8-8-8 The Terran 6-pool

8-8-8 The Terran 6-pool

Eureka! I’ve found it. The build that allows terran to make a genuine rush. A build that is effective against Zerg players who are increasingly greedy. I can’t take credit for this one -- I read about it at some random website I can’t find again.

But it’s called the 8-8-8. At 8 supply, you make a depot. Then you send out a worker to build a proxy barracks. Finally you make a refinery. All on 8 supply.

From there, you pump out non-stop reapers. There are several variations, but I like to halt SCV production once the barracks finishes. I use the first extra 150 minerals on a my Orbital Command. The next on a second barracks at the front of my base. The next 100 on a supply depot to finish the wall off.

As always, it is essential to keep all of your reapers alive, no matter how tempting that extra kill might look. The goal is also to macro and tech up in the background, eventually finishing your opponent off in a tech switch.

When practicing this build, I find it extremely useful to look at the resources graph at the end of the game. That graph will show if you were able to do enough damage to catch up to the macroing player. It will show if you didn’t do enough damage, or if the attack allowed you to take the lead.

This build is best on the smaller, two player maps. But it also works against all races, in varying degrees.