OMG, I SUCK. (help... please... Terran vs. Everything)

Hello, I'm a Terran, and I'm a getting-my-***-kicked-aholic.

I've read several strategies and I've been using them, but I'm still doing something wrong because I'm losing all the time. I've read Zerg players getting slaughtered by Terrans, and most often those posts were more helpful than TvZ strategies I've read. Apparently you Zerg folk never ran into me. heh. Sometimes I get a lucky win here and there, but for the most part my outcomes are as follows:

- TvZ: I'll prevent the rush nearly every time. After that it's a mutalisk slaughter that takes out my SCVs at the base which I don't recover from, or a hydralisks/zerglings mass takes out my the front. If I rush, I'll go marines/maurader but generally won't win. If I rush a second time, hydralisks take me out. If I turtle, by midgame hydralisks overwhelm me.

- TvP: I have occasional success with micro turbo reapers harass, or an early game bio push (small maps). Generally those void rays waste me. If my initial rush fails, then 2 voids will kill my SCVs. If I go midgame, mass void rays take me out. Doesnt seem to help where I position my marines, if I go base, they go frontdoor. If I go frontdoor, they go base. If I split the diff its not enough either way.

- TvT: These are about 50/50. Generally if early game survives, it'll be an 70-90+ minute game. I think I win out of sheer tenacity, not actual strategy. I'll rapid expand (planetary fortress + circle o'turrets) and control nearly all resources, but with thin defenses. It keeps them at bay, and I'll have mass resources to rebuild from attacks, and a hundred points on the map that will run them thin. Any time I do win, it's generally because the other Terran either gets bored or just doesn't have enough strategy to come in for the kill properly. Still... 90 minute games get tiring. Somewhere I should have a better strategy. Besides, doing that amount of map control I totally end up losing track of units.

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** What can I do to improve my TvZ, and TvP strategy?

** Does anyone in gold/diamond have a walk through on proper timing? example: at 00:30 have this built, at 00:45 start this, at 4:30 you should have this done already. Start harass at 02:00, start rush at 05:40, etc.

** How many SCVs should I have before initial rush to maximize resources?
** When is a good time for the second base?
** When is a good time for orbital upgrade?

** What can I do to improve my micro? hotkeys? strategies?


GOOD GOD, THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME FROM BEING ADDICTED TO GETTING MY DAMN *** KICKED.

 

Joneagle, thanks for Terran's Guide to the Galaxy... haven't tried this yet. Reading, reviewing, will follow to the letter, and will report back on results. If anyone else has anything to offer, I'm alllllll ears.

MUCH THANKS!

 

scout using scans, find out what your opponent is going, and counter it. Vikings+thors counter mutas, siege tank counters masses of units, and hellions massacre lings. As a protoss player, i find terran always scans my base every 4 minutes or so to keep tabs on what i'm building. So i have to keep my army away from the base

 

Roger that, Doctor. Good advice on the mutas. Thx! Vikings never seem to do it on their own. Are those Thors doing splash damage? Haven't encountered much Zerg lately, mostly Protoss.

The Terran's Guide to the Galaxy has really improved my gameplay! Dare I say, I'm having loads more fun now. Once I got the early build down, I won 2/4, and the 2 I lost were a lot of fun. Good midgame strategy that I was (relatively) happy to lose to.

 

Its because of Map-Control. Your opponents seem to know what youre doing and what your heading for. Try to gain Map-Control and prevent him from seeing.

For example: Lately i had a game PvT, me being Protoss (as always ;-) ). My enemy harasset me with an early game drop in my main against my probes (droped behind my mineral-line with MMM). But i was aware of it because i already had a scout in his base - he didn't knew! After that attack, much loses on his side and some in my army i had only a few units left, but decided to go for some harrasment. I started taking out his natural which wasn't protected at all. I kept making units, defeatet the few he was building and still had lots of map-control, since he hasn't seen my scout.

its always about knowing your enemy: Know what he is building, know what he is teching and mostly: Know how to conter. Look through your replays. Keep a close eye on your loses and try to find out why (mayby when) you lost. Think about alternatives you should have done.

About SCVs: BUILD LOTS! Generally, a base is saturated with 2 workers per mineral-patch (sums up 16) and 3 workers per gysier (sums up 6+16 = 22). But build more! Keep your SCVs coming. Then, when your able to build your expo take a whole lot of SCVs out of your main and your expo starts running with full forces!!! Works incredible!

PS: First post. Been reading around here for quite a while. Sry for my bad english, im german

 

AMD, thanks!

I've just recently lost 3 in a row to Protoss ground forces (TvP). I refrain from an early rush. They do a quick build w/Warp Gates and grab cloak. I start massing tanks, place them on the front line with a few turrets. If they attack doesn't come right away I'll move to a starport to create a Banshee as a roving detector. The gas for the banshee slows down on tanks, but a few turrets (as detectors) never seem to last through an attack. This is especially worse on maps with backdoors or open space behind me. I can't turret everything on the map. I'm turtled up and it's hard to expand. A few opponents have put a recon force right out my door (and out of seige range) that prevents me from easily expanding.

Hell of a tactic on their part. Any thoughts on a counter?

 

You're supposed to not let them wall you in.

I must admit, i like the "cannon-your-opponent-in" tactic myself. but lets go through some basics in BO (not exact since i preferr playing P, so i cant say too much bout T):

Usually you should start with building SCVs till 9 or 10 (don't know exactly) and then you go for your first supply. Build it on your choke, wall yourself in. Next build would be a barrack and maybe a second supply to seal the choke. Since the Supplys can be lowered your always able to get your units out, but your opponent isnt able to walk right in. Important thing: The SCV youre using to build your barrack will be your scout right afterwards. My suggestion would be: Send your SCV to seal the Choke with the Barrack, Hotkey-ing it to 1 while doing this. Then, shift-Rightclick to your opponents base while the SCV builds. This will send the SCV to your opponent right when its finished. You can get back to your normal build in the meantime. Build additional SCVs in your base (Hotkeyed on 4 for example) and keep on building up (second barrack as soon as possible, enough supplys, Vespine etc). JUST PLAY NORMAL. The SCV you hotkeyed to 1 will be gone afterwards.

Soon you'll realise a movement on your minimap. It will be your SCV (HK 1). take a small amount of time to lead your SCV. jump to your opponents startup-Positiion in the minimap, hit 1 and send it right next to one of the gysiers. Now press shift and rightclick next to the mineral-line to send your SCV through your opponents base. your last shift-Click will be next to one of the watchtowers. your SCV will stay there. You should be done before your SCV even hit the first waypoint. Press 4 to keep on your SCV-Production, press 5 for your Barracks and push marines. Keep your queues as empty as possible to build more buildings, units etc.

Depending on what you saw in your opponents base keep on. He plays Protoss and goes for mass Zealots? Go for MM (+M)! Counter his builds. Keep harassing. If you saw him build 1 gate and 1 core, go harass him with 5 Marines and kill his probes. dont concentrate on the battles. Send your marines to the mineralline, attack his probes and keep on with your normal buissnes. your marines will die, but you got a high advantage in minerals. Build some marauders, a factory and a starport. Leave your factory unintendet first. pull out 2 medivacs. you should have an army of about 10, 10, 2 (Marines, Marauders and Medi). use your orbitalcommand for a scan. Keep an eye on the minimap. HARASS!!! Most people play not aggressive enough, i myself sometimes do. Defensiv playing doesn't win the game.

Best Build for early game in my opinion: First Barrack seal choke, pull out marines. Second Barrack+Techlab -> Marauders. THIRD Barrack+Techlab -> MORE MARAUDERS. Take concussive Shells and the HP Bonus out of the Techlabs, then the stimpack. KEEP HARASSING!!!!

Hope this isnt too far away from how a Terran should play. Remember to ALWAYS keep an eye on your minimap (you have a SCV on a watchtower - maybe send a second to the other?). Everything that moves on the minimap unless its your color is BAD. Look for what it is. Strengthen your base entrance with a bunker (perfect against zerglings) or siege tanks. USE RAVENS IF YOUR OPPONENT USES CLOAK. Use Banshes /w cloak if your opponent doesnt seem to have detectors. on Blistering sands, take out the rocks in the backdoor of your enemys main base and go in. Go for a two-sided attack if your enemy turtles (air-units from behind the base - enemy sends his units to defend the mineral line and you can go in with your Sieges/marauders/Marines)......

And mostly: Play and learn......mostly out of your loses, not your wins

 

Macro play:
=========
TvZ
Marine Marauder vs hydras and lings, you should win, if you get stim pack like you are suppose to do, and with medivacs will make it even more ownage almost unbeatable against zerg. Always have some hellions handy to rape those zerglings or to quickly run in their base and rape his drones. I dont see the point of having a lot of Thors, just 1 or 2

TvP
vikings own voidraids, if he rushes voidraids, your marines with stimpack should be enough to fend them off. Basically your end army should be tanks+vikings. Make sure you have ghosts handy to set off those shockwaves that crushes protoss, always aim them at sentries/immortals/hightemplars, then its gg

Less Macro intensive:
=================
reaper rush with 4-7 reapers, depending on how fast you are at getting them, rape his workers, make sure you micro them. The hard part is to macro you way to mass banshees at the same time because he wont have air units.

 

This is how I try to learn from my losses and get better: Ask yourself what you could done to win that particular game.

Most of the problems that I see you having is defending against air units that can harass quite well early game. Now ask yourself, what can you do to defend it? The answer is getting units that are good counter to air units. For example, mass marines are exceptionally good against mutas and very good against void rays. Now that doesn't mean that you should only mass marines. Starcraft 2 is a very complicated game where you can't just spam one unit and win. Diversity is the key. Scout via scan, flying units or SCV what they are going for and try to counter those units.

You can't suddenly solve all the problems in one day. Try to work out one by one and you'll solve them all eventually.

 

It can really help to watch your replays to see exactly what went wrong. A lot of time you'll misanalyze what happened if you don't watch it from an observer perspective.

I would also suggest that before you try to focus so much on build order and micro, focus on macroing your best. Keep making SCVs the whole game, don't let your minerals get high, expand early, and create as many units as you can.

It sounds like you're getting overwhelmed by your opponent late game, which usually means he has an economy advantage. Find out how he got it then do it yourself.

If you die to something cheesy like SCV harass, then learn from that and figure out how to defend against it. Scouting so you can react is one of the best ways.

 

i dont have a specific build but i will show you what i do.
TVP
from begining i wall myself of with 2 supply depots and a baracks. as soon as that goes down i get 2 more baracks with reacotr cores and the first original gets a tech lab. make sure to research the marine health shield and marauder concusion. so many marines are very decent in begining to fight against but also it demolishes the mass voidray strat. before you expand you need to run to the ghosts because their EMP is CRUTIAL!!! so many peopel dotn use it and end up fighting a protos with twice its health. as soons as you have a ghost or 2 you can attack confidently. as you do you can expand and go for either a double factory or a factory and a starport. for double tanks or just tanks and medivacs. from here on with very good use of emp's and tanks you have most protoss players by the balls.

TVZ
very similarly btu for this you need more scouting information. you could see early tech to banelings/roaches or even hydras so it is important to be able to distinguish between them and beign able to take advantage of these opertunities. vs zerg i usually build only 2 baracks one with a reactor and one with a tech lab. instead of a 3rd barack get a techlab for helions. this seems effective for me in the begining but be warned that if mutas come into play and you have not build another baracks with a reactor YOU WILL LOSE because there is not much that stands against them. so gl man try it out and tell me what you think

 

OP - you didn't mention using Ghosts to call down nuclear strikes. Have you done that very much?

I've found it to be very effective, assuming your enemy does not early rush you and you have time to build properly.

I generally build 5-6 Ghost Academies, and get them trained for cloak, + Ghost energy, and armed with nuclear missiles as fast as possible. I make 5-10 Ghosts, and put up a Starport to make Medivacs to haul the Ghosts near the base I want to attack. I ususlly only haul 1-2 Ghosts at a time, and have extra Medivacs standing by.

Sometimes the enemy has detector units that find my Ghosts and take them out, and that can be VERY annoying, but more often than not, they don't have enough detectors up.

Use your orbital command center to sweep enemy bases, and look for weak spots in their base defense where your medivac can drop off the Ghost without being shot at. If such a place exists, then you can cloak your Ghost, and start dropping nukes on their base pretty easily.

After every 2-3 nukes you drop, click back to your base and re-arm the ghost academies that used their nuclear missiles. That way you have minimal down time while waiting for more nukes to be ready.

If you're trying to get into a Protoss base, and they have photon cannons, don't get too close, as the cannons will see and shoot your Ghost. Instead, drop a nuke in front of the cannons. place yout target so the cannons are on the edge of your big targeting circle. The nukes will do enough damage to take out 2-3 cannons at a time like that.

If your Protoss enemy is on high ground and has photon cannons near the edge of the cliff, target your nuke at the BOTTOM edge of the cliff. The nukes will still kill the photon cannons or whatever is up there on the edge of the cliff.

There have been quite a few times in Beta Phase 1 of SC2 where I had little to no army / base defense, but I did have nukes and a couple Ghosts, and the enemy gave up and quit after I nuked their main base and expansions enough, even though they would have killed me easily if they'd rushed my base one last time and had not given up.

It's fun to win like that!

 

OP - you didn't mention using Ghosts to call down nuclear strikes. Have you done that very much?

I've found it to be very effective, assuming your enemy does not early rush you and you have time to build properly.

I generally build 5-6 Ghost Academies, and get them trained for cloak, + Ghost energy, and armed with nuclear missiles as fast as possible. I make 5-10 Ghosts, and put up a Starport to make Medivacs to haul the Ghosts near the base I want to attack. I ususlly only haul 1-2 Ghosts at a time, and have extra Medivacs standing by.

Sometimes the enemy has detector units that find my Ghosts and take them out, and that can be VERY annoying, but more often than not, they don't have enough detectors up.

Use your orbital command center to sweep enemy bases, and look for weak spots in their base defense where your medivac can drop off the Ghost without being shot at. If such a place exists, then you can cloak your Ghost, and start dropping nukes on their base pretty easily.

After every 2-3 nukes you drop, click back to your base and re-arm the ghost academies that used their nuclear missiles. That way you have minimal down time while waiting for more nukes to be ready.

If you're trying to get into a Protoss base, and they have photon cannons, don't get too close, as the cannons will see and shoot your Ghost. Instead, drop a nuke in front of the cannons. place your target so the cannons are on the edge of your big targeting circle. The nukes will do enough damage to take out 2-3 cannons at a time like that.

If your Protoss enemy is on high ground and has photon cannons near the edge of the cliff, target your nuke at the BOTTOM edge of the cliff. The nukes will still kill the photon cannons or whatever is up there on the edge of the cliff.

There have been quite a few times in Beta Phase 1 of SC2 where I had little to no army / base defense, but I did have nukes and a couple Ghosts, and the enemy gave up and quit after I nuked their main base and expansions enough, even though they would have killed me easily if they'd rushed my base one last time and had not given up.

It's fun to win like that! And if you are playing agsinst a Protoss, use the EMP to reduce their shields a bit.

 

Try the build order tutorial videos against each race on youtube...it's pretty damn helpful

http://www.youtube.com/user/MicroStarcraft2