I've been using the 3 Rax Marine Marauder Build, and attacking my opponent around 50 supply, usually 7-8minutes into the game. I rally my Rax’s to a Marauder and most of the time I beat their initial forces and push into their base and its GG. However a few times I’ve ran into issue’s were a Siege tank takes out half my forces, or Toss has Sentry up with Stalkers/Zealots and takes out a good part of my army. So I normally, turtle up at my base and rebuild an army of MM to defend. My Question here, for those of you that have used this build before is where do I go from here? I’ve had little success with anything, and could use some help, much thanks

KaiserJohan

Sweden1808 Posts

August 24 2010 13:41 GMT

3 rax rauder/rine to put pressure on him, then you expand. You might be able to do 3rax rauder 1-base push if on Blistering sands b4 they get colossi/critical number of siege tanks by poking both openings to his base.

Your best bet is to partially transition out of bio then. TvP you can add a ghost but if he goes colossi you NEED vikings/tanks, or against HT you need good emp's.

kGold

Canada66 Posts

August 24 2010 14:55 GMT

put pressure on them smartly so that you don't lose more units than he does, meanwhile expanding and transitioning to: mech vs T (large map), tanks+medivacs+marauders vs T(small map), ghosts/tanks/vikings/bio vs P. zerg.. I doubt you're 3 raxing them in the first place.

jp_zer0

Canada48 Posts

August 24 2010 15:15 GMT

I don't think 3 rax'ing is that effective a build. Especially vs T. Like you said it's hard to transition out of it.

vs T, 2 rax very fast push to beat critical mass of tanks and siege mode. If it fails then transition to some standard TvT midgame.
vs Z, you're asking for trouble if you don't have excellent micro. infestors and blings have a field day with infantry.
vs P, try 1rax FE. Get ghosts and EMP sentries/HTs when it comes to that. Get vikings if you spot a robo or collossus.

ltortoise

633 Posts

August 24 2010 17:07 GMT

I think it's perfectly playable vs toss if you can expo off it while pressuring them.

Versus terran, I don't like it because fast tank builds can push back on you hard. If you want to do a 1 base infantry push in TvT, you're better off going pure marauder and pushing once you have 5 - 7. They can deal with the first tank or two.

Vs zerg it's just bad unless they are roaching. Even then, a nice speedling/roach composition will just rape your army without any issue. Speedling/baneling will absolutely trounce you.

Elanshin

Australia216 Posts

August 24 2010 17:12 GMT

It is also very map dependent: Some maps such as Scrap station is excellent for 3 rax push, simply because of the fat ramp, unless they have insane reaction time and can throw 3 FF down before you stim and charge your way past the ramp, you should be in his base tearing up stuff, although the likelihood of VR is high on that map.
Against T, its way too late to push at 50 Sup, they will have siege mode if they scout the build and well unless you totally outnumber his units its pretty hard to muscle past bunkers and siege tanks.

gerundium

Netherlands786 Posts

August 24 2010 17:20 GMT

if you are going 3 rax versus P and can't go up the ramp i usually like to take my natural and put down 2 bunkers there. Then i usually get a ghost academy and add fac+ starport when my nat is up to get a few tanks / medivacs / vikings to supplement my infantry and be able to defend collosi / immortal pushes by P. What you absolutely should not do is try to charge up the ramp versus P if you see sentries because you will lose half your army and die to a counter attack. Scan before going up!

BONE

United States176 Posts

August 24 2010 17:31 GMT

I guess the biggest problem with this is waiting to long and knowing what you are up against. Siege Tanks/Multiple VRays seem to own this unless against tanks you are Marauder Hevy and against VRays (1-3) you are more Marine dominant. If you can be fast its tough to be stopped. However if you do get stopped I guess the next step is to expand and get Siege Tanks to add to this composition, unless air has been scouted Then Vikings I would think

mols0n

Canada388 Posts

August 24 2010 17:34 GMT

I wouldn't really go 3 rax vs any decent terran player, as they would have scouted and learned how to counter. The only map this may be viable is blistering sands since you can backdoor. I'm not a huge fan of it vs Protoss, but it works. I counters 4 gate and its easy to transition out of.

BONE

United States176 Posts

August 25 2010 14:07 GMT

#10

I found that expanding and adding Medivacs, then transitioning into stronger units has been working well.

SirNeshorn

Norway66 Posts

August 25 2010 21:12 GMT

#11

As a protoss player, if I fend off a 3-rax build, the terran is usually dead not too long after. The first push really got to count.

If the protoss scouts marauders at your ramp, he'll very likely be expecting you to push out, and so he will not be offensive unless he's got something up his sleeve (like if you got no marines, and he just finished his stargate). In general, T is likely to start a fight as most P players don't like to face off against stimmed bio units at open places in the early game due to that bio units are small and quickly get into position. As someone else mentioned, it really depends on the map. If there's only one ramp, you're gonna have a hard time if P got some zealots, a few stalkers, one or two sentries and eventually an immortal (which he is likely to have if he sees you push out). Unless he controls his units very poorly, you WILL lose the battle for his ramp with this unit composition.

What usually happens when I defend against this (about 400 diamond) is that T retreats with the remaining forces he got and tries to replenish his force. In the meantime, I throw down an expansion and get charge for my zealots and start teching towards HT. When T pushes out again, he'll likely have ghosts, but that rarely cuts the deal entirely, and once P finds out he has left his base, he engages and can usually roflstomp the bio ball if he sees it as you'll likely lack a descent amount of T2 units. My guess is it would be better to expand and keep the replenished MM ball at your base to defend as P will have a hard time breaking your defenses as well. Once you got a healthy amount of higher tech units in addition to the bio ball, you might want to push out. Just keep in mind that if a 3-rax push fails, you're behind in tech and possibly also in econ.

Irennicus

United States8 Posts

August 25 2010 21:38 GMT

#12

As a Z I love the 3 rax push. It usually means that my counter attack will usually at least put me into a decent situation which I rarely ever get against T.

Ironclown

United States73 Posts

August 25 2010 22:45 GMT

#13

Just read over this strat and just compared the timing on it to another build.

I did 2 Rax Marauder push, and stim is done at 5:59.
I have 5 marauders with a marine mid field and basically I hit them with these few, BUT comparing to a Fast siege tank/mode into expand, the siege would win.

6:35 or a bit sooner is when 2 rax marauder will hit them, and thats is precisely the time that I have 2 siege tanks, siege mode, a bunker and a couple extra infantry. It may be close, but as long as your build is tight, siege expand would win over this build IMO

BONE

United States176 Posts

August 26 2010 13:18 GMT

#14

A lot of good advice in this thread.

Things I’ve noticed lately, against Z, this is tough build, I’ve actually been going 2 Rax and Hellions w/Blue Flame, or Siege tanks and even then I have issues.

Against Protoss, your correct if they defend the 1st push its usually GG. Unless you build up a small force to defend your base and expand right away after that initial push.

Against T, if I scout tank I push out Marauders like its my job, 5-6 Marauders take down a tank pretty quickly. 1 thing I’ve noticed that has been helping me out a ton lately, I usually rally my 3 Rax to a Marauder so they will rally to the army for the initial push, however if I feel like they are defending I rally just outside the base, So that even if they defend the 1st push a 2nd push with a good amount of units is not far behind, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched replays and I’ve had them down to two units but I was just out of reach with my forces to end the game. Rally right out of their view has really helped….

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