[OxygeN]

Hi everybody, I am back this time writing a weekly column on the ways to utilize every unit the terran army posses, and first up, is the hellions!

Okay, so to get the basics to one side, the prerequisites of a hellion is a factory, 2 food 100 minerals... it does 8+6(16) damage, movement speed of 3.75, attack speed of really damn slow, 90 hitpoints... yup! thats it.

Now, being Terran we are exposed to this very enticing concept called tech switch! tech labs and reactors, oh, one of the best things SC2 possess for the terran players! that means, you can plan ahead... way far ahead.

I will discuss hellions largely in the context of TvZ as they are mostly utilized there, if even utilized.

So a factory can attach either the tech lab, or reactor, which one would you choose, why and when? In my opinion, the only time you would attach a tech lab FIRST to your factory is when you are looking for a delayed harass/push! Because +10 damage is that much more deadly.

Pros : You get a delayed timing push.
Your initial display of 1 or 2 hellions may influence the opponent to build static defences / over commit on units while you can expo.(because 1 factory eats minerals too slowly, and you don't have gas for a starport)
You get better late game units.

Cons : If opponent sees through your scare tactic by sacrificing an overlord, mutalisks are going to come, and fast.
eats up alot of gas, so you can't really do much harass, eg. no cloaked banshees, no hellion drops early... the list goes on.

All in all, I would never suggest getting a tech lab first on your factory, either naked ones,(yes i love calling my buildings naked, makes them feel all the more sexy.) or get reactored ones.

Reactored ones.

Pros : Come out faster... a whole shit lot faster. kills zergs who brush off hellion harass like i been there 1000 times, it should be cake. come with 8 hellions, 4 in medivac drop and see him fluster!
ALOT of early harass, FORCES the opponent to invest in defences/units. scouts out every unit composition he is going.

Cons : Well, no expo anytime before 40ish 50 food, and that's about it.
oh yeah, and a roach push is VERY deadly against a reactor'd hellion build.

So other than the early game harass, which everyone already knows,(i can see you yawning behind the screen!) what other uses can it be in? Answer... MANY. yes, they are not part of the MMM push. Yes, they can't get healed by medivacs. Yes, they can't do much except harass... wait. no?

So what can hellions do other than harass? Mix in 4-5 hellions into a 100 food push against a toss who gets chargelots with HTs, and watch the magic of hellions behind MMMG. toss a few hellions into a random toss expo while pushing and witness game control after that. shove in some vs Z, to own zerglings(okay u knew that already :/), but who does that? Look at the recent bio pushes. Bio + tanks are the way to go so it seems, with no hellions.

Other than that I would like to point out something. Hellions does 8 damage in a line, is very massable. have you ever seen 20 hellions surround a group of anything?? even armored units. it roasts everything like marshmallows. Uses for this I still haven't played around much yet but I did try it in 4s, and it works like a charm.

Hope my mediocre article didn't bore the shit out of anyone! I write this entirely out of interest and fun, and am in no means a pro! peace out! and share your stories of hellions below! Whether u owned with em, or got owned! it's all pretty much the same!

[sheepy]

Really good article! we should have a series of articles where we discuss each individual unit and it's uses and unique ideas of utilizing them in our playstyles!

[nirvAnA]

my hellion story goes like this. once upon a time in one of the first nation war friendlies vs malaysia, there lived a played named revenant and a caster named pangshai. pangshai was kinda having a go at the poor standard of sg play and revenant was having none of it! and challenged him to an epic epeen duel after the nation war matches finished. all was going well for revenant intially, taking down the first two games and then BAM!!! mr hellion came around and killed 20 drones. and that was the catalyst for a crazy pangshai comeback, winning the next 4 games against poor revenant! what a monster hellion. i still remember it clearly today, revenant was spawned at the metapolis top left position and the hellion fired with all the drones squeezing in between the two builings and i kept replaying it for the lawls!!

ok glade your turn to share your hellion stories!

nice writeup oxy, very much looking forward to your weekly column!

[ZoomDog]

Originally Posted by OxygeN

Pros : You get a delayed timing push.

Not sure if you're happy for off topic questions, or you'd prefer to keep this on Hellions. If you are though, what's a "timing" push? Expanding when you know your opponent can't do anything about it in the near future?

On topic, nice writeup. Look forward to more.

[OxygeN]

Originally Posted by ZoomDog

Not sure if you're happy for off topic questions, or you'd prefer to keep this on Hellions. If you are though, what's a "timing" push? Expanding when you know your opponent can't do anything about it in the near future?

On topic, nice writeup. Look forward to more.

a timing push occurs when you attain something "important" or something "big". eg. weapon upgrade, +1 to 7 units is alot of dmg, infernal preignither upgrade, 1 siege tank, 1 banshee. in its essence it means to push out at the time when you get something that will grant you potentially a substantial push! and thank you so much for your kind comments!

sheep: I vote for one for DTssssssssssssssss!

cow : LOL. 20 drones from some hellions is a gg no re right there! ahhahah thanks too!

[CasualPlayer]

4 hellions drop can be really scary :S
Nice article

Never try terran before but I read through it nevertheless. Got to know your opponent too to win. lol.
Am playing protoss so hopefully soon there will be some articles about them too, ahem Nirvana

[eraft]

Very interesting article, i never really used hellions whenever i got Terran, guess itz time to give it a try~ Thanks for the Ideas!

[NoVaFiST]

Go for the armory as soon as u have the gas for it, upgrade the damage to 2/0 then work on armor.

After 5 hellions I like to do 2 factory mass thors, haven't seen anything the zerg can do to beat it yet.

[ToRXypha]

Hellions are worse to me then thors, just make sure i have a few more infestors then you do thors and block you from FFing the parasiting infestors, if i dont scout an earlier Helion push it can be so hard to get back into the game and keep it under control, and even if you dont kill with them, they can be enough to through off your macro for a minute. but if i scout them, they are no trouble at all.

[dtarchon]

Generally, Hellions are fragile and can fail at harassing, wasting the investment.

But what they have is incredible mobility and burst dmg vs light.

Against all races: See a lightly defended expo? Get in there and roast all the workers.

If you have to run by a choke defended by units, it might be better just to keep it on standby for defense or wait for a medivac to do a quick kamikaze drop.

Not mentioned is how to utilise the hellions to the fullest. Once u r in, use the hellions to block the escape routes, meaning the gaps between the gas and the nexus/hatch/cc. If you attk behind the minerals lines, the workers have a chance to escape. It also helps the hellion unit model is long, making it easier to block.

Escorting thors, tanks or whatever, use a hit and run technique(similar to vulture kiting in starcraft 1) when enounter melee light units in front. The reason is simple. Hellions have a slow cooldown, ranged atk and good speed. When u run, enemy unit have to move and reengage you while yr wpn have a chance to cooldn - meaning you are reducing dmage to yr hellions and extending damge to the enemy.

But that being said, there is always something called opportunity cost and optimum unit composition. I would generally prefer to build marines rather than hellions as they can play a much much wider role and might i say more useful on the battlefield.

1 Hellion = 2 marines
Yr factory might be better utilised getting siege/thor and allow you to get an earlier expansion/better defence rather than hellions but it all depends on how the opponent plays.

[HuT]

Hellions are THE shit. They kite lings easily, and once you get around 3 or more, speedlings dare not get too close unless they have sufficient numbers for a surround.

I love a Hellion / Marine opening because it saves on gas. They got roaches? Bam, siege tanks. Mutas? Thor bro. So good.

[sheepy]

Hellions are insane. not only are they a harassing unit, but they are also great front line units. Just like banshees. They are cloaking harassing units, but strong enough to be used as a base for a Terran brute force push.

[OxygeN]

yeah i agree that hellions are monsters. just that, it's really very difficult to incorporate seemlessly without much drawback in mid-late game! damnn :/

[kellyMILKIES]

Didn't read this until today, its really good