EPTImmediately after posting that blog I proceeded to play very little Starcraft all week, due to an influx of school work. So this weekend I'm going to try to make sure my macro doesn't completely atrophy, since that's usually the thing that goes first when I stop playing. Working on macro is always somewhat tedious, so it's nice to have some other in-game problem you're working to solve at the same time. In this case, I actually have something in mind.
TvZ
Ultimately in TvZ, everything comes down to the broodlord/infestor. When Zerg has sufficient resources, map control, and time to research, he gets up an army of unstoppable strength and comes to kill you. A number of Terran solutions have been attempted, particularly since that queen patch last April that so dramatically affected the match-up. Pure bio to maintain constant aggression before BL's come out, and abuse mobility once they are out, was all the rage for a while. Hellion banshee to destroy Zerg economy and prevent him from being able to get the infamous composition. These days a lot of Terrans just go 3 CC's, mass up a terrifying army off of three bases, and try to murder Zerg with a giant death push right before broodlords come out.
My own efforts have been a little different. I tried to 2-rax pressure to victory, but ultimately 1-base builds seemed inherently flawed against a Zerg that now had so much ease defending. More recently I've made a lot of play on the e-bay block, but if handled properly by Zerg, that only gives you a little advantage at most, and he gets the benefit of knowing you're not doing some other early pressure. Ultimately there needs to be a response to the actual problem: the broodlord infestor army.
So how do you kill broodlord infestor? There's pretty much 2 approaches:
a) take air superiority, snipe the broodlords at range with vikings, and then kill the exposed ground force.
b) take ground superiority, murder everything sitting under the broodlords with your ground army, and then shoot down the exposed broodlords.
Zerg has to guess which approach you're taking, and respond accordingly. If you try to take air superiority, he can easily mass-produce corruptors and take it back. Vikings trade well enough against corruptors, but in a few short turns Terran can't make as many vikings as Zerg can make corruptors, and your vikings suffer from being shot ground-to-air by queens, infested terrans, and fungal growths.
If you go for ground superiority instead, though, he'd probably rather those corruptors were extra infestors. Once he confirms for certain you aren't trying to take air superiority, he can make them into broodlords, of course; but if he does this too soon, and you WERE trying for air superiority, he'll find his now-considerable broodlord number picked off helplessly from the air (and that's something that's very hard to come back from).
The goal would be to get up a sizable viking/raven force, eventually complemented with battlecruisers, and then defeat the broodlord/infestor head-on, but this army takes time to build, and the broodlord/infestor will be at your door by then.
So here's the plan:
+ Show Spoiler [The Plan] +
-Open 3CC, and build up a marine tank army. Unlike many current Terran styles, though, don't sit on 3 bases; build sim-city at the third base, and try to take a fourth as soon as possible. At this point we should have 1 reactor starport, 1 tech lab factory, many many barracks.
-When 3-3-2 upgrades start, lift two reactor barracks off, and build tech labs on them. Put down two factories on these reactors, and put down two starports. As soon as vespene gas allows, start trying to get 2 additional armories and work on 1-1 air upgrades.
-push with a maxed marine tank army before broodlords come out, and try to cut Zerg off of as many bases as possible. These days this push won't outright kill him, so don't expect it to.
-with the remax, start building:
a) 4 vikings and 1 raven at a time off of the current Starport resources.
b) As many marauders as humanly possible.
c) 4 hellions and 1 siege tank at a time.
-As the broodlord infestor army marches out, use marauder hellion to delay and try to snipe infestors. Try to move one marauder/hellion force around behind the deathball, put one in front, then engage from both sides. The goal here is to kill infestors, as well as any lings or banelings he has with the army.
-Continue remaxing on this army. We're trying to wear down the infestor/broodlord army the way many players tried to deal with mech in brood war: Hurl large numbers of units at the composition in inefficient trades, and eventually overwhelm it by superior numbers.
-If you defeat all the infestors, sweep in with vikings and kill it. If you've delayed long enough to build up your viking/raven army, kill the BL army when it tries to come near and start controlling expansions with your marauder/hellion forces.
-IF HE GOES ULTRALISKS: Use your marauder/tank/hellion forces to stay alive. Try to take additional bases, and start getting battlecruisers with your air army as soon as possible. Use Vikings to go snipe overlords where possible. Ultimately the marauder/hellion/tank army is a pretty strong composition against ultras, so this should be fine.
-When 3-3-2 upgrades start, lift two reactor barracks off, and build tech labs on them. Put down two factories on these reactors, and put down two starports. As soon as vespene gas allows, start trying to get 2 additional armories and work on 1-1 air upgrades.
-push with a maxed marine tank army before broodlords come out, and try to cut Zerg off of as many bases as possible. These days this push won't outright kill him, so don't expect it to.
-with the remax, start building:
a) 4 vikings and 1 raven at a time off of the current Starport resources.
b) As many marauders as humanly possible.
c) 4 hellions and 1 siege tank at a time.
-As the broodlord infestor army marches out, use marauder hellion to delay and try to snipe infestors. Try to move one marauder/hellion force around behind the deathball, put one in front, then engage from both sides. The goal here is to kill infestors, as well as any lings or banelings he has with the army.
-Continue remaxing on this army. We're trying to wear down the infestor/broodlord army the way many players tried to deal with mech in brood war: Hurl large numbers of units at the composition in inefficient trades, and eventually overwhelm it by superior numbers.
-If you defeat all the infestors, sweep in with vikings and kill it. If you've delayed long enough to build up your viking/raven army, kill the BL army when it tries to come near and start controlling expansions with your marauder/hellion forces.
-IF HE GOES ULTRALISKS: Use your marauder/tank/hellion forces to stay alive. Try to take additional bases, and start getting battlecruisers with your air army as soon as possible. Use Vikings to go snipe overlords where possible. Ultimately the marauder/hellion/tank army is a pretty strong composition against ultras, so this should be fine.
TvP
This is easily my weakest matchup. I typically do a 2-base stim medivac timing, which is effective, but my macro falls off during the push. I get a 3rd CC while I push, but I have a lot of money and not very many units when the push is done. So here's the plan.
+ Show Spoiler [The Plan] +
-Do my normal push. Scout with an SCV at 5:00 to make sure he expanded; if he didn't, start preparing for 1-base pressure (extra bunkers, saving up scans, etc.). Take both gases at the expansion before attacking.
-Mid-push, come back home and go up to 6 barracks. It will be hard to find a moment to do this; I suppose if I have to retreat for a few seconds at some point, that would be reasonable. Make sure to build all my add-ons during this push.
-Take a third base with the CC that should be done by now. If I see colossus, get a second starport and pump vikings. If I see templar, get a ghost academy, and pump a marine-ghost-medivac army.
-Use drops to hold Protoss off of attacking, and take a base advantage. Use PF's for every base after my third, and try to snipe his expansions whenever possible.
-Upgrade ship weapons from my armory. When +3 ship weapons starts, build 3 more starports and start a fusion core.
-Mix BC's into my final composition, forcing stalkers he doesn't want to build and providing cover for my vikings to snipe colossi.
TvT
I've been pretty happy with my TvT lately, so I won't talk much about it. I get gas at about 15 food, take an expansion and put a reactor on my barracks, then mass hellions to deal with any pressure that might come out. Take my second gas as soon as possible, and start double armory as soon as possible. Then get a second factory, tech lab it, and start massing tanks, but research blue flame before I get siege mode. Take a third base, then mass up factories and get a starport.
The main trouble I face is dealing with a Terran who takes gas off one base. I spend my first 100 gas after factory on a starport, get a viking out. The barracks scouts for drops coming, and I try to stop hellion marine drops with the viking before they can reach my base. If banshees come in, I use the viking to kill them, and put tech lab the starport to get a raven. And if a basic 1-1-1 tank push comes my way, I make hellions and banshees and try desperately to stay alive.
But still my winrate is pretty bad against 1-base. I try to stop the marine hellion drop, but the viking doesn't reach them in time. Or I forget to save scans and the banshee sweeps in and kills me. Or I stop the banshee, but then a tank push still sweeps into my base and kills me. Or I successfully defend against all those possibilities, but in fact he proxied a thor, mass repairs it with a handful of marines to up his DPS, and then crushes my bunker and wins.
I think the build works against all of these; even if the hellion marine drop lands, I should be able to land the viking and hold reasonably well with viking/hellions. So I think the goal is to just hold reasonably well against one-base, try to take an earlier third against any macro strat, and play out the TvT lategame normally (I think that's one of my strengths).
