In Star Craft 2 these alien machines are called COLLOSSUSES.

Description[edit]

The Colossus (plural -lossi, -lossuses) is a massive Protoss battle strider that towers over all other ground units on the battlefield. It is built at the Robotics Facility, but requires the presence of a Robotics Bay to be unlocked. Its long-range dual Thermal Lances target units in a wide linear area of effect, perpendicular to the Colossus’s direction of fire. This makes the Colossus a powerful siege unit that can quickly destroy an enemy’s ground forces.

Colossi have massive legs and enormous height, which can both be an advantage and disadvantage. Firstly, the height allows anti-air attacks to hit it; care must be taken with Colossi to make sure units like Vikings or Corruptors do not pick them off in battle as they are relatively fragile units for their cost. Secondly, its weapon comes with a base range of 7, and the Extended Thermal Lance upgrade extends it to an impressive attack range of 9, which allows it to attack from behind the main Protoss army. Thirdly, the legs grant them the ability to traverse cliffs and provide vision of high ground areas, as well as stacking over other units in the player’s army. However unlike smaller ranged units, if a Colossus is on the high ground and attacks enemy units on the low ground, the enemy gains temporary vision of the Colossus and can return fire. This revealing mechanic does put a limit on their ability to exploit high ground, but can still be useful for engaging short ranged units. Overall, care must be taken to account for these unique characteristics, but these also help make the colossus a powerful unit.