whenever I play against terran I really struggle with the first few minutes of the game (say within 8 minutes) unless I make sentries for forcefields I can seem to make enough units to hold off the masses of infantry terran throws at me that early Is there a way to hold this off without having to make loads of sentries? I feel that if I do this is somewhat limits me if Im aiming for more gas heavy units in the midgame like colossi
I'd say delay the colossi for much later. Generally you need sentries against terran with stim and concussive shells if you are to beat them cause they can hit and run and take your units few at a time and do so unpunished. Some early immortals will help a lot in beating the terran bio if it's marauder-heavy and if it's marine heavy go for chargelots. You can also get them to waste stim with chargin in and retreating and leaving 1-2 zealots that are further back to die. Not very cost-effective but if you manage to burn down 2 or 3 stim charges like that then you just charge in and kill them. Can you attach a replay with an example of you being unable to hold off a terran army? It could help as a ground to give tips based on that.
I do too and hate it. But I found an early attack helps. Scouting is the trick here. Once you have to fight it out down the ramp terran mostly wins. But if I can squeeze in my scout before his second supply depot and have my 1st zealot ready and over there, I scout again and micro attack him before he can go MMM. Mostly you end up loosing a few units but prevents him to go MM. Then either he's builing buildings or units. If building buildings you have good change you win with say 6 zealots and a few sentry.
Instead of using a sentry you can be smart with your building placements. A forge can pretty much hold off the early infantry units. Furthermore, if the Terran wants to push he has to waste a scan to get a view up the ramp. But then again pro Terrans use a barrack to scout up the ramp and then push in with Stim Packs and Concussive Shells already upgraded. Sentry is still your best bet against early infantry =) You can always try forge and sentries then you need not waste gas on more sentries ^^
The problem is, you are greatly underestimating how powerful a zealot sentry mix is early on. With three fast warp gates and constantly making units out of them, you can fight the early MM push in open field and win, by force fielding behind the entire push and trapping them with zealots when they can't micro back at all.
More Zealots More Sentries Less Stalkers More Immortals Collosus Just make sure your forcefields are amazing, because without charge lots your just going to get kited around. I also just can't see why you can't forcefield half his army cut off of the ramp and then another at the entrance for the back ups can't assist and grab your free kills.
I have the opposite problem. Although I always go 3 rax against toss and constantly pump marines and marauders and build ghosts for emp (and tech to a raven to be prepared for a dt drop/rush), I lost to two toss yesterday. Both just had ridiculuous numbers of stalkers plus a few zealots. I had stim and concussive shells and didn't stand a chance. In the replay I saw that they didn't even have more probes. I just don't know how to hold off early 3-6 gate pushes.
Attack Try this: Scout very early, like from the start. 1pylon 9/10 Scout his base, have the probe somewhere near his base near the ramp. Build 1st gate very early , 11/16 Save your 2nd CB for zealots Push your zealot to his base, see if he's any units. Guard your probe with zealot untill 2nd gate and forge finishes, either in your base or near opp. Make sure you have enough pylons to push out 4/5 zealots. When zealots are going towards his base (point gates to the group of zealots) have a pylon near his base ramp. When zealots arrive, have em attack, in the meantime (this is timing) have 2 cannons at his front door shooting supply depot. The key is to finish the cannons at the sametime the zealots are attacking. This gives you some support, and it also blocks his base for a while if you lost your units micro-ing. Its a timing and micro thing, but it helped me to deal with any early MM pushes. Downside is your base is vulnarable for scouts/builders, but then he's not comin for a while. Hope this helps! Any comments?
Could one of you post a replay, where a terran beat a toss without any special strategy or trick (or an irregular mistake by the toss player)? Just by outmassing his gateway units with rax units?
Once you get an Immortal out to Support your other Units you should have the Advantage. Watch out for Terran Air Units. Void Rays are very Versatile, good against Marauders, Tanks, Banshees, etc (they're also good for Attacking Mineral Lines and Supply Depots if the enemy neglects their Defence), just watch out for Groups of Marines or Vikings. Check out Void Ray Strategies, Basic but Effective.
