EPT
For those of you wondering why this isn’t in the strategy section, there are two reasons. I am not in the Diamond division yet, so much of what I have to say might be just because I don’t understand the game properly yet. Second, I don’t have an adequate amount of hard proof to show my point, as this is mostly just theorycrafting.
Disclaimer: This was written over the course of multiple days, so some parts might not make sense. If so, please tell me so I can clarify.
Introduction
I’m extremely new to the whole StarCraft and even RTS scene, playing my first match back in 2008 against a friend who had just renewed his interest in the game. Although losing all of my matches back then, it was still a fun game to play with my friends at lan parties. However, after constantly losing when trying to go mass Carriers/Battlecruisers/Ultralisks, I decided it was time get better. At that time, I heard that there were professional StarCraft players in Korea, and so with few quick Googles, I found SC2GG and TeamLiquid. Now to a noob like me, I was immediately turned off by TeamLiquid. The horses on the banner confused me as to how this turned up in a StarCraft search, and most of the strategies just made no sense to me. And so I began my stay at SC2GG, slowly being introduced to the professional scene, where I began to only watch StarCraft and not play it. After 2 months or so, I realized that I still haven’t gotten any better by watching professional matches. I understood what a Forge Fast Expand looked like, but I could never execute it properly in a match between my friends. Going onto the SC2GG strategy forum, I saw constant mentions of TeamLiquid. Once again, I was confused. I thought to myself “Wasn’t that the site about horses?” but decided to go back to double check. To my surprise, there were articles on the OSL, MSL, and Proleague, as well as a much better forum on different build orders and overall strategies. Soon, I found ICCUP, and that is when I truly started to get better.
My first season on ICCUP I hit a score of 4-17. It was a disappointing finish, but I was elated about getting those 4 wins. My games had already improved dramatically, no longer losing to a 9 pool because I only had probes, and I had a much better feel for what to do in the mid to late games. I continued on ICCUP, but from there, I never managed to get past the D level. However, it was thanks to ICCUP and TeamLiquid that I can now beat most of my friends in 1v1 matches.
But now I’m onto StarCraft II, a new game with a fresh start for so many people. Of course I’m still nowhere as good as most of the population here, never making it to the top league in neither the beta nor the release. It has been a fun adventure so far though, and I can still aim for making it to some tournament in a year.
TvZ The 5 Barracks Reaper Opening
Now this build has been getting a lot of attention lately, starting mainly from when it was consistently used against Zerg during IEM. The purpose of the build is to place immense amount s of pressure on the Zerg player, forcing Zerg to build roaches, zerglings, queens, spine crawlers at the expense of drones.
Soon after the tournament, the whole ladder seemed to be filled with Terrans that were using this build, with some interesting results. The build is extremely APM intensive, as Reapers require precise micro and solid decision making to truly be effective. It is too easy for a less experienced player to attempt to snipe a queen, only to move too deeply into the creep and get killed by zerglings. However, as Morrow showed in his games versus Idra, when an experienced Terran is controlling the Reapers, Zerg has some serious problems with responding.
One of the key interests of this build is how it doesn’t rely on getting a super fast reaper into the base to try and end the game immediately. Instead, the build waits until Nitro Packs finishes in order to effectively kite speedlings and slow roaches while maintaining constant aggression. With nitro pack, the terran then begins to abuse the large window where zerg does not have roach speed finished. During this time, terran maintains a pretty much constant supply of reapers, forcing the zerg to adapt and maintain a supply of roaches and zerglings. Although neither of these units are able of fighting the reaper off creep, they are needed to prevent the reapers from just either destroying your expansion or tech structures. Zerg during this time however is building a sizeable ball of roaches, and when roach speed is finished, the harass is pretty much over. However, not everything is well in the land of zerg, as a good terran will have stopped the constant production of reapers and switched to getting an army now consisting of marines and marauders. While terran can’t push just yet against zerg due to the buildup of zerg forces, zerg can’t counter push due to the difficulty of pushing static terran defenses. From this point, zerg and terran approach the midgame, where the game then transitions normally.
One of the key timings of the build is how effective the build is before Zerg gains Roach Speed. During this time, roaches are extremely ineffective against the Terran reapers. They are unable to catch up to kiting reapers, but at the same time, are the only units that cause the Terran to back out. Now at this point, the terran and zerg continue to dance around each other, waiting for when Zerg manages to get Roach speed and a decent creep spread. This seems quite reminiscent of how Zerg in BroodWar commonly opened with either a 2 Hatch or 3 Hatch Muta build, trying to contain the Terran before Terran has both Stim and Range for his marines, thus allowing the zerg to secure a third. As in both of the builds, the fragility is the same. Mutalisks and reapers are meant to engage on the fringe, picking units off while they are either retreating or moving. Both will lose in an actual engagement, and thus abuse their mobility to stay alive. Eventually, the terran in BroodWars and the zerg in StarCraft II are able to amass enough units and upgrades to push the harass away, thus moving to the midgame. The advantages of both the Muta based builds in BroodWar and this Reaper Build in StarCraft II allows the player to maintain a level of aggression while also grapping expansions, workers, and production facilities.
Now is this build imbalanced? I would have to vote that it is not. Yes, it is extremely strong, but so was Muta Micro when it was first discovered. What zergs are missing right now is a proper response to it. I feel that a spine crawler based build, much like how terrans would throw up so many missile turrets against mutalists, is a possible route. Place 2-3 per base would prevent harass at early stages, and when the crawlers are backed by a smaller group of roaches and zerglings, they should be able to fend off the harass while still maintaining a good drone production and teching for tier 2 units. After the harass is fended off, zerg should go for securing a third, since at that time, the terran army should be inadequate to punish the new expansion.
Thank you for reading, and any suggestions would be welcome. If any of you want to play a few matches with me to try and find a proper response, add me on StarCraft II at Imbu.580
