Terran: Give him Hellions

Don't you guys just love to harass?

That's a whole lot of Fire

I mean harassing is pretty much one of the most useful skills in the whole game. By having a good harass, you can damage the early economy strongly and also deal distract the enemy while expanding and getting a stronger army

And one of the greatest tools in the Terran Army for harassing is the Hellion.

---

THEORY
Hellions are created to deal with light units and SCV's. For example Hellions do well against Zerglings and workers but do horrible against Roaches on creep and Marauders.

With proper micro you definitely can deal with zealots who do not have the charge ability.

Of course try to avoid corners and walls, Hellions are fast little buggers they work well in nice open spacers where they can hit and run.

With Infernal Pre-igniter they gain a really good damage boost that allows them to 2 shot workers.

Also since their attack is considered line-splash, its works even better in mineral lines since they are in lines.

So just send in 2 or 3 Hellions and you've got it made.

---

Examples

---

BO
If you're going for this the best is to go for an early refinery and for a 1/1 build for the early factory and fast Hellions

10 Depot
11 Refinery
11 Barracks
13 Barracks
13 Reactor
14 Factory
15 Hellion

This is something I've seen used in some games where the single hellions are quite good.

Force SC2
(10) Supply Depot
(12) Barracks
(13) Refinery
(16) Orbital Command
(17) Factory
(18) Tech Lab on Barracks
(18) Barracks
(22) Reactor on Factory
(26) Tech Lab on Barracks

TLO's Hellion Push
[Number = Supply count]
10 Supply Depot
12 Gas
13 Barracks
16 Orbital Command
16 Factory
16 Marine
17 Supply Depot
19 Hellion
21 Command Center
22 Hellion
25 Gas
25 Supply
25 Hellion
28 Armory
28 Hellion
32 Factory
33 Hellion
35 Orbital Command
36 Vehicle Plating LvL 1
37 2x Factory
- More SCV's / Supply Depots
- More Hellions / Thors
- More Factories

---

Tactics

This is a new Section I'll be adding to all future Articles and to any article I'll be redoing.

Well the tactic with the Hellion is that it is meant as a harasser force or a anti-Light/Infantry support unit for larger troops like Tanks or Thors.


Some good combinations would be to mix Thors with Hellions, Banshees with Hellions, Tanks with Hellions, Hellions up front with Marauders Behind.

Also remember because Hellions die easily its better to get at least 2 or more hellions before using them.

If you're sending it as a lonely Hellion, chances are that the Hellion will die really easy and you won't be able to do enough damage.


Also because their fast and easy to kill, hit and run is advised at all times. 6 Zerglings could probably deal with 2 Hellions who stand still and don't have Infernal Pre-Igniters.


--
Things to note

Hellions are not good En Masse but neither are they any good alone.

A good number of Hellions falls between 2-6 Hellions. Any more would be a waste and if its a lone ranger your hellion won't be able to do much.

Their damage towards light units are much higher due to their flame throwers. Also because of the line style of damage, try to get that Surround as fast as you can.

That Surround with Line-Splash will wreck hell on any light army who dares to challenge you.

Here's a Mental Checklist
1. Early Gas
2. How many Hellions do I have
3. Whats my enemy
4. SCVs
5. Scout

Terran: When You've Enough Of Those Stinking Rays

So yeah I know.

That Protoss guy. He's an asshole. Your big marauder army which was meant to deal with what you thought was a 4 gate, since you saw an early gas, is now useless to the 5 voidrays that your enemy has.

You're probably like. WHATS THE MEANING OF THIS! HOW CAN 20 MARAUDERS BE TAKEN OUT BY 5 ENEMY UNITS THAT LOOK LIKE THEY CAME FROM A DOLLAR STORE IN MEXICO.

Kinda like one of those Imitation Gundam Toys

Then again no one asked you to make a purely land army. I mean there are more tactics in the Protoss army than Blink Stalkers and Immortals.

So here's a Counter Guide to Void Ray Rushes.

---

THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR

Well since this is a Counter Guide, I'm going to change it a bit. Instead of the usual aggressive style of playing. To counter you need to be reactive.

Kinda like Taichi!

For example here's a bunch of things you need to look out for in case of a Void Ray Rush.

1. If you're opponents going for a Void Ray Rush, he probably is going for that double gas.

Yes he'll probably want to go for an early double gas. If your scout SCV is going into his base and all you see is 1 gateway, 1 cybernetics core and 2 Assimilators. Your opponent is either really dumb and believes his 1 gateway can send him the whole army from Shakuras or most likely your opponent is going for the Ray Rush.

2. Its been 10 minutes, you haven't seen a single enemy unit. Not even a miserable probe that comes to scout what you're doing.

Reason being they are either have been massing a Void Ray Rush or they massing gateway units to end your miserable marine army! To prevent your army from being unprepared, the only piece of advice anyone can give you instead of going for mass marines with tanks and marauders which can be easily defeated and melted away by Colossi would be to scout.

Just scout, keep scouting, save that energy for scan instead of a mule. Its a few hundred minerals but its worth it compared to losing your whole army.

3. I keep destroying them but they keep showing up in my base really fast, as fast as they are built!

Your opponent probably has a proxy base right out side yours. This works well because many lower tier players do not scout and thus its almost always that you probably could build a base in a blind spot right next to your enemy's main and not ever get detected.

So lets sum up what you should be looking out for if you suspect your enemy is going for a Void Ray Rush.

1. Early Double Gas
2. No enemy movement for a long time
3. The Enemy has a few units but they show up really quick.

So ultimately the whole point of a counter would be to scout and know what to look out for. In this case, the list up there. Basically all you need to do to be sure of anything is to know what your opponent is doing and thus scouting is the best way possible.

Scouting never lies, he bets his honor on it!

---

How to Counter it

And you've found out your opponent is getting Void Rays.

What should you do?

Well there are a few things you can do.

Lets start with the first one.

MASS MARINES
I know, its too simple to think about. How in the world can a whole bunch of marines deal with the epic Void Rays? Well think of it this way. By the time your enemy can get 10 Void Rays, provided you've used a 3 Barracks Opener, you'll probably have triple that amount in marines. Even better if you have a lot of Barracks and they keep pumping out Marines.

You got that right Advice Geek!

The thing here is that because Void Rays do extra damage to armored units and not so much damage to light units like the Marines. It also helps that they do 5 DPS for the first 20 seconds while your Marines with Stims will probably do a lot more, and since you out number them you'll probably out gun them 2 to 1 easily.

EARLY VIKINGS

Yep somehow these really crappy Gundam Wannabes are good ways to deal with Early Voidrays.

Fight or Flight, Yeah Right!

With their 9 Range and really fast flying, as long as you have your reactor up and made 2 Vikings and start pumping them out mass to clear Voidrays, you're probably gonna win.

Because Vikings are really fast they can fly away from the Rays really really fast and cause the Void Ray to be unable to charge up its lasers.

The good thing about the Vikings when you've massed them, their ability to attack both air and land pays off since their really good with harassing the enemy's mineral line.

You'd probably only need like 5 Vikings to deal with the mineral lines. And if you learn to lose units instead of insane micro and forgetting to macro, well then you probably could use the time your opponent is using to attack your harassers to Macro up and build up an even bigger army for your opponent!

---

Well I think that's pretty much all I can think of to help you deal with Void Ray Rushes.

I mean Terran has only 2 units which have Anti-air ability in the early part of the game which are easily massable.

So yeah I hope this helps you out in your games against Protoss Players!

This is Fireport with another article for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com signing off!

Terran: A Raven's Reason

So you've seen the Raven unit in your Starport but you have no idea what its for and why you should build it.

Sure you've played the campaign and picked the raven over the Science Vessel so you can have that really cool Seeker Missle and Auto Turret over Irradiate and Defense Matrix.

But do you know the real reason of why the Raven is better than the Science Vessel? Or why it replaced it?

---

THEORY

Looks a bit like a star ship

So what makes the Raven a good unit? Ok it detects stealth but I have missile turrets and Scan for that.

Hmm how bout that auto turret, Ok it adds DPS and that Seeker missile helps me deal with massed Zerglings.

This can also be all up in your base killing your SCVs

But the real merit lies in the Point Defense Drone that the Raven is equipped with.

Ever heard of the phrase from old Broodwar players saying that Blizzard gave Dark Swarm to the Terrans?

This but Terran =/

Well yeah they did, in the form of the Point Defense Drone. For a selected area the Point Defense Drone absorbs range fire that isn't considered splash.

That means it absorbs Hydra Spines, Stalker Lasers, etc...

Its a ShamWow Version 5000

Woah isn't that imba incase? Well no your broodlords and banelings and pretty much melee units can still deal damage. So can your sentries and High Templars. (But hey we all know what a mass of Marines can do)

That's a lot of Marines o.o

The other perk? Detection? It might cost a lot to build a raven so you might not think its worth it. But its also the most useful detector unit in the whole game.

It gives you a Point defense drone to let you run from Hydras and also a whole bunch of other weapons which other detectors don't have.

Basically Raven > Overseers and Observers.

---

EXAMPLES

Here are some youtube examples of how Ravens have been used.

---

Build Orders

There's actually not much you can do in terms of Build Orders if you want to get out that early raven which might not help much early game but it does well mid-game and late game.

But here's a Build Order I found in some little corner of an EU site.
9 Supply 10 Barracks 10 Refinery 12 Refinery 12 Factory 13 Orbital Command 14 Bunker 15 Tech-Lab 16 Starport 17 Supply Depot 18 Switch your barracks with the Tech-lab over with your Starport 18 Raven 20 Research Raven Energy

---

Things to note.

Despite Ravens having offensive capabilities, remember that they are still mainly spell-casters if anything.

That means that they aren't meant to be a main attack force or anything close to that manner. They are pretty much made of paper and can be destroyed and their usefulness as an attack unit ends when its energy runs out.

That's probably the most hardcore thing on this site.
Too bad that's not a Raven.

I mean if you really want to have a nice harass and a quick game to finish you'd probably get Banshee and Cloak for them and try to get them to clear out the enemy economy as fast as possible while you defend your little Terran Turtle.

Here's a mental checklist for you.
1. SCV's
2. Mule
3. Gas
4. Tech lab at Barracks!
5. Lift off to change to Starport
6. Get that Raven if you suspect your opponent of using cloaked or burrowed units.
7. If you're getting that Raven get Auto-Turret.

---

I know its not a lot but this post definitely tells you about the uses of Ravens and shows videos of how Ravens have been used.

Most people who use Ravens usually only do in the late game or when their trying some weird auto-turret Harass build.

Raven has many weird uses, especially when you're dealing with Zerg players since the Seeker missiles could help turn the tide of the battle when you spam them against Hydras who are off creep.

I hope this tutorial can actually help instill the use of Ravens in your gameplay.

This is Fireport writing another article for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com Signing Off!

Terran: To Tank or not to Tank

Ah Tanks, the most annoying thing in the Terran army. Even in Terran vs Terran you'll see lots of tanks around.

I can't even remember a single match where I never had to face the siege tanks of my Terran enemy.

As a zerg player, they annoy the hell out of me as they clear out my roaches,zerglings,ultralisks and hydralisks like they were paper and the tanks were some form of acid.

It just hurts.

But hey here's a nice way to transit into the ever loving , ever hated Siege Tank

---

THEORY

The Terran Answer to Most ground Enemies.

Well lets get started on the theory of the Siege Tank and why you'd like to use it.

First of all your tank has splash damage. What that means is that if you attack 1 unit, all units around it for a limited distance gets hit.

Your Opponents army after a few Siege Rounds

With the upcoming 1.1 Patch you'll notice that tank damage will be nerfed and that will affect a lot of high level play. However it doesn't really affect anyone from silver and below. After all most of the time in Gold and below the match comes down to who has a better macro and who's a better cheese defender.

Probably what you're gonna need to do after the patch.

Ah also the merit of the Siege Tank lies not only in its splash damage but the long range of its siege attack. By sieging on a hill or high ground you'll be able to hold off majority of your enemies ground forces.

With the exception of a Colossus walking up your cliff and deciding to BBQ you, you pretty much have nothing to worry about until the Mutalisks or Voidrays show up.

Pretty much the only ground unit you need to be afraid of

Just to be clear your siege tank is able to shoot anything it sees. So if your opponent is hiding on a hill and you're tank range is in range, just fly an air unit up there and your enemy is toast.

Most times when you need the extra sight, its accompanied by a banshee or a viking depending on your preference to defend your tank from Air attacks or decimate your enemy's army of soon to be ketchup splatter.

---

Examples

And again here are some examples of Siege tanks either in play or how to get to the siege tank.

UEN.tv has a video on how to use Siege Tanks defensively and also shows you how to defend your tanks from other units since Siege Tanks in Siege mode can't attack close.



Here's ForceSC2 on how to use deal with Fast Expand using Hellions and Tanks


Here's A Psystarcraft video explaining Tank Damage and how it works.


Remember these are prior to the 1.1 Patch. The techniques may be the same but the damage may be lowered.

---

BUILD ORDER

Somehow there is no build order for this Mid-Game Transition.

ForceSC2 Used a Standard opening which would be.
10 supply 12 barracks 12 Refinery.
And basically just go on from there depending on what you need.

Usually people would go for 2 more Barracks and getting a factory as fast as possible.

---

Things to Take Note Of
Remember Siege tanks can only attack ground units and thus if you know your enemy is going for air units the best advise will probably not to go for a siege tank defense or go for a mass siege tank army.

Your tank after an air raid.

Of course then again you could also have marines there to defend your tank. Which is pretty much the basic of any tank use. You'll need a nice bio-ball to defend your siege tank.

Sometimes mixing in Medivacs with your bio-ball is a good idea since they heal your buffer wall that defends your tanks.

Tanks are dual use units in this game. They can be your big gun that takes a while to fire, or they can be the nice wall that makes your enemy unable to take you down.

Kinda like this but better

Then again you could also be an ass and tank drop into your enemies base.


So now here's a mental checklist for you to take note of if you decide to go tank.
1. Do I have my Gas?
2. SCVs!
3. Is my opponent going air?
4. Do I have enough units to defend my tanks?
5. Did I research Siege Tech?
6. Get the high ground.
7. Air units, do I have a defense against them?

---

So there you have it. The Siege Tank Tutorial that will probably help most Terran players beat everyone else in a epic Siege battle since the only Siege unit in the Zerg army is the absolute last unit in the back of our minds and the only way to counter the Siege tank army would probably be a whole bunch of Dark Templars and Colossi.

You probably don't want any of these near your tank

Well then till next time everyone!

This is Fireport here with another article for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com Signing Off!

Terran: The 3 Barracks Opener

Ah the Nomadic Terran with their super strong infantry that gives everyone a pain in the ass. How do we go about this? I mean the enemy's gonna 2 proxy gate or 6 pool me. HOW DO I DEAL WITH IT? Well the answer is clear of course, wall off and do a 3 Barracks Push. But whats a 3 Barracks Push? Well time to find out,

---

THEORY

Nice little Marine right? Well the 3 Barracks Opener is a fast Bio-Ball Push usually done in lower tiers by mass marines. I mean who doesn't like marines? They are 50 Min and 1 food, also they attack both air and land. and with 2 marines you could easily take down 4 zerglings and 1 zealot easily with proper kiting!


Don't wanna face that

But its also in the virtue that as a Terran player the more barracks you have the faster you can produce units and basically eventually build an army so huge so fast that your opponent won't be able to counter it. Well of course there are exceptions where your opponent rushes you.

Well then again its not like they rush all the time anyways.

---

EXAMPLES Here's a good video by Microstarcraft2 which shows the Fallen Style of the Push

Here's another video by MrFishyPete who shows a variation of the Push by adding Marauders to the mix.



And Micro shows the build against Protoss players.

And another variation to the 3 Rax Opener by RAINCAST0 Which has Reapers

---

BUILD ORDER Micro's Fallen Style BO
10 - Supply
11 - First Barracks at Choke
13 - Gas
15 - Orbital Command - 1 or 2 marines to fend off lings.
16 - Supply Depot
17 - Engineering Bay
18 - Reactor on first rax.
18 - Second Barracks
19 ~20 - Third Barracks
21 - +1 Weapons Upgrade
22 ~23 - Supply Depot
25 - Tech-Lab on second Rax
30 - Reactor
This is MrFishyPete's MM Build Order
10 Supply Depot
12 Barracks #1
13 Refinery
14 Supply Depot
15 Marine (get him as soon as the barracks is finished)
17 Techlab Barracks #1
17 Marauder
18 Orbital Command
18 Barracks #2
18 Marine
19 Barracks #3
20 Reactor Barracks #2
21 Techlab Barracks #3
21 Marauder from Rax #2
23 Supply Depot
24 Refinery
And here is RAINCAST0's Build Order
4 SCV - Supply depot
2 SCV - Barracks (1)
SCV - Refinery
SCV - Supply depot
SCV - Orbital Command -
Marine -
Barracks (2) - Tech Lab (1)
2 SCV - Reaper - Barracks (3)
Concussive Shells
SCV - Marine
SCV - Marauder - Supply depot - Reactor (2)
SCV - Marauder - Refinery
SCV - Supply depot
SCV - Marine - Marine - Tech Lab (3)...
ALWAYS SCV (until game ends), always train 1 unit from every Rax. Stimpacks - Engineering Bay upgrades - Combat shields Factory - Starport - More Rax - Expand, etc.

---

THINGS TO NOTE
No matter which build variant you decide to use, remember this is an OPENER and thus should be the opening to your full game build which can transition to MMM, MM Tank(DESTINY CLOUD FIST), or even Thor-Marine. Its always important to have that early marine to fend off Overlords and Zerglings! Especially with the wall off, even 1 early zealot won't be a problem.


NOT A PROBLEM

Having this opener allows you to contain early Expansions and possibly end the game early. However without proper micro and constant reinforcement you'll end up losing the match. Constant Producing of SCV's are also required in the game!


NEED MORE!!!!!!

Well then now here's a Mental Checklist that you should have when you do this Opener
1. Did I wall off?
2. Do I have enough supply Depots?
3. Are my Barracks up?
4. Do I have my first marine?
5. Are my barracks constantly making units?
6. Build SCV's
7. Opponent might be going air do i have enough Marines?
8. BUILD SCV'S

---

Well there you have it.

The long awaited and long promised 3 Barracks Terran Opener.

Finally after all the time I finally finished it.

I hope it can help Terran players in the long run!

This is Fireport here with another article for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com Signing off!

Terran: Interview with ALEEEEEEEESA on TvT against Reapers

I've noticed by going around the net that TvT does have some reaper play so I asked ALEEEEEEEESA from SC2Armory.com what he thought about it.

---

So there are quite a few players who after watching MorroW at the Intel Extreme Masters have started to train up their reaper rushes and basically end up rising up the Ladder with this opener. What are your thoughts on the reaper rush?

Reaper rush is very race specific, morrow's reaper opening isn't really considered a rush rather than a transitory opener for a fast expansion specifically against zerg. Against protoss however, the speed of the stalkers greatly deters reapers. This is why morrow never does it against huk in the GosuCoaching ShowMatch series on husky's channel.

In addition patch 1.1 is going to affect 5RR greatly as well and it only works on specific maps (IE not SoW) and doesn't work too well against 1 base muta if unscouted.

So what do you do to counter it when you face a reaper rush?

I play T and reaper rush isn't very common because of marauders and marines which are both fairly good against reapers in reasonable number. Reapers are generally only good against melee units who cannot attack back.

So do you have any words for the lower ranking players who face problems against early game rushes?

Scout with your 9/10th worker. If T, build a marauder, or else a bunker and a marine. If P, get a zealot, when that zealot dies pull off 5 probes and stall till stalkers. If, Z get 2 queens asap and get roaches if more reapers are coming while transitioning into mutas. Infestor ling, I've heard, works alright as well.


Thanks for your words ALEEEEEEEESA.

ALEEEEEEEESA is a diamond level player from the NA Server in SC2 who specializes in Terran play. He also has a youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/AleesaSC which shows many different 1v1 and 2v2 techniques.

---

Well it seems that in top level play there is little reaper play since basic barracks units are good enough to deal with reapers.

I hope this was good for all of you who play Terran and face Terran players who use reapers in the early game for rushes.

This is Fireport here with another article for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com Signing Off.

Terran: The Reaper Rush

So you're Terran and you find that its quite annoying that you can't harass as early as the Zerg and somehow your Marauders don't come out fast enough for you to deal with Zealots.

Also somehow for the life of you, your micro isn't good enough for using Marines since the Marines are too "slow" for you.

So what else can you do?

I'm sure you've played the campaign and have finished the mission where Tosh gives you a unit called the Reaper.

Ah Reapers what kind of unit are you?

Well for one thing they climb cliffs by jumping up using jetpacks. Also the only other unit that can catch up to reapers are speedlings which don't come out as fast as most zerg players like them to.

So then what's the most effective way to use a reaper?

Definitely in the Early Game where there are few units who can really deal with a reaper.

Well now let's get to the lesson.

---

THEORY

So what's the theory behind the reaper rush?

Well its an early all-in strategy which if it fails might put you behind in economy but if successful will deal a heavy blow to your enemies.

At the present moment before patch 1.1 which will extend the reaper build time by 5 seconds(omg that's a lot), right now you probably have the advantage of an early reaper before his zerglings(lest he doeas a 6 pool) can come and chew up your reaper.

The basis of the reaper rush is to damage his economy and snipe off any units of his.

For example if a Protoss player uses Zealots to deal with your reapers. You've just hit Jackpot!

Reapers are ridiculously fast even without their Jetpack upgrade. After their Jetpack upgrade anything short of speedlings and proper micro will probably not be able to kill your reapers (with the exception of blink stalkers and siege tanks)

What you're supposed to do in a Reaper rush is clear out the enemies drones/probes/SCV's. They are usually 2 shot kills so no worries.

---

EXAMPLES

Here's an example of how to use the proxy/reaper rush from HowtoStarcraft.




And now here's an example of a Proxy Bunker Reaper Rush from ForceSC2

---

Since this Tactic has a few common Variations we shall go into detail about what goes on in the examples

---

HOW2STARCRAFTS PROXY REAPER RUSH

So you've seen the video and read the build order. But how to do it?

Should you follow the build order alone?

What if something goes wrong?

Well now I shall explain what can be done to prevent your Rush from succeeding.

To prevent this Reaper Rush, all anyone needs to do is place up cannons,bunkers or spine crawlers.

Heck even 1 queen with 4 Zerglings would probably kill you.

It requires heavy micro and might not be the best for new players (Lest you're asian and when you play them other people be saying your micro be haxxors).

So remember to watch out for those things I've mentioned.

Since pretty they pretty much could corner you in a corner and eat your heart out.

---

ForceSC2's PROXY BUNKER REAPER RUSH

Hmm this one on the other hand requires SCV's to actually enter the enemy's base to build a bunker.

Well to tell you the truth this one is easier than the first one despite more steps.

You truly only need to really care that your macro keeps up and that your SCV stays alive.

In the video he sends 2 SCV's. Well that is rather smart since you probably could continuously leapfrog your bunkers closer and closer and closer into your opponents base.

Reapers deal high damage but have low health so that's why this technique is better than the other one.

However to prevent this one would be much harder on your opponents part than the last one.

To prevent this from happening they'd probably require to build defenses of their own to try to corner you without losing too many units of their own.

So look out for early siege tanks, Massive amounts of banelings or in some cases mass voidrays.

---

BUILD ORDER

If you look carefully there are a few ways to go about this.

Let's just for this tutorials sake place 2 BO's for you

This is a more standard early reaper rush BO
6 SCV
7 Barracks
7 Refinery
7 SCV
8 SCV
9 Reaper

Of course you can change this

and here is ForceSC2's BO


Build Order:

(6) Start by mining with 5 of your initial 6 SCV's send the 6th out to build your proxy Barracks near your opponents base
(6) @ 150 minerals build your proxy Barracks
(6) @ 75 minerals build a Refinery
(7) @ 50 minerals build an SCV and have it rallied to your refinery
(7) When the refinery is finished building be sure you have 3 SCVs gathering from it
(7) @ 25 vespean build a Tech Lab on your Barracks
(8) When the Tech Lab is finished building start making your first Reaper, be sure the Barracks is rallied to your opponents base
(8) Pull one SCV off of your Refinery and bring it to support your other SCV when building your Bunker in your opponents base

---

In conclusion this is a good early game strategy that many lower tier players won't be able to counter.

Here's a mental checklist for you to keep track of when you attempt the reaper rush.

1. Do I have my early gas?
2. Am I reaching supply cap?
3. Do I see any Queens/Stalkers/Marines/Marauders?
4. Did I research Jet Pack?
5. If I failed do I have enough to start massing Marauders?

Well I hope this was a helpful tutorial.

For any request please send them in to fireport@gmail.com

This is Fireport with another article for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com Signing Off

Anti-Cheese: To Counter The Cannon Rush

I'm sure you've faced the Cheesy Protoss Player who has used this on you before.

Hmm How to deal with it?

I mean seriously how can I deal with this?


Well there are 3 things to take note of when you start seeing pylons set up in your base.

- Is there a probe?
- Did you Scout his Forge?
- Are there anymore pylons or buildings warping in now?

As much as most of the times the only thing you need to do is scout out a cannon rush to end it, most people will probably end up pumping troops to deal with cannons. Its not like its the wrong thing to do, but its not the most efficient.

Now lets split this into Races on how to deal with the Cannon Rush

---

ZERG

Yes the ever swarming, massing, macro loving Zerg.

There are a few ways to deal with cannons as a Zerg player. You probably could go with mass roaches to deal with cannons since roaches pretty much are the best at soaking up damage early game in the Zerg Arsenal.

However if you don't have that much time, and trust me you won't have, you should probably go with spine crawlers and trying to expand your creep as fast and as far as possible. After all only Zerg can build on creep.

Spine Crawlers are pretty much the best at dealing with Cannon Rushes.

Well to deal with one as a Zerg player one must remember Macro and need not micro as much.

First of all after you dropped your pool you should know whether or not he has a pylon on your base. Build a Spine crawler on the exterior of your creep to deal with any incoming cannons.

No matter what remember to keep building Zerglings and build 2 spinecrawlers to deal with cannon rushes.

Here's a video to show how Zergs can deal with Cannon Rushes courtesy of ForceSC2

---

TERRAN
The ever adapting and ever evolving Terran probably has one of the best ways to counter off a Cannon rush by using a wall off to ensure that the probes don't get in. But if you can't wall off, try to get marauders out to help you deal with any cannons in your base.

If they get the cannons too close to your command center feel free to load up and lift off to any other nearby mineral field.

The technique however we'll be talking about today will be the proxy barracks in the base of a cannon rusher.

By dealing with a cannon rusher you'll notice that his base will probably be empty and only have a forge at most. You won't see any gates or anything so don't worry about Zealots.

Here's a good example of what to do courtesy of ForceSC2

---

PROTOSS

Ah what to do when you're in a Protoss Mirror match and don't know how to deal with the annoying cannon rush?

Well the technique is pretty much the same as that in Terran. USE UNITS TO DEAL WITH THEM.

What you'd probably want to do to deal with the cannon rush is to get a proxy pylon near his base with a gateway there and just rush into his base to clear him out.

Its a base race but as long as you keep getting minerals and keep 1 probe alive near your proxy pylon you'll probably have the game in the bag.

Here's a good example as shown by ForceSC2

---

Well there you have it. 3 Very simple methods of defeating Cannon Rushes and how to deal with them as each race.

Of course there are various things to note which I shall give you a nice mental checklist now that you should remember when fighting cannon rushers.

1. Scout, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to scout.
2. See a probe? Chase it
3. See a pylon in your base? Go a head and use your anti-cheese, its bound to work.
4. Don't let him leap frog! No matter what don't let him constantly build cannons within the perimeter of the last cannon, that way you'll never be able to deal with his cannons.
5. Don't panic. Panicking is the worst thing you can do as a player while dealing with cheese. No matter what you do Don't panic.

And there you have it folks a short tutorial of how to deal with cannon rushes for every race.

This is Fireport with another article for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com signing out!

Terran: Walling Off

Even though I know that many Terran players do wall off as long as they have played in B.net but hey it doesn't hurt to write an article on Walling Off.

The reason why this article is here is because it is a basic technique that quite many new players tend not to actually properly wall up. Here's some theory to help you with walling up.

---

THEORY

So why do you wall up? As a Terran player your base is the most mobile of all the three races since you do not require pylons(or pylo) or creep to build your buildings. All of your Unit production buildings can lift off and your supply depot can act as a gate for you since it can be hidden underground.

Walling up helps defend against the Zergling Rush which many players in lower tiers tend to use since many players are not able to use SCV's to defend against Zergling rushes very well.

Walling up basically gives your a gate to keep enemies out and keep your units safe. At least until the air units come for raids.

---

EXAMPLES
Here's a video courtesy of Husky Starcraft




This is a 3 Barracks opener which Husky walls off and uses to defeat the AI opponent.

Here's another video courtesy of UEN

---

BUILD ORDER
Husky's Build Order
10 Supply Depot
12 Barracks
14 Supply Depot (Finish Wall-in... every map is different)
15 Refinery
16 Scout
17 Marine
17 Orbital Command
17 Tech Lab (First Barracks)
17 Supply Depot
18 2nd Barracks
18 Marauder
20 3rd Barracks
20 Supply Depot
24 Reactor on 2nd Barracks
26 Supply Depot
MAKE SUPPLY DEPOTS NONSTOP WITH 1 SCV
27 Tech Lab on 3rd Barracks
CONSTANTLY MAKE 2X MARINES AND 2X MARAUDERS FROM ALL BARRACKS.
35 2nd Refinery
PUSH OUT ONCE FIRST MARAUDER SPAWNS FROM 3RD BARRACKS
45 Stimpack
Constantly produce units.

---

Things to Keep Note

Ensure that your SCV count keeps up.

Depending on how your attack goes:
Goes Well: Keep pressure up, producing units
If Goes Normal: Tech to Medvacs
If Goes Poorly: Turtle and build Command Center in main to expand.

If your opponent is using Zerg and you see a Banelings Nest. ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE A SECOND WALL BEHIND YOUR SUPPLY DEPOTS AND ENSURE THAT YOUR SUPPLY DEPOTS DO NOT MAKE UP OF MAJORITY OF YOUR WALL.

---

Well here's your walling off Tutorial and also a short bit on how to transition while you're using your wall.

I hope this will help all you Terran Players out there who haven't found the right way of walling up.

This is Fireport here with another article for thebronzeleagueplayer.blogspot.com singing off.