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Last christmas I had a correspondence with Letabot about axiom build orders for the 3 terran matchups. I suggested 1 build order for each matchup to act as the starting point for 'the perfect build order'.
For the opening I chose rax expo -> 3 fac vult
A close second (and something we deviate into depending on scouting informaton) is rax expo -> 2 fac armoury academy (1 tank 4 gol)
For the overall style, we are doing 5 fac on 2 base (vult tank), and then going into a wraith style for the late midgame and beyond.
The second most tempting option was to do a ground style late midgame where you prioritise ground upgrades, mass ground units, and support with vessels. I wasnt tempted to do a dropship focused style.
The idea here was to do a quick first pass and then slowly add more nuance and detail. So I wrote the guide and then asked Letabot for questions. He is ok with me posting this publicly.
List of vods sorted by build order
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/bw-strategy/459245-tvt-list-of-vods-sorted-by-opening-build
rax expo, 3 facs, armoury/academy, 2nd gas, 4th and 5th fac, 3rd cc, ebay and star, 2nd star and science facility, mass to 150, 4th and 5th cc, 6th and 7th fac, 6th cc, 2nd and 3rd armouries and 5 more stars, 5 more stars (12 total) and physics lab.
We are going 3 factory vulture heavy with 1 machine shop for upgrades. If he went fac expo, get speed first, then mines, then siege mode.
If he went rax expo then get mines first, then siege mode, then speed.
Get tanks from 1 factory after getting 5 vults (vs rax expo).
Then get a 2nd machine shop and go to 5 factories, making tanks from 2 of the factories and vults from the remaining 3 factories.
Then get a 3rd machine shop so that you can make tanks from 3 factories and vults from the other 2.
Fight for control of the halfway line. We really want to make sure we get the halfway line.
Then make 3rd cc at the halfway line base at roughly 85 population. Make sure it’s a base that has gas, not a mineral only base.
We then get ebay and starport, then 2nd star and science facility. We are making wraith and 2 valks (no more than 4 valk at this stage if he went wraith). And still making mainly tanks and vultures from the factories.
We fight to try and box the enemy into 1 quarter of the map, cutting him off from a 4th gas base. If unable to, we fight to make sure we have control of the final neutral base.
Start 4th and 5th cc when on roughly 150 population.
We get +2 ground attack upgrades from the first armoury initially.
When we get the 6th and 7th fac, we also get a 4th machine shop and make tanks from those 4, and are getting goliaths now rather than vultures mostly.
When you make the 2nd and 3rd armouries, use these to get continuous air upgrades. There will be a point in the game where you have +2 ground attack and 2-2 air upgrades. Then get 3-3 air upgrade and +3 ground attack, then get all 3 ground armour upgrades.
When we get the 12 starports, we are massing cloaked wraiths. At the same we get the battlecruiser upgrades at the physics lab but don’t start making any battlecruisers yet. Have 6 starports with control towers ready to make battlecruisers though. Have a 5th and 6th machineshop for 5 or 6 factory tank if needed. We want a tank wraith army primarily but with a squad of gols too.
We have quite a few turrets cutting the map in half and protecting our production buildings.
The map is mostly mined out, we are low scv count now but we are mining from the final neutral base. We have 7 valks if the enemy is wraith heavy. After big fights, remax by making more wraiths and tanks/gols. We delay making battlecruisers.
When we make a final transition to battlecruisers, make 6 more control towers at the starports and make a full round of BC and then more. 20 battlecruisers is good, plus 2 vessels with emp. Have gols and tanks supporting still.
Hmm Ive gone a bit overboard with the lategame TvT for a general quick guide lol.
TvT
Flash vs Turn on Neo Ground Zero (the whole game is perfect)
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/126760_Flash_vs_TurN
Light vs Mind La Mancha (makes speed first even though it should be mines) (gets 3rd cc after only 4 fac instead of 5 etc) (but showcases lategame wraith style pretty well and it’s a good methodical management game)
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/65285_Light_vs_Mind/vod
Flash vs Leta La Mancha (makes 3rd cc after only 4 fac instead of 5) (Flash loses but its good play mostly) (Watch Letas lategame for nice wraith and gol composition then the BC switch)
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/76880_Flash_vs_Leta
Sea vs Reality on New Sniper Ridge (bad because fac expo and 3 base 7 factory, but this game showcases the lategame wraith style very well)
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/117351_Reality_vs_Sea/vod
Note that most of the example games don’t do everything I recommend, there are little details throughout. If you can get anywhere close to these then things will be going great!
Ive been really careful to get the absolute perfect build orders in my post. If in doubt, follow my recommendation in the post rather than what happens in the example games.
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Next up, the rax expo -> 2 fac armoury academy (1 tank 4 gol)
If we don’t confirm the enemy has made a cc after 1 fac then we will switch to this build.
You get 2 factories, and 2 shops straight away. You get 1 tank and armoury/academy then 2nd gas. Then you get 4 goliaths. From there you get rounds of 2 tank 2 vult. And we will add a 5th fac aswell so it will soon be rounds of 2 tank 3 vult.
Rewinding a little, start building the initial 2 gols, then start scanners, then start 3rd and 4th fac (again while the first 2 gols are still building).
Start siege mode upgrade after the 2nd and 3rd tank starts, then spider mines upgrade (from the 2nd shop). From there you flow back into the main skeleton axiom build order, going to 5 factories, tank vult composition, then 3rd cc etc.
This build is very very good. It is my joint favourite recommended opening. It can deal with anything and is very good vs everything. Strangely you can actually do the exact build vs anything, whether the enemy does rax expo, fac expo, any spawn etc. (though there are adjustments we can make if desired)
You have 3 marines 1 tank at the start, this small force will check the area just outside your nat to see if there are any enemy units there, and can push 1 or 2 vults away etc. Shortly after you will also have 2-4 goliaths. These timings are able to engage solidly vs siege mode first attacks. So you can choose which timing to engage at depending on what the enemy does etc. You will still use around 8 scv to help though.
The build can be used vs an enemy who opens with a rax expo too. And it is good no matter what the spawns are.
But if you wish to do minor deviations when against rax expo:
(vs rax expo you can 3 tank then 4 gol)
(alternatively vs rax expo you can 2 vult then 1 tank then 4 gol)
An option is to get 1 tank, then just 2 gols, then 2 more tanks. This is also a good opening. (and particularly nice vs siege mode first attack).
Eg Flash vs Ssak La Mancha vs fac expo then 2 fac mines
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/50646_Flash_vs_sSak/vod
Flash vs Leta Monte Cristo vs fac expo then 2 fac mines
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/68968_Flash_vs_Leta/vod
Flash vs Fantasy Ground Zero (with the ledge over the nat)
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/109878_FanTaSy_vs_Flash/vod
The 1 tank 4 gol build is great vs every kind of wraith opening. If they opened 1 base 2 starport then simply make 4 more goliaths (8 total). Otherwise, 4 goliaths is normally enough for now. You make extra gols later as the threats develop. 6-8 gols is normally enough at any one time (for the early mid game while still on 2 base).
The build can go head to head with vulture openings. A realistic scenario is that you will be able to contest the halfway line, but you have to respect the enemy, you technically shouldn’t be able to go past the half way line if the enemy did rax expo -> 3 fac vult for instance. If he didn’t start making tanks early enough you might be able to push him back further though and therefore secure the halfway line and with it the neutral gas base which you will take as your 3rd. Vs a perfect opponent, neither of you will secure the halfway line, it will remain contested and so you will have to take a different 3rd base, but so will he.
You may be wondering why do I suggest the rax expo -> 3 fac vult build as the axiom build if 1 tank 4 gol is just as good. Well, I think both of them are very powerful and happily recommend either. But I think the 3 fac vult build is slightly stronger and gives a greater chance of being able to secure the halfway line or better, and as you know, we snowball our advantage from there, leading to the eventual win.
Example games:
Very recommend this game. It is a perfect example of the opening. You can do exactly like this vs fac expo, vs rax expo, any spawn, its all good.
Fantasy vs Flash Neo Ground Zero (vs rax expo and close spawn, Fantasy gets 1 tank then 4 gol)
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/123654_FanTaSy_vs_Flash/vod
Fantasy vs Last Jade (vs rax expo, Fantasy gets 2 vults then 1 tank then 4 gol) I recommend this game to demonstrate the opening build order. The build order is perfect. Fantasy does lose the centre fight though, and loses the game from there. But still copy the build order and the army movements.
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/96967_FanTaSy_vs_Last/vod
Flash vs Midas La Mancha (rax expo vs cc first) (therefore Flash makes 3 tanks then 4 gol) (Midas makes 2 tank then 4 gol)
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/55910_Flash_vs_Midas/vod
Turn vs Flash Neo Ground Zero (cc first vs rax expo, Turn gets 2 tanks then 4 gols) This is a good game, it shows how the opening can be quite aggressive.
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/126760_Flash_vs_TurN/vod
Classic vs Fantasy (vs fac expo. Classic gets a starport after armoury and drops the 4 gols, don’t copy that part, but its an interesting variation)
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/117857_Classic_vs_FanTaSy/vod
Note that the siege mode first attack is still a threat ofcourse. The fact is that it always will be. There is nothing we can do about that. As I mentioned before, there will always be something that is a threat, that’s the nature of the game.
See Reality vs Hiya on La Mancha for an example game of siege mode first attack beating 1 tank 4 gol. Reality chooses to engage early with just the 1 tank and before the enemy has his bunker up. Another option is to wait for the 4 gols first. Do that. Note that La Mancha has a very tricky natural to defend vs siege mode first attack because enemy tanks can siege behind the little cliff and hit the nat cc. That’s partly why Latin Quarter has modified natural cliff shape; it makes siege mode first attack weaker and better balanced.
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So just to summarise a bit:
Stick with the rax expo -> 3 fac vult if you scout the nat cc (and we should be able to)
If not, switch to 2 fac armoury academy 1 tank 4 gol.
Kill siege mode first attacks with 7 vults 8 scv 3 marines. If it turns out the bot just cant do this we can change it so that if you scout factory first you simply do
Rax expo -> 2 fac armoury academy 1 tank 4 gol (or 1 tank, 2 gol then more tanks).
And last resort if the bot cant defend siege mode first attacks with that, we can do
Rax expo -> 1 fac 1 star
How to defend siege mode first attack:
If we open rax expo -> 3 fac vult, then siege mode first attack is dangerous, particularly when close spawn and if they made a forward rax.
Losing the bunker is fine and quite normal, don’t panic. To defend you will be using vults, marines and SCVs to take out the tanks. You can lose quite a few scv and still be ahead. As long as the nat cc stays landed and has a few mining at it then you are in the game.
Note that even if you have to lift the nat cc and even temporarily retreat to your main, you are not necessarily out of the game, you can still win.
Get a tank after 7 vults (that’s quite early).
Gather your army units in your natural, and keep them back out of range of the enemy tanks. Save the marines when the bunker dies.
Engage when you have 6 or 7 vults with 3 marines and 8 scv.
Don’t build a second bunker, don’t build a depot at your nat choke.
Sometimes Terrans make a second bunker (and even a 3rd bunker in atleast 1 game) when they see a siege mode first attack is coming. However, there are plenty of games where they don’t and are fine, probably even better off. I recommend not building a 2nd bunker.
Boring tangent about making a depot in the nat:
There are plenty of games where Terran makes a depot to help wall his nat choke. This isn’t necessary, especially because of the openings we are using. Just land the barracks and the bunker will suffice. We may need to use scv to block a vult runby but that’s ok. If we scout the enemy is going vulture heavy then its ok to build a depot a bit later after we have like 9 vults. We are either going 3 fac vult ourself or 1 tank 4 gol so vulture runby threat is low. If anything we want to bait them to attack so that we can kill their units. If they do a siege mode first attack, we will probably lose the depot so it’s better to not build it at the nat choke from that point of view. If we lose a vulture vs vulture fight, then now would be a good time to make a depot walling the nat and then emphasise a slightly more tank heavy composition.
However, there are many games where a depot is built at the nat choke, even when the player opened with 3 fac vult and is facing an enemy who went rax expo (ie the threat of vult runby is very low). So this really isn’t a thing Im going to fight against if you want to build a depot at the nat (Im talking to people in general, not you Letabot). If the enemy does kill the depot with a siege mode first attack then its not a big deal, we just have to rebuild it quickly. You can argue that on some maps and some spawns a depot wall at the nat choke is more needed and I would agree. Id also say that there are many games where a depot is built anyway on maps like Circuit Breaker where the nats are very easy to defend. If you open rax expo -> 1 port or 2 port then I definitely do recommend a depot walling the nat. Infact if you go rax expo -> 2 port then Id be happy if you wall the nat vult tight with 2 depots and 1 rax.
(but anyway, sorry for that tangent)
Continuing on answering the questions that Letabot asked me...There is no build order that can hard counter rax expo. Forward 8 rax can be tricky and siege mode first attack are the main threats. A combination of 8 rax to siege mode first attack to 1 base 1 starport wraith can keep up the pressure and that is also hard for us. But that’s just the nature of the game, there will always be something that is hard to deal with.
Im going to talk about the siege mode first attack for a bit as it is the most common out of the main threats:
We are doing rax expo -> 3 fac vult. If the enemy is cross spawn then we are fine. If they are long spawn then we are probably fine. If the enemy is close spawn, then siege mode first attack is more dangerous (as is 1 base 2 starport wraith). Unfortunately I don’t have any perfect example games for this situation. But there are games where Terrans still go rax expo -> 3 fac vult even when there is a threat of siege mode first attack coming.
These two games demonstrate this:
Mind vs Skyhigh New Sniper Ridge (note that Mind is on KT at this point)
Light vs Piano Sniper Ridge
For another example of speed vults defending early tank attack see
Flash vs Mind Circuit Breaker
Its not perfect because its cc first by Flash, its cross spawn, and there is no siege mode or marines in the bunker. But it gives you an idea and its kind of fun because he doesn’t lose a single unit in the fight of 7 vults 1 tank 2 marines vs 2 tanks 1 vult.
Anyway, here are 3 other games that might interest you.
Flash vs Really Circuit Breaker
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/75876_Flash_vs_Really/vod
Lomo vs Fantasy Polaris Rhapsody
Lomo vs Really Circuit Breaker (he gets 3 tanks and mines first, both of which I don’t recommend)
So that covers how to deal with the siege mode first attack using our axiom build order of rax expo -> 3 fac vult. What are other methods for dealing with siege mode first attack?
Rax expo -> 1 fac 1 star. Get siege mode and tanks from 1 fac and get wraith from the starport. Attack the floating enemy barracks with wraith, use tanks to keep the enemy tanks at arms length. As your unit count increases, eg 3 wraith, you can start engaging the contain a bit more directly and soon break it properly.
This build is popular as a response. If you open rax expo and you scout the enemy has opened with a factory opening, then you can immediately transition to this response, particularly if close spawn. If cross spawn just continue with 3 fac vult.
Personally, I don’t like this opening much. Yes it is ok, and it is used but as discussed previously, wraith openings can be fragile.
Example game Mind vs Hiya La Mancha
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All other questions
Letabot asks about how aggressive can you be with the initial vultures particularly when there is a bunker and wall.
With the rax expo to 3 fac vult, if the enemy has a bunker and wall at his nat, you dont need to attack. Even when there isnt a wall or a bunker, you still dont need to attack and I recommend in most cases you wont attack the natural at all, only poke to see what he has.
Instead you wait for mines upgrade and then lay mines all outside his natural. Then you start mixing in tanks and get siege mode, and get your tanks to contain him inside his natural.
He will do his best not to let you contain him though. He will try to clear the mines with scan or with marines running out in front. He will do this before you have siege mode.
So in a real game, you wont be able to contain him at the natural if he plays well. Instead you will fight for control of the halfway line. With our build order, we will win that fight and secure the halfway line successfully. In a real game, its quite possible to do better than that and soft contain him into just 1 quarter of the map, and cut him off from even taking a 3rd base.
Watch this game, Fantasy vs Rush on New Sniper Ridge. It shows how to use the vultures and how to be aggressive but not too aggressive. Note that he makes 5 factories before his armoury. But we wont be doing that, we get armoury after 3 facs remember. (Later on we can go in here and do more detail such as getting armoury after 4 or 5 fac based on scouting information but for now lets just blindly get armoury after 3 fac (if we haven’t deviated already that is)).
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/115917_FanTaSy_vs_Rush/vod
Letabot wanted to exploit his wraith micro code and asked about wraith openings. He specifically mentioned 1 factory 1 starport...
There are 3 ways:-
1 fac 1 star on 1 base
factory expo then 1 star
rax expo then 1 star
There is also
rax expo then 2 star
+ Show Spoiler +I understand how wraith style might be easier to implement for a bot.
rax expo -> 1 fac 2 star
Flash vs Fantasy New Sniper Ridge (both players)
Flash vs Skyhigh Circuit Breaker
Bogus vs Iris Sniper Ridge
Bogus vs Leta Ground Zero
Hiya vs Iris Fortress
Flash vs Really Dantes Peak SE
Rax expo -> 1 star
rax expo then 1 star is quite common and its ok. It is used when the enemy opened with a factory first.
You get siege tanks and siege mode, and you get wraiths.
It is in order to be safe against 'siege mode first' attacks. This is when the enemy attacks with 1 factory and tanks with siege mode while expanding.
rax expo then 2 star is less common and its ok. It is used to get a ‘quick win’ by ‘surprising’ the enemy with a powerful air attack. But it is versatile enough that you should be able to deal with anything the enemy does. You get siege tanks and siege mode, and you get wraiths with cloak. And you dominate the sky and try to do lots of damage.
Any build order that uses wraiths can be fragile (I mean as some sort of opener particularly). This is why I dont recommend them as our axiom. Even with theoretical perfect micro from a bot. If the enemy does the exact same mirror build as us, then we are in a particularly fragile situation. To demonstrate, I will compare it to ZvZ mutalisk battles. When it is air vs air wraiths, tiny mistakes can quickly snowball into large disadvantages that we are unable to recover from. Whereas ground based strategies are much more solid.
But yeah if you want to use a wraith opening, Id have to recommend rax expo then 1 star. But Id much prefer 3 fac vult. There is lots of micro can be done with vults still, that a bot could excel at perhaps.
But heres the thing, wraiths dont really put on that much pressure. A common mistake of low level tvt players is they see wraiths and make an ebay for turrets. But you dont need to make ebay until after 3rd cc. The number of games where pro Koreans make ebay before that is tiny, its very uncommon to need ebay on 2 base. Just 2-4 goliaths is all that is needed to shut down most forms of wraith harass.
Its not until we are on 3 base, and have 5 factories to hold the ground that we start getting wraiths, and we wait until they have built up in number before actually using them partly because they are so weak in low numbers. In the early game, they can only kill a few scv before they get chased out, and in the meantime we have lost map control which is much more important.
Ground army gives us early game strength, we can use it to solidly take the centre of the map, and guarantee that we are the player that secures the halfway line. By doing so, we automatically secure the critical neutral 3rd gas base. This base has such strategical importance because it covers air drops into our main or nat. So we can quickly reinforce from our half way line position.
And also, if we were successful in taking the halfway line with ground army, it makes it much easier to develop that advantage by starting to cut off the enemy from his 4th and 5th base. We can begin to box him into 1 quarter of the map. And this drastically improves our chance of winning the game. Its far more safe to rely on these phases of the game to get advantages.
Next question, how to deal with 1 base 2 starport wraith. Your scv scout will very often be able to see if a cc is started at the natural. The scv scout initially sees where the enemy is and can often deduce if he has gas or not. The next thing we want to identify is if he starts cc at his nat after 1 vult, so send your scv into the enemy natural when his first vulture pops. An alternative option is to wait a tick for the vult to move out and then send the scv in. If you don’t see a cc at the nat (or get to see), then I recommend you deviate into the Rax expo -> 2 fac armoury academy (1 tank 4 gol)
If it is cross spawn then you could technically continue with 3 fac vult but I recommend not to, just go 2 fac armoury. Remember, just make 4 goliaths initially. If he now reveals that he went 1 base 2 port and has cloaked wraiths, then that is the trigger to make 4 more goliaths. The build order is already getting scanners so that is taken care of. As soon as he reveals he went 1 base 2 port, we immediately know that we are miles ahead. We absolutely do not need ebay. Ebay will be got at the normal timing of after 3rd cc, but we will have won the game already with our 5 fac attack killing his natural.
Just to note, if you were to open rax expo -> 3 fac vult and the enemy opened 1 base 2 starport wraith, then its not ideal but its not necessarily game over.
Build your armoury and academy, and make sure to replace the scv building them if they get sniped by wraith. There are tricks like starting 2 academys at the same time (1 in the main, 1 in the nat) and finishing only the 1 that is not being attacked by wraith. Or build your armoury hidden somewhere out on the map etc.
Use your vults to attack the enemy to make sure he stays on 1 base and has to have atleast 1 tank behind a wall off. If he has a bunker at his nat, run past it and kill scv. Then make 8 goliaths and scanners. Keep making scv the whole time and technically you can come out ahead. But switching to 2 fac armoury academy 1 tank 4 gol is the correct decision if you don’t scout a cc at the nat.
Next question, how to play on destination where tanks can attack the natural from behind the cliff, and use scan/lifted building to get vision?
First of all, they cant use scan because they don’t have scan yet. But they do have the floating barracks.
You will deviate into one of these builds as soon as you see he opened factory first. They are good for any map that has a ledge over the natural eg Ground Zero.
Option 1. rax expo -> 1 fac 1 star (see above for more detail and a good example game Mind vs Hiya La Mancha), getting siege mode, tanks, and wraith. Quite a few get academy and scanners with this opening too.
Option 2. rax expo -> 1 fac 2 star (this is an aggressive style) (lots of wraith with cloak and siege tanks with siege mode. Keep your barracks landed at your natural to prevent vulture runbys)
Option 3. rax expo -> 2 fac 1 star (pure siege tank from both factories and siege mode upgrade then a few wraith to support)
Eg Canata vs Fantasy New Sniper Ridge (vs siege mode first attack)
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/128956_Canata_vs_FanTaSy/vod
Also Flash vs Fantasy Neo Ground Zero
http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/123654_FanTaSy_vs_Flash/vod
Option 4. rax expo ->2 fac armoury academy (1 tank then only 2 gol)
Get siege mode after starting the 2 gols, and get more tanks after the 2 gols. See example games above (Flash vs Ssak La Mancha, Flash vs Leta Monte Cristo, Flash vs Fantasy Ground Zero)
Option 1 and 2 are wraith styles. I prefer to recommend option 3 or 4. But really I am focusing on the more standard maps.
Letabot asks: If I open vs a random player and I go 1 rax gas Factory. Then my opponent turns out to be a terran player.
What is the flowchart in that situation?
As in, how to prepare for wraiths or mass vultures or anything else that will prevent a fast expand to work.
If you know your opponent is Terran you can 1 fac expo as a blind opener, and it’s a very good build vs anything a terran enemy can do against you. So if you are playing vs random and using a gas opening, send an scv scout and you will see he is Terran in time to do 1 fac expo.
So you start the factory then take 2 scv off gas, get 1 marine, get 1 vult, start cc at the nat, get machine shop and start 2nd factory.
By this moment your scv scout will definitely have identified if he went gas first (rather than rax expo).
Get a tank. Then a vult. Start an armoury.
By this point his build will probably be revealed.
If he went for 1 base aggression (either 2 fac or 1 fac 1 port), we get siege mode and tanks from 1 fac, gols from the 2nd fac when it finishes.
Classic vs Sin New Sniper Ridge shows defending proxy 2 fac (4 gol then siege attack). Notice the initial vults hit earlier as it is proxy so Classic gets a 2nd vult before machine shop. You can get a 2nd vult before shop anyway though if you want (vs anything) (terran openings can be very flexible, especially with a factory opening). Also note Classic gets armoury before he starts his 2nd fac. This isnt necessary or important (start 2nd fac then armoury is better). The game is a masterclass by Classic. Study this one and let me know if you wanna check anything.
If the enemy terran went 1 base 2 port wraith, make 8 goliaths and replenish back to 8 if any die. Get academy and scanners too.
If the enemy went rax expo (or 14cc) get mines and just 1 tank initially, get 3 vults, then 2 gols.
If the enemy went fac expo, get speed and 5 vults then 2 gols.
From there you can transition back to standard play. So 5 fac tank vult as normal.
If the enemy went for 1 base aggression, then go go 4 fac 1 star, like Classic vs Sin. He gets dropships which is a good choice when the enemy contains.
Classic vs Sin Sniper Ridge (defending proxy 2 fac)
Fantasy vs Classic New Sniper Ridge (very standard 1 fac expo opening, vs rax expo)
Reality vs Sea New Sniper Ridge (both open fac expo. Reality gets armoury after 2 fac and does a more standard and simple opening. Sea instead goes 3 fac vult then armoury. Both are great solid builds. The game develops into a very very good modern TvT. I really recommend this game for overall TvT learning. The game is good for just seeing the openings demonstrated though too.
Like I say though, Terran opening order of units can be very flexible. As long as you are buying units then its probably all good. If you end up with 3 vults, 1 tank and 2 gols then thats nice.
Its more about engaging with scv support at the correct time depending on what the enemy does, not pressing an attack too far, knowing when to lift cc and retreat to ramp if necessary, repairing and positioning units.
It seems you are having problems vs 1 base aggression. It is possible to hold off these attacks without having to lift the nat cc. If you do hold, then you are really far ahead, start getting dropships and go up to 4 fac. Drop gols in his main, then some vults, then crush him.
If you do have to lift the nat cc and retreat scv to the main, its ok. The important thing is to save units. Tanks and gols are vital. Build up your number again to probably around 4 tanks 3 gols then try to retake the nat with an scv charge and siege mode.
If you can retake your nat then its quite possible that you are actually ahead still! Again just transition into standard mid game, 4 facs 1 star, +1 attack upgrade in armoury, scanners.
Vs 2 port wraith you dont need ebay. Just armoury for goliaths and scan is enough.
Vs 1 base 3 fac vult you dont need to do anything different in build order. The key is to block your ramp so that speed vults cant get into the main. Use your 1 tank to sit on the ramp at the start and be ready to pull scv back to clog the ramp if you see 7 or more speed vults coming in. Buying 4 goliaths after seeing speed vults is a good purchase. Get a scanner a little bit quicker if you have to lift the nat cc and he has lots of speed vults as he will probably plant lots of mines in your nat. Use gol tank and scan to clear that out.
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EPT
