Tauren marine

"For the Hor... Wait, I mean, go, go, go!"

- Tauran marine

The tauren marine was an April Fool's joke pulled off by Blizzard Entertainment. It was portrayed as a terran unit in StarCraft II.

Overview
In the old Terran Confederacy, marines were mostly criminals or rebels who had undergone mandatory neural resocialization. Freed from any previous allegiances or ideologies, these fearless soldiers stood ready to defend Confederate interests with their lives but exhibited an annoying tendency toward petty larceny, vandalism, and occasional cannibalism. Confederate authorities were unable to requisition enough reliable troopers in this way, and eventually recruiters turned to a new source of fresh meat for the grinder.

The obscure planet of Azeroth was found to harbor a dizzying selection of humans, mutants, and aliens in a state of perpetual superstition and conflict. The most physically imposing of these warrior races were the so-called "tauren", an anthropomorphic bovine genotype with super-human stamina, overpowered racial combat abilities, and bizarrely well-developed horticultural skills.

While most tauren were satisfied with their agrarian culture and primitive existence, the Confederacy was able to lure away large numbers of young bulls for a life of adventure and violence along the galactic rim. Other tauren referred to these adventurers as 'mad cows,' and they were ostracized from the rest of their kin. The newly created tauren marines didn't care--they got neat-looking armor and big guns to own everyone else with. These beefy new soldiers became an integral part of the Confederate military, and have managed to horn in on the roles traditionally filled by firebats and other infantry units.

They are often seen with another type of alien creatures called murloks. It is unknown whether they are mercenaries or mascots. Given that the murlok is seen with a blaster, it is possible that the murloks are indeed mercenaries.

Game Unit
Tauren marines are trained from the mulgore, taking on the role of shock troops. In a video of them on the official StarCraft II website, they seem to have splash damage, and a group of five of them is seen completely devastating a small terran base.

They are available in the map editor, however, without a unit portrait (unless the player has the Collector's Edition).

Abilities
Tauren marines have the same stimpack ability as terran marines.

Appearances
A tauren marine appears in the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty mission, Zero Hour, as an Easter egg. It disappears into an outhouse. Selecting the outhouse several times will cause it to liftoff. Another appears in the secret mission, "Piercing the Shroud", in the bottom left corner of the room with the brutalisk.

The tauren marine appears in a television commercial in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty story mode.

It is available as a player portrait for those that bought the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Collector's Edition.

Video
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