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Emperor’s Fall (Ground Zero)

Objectives:

Destroy Mengsk’s Command Center

The Emperor’s Fall (Ground Zero) mission begins if you destroyed the Physics Labs in the last mission, Assault on Korhal. Unfortunately the enemy will have Ghosts and Nukes at their disposal.

Surviving the Nukes

At the beginning of the mission you’ll have small base with a Barracks, Factory and Supply Depots. There’s a few small outposts that will be quickly destroyed by Nukes. To save your Factory and Barracks lift them off the ground and fly them to behind the mineral patch. Move your SCVs as far away as possible. When your reinforcements arrive the main base will get hit by four or five nukes, completely destroying everything except the Command Center. Quickly repair the Command Center with the SCVs that get dropped off afterwards and re-position your Factory and Barracks. At least you’re left with something.

Building Defences

There are a few waves of attack to worry about in this mission. The Blue base likes to send groups of Siege Tanks against you. Try to have flying units to counter them, Wraiths or Battlecruisers would be good. The Red base have Ghosts and 4 Nuclear Silos. They’ll target your Missile Turrets first and then any clusters of units that they can find. Scan the entrances to your base regularly or have Science Vessels on patrol.
One other option to deal with the Ghosts is to use Vultures with the Mine ability and place 3 Mines, spaced out, at every entrance. Hopefully the Ghosts will get caught out before they have a chance to launch a nuke.

There’s plenty of room to expand on this map, although you may need to destroy some of the blue defences along the way. The first expansions should probably be to the two mineral patches directly to the north.

Destroying Mengsk’s Base

Probably the easiest path to take is to build a group of Battlecruisers upgraded with the Yamato Cannon. The Yamato Cannon has a longer range then Missile Turrets so you can pick them off from a distance. Both red and blue bases have access to Ghosts and they will try to lockdown your Battlecruisers. You’ll need a Science Vessel, or the Scan ability, to pick off the enemy Ghosts.

Make your way towards the north-east corner of the map and once Mengsk’s Command Center has been destroyed the mission will end.

Back: Assault on Korhal                    Next: Emperor’s Fall (Birds of War)