My Bunker Strategy I know this is kind of long, but it's worth the read. The idea is that late game, when all mineral fields are saturated and I have lots of expansions out in the open, I'll have enough money to buy a few SCVs to build a ton of bunkers. Then I put marines in them and select all of my bunkers into one unit group. Six marines costs 300 minerals, 6 supply, and barracks time. They total have 270 health after stimpacks and combat shield. Four marines and a bunker also costs 300 minerals, 4 supply, less barracks time, and worker time (which is negligible late game, when expansions are mostly saturated). That bunker will deal two-thirds as much damage as the six marines, but has 400 health and armor. Not to mention that the structure armor boost from the eBay is cheap and effective. As your bunkers are about to be destroyed, pull your marines out and you have an additional 180 health after shield and stim. This adds up to 580 health (in reality this will be a tad less as you're pulling your marines out before the bunkers have taken their full 400 damage) In conclusion, 4 bunkered marines cost less supply and have a total "health" of over double the 6 non-bunkered ones (not including the armor protection) - for the same mineral cost. They inflict two-thirds as much damage but have +1 range to compensate partially. Bunkered marines are more spread out, making them less vulnerable to siege tanks and banelings. On the downside, bunkered marines are unable to quickly retreat or chase a losing enemy, are inconvenient for medivac healing, and most debilitatingly, can not defend themselves against thors, which have a higher range. Usage Bunkered marines, with their range of 6 and the excellent stats detailed above, can defend against and destroy MMs, banshees, battlecruisers, and virtually anything with a range of 6 or below. However, it is highly susceptible to thors and siege tanks (or any unit with a range higher than 6), which can attack without retaliation. As a result, bunkered marines should always be supported with siege tanks of your own (use the bunkers to tank damage while the siege tanks blast away) ...so, what do you think?
Yes everything you said is true, that is the purpose of bunkers. However your idea is geared towards late game. Bunkers are used to defend against early game pressure because most likely there wont be any tanks/thors/colossi/broodlords/ultralisk etc... you must think about the surface area. The concept of attacking is to have the biggest concave over your opponent as opposed to convex. With bunkers you aren't maximizing your DPS with surface area. Ex: you have 16 marines vs a battlecruiser - if you put all your marines in bunkers, you probably won't have all 4 bunkers attacking the battlecruiser as it can simply attack 1 bunker at a time from the side. - now if you take all your marines out of your bunkers, you can move them and have them all attack the battlecruiser while surrounding it, killing it way faster. (I don't know if 16 is enough actually but you get the idea) - you want a bigger surface area of units attacking in order to deal the maximum possible DPS. your late game, there shouldn't be any turtling, as you expand the more mobility you require, bunkers force you to hold a position. Perhaps keeping a bunker near your workers could be a good idea. I hope this clarifies some stuff for you good luck
