EPTWould anyone like to share there thoughts on how to defeat the Swarm..
I will stream: http://www.livestream.com/alfredga
Please do share your insight.
"All In" mission
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WillyDilly
United States15 Posts
Would anyone like to share there thoughts on how to defeat the Swarm.. I will stream: http://www.livestream.com/alfredga Please do share your insight. | ||
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WillyDilly
United States15 Posts
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a11
Germany300 Posts
 Maybe there are other ways, but that's at least how I did it on hard difficulty. And I wasn't even really good at nuking her. Which units did you take out of the equation in the prior mission btw, air or nydus? edit: Ah, apparently you killed the air. Well then, I did it without nydus, but I think my point still holds true. Maybe you have to get the Tank upgrades and spread them around your base to deal with what comes out of the nydus network. Also, I personally found that I had a LOT of spare minerals (mainly massed Viking / BC / Vessel), and spammed Hellions in the end. Helped quite a lot and I think they are better than Marines without Medics. | ||
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Pufftrees
2449 Posts
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Erethism
Norway10 Posts
Then I got lots of infantry with 3/3 upgrades, a bunch of turrets and flame turrets all over my base, some bunkers and siege tanks. Just having a lot of STUFF is the best way for dealing with kerrigan. Save often when you're at an advantage and reload and adapt if you fail. In the end I had to spam all the mercenaries and have a desperate last stand by the artifact, but it worked barely. Good luck! | ||
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Cerion
213 Posts
4 bunkers + psi disruptor each side, no other buildings to wall off 2 barracks -> reactor marines+medic 2 factories -> tank (fully upgraded + mercs) starport -> banshee Remember to keep up with unit production. When one side gets broken rally the barracks and factories there while rebuilding, and have banshees kill nydus worms that pop up on that side first. I didn't use the single target spells and Kerrigan trashed half my defence every time she respawned, lol | ||
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kyophan
United States113 Posts
I tried walling off with mass barracks+mass tanks, but for some reason it didn't work out too well. My money kept getting drained from having the repair it and replace it. I then tried mass bunkers with mass marines+upgrades, and I made sure the scv's always repaired. Then for kerrigan, I use about 3-4 thors to keep her stunned and then sent banshees on her. Also used banshee's to kill nydus. I made a plantetary fortress before they used drops. Mine was on brutal, and I barely survived in the end. I kept getting like 99.4%. | ||
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WillyDilly
United States15 Posts
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Toadily
United States837 Posts
Build barracks at the 2 sides since they're way more durable than a bunker and doesn't cost gas to repair like planetary fortress and had about 10 marines/3 medics/4 scv behind each wall with about 8-10 tanks, that will hold off all the zerg indefinitely. I used 6 BCs to take out the nydus worms, I found them to be alot better than banshees as they could actually take on hydras/spores and also yamato the more dangerous ones. As for Kerrigan, I made 4 thors and chained the stun back to back on her til she died. Only used the artifact thing once to clear the air wave, although I probably didn't need to. Then I used it again near the end for no reason just because it was up and I didn't know there was an achievement for using it just once -_-. | ||
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a11
Germany300 Posts
 They might be rather useless apart from their spell, so maybe cloak them (with perma-cloak upgrade) and block chokes or something. While sniping Overseers. I think Erethism's approach might be more useful, but you never know.Err, also I second the one who said save when you are in a good position and continue from then on. I think for the ~60% Kerrigan attack I tried the same savegame five times until I defended it really good, but that turned an obviously lost attempt into the eventual win. Same for ~90% and ~95% edit: Haha, nuking Kerrigan, what a bold move to make! edit2: Did you make it? Saw you were at like 98% and stopped watching for a moment. Given that the ending sequence was not running, you got screwed? When you've come that far, it's all about throwing everything towards the artifact. | ||
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sushiman
Sweden2691 Posts
 Just built a couple of psi disruptors on each choke, coupled with 2-3 bunkers and a bunch of flame towers, didn't even wall off. Then the rest spread out mass-tanks and M&M with 4-6 banshees quickly sniping any nydus outside of range of the tanks. I'd say the best thing is having some depth in defense, don't put everything on the front line since you really don't have to. Kerrigan will usually storm whatever comes first, which in my case tended to be some tank on the cliff, which gives your tanks in the back and M&M, which should be somewhere in the middle of your defensive line, the chance to take her down before things become to scary. If your banshees aren't out hunting nydus canals, they can help taking her down as well. Have enough barracks with tech reactors (assuming you actually got those) to replenish your forces all the time and you should be fine. I only used one factory with tech reactor during the whole mission, and still had enough tanks to never lose ground. It also helps having vessels or regenerative armor so you won't have to repair damaged air units and tanks. Oh, and upgrade. Everything. | ||
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MangoTango
United States3670 Posts
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wooozy
3813 Posts
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ensign_lee
United States1178 Posts
Then, whenever my wall fell (thanks a lot Kerrigan), I would take care of whatever forces were left after Kerrigan, and then plant my orbital commands down. Voila, instant wall. For good measure, I also turned them into planetary fortresses. Probably would have been even cooler if I'd remembered to build the psi emitters...or if I was smart enough to use Thors to spam-stun Kerrigan, though. {edit: also, get tanks, and SPACE THEM OUT. Otherwise, Kerrigan can take out all of them in one AoE spell} | ||
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azndsh
United States4447 Posts
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Icemind
Germany570 Posts
Once you start using planetary fortresses it reall isnt that hard anymore. First off i chose to get rid of the air attacks and from what you are writing it looks like you did too so this should work: Put 2 Planetary Fortresses on each side, this way every PF guards one entrance but for the second one on the right side which guards the two southernmost ones but that is ok since from theses two locations there will be the weakest attacks. Furthermore put up 2 psi-disruptors on each side so they also cover all entranceways, its possible without those too but they really help a lot and have the huge advantage that the zerg units just ignore them while only beeing half as strong while within the radius. Build those ccs directly at the start because this is the one time window where you really have your peace and quiet (salvage the bunkers that already stand there, those are only blocking the way needlessly) Do not wall off the northern exits completely but leave a small gap (wide enough for 1-2 marines) so you can get out of there with ground units which will be important later on. If you have any large gaps close those with bunkers (there porbably is gonna be one right next to that PF on the right side which guards two entrances). You should also have about 4 scvs on auto repair on each side, you can produce and reproduce those with the PFs, if you dont have the double repair upgrade you might need a lot more. So much for the building setup. While putting this whole thing up float those 2 BCs you got from the start over each of the main entrances. You wont need those later on but they make for a good defense at the start while you are stil building your static defenses. Oh and of course make shure to have at least 2, better 3 scvs mining per mineral patch (justputting this in since i have no idea how new you are to sc). Now you should perma-produce tanks out of your factory (you might wanna get a second if you dont have techreactors) until you have about 3 tanks on every ledge and behind every set of fortresses. (this makes for about 8-10 tanks per side) Get merc tanks when you can and put them on any spot you like but for the ledges up front (because kerrigan will kill those and that would really be a pity). You will also need about 8-10 banshees, get the mercs into those as well since it helps to be fine with just 8 or even less. In addition produce medic-marines out of 2 barracks with all those excess minerals you will have as soon as possible. Of course upgrades are imperative and should be started as soon as those PFs stand, vehicle and infantry weapons take priority followed by ship weapons and infantry armor. So much for the unit setup now on with the tactics. Normally have those marines just stand by in the middle of your base arround the merc compound, that will make shure no nydus-worms survive for very long arround there and you dont really need them for anything else most of the time. Use the banshees to snipe the nydusses whenever they appear, use the cloak if there is anti air arround, this will make shure that you dont get overrun by orange forces (nydus reinforcements). If there are are no Nydusses just keep them safe with your marines, you dont wanna risk them getting shot down defending when your static and tank defense can keep up with any normal attack anyway. Now all you have to worry about are those special waves. First off to get it off my mind: At about 40% there will be a huge overlord attack, dont waste resources on air defense just keep the artifact ready and activate it then, this will easily shut this down completely. The artifact takes about the same time to recharge as 10% of the charge indicator does. The real threat of course are the kerrigan attacks with the first one happening arround the 30% mark and this is what you keep that marines force for. Since kerrigan can spell-one-shot any unit, expensive units are horribly ineffective against her, so even if you can fend her off with BCs for a wave its just a wastation of money and you probably wont be able to rebuild enough of those in time before she comes back. With marines of course its a whole lot different, you can replace those easily and if she one shots them ... so what. Oh and in addtion get all the infantry mercs that are available since they are just to nice to pass up upon, even if its just for the extra hp-buffer. So if kerrigan appears you gotta draw out you marines force in front of you base on the lane that she is coming (you left that sortie-gap that i told you about didnt you?). If you dont do this she will one-shot your tank defense and you dont wanna waste that money if you dont have to. Up to the 50% mark your marines will be able to deal with kerrigan quite easily, you will of course take significant losses every time, but since those are only marines you can replace them in no time for very low costs. After the 50% mark kerrigan gets her "kinda-psy-storm" which just deals ridiculous amounts of aoe damage, fortunately she only has energy for about 2 iterations of this. So what you do is, you keep your main force in the back and sent out troops of about 5-8 units to provoke her storms, once her energy is depleted you send out the rest and take her on just as easily as before. Should it ever happen to you that the majority of your marine force got caught and died in one of those storms (obviously this should be avoided when possible) bring in your banshee force to get rid of her. They are quite effective at dealing with her but of course a lot more expensive to replace so this should really be a last resort and only be used in emergencies. Also you can use your banshees (preferably cloaked) if a side ever looks like it might get breached to help out. Try to make shure that your artifact is charged arround the 98% mark since there will be a heavy attack and you dont want to loose just at 99.9% (like i did -.-) This got me through hard difficulty pretty easily, havent tried brutal yet though, i might have to add thors for stun in that case we will see. edit: wow this got quite long ... | ||
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Shambler
United States40 Posts
I just walled off with flame turrets and put tons of siege and some bunkers behind them. Leave like 4 scvs up in front at all times for healing. Build 2 starports and pump shees and get the merc shees to take out the worms and to focus down kerrigan when she attacks. Also only use the nova for kerrigan, it takes maybe 10-20% off her and its worth it cause her aoe attack just beasts. Make sure to take out the worms fast with the shees. Use their cloak when flying to take out the worms. Get your merc bc and use it plus the other bcs to reinforce if one of your sides starts going down. Also use them when kerrigan comes. Make sure to engage her in siege range. Also put missle turrets all over the place to deal with the ol drops. Just make sure to keep your flame turrets up and have like 5+ sieges covering each side. Also scatter a few sieges through your base for the inbase worm attacks. And for the love of god GET ATTACK UPGRADES to marines and ships and tanks. | ||
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Lexvink
Canada310 Posts
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WillyDilly
United States15 Posts
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Blackhawk13
United States442 Posts
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