The Battlecruiser is the Terran capital ship and is one of the most powerful units in the game. It is quite costly in resources, but you will get what you paid for: a high health unit with heavy armor and a powerful burst attack. The only drawback is the ship is fairly slow. The Battlecruiser deals greater damage to ground targets than air units.
This powerful ship returns to StarCraft II but with a few changes. Battlecruisers now fire several weak lasers at their targets but very rapidly.
These ships have little to fear so long as they remain somewhat spread out. A dozen Battlecruisers is difficult for any race to stop. However, a careless player can see his mighty fleet fall quickly if he doesn't watch out for his surroundings. The primary threat to look out for is a High Templar about to use Psi Storm or other caster enemies. If the units are seen, it can be difficult to kill it before it casts the spell so spread out so only a few Battlecruisers get hit.
The Weapon Refit upgrade allows the use of the Yamato Cannon. This is a powerful charge that deals considerable damage to a single target and has a long range. When used it takes a few seconds to build up the charge, so it best to use outside of combat as an opening attack. The damage will instantly kill the target or leave it greatly injured.
This attack is great for taking out defensive structures in a single blow such as Missile Turrets and Photon Cannons. It is also used to take out enemy casters such as Ghosts and High Templar since they tend to stay behind enemy lines. Another tactic is to take several Battlecruisers and Yamato the enemy Nexus or Hatchery forcing the enemy to rebuild its HQ and greatly crippling its resource income for a few minutes.
Missile Pods (Campaign)
Source: Hyperion Armory
Credits: 140,000
Mana: 125
Damage: 4 * 10
Damage Bonus: 5 * 10 on Light
Splash Radius: 1.6
Range: 7
Missile Pods are powerful anti air weapons designed to deal considerable damage to groups of enemy flyers. This weapon works well with the Battlecruiser since the capitol ship is weaker fighting air units rather than ground. Although this weapon works well on all air units, it is far more effective on Light armored targets.
Defensive Matrix (Campaign)
Source: Hyperion Armory
Credits: 150,000
Mana: 100
Shield: 200
Duration: 20
The Defensive Matrix will place a Shield around the Battlecruiser protecting it from taking damage while the shield holds. This ability greatly increases the survivability of the capital ship. A Battlecruiser will full Mana will be able to use this ability twice in the same battle making it far more difficult to kill than the standard Battlecruiser.
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.
The old Behemoth-class battlecruiser has proven to be an enduring design when kept up to date with periodic upgrades. Even the more modern Hercules- and Minotaur-class ships have retained the distinctive hammerhead shape which so defines the classic terran battlecruiser. Research has led to the development of two alternative weapon upgrades that can be retrofitted into a battlecruiser hull to supplement its already formidable armament.
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.
