Shatter the Sky: Jim Raynor Destroys Space Platforms Orbiting Char (Starcraft 2)

A push on the main hive was impossible without a preparatory assault elsewhere. On General Horace Warfield's advice, Commander Jim Raynor opted to ensure air superiority in the short time available. Eighty percent of the enemy air support was based on a cluster of tethered space platforms in geostationary orbit. The hives were too deep to be destroyed by nuclear strikes. However, the platforms still had power; destroying the coolant tower located on each platform would cause catastrophic meltdowns and destroy both the platforms and nests...
The 25th mission of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty. One of the alternatives: "Shatter the Sky". Mission Objective: Attack orbital platform with zerg flyers. Watch more Starcraft videos: bit.ly/1b1W2yY.

[@normanrolandocaballerochav8092]

You know, ive been thinking. -scares me more than the zerg

[@TheWolfwiththeDragon]

"Calm down Tychus, this isn't science-fiction"

[@Nehfarius]

For them, it's more like science-fact. :p

[@girlgarde]

Ironic Raynor says that given that they're living in a science fiction universe created by people from the final phase of Human history before everything went to hell for Humanity.

[@puppet4978]

"If there's a platform, why not just nuke it?" Yeah, it only costs 100 minerals and gas and builds like 1-2 minutes. Mass nukes can take it down

[@astralFox]

I'm going to have to train specters and many nuke silos!

[@kevinboudreaux7860]

the fleet doesn't have a bunch of nuclear silos. those need to be built on the ground. maybe a bunch of Yamatto canons could take down the platform, but their fleet got annihilated.

[@PenumbraPremier]

Would legit follow Jim Raynor into hell, man's a natural leader

[@FisheFillet]

RIP one of Starcraft's youngest members :(

[@AlexZebol]

Jason Chon huh? Who?

[@kuyakyel324]

AlexZebol mitchel Koiter dies of a stomach disease in 2010. So the Starcraft staff decided to make a tribute of him.

[@mavoc3094]

@@kuyakyel324 He died from heart failure in 2004 starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/M._Koiter

[@dennisrodriguez3689]

I knew M. Koiter was a tribute. Damn epic.

[@stangundam01]

if warfield was half the strategist he clams to be the 1st char mission would've been to either take or wreck the space platform before trying to land on char

[@ConnorLonergan]

That likely was planned but got scrapped because the zerg did not fit in his nice clean time table

[@luisvilca4467]

They were insta attacked giving them no time to follow up with the plans forcing them to deal with the waves at Char first, they needed a landing point to divert the zerg so they could finally deal with one of those nests

[@thecommentguy9380]

@@luisvilca4467 which was smart of valerian to enlist raynor since he knows how the zerg works.

[@kevinboudreaux7860]

to be fair, that might have been in his initial plans, but his fleet got bombarded by heavy Zerg attack waves before he was ready to fight and he ended up crash landing

[@kevinboudreaux7860]

@@thecommentguy9380 no he doesnt, Valerian brought in Raynor for "unforseen contingencies" meaning that he new Jim was good at improvising with limited troops and resources with is a perfect tactician going up against the swarm on their home terf, but he didnt know what to actually expect

[@thecommentguy9380]

Strategically, this was the best way to go. You can just leave 2-3 siege tanks inside the base and the worms cant stick their heads out. As for the ones outside, just send the banshees. For the other one, not only you have to deal with broodlords, you have to deal with the leviathan later in the mission, constantly shitting out mutas.

[@Darknessblade4me]

Or you let the siege tanks full on defense and fill every Free Spot Inside with Inferno turrets. If a nidus somehow manages to get its head out it'll be Turned into charcoal

[@thecommentguy9380]

@@Darknessblade4me 2 shots and they're ded. Just fill them on Kerrigan's path.

[@Darknessblade4me]

@@thecommentguy9380 i usually Plaster every Free space between my buildings with Inferno turrets. The nidus Worms simply do not have any space to spawn. And if they somehow find a Spot they get roasted and the Place sealed with another turret. I know i know waste of resources But it worked for me.

[@thecommentguy9380]

@@Darknessblade4me wouldnt work on brutal i can assure you

[@Darknessblade4me]

@@thecommentguy9380 it worked. though it was close. WAAAY to close. The artifact was at like 2 shots away from exploding. The panic was real man. XD

[@FaeridaeCrawford]

Tychus is right tho...their landing was botched because most pods didn't had support and died almost instantly. Had they used the fleet to nuke the platform's cooling towers first, they would have time to sabotage the tunners too.

[@gogos1003]

you know since raynor and his team of handful bandits are all it takes to get the nydus worm, why not send raynor and his raiders to the tunnel and make one battle group to hit the platform

[@MrAsaqe]

The air assets are too heavy for Raynor and his squad's weapons to punch out. They are up against Brood Lords which can wipe out most of ground forces.

[@marciaquispe4472]

Maybe because Raynor is the one leading the battle group on the platform. If he's busy in the tunnels then he can't the lead the plaform assault.

[@Maugli42]

Or better yet, why not just nuke the cooling towers?

[@Broockle]

Aw, Donny's been hitting the PeanutButter I hope he'll get well.

[@sovietheavy5500]

Most badass was moment when the sun Light breaks through the veil of clouds.

[@user-vy9mk7um1b]

Man, I watched it at night, but it seemed like I suddenly opened Discord with light theme.

[@Daniel_Siaw]

they can just nuke the coolant towers then o_o

[@tristan1392]

zerg might intercept the missile

[@Limrasson]

Well, you kinda can nuke them.

[@justnoob8141]

Tristan Bramble if nuke hit. It explode. if nuke get interrupt. It explode.

[@gognamm2400]

1:16

[@Immerayon]

@@justnoob8141 that's not how modern nukes work.

[@JBrander]

I hate how they made all the marines look generic faceless carbon copies of each other. If look at the marines back in Starcraft 1, they all have visors up showing their individual faces and their armors all had unique paint jobs from one another. Also they all spoke with each of them having different personalities. Here they all sound the same.

[@Voron2115]

Well they all being just a copy of themself from past. They use brainwashed mans and womens on the field so they cant refuce the orders and have no doubts.

[@MaisieDaisyUpsadaisy]

Black Raven That is not accurate in the least.

[@PlagueRunner]

It's kinda like they're a military

[@JBrander]

@@PlagueRunner I mean, I would understand if it was just the marines under General Warfield, being that they're the military of the Dominion. But also the marines under Raynor? Literally Raynor's RAIDERS? Nah, "in a military" is no excuse. Devs just got lazy in designing the marines.

[@PlagueRunner]

@@JBrander Yes why would a military force under Raynor be all painted the same colour

[@deathmire11]

"Easy Tychus, this ain't science fiction" lol wut.

[@PraetorPaktu]

that's the joke lads

[@enthouendhut]

'9:28' - _chilling_ I am so chilled at my spine the moment I heard that speech...

[@inconspicuousentity7283]

"this ain't science fiction" still got me🤣

[@ChocolatePancakeMan]

Welp, looks like I gotta play the Champaign again

[@harrisonchong7237]

Blow up the platform and get air support. My favorite.

[@levelunknown3768]

Thats the general im been waiting for raynors the man

[@onatyungul872]

Those gddmn Broodlords make final game so hard. Coz u cant reach them with static defence, u have to have some sort of units that counters that. When this option come in front of me it was an easy choice.

[@zixiais]

Onat Yungul precisely

[@xignum]

i'd rather fight some stray broodlords than having worms popping all over the place with all those mass zerglings but to each their own

[@onatyungul872]

Patrick Yeh U can nuke worms with tanks and bunkers/psi emitter but u cant destroy broodlords with static defence b'coz range, also having dealt with levaithan makes everyhing easier.

[@xignum]

well just personal preference i guess,i'd rather deal with brood lords rather than worms

[@rafaelsantos1497]

Vikings are relatively easy to get and they anihalate broodies. Just say in.

[@MrNintoku]

So how come the surface nukes cant take out the cooling towers? Or long range bombardment in a localized area?

[@Grom76300]

SO much need for dramatic scene effect it starts to rain on the lava flooded planet. lol

[@arnowisp6244]

Its acid rain anyways like Venus.

[@Immerayon]

Ya know earth was once like that... Right? It only cooled down because evaporated water started to fall back down due to the temperature being lower in the upper atmosphere.

[@phantomwraith1984]

@@Immerayon actually it's mostly theorised that earth got it's water from comets that hit it during its formation period. Volcanos don't eject steam

[@durshurrikun150]

@@phantomwraith1984 Wrong. One of the gases emitted by volcanos is gaseous water. Earth only lost the envelop of helium and hydrogen, but it retained its heavy gases.

[@lhcwresslar5033]

if I was in command i would make so that the station comes down on the tunnle' s

[@devinsalazar9739]

The tunnies are deep underground and cuz of that the station would only scratch the surface not dealing anything to the tunnies.

[@surfyplayer8231]

Worth a try, that thing looks pretty cool

[@leonardof.b9534]

Raynor talk: the rain stop

[@Ecroose]

I always take out the nidus worms. All it takes is a small mass of vikings to wipe out the flyers, and since they can be built with a reactor its relatively easy to mass them. Then im free to just turtle my base with the bunker/siege tank/ turret/psy disruptor combo. Works against almost everything but kerrigan

[@kadindarklord]

Me: Why not nuke the very same things we're just going to have to take out?

[@carlorielmendez6505]

It does break the space-time continuum.

[@mikayari185]

>raining in a magma planet that barely has water

[@aaronjacobamadorsalazar1934]

It's acid

[@Immerayon]

Steam isn't that uncommon on worlds that are very hot, it can cool it the upper atmosphere and fall back down as rain.

[@novaterra501st5]

All the Zerg did was attack their own

[@jamesmacaraegmorales2965]

Poor donnie, knowing that mengsk let his brother died in tarsonis.

[@Lackmind]

7:33 even... for you

[@Saffrone221]

Im puzzled by how the terrans and protos approach the zerg tactically, being the zerg send billions of horde. How do military tactics come to play to the inevitable

[@owenkilcup6504]

The protoss had psionic powers so they could use those to destroy the Zerg enmass plus they had the golden Armada so they could bombard planets

[@whm_w8833]

11:06 Tyichus was right!!

[@nightomchan3054]

I never understood why they can’t deal with the nydus and the orbital platform at the same time. The Nydus recquires only 4 people. Horner could just take command of the army for the orbital mission, or ask a Dominion fleet to do that. Are they really that helpless without Raynor? I really would like to do the last mission without worrying about nydus and air zerg.

[@tigran010]

Well , that would be too easy

[@peerawat9x]

That would be difficult because Warfield's missing. If Raynor goes underground and Horner goes orbital, Raynor will not have headsup display and update from adjutant or Horner, and Horner who is more of a ship captain and not a commander won't be as effective on the battle above. Raynor's team also involves Swann, who's the Hyperion's Lead Engineer and Stetmann's the Lead Scientist. I assume that both of these two are critical for the purpose of utilizing most of the blueprints and research upgrades that you don't normally have access to in vanilla ice Terran. Without Swann, the required schematics and engineering for advanced upgrades cannot be applied. Without Stetmann, there's no one to supervise the proper procedures for using all the dangerous shits he came up with (Have you seen the things he did with the lab?) Also based on dialogues, it is likely that Tychus is the co-commander of Raynor (Since missions tend to reference Tychus being part of most missions a lot, even if he is not physically present). I assume that for the strategic part of each mission to work, everyone has to play their part. Asking the Dominion to do their own shit without an actual leader is going to be suicide, they can barely hold their own ground with one. Remember, they have to do this while also still securing the surface area and landing zone. They seriously don't have the manpower and resources to conduct three separate missions at once without Zerg overwhelming one of them.

[@doubt3430]

A pound of peanut butter

[@mauriciolizarbe4835]

final canon

[@danielhaire6677]

In case, there is someone who hasn't played the campaign, while this is the easier mission, It is the wrong choice of the two. If you choose this one, you will lose time and resources in the final mission as Zerg tunnel up in your rear zone. Do the tunnel mission and then build some forward defenses with AA capability and you are good.

[@thecommentguy9380]

3 siege tanks in your base and not a single nidus can stick its head out. So you best do air to disable the brood lords that will constantly harass your defense, and allowing you to spend less on air defense and focus on blocking the main gates. I used that strat on brutal and i only needed to use the keystone once just to fuck with kerrigan.

[@peerawat9x]

Yeah trying to do Versus AIr on Brutal is extremely hard. Not only do you have to deal with endless broodlords, you also have to fight the Leviathan, who will be followed by Kerrigan right after. Nydus is dirt easy to deal with even on Brutal. Planetary fortress, tanks, and either Psi Disruptors/Hive Emulators will deal with them while you either BC/Banshee/Energy Nova the worms.

[@Jtechnical0821]

@6:58

[@Jtechnical0821]

12:11

[@kennovafastforward8460]

I like to make a mix army, like the army will have all different kinds of units, like some random vultures or hellions for fun

[@oblivianthefirst2068]

Rain on Char?

[@BIGESTblade]

Yeah! That's what makes it look so cool. But... it's probably acid.

[@jarekwojtowicz1006]

TheRanger -S.B LAVA RAIN! MUAHAHAHAHAHA

[@Nor1998_]

Oh you choose the flyers? I choose the Nydus worms.

[@abdousteelheart3876]

It's better to have the air superiority believe me the last mission is a nightmare when u jave mutalisks everywhere

[@c6rn6g2k1d]

Some people most likely like the greater challenge... or are complete masochists

[@Nor1998_]

@@abdousteelheart3876 the mutalisks are easy to deal with.Its those damn Brood Lords.Hard to kill and can devastate your land forces.

[@OverseerXIII]

Canonically you have to choose the worms. Its referenced in HotS that the tunnels leading to the terran forward base has been collapsed.

[@c6rn6g2k1d]

@@OverseerXIII That's some nice attention to detail, ma'am! :D

[@LordTalax]

Giant armor with tiny heads looks so stupid. High tech shouldn't need such bulky crap.

[@fegoracedia6080]

Thats actually a trick to make the armor look larger. I've read it in a drawing guide that when looking at a human shaped mech/armor you would instinctively look at the head for any familiarization and the smaller sized head gives you the impression that its very tall and big.

[@tigran010]

@@fegoracedia6080 yeah , but its still a damn 45 hp! Not even 50 cos "OH NO ITS TOO ROUGH TO GAME BALANCE"

[@AdamantLightLP]

The whole original theme of the terrans was that they had high tech stuff that was kinda old and bulky. The terrans were literally the space confederacy. In cannon their tech was pretty bad.

[@HaloDude557]

@@tigran010 I believe the explanation was the armor isn't really armor, just a powered shell that allows them to hold their enormous assault rifle or punch zerg

[@Gabe-Utseck]

7:41 there's no water on the planet... How does it still rain???

[@diazalexanderjamess.4312]

Its acid same thing happens in venus

[@Immerayon]

Steam in the upper atmosphere, that's how.