Ok so im actually Really Desperate for a D3 Beta Key, so im going to do this little write up on my favourite thing in all of starcraft, Hellions
Ok so to start of this thread will be about hellions, it will be aimed at encouraging the use of my FAV units in the game and how they can be used to full potential and were they can be used were u usually would use them.
ok to start of lets quickly run over the basics of hellion usage:
Kiting against lings/zealots: very simple, A click line of units, move backwards, A click units, rinse repeat.
GRATZ! u now have bronze level control!
Mineral line runbys: Also simple, just run into the main/nat and get into postiion were all your hellions will shoot in one line for the splash damage to be over 1 area, then choose the most dense clump of harvestors.
PROFIT?!
ok so now those 2 are the most basic, and i mean BASIC of uses of hellions, now lets go over more advanced ways of using hellions.
Hellion Drops: getting a medivac and 4 hellions and dropping past the defences of a player to attack the main/natural of a player and do economic damage, ezpz win if u get lucky, pretty much guaranteed damage unless u were scouted.
Hellion Baits: Using 3-4 hellions to poke up a ramp/through a choke to lure a ling bling army or a clumped gateway army out then getting of some big hits with tanks or heavy fire units, a good way to weaken the opponents army before you push out.
Over-Reacting: sending 2 hellions to poke at a zergs main to cause him to make additional queens/spines while u teach straight to a tank marine timing attack after expanding, great when playing very defensive zergs on 2 base oriented maps.
ok so those are good uses of Hellions, and i will improve on that later on, but for now i shall move onto the next part:
Hellion BO's
when i first discovered my love for hellions there was a few small problems that prevented me using them all to well,
1. i didnt know the tricks above to maximize hellion preformance and
2. i didnt know hellion BO's!
so this is the hellion opener i do, it may not be the best but as far as i care u can go P off if all u wanna do is say my BO listed is stupid after reading all this.
anyway Hellion openers use the standard 12 racks into 13 gas and 16 OC and then u make your Factory when u have 100 gas, u cut marines after the factory is started so u can start to build a reactor as soon as u have 50 gas
For Banshee Cloak followup - You simple get a second gas after the factory is started then proceed to make a startport straight after completion of the factory, u cut the Expansion CC and research cloak and a banshee all the while pushing and proding with the hellions you have made
For The Standard Expand - You start a CC when the factory is nearing complete and u have 400 minerals, after finishing your first two Hellions you start a tech lab on your Barracks (that if u want could have been producing marines this whole time), all of the while on 1 gas. when your 3rd and 4th hellions finish u switch the barrakcs and fact over and pump marines and siege tanks (vs a zerg or if u like marine tank vs terran and toss also), after you switched your reactor and tech lab you should start a second and third barracks, 1 with another reactor and 1 with a tech lab so u can get stim and combat shields, you lift your expand CC into your natural whenever you feel safe, the earlier the better
Into Bio - After the initial 4 hellions start switch tech lab and reactor (see above) and start a starport and a second racks, add more and more barracks as your begin to saturate your natural more and transition into bio play -_-
EXTRA HELLION USE:
this is were it gets sexy, this is were i will tell you about how hellions can be used to stop things that Terrans find hard to deal with, like....
ZEALOT ARCHON TEMPLAR - pretty much the bane of my earlier terran carrier, i HATED zeal archon HT because my MMMG just wouldnt cut it, then i relized the power of 4-8 Blue flame hellions mixed into my standard bio army, and watched as EMP and blue fire destroyed the hopes of many, many toss's
TIPS -
1. when u recognize a toss going for Zeal Archon and its lategame (that means 3 bases for both players)
u should have ghosts already, if not then goddamn get ghosts lol! after u have ghosts done u get a tech lab on ur fact and drop a second fact, immidiatly reseach Blue flame and then crank out 2 hellions at a time along with marines and ghosts, with this army composition and good storm dodging/cloaked ghost EMPing HTs u can destroy Quite large Zeal archon armys
2. when using this army, send out hellions to the front, emp his zealots, shoot a wave of Blue flame fire, then pull behind your marines and marauders (and stim them) , then u grab your marauders and marines and ghosts and pull them back after your next wave of hellion fire and let the hellions tank for another second, then let your hellions shoot again and pull behind your MMMG army, doing thias u can dodge storms pretty well but more importantly WIPE THE FLOOR with zealots and then easily clean up the remainder of his army ez pz
HELLIONS IN T V Z LATEGAME - when ever i play a zerg i always have 1 reactored fact Pumping hellions along with my marines and tanks, because when u do this u can really add good anti Zling Ambush units to your army, dont understand? lemme expalin...
TIPS:
1. when pushing out with marine tank u try to be sieged when u engage so ur army can be at its strongest, so when you attack you send your hellions ahead of your army by a bit, if u see the lings coming in with ur hellions, u can siege ur tanks and kite the lings for a bit with ur hellions to stall, then Bait them to your tanks (See Hellion TIps) to take out a chunk of his army, before moving into his base.
2. with 12 hellions sent to the zergs 4th base the zerg has 2 ways to react, A to send his zlings and blings to kill the hellions (stupid) or B to send his Mutas (clever), how u can exploit this is by pushing the main while attacking the 4th with 12 (or even 6 hellions if u dont want to invest to much) hellions, when the mutas pull back just siege up infront of his natural and completely take out his main ajnd Natural, winning you the game right then and there.
General thoughts:
Ok so this is were i will put my general thoughts on things i see about hellions.
Hellions in T v T - i do always opener reactor hellion - XXXX, but in T v T i dont advise going for serious heavy hellion play, since marines actually put up quite a good fight against hellions if the opponent has combat shields and inst insanely clumped up, i'd much rather just make alot of marines :P
Over committing to Hellions - i see this a lot, when a player makes 8 hellions when he could have made only 4 and done the same damage, making his transition weaker, his follow up attack weaker, and his efficiency weaker, 4 hellions is optimal for runbys and counter attacks, u should onlyt use more than that if you are engaging large zling amounts and are trying to be cost efficient by killing 40 lings and loosing 1-2 hellions instead of killing 20 and loosing 4.
ok well im going to wrap this up now, i hope it was insightful, and i would love to see it put into a section of TGM if u think its good enough nirvana :P
just remember, i dont want other people to know my hellion secrets, i want the D3 beta Key and need it to be the best i've done
hope it helps ya'll
Last edited by stalking you; Tue, 8th-Nov-2011 at 9:45 PM.
Even the smallest donations help keep sc2sea running! All donations go towards helping our site run including our monthly server hosting fees and sc2sea sponsored community tournaments we host. Find out more here.