The official StarCraft 2 website has been updated with a new page, containing little information and some nice art of one of the Terran’s newest machines, the AH/G-24 BANSHEE.

Builds From: Starport
Armament: Backlash Cluster Rockets
Role: Tactical Strike Aircraft

The Terran’s Banshee is a completely new unit - neither an upgrade nor an update to any unit in the Terran arsenal. The unit’s role on the battlefield appears to be somewhat similar to the Zerg Guardian’s role of a heavy air-to-ground striker, able to eliminate lightly defended expansions and provide powerful anti-ground support for capital ships and infantry forces.

As a planetary craft, the banshee wouldn’t need high-powered engines to achieve escape velocity and fight in orbit, so instead technicians fitted it with economical twin turbofans. Any air-to-air weaponry was deemed unnecessary: the banshee would only hunt ground targets. Thus, it was equipped with powerful air-to-ground cluster rockets.

While hit and run attacks are mentioned multiple times on the Banshee’s web page, experience shows that aerial hit and run tactics are often impractical and costly, due to cheap stationary anti-air defences and, most importantly, other airborne units that the Banshee simply has no weapons against. The Banshee’s true role on the battlefields is yet to be decided, but there will always be a room for a heavy air-to-ground bomber.

The Banshee’s design was obviously inspired by the famous ORCA series of machines, used by the GDI faction in the Command and Conquer RTS series. StarCraft 2 is full of Command and Conquer influences, and the Banshee’s design and function are no exception; Dustin Browder’s touch is more evident than ever.

12 Comments to “StarCraft 2 - Banshee Unit Official Page Added”

1. Milosz006 — August 24, 2007 @ 8:10 pm
   

   I think the Banshees will be very good, probably only about half of ground units can hit air to fight back, and when you add the cloak ability I can see Banshees being very effective. I was hoping they would have Guardian-like range, but cloaking is pretty nice.

2. Ken — August 24, 2007 @ 9:55 pm
   

   I wonder which Protoss anti-air unit from the ground is effective against the Banshee. The stalker isn’t that effective because I would picture the banshee having really powerful attack and AOE which will kill the stalkers first. Immortals cannot hit air units. Collosus cannot hit air units as well. The twilight Archon? Too expensive and too much of an end-game unit.

   Correct me if I’m wrong but if this is the case, a group of banshees can decimate a Protoss ground army. hmmmm….

3. ben — August 24, 2007 @ 10:21 pm
   

   i reckon these will be great. some guys i know use a fleet of wraiths (cloaked). these banshee’s will be so much better, and more powerful. i don’t reckon they’ll keep the cloaking, it would be too powerful. have u guys noticed how much they using mythical creatures for names of the terran ships?

4. Ken — August 24, 2007 @ 11:35 pm
   

   Actually, WRAITH and BANSHEE, acdg. to mythology are synonymous. Means a spiritual entity or specter. So is with GHOST. That’s because they CLOAK. If they remove the cloaking ability of the BANSHEE, It wouldn’t be much of a “banshee” (in myth) anymore.

   Notice that VIKING and VALKYRIE also come from the same area, from Norse Mythology.

   The COBRA, the unit that replaced the VULTURE, are also synonymous because they got animal “predator” names.. hey, there goes another new terran unit, the PREDATOR. which is the carnivorous counterpart of the REAPER. hehe.. this is fun!

5. Bunny — August 25, 2007 @ 2:20 am
   

   Woah
   Ken’s got some insightful stuff about the naming

   But either way…
   Wraith was most of a very fast anti-air and light ground jet. This is bombing helicopter…

6. deezie — August 25, 2007 @ 8:25 am
   

   Phoenix definitely seems like the anti-Banshee unit. I imagine the Phoenix’s OVERLOAD ability will damage even cloaked Banshees.

7. WhiteKnight — August 25, 2007 @ 9:42 am
   

   Why fan ?

   is there any air in space for Fan like machine to hover?

8. Isaac — August 25, 2007 @ 2:58 pm
   

   WhiteKnight, they’re always over a planet within a planet’s atmosphere, so there is air. I do think the fan looks a little strange, though.

9. ben — August 27, 2007 @ 12:34 am
   

   i was talking more about the fact that it can cloak and then hit the outskirts of the base and then go away again, not the fact that they can’t escape very fast. It would be more for mid-game then end game, i would have thought, sort of like goliath was in the first one, good for taking down wraiths etc, but not too good for bigger ships like carriers.

10. Starcraft 2 — August 28, 2007 @ 1:08 am
    

    Starcraft 2 is reminding me of Command & Conquer more so every day. First with the minerals, i thought that was just a coincidence then with the mothership, banshee…

11. Guilherme — September 7, 2007 @ 8:23 pm
    

    Hey guys

    the banshee is really a bad guy, but someone that have an account to the official forum could give a sugestion:

    tell the guys to change the banshee helices
    in CONCEPT ART it is much more agressive than this with two helices
    what do u think?

    i just don´t do it myself ´cause i lost my cd-key
    well it´s just a sugestion

    thank you guys

12. StarcraftII — April 1, 2008 @ 8:40 pm
    

    Banshees are cool, but their loss of Area of Effect Rockets are really disappointing. They’re just metal guardians now… just without the range that made the Guardians themselves feared.