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A guide to Fast Expanding as Terran.
SC: BW was at first an agressive one base strategy scene with even Zergs doing a 1 hatch lurker build, but slowly it became a more macro game with the 12hatch builds and the 1Rax FE. It only seems natrual with how fast SC2 is moving that expanding will become common place soon. But with opponents still only thinking of their 4 warpgate rush/ 1base baneling to roach/ 3 rax pushes expanding can sometimes seem like a stupid thing to do. How would you be able to defend much less continue after his early push wiped your army and expansion? To be able to expand youd need to keep his massive army in his base while you had time to set up your defensives or with the most minimal amounts of units. The trick to doing both is by making a few reapers.
Reapers have been used for a number of things through out the beta and finished gameplay of starcraft 2. Cheese, harrass, even scouting, but perhaps reapers could be used to fast expand safely.
The idea that led me to start playing this way come from ensnares all kill against primes line up where he would make 4 reapers almost every game and expand while harrassing.
http://games.joy.cn/video/1746905.htm
The build order itself is roughly
10 Depot (behind mineral lines to maximize mining)
12 Refinery
13 Rax (at ramp or choke)
15 OC
15 Tech Lab on Rax
16 Depot
@100% Tech Lab - Reaper
19 CC -> OC in base
Bunker as youll have few units early on
Even if your Reaper harrass isnt that good as long as you keep them alive your opponent should be contained and afraid of reaper all ins and snipes on they workers.
Having an expansion without having to worry about opponents agression you can get 2base 4gas running pretty smoothly allowing a transfer into bio, mech, or bio mech.
With more production buildings than your opponent you can then set up for a nice timing push with upgrades from the tech labs and your ebay/armory. This push can give you the map control needed to get a 3rd expansion.
With the constant excess of minerals Mules arent as needed as before giving you better scouting with scans more frequently. Also if you goof and get supply block the calldown: supplys will fix your problem in seconds.
I see no reason why in the future 1Rax Reapers FE wouldnt be a valid strategy.
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As a toss I can say that I hate this tactic. lol. I pretty much assume a reaper harass on the mineral line so I always put up a cannon or two or leave a few stalkers around the nexus just in case. Reapers are ungodly fast and if it weren't for the fact that they die with only a strong glance, I would say the are unbalanced.
Even if you don't take the opportunity to FE, it is still annoying as shit and if you pull it off, it tips the balance of the economy in your favor. I would say this reaper harass has become the new muta harass. Don't get me wrong, zerg are still using mutas, but I never see mutas in such high numbers so early in the game. Besides, these guys are way faster than mutas. They seem to be designed specifically for worker harassment. In time though, good players will get used to it, and new strategies will emerge to counter.
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Lol i had a section about Reapers being used to contain like sc bw mutalisks but forgot to copy paste it in oh well.
And yes there are going be counters to the reapers themselves but the point is contain and forcing your opponent to leave units behind to defend the harrass giving you time to expand and set up. If he leaves too few behind you can muscle them down with the reapers forcing him to draw back his forces and if he leaves to much he wont be able to break your bunker and new units made in the time it takes him to get to your base. As long as the reapers are kept alive and presented to the opponent as a threat that is 
Edit: spelling lolz
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I dunno, I am never bothered by this... just leave two stalkers behind... the T is already behind ~200 gas so he'll have very little to defend with... you can pushing the T by being aggressive while teching up (and don't need to worry about mass marauder, my biggest concern).
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On August 02 2010 07:53 yoden wrote:
I dunno, I am never bothered by this... just leave two stalkers behind... the T is already behind ~200 gas so he'll have very little to defend with... you can pushing the T by being aggressive while teching up (and don't need to worry about mass marauder, my biggest concern).
In the replay, Ensnare uses the 1 rax reaper FE against a Zerg opponent, not a Protoss.
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Just tried it against a Protoss and loss because he defended it pretty easily and then pushed over my expo and army with superior army size.
But next time i go up against a Protoss im gonna try a fast expansion using the 1 Rax Marauder build qxc uses. Maybe the marauder will contain the protoss better than the reaper.
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Reaper FE works much better in the real game than it did in beta. Since SCVs can repair buildings extremely quickly now, bunkers are a viable defense to most early-game armies. Stick reapers in there and you got anti-light unit. Stick marauders in there and you got anti-armored unit. Add in SCV repair and choke block...you got yourself an FE. It only works TvZ and TvP because marauders and marines are rather effective vs reapers, not to mention how scary tanks are.
Since bunkers can now hold off most early-game armies, you can focus on teching to counter everything else. Vikings for voidrays or collosi, tanks for mass hydras, etc.
You don't even have to build that many reapers. 2 reapers 1hitKO a zergling, and they take out zlots rather fast. If you just do:
10depot
12rax
12 gas
15 OC
tech lab and reaper when done
CC when you have money
You get an efficient scout, harass potential, and cover to build a CC.
Build a second one to replace the first one when its at low health. Research shells while you are harassing, and adapt to the situation. If he's getting speedlings, then get more reapers to put in a bunker. If he's getting stalkers, then you get marauders, etc. Block off the ramp, and there's very little your opponent can do to bring down your base.
However, the timing window after the CC is up is huge. I barely got vikings and marines in time to stop a combined VR/stalker/zlot push, and I nearly lost my CC.
This build will put you behind at least 20pop because of how crazy chrono and spawn larvae is. Defending is bearable; attacking...not so much. However, you do get a really nice timing window when they decide to expand.
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EPT
