- Matriarch Raszagal(src)
The Insurgent is the seventh and penultimate protoss mission of Episode IV of StarCraft: Brood War.
History[]
Background[]
After retrieving the Uraj and Khalis, Dark Prelate Zeratul, Praetor Artanis, the Executor and Sarah Kerrigan returned to Shakuras to find the protoss in a state of civil war. Matriarch Raszagal informed them that Judicator Aldaris had taken command of a number of Khalai Refugees and was leading an insurgence, and claimed the reasons he was doing so were because he thought abandoning Aiur and siding with the dark templar was wrong. Raszagal ordered the Executor to quell the uprising and kill Aldaris, refusing to tolerate dissension as the protoss prepared to move against the zerg. Zeratul was disturbed by Raszagal's violent response to Aldaris' actions, considering her a gentle soul.[1]
The protoss reached the battlefield where Aldaris had established his forces. Most of the high templar had sided with him, and their arbiters seized as well. Artanis feared Aldaris would resort to sending archons against them. In response to the threat of archons, the dark templar authorized the creation of their most powerful weapons - dark archons, long outlawed due to their tremendous and unstable power.
With the dark archons aiding them, the protoss pushed their attack to Aldaris' nexus point. They discovered that Aldaris had created illusory copies of him and spread them over his forces as distractions, and mocked their gullibility in falling for the deception. Eventually they cornered the real Aldaris, and Artanis and Zeratul parleyed with him, asking Aldaris to stand down. Aldaris refused, declaring that the alliance with Kerrigan would see the protoss made into her slaves. Artanis assured Aldaris Kerrigan had reformed,[2] but Aldaris said he was naive, and he had learned a dark secret about Raszagal.
Before Aldaris could reveal what he knew, Kerrigan arrived and killed him herself. Though she considered herself to have just been helping the protoss, Zeratul said she had interfered in a protoss matter that was not her concern. Disgusted, he banished her from Shakuras and ended their alliance. Kerrigan laughed that she had still won - in helping the protoss retrieve the crystals, she had ensured the destruction of the zerg on Shakuras and their commanding cerebrates nested on the planet, which served her ends to weaken Daggoth and his allies. Kerrigan and her brood departed, telling the protoss they would see each other again.[3]
Walkthrough[]
The player begins with a well-defended base with walls and narrow choke points. The player has two dark archons to start, and for the long game can have their initial complement of dark templar merge into four more. The dark archon's two abilities are already researched, and the player can use their initial allotment of resources to begin researching the Argus Talisman to increase their max energy. The dark archon's energy replenishment rate, as multiplied by the number of dark archons and each unit's total mana pool, is central to the mission.
The dark archons are very effective in this mission. Aldaris will attack with reavers, scouts, archons, and later in the mission carriers, but the player can use the dark archon's mind control to take control of these units, adding them to their forces. Aldaris may also send shuttles of units to the walls of the player's base, but a mind controlled shuttle also gives control of any units inside it. When a unit is mind controlled, any unique abilities researched for it are also acquired, so the player should also mind control at least one each of Aldaris' zealots and dragoons, to acquire their speed and range upgrades for free. For this reason, "researched" abilities should be low priority, other than those for corsairs and the dark archons themselves, which will give the player unique advantages and are thus a high priority. (Aldaris's forces also appear to not research upgraded scarab damage for their reavers, and upgrades to scouts may take longer to acquire in this manner.) Otherwise, the player should invest resources into the standard upgrades to protoss shields and weapons as they are able.
Aldaris's forces are separated from the player by a river with three bridges, two in close proximity. The player may deploy observers to watch these two points for attacks and relocate their forces as needed to defend. A bolder strategy is to create dense clusters of photon cannons at the various chokepoints, which is possible if the player expands rapidly and prioritizes mineral gathering in the early game (this pays off in long run by roping off a large amount of well-defended space). As long as the player is quick to respond with dark archons to seize Aldaris's stronger units, his attacks are easily defeated. With their base secure, the player can build up a force to attack Aldaris. If the player intends to capture many of Aldaris's forces, they should put priority on building their own dark templar (for more dark archons), corsairs, and a handful of observers (which are hard to capture). This way, as Aldaris's more advanced waves begin to attack, the player is poised to seize his most advanced units and overtop the supply limit. The northernmost Aldaris is the real one that must be killed to win the mission. Killing the other two Aldaris will do nothing but trigger dialogue with him, and is not needed for the mission. As all three of the Aldaris figures are on high ground, air units are the most straightforward method of winning. A fleet of carriers will do; the player may wish to supplement them with scouts or corsairs as resources allow. Alternate strategies include capturing many high templar to create hallucinations that will act as decoys to let a wing of scouts race through to the goal, or getting a single dark archon close enough to use its mind control on Aldaris.
There are expansion sites to the north and west, of which the player should take at least one in the early game. Both are easily defended. There is another site in the middle of the map guarded by Aldaris' forces, but it is close to his bases and will invite frequent attacks, making it difficult to hold. However, the site makes a good staging point for the final attack, and because it takes a great deal of traffic between Aldaris's eastern and western bases it is an excellent site to mass dark archons. A good strategy to take the base is the sort of tower push that only works against a computer: set up a cluster of photon cannonss at the southwestern bridge, one of which can even be constructed within range of the pylon that powers one of Aldaris's own photon cannons. The player can then lure ground forces stationed at the site into their cannons before overrunning the rest of the static defenses.
Dense photon cannons work well as base defenses in this mission. Not only will a high enough number of them repel attacks by carriers (by obliterating the interceptors as they maneuver), the player can strategically insulate them by placing the pylons that power them in front. The player may also choose to place a shield battery as a pathing blocker and to replenish their own forces, but any buildings will prevent zealots from being able to surround and attack the cannons, as well as keeping archons, the adversary's damage sponges, from coming close enough to use their short-ranged splash damage attack. The best defenses are laid with a "roost" or other access point to bring dark archons to the front where they can manage the attack and let the player pick and choose what to capture.
By conducting "pin prick" attacks to constantly goad Aldaris's forces on one of the eastern or western bases, the player can compel the adversary to send a steady stream of units, particularly shuttles laden with ground forces, high templar, carriers, and scouts, across the middle expansion. The player can then capture any or all of these forces, but this process should not start until the player has amassed all of the dark templar (dark archons), corsairs, and observers they wish to control.
Notes[]
- Aldaris is represented on the map by Tassadar's unit, renamed. However, an unfinished Aldaris unit exists in the game files.
- After Zeratul banishes Kerrigan from Shakuras, her forces become marked as an enemy as she finishes her conversation.
References[]
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