[thsteal]

Hi everyone im a terran player who is unsure about when to drop.

The main thing im wondering is. at what supply can a terran generally drop without having his main demolished by an opposing army. e.g. when my first 2 medivacs pop i shouldnt drop the 16 marines i have because if the opponent hits me during this time, i lose.

im assuming its probably when i have 6+ medivacs and a fair amount of units.

Also if im dropping end game and aiming to kill structures rather than wokers should i be dropping marauders or marines?

Thanks in advance!

[AxS.Xenovia]

hmm what i do is when my first 2 medi pop out, sent one of 8 marines to drop either at main or nat while pasing by the 3rd if its en route to it. while keping one back at home for defensive purposes.

find it rather than all in offence,a good balance is better.

also for late, if youre 100 sure that you want building i personally go for mauraders since hell all buildings are armoured type i think. so extra. but if its intially drones/probes/scv's you go for, then marines. the dps from marines are good enough to take down tech buildings so yeah..

but im only a silver player so dont take my word fully on it. try and see what goes well with what yourself

[RicocheT]

Originally Posted by thsteal

Hi everyone im a terran player who is unsure about when to drop.

The main thing im wondering is. at what supply can a terran generally drop without having his main demolished by an opposing army. e.g. when my first 2 medivacs pop i shouldnt drop the 16 marines i have because if the opponent hits me during this time, i lose.

im assuming its probably when i have 6+ medivacs and a fair amount of units.

Also if im dropping end game and aiming to kill structures rather than wokers should i be dropping marauders or marines?

Thanks in advance!

Sup mate, I'll try answer these questions.

Generally TvP, once medivacs come out you can be the aggressor (mid-game stage). From here, as your medivac count rises you can start dropping. TvP its also easier to drop vs Collo based armies than HT, due to feedback (And HT being more defensively oriented). Marauders are better maraud...raiders than marines, except when it comes to killing workers. If you want to snipe tech, use marauders. Workers, use marines.

Also, try keep your medivacs alive, it's tough TvP when you have to replace medivacs when you need vikings instead.


TvZ:
You can start dropping as soon as you get 2 medivacs out. If you're playing a passive TvZ style, drops can help draw your opponent away from attacking your base since they're defending his own (and if he doesn't Terrans will always win a base trade).


It's not so much if you drop and he attacks you lose. I feel its more you know where your opponent's army is on the map, and what he has. Then you can commit to drop play or if you're afraid, defend. IN other works, map control/vision/knowledge of their army and it's positioning helps.

Final piece of advice I'll give you. Never drop for the sake of dropping. Drop because you have a purpose for dropping (i.e drop, then move army forward, stim and kill creep), or drop so you divert his attention to defending so he might not notice this second drop coming and landing to do further damage.

[RVLiveR]

Drops only hurt zerg if there is a purpose - whether it kills a mining base, or it distracts us. Usually, it is much harder to stop drops on 4 base than on 3 base on most maps, because that's when we're spread as thin as possible (i'm thinking Ohana, Shakuras, Cloud...) - we're also probably getting our hive around then.

[FSPYRo]

I've been watching Day9 quite a lot lately and he made note to point out a number of times in one of his dailys that if you want your drop to deal more damage, attack with the bulk of your army where he's weakest before you drop. But if you want your army to deal more damage when you're trying to push in, drop first.

[AxS.Sorathez]

Day[9] usually suggests to drop only when you have a specific purpose in mind for it, not just killing workers or tech, but something that allows you to either expand or attack.
For instance, if you can't attack his natural because his army is there, you can do a small drop to try to distract his army while you barrel in, or perhaps you could to a drop to force him to pull back his army, allowing you to safely step out of your main and secure a base.
This way, when you drop, you don't think "what now?" once it's done, but instead have a solid plan.

You could, of course, also do the Gumiho style of "Drop everywhere and tax his multitasking" but this is risky.

EDIT: As Zypher said, you can also use your main army as a distraction while your drop does maximum damage, again you have a purpose here. Do MAXIMUM damage, rather than just a little bit of harassment that could be dealt with somewhat more easily without the main army distraction.

Quick Comments

FSPYRo:

That's what I was trying to say ;)

[thsteal]

I understand what yous are saying, have a purpose but you always have a purpose. To do damage, im not sure why yous would tell me not to drop if i dont know what im doing :S. thanks for the info guys but only undone has actually answered what i asked

[breadfan]

Originally Posted by thsteal

e.g. when my first 2 medivacs pop i shouldnt drop the 16 marines i have because if the opponent hits me during this time, i lose.

This comes down to scouting. You need to be aware of his build and his army movements. Get watch tower vision and if he moves out, pull back your drop. Sac a marine by standing it out the front of his base to see when his army is moving out if you need to. Finally, get to know Protoss builds generally enough that you can say "ok, I can see X number of gateways, I see Y tech, that means I don't really need to worry about an attack until Z time."

Quick Comments

FS.Kezz:

Took the words right out of my mouth :)

[A3Mercury]

for what I understand it is a good way of harassment, or more, when the 2 medivacs pop out. I know I've heard casters say its not good to do a random drop, I guess because if they are either in defense mode or all their units are sitting at the front of their base you won't do much damage before dying and possibly losing the entire drop.

I sometimes send out a drop and continue macroing and completely forget about the drop sitting out of view on their map haha.. it helped in a TvP once because when they attacked I dropped and they had NO defense and I had enough at my front to defend. That doesn't usually happen in higher leagues I'm almost positive -.-

[mirth]

i generally use drops in junction with a frontal attack, if i think they drop can do more damage ill get his attention at the front while i drop in the back, but if i think i can take his whole army i'll try to get him to pull stuff to take care of the drop while i come in the front