Campaign/Cutthroat

[e][h]Wings of Liberty

Cutthroat

Mission Information

Mission Objective

Main:

• Buy Merc Contract Before Orlan (6000 Minerals)
• Destroy Orlan's Mercenary Fortress

Bonus:

• Find 3 Protoss Relic Contraband (3)

Credits Earned:

120000

Research Points:

3 Protoss

New Units:

Vulture, Spider Mine

Available Heroes:

None

Cutthroat can be played after the mission The Great Train Robbery is completed. Raynor decides that it's time to decrypt the Confederate Adjutant that was found on Tarsonis, and sends it to his acquaintance. However, Orlan is planning to sell the information he found to the Dominion, and has hired Han's mercenaries to keep Raynor away. However, she's willing to side with Raynor if he can pay her 6000 minerals before Orlan can.

Notes

You gain access to the Vulture unit for this mission, which comes with 3 Spider Mines like in Starcraft 1.

Primary Objectives

• Gather 6000 minerals to hire Han's mercenaries.
• Destroy Orlan's Planetary Fortress

Guide

There are a limited number of harvestable minerals on this map, so most of your income will have to come from gathering salvage, which appear all over the map, and are marked by small white boxes on the minimap. Orlan's forces are also scattered all over the map, and they rarely attack your encampment. Don't panic if Orlan overtakes you in mineral count. Once you destroy his 3 revealed Command Centers and SCVs, his mineral gathering rate will decrease dramatically.

You start off in the 3 o'clock position of the map, and you have some SCVs, and some Marines to start off with. Start building up your economy, but don't get too many SCVs as your opportunities to actually gather minerals are limited. Orlan has three Command Centers around the map where SCVs gather resources for him, so you'll want to take those out quickly to slow down his mineral gathering rate. You don't need a large attack force to take them down, as they're only lightly guarded.

You should begin by supplementing your Marines with some Medics, then adding on more Marines, but don't go overboard as you'll want to conserve your minerals for actually hiring Mira Han. Soon after the mission starts, you'll get four Vultures as a present, and you should lay some Spider Mines around your base to stop enemy attacks. Focus on the southern approach, as you'll want to head North first. Get an Engineering Bay and start upgrading your attack. Once you have maybe 8 Marines and 4 Medics, move out to the North, taking down all opposition in your way. Your Vultures should help you to easily take down enemy Marines, and when you get to Orlan's Northern Command Center, take it down. Use your Vultures to gather all the salvage in the area, regroup at home, build some more Marines and Medics, repair your Vultures, and head South.

Attack Orlan's second Command Center, which should also go down easily. Once that goes down, head towards Orlan's third Command Center and destroy that. Once his Command Centers are all destroyed, focus on gathering up as much salvage as you can. Keep your forces together when you enter new areas, as Orlan always has forces lying around. Once you get 6000 minerals, you'll hire Mira Han's troops.

Once her troops are hired, send your SCVs to harvest minerals at her base, and start building up a larger force. You'll want to focus more heavily on Marauders this time, as Orlan has a few Tanks that will rip through Marines. Supplement your Marauders with Goliaths too, as you'll be meeting a Battlecruiser as well. Try to keep the Mercenary Tanks that Han has alive, as those will help you a lot in assaulting Orlan's base. Once you've amassed a sufficient force, attack Orlan's base. Be sure to stagger your units to avoid Siege Tank splash damage, and if you do you should be able to destroy Orlan's base fairly easily. When you are near Orlan's base, he'll send a nuke. Quickly retreat your forces back otherwise you'll loose a lot of troops from this nuke. Luckily Orlan's forces can also get hit by the nuke if they are in the target area. Even if you should fail, there are enough resources around the map to easily build up a second offensive.

An easy way to destroy Orlan's Planetary Fortress is to use Siege Tanks from ground level, near where scrap spawns, in Siege mode to hit his Planetary Fortress. The Siege Tanks will have just enough range to hit only needing sight from a scan or a lifted building like a Barracks. This works even on Brutal, but the forces on the high ground will attack the lifted building and the Battlecruiser may go after your tanks. To deal with this make sure to have the rest of your forces there to protect the Siege Tanks and an extra building to give sight if the first one is destroyed.

Another strategy is to use multiple Hercules' to drop your army into Orlan's base from the right cliff. To do this, you must place your army to protect Mira Han's base whilst building up a stronger force and the Hercules' required to transport. Once in, you then destroy the Planetary Fortress which wins the mission.

Alternate Strategy: Skip First Objective

Although collecting 6000 minerals is a primary objective, you will win if you simply destroy Orlan's Planetary Fortress before he gets to 6000.

There isn't much time, but plenty of minerals and gas. Use the free vulture bikes to gather resources and relics. Attacking from low ground with siege tanks or nukes doesn't require a large force and is therefore your best bet. All mercenaries are good here as they take no time to produce.

Sidenote on Spectres

If you have both Spectre upgrades, building a few (1-3) Spectres can help with resource collection. There are only a few Missile Turrets around the map, most of which can be taken down with a few Psionic Lashes. So, a single Spectre can collect resources from places like the center without being bothered, which might spare your units some time.

Sidequests

• Find all 3 Protoss relics.

There are 3 easy to find Protoss relics on the map, worth one Protoss research point each. You can easily find them on the map because they're marked by giant destructible salvage. They're the giant white squares on the minimap. One is to the North of your base, another is to the southwest, and yet another is around the middle of the map. Since you're going to be wandering around the map anyway, you'll definitely see them as you progress through the mission. It is much easier to find these after siding with Mira Han as you have map control

Achievements

Cutthroat

Complete all missions objectives in the "Cutthroat" mission.

15

Minesweeper

Kill 25 total units with Vulture Spider Mines in the "Cutthroat mission" on Normal difficulty.

10

Solitaire

Don't train additional SCVs before purchasing Han's contract in the "Cutthroat mission" on Hard difficulty.

10

Train 2 Medics, and once you get Vultures, keep enough Vultures and Marines to cap your supplies. Don't build anymore Supply Depots. When you lose a unit train another of that type. Put Spider Mines all over the 2 entrances to your base, and replenish them when you build a new Vulture. Take out the base to the north as soon as you are given Vultures. Then clear out the areas to the left of your base. Try to kite with your Vultures so you can one shot Marines without taking much damage. Focus fire Medics, Marauders, and Firebats. When your base gets attacked your mines should take out enough troops that you can rush the Vultures back (and Marines/Medics if they're close) to clean up the rest. Gather all the salvage around your base, and leave your SCVs on the mineral line the whole time, and you will have no trouble hiring Han. From there, its pretty easy, just make sure to focus fire tanks, and the Battlecruiser, and avoid the Nuke.

I'll Do It Myself

Destroy Orlan's Mercenary Fortress in the "Cutthroat" mission before Han's mercenaries are hired on Normal difficulty.

10

Brutal Guide

Maximized

If you avoid this mission for as long as possible, you can complete 19 missions before heading to Deadman's Port. You should have earned up to 1,665,000 credits and both Protoss and Zerg research should be completed.

The following units can be used in this mission: Marine, Medic, Firebat, Marauder, Reaper, Hellion, Vulture, Goliath, Diamondback, Siege Tank, Medivac, Viking, Banshee, Battlecruiser, Ghost or Spectre

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