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Early on in 1/1/1 with marine-tank vs. stalkers and stalker timing pushes, you don't need the siege mode. And I actually think it's better not to get siege mode. In those situations, the gas invested in siege mode can actually hurts more than helps. Friendly splash on marines while firing on zealot because you don't yet have the damage output to cut down all the zealots before they get close. The extra gas you spend on siege mode can delay critical starport tech. For example, you can't siege expand now with Protoss stargate tech, the siege tanks will just die to void ray or are disabled by graviton. Even if siege mode were to be an effective investment of gas at that stage, I feel the Raven makes up for it.
Later, if you go full mech, you have the Hellion which cut down zealot(and chargelot) quickly, and when kiting from them can avoid siege tank friendly fire, and even with blink, siege mode siege tank should simply overpower stalker. In all of my experiences, it is not difficult to handle stalker blink micro harassment either. A handful of spread siege tank can cover so much ground and can handle stalker so efficiently, that it merely takes a PDD or two to cover a weak spot and the stalker are almost always killed at great cost to protoss.
Although MMM will kill very gateway heavy protoss armies just as effectively.
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This was an amusing game where stalkers were used to basically abuse me for being really bad at knowing what is happening, but I ended up being able to win because he didn't mix anything in until after my first counter attack. (Granted it's new platinum/old gold level stuff, but maybe it helps.)
I still felt that my opening was pretty solid, and a sensor tower would have prevented the blink into my main - or even just repositioning my turrets to keep his observer out.
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So I know its really, really, really out of fashion, but remember that large bioball of doom? Ya, do that. Just because its in vogue now adays to go 1:1:1 or mech as terran doesn't mean that is your only option.
If you did open either of these two ways, float the factory for scouting and bio up. While yes, tanks melt stalkers, you are fighting one of the most mobile units in the game with one of the most immobile. Fight the instinct to use the fashionable play of the day and make the correct counter instead.
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Thanks for the helpful suggestions, at this point I'm trying to stick with the 1/1/1 opening until I've mastered the mechanics. I'm thinking opening with marines, a few tanks + siege and a raven. If I scout the opponent going 3/4 gateways without robo, I'd continue pumping tanks, putting down a bunker and turtle until I get cloaked banshees out. If the opponent gets a robo and twilight council, I'd worry about stalkers + blink + obs + immortals, I'd like to transition inta a MMM + ghosts army.
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i've actually been using avilo's build (u can find it somewhere on this forum) which works really well. -- marines/tanks/ghosts/raven/banshees.
basically my initial build is 9 scv - 10th building - supply,
then 12 supply, rax/refinery.
pump 1 rine at 15/make OC, then make another supply to block the scout if he hasn't scouted u already -- then 2nd refinery.
at 100 gas -- make factory, and when factory is done, throw down tech lab. then u should have enough to make starport. (note: assuming ur mechanics are generally good, always be making scvs and mule when u can).
always keep pumping those marines --u'll have more than enough money. ur first 125 gas u should pump a tank. then when the first tank finishes, u should still be making that starport --make another tank.
then save for a raven but still pump those marines.
so ur intial army composition should be 10 marines/2 tanks. raven should be coming shortly.
at this time u probably should have around 400 minerals -- make an expansion. and remember to build bunkers.
this initial army should fend off most initial protoss attacks providing u have a decent wall.
when u have this initial army down, build a second rax and u'll throw down a tech lab when it's done -- note: when ur building this 2nd rax make a ghost lab. u should have eonugh gas to make 1 ghost when the tech lab finishes on the rax. upgrade the marine shield next.
after this -- it can vary depending on what the protoss does. if he is mass blink stalker...ur army composition is fine and just keep making the same army composition. if he varies like my friend does which he brings everything lol u gotta change it up. if u scout/scan and see starport it may be pheonix. if u see pheonix -- make vikings. ur econ should be fairly decent now if u transferred scvs correctly and are still pumping scvs. u can throw down another starport and put a reactor on it. if u see a fleet beacon it could be carriers, so get another 2 ghosts or so and get some marines and pump more vikings (u'll need the EMP+vikings/marines) combo to take out the air while ur tank does the ground dmg which his ground army should be fairly small because he went carriers (even if it's a gradual transition into carriers). expand when u see fit as u should always be scouting for that extra base that the protoss might be making. i generally get 2 marines to scout around. if u see no air, that means he probably is going strong ground (immortals/zealots/stalker/sentry. generally no collosus as it hinders the rest of the army composition because of the cost to make them. he may make if he sees a lot of marines but vikings/EMP should make short work of the collosus. remember to upgrade ur units (attack first, armor second) -- if u have enough u should make 2 armory/2 e.bays. this combo is pretty hard for a good toss to beat but u do have to be efficient. u should also do the classic push with tanks.
generally i'll vary the mid - end game a little by making a fusion core and pump bcs from 2 starports. it surprises a lot of protoss and if u do make bcs --- upgrade the attack. it'll take out a huge army with even 3-4 bcs -- not to mention u have tanks/marines.
if u have any questions u can PM me.
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stalkers have pretty low DPS. They're good for harassing but massing purely blink stalkers will make sure you lose once they force a fight. You need to mix in other units
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On June 02 2010 06:03 Pking wrote:
Hi I've been watching some games and played a few in the past where the protoss player went mass stalkers. It seems like a pretty strong opening that is hard to handle if you don't see it coming.
I wonder how well the 1/1/1 mech opening fares against a mass stalker opening and how to adjust to it. Is there a sure way to know if the opponent is going mass stalkers? I find it really hard to tell what I'm going to be up against because they seem to be able to pump out an army so fast with 3-warp gates and saved up chrono-bost.
I can see getting an early Raven and a defensive PDD may help somewhat but the amount of stalkers is usually overwhelming. Getting siege as early as possible may be another option. What about Banshees + cloak? I don't know the timing I suspect it will take too long. Is it any idea to tech switch to mauraders after wasting minerals/gas on getting a factory and starport down?
So my question is how do you spot if the opponent is going mass stalkers and what do you do if you went with the 1/1/1 opening?
If I'm going mass stalkers I'm going to open up zealots to get you to make an armoured unit to stop them, (if you make melee units you'll be kited - but terran doesnt have any so you're good.) then bring out the stalkers as they do good against armoured. I'll start a 2 gate push and open up into a 3 gate with a robo. The robo is for scouting, and to get the high ground against your siege or marine/marauder army early on. As I see you are going to continue making a ton of marines and marauders Im going to get a colossis or two to servely cripple your army. My mass stalkers will come into play now, assisting my colossi against the vikings you will probably make to counter them. I'll continue to mass only stalkers and colossi, and when I have the extra gas some sentries with maybe 3-4 immortals against marauders. If I see you mass siege I'll just go air, most likely. All the while I have a forge or two up with a twilight counsil to go 2/2 upgrades.
Just how I'd play it out being the protoss player I am. If you want to see if mass stalkers are coming scan for the cyber core, then scan again 3-5 minutes later and see how many stalkers they have made. Poke a scout, or reaper in and check on them. Get those xel nagas and watch for any early stalker push, I would probably go siege on them as a terran because of the range factor, but I don't play terran much at all, so I don't know a good strategy against stalkers just how and when I'm going to make them.
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Personally I haven't had much trouble with mass stalkers against the 1/1/1 build. I'm assuming you have a reactor on the rax pumping marines, so that's a healthy number of marines. When it comes to starport units, 2 ravens or 1 + banshees is entirely up to you. Generally I push out with my 3rd tank and that's enough to stomp all over most protoss armies. I'd IMAGINE blink stalkers to be really good at keeping a 1/1/1 player camping in his base, but if you pressure harder than your opponent and keep any observers out of your base, you'll be in good shape. Don't underestimate a-moved marines and tanks 
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On June 02 2010 06:09 FrozenArbiter wrote:
Well, I always go fast raven with the 1/1/1 opening - basically I do something like this:
10 sup (no wall)
12 rax
13 gas
15 OC
Marine
16 sup
reactor+2nd gas
Factory (reactor will finish just before/after you start this)
Nonstop marines
Add starport after you add techlab to fac.
Make tank
Sup
Techlab on starport
Scan protoss base.
2nd tank, followed by raven (or raven before 2nd tank, preference I guess, there'll be a slight downtime while you wait for the gas)
You get a fuckload of marines, can be aggro with tank raven marine, or just sit back and expo. You also have an early raven so it will build up energy for PDD, or it can be used to mess with his probes (auto-turrets are really good for this).
This is EXACTLY how I play every PvT. It works quite well against most protoss openings. Gotta vouch for this one 
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EPT
