EPTI wished to share some basic theory crafting, that perhaps marines may not be as bad in the Terran and Protoss matchup, as is currently thought.
First, is the commonly held convention, that marines matchup poorly into dragoons. This is largely held due to dragoon's higher supply efficiency, superior range, and higher bulk.
However, in truth, I believe this is a far more even interaction, than is otherwise thought, that only becomes a major issue when dragoons and marines are massed in very high quantities without support.
Marines cost 50 minerals, while dragoons cost 125 minerals and 50 gas. We'll estimate that gas is roughly 50% more valuable than minerals, particularly in early builds, which means a dragoon costs effectively as much as 4 marines. Dragoons have much worse cost efficiency, to make up for their supply efficiency.
4 marines with stim pack and range upgrades, beat one dragoon, as far as a raw damage calculation is concerned, while possibly losing 1 marine. With factors like terrain buildings, and micro/collision, it becomes much more complicated, and an even matchup, based off of circumstances.
It takes three dragoon hits to kill a stimmed marine, the stimmed marine outruns the dragoon, and the range deficit is only by one range unit. Dragoons only have roughly 8 dps against marines, who meanwhile with stim, have roughly 16 dps.
With roughly 120 hp, vs around 190-195 hp, the 4 marines will take roughly 3.5 seconds to dps a dragoon down, while the dragoon will take just that long to only kill a single marine. This is just a mathematical exploration of the matchup, and naturally the interaction is very different in practice, however this clearly disproves the commonly held conception that marines are "bad" into goons.
2 rax is very powerful against early protoss, if supported with factory production. If medics are added into the equation, it changes significantly. The primary weakness that bio has, is against templar storm, and reavers, which can be handled with vessel emp and ghost lockdown.
I would classify the dragoon and marine matchup as a "skill" matchup.
2 rax of marine production is equivalent to a protoss player supporting 1 gate of dragoon production. It can be quite favorable, and very useful to add into mech.
