TERRAN
While there never seems to be any resolution to the imbalance debates surrounding the game, it has traditionally been the Terran that have been considered the weakest of the three races. This is not due to overpricing or under powering of their units, but rather to certain glaring vulnerabilities to some types of attack. I personally believe that used correctly the Terrans can be the equal of the other races, though it requires unorthodox thinking and playing, and incredibly good micromanagement skills. This makes terran, in my view, the most difficult race to play.
General Analysis:
The Terrans are an interesting race in that they do not strictly conform to either the "mass numbers / sledgehammer" principles of the Zerg, nor the "tech / micromanagement" doctrines of the Protoss. Terran can do both better than the race that doesn't, but worse than the race that does, if you follow what I'm saying.
Early Game:
Terran early game in general is a little less dicey than Zerg but a little more so than Protoss. Whilst with Toss you can't really go wrong with a double gateway opening followed by a probing zealot hit, and Zerg have a range of strategies ranging from the safe to the mildly safe to the downright insane, Terran have a few options open to them, most of which are fairly secure.
The most common Terran opening these days is the depot on 8, barracks on 10 build, usually followed shortly be a second barracks and/or gas as scouting and money dictate. This allows production of marines early enough to defend a rush (if your micro skillz are very sharp) as well as maintaining constant economic growth. While doing this it is of critical importance to scout your enemy, particularly if they went random.
Against Toss you can expect one of 2 things. He may move in for a zealot rush, which will be basically just to scout and annoy you (he'll probably pull his zeals away when you get marines in your base picking at them), or he'll scout you with a probe then go strangely quiet. The strangely quiet one is the scary one, because there's a damn good chance it means fast dark templars. If not, then expect a reaver or templar drop, or a mass dragoon strategy.
This is why recon is important. I've been caught out in the past prepping for a DT attack with missile turrets, only to get smacked up by 12 zealots marching in to my base. Of course my 12 marines got cut up and the game was over. Had I been scouting more effectively I would have noticed the absence of templar tech and the alarming number of zealots, and would have been able to prepare with extra infantry and bunkers.
In general (and this is very general) against lots of zealots or dragoons, marines, firebats and medics will be sufficient, though you don't want to be caught without tanks if he hits you with reavers, templars or such. Against a DT or reaver rush tactic, tanks will save you, though obviously DTs require detection.
Detection early on has always been a Terran weakness, and DT rushes capitalise on it. I prefer to put up a comsat station first, to buy time when it arrives and to help break containment efforts, but it really is necessary to get turrets up as well, otherwise you'll find good players wasting your comsat energy with feints. Whatever happens, don't let them contain you for long, if there are a couple of DTs parked outside your base that means you can bet your opponent has expanded, and if you let a Toss get a resource advantage over you early on, you're history. My personal favourite way out of this situation is a rush to Science Vessels (to irradiate the DTs), whilst a largish marine drop slows down his production. The dropships also give you a bit of expansion flexibility.
Against Zerg early on you have a bit more breathing space. Zerglings rushes really don't work against Terran. Marines deal with zerglings very easily with a little micromanagement, and even if they fail, the beefy SCVs will just kick the crap out of the 6 lings. Any more lings than that and by that time there's going to be a few more marines than the lings can handle.
Hydra rushes are also not effective against a Terran, because, well, marines own Hydras, marines and medics totally own Hydras, and marines / medics / tanks will mop the floor with hydras so hard that the Terran player can be disappointed if he loses more than a couple of marines in the exchange.
The Zerg's doomsday weapon against Terran early on is the Lurker. Its a cloaker (kinda) so it plays on Terran's lack of good detection, its attack BUTCHERS all Terran infantry like it doesn't exist, and it comes fairly early. Yikes. Once again, recon is the key. You can tell if he's going to get lurkers, because the first clue is the early gas, and the second clue is the early making of a lair and hydra den. If for whatever reason you cant recon (there really is no excuse) then assume he is going lurkers, because it's the logical thing for a Zerg to do versus a Terran.
Terran vs Terran is basically a tanks rush early on, as a single bunker at a choke point can hold off an awful lot of marines, and as such rushing isn't an option. Terran vs Terran games are ALL tanks and wraiths.
Mid Game:
Terrans almost invariably win or lose their games in the midgame. With the large scale presence of templar, revaers, and lurkers, any army of marine you built up in the early game will be under immense threat. The flyers of the other races (mutas and corsairs) will be coming out at this point, and unless you're slick with the cloaking, both will mop up wraiths.
However it's not all bad. Very early in the mid game (so early it's almost early game) Terrans get their most feared weapon: the siege tank. On paper siege tanks sound awesome. Longest range in the game, fairly tough, huge splash damage, only minimal tech required, and they're fairly cheap to produce. This is all true, and siege tanks are indeed an excellent unit, but they have serious vulnerabilities that you must cover up if they are to be used effectively.
I'm not going to go into the basics of using tanks. If you're looking for that you can find it in any of the countless other strat guides on the net such as the Starcraft University. What I'm basically going to do is have a quick look at it, it's place in the terran arsenal, and when and when not to use it.
The entire terran army is built around the siege tank. It is the terran's counter to the ground-based tech of all other races, and in many ways it is the best siege unit in the game (quite an achievement considering the competition from guardians and reavers). Early on terran have undoubtedly the finest infantry in the game. Marines and medics will butcher any early zerg units in massive numbers. Zerglings are fodder, and hydralisks are inefficient against this combination. Zealots unsupported also die easily when the marines are in sufficient numbers, and even the feared dragoons can be beaten dollar-for-dollar if you concentrate your fire and stim. Unfortunately, more so than any other race, terran early infantry is totally defeated by midgame tech. While toss can get away with sticking to their tough basic units, and zerg can often overwhelm tech-users with numbers, terran infantry is too weak and too slow to survive.
The siege tank is the perfect support unit for this infantry. It allows the marines to cope with large packs on enemy units as it's splash damage wrecks havoc, and it outranges the nasty techie things that hurt marines badly. In turn, the marines can cover the tanks from air attack, and keep fast melee attackers at bay.
From the sounds of this you'd think terran totally own midgame but it doesn't work out like that. Tanks rock, but they require nigh-perfect micromanagement to function to their utmost potential. Their lack of mobility when sieged means you need at least 2 to remain covered (when using the leapfrog technique), and in a combat situation you really want at least 4 sieged tanks at any one time. It's very easy for a templar to sneak about in the confusion of battle and storm your marines, leaving the tanks open to attack, and if you aren't watching closely lurker drops ONTO your tanks can spell disaster.
Having said that a master terran player should be able to dominate an equally skilled zerg or toss player in a standup fight involving tanks and other midgame tech, it simply requires maximum attention. Have your tanks hot keyed, and the second you spot a templar target him, let your marines handle the zealots or dragoons or whatever. Hotkey your comsat station and the second you see a lurker hit him, if he manages to burrow scan and hit him again. It can work, but a split second inattentiveness or missed click can ruin you.
Siege tanks are also effective at preventing drops. Try sieging 2 in your base, and surrounding them with supply depots. Any reaver drop will be destroyed, DTs will be killed (with turrets for detection), and even large scale drops will take more casualties than your 2 siege tanks are worth, perhaps buying you time to get reinforcements on the scene.
Vultures and goliaths are the two other terran midgame units, and in contrast to the siege tank they are very optional. Vultures, IMO are not fantastic units. I occasionally research the spidermine upgrade and build about 5 of them, lay the mines where they have a good chance of catching something, and then order the vultures to patrol the map for expansions (this is the one thing at which they excel). Goliaths for me are purely a countermeasure against a heavy air attack. If I smell a lot of guardians then upgraded goliaths are a better investment than wraiths or valkyries, and should be produced INSTEAD of marines. Other situations in which goliaths are good are against a lot of Battlecruisers or Carriers, on island maps of any sort, and when you're finding that your marines are dying en masse to psi storm or lurkers and you simply cannot stop it. Goliaths have significantly better survivability against these threat, though they can still take a lot of damage if poorly managed!
ed. In general though marines provide the better bang for the buck due to the huge amounts of damage they can dish out when stimmed.
Finally, expand as soon as you can safely do so, not only for the extra resources but also for the extra comsat stations. I cannot emphasize this enough, comsat stations are a huge advantage, and since Terrans are primarily a race of counterpunchers, you need to know EXACTLY what you're going to be hit with.
Late Game:
Terran late game can be a very tricky prospect. The key unit is the science vessel, this unit is almost as important as the siege tank. Ideally you should be sticking with the siege tank for the entire game, as when provided with dropship mobility and science vessel support it becomes even more deadly than before. In addition, Terran air usually isn't worth pursuing, so their superior ground force must be capitalised on.
Once you feel you are secure in the midgame (ie you have expanded at least once, preferably twice, have a good number of units, and know precisely what your opponent is doing) then you are ready to pursue the difficult terran late game. In my experience the Terran late game is where the good players are separated from the awesome players. I myself am a good player, but I have played awesome players and let me tell you they will do things that will make you ill. Against Zerg there is no more annoying, or effective late game tactic than mass irradiation. A fleet of 10 or so science vessels (possibly separate from another half dozen or more supporting your tanks) should be build an stationed at your base. Upgrading air armour is quite important to this strategy, as the survival of the SVs is integral to making it efficient. Basically grab you science vessels about 3 at a time, and give each one a hotkey. I find three is my optimum number, if your micro skills are weak then go with 2, but I have seen people doing 4 or even 5 effectively.
Grab your fully-charged vessel and float to the zerg base. Approach from any angle other than the front, and simply go irradiate happy on everything. Assuming you use 3 vessel that's 9 irrads you can through out, effectively removing 9 units, with the possibility of many, many more if the irrads are close together in a pack of units. Overlords are prime targets due to the disruption their death brings to your opponents production. Other candidates include hydras, ultra, queens, defilers, mutas, guardians (these are fantastic targets) and devourers (ibid). Be careful of hitting mutas and hydralisks as you can end up copping a bit of flak in return, but if you're sharp you should generally be able to pull away without taking too much damage, and might even be able to lay a few more irrads on the pursuing units.
With 10 vessels you should be able to maintain a non-stop campaign of irradiation on your zerg opponents, effectively decimating his economy, army, and supply. To get rid of drones instead of irradiating drones, try have the three vessels irradiate each other. They won't take any damage, but fly over the drone line and you find the zerg workers dying very quickly. This combined with a huge tank pushing style of attack and mass marine charges where you can get away with it should be enough to beat your opponent into submission.
Against protoss you need ghosts, and tanks, and a lot of both. Stick to the classic tank pushing style, but have a squad of about half a dozen ghosts lockdown anything they can. Reavers are target number one, but dragoons and any air unit are also candidates. Against mass carriers you WILL need lockdown, and combining it with upgraded goliaths is probably a sensible option. You'll need to be on the lookout for arbiters trying recalls in your base as stasising your tanks and other units, but overall you should have huge problems. Whatever you do, don't try to take on the protoss in the air unless you have a significant resource advantage. Wraiths get demolished by all protoss air units, and when there's multiple observers (as there usually is in the late game) then cloaking won't save you. Valkyries are too vulnerable to massed scout fire, as are BCs. In short, scouts and corsairs totally dominate terran air power, so don't even try it. You have been warned.
Well that's my words of wisdom for Terrans. I do feel that Terran have a hard game against Protoss, but it's certainly not impossible to win, and against zerg Terran are easily able to hold their own. If you are an expert micromanager and enjoy countering your opponents to perfection, terran are the race for you.
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