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!