[CagnacciKid]

Hey guys,

I'll cut straight to the point. I'm having trouble playing against Zerg as Terran. I always seem to lose, be it against early zerglings, a roach rush, muta harass or baneling bust, or any other Zerg tactic out there that have been used against me. Normally my TvZ build order is to get out a Hellion as fast as possible, take 4 Marines with it and generally play very aggressively - however, this only works sporadically, usually only if I somehow pull off a super-fast opening, or if my opponent is a newbie.

So I ask you this, SC2SEA: How should a low level Bronze player go about improving his TvZ match-up? What build order/strategy is good against Zerg in general? Are there any 'crucial' units that I should get, regardless of my opponent's build? Any other miscellaneous tips?

Cheers.

PS: I'd upload some replays, but I play so badly in most of them that it'd really just be a waste of time to view them (i.e. massive macro slips, bad mouse movement/hotkey usage, and general silliness).

[Max]

Since you said you were bronze (not trying to discriminate), I will lay out some simple tactics:

1) 4 Blue Flame Hellion drop [HARASS] - this is hard for many players to prevent, let alone bronze. Just harass the mineral lines continually.

2) Blue Flame Hellions + Stim Marines/Stim Marines and Marauders [AGRESSIVE PUSH] - try move out as soon as stim and blue flame is done. This build works well against a Zerg who went for quick economy with just slings/blings + spine crawlers. Hellions can roast all the lings while your MM can stim any queens/blings/buildings.

3) 3 Rax [FAST PUSH] - A simple 3rax build against a FE opponent will work extremely well if they dont scout your 3rax. They will most likely be unable to defend against early aggression from you.

4) 2Rax + Proxy Bunker [CHEESE] - place two bunkers at the ramp to the natural so the zerg player cannot FE, he will either GG or be extremely economically disadvantage if you do it properly.

Hope I helped,

- nGenGeek

[Makra]

Are the zergs fast expanding? Being bronze I'd imagine they're not. So there's no need to get out a fast hellion and go for that early push. If they are one basing, turtle up and:

Roach rush: get a couple of bunkers and start building marauders
Baneling bust: wall off with barracks/factory and bunkers to make the wall as strong as possible.
Ling rush (6 pool I'm guessing): Scout straight after building your supply depot and if u scout the pool finished/almost finished when you get to his base, wall off straight away. Have an scv ready to repair if necessary.
Muta harrass: pump marines, get stim and medivacs, and put up turrets. Could also go for thors. If they're one basing they'll hardly be able to get many mutas anyway so just macro and go for a strong push with MMM and a few tanks.

Tanks are pretty much the crucial unit in TvZ. Especially for dealing with banelings. Marines are the crucial unit for dealing with mutas. Marauders are pretty important in bronze league where you find a lot of players going for roaches. And medivacs of course are an important support unit. Hellions are pretty important, but not so much in bronze league. I'd say the best way to go about improving your TvZ is to just get out of bronze asap, where people mainly go for cheese/one base play. You'll just be learning bad habits playing against weird bronze strats. For the moment though just try and focus on your macro and responding to what the zerg player is doing.

[Makra]

You should specify whether the zergs are fast expanding, because you'll get very different answers like you just got from me and Max. But I dare say Max's advice is a bit beyond bronze level, especially number 4.

[CagnacciKid]

@Max: Good stuff, thanks, I'll have to try these out. Any build orders to go with them?

@Makra: I go up against a wide variety of Zerg players, some Fast Expanding, others One-Basing. I'm sitting at around 150 games with a roughly 50% win streak, so it's gonna be a while before I can leave Bronze. I try to pre-empt the enemy's army composition but they always seem to hit me with something unexpected. (i.e. I scout Roaches, so I make Marauders, but then I get hit by a large army of Mutas...)

On the topic of Mutas, what is the best way to deal with them? I tend to try and scout for Mutas, and if I think they're coming I'll put up some Missile Turrets, but my Turrets always seem to get picked off, doing no real damage. My Marines and Thors always seem to be out of position, and my Vikings are countered by Mutas.

Cheers.

[Makra]

Hmmm. Are you making marines when you scout roaches? If you're going pure marauder that's a bad idea, always have an even mix of marines/marauders. I'm thinking if they can go roaches and mutas and overwhelm you, they're probably just macroing better than you. Just keep building scvs, using your orbital energy and spending your money.

Regarding mutas, stim marines are by far the best way to deal with them. Turrets are good, but they only delay mutas slightly. A good idea is to put a turret in the middle of your minerals. When the mutas attack it, select a bunch of scvs and repeatedly click on the turret, which will repair it and kill a decent number of mutas.

Try not to build vikings against zerg, you'd be better off putting that money into thors, medivacs etc.

You'll need to post replays if you want more specific advice. Even if you know your macro needs improving etc, there's probably things like your decision making that could be given tips.

I know how you feel though, when I was in bronze there was quite a while where I was at a total loss as to how to beat zerg. I found cloak banshees helped me start to get my confidence back. Just make sure you have good defense at your ramp because you won't have much apart from marines.

[CagnacciKid]

Thanks Makra, I'll try out your advice next chance I get. I tend to want a 'set and forget' kind of defence but really I need to get into the mindset of having a dynamic defence.

I tend to build Marines and Marauders equally, I guess my real problem is my build, trying to take on a 1-base Zerg with 4 Marines and a Hellion is probably asking for trouble. Any specific build order I should try?

Regarding my marines, where should I keep them? Behind my wall, hotkeyed with Medivacs for easy access in the event of Mutas/any kind of drop/Nydus harrass seems like a good idea.

Also, say the game goes into the mid/late stages, and my opponent gets Brood Lords, how can I best deal with them?

[Makra]

Vikings are pretty much the only way to deal with broodlords. Try to keep an eye on how many broods he has though, and be careful not to over-make the vikings. As he may switch into ultras leaving you with air control but an insufficient ground army. But again, macro is most important because if you have a better econ and more shit than him you shouldn't have much problem winning.

Yep, attacking a one base zerg with 4 marines and a hellion is quite certainly asking for trouble. The situation you should do that sort of pressure in is when a zerg has fast expanded and is doing nothing but producing drones. If he gets away with macroing so hard in the first several minutes, his econ will be far greater than yours, so your goal is to force him into producing something other than drones, and in turn even out your economies. If he's on one base, your economy should be better than his, so you just need to focus on defending any early attacks by him, and building up an army and attacking.

Wherever you feel you need to defend is probably the best place to position your marines, however if you have an expansion and he's flying in between that and your main, try and split your marines up so he can't make you run around constantly.

Just another note, if he's going for standard ling bling muta play, you need barely any marauders, instead just focus on marines and tanks.

[Makra]

damn, double post >.<

[dennistoo]

Blue Flame Hellion drop is extremely deadly IMO. Now only it kill tons of workers, it also kill tons of lings.