EPTwe look at switching back to my native race, the terran. i feel like it's time to open our range a bit with protoss. we probably wouldn't be able to get much more done without some technical practice, but we can get technical practice playing any race.
the first replay
We pull some cross-training from our Protoss games, and begin a new Terran opener. We're using the same principle we used with PvZ for the 16 Nexus. So, instead of the quintessential Terran opener, which I remember as CC around 17 or 18, we delay the CC and begin a new tech route.
We're aiming to use the Barracks constantly after it finishes, and so we produce a second Supply Depot. Thus we have constant SCV production from the main CC and constant marine production from the first rax. We take the low ground with a Bunker (a la CC first builds), and then start an Academy before Vespene--we could conceivably do this another way since the primary function of the Academy is Stim. We see this in the opener--as the Bunker is being focused by Dragoons we stim out to defend. Stim first might be better depending on how close the timings are.
An aim of this build is to scan early and confirm Reaver or not. If Reaver then we will need some counters (not the focus of this game). One important counter to Reaver is that we can simply kill the opponent if he's grandstanding with Reaver drops.... I don't know if you'll see this here.
Then the second level to this build is map control--which we should have an awful lot of. We aim to take a third base pretty quickly (although I don't have time to SCV transfer this game). AND secondly, to begin speed vulture production off two factories. There are obviously a lot of different routes we could take here, including, if we were bold enough, Ghosts for Lockdown--and more directly an early Starport for drop harass. All this is technical-dependent.
If all goes well we will time out our two Factories building speed vultures at around the same time the Protoss develops Storm tech. This will give us everything we need to deal with Storm, hopefully, and also transition smoothly into Spider Mines for more even more map presence. The biggest worry from the Protoss is a PvP-ish build where we're facing down Reavers. Fortunately for us, this won't be his practiced strategy in PvT, and we should get a lot of extra play out of the M&M. Actually I am not an M&M player (at all, in any scenario), but as my carpal tunnel improves I like it more and more against Protoss.
Protoss basically sucks against M&M without Storm, so the obvious virtue is the Vulture transition to pick off Templar.... We still fear Zealots a bit because Firebats are picked off rapidly (as we see in the reVOD).
As a novice M&M player there seems to be a lot we can do, including setting our screen keys on the map for rallies. But, as I learned in previous games we can support a lot of Barracks--probably as many as 10-15. Being not purely M&M we have to worry about double and triple queuing troops and whether this is better for our map presence. I don't know if I will have time to master all the technical aspects that would make this build good, but we're hoping to see some happy technical improvements in our general BW game just from playing this style.
