What would you think of a Terran Tutorial

[lightning brigade]

I like the Terran race, I want to learn how to play them effectively. What if I were to post a miscellaneous tutorial on how to play the race. It would include strategies, tips, and other things, and I would update it frequently as the beta drew on, or should I wait till the actual game comes out? Tell me what you think, and if I should do this yet.

 

[Anti_Bodies]

Well you say you like the race and that you want to learn how to play them effectively. This implies that you have not yet mastered the race, and should not be making a tutorial to begin with.

HOWEVER perhaps you could create a thread asking people what strategies they use as Terran depending on enemies/map type.

 

[Ghost765]

you pretty much have 2 options for terrans.
1. Mass marines, upgrade em, and ONLY MAKE marines. double trainers on all 5 barracks except for the one barracks with the techer. Dont even bother with medevacs.
2. Bunker rush. Takes abit more micro, but itll cause ur opponents to rage quit and you can laugh while their zerglings get mowed down.

 

[mrzwach]

Oh god don't listen to that guy.

#1 is fail, because if your opponent can adapt you will be quickly raped.
Colossi.
Ravens w/ Seeker Missile.
Banelings w/ Burrow.

#2 is a cheese tactic. Cheese tactics really shouldn't be considered for competitive play due to their nature. Also, thinking that bunker rush takes micro is kinda lol.

Oh, and there are a lot of other good Terran strategies. And you never want to stick to one tactic for the entire game because then it will get countered+raped.

 

[tagg1080]

Economy, Scouting, Pressure, Counter.

Learn these words well.



A thread on some of the strategies using the different races would be cool, I am sure no one would mind.

 

[PurplePoot]

mrz, while you are right that #1 is totally wrong and bound to lose, cheese tactics are actually viable at the pro level (although for Terran the preferred ones are reaper harass and fast Banshee, or occasionally fast Hellion vs Zerg if they fast expand).

--

Terran vs Terran is all about Vikings or Banshees (usually one person rushes Banshees and the other reacts by rushing Vikings), with the Viking player often using tanks while the Banshee player is usually more focused on MMM (see below).

Terran vs Zerg is mostly MMM but fast Hellion and fast Banshee can also be deadly. Also, Thors are good in this matchup (get one or two, they destroy Mutalisks, Hydralisks, and Roaches, and soak up damage really well if you have four or so SCVs with them to repair). Also remember to put missile turrets in your mineral lines since Mutalisk harass is the name of the game. If they fast expand, you either want to rush them or fast expand in response. You also might want one or two Siege Tanks since Spine Crawlers really hurt. You also might want one or two Ghosts to EMP their Infestors since Infestors really hurt. Combat Shields are really important here since your Marines will usually be doing the tanking.

Terran vs Protoss is basically MMM again, but Banshees are very strong in this matchup, and Tanks can be sometimes. Marauder rushing with Concussive Shells is deadly, and Stim Packs are key. Void Ray harass is painful, but stimmed Marines are great at countering them. Missile Turrets and Vikings are terrible against Void Rays, so stick with Marines, and they'll be forced off air soon since it isn't cost effective.

--

MMM: Marines, Marauders, Medivacs. You will want around 5 Barracks for a fully saturated base, and around 7 or 8 for two. About 1/2 Tech Lab, 1/4 Reactor, 1/4 empty should be good. Put a tech lab on your first Barracks and get Concussive Shells as soon as possible in every matchup except TvT or in very specific builds: Concussive Shells allow Marauders to kite Zealots, Zerglings, Roaches, and even Speedlings, and in general make life hell for Protoss and Zerg. Try to get stim soon after, and go about 5/8 marines 3/8 marauders with one reactor'd starport keeping your medivac count around 6 or so.

I'll post some replays of me (platinum 1v1, but some of the older ones are gold) in a day or so.

 

[mrzwach]

mrz, while you are right that #1 is totally wrong and bound to lose, cheese tactics are actually viable at the pro level (although for Terran the preferred ones are reaper harass and fast Banshee, or occasionally fast Hellion vs Zerg if they fast expand).

I wouldn't call those cheese tactics, excluding the reaper harass if you mean the 2:30 reaper rush. But I suppose it depends how you define a cheese tactic.

 

[Ghost765]

Nothing can really stop 100+ marines when uve got them in smaller groups so that splash damage has minimal affect on them. It's quite beautiful. And don't forget to keep all he rax's on hotkey 2 (hotkey 1 is ur Comsat) and continue to spam marines with rally point enemy base. Once u win first engagement they're tucked cause u have numbers on ur side

 

[mrzwach]

Hopefully he would've done something besides screw around for the amount of time it takes you to make 100 marines.

Also, if you were splitting up your marines to avoid splash the effectiveness of your attacks would be crippled.

 

[PurplePoot]

I wouldn't call those cheese tactics, excluding the reaper harass if you mean the 2:30 reaper rush. But I suppose it depends how you define a cheese tactic.

Cheese is defined as an all-in rush which is generally easy to counter if scouted but nearly impossible if not.

Banshees aren't totally cheese in that sense (you can transition out of them) but if Reaper cheese fails the game is often over.

http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/Cheese

Nothing can really stop 100+ marines when uve got them in smaller groups so that splash damage has minimal affect on them. It's quite beautiful. And don't forget to keep all he rax's on hotkey 2 (hotkey 1 is ur Comsat) and continue to spam marines with rally point enemy base. Once u win first engagement they're tucked cause u have numbers on ur side

What league are you in? Bronze?

 

[tagg1080]

What league are you in? Bronze?

I have marine spammed in Gold before, it can work if you want it to, and they don't counter it.

I made them think I was going air, and them slammed them with marines...

It CAN work, just don't make it a goto thing.

 

[PurplePoot]

Most Gold players aren't bad enough to lose to Marine spam. You might find a few that just qualified and should be in silver, sure, but you will lose more than you win.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

Top Replays are the best tutorial/guide/etc. In WC3 ive done long guide but later realized why bother when top replays show all I described

Leagues unless platinum 1vs1 are relative. I've played vs gold who was so so good, but I've also played vs Silver who was like playing RTS for the 1st time. If I had placement matches now I'd be in Silver or Gold but it was long ago and I had to start from Bronze.

 

[PurplePoot]

TvZ on Lost Temple (Platinum League). I'm not perfect (I leave a bit too much money at one or two points), but I'm pretty decent.

Edit: TvT on Incineration Zone.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

As I said top replays do it.. GosuGamers's 5th episode

http://www.gosugamers.net/starcraft2/news/11906-gosutv-the-latest-league-updates-and-new-strategies

Also states the Marine-Tank built in mirror. That's what I also perceived from the top reps. Gotta laugh at those who start at cloaked banshees or mass reapers but their prob.

 

[PurplePoot]

Uuh, fast Reaper and fast Banshee are both viable TvT strategies as well. Marine-Tank is a decent build (you need vikings too, by the way) but not the only one.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

In Terran mirror one goes either marine/tanks gg or banshee/viking yes, but no good player wastes their time with massing reapers unless they know their opp cant counter it. But still, the marine build is more of the winning strat imo. That doesn't mean it's not good to make few reapers, i mean massing as in 5 or more..

 

[PurplePoot]

Nobody masses reapers at decent-level play, and Marines+Tanks is not "more of the winning strategy". What league do you play in?

 

[tagg1080]

Nobody masses reapers at decent-level play, and Marines+Tanks is not "more of the winning strategy". What league do you play in?

Are you sure that you know every single winning strategy?




A winning strat, short of any kind of rush, is highly dependent on what your opponent does.

I play on gold, not platinum, so maybe I am retarded, but I have yet to see anything that never works.

 

[PurplePoot]

Defining a winning strategy is "everything that ever wins a game" is useless since it is meaningless, and thus it's generally taken to mean one which wins games a reasonable amount of the time if properly executed versus a specific strategy.

But that's beside the point, because I was not saying it was not a winning strategy (tank pushing is very effective, although as I said it includes vikings as well). I was criticizing his use of "more of a winning strategy", as if it was somehow way more viable than fast banshee, banshee/viking, etc.

 

[Modhell]

Perhaps you could write a guide with input from posters on each unit, it's pro's and con's and best methods for use as well as a guide to the most popular build orders/strategies for early game. Posters could provide a replay as an example of their methods... and things like "what to do if your opponent X's" ie. counters to popular zerg and protoss strats...

....that would really help out newbs like me... I'm quick to learn things from previous matches but easily defeated every time something brand new pops up because I only have 1/10th idea of each units capabilities and uses... if I'd read an open ended guide like that though I'd have something to work with in the back of my mind rather than be reaching at straws hoping I pull space magic out my ass

 

[PurplePoot]

You mean something like this?

Also, don't trust replays given by people who aren't platinum or arguably high gold (as in 2/3 win ratio in gold or so, since those people should be in platinum but presumably just don't play enough/whatever... but that's still iffy because their opponents won't be very good).

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

I havent watched Terran mirror since Patch 8 or 9 that's why my arguments may not be that strong. I only watch Lucifron, DeMuslim, Naama, Bratok, Strelok, (Jinro). Havent seen mirrors with them lately and dont watch if old patch, but I remember Bratok vs Demuslim was a nice 5-6 tanks, lots of marines, marauders with few banshees and vikings also medivacs battles.

I dont know about Platinum but Gold/Silver may be very relative. I played vs Gold that wasn't so good and I played vs Silver that was playing RTS for the 1st time the way I see.

 

[PurplePoot]

Copper and maybe Bronze, not Silver, are "playing a Starcraft-like RTS for the first time". Silver requires a substantial amount of thought (or cheese, but that will get you promoted to Gold from which you will fall out because you realize that people in gold can often counter it).

I've been going fast Viking/Tank into Marine/Tank/Viking/(Raven or Banshee sometimes) and it works really well, but it is certainly not the only strategy around. I've been thinking of trying out Viking/Banshee/Battlecruiser.