arcturus I.

The Terran with no distinct natural or technological advantage, like the Zerg or Protoss, was the underdog caught in the middle of a huge war in the original StarCraft. In StarCraft II things haven't changed much, in fact they may have only gotten worse. In the Terran single player campaign you'll play as a group of mercenary-like freedom fighters led by Jim Raynor who are attempting to take down the corrupt Terran Dominion...

The Terran once again will play the roll of the underdog, but we'll cover more of that in the single player preview. For now let's get onto what you really want to hear about, what new tricks the Terran have up their sleeves this time, and trust me they have quite a lot.

The wall of depots is back!

Supply Depot: I know what you're thinking, "we get it, you we're that guy who had to make a wall out of your supply depots like three lines deep in front of your base just because you thought two lines wasn't enough." Well, you're right, but that's not why I want to talk about the Depot's glorious return to SCII. Ask and you shall receive fans!

The developers took notice over the years of how online players got creative with their supply depots and so this time around they wanted to include an all new feature to help those players out. In SCII your supply depots can now be lowered into the ground to allow your ground forces to exit your base. Gone are the days of having to have a dozen dropships just so you can get your ground forces over the huge wall of Supply Depots you've blocked your base in with. This is just one great example of how Blizzard is really taking fans wishes into great consideration when developing SCII.

Command Center (Rapid Deployment): This is a new feature for the old Command Center. Rapid Deployment lets you garrison your SCV's inside the Command Center and then fly the building somewhere and set it down redeploying your SCV's to start gathering and building elsewhere. This new feature will also prove useful for when an enemy tries to sneak in and ravage your mineral line. Now you can just send them to your Command Center and upgrade it to a Planetary Fortress. That's right; the Command Center is no longer defenseless because you can put a huge gun on top of it that wreaks havoc on ground units which will certainly prove useful in defending your mineral lines from being raped.

The Command Center can also be transformed into a Surveillance Station which as of now has no information released about it but I can only assume that it will be similar to the original game in that it gives the player scan sweep ability.

Techlab: The Techlab is a structural add on for multiple buildings. We've seen it get connected to both the Barracks and the Factory but it could be possible to add it to the Starport or even other buildings. The Techlab allows whatever building it is connected to, to upgrade abilities for the units that building produces. So for the Barracks it provides new upgrades for the infantry trained their and if you fly out your Barracks and fly in your Factory it will automatically hook up to the Techlab allowing the Factory to upgrade abilities for its units as well. I say that's pretty cool.

Nuclear Reactor: StarCraft was a game about choices, which units to build and which upgrades to spend your money on to suit the situation at hand. SCII is keeping very much with that formula and if you decide not to attach a Techlab to your Barracks or Factory you can attach a Nuclear Reactor instead.

The reactor gives whatever structure it is hooked up to an additional build queue allowing it to produce two units at a time. For example if it's hooked up to your barracks you can now pump out 10 Marines twice as fast because it trains them two at a time. This will be great for Terran players trying to counter the dreaded Zergling rush because it'll allow you to get your defenses up that much faster.

Sensor Tower:The Sensor Tower is a new Terran structure that expands the fog of war around it giving the player a bigger line of site. This is useful for obvious reasons, but the cool thing about the tower is it can be upgraded to a Radar Tower which gives it the ability to see even further. It doesn't reveal the fog of war further away but it does detect enemy units moving in the fog of war. Those units come up as blinking red flashes in the fog and the tower sets off a loud alarm to alert the player incase your view is off somewhere because you're busy multitasking. The new Radar Tower will be great for preparing Terran players for upcoming attacks.

Starbase: The Starbase is the pinnacle of Terran technology and is an upgraded Starport. The Starport can be upgraded to a Starbase even while it is hovering off of the ground in flight, which will not only save build space on the ground but will also give players a new tactic. The Starbase is able to produce ground units while on the move making it useful for assaulting enemy bases because you can set it down near your enemys base and continually launch attacks without first having to traverse a whole map.

It will be interesting to see how skilled SCII players attack with and defend against the Terran Starbase. I would imagine a skilled player will not have trouble countering a flying factory, but we'll have to wait to find out.

Ground and pound

The Ghost: Ok so Blizzards attempt at an FPS based on the legendary StarCraft character crashed and burned before it ever got off the ground, but that's ok because it seems they want to make up for it in SCII. The Ghost is returning even more badass than before and is now a tier one unit! Their standard grenade launcher does more damage this time around and they have been given a sniper rifle which deals out one-shot-one-kill damage to enemy infantry units like Marines and Zerglings. I'm not sure if it will kill a fully shielded Zealot with one shot but one can imagine that with two or three shots it most certainly will.

What would a Ghost be without its ability to cloak right? Well the cloak is back in SCII and so is the Ghost's ability to call in nuclear strikes however, it now also has the ability to call down drop pods. The drop pods can be loaded with up to eight infantry units. Blizzard has been toying with the idea of customizable drop pods lately and if it is kept in the final version of the game, it would allow players to put whatever infantry units they want into the pod, not just Marines. This means players could potentially put SCV's into the drop pod and then launch the pod across the map to a new mineral field for quick secondary base deployment. Excited by that? You should be.

Crucio Siege Tank: The only Terran unit from the original StarCraft that rivaled the awesomeness of the Ghost was the Siege Tank and Blizzard has also made sure to make this unit even more badass for SCII. The new Crucio Siege Tank makes the old Siege Tank look like a tin can with Nerf guns on it. It is still built from the factory and still needs the siege upgrade before it can transform into siege mode.

However, this time around it will have stronger offensive cannons while in tank mode as well as much stronger armor so it can take more punishment. The Siege Tank of old was a defensive force to be reckoned with, but its offensive capabilities were limited by its pee-shooter-like cannons and its weak armor that could easily be taken down by a swarm of Zerglings. Blizzard recognized that this didn't resemble the characteristics of a tank and made sure to adapt the unit this time around.

Those swarms of Zerglings shouldn't be a problem now. In addition to its new twin offensive cannons, the unit returns with an overhauled look that makes it a distinguishably new unit.

Reapers: The newest infantry unit in the Terran army carries two rapid fire automatic pistols and a jump pack that allows it to navigate a variety of terrain. Picture a Zone Trooper from Command & Conquer 3 only instead of some huge laser gun it has the gun from Robocop&sick. In a video from Blizzard featuring the Protoss it was shown how Reapers can be the perfect counter-attack to the Immortal because their low powered weapons don't trigger the massive shields of the Immortal. Since they can hop from low to high ground and jump across canyons they become the ideal unit for raiding an enemy base and raping their mineral line, just be careful they don't have a Planetary Fortress waiting for you.

Another outstanding ability the Reaper possesses is its timed explosive charge. Reapers throw an explosive charge on a short timer that explodes causing a lot of damage and when used in groups can be devastating to both structures and mineral lines. An extremely versatile unit, I think you'll see a lot of new strategies focusing on the Reaper.

Thor: The center of attention for a good deal of players at BlizzCon, the Thor is a new powerful Terran assault vehicle that is so large it has to be built directly on the battlefield using an SCV. The Thor is slow moving and slow turning but has massive twin arm cannons that deal huge damage to enemy ground units. This might be before some of your times, but if anyone remembers the movie Robot Jox, it looks like the robots from that only with two huge cannons slapped on its arms and thrown into the StarCraft universe. Good stuff.

The Thors most impressive ability is its artillery barrage. It will transform so that it has four huge guns on its back and shoots a devastating barrage of shells long range. However, it should be noted that there have been talks about Blizzard removing this ability for balancing reasons; I'll keep you updated in the future. The downfall of the Thor is obviously its slowness and lack of anti-air ability. Faster units that can circle the Thor will find it easy to take down, so will Protoss players who are good at using the Stalkers blink ability. For that reason Terran players shouldn't send a group of Thors in alone.

Marauders: The Marauder will replace the beloved Firebat which was a tier 1.5 infantry unit similar to the Marine only used a flamethrower to attack the enemy. The Marauder will take its place as a tier 1.5 unit as well and will look visually similar to the Firebat as well as have a similar support role for Terran infantry groups.

You will need a Barracks attached to a Tech Lab in order to build them. Instead of a flamethrower, the new unit will boast two concussion grenade launchers that actually slow down enemy biological units like Zealots and Zerglings in addition to actually damaging them. The launchers also will have bonus damage against armored units as well making the Marauder more of an anti-vehicle unit than the Firebat was. Like Marines, Marauders can use Stim Packs and will work best in groups with Medics.

A mixed group of Marines and Medics supported by Marauders will provide excellent early game offense for the Terrans, giving them the ability to slow down charging groups of Zealots or fast moving Zerg units while the Marines rip them to shreds.

Death from above

Battlecruiser: The fan favorite Terran Battlecruiser returns in SCII with the same-old Russian piloting it and we wouldn't want it any other way. The cruiser's role will remain the same as in the originals but does get a new ability that makes it even more destructive.

The Yamato Cannon returns (anyone wonder why the cannon is Japanese and the pilot is Russian?) and is just as destructive as ever. However, the new Plasma Torpedoes are an excellent area effect ground attack that will prove useful against hordes of Terran Marines or Zerg Hydralisks. In the originals the cruiser was great for attacking structures and other large targets but because of its slow fire rate made it very vulnerable to small hordes of units.

TF-620 Nomad: The Nomad will replace the Science Vessel from the original games and is a welcome addition to SCII. A support vehicle that is built at the Starport, the Nomad is a ship that hovers above the ground and can build small defensive structures like the auto turret which is a robotic offensive turret that fires at ground units.

Another good structure it can build is the Mine Drone. This is a defensive structure that produces four spider mines around it that burrow into the ground. The entire building including the mines then cloak to hide from the enemy. The mines do 50 damage plus 50 bonus damage to armored units, so it is obvious how devastating they can be on an unsuspecting ground force. After the mines explode the Mine Drone uncloaks and produces four more mines and then re-cloaks.

The Nomad can also be used to scout areas as it can detect both cloaked and buried units. I expect the Nomad to play a valuable role in base expansion and protection as well as a nice supplement to the SCV since it can also repair buildings and armored units.

Banshee: The Banshee is a new Terran gunship that I suppose will take the place of the Valkyrie. The Banshee has no air-to-air capabilities but is very effective at attacking ground units, especially large groups of them as it has an area-effect attack using rockets similar to the Valkyrie's. However, unlike the Valkyrie the Banshee has a cloak ability that it can use to flee from enemy ground-to-air units, but is obviously useless against enemy detection structures like rocket towers.

Viking: One of the most impressive Terran units I've seen thus far, the Viking is a new tactical fighter that fires two missiles and is great at taking down enemy capital ships. But what makes the Viking so amazing is its secondary ability, the ability to transform (yes just like Transformers) into a bi-ped walker for use on the ground. When used as a ground unit it has two arm mounted chain guns that tear through enemy infantry.

One can already see how this unit opens the door for a variety of new strategies we haven't seen before in the original games. The Viking will be great for attacking enemy bases with too many air defenses because it can fly over canyons and land on the enemy's side. While it is an effective ground unit it is more effective in the air as it can't hang with larger more powerful ground units like Siege Tanks or the Colossus. Although its primary role is technically a fighter, the Viking will be produced from the Factory instead of the Starport.

Wrap it up already!

So that's all for the Terran race right now, as always there will be far more developments as the game progresses toward a release date, which as always, will be whenever Blizzard feels the game is ready to ship. Nothing is set in stone so expect to see some of the units and structures I just described change and possibly get scrapped. For more information on the Protoss race, the Single Player aspect of SCII, or the graphics and gameplay, see the other previews. With a little luck hopefully we'll get a taste of what the Zerg will be like soon enough.

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