When is a good time to expand as terran? I know as a general guideline I should expand when I attack or when my opponent expands. But I seem to be expanding late according to my diamond league friends. I tend to expand at around 80-100ish food. As a generally guideline, what food/supply is a good time to expand? Thanks!

Silidons

United States2813 Posts

December 21 2010 05:24 GMT

it all depends on the situation my friend, there is no one time you need to expand...sac a scv or throw a scan down around 30ish supply and see what they are doing - if you see they are 1 basing hard, then you should 1 base till you feel comfortable (mainly for toss and terran) and against zerg you can probably expo around the 25-30ish mark too. terran has very strong defense, throwing down your expo around 80-100ish food is really really late (if you're not all-inning).

RukKus

United States197 Posts

December 21 2010 06:55 GMT

I notice as I get better I expand earlier and earlier. My earliest expand as Terran is around 5:00, and that's versus Protoss. I send out 2 marauder and 1 Marine to do some light harass as I lay it down. I follow up with 2 Bunkers at natural, and a minute later, around the time my harass ends, I am safe again.

Versus Terran, I expand as soon as siege is up, or as soon as banshee is harassing.

Versus Zerg... well Z is my hardest match and I am having a hard time feeling comfortable.

It's all about comfort/security, knowing that you're safe. The sooner you get yourself in a secure position, sooner you can expand and reap extra minerals.

Even if it is not safe to expand, it helps to lay down CC inside your base for the extra SCV production.

I used to rarely expand. I prefered 1 base games. Now my average game I expand 2-3 times! Sometimes I go expand crazy, taking every expo on the map. Dangerous expo is PF, fortified by 2-3 turrets. I get the range upgrade from e-bay. They pay for themselves after a minute or two of mining, and even moreso when opponent suicides units to kill it. One game I even expo in opponent's natural as he was turtling. You feel very safe owning every expo on map!! haha! But don't get so expand crazy that you forget to build units..... I did that once, had most expo, and opponent walked straight into main and killed all my production structures. Nothing I could do with empty expansions.

Day9 "expand every 5 minute" technique helps you get comfortable expanding.

statikg

Canada930 Posts

December 21 2010 07:19 GMT

I do a fairly fast expand in both TvP and TvZ. IMO, doing a fast expand in TvT is asking for it. You have to have very good scouting information and very good micro to pull it off so just don't for now.

In TvP you need a minimum of 2 barracks constantly pumping units to hold. If you see him fast expand then you are also safe to expand earlier then this. If he continues to one base you are going to need a bunker or two.

In TvZ you can get away with a fast expand if you throw a bunker up, followed up by building some tanks, or you can also expand as fast as you want if you make a planetary fortress.

I generally try to expand by 30 food in both these matchups else you risk really falling behind. (Exception a protoss who is doing some sort of all in)

In TvT I generally expand once I have siege tanks or sufficient banshees to stop any push of theirs involving siege tanks.

Keep in mind an advantage terran has is being able to build your expansion in your main base, so you can start building it before you are technically safe to expand if you can predict that 90seconds from now you will be safe.

plbro81

117 Posts

January 01 2011 07:02 GMT

oh btw what food is considered a "fast" expand? and what food would be a normal expand?
and is fast expanding better? it seems that all the good players fast expand.

Semipsyc

Korea (South)123 Posts

January 01 2011 07:33 GMT

Probably expanding around 14-22 food would be considered a FE or within the first 4 minutes of the match, I think. Also you may not have to fast expand, as terran. At times, depending on situation and map, I may build an in base CC after my 2nd rax or my factory, esp to keep up in econ/macro with zerg. Having two early OCs in the game for double scv production and double muling can be huge, even on one base for like the first 7 minutes. Then once you feel safe and feel you are even food/army with your opponent, you can just start moving out ur 2nd OC to the natural, and can use lift on some of ur production building to help make a wall, with a couple bunkers here and there (usual preference against zerg)

Against Protoss, I usually just try to keep even base with protoss. If I see they are expanding, I usually try to pressure them and take down the expo, while expanding behind and trying to bunker up the natural a bit in case the push fails and can fall back on the bunkers/expand myself so I'm not too far behind in the mid game

Black Gun

Germany4482 Posts

January 01 2011 07:35 GMT

all the good players scout very well and will only go for a FE if what they see their opponent doing allows it.

i think terrans in general dont benefit as much as Z or P from an extremely early expansion as it will delay orbital going up. something like a 15 or 16 CC after orbital is going up is the earliest i can imagine.

plbro81

117 Posts

January 01 2011 07:45 GMT

generally speaking, is expanding at 50 food reasonable (not too late)?

Foxtrot

Canada21 Posts

January 01 2011 07:52 GMT

On January 01 2011 16:45 plbro81 wrote:
generally speaking, is expanding at 50 food reasonable (not too late)?

As other posters said, it depends. But as a general guideline, if you are harrassing a lot, putting a lot of pressure, rushing, it will delay your expansion. If you are teching, playing safe, getting tanks for defensive purpose, etc... you should get your natural asap (and keep it safe).

A fast expand is usually done really fast, before getting any kind of tech. You cut down unit productions in the early stage (15-23 supply) to get a 2nd command center. That is a fast expand, not a 50 supply one.

But yeah, 50 supply is very reasonnable.

XDJuicebox

United States593 Posts

January 01 2011 20:52 GMT

#10

You can expand whenever you're somewhat safe. Well, that's what I discovered after my super duper long losing streaks due to bad expansion timing.

I was watching some Gretorp replays, and he'll trade armies and expand, and I'm just like wow why didn't I ever think of that.

When I mean safe, I mean:

-When they can't attack you
-When you're putting the hurt on them
-When they're distracted

That usually works for me.

Don't be like me and get too greedy though lol