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#Post#: 1934--------------------------------------------------
Efficient Terran Play in the Early Game
By: ExtraLemon Date: February 25, 2021, 7:01 pm
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Hello! This is mostly information aimed at newer to intermediate
players of how to get through the first few minutes of the game,
both in high and low-pressure situations. First, let's outline
the opening moves for low pressure situations
Minute 0 Double click your SCVs, right click them directly on
top of the gate, open the gate, then build the 2 geysers closest
to your base. Send your 3 marines out. This should all happen in
the first few seconds. Queue up your third geyser if you're
playing a corner, build an SCV and a Fruit Farm right in front
of your Command Center. If you are playing Middle, it will be
better to stay on 2 gas a little longer to see if you're going
to take the focus.
Minute 1-5 Always spend all your gas on Fruit Farms for right
now, they're far more efficient than Sheep Farms for their
price. Make sure to watch the minimap to determine who is taking
pressure. DO NOT BUILD A FOURTH MARINE You do not need a
fourth marine to hold starting spawners. You can perfectly hold
starting spawners with no damage taken with 3 marines and a
little micro. Instead, autocast reapers and rally them directly
onto your rock. This will give you more income, as well as a
very efficient defense if Zerg ever swaps onto you. Do this
until you have 5 reapers, afterward spend all your minerals on
upgrading your geysers. Build 2 more SCVs a few seconds before
the rock dies, have them hug the rock. The second it goes down,
build a geyser and 1 Fruit Farm.
Minute 5-8 Ideally, you will have all your geysers upgraded at
this point. Start spending minerals into generator upgrades,
building a few extra marines for safety. Send your reapers to
clear your gas blockers. At this point, you should be mostly
full with Fruit Farms, so start building some sheeps in the back
of the base. Saturate the safest Fruit Farms. In an entirely 0
pressure game, your income should be 225-250 minerals per
minute.
Alright, let's get out of this angelic world with absolutely no
pressure at all. If you're eating a full spawner supply +
capacity at minute 0, here's how to mitigate damage as much as
possible. Before, your priority list looked something like :
1. Macro
2. Build the right things
3. Watch Zerg to see who is eating focus.
Now, it's like:
1. Don't lose units - Micro
2. Macro
3. Don't lose geysers
4. Don't run out of energy
5. Build the right things
If you are in a situation where you are fully focused from
minute 0, meaning that most spawners+capacity is built on you,
you will have to accept that you're inevitably going to lose
some geysers and Fruit Farms. Your first unit out should be a
Shock Trooper. Its splash ability helps deal with F2s and it's
relatively efficient. Afterward, autocast reapers. Why? A reaper
is 2x efficient compared to a marine at this point in the game.
Marines will scale better later, but the priority right now is
holding. Your future potential will be limited more by losing
geysers and fruit farms NOW then having extra reapers LATER. The
most important part is to not lose ANY unit. Every unit lost is
a loss of minerals and gas on an already limited income, as well
as DPS which is incredibly precious. You should still focus on
building Fruit Farms, as it will let you get more military out
quicker - they can occasionally tank vs units like creepers as
well. You will definitely have to swap into Sheep Farms earlier
for lack of space. Do not save for an armory in this situation.
The gas/minerals will be much better spent holding now,
especially if you're at the point of breaking. If you spend gas
on armory/marine upgrades when you're already going to have a
limited income, it'll force you to lose more ground, geysers,
and farms.
General Defensive Tips:
1. If you are at any point overwhelmed, simply play one gas or
go back to the high ground. A one-gas situation is preferable
for obvious reasons. Simply play support for the rest of the
game, use walls as your main defensive tool, focus on improving
your mineral income and generator as much as possible, and waste
as little energy on defense as possible. Bubble/stasis
cannon/ion for your allies.
2. If it's an infestor rush, use your reaper jump ability to
surround and force transfuses out of infestors. Poke some extra
damage out by using the shock trooper ability on clumps if you
have the energy to spare. You can also use the jump to dodge
volleys and avoid losing units. Do not be afraid to trade hp
with infestors. As long as you don't lose units or let him farm
energy, it's absolutely fine.
3. KEEP MACROING. You will never be able to hold without
steadily increasing your mineral income. While losing units is
priority number 1, keeping your resource bank as low as possible
will absolutely help a ton.
4. Walling. Walling a side can be incredibly useful, especially
if you're on middle. Make sure to have SCVs repairing so it
doesn't die. Building single walls is also helpful. 1 wall each
on all 3 sides significantly increases your vision range, giving
more time to react. Putting 2 walls with 1 tile inbetween and
your units far behind will force Zerg units through a 1x1 choke.
Put an SCV inbetween so the Zerg get stuck.
Ok, let's look at a more optimistic situation now. Let's say
that your teammate, perhaps named Mada, eats focus for the first
3-5 minutes of the game, but then Zerg swaps all his spawners to
you. This is perfectly holdable. Your rocks should be dead at
this point, letting 5 reapers come to help defend. Your mineral
income will be much better, letting you pump out way more units.
The Zerg spawners are further away, meaning less units are
arriving per second. At this point, just hold 3 gas, build an
armory once you feel safe, and kill him. If you've been
constantly macroing, it really won't be that difficult to hold a
swap in pressure, especially with scouting walls or MIA calls.
This also applies to getting only a few spawners built on you,
though there will be one important difference: After your first
5 reapers, build marines+generator upgrades instead of extra
reapers. You'll be able to hold without the excess firepower and
it'll scale better with armory upgrades.
What not to do
- Collapse like a deck of cards to 2 extra ling spawners, cry,
and flame teammates
- Waste time flaming Zerg/teammates while you lose every single
unit you've ever owned
- Stop watching the minimap, have 0 vision, then wonder why
there's 50 ling spawners and 10 infestors rallied onto you
- Casually bank 200 minerals and 100 gas while wondering why
it's impossible to hold
- Let your battery commit sudoku as you forget to change its
patrol path away from the massive horde of lings
- Let your reapers/marines commit sudoku as you forget to change
its rally path away from the massive horde of lings
- Let your units get entirely surrounded by units moving at 1/2
the speed
- Run out of energy while you let 2 full batteries in the back
have a smoke break
- Let infestors farm onto your walls for 10 minutes
- Save up for a tank while your ally is focused, then lose it to
lings
#Post#: 1936--------------------------------------------------
Re: Efficient Terran Play in the Early Game
By: Turb007 Date: February 25, 2021, 9:23 pm
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[quote author=ExtraLemon link=topic=206.msg1934#msg1934
date=1614301272]
- Let your battery commit sudoku as you forget to change its
patrol path away from the massive horde of lings
[/quote]
Remember kids, whatever it is you aspire to be in life.. Don't
ever, EVER let your batteries commit sudoku!! ;D
This is really nice :)
#Post#: 1939--------------------------------------------------
Re: Efficient Terran Play in the Early Game
By: Asiown Date: February 26, 2021, 5:53 am
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nice work bro. i agree and disagree with alot tho.
i actually like the 4th marine, if i get focus i get 1 shock and
then gen 1 and if not i just gen gen 1, into reapers. works me
for me
#Post#: 1940--------------------------------------------------
Re: Efficient Terran Play in the Early Game
By: Adam Date: February 26, 2021, 6:14 am
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[quote author=Asiown link=topic=206.msg1939#msg1939
date=1614340432]
nice work bro. i agree and disagree with alot tho.
i actually like the 4th marine, if i get focus i get 1 shock and
then gen 1 and if not i just gen gen 1, into reapers. works me
for me
[/quote]
4 marine does nothing, u dont have energy to support it anyway,
reaper is just stright better in every situation, if u are not
focused send it to rocks right away and if u are focused it will
help u way more than rin that after 20s will run out of energy
and just steal it from ur much more needed shock
#Post#: 1943--------------------------------------------------
Re: Efficient Terran Play in the Early Game
By: Asiown Date: February 26, 2021, 7:30 am
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nope, if u get 4th rine and fast gen lvl you actually hold
better focus, also its better for the coming shocktrooper.
rines are cheaper and do more dmg
#Post#: 1944--------------------------------------------------
Re: Efficient Terran Play in the Early Game
By: Adam Date: February 26, 2021, 7:41 am
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[quote author=Asiown link=topic=206.msg1943#msg1943
date=1614346213]
nope, if u get 4th rine and fast gen lvl you actually hold
better focus, also its better for the coming shocktrooper.
rines are cheaper and do more dmg
[/quote]
why not get shatter as well when u are at it x)
#Post#: 1945--------------------------------------------------
Re: Efficient Terran Play in the Early Game
By: Asiown Date: February 26, 2021, 8:04 am
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holding better stats than u with it :)
its perfectroll
#Post#: 1946--------------------------------------------------
Re: Efficient Terran Play in the Early Game
By: Asiown Date: February 26, 2021, 8:13 am
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[quote author=Adam link=topic=206.msg1940#msg1940
date=1614341692]
[quote author=Asiown link=topic=206.msg1939#msg1939
date=1614340432]
nice work bro. i agree and disagree with alot tho.
i actually like the 4th marine, if i get focus i get 1 shock and
then gen 1 and if not i just gen gen 1, into reapers. works me
for me
[/quote]
4 marine does nothing, u dont have energy to support it anyway,
reaper is just stright better in every situation, if u are not
focused send it to rocks right away and if u are focused it will
help u way more than rin that after 20s will run out of energy
and just steal it from ur much more needed shock
[/quote]
the idea behind 4th marine and fast gen lvl into shock is that
if you are geting full focused, there are 40-60 second where you
will be leaking energy,and also cant hold those and maybe lose
some walls/fruit farm. 40-60 second until gen lvl up+shock, is
the time where you actually micro ur marines, scv, do walls, and
then you do comeback and hold the focus. from my experience, if
the zerg is good, reapers will save u energy but you will still
cant hold his units. with the shock and 4th marine he will need
the 2nd supply to build on you and that makes it harder for him
and better to ur teamates. also you can hold the 2nd supply if
he did some mistakes
#Post#: 1949--------------------------------------------------
Re: Efficient Terran Play in the Early Game
By: Adam Date: February 26, 2021, 9:13 am
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"nope"
#Post#: 1953--------------------------------------------------
Re: Efficient Terran Play in the Early Game
By: Turb007 Date: February 26, 2021, 11:46 am
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A fourth marine is not the end of the world but it is definitely
sub-optimal under full pressure. Quick math here:
Base lvl 0 gen produces 7 energy per second (e/s)
1 constantly firing marine burns through 2.5 e/s
You start off with 3 marines, and if you're under full pressure,
they will rarely stop firing. That means the marines you start
with will burn through 7.5 e/s and will eventually (however very
slowly) deplete your energy. You need a shock trooper asap,
which burns through an additional 2 e/s which puts us at 9.5 e/s
not counting any emp usage. So, even without a forth marine, you
will run yourself out of energy eventually with just 3 marines
and an auto-attacking shock trooper. A 4th marine would put us
at 12 e/s usage which is getting close to doubling the energy
generation rate AKA you will be out of energy very quickly -
even if you do manage to get the first generator upgrade before
falling, thats still only 10 e/s production when you're burning
through 12 e/s (without the use of emp even). A shock trooper's
auto attack is much more energy efficient and puts off more dps
than a marine under heavy focus, therefore energy wasted on an
extra marine is actually LESS dps as your shock trooper will run
out of energy. This is why a reaper is much more preferable.
On a side note, this guide is meant for beginner/intermediate
players. Seeing as to how you somehow consider yourself a "pro"
with better "stats" than everyone, you shouldn't even be wasting
your time with this guide. Let's not run down some random road
for no reason here and let the people who can really benefit
from this guide read it without having a self-proclaimed "pro"
attempt to contradict the guide.
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