Terran Game Theory

Today I’d like to write a bit about playing Terran. I feel like I’ve come to a new understanding about how to play Terran, and most of that is coming from watching Byun games.

The first thing I learned is that I should open with a 13 rax, followed by a refinery, into two reapers. Part of the reason why I do this is because I play random. That means I don’t like to reveal my race to my opponent through an SCV scout.

Before I was content to scout with a single reaper. But after seeing what a skilled professional can do with two, my opinion has changed. Two reapers are so much better than one. They can tank way more damage. The second reaper often allows the first, if he gets low on HP, to escape. With two reapers against zerg, I can always scout the drone count to see if an early baneling bust is coming. Two reapers can kill drones, queens, even stalkers, if you micro them right and get out while you can. They keep the game in your opponent’s base. About they only thing they can’t do is scout a proxy Stargate. But they can scout the main base to know if a proxy is likely.

Back to your own home base. So you make the two reapers, then what? You will soon have approximately 100 gas and 400 minerals. In my opinion, there really are only two options. You can start making a command center for your natural. I usually make it in my main base, but depending on the map and the matchup, you can build it directly at your natural. Or, with those minerals, you can build two-three more barracks.

With the hundred gas, you can build a factory. Or you can add a tech lab to your first barracks, and start researching Stim.

Depending on the map and matchup, at this point in the game, I like to choose either a Marine, marauder, medivac stim timing, or a more defensive build into siege tanks. I’m also a firm believer that a single widow mine is great to have in any situation.

Versus protoss and zerg, I feel the stimpack timing is better. I make three rax, two labs and one reactor. I research all of the upgrades. And I add on a factory and starport, and immediately start dropping. A good zerg player might have mutes at about the time you attack. If you go this route, it is vital that you do some damage. Against toss, due to photon overcharge, I find it’s best to snipe tech structures. Against zerg, I find queen snipes and tech snipes tend to work. Because a player with good control can usually save most of his workers. But if not, drone kills always work. The most important thing to realize is that you have to make it out with your units alive. Getting the tech snipe but losing the units is a loss. Killing drones but losing your units is a loss. You have to do as much damage as possible, while still keeping those first few medivacs alive.

In a TvT, I find it’s best to go the siege tank route. I make a medivac first, a viking second, and then resume medivacs. If your opponent surprises you with banshees, that viking will save the game. And even if he doesn’t, the viking can pay for it’s self by taking out the enemy’s medivacs, spotting for the tanks, and even landing and getting in on the fight if things are close. I should also note that while I still make two reapers in TvT, I wait until I have *both* reapers to move out. This is because often times your opponent is also sending out a reaper or two. If you can catch his reaper in your base, you can almost always win the fight with your second reaper and or SCV support. But if you move out as soon as your first reaper is built, then he has a good chance of catching you with your pants down. It’s very clutch if you can get into his base with both your reapers and snipe an SCV building a tech structure -- like his factory or expo.

I always move out when I have two siege tanks with a third on the way. Normally, your Terran opponent will also have siege tanks by this time. Here is where I stretch my advantage with positioning. I find that I can almost always abuse a ledge, and with superior positioning, take out a Terran. Sometimes this siege tank push can work against a protoss player.

I should caution that my worst matchup is TvP. The only times I ever win in a TvP is when I have insanely good luck with drops, and continue to pressure the entire game.

My next best matchup is TvZ, where I have a great mech build. Except it’s vulnerable to some timing attacks against a good Zerg player. For that reason, I’ve been trying to start with the stim timing attack, and transition into a bio mech build.

My TvT siege tank push wins for me more often than it loses. But it’s true that against an equally skilled opponent, it can be repelled.

Playing StarCraft Again

I’m not sure why, but I’ve been playing a lot of StarCraft lately.

the community isn’t what it used to be. Sure, when there’s a tournament going, there will be plenty of people watching on Twitch.tv. But nowadays, StarCraft often is so slow on the user count that you have to scroll to find it.

And here I am, still playing random. Only this time I seem to have learned how to play Terran better. It’s all about the stim timing.

It’s all about me watching a lot of Byun on stream. One of the biggest questions in playing StarCraft amounts to “What do I spent my vespine gas on?”

When you play Toss, you’re almost obliged to spend it on Wargate, a stalker and a MSC. With Zerg, it’s speed in nearly every matchup. But terran, the answer isn’t so set in stone.

But Byun would always spend that first 100 gas on two reapers. Traditionally, I had been buying only one reaper. But look at how he harasses! I saw him milk those reapers for all that they were worth. In every matchup, I realized, my reapers could be doing more.

So I started spending my first 100 gas on two reapers. Then I copied how the timing works out so that he spends his next 400 minerals on an early expo. Perfect. I love his openings.

Nearly every ZvT I play, I go for a baneling bust. One of the most difficult aspects of playing StarCraft is the reverse. It’s when you’re playing in a TvZ and you have to scout the baneling bust. Many players, at my level, don’t. They get angry and bm over you “Cheesing” them. But with two reapers, you can get an early initial scout. You can sometimes get a few drone kills. And  you can also heal up at a watch tower to come back in for the vital scout. That scout lets you know if you need to really bunker up on one base, or if you’re safe with two. It also gives info about whether you’ll want to build an early widow mine from your factory, or if it’s safe to skip it for more tech.

I notice a lot of 3rax play. I had been thinking it was more like four rax. But three seems to work better. Two rax with Tech labs, one with a reactor. Then you can factory and Starport into MMM. The trick is to give tech priority to Stim and Combat shield. You can get two drops going fairly early with this build.

The only drawback is that you really have to do damage. If you don’t, you’re likely to be behind. Zerg players can spot the drops coming with good OL placement. And against toss players, often a tech building snipe or a few drones are your best option, because you’ll always bait out the defence of the MSC and have to retreat.

The other way I like to play TvZ is to go full mech. Just double armory, double upgrades, mech. I prefer my army composition to start with 4 to 6 siege tanks. Then add on as many thors and hellbats as I can, while I expand to a third base. The idea is to sit on three or four base until you max out with mainly thors. The problem with this build is that it is susceptible to attacks, and pretty much cedes map control to the zerg player. Later on I’ll add on a stargate and raven and possibly battlecruisers.

I find the full mech army *with siege tank support* can demolish just about anything. It does poorly against swarm hosts, which is why I have been experimenting with adding on Banshees. But in the end, I know the build needs a little work. Least reason of which is because there really is no harass with this build. It’s all turtle. And all turtle can never win against a player with full map control and good game sense.

Still, even as I type it, I can see how we could add on more harass. Because the build still starts with the two reapers. If you can keep them alive, you’ve got a good followup attack with Reactored hellions. If you keep that count up high, you can deny the zerg expos. Which would make turtling a whole lot more playable. I’m definitely going to try it in later games.