Maybe the solo insane edition is too different to be comparable to the coop mission, my bad then. I will try to re-play it and download the coop mission too.
edit: I played the solo insane edition (50k) and died at around 7-9 minutes, I went into the editor and added 1 CC and 4 SCVs next to my main CC and needed 3 tries to come into the stable zone and win it from there. But that made it way to easy compared to the past where I had some really clutch moments to become stable back then. I know I had to add 1-4 SCVs on some maps to gain enough momentum to kill of the waves and become stable when I played 2 years ago, so I probably had added them there too.
So Leonix is right, I bragged about beating it but I never really beat it. So I´m sorry :<!
i dont know what the coop is but there are speedruns on YT and AGDQ that show strategies to beat these fast.
TL;DW rush gas, 2 ports, 8 medics, and 2 drops. Send ebay up to tank spore fire. Load 2 dropships 8 scv and 8 medics. Drop on the overmind base, run scv in to draw fire, send medics to the beacons. Win . Takes 6.5 minutes
On January 30 2021 08:00 MarlieChurphy wrote: i dont know what the coop is but there are speedruns on YT and AGDQ that show strategies to beat these fast.
TL;DW rush gas, 2 ports, 8 medics, and 2 drops. Send ebay up to tank spore fire. Load 2 dropships 8 scv and 8 medics. Drop on the overmind base, run scv in to draw fire, send medics to the beacons. Win . Takes 6.5 minutes
Bro it's not even remotely the same. Try the map linked in OP.
I played the unmodified insane mission again today (alone) and died at 14-15 mins, I barely wasn´t able to produce enough anti-guardian units after the fourth guardian air-wave. But I had to reload several saves to handle my waves and sometimes I even needed to manipulate their attack paths. I still think the key is a good balance between defense/economy and insane RNG if you don´t wanna use saves.
I will roughly explain what I did:
- SCV build/ Factory build/ Gas build/ research infantry attack in ebay/ start marine production/ build bunkers (place it in a location that covers most of your entrance area) - Move your marines form your expo back and kill your two turrets (I don´t know I you have to but they could trigger a back attack) - Keep producing bunkers/SCVs/Marines, place 2-3 SCVs in your gas so your able to build your tanks and research the siege mode at the same time. You need to build a block of around 6 bunkers in total, but that takes some time. - Try to block most of the Zerglings from attacking your bunkers with your 2 medics, SCVs and buildings. If some back attack happens lure the Zerglings into your bunkers if they ignore you reload and try to aggro them if nothing works restart. Try to build a second barracks in front of your bunkers when you can afford it. - I think you have 1-3 tanks when the Hydras start to attack, a bunch of bunkers and your buildings blocking the Hydras and tanking some extra damage. Try not to lose any bunkers there, if you can afford it prepare some SCVs to mass repair it and spam the bunkers. Keep building Tanks/SCVs etc. If you lose a Tank reload it/ if you lose a bunker try to play it out/ if you lose your marines or 2 bunkers => reload. - After the Hydra waves shortly the mutas will come. Use the time between the waves to build turrets around the bunkers and if you see some mutas flying to your back add a thin line of turrets to lure them into your bunkers. Again keep your bunkers alive the turrets can die. Usually when you have your 6 bunkers + turrets you only need 5 SCVs to mass repair the bunker which the Mutas are attacking to kill these waves.
- Now comes the tricky part you need to produce units to counter the next wave which has Guardians in it. Overall the AI isn´t that smart and with enough spam of barracks, turrets, gols and marines like my picture above, it will lure them in and kill them. But I lacked the the economy to spam them enough and I had to reload some saves till I was able to push trough it. I also stopped my tank production to produce enough gols. I tried to add another CC to be able to gain enough resources to become stable and prepared for the next wave. - A horde of Ultras + Hydras will appear, maybe some dark swarm, plague etc. You NEED to spam these shitty barracks, turrets + Marines to create a puffer. They also bug the Ultras (don´t let any paths open for the Ultras to reach your inner base), Hydras get aggro from the marines and the turrets handle the Mutas + kill some Guardians. Also Defilers are using their spells on your spam buildings. Keep your bunkers alive and don´t let anything touch your Tanks. The biggest problem are the air-waves with their Guardians if you reach a point where you can handle all that you basically won. You need to setup a good enough economy till then, to be able to kill them with Air units or mass gols. I lacked that and all my Gols died at 14 mins to the next air-wave. If a back attack happens try to have at least 1 Tank in range for most of your buildings to trigger the enemy units. If a air-wave comes and you don´t have enough to handle the Guardians => reload and try different things to change their pathing if nothing works restart. - After the 12 min mark the AI kinda repeats the Ultra + Hydra + Zergling wave, the air-wave and the spellcaster spam. Keep your puffer alive to make them unable to reach/kill your core units. You should be able to add more and more of your core units, start to research your attack upgrades etc. and hold the waves with enough building spam.
I think my main problem was that I added my CC too late, but it´s really hard to be able to get up enough defense to handle the waves. I also have no real plan how to expand or survive the long run with these 2k patches, so I think a suicide squad with dropships and medics are the only real solution.
I have played through the coop campaign twice with a friend. BW Terran 8 (To Chain the Beast) is the ONLY mission we cannot complete.
We're not the best StarCraft players, but we can make it to about 18-20 mins. Here's our strategy: Person starting on right focuses on Tanks for when the Torrasque comes. Person on left (usually me) builds up to nukes. A few well-places nukes gets access to the high ground just south of the Red Zerg and the Cerebrate can be nuked... just have to be careful of roaming Overlords. Because the ghosts can cloak, the invulnerable Sunken Colonies can just be walked past. A small group of wraiths are essential for killing off those Guardians. It should go without saying that upgrades are essential... but we try not to double up with upgrades: if my friend goes for tanks, he'll get vehicle upgrades; I get air unit upgrades. That way we save some precious resources. Mining the expansion to the right is difficult because defending it against the Torrasque is incredibly tough.
I tried to expand to the top left corner after taking out Red, but it always gets overrun. Battlecruisers seem to always get taken out by plague and scourge, so I don't like them on this map.
We almost managed to get the Brown Zerg, again by landing on the high ground and using nukes. Never managed to finally land the last nuke to take out the Cerebrate. That's as far as we ever got. All other missions were possible for us, although some were quite tough.
Here's a link to someone completing the coop version of To Chain the Beast:
They didn't do it first time, but got there eventually. My friend and I can't get this tactic to work though.