Keeping stalkers alive in Whispers of Doom mad dash

Question

Last night I was playing the first of the Protoss missions (Whispers of Doom). I had no problems getting through it, Zeratul still had full health, as did all of my stalkers (maybe one was at 75/80). I had also destroyed all of the hatcheries and thought, "Great! I'll be able to get all of the research and all of the achievements my first time through."

Then came the mad dash to the Void ship. I managed to blink over the first two rocks without leaving any stalkers behind, but the distance between the second and third rock was too short for the blink cool down to be over and I had to punch my way through it. Still not a problem yet. I quickly killed the spine crawler on the other side (I think maybe this was my mistake) then continued my mad dash. As I neared the ship my stalkers got shredded and I was left with only 2 stalkers, meaning that I missed one of the achievements (survive with 3 stalkers).

Are there any tricks to this part of the mission beyond what I did or was it just a mistake to stop and kill that one spine crawler. I'm still not sure what crazy thought ran through my head to make me do that. :)

Thanks!

Answer 1

Don't give up -- Just keep practicing! You should get an auto-save just prior to or just after activating the third part of the prophecy. If you've managed to get all your stalkers up until that point, you can continually reload from there until you succeed.

Other Tips: Just keep running. Don't stop to fight, kill nydus worms, etc, anything. Your first blink should be into the lowground "pit" with the zerg defenses. Stun one with Zeratul and then just charge up the ramp -- you'd take more damage going the long way around.

Blink over rocks when you can, but when you get to the set of two rocks, blink in between and destroy the second pair (the zerg will have to stop to destroy the first set)

When in doubt, blink!

Edit: I just completed the mission again today, and can emphatically restate that you do not want to take the suggested route (delimited by the arrows on the minimap) but cut straight through the little zerg base in the pit. Just keep running, and you should be able to escape handily (Just be careful about where your units are before you blink -- I wound up only saving 5 of the 6 stalkers because one poor fellow misjudged the blink distance and wound up having to go the long way around. :( )

Answer 2

I blinked past the first set of rocks, destroyed the second and blinked again past the final spine crawler. Worked out for me, but there's a bit of luck involved so do what Raven Dreamer suggests: save right before and keep trying until you get it!