More Banshees!

So after having switched to Terran play, I started losing. A lot. I’m pretty sure I would have been demoted to gold by now, if the ladder worked the way you’d expect it to. But then, I made an adjustment in my game play. I did a few web searches on Terran builds, and I decided to make more banshees. That, it turns out, was a very good idea.

Against all races, I’m doing a 13 barracks, 13 refinery. Where I used to make two reapers, now I’m often only making one, unless I feel my opponent’s micro is sub par. Next I made a CC, while trying to spend that first 100 gas on a factory. From there, you make two tech labs and start two starports. Any excess minerals go to more marines, and I always like to have a widow mine.

But when you get that first Starport, you put it on the tech lab and make a banshee, and upgrade cloak. With the second starport, you make more banshees.

I’ve found that banshee harass is one of the best tools in the game. A single banshee can win the game, if left unchecked in your opponent’s mineral line. A single banshee can take on any other ground unit. With good micro, they’re even pretty damn good against marines.

But when I reveal the banshees, especially in TvT, I change one of the starports to a reactor, and start pumping out the vikings. I’ll do the same against zerg, if I see him reacting with a spire instead of a hydralisk den. The trick of the opening in TvZ is that if he goes hydra, you have to counter with MMM. If he goes spire, you have to go skyterran with constant viking supporting banshees, ravens, and battle cruisers.

But I even find success with this build in my TvP games. Stalkers are not the best counter to banshees. But many protoss players will make them anyway. Which is why it can be good to have a few vikings, to snipe the MSC, and even snipe observers to keep up your harass with the unit.

For the longest time, I played the game in a cold, calculating way. Carefully considering my opponent’s unit composition and choosing my units accordingly. But now, in my Terran games, I have a new mantra, and it earns me *victory*: More Banshees!

Quest for the Dark Voice

I was going through my achievements in StarCraft, when I remember the one about the dark voice. You have to win a thousand games with each race. Years ago, I remembered reading a post on the forums about how almost noone had it.

As a random player, I knew I wanted it. I knew I already had a thousand wins with Zerg and Protoss. So I looked up how many wins I have as Terran.

Six hundred and seventy four. Not as many as I would have liked. I never realized before how much I’d done the lion's share of my losing with Terran.

So I did the unthinkable. I changed from Random to Terran. And I vowed to get my thousand wins before going back to random, with the Dark Voice icon.

I also watched a few pro terran games. I saw a build that Taeja used against Protoss on a large map. He went CC first, into two rax, into a bunker. The problem is, I can never seem to pull off what Taeja can do effortlessly.

I tried another build that goes directly into three rax stim and combat shields. The point of that build is to run into a toss natural and snipe it. There is some promise there, althought I haven’t yet been able to work the kinks out. I think a slightly later timing with Medivacs might really push that one over the edge.

I’ve also made progress in my TvZ. My most comfortable opening, in all matchups for that matter, is going Barracks first, making two reapers to scout and harass. Then, against a zerg opponent, I reactor out four hellions, and snipe the zerg creep tumors, trying my best to deny his third base. I follow that one up with cloaked banshees. From there, you really have to tailor your attack to what your opponent is building. But I’ve found that in TvZ matchups, you often want to start adding vikings. If you can take a third or a fourth easily, I always go into three starports, two with tech labs for battlecruisers, one with a reactor for vikings. If you can keep your viking count high enough, you can have an invincible army.

Of course, his only real counter to that isn’t corruptors. It’s Hydras. So if he does start to make tons of hydras, you have to be able to counter some of that with good old fashioned Marine/Marader/Medivac.

TvT used to be my best matchup. I would also go for quick siege tanks and deny my opponents natural. But nowadays, I’m getting worked by cloaked banshees. Even missile turrets and an emergency viking don’t seem to help. That’s what really annoys me. That you can make a turret, and still lose tons of scvs.

Got any good builds? Let me know.