The Terran players thread

[hyde]

How do you guys deal with Mid-Late game Zerg? I have troubles with them ever since the patch, I would normally open with reaper harass but now that's impossible.

Lately I've been getting counter-countered a lot and I find it hard to change my unit composition to react.
For example, I'm fine combattng mass baneling/speedlings with hellion builds. But then I'll transist to tanks to fight off hydralisks. Suddenly I'll get randomly swarmed by mass Mutalisks/banelings/zerglings.

I can't seriously create enough units to counter the baneling swarm (That usually owns my natural expo) and have the units to ward off mutalisk swarms.
Im basically sitting inside my base and scared out of my mind. Either get flanked by Mutalisks or get plowed down by a baneling march.
To seriously ward off 50+ Zerglings/Banelings, I need like 20++ Hellions.
Thus then the natural counter to mutalisks is thors..so I get thors. But they're too slow and I can't seriously keep up with the base raping.


So does anyone know a good viable opening? I seriously hate mid/long 1v1 games and I like to end em before Tier 2.5.
Or any advice if I do get stuck in mid-late game Terran vs Zerg?
I find it impossible to contain Zerg now.


(i've tried many things, like early bunker rush to prevent the early expo. But it seems that mass zerglings/banelings can just run by or plow down any static defence I have...forcing me to get Air or dedicated ground (hellions) and then get double countered by mutalisk swarms...ughhh)

[charliechar3806]

Terran will forever be the best
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[GnaReffotsirk]

How do you guys deal with Mid-Late game Zerg? I have troubles with them ever since the patch, I would normally open with reaper harass but now that's impossible.

Lately I've been getting counter-countered a lot and I find it hard to change my unit composition to react.
For example, I'm fine combattng mass baneling/speedlings with hellion builds. But then I'll transist to tanks to fight off hydralisks. Suddenly I'll get randomly swarmed by mass Mutalisks/banelings/zerglings.

I can't seriously create enough units to counter the baneling swarm (That usually owns my natural expo) and have the units to ward off mutalisk swarms.
Im basically sitting inside my base and scared out of my mind. Either get flanked by Mutalisks or get plowed down by a baneling march.
To seriously ward off 50+ Zerglings/Banelings, I need like 20++ Hellions.
Thus then the natural counter to mutalisks is thors..so I get thors. But they're too slow and I can't seriously keep up with the base raping.


So does anyone know a good viable opening? I seriously hate mid/long 1v1 games and I like to end em before Tier 2.5.
Or any advice if I do get stuck in mid-late game Terran vs Zerg?
I find it impossible to contain Zerg now.


(i've tried many things, like early bunker rush to prevent the early expo. But it seems that mass zerglings/banelings can just run by or plow down any static defence I have...forcing me to get Air or dedicated ground (hellions) and then get double countered by mutalisk swarms...ughhh)

Have you tried drop harass at 7:00? Marauders to cover your front with bunker and PF at nat works well vs Zerg ground. Also, try to delay Zerg FE with scv or put down a supply depot ready for cancel. If a zerg can't get nat, he's behind two minutes.

Also, if you can get some reapers into your ball, lings are toast, even Blings. Use mobility and impenetrable defense to snipe those spires, or kill drones at your leisure.

Massed blings is an all-in thing, when it comes early. It's often at 8:00 the fastest 16 blings, and that means no roach, no expo, and few drones.

[Unbrownloco]

How do you guys deal with Mid-Late game Zerg? I have troubles with them ever since the patch, I would normally open with reaper harass but now that's impossible.

Lately I've been getting counter-countered a lot and I find it hard to change my unit composition to react.
For example, I'm fine combattng mass baneling/speedlings with hellion builds. But then I'll transist to tanks to fight off hydralisks. Suddenly I'll get randomly swarmed by mass Mutalisks/banelings/zerglings.

I can't seriously create enough units to counter the baneling swarm (That usually owns my natural expo) and have the units to ward off mutalisk swarms.
Im basically sitting inside my base and scared out of my mind. Either get flanked by Mutalisks or get plowed down by a baneling march.
To seriously ward off 50+ Zerglings/Banelings, I need like 20++ Hellions.
Thus then the natural counter to mutalisks is thors..so I get thors. But they're too slow and I can't seriously keep up with the base raping.


So does anyone know a good viable opening? I seriously hate mid/long 1v1 games and I like to end em before Tier 2.5.
Or any advice if I do get stuck in mid-late game Terran vs Zerg?
I find it impossible to contain Zerg now.


(i've tried many things, like early bunker rush to prevent the early expo. But it seems that mass zerglings/banelings can just run by or plow down any static defence I have...forcing me to get Air or dedicated ground (hellions) and then get double countered by mutalisk swarms...ughhh)

The trick is to never let the zerg get to late game... and cripple his mid game strategy...
TLDR= The Imbarine Pain Train>Anything Zerg Spews

Build Order = w/e you want sort of but mine is something of a 4/1/1 build, I throw rax on 12, gas on 13, command at 15, and after the first marine is out of my rax to deny any scouting I throw up a reactor on that and start building 2nd rax, 2nd rax gets the tech lab thrown on it and I immediately start getting the combat shield @ first 100 gas. From here start building another CC and then 2 more raxes with an engi bay to get +1up's. Another random building I like to put up is a bunker at my ramp b/c Im a bit weary of a five/7 roach rush but I get those 100 minerals back at some point. The key timing with the first push is 20 marines, at 20 marines you should have combat shields up as well as +1 finishing up soon. Don't get your 2nd gas until you start making a factory which will be rather well delayed for the comforts of most terrans used to getting quick thors for the muta's or starports for banshee harrass.


Honestly I've been trying this terran style against zerg and it has been ultra effective for me. I've have a 100% win-rate against zergs but they are most definately NOT quick games(25minutes-ish or whenever he runs out of gas). I think the only thing that could stop me is maybe the 16 baneling all in but I have yet to meet a zerg to attempt that on me because I don't even bother walling off against zerg anymore. I so got tired of going HEY LOOK FREE RAX/Depot etc, meh. Although the other day I did have a zerg attempt a baneling bust on one of my planetary fortress but he forgot to factor in the fact that it would kill off 2 banelings before they even touch it+building armor upgrade and we both just lol'd at the silliness, I repaired it and went right back to kicking his butt. The basic idea of the style is to keep on trading armies with the zerg opponent using marines, a mineral only unit, and force him to create units that are all gas intensive, blings, roaches, infestors which are all very effective at killing off marines but if you get 4-6 rax with reactors pumping out marines you have another 20-30 food worth marines ready to go sitting in your base one minute later on the cheap. Now you cannot win with marines alone(most of the time...) which is where the ravens come in with their auto-turret and hunter seeker missile, but more importantly they're hands down the 2nd most awesome unit in the terran army(battlecruiser being the first, duh) and they're so underappreciated! Oh yeah also their detection denies a creep super highway and any kind of burrow bling play. Another thing about ravens is that if micro'd properly they will NEVER die so your gas units just need to recharge and run back into the fray while his die off to gauss rifles rounds. Another really cool thing about raven's if you ever get the chance to use it... go ahead and throw one seeker missile at a stockpile of larva, yeah that just happened. You just need one raven with 200 energy to drop a turret for the queen to focus fire on and then go ahead and HSM the larva, you WILL want to make sure that he does NOT have a mutalisk force in the air because they can snipe that hero raven pilot before he brags about how awesome sniping 4-7 zerg units before they even had a chance to be. Did I just say ravens are baby killers? Other nice support units for your reactored rax disposable army are tanks/medivacs but don't forget how easy and devastating the transition to getting two banshee's harrassing his mineral line while your raven flock and marine suicide squad knock on his front door. ALSO, nothing is cooler than having the infrastructure in place to make one frivolous battlecruiser that he can't react to because dropping gas on anti-air units just makes it so that the marine force is that much stronger against them.


Important things about this style to note is that you WILL feel frail and weak because your army kinda keep's suiciding into zerg force but keep in mind that you're not snapping the neck of the zerg player as much as you are draining him of the lifeblood that is vespene gas. Oh yeah its SUPER ULTRA OF HIGHEST importance to deny the third expansion which is relatively easy to do when you have 30 marines with combat shield and 2/2's stimming up your expo with a flock of ravens absorbing the hydra/muta shots with their pdd and lulz have you ever seeker missiled a muta? And yes, no matter what the zerg does or makes marines with support will demolish it, but you just cannot 1-A your way to victory. You will have map control if played properly because he won't be able to afford the ultra gas intensive mutalisks that get hard-countered by marines and seeker's which can allow you for one or two vikings to go around overlord sniping any that were so bold as to venture out of their base. Against really really good zerg players if they scout reactor rax they prop up a baneling nest and survive the first wave of marines, but when they see your second round of marines they incorporate infestor play which on paper the combination of infestor, baneling, roach, hydra all seem a bit stronger than your t-1 unit that can't go toe-to-toe with 2 speedlings. Banelings off creep are a joke and vs infestors you really wanna bait a fungal on a small portion of your marines while the majority dodge it and stimrush the infestor down, even if only 5 marines make it out of the fungal they can snipe down an infestor.



It's a really awkward feeling to contain a zerg army in this fashion as opposed to the mech play since losing thor's and tanks is such a heavy loss, but forcing a trade of minerals for gas units? Pfft, there is a lot more mineral nodes on any map than there are gas nodes. Anyways if you're interested in trying this really powerful playstyle vs zerg go check out the long thread worth reading with great replays of 2200 diamond terrans over on TL that picks apart every little bit of it.

[Twilice]

Thors are pretty good tanks vs zerg.

[GnaReffotsirk]

Got a question. I've been trying this for three games in 3v3:

15 CC
17 rax
18 rax
19 rax
19 supply

There are variations to getting Planetary fortress. Basically, one gets some rines for that 5:00 some harass, but can then overwhelm with superior production at 8:00.

Have you guys experemented with this yet? What have you found in terms of weaknesses and strengths?

[haydo]

Thanks for this. Has helped my game

[Gifted]

FYI, I've been having a lot of fun with 2 rax into 4 cc.

You may laugh at me now before you are enlightened

[evillesh]

FYI, I've been having a lot of fun with 2 rax into 4 cc.

You may laugh at me now before you are enlightened

Well, if the opponent didn't scout it, so why not? Pretty funny build to be honest. Risky, but funny
Playing against some zerg players I even did 14CC before rax, since almost every zerg goes hatch before pool now. This tactic suffers from early roach aggression though.

[Twilice]

2 rax into 4 cc?

Err, what does that mean? Playing with only 2 rax and expand with 4 command centers?