Marauder

The marauder is a terran infantry unit in StarCraft II. It replaced the firebat in multiplayer during development.

Overview
The marauder arose from a post- study by the Dominion Armed Forces showing a greater need of combat units better able to defeat zerg carapaces. To meet this requirement, the 5-4 Armored Infantry Suit was developed from the firebat's CMC-660 and equipped with two Quad K12 "Punisher" grenade launchers on each arm.

The troops manning the suits were also remarkably different to their firebat counterparts. 47% had never been to jail, and only 23% had ever been accused of murder.

Game Unit
The marauder is equipped with dual grenade launchers that are effective against armored targets and slow the speed of enemy units except massive units. The marauder can only slow one opponent at a time.

The marauder is considered an early support unit, designed to pick off early game units. It is useful for slowing down fast melee units. Marauders are better off facing mixed (light/armored) enemy forces, but are especially useful against the armored roach. They are also powerful against stalkers, immortals and, to a lesser extent, s and thors. Marauders can destroy buildings very quickly. The marauder is vulnerable to s, s, and s. As a general rule, a player battling zerg should build fewer marauders than usual, while against the protoss, marauders are effective, though work well with medivac dropships as a "commando force" when battling the former.

Wings of Liberty
Marauders are unlocked by playing the mission "Smash and Grab", available after Rory Swann was able to procure them for Raynor's Raiders.

Development
The marauder was originally equipped with dual concussion-grenade launchers which reduce a biological unit's speed immediately by a set percentage. A charging zealot would still move quickly after being struck by a grenade.

Beta Development
Prior to StarCraft II beta patch #8, Concussion Grenades was an automatic upgrade. It later became a researched ability.

Known Marauders

 * Rory Swann (mainly an engineer)
 * Isaac White
 * Hammer Securities

Trivia
The name "marauder" is most likely a reference to the novel Starship Troopers, wherein the heavy powered armor suit for soldiers was called a marauder.

In pre-release versions of StarCraft, the marine was known as the "marauder".

Quotations

 * See: StarCraft II Marauder Quotations