Terran for Fun

I'm not a Terran player, but I've been thinking of trying the following, for fun:

Idea #1:  Nukes

• Marines / Medivacs / Mines w/claws (add Marauders vs. Protoss)
• Marine upgrades
• Ghosts w/ 3 nuke facilities
• Mix in some blue-flame Hellions/Hellbats to flank or front-line

Idea #2:  Air Terran

• Open hellion / banshee
• Rush Battlecruisers w/ +1 attack
• Add Vikings vs. enemy air
• Add Ravens for harass/utility
• Add orbitals in main for extra repair mules

Zerg Tips and Gas Spending / Tech Choices

I've been laddering a bit and playing with friends, and watching "learning" videos again.

Here are some of my takeaways and thoughts on gas-spending:

Tips:

• More gasses at 35 drones
• Get to 70 drones!
• 5min macro hatch w/ling/bane
• Use extra queen energy on 4^th base hatch (you can stack injects, did you know?)
• Expect the 5 minute push
• Leave some units in main base, to handle drops, and have them on a separate hotkey

Early Gas usage choices:

• 100 - lair
• 100 - ovie speed
• 100 - +1 melee or ranged
• 100 - ling speed
• 50 - bane nest
• 50 - 2 drop ovies (needs lair)

Next tech choices:

• Nydus
• Roach speed
• 3x ravager
• +1 carapace
• Hydra den

Choices by Goal:

Map presence choice (first 300 gas):

• Speed, +1 melee, bane nest, 2 banes

Tech choice (first 300 gas):

• 100 - ling speed
• 100 - lair, roach warren, evo
• 100 - +1 ranged

… into speed roach.

Heavy-Harass choice (300):

• 100=Ling Speed
• 100=lair
• 100=ovie speed

… into heavy expand or Nydus. Build units based on scouting, and start double upgrades!

Tech Progression Choices:

#1:
Roach/Ravager/Overseer + Viper/Corruptor (to protect the vipers), Maybe Add Swarmhosts (since we did ranged upgrades)?  Endgame = Corruptor/Viper/Broods

#2:
Ling/bane/hydra/Overseer + Infestor (Endgame = Ultra/Corruptor/Infestor)

… if Nydus and Hydra, harass or defend expansions with Lurkers.

... add burrow for Banes/Roach tunnel/Infestor

Learning ZvT and TvZ from Neuro

Introduction

Neuro is a Grandmaster Zerg-only player.

I just watched "How to Endure a Turtled Terran", and here are my take-aways.

Terran

• Mules help you get your Production up (Barracks, Factories), and hit the Zerg with some mineral-only units (Marines, Hellions) to keep him from getting out of hand.
• Try to entice  your opponent to fight into Planetaries, chokes points guarded by Siege Tanks, and to defend Hellbat harass with Zerglings.
• When you run out of cheap, buffer units like Hellions, you need to pull back and merge your forward army, with its remaining expensive units, with your reinforcements.  "Going for the kill" against a Zerg that can re-max, is a good way to throw away all your slow, expensive units (Tanks, Thors)
• 
  

Zerg

• Don't force your way into a Terran's turtled position.  Instead, take the map.  Once you have a mineral bank, you can start dropping static defenses at your outer bases.  Ensure that you have at least 1 spore and 2 spines on the way to many bases, to enable you to deter ghosts.
• Creep spread is your friend, and allows you to use one of your best units and only healer, the Queen, in mid-map fights.  You need to learn to use Rapid-Fire for creep spread, as it can get you ridiculous numbers of tumours, so even clearing them takes the Terran player long enough that you can rally units to prevent them from killing all your creep.
• You need Queens on a hotkey.
• If you have a big pack of Swarmhosts, which helps you pressure the Terran without throwing away units, it's better to save a few locusts so the Terran doesn't immediately push after you send a locust wave.
• The more of the map you have, the more you can spread your units, and then retreat and collapse to concentrate your army when the Terran pushes forwards.
• Take the farthest bases when you can.  You want to mine out his side of the map, and slow him down from taking corner bases and immediately plunking down a Planetary, which is difficult to dislodge.
• Gas is very important to Terran lategame composition.
• You need to cap yourself at 70 drones in late game.  If your drone count is too high, your army will be too small.
• Your goal is to re-max with better units (Roaches that die should be replaced with gas-heavy units like Broods, Infestors, etc).
• Creep slows down the Terran push, and speeds up your response
• Try to pick Green as your colour against Terran, as it is easiest to find the nukes.  Orange and Red are the worst colours.
• Neuro says:  "Starcraft is a game of:  'What is the most important thing to be paying attention to at any point in time'".

Zerg Summary

Take the map

• Creep spread, and replace cleared creep
• Mine his side of the map
• Spread units defensively, then retreat and collapse vs. big pushes
• Slow down his pushes with static defenses

Harass with Free Units

• Swarmhosts
• Pull units with Vipers
• Broodlords

Endgame Composition

• Queens, Broods, Hydras, Swarmhosts, Infestors, Vipers, Overseers
• Max 70 drones
• Drones into static defenses, especially vs. nukes

Back playing and watching... 4.8.3 Starcraft Legacy of the Void & Streams

Well, I'm playing (and watching) SC2 again.

I'm still Plat Tier 2, which means that I guess I don't suck all that horribly.  I played a ton of games against the Elite AI to get back into some good habits, but what really helped me get back into it was watching streams.

I've been watching a bunch of streams that I think are really good:
Neuro (Zerg)
PiG (all races)
Winter (all races)

Neuro has a lot of Zerg-specific instructional stuff, in addition to streaming his games.  He seems to take a calmer approach to instruction.

PiG is probably the best player amongst the streamers listed above.  I believe he played pro for awhile, and he's given instruction to the other two streamers (I think), in addition to having some detailed videos and coaching for all levels of players, of all races.

I must admit that I mainly watch Winter for amusement.  He's got some good content, but a lot of what he streams is ANGRY COACH, and stuff like that, which makes it harder to find instructional content.