Hi Argoneus, I'm HardCorey and ive just started trying to do a video series of answering questions on various threads that provide replays. I took a look at your replay and I just uploaded the video. I didn't talk about how to do a Mech build as much as how to deal with Zerg chilling on 2 bases and Macroing up. I thought you had some good decision making but it didn't quite follow through. The video link is below.

http://hardcorey.blip.tv/file/4451049/

My Main Thread

Hope this helps,
-HardCorey

EDIT: I am a total idiot, I completely screwed that up haha. The sound got completely broken for this one. Most of what I was saying is that terran has lots of methods to harass zerg early on, and that the Zerg did a fantastic job of getting onto 2 bases and then just sitting on it and macroing up and building almost only drones for the longest time. I also talked about how you had too much gas for a long period of time that you weren't utilizing. I left the video up because its basically now just a video of your replay so anyone else who wants to help can look at it. Sorry about that.

Geovu

Estonia1344 Posts

December 01 2010 01:05 GMT

#22

The amount of people who didn't watch the replay yet are commenting on his play is hilarious.

You made several mistakes in your gameplay:
-Controlling/passing by watchtowers is very important
-Reactor marines+hellions, wth are you spending your gas on? It racks up to 500 as you push out and only climbs higher as the game progresses. Later on you switch the barracks for a tech lab, have tons of resources, in particular gas, yet you make marines instead of marauders.
-You can scan before you attack, or at the very least poke with 1 hellion. Your first attack was disgustingly useless, really you should have pulled back when you saw the spines as marines + hellions do not work well vs them.
-In your second attack you lose a tank pointlessly because you did not scout the front beforehand and were too aggressive with your tanks. You probably should have sieged @ the creep, not on it, take out creep tumors, and be patient as you reinforce.
-You did not use your resources off 1 base at all. Work on your economy management. That is BY FAR your biggest problem.

If you lose to a hydra using zerg TvZ while going tank blue flame hellion something is up with your play; economy the biggest offender, judging if you can win a battle or not properly the 2nd, and tank placement the 3rd. They are called siege tanks instead of Blitzkreig tanks for a reason.

Dr.Sin

Canada1126 Posts

December 01 2010 01:39 GMT

#23

I'm a 1500 diamond random player, so take my comments as you like.

Overall: Zerg have to compromise: drones vs combat units. If you keep the pressure on early , then he can't make drones. You will eventually win over the economic battle by forcing him to not make drones. Once a zerg has his economy rolling, good luck. Your primary goal should be to prevent that. To use an example: your opponent had 28 drones to your 20 scvs at 6 minutes. By 7 minutes, there was a 13 drone difference. A good zerg usually waits as long as he can before he stops making drones. When he's ready, he'll pop an army in a minute or 2. Keep in mind that you had close ground positions, making his fast expansion very vulnerable.

I'm also not fond of your unit balance. Hellions are interesting units, but you had no indication for why you'd need lots of them (lots of zerglings). I would've had a thor or 2 with some marines with stim or tanks instead of the hellions. If your opponent goes mass roach, mass marauders deal with that nicely.

Useful things to do: harassment tactics.

These include: offensive bunkering. The bunker, if built far enough while the hatch is building, will be out of sight, unless an overlord is present. If you build a bunker with a couple marines or a reaper to support your scv, he won't be able to take out the bunker without pulling 3-4 drones. This is very costly and hurts his economy. Alternative, he has to make zerglings. Not optimal. Keep in mind that spine crawlers outrange bunkered marines. The reaper is useful for that.

Other harass: tanks / thors on the cliff above the expansion in lost temple. Bring in some scvs to build a turret and repair the mechs. It works nicely. Banshees and blue flame hellions are nice, but their usefulness is situational. Too many queens or too many sunkens will cancel those attacks respectively.

Specific comments:

I'm at 3:30 seconds, you built a 2nd gas geyser. That feels a little early to me, but it depends what you're going for. If you were to go gas on 12, you'd have your rax on 13 and by the time your rax is done, you should have nearly enough gas to make a factory. For your choice of units, you ended up having too much gas throughout your game, so those scvs would've been more useful elsewhere than in a 2nd geyser.

At 7:00: you're starting to build a trust fund. When you moved out, you should have been building an extra CC to expand.

Between the 7th and 8th minute you suicided your forces into the sunkens. Had the marines had stim, it may have gone better. You should've just pulled away at that moment and worked on containing your opponent. A scan prior to charging would've been helpful , you would've seen him retreat with his drones. If you really wanted to try, had you known, you could've rushed after them with your hellions and done heavy damage. as they were tightly packed above. Alternatively, the starport suggestion was good. A 3 hellion drop build can be pretty harsh.

At 11:30, your tank was exposed when you moved your hellions around, allowing him to pick it off with his hydras. Hydras are slow off creep , but fast on creep. This allowed him to outmaneuver you. This attack failed largely because of your positioning. Also, when you attacked, you weren't producing enough units, resulting in a trust fund.

The zerg won because you allowed him to build and defend his natural expansion and you didn't make one. Future endeavours should look to either developing a better economy / improving your macro to match his economy or altering your unit composition and timing to have a more effective push.

I hope this helped! Good luck!

Argoneus

Czech Republic283 Posts

December 04 2010 13:38 GMT

#24

Thanks to all for your feedback! I've did some more practicing based on your suggestions and I think I'm getting the hang of it

Not that hard actually, just keep some USEFUL pressure and not suiciding units and take my nat quick, then its not that hard. Thanks again!

iAmJeffReY

United States4262 Posts

December 04 2010 14:34 GMT

#25

2 rax is safest opening to me. I 2 rax open EVERY zerg. I'm 2400 terran, and I play TvZ for macro games, usually 20+ minute games and I'm doing at least 60% in them. 10 supply 12 rax 14 rax 16 OC 16 supply, 27 CC in base to either block your wall if they're busting, or just by your CC to oversat ur main before you float to expo. Double gas and double fac and crank out some tanks. If they muta, 2-3 thors and you're in good shape.

I feel that it's the easiest to transition out of. My mech is usually only tanks and hellions, but i mix in thors vs mutas or heavy bane users.
I see no flaws in 2 rax. If they roach, they late lair and STILL can't bust my wall. 1 bunker and repair and you're still ahead. Get 2-3 tanks and go engage with stim and FF banes with tanks.

I personally stay marines a LOT as you can bounce back after army trading easily. Keep pushing expansions of his with drops or pushes, and take your own with +2 armor PF's with simcity to block them.

Because people think thors are the end all game unit. And getting 5-6 thors behind a wall with 0-2 and pushing out will always win. Play a good zerg. I had a guy on shakuras that when I turtled up, he took 2 other bases, so I took my 3rd and 4th, and we just constantly traded armies.

vs 2300 zerg.

vs 2500 zerg close positions

vs good-record-1800 zerg

and a game I lost vs 2200 zerg

vs 2300 zerg on shakuras.

vs 2150 zerg

You'll note I always block and mech on shakuras, as it's almost unstoppable lol Hope some of these help. I don't have high APM or anything, barely 100 if that. They're ALL 2 rax open, and not one set me back badly. Failed bunker rushes are never failed either. You made them waste queens or drones, or larva for zerglings that can't be used even.