EPTFirst off, this is no thread for the elite. This is where the scum of the ladder could get a heads up to become better. After getting the macro basics down, any play should always become subject to refinement.
Introduction
I have been a mediocre gold level player for the most part since release and you might remember my last blog entry about this issue. To recap, I spent a few weeks in platinum while not even knowing what a BO was, and got dropped down to gold adgain subsequently. In Beta, I was an ashamed member of the copper league.
But lately, I've been ripping shit up, as I would like to call it. In the last 19 games I have a 15-4 record, using the same strategy in every matchup. Because, as I figured out for myself, in the lower leagues you do not need to play the matchup. You have to outplay the players you face, and the way they play, regardless of what race specifics they have.
Let's face it: Players in gold league tend to make a lot of mistakes, or otherwise they would not be in that league. This is the idea that should be exploited, not the race specifics. How can I capitalize best on general mistakes like forgetting to build workers or being supply blocked? By gaining economical advantage early, in order to be able to outproduce any opponent on a marginal level which helps to win the games in the end. This is no "expand every 4 minutes funday monday", this is basically a greedy defensive opener evolving into constant agression through superior economy and thus, the resultion superior production.
For the better players of you, this might be a known concept, (Having more eco than opponent leading to more units than opponent leading to being able to kill the opponent is something pretty straightforward, I have to agree, but still, it took me nearly a year to really grasp it, and I reckon that this might happen to other people too!) so please bear with me: If you are higher than mid platinum, this will probably not apply to you. Please refrain from making unnecessary comments. The [L] tag is on this thread for a reason.
The theoretical outset
I sorta just played, tried to remind myself not to get supply blocked, build workers constantly, and everything you keep being reminded on by watching Day9's newbie tuesday. But that did not really work out for me. I kept getting to the top of my gold league, but never through stellar play but more so through my resiliency and my inability to quit until i at least etched a dirty disconnect win out of my opponents, thereby keeping my bonus pool points at least at a level which i could get along with(~200).
So I thought of how most of my battles went: Armies clashed, either at the front of either my or my opponents base, and usually the guy with the defenders advantage won by a small margin. Or, in other cases, the guy who used "hard counters", like colossi or banelings vs mass rines and such, won by a huge margin. But in general it was about having a lot of stuff. Whoever had more, mostly won.
Mind you, these battles at gold league skill level are not pretty. They are usually not decided by a clutch timing emp on the templars before they can storm, and even not stimming an 80 food ball of MM does more often than not make such a huge difference, because the damage output of such a force is huge anyway if all of them are in range. Therefore my point is: If I can find a way to definitively outproduce my opponent, I do not even need to do funky micro tricks or have that special caster unit to best my opponent at that level. I can worry about that after advancing a level. If you want to view it in SCBW terms, this is the YellOw approach, if I understood Day9 correctly.
The Build
This build is in my opinion first and foremost one thing: Remarkably easy, and semi-noobproof to use. You have to know your SC2 ABCs though, like SCV production, not getting supply blocked and such AND you should be able to hold a (gold-level)4 gate or banieling bust with the help of bunkers and SCVs, because a lot of this idea relys on surviving that first attack. In a way, you will be trying to play zerg, just with terran pieces.
+ Show Spoiler +
10 Depot,
@100% Depot: scout with SCV
15 Command Center @ Natural
16 Barracks @ Natural Choke
17 Depot
18 Barracks
18 Bunker @ Natural Choke
@ next 150 minerals: Orbital Command @ main CC
Rally Marines to the open point next to the Bunker & Barracks
19 Refinery
@25 Gas: Tech Lab @ Barracks
Build Marines and SCVs continuously
@100 Gas: Research Stim Pack
~23 Factory
~23 Refinery
~27 Engineering Bay
~30 Barracks
Thats it. After that, if agression is high, get a 3rd barracks and hold the fuck out of the early attacks. Maybe add a second bunker. (There is a second part to it, but I'll come to that later. This is basically the part that should not be messed with too much, after this everything is open to discussion)
There is also a plan B if you get supercheesed, e.g. terran tries to all-in you by bringing SCVs. If something like that is scouted, it is no problem at all to go down the following path:
+ Show Spoiler +
15 cancel CC
15 Rax
15 Rax
15 Rax
You hopefully know where this is heading...
Execution and Mid To Lategame Development
The Idea is to outmacro your opponent, I hope I made just that clear enough. In the absence of micro(at least for the most of it), the better macro more often than not wins the game. This build is focussed on getting a MM(+M)T army that is so big that it can take huge hits (because your micro against banelings is too weak, or you get caught off guard by a couple of force fields and colossus, whatever your opponent is capable of throwing at you, and then still say: "Oh, I lost 50 food, but I still have a 30 food advantage: Let's keep pushing."
Keep in mind that this is not a strategy that wins games fast. Only when I had to resort to the plan B version, I managed to win any of my games in under 15 minutes.
The 15 cc opening is not really hard to execute. You build a depot at 10 supply, and then builld SCVs until you have 15, and if you dont queue your SCVs into oblivion, and dont build anything alese, your minerals will magically hit 400 as you produce that 15th SCV. It all lines up perfectly. But why would you even consider this? Because your opponent is not in a position to punish you for it, unless he sacrifices a lot of his earlygame plans himself(based on the fact the he was not planning to rush you).
3 Barracks and a factory producing Marines, Marauders and Siege Tanks? We have seen this before. Where does the "more stuff" come in? Right around the 10 minute mark. I do not mark supply timings anymore, because that differs (even when i do it) too much, but what you arrive at in part 2(which comes after 12 minutes) is this:
6 Barracks, 1-2 reactors vs P and Z, 3-4 vs T, all others with techlabs.
3 factories, all with techlabs
1-2 starports, if 1, only reactor, if 2, both reactor and techlab.
2 Engineering Bays upgrading your infantry
1 Armory to go on with the infantry upgrades (as with 6 rax, infantry will be the backbone of your army)
~42 workers @ 10 minutes (the more the merrier, mind you, this is a low skill level)
With that, you can outproduce anyone who has stayed on one or two bases with a later expansion than you did (which would be every expansion other than 14 hatch) and who did try to pressure you early on. Your attack should go out by the time you hit 8+ tanks. You should be familiar with slow siege pushes.
The fairly early engineering bay provides detection with turrets against DT rushes and burrowed roaches, also it helps if you have a ton of marines(which you will have with this build) to have +1 attack early on. In the late midgame a 3/3 infantry force will be able to dominate the center, and if you have medivac support, it will be resilient as fuck to anything short of battlecruisers and broodlords.
To make it clear that this is not only a gold league build, I will include the replays of two games of mine which I played against a diamond level zerg player who knew I would 15 cc.
http://semtext.twoday.net/files/replay15cc2
http://semtext.twoday.net/files/replay15cc1
TL;DR: I go 15 cc into 2 base timing push with MMMT in every matchup in gold league and so far it has been working out great(15-4). Attached: Some explanations and thoughts on gameplay in gold league.
