Starcraft 2 - Terran

Hi everyone,

Here im going to write about the terran and a few ways to use them. Terran are the most versatile of the three races, allowing a big variety of tech. I'm going to start off with the first few starting moments of the game.

Start to Early game- Summary

1. Start mining with all the SCVs and start building one at the command center as fast as you can.

2. Keep making SCVs until you reach 10/11 and get that one to find the choke point.

3. If there is a zerg on the other team then you have to wall your base, so you can avoid getting zergling rushed and zealot rushed. More details later on.

4. Start to build a barracks and train more SCVs in the mean time. You can choose to put down your gas refinery at this point. Barracks can be used to block the ramp too.

5. Once barracks are done, get another supply depot, and if its a small ramp, this should block it off completely. Build a few marines and once your supply gets to 17, upgrade your command center into an Orbital Command.

6. Build another barracks and you can choose to get a factory instead, if you have enough gas. Put a reactor on one of the barracks to spam marines. A tech lab if you want to get marauders.

7. Use the Orbital command to scan or to call down a mule. Scanning will give you a quick idea of what the other guys are doing. Once you scan you can know what to do to counter.

Start to Early game:

For terran, the most important bit is getting a good head start. Make sure you train your SCV as soon as the game starts and as soon as possible, so that way you can get more income. Those 10 - 20 extra minerals make all the difference.

The next bit is walling. Walling is almost crucial in Terran's as marines are very weak, and tend to get rushed by zerglings and zealots. Creating a wall will block them from coming into your base, allowing the marines to shoot them from behind the wall. Also you can block enemy probes and stuff from getting into your base, hiding your tech and also so the worker can't harrass yours. Terran building were also made for walling, with the ability to fly or to lower themselves. Walling off is mostly used against Zerg and Protoss, but if protoss get stalkers, the wall is made useless, and it is pretty useless walling off against Terran unless you want to hide your tech.

Heres a picture of a wall:

This just survived a zergling attack and i repaired a supply depot which was half dead. But the marines are nice and healthy and they died so thats all that mattered.

Strategies from Early game on:

Mass Marines:

To do Mass Marines, you will need to scrap a factory and get at least 3 barracks, one with a reactor. Keep your supply up and keep pumping out Marines and stuff until you have loads. The earlier you have them out to attack the better, and this is a early push and win tactic. If you have been scouted you will want to change tech as soon as possible because then something like a colossus will come around and kill everything.

After that send in your marines but make sure you keep your barracks pumping out marines in the meantime and attack the enemy base. Hopefully they won't have anything to deal with you. Zealots are easy to kill, just keep shooting and running away from them. Keep sending reinforcments to help the initial force and with enough you can win the game very early.

Some counters to these are:

Siege tanks: These things tear marines apart.

Colossus: These things also them apart

Bunkers

Upgrades:

Combat Shield: That extra hp will be pretty handy.

Stimpacks

Any armor or weapon upgrades from the engineering bay.

Reaper Rush

Reapers are fast and have a decent damage, and the best thing they can do is jump up and down cliffs. This gives them alot of versatility. They can get to the workers in the mineral line and kill them within a few shots, effectively halting their income. The fastest way to do this is to get a Barracks and a Refinery out before your 1st supply depot and then attach a tech lab to it and start pumping out a few reapers.

The point of this is to attempt to set your enemy back within resources, and damage them enough. You will rather not use them to kill everything as they are very easily killed themselves. Send small groups of reapers at a time to attack.

Using this against protoss is very effective. Zealots cannot catch up to them as they are so fast, but maybe not so much against zergs and other terran. The main approach is not to face them head on but to jump up the cliff nearest to their minerals and kill as many workers as you can before they can do anything do you stop you. Jumping up and down cliffs is a very effective to make them survive.

Upgrades:

Nitro JetPack.

Counters:

Anything thats ranged that are in the mineral lines.

Zerglings on creep can catch reapers without nitro jetpacks

Photon cannons and Spine Crawlers do loads of damage to them.

Standard Build

The standard build is an army that consists of Marines, Marauders, Medivacs, which is enough to win a match. These 3 units are easy to mass as they don't cost too much. They can both defend and attack, and are also good enough to stay alive to kill everything.

Set up 2 extra barracks after upgrading to an orbital command. 1 Barracks should have the reactor addon while the rest get a tech lab. Then keep building up the army, and eventually you'll have a good enough army that can withstand a lot, and you can do this while you build up some more heavy hitters.

Upgrades:

Combat Shield

Concussive Rounds

Stimpacks

Any upgrades in the engineering bay.

Counters:

Colossus

Siege Tanks

Adding to the standard build can help reduce a few of the counters. Some of the best things to use are Siege Tanks, Thors, Battlecruisers and something that can help counter the stuff they send at you.

Siege Tanks

They are so special they get a section of their own. These are the might of the Terran at the middle game, and can turn events very unexpectatly. Remember this,

3 siege tanks > 20 Marines and even more if they get a cliff to siege on.

Counters Guide -> http://www.bukisa.com/articles/337147_starcraft-2-terran-vs-protoss-counters

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/354960_starcraft-2-protoss-vs-terran-counters - Protoss vs Terran

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/358677_starcraft-2-protoss-vs-zerg-counters - Protoss vs Zerg