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Originally Posted by
Hawki
Meaning what? Duke isn't exactly the most competent general in the universe, and Alpha Squadron still existed in the game in some form.
His string of defeats notwithstanding, Duke is a competent general. Mengsk says "a Confederate general could prove to be a powerful ally". Kerrigan says "Without the services of General Duke, Mengsk will be easy to deal with."
Either way, the point is that the Sons of Korhal are more than your run-of-the-mill terrorist group if Duke is willing to join them.
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Antiga Prime would like to disagree. Took the Confeds head-on with the rebels, and won.
The key-phrase is "with the rebels". It's not exactly difficult to take a planet when most of its people are on your side to begin with. That's why I don't complain that the very first mission in WoL is Raynor liberating Mar Sara from Mengsk's rule.
The SoK are powerful & competent enough to challenge the Confederacy directly. That is why you can't compare it to Wings of Liberty. Nevertheless, when the Confederates arrived in force (Delta Squadron), they started getting worried and had to use the zerg to break the blockade so they could escape. The excuse that "you never fight anyone head-on" applies to Rebel Yell much more than it does to Wings of Liberty. It should be the opposite, and that's why SC1 was more believable than WoL.
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Tarsonis was. Zerg arrived later, but it was a head-on assault, the SoK lasting long enough to establish the psi emitters.
Sure, it was a head-on assault....one that they would have lost had they decided to stay. One might even venture to say that it was....a raid. :o
Anyway, the fact that they accomplished even that is proof that unlike the Raiders, they have actual military resources. In WoL, the argument is made that Raynor steers clear of everyone and doesn't fight them directly. But this idea always seems to get shelved when Raynor takes on Selendis, Korhal, Char, New Folsom, etc.
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The force sent against us was distinctly defeated.
At a cost:
"The fleet has lost contact with the ground forces at New Gettysburg. General Mengsk has ordered the immediate disengagement of the Korhal fleet from the Tarsonian system."
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We were an expeditionary fleet with generals that certainly weren't above making mistakes.
That's what I said:
"Being powerful did not prevent the UED from making mistakes, and unlike WoL, reality did not shift to accommodate them just because that's who we were playing."
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Think "handful" is iffy. Numbers almost certainly increased over the years since the movement was anti-Dominion, not to mention it was (once, at least) supported by the KMC. And then there were the mercs. And colonists. And Tosh's forces. And...well, you get the picture.
The "handful" is from Raynor saying it himself in the game. Which itself is from the fact that there were 40 people left at the end of the QoB novel. Colonists & mercs? Ok fine. But that doesn't do much for me because at no point in the game were Raynor's forces implied to have grown, apart from Tosh (an optional branch). Not that "colonists & mercs" are a justification for half the stuff Raynor does. And what if you choose to betray Tosh early in the game? How does that justify doing anything else you're doing?
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Raided. And the only reason it could be raided at all was because of the Odin providing a distraction.
We've talked about this. Raynor mentioning a Command Center and the camera panning to show it landing proves that it's not a raid. I've said it multiple times, but Raynor shouldn't be able to even get past Korhal's orbit.
Or do they expect us to believe that Raynor sneaked in via some random dropship, and acquired that Command Center on the ground? If so, just how did he sneak the rest of his army down there? Either way it's unbelievable.
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Yeah, can't fault this too much. If on Tarsonis we defeat the protoss in open battle, we beat the protoss on Haven by taking out their Achiles heel (the Purifier) then forcing them to retreat. SoK bigger than Raiders, Tassadar's fleet bigger than Selendis's (unless there's a source establishing its size-if not, the Haven fleet is really small going by the number of ships in-game). It's probably the biggest suspension of disbelief, but I can't fault it too much.
Who cares about their Purifier? Do the protoss honestly not have smaller craft capable of countering vikings? Raynor should simply not be able to fight against Selendis's fleet and go take out the nexi all at the same time. Saying that "Selendis's fleet was smaller than Tassadar's" is a cop-out, because any single one of the carriers or void rays we saw in game could have taken out the Hyperion, whereas the exact size of the forces in SC1 wasn't all that clear.
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Meaning? Mengsk was established to be something of a tactical genius. Managed to do even more than Raynor did. At least on Char we had an army to lead.
Meaning that Warfield keeps showering us with praise for saving "his boys" remarking how Raynor would "make a fine staff-officer", further continuing the player's ego-trip.
Mengsk basically started sucking as soon as Raynor left (his multiple defeats in BW come to mind). But even I didn't expect Mengsk's downward spiral to continue this long.
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Suspension of disbelief in games is the exception rather than the rule. Least in my own experience.
Which makes me sad to hear you say. It's like saying "A game having a story is like a porno having a story: nice, but unnecessary."
Anyway, I firmly believe that the purpose of an RTS campaign should be to mitigate suspension of disbelief - make it seem like those little guys running around down there are representing something that could realistically happen in this universe: good world-building & all that. This isn't helped when the SP campaign doesn't take itself seriously enough to acknowledge clear & decisive military defeats such as the Dominion's. I've said it multiple times but it's sad that I have more suspension of disbelief watching a multiplayer match than I do playing the campaign.
