Mercenaries (map)

Mercenaries is a Blizzard Map of the Month, a series of free maps released by Blizzard Entertainment for StarCraft.

The map can be played with with one to three players. The number of players determines the number and strength of enemy forces you must defeat.

Background
The New Trinidad Pirates, based on space platforms over the empty world of New Trinidad, have attacked ships and outposts throughout the Koprulu Sector for decades. Due to recent Terran governmental shifts and war with the United Earth Directorate, the creation of a standing militia strong enough to deal with them was impossible.

In an attack from their nearly impregnable space station over New Trinidad, sustained shelling from Arclite Siege Tanks led to the death of Jacqueline Angel, heiress to the Angel Shipping empire.

Universe News Network reports on the incident from Outpost 782XJG.

Emperor Arcturus Mengsk of the Terran Dominion tells the player that he must solve this problem. He doesn't have the military force available to wipe out the pirates, but he has been provided money by various shipping interests, such as the Angel Shipping empire, to hire mercenaries to wipe out the pirates. He then dispatches recruiters to the space platform to help begin the assault.

Hiring the Mercenaries
The players are given a choice as to how difficult they wish the mission to be. A more difficult mission has more difficult opponents, but also results in the players being given more resources.

Then each player is given a recruiter and a choice of four mercenary groups. (The map actually has eight mercenary groups, but four are randomly selected to be available for the mission.) Each player can only select one mercenary group, and cannot "share" a group with another player.

Each mercenary group has a leader (a modified hero unit) and a trio of special units that correspond to a regular unit. After selecting the mercenaries, the player is granted the leader and the three special units, and the player receives four workers and a town center for the race (effectively playing that race, even though they are treated as Terran for game purposes). Whenever a regular unit of the special unit type is made, that unit is immediately replaced by a special version of that unit at no cost, providing a valuable boost to the player's forces. Furthermore, "spellcasting" special units automatically start with full energy and all special abilities (including energy upgrades).

The players start at locations near the center of the map, while the enemy forces occupy large bases at the corners of the map.

Mercenary Selections
The leader is listed first, followed by the special unit types.
 * Hale's Commandos, led by Commander Hale (battlecruiser) and accompanied by Elite Science Vessels. Commander Hale is based on Warthen Hale, a character in the Star*Drive campaign setting.
 * Tara's Infiltrators, led by "Unholy" Tara (Ghost) and accompanied by a complement of DF/A-19 Wraith Mk2s. Tara claims that her forces don't involve themselves in prolonged battles, and simply appear from somewhere to deliver painful lessons to her foes.
 * Martin's Marauders, led by General Martin (Siege Tank) and accompanied by "Iron Golem" Goliaths. He claims that his Goliaths will batter down the will of his foes.
 * Dabiri's Shadow Company, led by Master Dabiri (Dark Templar) and accompanied by High Arbiters. Dabiri says he is the leader of his people, the "tribes unseen". His forces are capable of nearly perfect stealth, as his High Arbiters can cloak any Protoss unit that doesn't naturally cloak itself.
 * Zyrkhan's Legion, led by Lord Zyrkhan (Zealot) and accompanied by Pathfinder Scouts. He says to "submit to my will."
 * Lord Blackman's Reavers, led by Judicator Blackman (powerful Judicator, represented by Tassadar's High Templar unit) and accompanied by War Reavers. Lord Blackman has been from one end of the galaxy to another, and claims that "no one knows more about revolutions than I do."
 * Swarm of the Torrasque, led by the Wise Old Torrasque and accompanied by "Empress" Queens. The Torrasque simply roars, and appears to be unable to speak.
 * Gilson's Oppressors, led by Gilson the Evil (Guardian) and accompanied by Mastermind Overlords. Gilson is capable of speech (he says that all will bend to the will of his forces), and his Overlords produce extra Control.

Many of the mercenaries are named after Blizzard Entertainment personnel (such as Alan Dabiri, Shane Dabiri and Frank Gilson).

Trivia
The concept seems to have been borrowed from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSR%2C_Inc. TSR's] Alternity game system setting, Star*Drive, another space opera setting. In the Lucullus system on the Verge of settled space, the Union Penates, a notorious criminal group, is headquartered in the habitat dome of Trinidad on the inhospitable planet of Penates (the citizenry must live in domed cities). TSR, the same company that created Alternity, created a crossover product entitled StarCraft: Alternity.

Many of the mercenaries are named after Blizzard Entertainment personnel (such as Alan Dabiri, Shane Dabiri and Frank Gilson).