Drawing of the Web

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	Battle of Talematros

Previous	Fury of the Swarm
Next	To Slay the Beast
Drawing of the Web
Conflict	Brood War
Date	September-October, 2500
Place	Shakuras
Result	Talematros destroyed Matriarch Raszagal taken prisoner
Combatants
Zerg Swarm
Zerg Swarm
Talematros Defenders
Talematros Defenders
Commanders
Sarah Kerrigan The Cerebrate Samir Duran
Sarah Kerrigan The Cerebrate Samir Duran
Matriarch Raszagal
Matriarch Raszagal
Objectives	Bring Duran to each zerg beacon (5) Duran must survive
Heroes	Infested Duran

Drawing of the Web is the seventh zerg mission of Episode VI of StarCraft: Brood War.

History

Background

Sarah Kerrigan was making plans to assault Char and kill the second Overmind under the control of the UED Expeditionary Fleet. As part of this, she took her swarm and returned to Shakuras, seeking the dark templar matriarch, Raszagal. The protoss pylons in the area were generating an electromagnetic field, preventing the zerg flyers from maneuvering.

With this complication to the attack, Kerrigan's adviser Samir Duran proposed a distraction to claim Raszagal during the confusion. The outpost of Talematros was built on a large mesa and virtually impregnable by ground attacks. However, the city was fueled by a number of pylon clusters on its outskirts. Duran proposed a simultaneous detonation of these clusters to create a power surge that would overlord the power grids and create a massive explosion. Kerrigan approved of the plan and ordered the Cerebrate to provide escort for Duran during the mission.

Duran successfully planted explosives at each beacon and detonated them on Kerrigan's command. The power surge utterly destroyed Talematros, and in the chaos Kerrigan abducted Raszagal. With Raszagal as her prisoner, Kerrigan was able to blackmail Zeratul and his warband into helping her assault the Overmind.

Walkthrough

The player is unable to build a spire or any associated air units in this mission, and they cannot research the ventral sacs upgrade for their overlords. The overlords should be upgraded for vision and speed, however. The protoss employ virtually every unit the race has access to; zealots, dragoons, dark templar, high templar, reavers, archons, scouts, and carriers. Dark archons can also be found as defenders, but usually will not accompany attacks. Overlords must be brought with every attacking force to spot the prolific dark templar around the map, and kept at every choke point for the same.

The player has control of Infested Duran, who is an invaluable hero in this mission. Not only is Duran a decent attacking unit on his own, particularly against zealots and dark templar, but he has access to lockdown and consume. The player should make frequent use of these abilities; lockdown will disable dragoons, reavers, carriers, and scouts, and consume will let Duran replenish his energy to use it consecutively. Numerous zerglings should be kept around for Duran to consume if needed.

There are two expansions near the starting base, the north expansion has a large mineral field but no vespene, while the south-west expansion has a geyser and few minerals. Claim both and use static defenses to push the creep out to the ramps up to these bases, allowing an easier defense of both expansions alongside the main base. Without air units, the player's options for offense are limited to zerglings, hydralisks, ultralisks, and the queen and defiler as support casters. Defilers can be useful to protect the player's hydralisks from enemy fleets, but otherwise reavers and dark templar ignore dark swarm and it may hinder the player more than help, so defilers should be kept at home.

With their army upgraded fully, the player can move out and begin attacking the beacons. The large number of dark templar, reavers, and other powerful units means the player can expect heavy losses, so several hatcheries will be needed to reinforce their troops. After taking the first beacon the player can expand to a resource node west of it if they need more resources. When each beacon is secured Duran can move to them to set the charges; once the charges are set the player does not need to hold the area and can retreat. When Duran has been brought to all five beacons, in any order, the mission ends.

Starcraft Brood War - Zerg Mission 7 Drawing of the Web

Notes

• Though the mission does not allow the player's overlords to be able to carry other units, this ability can still be acquired via cheats. In an older game version, loading Infested Duran into an overlord revealed a slight developer oversight—he did not have a wireframe image for being inside a transport. This was fixed in patch 1.05.