Builds From: Starport
Armament: Laser Batteries, Yamato Cannon, Plasma Torpedoes
Role: Capital Ship

These massive, heavily armored combat ships are virtual flying fortresses, built to keep the peace and dominate the space lanes of the Koprulu sector. Outfitted with bristling laser batteries and thick neosteel armor, these imposing vessels are among the most powerful to be found in terran space. Many commanders use battlecruisers as their command vessels during extended campaigns. There are several examples of vessels specifically refitted for this purpose, such as General Duke’s Norad II and Norad III, as well as the battlecruiser Hyperion commanded by Jim Raynor.

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The Battlecruiser is the Terran’s most capable, all around fighting unit. At the top of the tech tree, this was the unit Terran players struggled to get to and manufacture in large amounts. Indeed, a pack of Battlecruisers was capable of dealing with just about any threat, and it took special effort to take down a Terran player who could pump these out in a dedicated fashion.

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The Battlecruisers of StarCraft 2 appear to be designed to fulfill the same role with some further specialization. The Battlecruiser now comes in two flavors, sporting either the original, dreaded Yamato Cannon – which produces a high energy laser burst, capable of taking down many targets in a single shot, or Plasma Torpedoes, which burn ground targets to a crisp in a short deluge of fiery death. This is an area of effect ability – something which the Terran of StarCraft 2, battle hardened and experienced from previous battles, have learned to appreciate.

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With the new Plasma Torpedoes ability, the Battlecruiser, which was usually most effective in massed fleets, might now be also used as the Terran’s High Templar of sorts – a unit which the player keeps in every expansion, helping to defend it against hordes of rushing Hydralisks, reducing their health and numbers quickly and leaving only a few remains for static defenses to take care of. This will prove to be a great defensive measure – one which can be quickly turned into a powerful offensive force, when the player finally decides the time has come for a full, dedicated strike.

The Yamato cannon is a terrifying weapon that uses an intense magnetic field to focus a nuclear detonation into a cohesive beam of energy. The cannon requires a huge reserve of energy to fire, but its effects on the target are impressive, to say the least. Plasma torpedoes give battlecruisers an armament capable of saturating a target area with a lethal deluge of fire, ideal for breaking up oncoming attack waves or ravaging a defensive position. As with the Yamato cannon, a battlecruiser needs to build up a sufficient reserve of energy to unleash a plasma torpedo bombardment.

Either way, it looks like the Battlecruisers of StarCraft 2 will be even more versatile and lethal, filling multiple roles across the tactical spectrum. Players will have to decide how to best customize their fleet of warships, enabling them to deal with a greater variety of threats than ever before.

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• » StarCraft 2 Beta: Yo Mommaship Got Nerfed
• » StarCraft 2 Beta: First Gameplay and Battle.net Impressions

18 Comments to “New StarCraft 2 Terran Unit Page: The Battlecruiser”

1. Jesus — September 28, 2007 @ 3:08 pm
   

   Siegetanks – AoE
   Thors – AoE
   Reapers – AoE nades
   Bcruisers – AoE
   Banshees – full AoE

   How brilliantly original.

2. Dill — September 28, 2007 @ 6:25 pm
   

   It does give battlecruisers an ability to be threatening with just a small number, somthing that blizzard has been ding with a lot of the expensive units in the game. (Thor, Mothership.)

3. whiteknight — September 28, 2007 @ 10:09 pm
   

   8 battle cruisers vs 8 ghost control by boxer T-T

   i wonder if i want to shot mother ship down by yamato gun only
   how many battle cruisers must i use ?

4. Dill — September 29, 2007 @ 6:21 am
   

   It does seem that terrans might be a bit weak against air, they have all sorts of ways to deal large amounts of damage to ground units, but in air-to-air battles don’t really seem to have anything particularly strong. (Vikings, which are just basic air to air, and have to be balanced with their raiding and ground form in mind, battlecruisers, which have yamato cannons to fight the bigger units but nothing really good against smaller ones, and predators, which we haven’t seen yet, which might be useful in general.)

5. MechaBeast — September 29, 2007 @ 6:30 am
   

   Why are all the terran AoE units all focused on anti-ground which the terrans never really had a problem with in the first place.

   I didnt like the brood war Valkyrie but we will be missing it when we get bombarded with Mutas.

6. brainless — September 29, 2007 @ 9:57 am
   

   They’re being defeated by the zergs…like the events of broodwar.
   Zergs = mass
   Therefore, AOE attacks…
   Battlecrusiers have small multi laser attacks now !! looks nicer.

   I wonder does battlecrusier’s small laser attacks activates immortal’s shield….hmm…SMALL LASERS, not the instant 25 damage shot.

   Brainless
   Dying fan of the Zergs

7. keikun17 — September 29, 2007 @ 10:33 am
   

   if you want to know how useful the banshees could be in SC2, take a look at it’s Warcraft III equivalent and how it’s used.

   banshees = Druid of the Talon minus the cyclone.

   oh and btw, it seems that we are using the same wordpress theme. sorry didn’t know that this theme is so popular, might as well change mine.

   more power to you anyways.

8. bigbabyjesus — September 29, 2007 @ 10:47 pm
   

   It looks like Battlecruisers have been taken off the website. They might be adding a different unit for Terrans.

9. keikun17 — September 30, 2007 @ 8:47 pm
   

   the cattlebruiser link still works and shows up for me
   http://www.starcraft2.com/features/terran/battlecruiser.xml

10. Asker — October 1, 2007 @ 7:30 pm
    

    I guess in the future, the term ‘air-superiority’ would be forgotten to the Terrans ne? If what I remember from reading a liitle bit if history is correct, the Battleship which was called the “Queen of the seas” prior to WWII was replaced by the Aircraft Carrier.

11. SCV_Operator — October 2, 2007 @ 7:01 am
    

    It looks from the videos like the plasma torpedo weapon takes a long time to kill those marines. Not sure how powerful that means it is…

12. Dill — October 2, 2007 @ 8:13 am
    

    It takes less time than it may appear, the marines take about the same amount of time to take damage and get killed as they do to go through the death and falling over animation.

13. Censored — October 2, 2007 @ 10:40 am
    

    This comment was so insightful, it got moderated.

    Cheers
    Anderson Mccutcheon
    SC2Blog Editor

14. Em0 — February 14, 2008 @ 5:51 am
    

    I hope Blizzard adds more air units to the Terrans. I think they should bring back both the wraiths and the Valkyries.

15. Wychuzord — March 29, 2008 @ 7:00 am
    

    I don’t know if anyone feels about bc the way I am but they just don’t look as they should. The ones from SC made me love and later play as the Terrans. So basically my point is to make it more SC1 like.
    The SC2 ones with plasma torpedoes installed are not that bad: they got this anchor-like shape of the “nose”(?). Nevertheless this ‘command part’ (bridge?) of the SC2 bc is way too high and wide. The air-to-ground cannons look as ugly as the previous Crucio Siege Tank cannon (the one with sexy lips).
    I found it interesting to see how would the bc model look like with a little enlonged neck or the whole ship made slimmer.

    BTW: Many thanks to the author of this blog.

16. goomba — July 30, 2008 @ 3:58 pm
    

    they should really consider making the BC’s torps AoE against air, or something. they have way too many anti-ground AoE weapons. anti-air might give the BC some of the beloved mutalisk-killing effect we loved in the Valkeries of SC1. i do love the addition of multiple weaker laser burts, vs one slow, forward-firing burst. also, the yamato gun is a nuclear blast focused into a beam, not a laser.

17. i_suk_badly — February 20, 2010 @ 3:15 pm
    

    What i’ve heard is that BattleCruisers (in StarCraft II anyway) is pathetically pointless.

    This is from Beta Testers

    SO THEY ACTUALLY USED/KILLED them, and i saw a video on youtube where a group of Void Rays ( they changed the name at least in the bata) DESTROYED 2 BC’s within seconds, due to the power beams double their power every few seconds

    anyway that’s very long and boring, just thought i would add something, and I DO THINK the BattleCruiser’s ability’s are very cool. =)

18. i_suk_badly — February 20, 2010 @ 3:29 pm
    

    ALSO
    they’re seems to be a lot of Noobs playing/testing BETA, I dont think they all diserve a Beta Key. THE Roach, and Reaper seem to be a BIG problem for a lot of people, and they want something to be done about it.

    ROACH HP 145 ATTACK 18 ARMOR 2 (CANNOT ATTACK AIR)
    range, regeneation, extra fast burrowed regeneration (upgraded at Lair) PLUS movement while burrowed! WTH is up with that?! STRANGE to me anyway

    REAPER HP: 80 OR 60 ATTACK ? ARMOR: (probobly light)
    FAST PLUS JETPACK zealots, stalkers have no chance, unless charge PLUS blink is upgraded (in which case REAPERS would get owned)

    Reapers are cheaper than/easier to get and faster to build , and mass than stalkers Zealots alone have NO chance! I saw a video, and protoss player was totally abused, lost probes, and Zealots R 2 slow!! REAPERS destoyed the cannon in 1-2 seconds, and singled-out each Stalker and the Zealots (without CHARGE) way too slow.

    Funnily enough this is way longer than my previous post
    so i DONT BLAME YOU IF YOU DONT READ ALL OF THIS!