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

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)
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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

Starcraft 2: Making the Wrong Counter in TvZ

So you've scouted, you saw Roaches, so you make Marauders.  Then a mass of 12 Mutas comes into your base, wipes out your few marines, and demolishes your base.  What happened?

It's easy to make assumptions based on what you see.  It's important that you keep checking your opponent's army composition.  If you watch GSL, Day9, HuskyHD, or read my previous blog posts, you may have heard the phrase "scout the front".  Most players keep their armies near the front of their base, for the sole reason that it's where the attack usually comes from.  This positioning means that by sending a single cheap unit to die, you can scout your opponent's army composition, and you should do it on a regular basis, so you aren't surprised.

Buildings can't tell you everything, especially against Zerg!  Don't rely on the fact that he build a Roach Warren that any Roaches will come out of it.  Some buildings are "just in case" structures.

Custom Games: Key Strategies for Starcraft 2 Macro

I'm playing a TvT game against a friend the other day, and I have him beat.  I've out-expanded him, harassed his mineral line, and have equal tech, if not better upgrades.  And I lose.  What the heck happened?

Two things - first, I lost the big battle.  I threw units away by pushing his better position while trying to get in position myself.  I should have waited, taken my losses, and let him come to me.  When he'd unsieged, hit him.  Second, I had 6k minerals and 2k gas in the bank. My main was covered with buildings, but I still didn't have enough units coming out.  We were both at around 132 supply, and I should have been higher.

This is why Terran bases look like SimCity - you just need a whole lot of production buildings eventually, and in the smaller main-bases, there really isn't a lot of starting area.

Some Terran tips:

• First, plan for the midgame.  You're going to want to end up with about 4-5 barracks, 2 factories, and 1-2 Starports.  You are going to want an Engineering Bay around 30 supply for emergency turrets, and an Armory around 60-80 supply for those Tier 3 units like the Thor, or even just for upgrades.
• Upgrade attack first.  You are ranged, so you get the first shots in.  You want things to die before they reach you.  With Stim, you can kite, so it doesn't matter how much damage you can take - only how much you can dish out and how fast.
• Micro your Marauders in front of your marines.  Marines are squishy.  Marauders aren't.  Banelings & Zealots, units you'll see often, will chew up marines easily.

Good luck!