Good design is as much about what you leave out as it is what you put in. Sometimes I think the problem with Starcraft 2 is that the races are just too well-rounded. Maybe a few holes would open up some interesting design space for new tactics or strategies.

The Rules:

One unit from each race

No units that wouldn’t be missed in competitive play (i.e. Carriers or Motherships

No Widow Mines, Swarm Hosts or Sentries. (Already discussed to death)

Obviously the game will have to be re-balanced around the units’ absences

My Answers:

The Marauder

“The less I see the Marauder the more I feel like switching back to Terran.” — Artosis, SOTG #42

I don’t know why Artosis doesn’t like the Marauder, but I know why I don’t. It removes the last possible downside for a Terran going bio. Giving a bio army a high health, armoured unit that can shrug off storms, absorb baneling hits, kite Ultralisks into uselessness, rush tanks and pick off retreating enemies with concussive shells just makes the composition that much too versatile.

The Hellbat, for all its flaws, at least doesn’t fall into the same trap: it’s a tank to hold off melee units, but with the downside of being useless against anything with decent range (and built from a Factory).

Without the Marauder, Terrans would have to go back to doing what they did in Brood War: supplementing their mobile but fragile bio army with slower, beefier metal.

The Roach

Is there any more boring unit in Starcraft 2 than the Roach?

The Roach is slow, barely micro-able and weirdly costed. It was too cheap at one supply and is too expensive at two. Roach battles consist of getting your units as close as possible to whatever you want them to fight, then leaving them there. Between two zerg players, Roach and Roach/Hydra engagements offer the worst spectacle Starcraft has to offer.

(Albeit slightly better than the “OK, now let’s throw our muta balls at each other and see who wins!” of early HotS)

Roaches were given to us with the promise of cool burrowing tricks, but that turned into a rare novelty pretty fast.

Of course the Zerg would still need something to stop their army being obliterated by AoE, but getting rid of the roach would open up more design space for alternative counters, without worrying that they would make the Zerg’s boring meat shield too powerful.

And then we could move Hydralisks back to being hatchery tech where they belong.

The Immortal

I was originally not sure what to pick for Protoss as they have so many one-dimensional units to pick from, but then I looked at my previous choices and saw the obvious pattern.

With the Marauder and especially the Roach gone, the role of the Immortal would be reduced to two things: the unit that defends against early stalkers in PvP, and one of the big “Fuck You”s against mech in PvT.

I know it’s not quite that simple, but surely we can find another way to stabilise PvP if removing the Immortal made mech just that tiny bit more viable?