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Recently I found myself just guessing what Terran players would open with against me so I decided to make a guide on how to scout and figure out what early pressure (if any) you're going to face against a Terran. This is specifically for early game to figure out the Terran players' opening. It is based on gas timings, unit count, and addon placement. This guide is 100% based on opponents I have played on ladder, just a warning I'm a top 8 Diamond level player. I've been opening hatch first against every Terran on every map also.
Drone Scouting
Drone scouting is extremely helpful in this match up if you are able to get into your opponents base. First of all, with a 14 or 15 scout you will immediately see a 2 Barracks opening because it will be walling the Terran player' entrance. If you are able to get into the Terran players' base you should go directly toward the gas. If your opponent has 2 gas already and only 1 barracks then you can pretty much limit the possibilities to 2 openings, 2 factory blue flame hellions or some sort of 1-1-1 build. Either way it requires additional scouting by zerglings or overlords so just send your drone home. If the Terran player only has 1 gas I highly recommend the gas steal. It slows down any tech build and gives you peace of mind knowing that his marines are attacking the extractor and not your base. Also, in some cases, the vision of the extractor will force the Terran player to make his buildings somewhere else and you can possibly try to scout those areas with your overlord later.
Additionally, thanks to MoreFaSho, if your drone scout is denied by a 2 depot and 1 barracks wall then it's pretty safe to assume your opponent isn't going 2 barracks simply because they cannot afford it efficiently. If you opponent walls with 1 depot and 1 barracks on the low ground then you should keep your drone around and scout marine numbers especially if they move out toward your base.
I've created a flowchart to help visualize the process.
+ Show Spoiler +
Zerglings Scouting The Front
Your initial 2-4 zerglings should be sent directly to your opponents front. What you want to do with these zerglings is poke up the opponents ramp and look for buildings/addons/units. You will use this knowledge along with the knowledge you gained from your drone to deductively determine your opponents build. You should be able to count the number of marines at the front. If you only see 2-4 then congratulations you have successfully done nothing! But, with previous knowledge you can make some assumptions. If you saw no gas with your drone it's safe to assume there's a command center building somewhere or that your opponent is hiding some barracks and marines. If you saw 2 gas with your drone then you can assume a factory is either complete or very close to completion and you need to start looking for addons or a starport. If your drone saw 1 gas then you can assume its a slow tech to blue flame hellions/ starport, a stim push with some hidden barracks and units somewhere, or hellion/marine pressure into expand.
Here's a flow chart for scouting units.
+ Show Spoiler +
Your zerglings also need to be looking for addons. These are very important and can tell you exactly what your opponent is doing. If your zergling sees a tech lab on a factory then its pretty safe to assume your going to be facing some blue flame hellions. Especially if your drone scouted 2 gas. If you see a factory with a reactor then hellions are coming at some point. If your see a researching tech lab on a barracks then a stim push is probably coming some time soon. Most possibilities can be seen in the flowchart below.
+ Show Spoiler +
Overlord Scouting
Now I know overlord scouting is sometimes not realistic (Cross positions Terminous or something) but if you have the opportunity you can get a lot of information from them. You always want to be scouting the gas timings to be able to determine how hard your opponent is teching. You can also spot some key buildings and/or addons.
Here is a flowchart for the overlord scout.
+ Show Spoiler +
Well executed timings I've encountered:
2 Factory Build - Hellions leave the Terran base usually between 7:00-7:20
1-1-1 Build - Hellion/4 marine pressure around 5:30, cloaked banshees can follow by 7:00
Other timings to know:
Tech labs take 25 seconds to build, if you see one get built check back in 25 seconds
Blue flame takes 110 seconds to research
Stim takes 170 seconds to research
I hope this helps everybody, if you have any questions/comments please post here. Also, I will be making a Protoss and Zerg version of this once I'm able to play enough games and watch some replays. If you have any replays where you scouted or didn't know how to scout and lost because of a surprise please post them and I will attempt to help you figure out whats coming.. For the Swarm!
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Very well done. Going to help a lot!! Looking forward to the others ^^
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Well, i didn't see much new stuff, but it's definately alot of your work, and will help everyone below diamond for sure Well done mate nice thread
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very interest guide, thanks for sharing, i'll try it later.
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Awesome guide, good work! Very streamlined and easy to understand.
Thanks a ton
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I don't see any mention of banshees here; lots of gas + tech lab often means banshees inbound. Are you considering banshee play as a transition out of the various hellion openings, and thus beyond the scope of this guide?
It's an incredibly important bit of scouting info, though -- if your opponent goes banshee and you are unprepared you just plain die, since zerg get precious little that shoots up.
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A few things to add:
1) if you scout and you see 2 depots and 1 rax wall with a 14 drone scout, they can't be going 2-rax, there's tension at that point in the game and they can't afford both immediately.
2) On maps where they can wall the bottom of their ramp (blizzard maps), you can't really tell what they're going, but you should keep your drone around somewhere where you'll see when they bring out marines how many they bring and if scvs are coming with it, but this situation can be a little hard to properly scout.
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On May 18 2011 05:09 entropius wrote:
I don't see any mention of banshees here; lots of gas + tech lab often means banshees inbound. Are you considering banshee play as a transition out of the various hellion openings, and thus beyond the scope of this guide?
It's an incredibly important bit of scouting info, though -- if your opponent goes banshee and you are unprepared you just plain die, since zerg get precious little that shoots up.
If you scout that your opponent is going a 1-1-1 build then scouting for addons becomes extremely important. You need to have good overlord placement to see banshees or drops coming. I usually have about 4 queens out for defense so banshees aren't much of a problem. The trouble in this is determining whether your are being marine dropped (possibly 2 pronged), hellion dropped, or banshees are coming.
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you should also be able to add the timings of each scout
for example at 6.30 min the first banshee should be building or something. that could be using for us zergs.
or include the supply which zerg/terran is at !!
thx great guide nonetheless.
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On May 18 2011 04:45 SirJebadiah wrote:
1-1-1 Build - Hellion/4 marine pressure around 6:007:00
It's actually a bit sooner since the hellion comes out around 5:00.
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Thanks for the effort you put into this, it's a helpful insight as I'm trying to work myself into diamond league.
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WOW the flow charts are nice
As a gold Zerg I greatly thank you
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great flow charts. I got a question. You always seem to assume your opponent is going for some sort of 1 base play if they have taken gas. What about reaper expand?
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It's not new, but it's excellent presented. I love these kinds of initiative! Great work mate!
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I can add:
5 roach scouting:
if you hatch first against rax-gas, put down a warren at 26, then drone up to 28, make 2 overlords, and 5 roaches when the warren pops. Shoo away the hellions which will get to your base at around this time, then go attack him. Force a bunker, do some damage, and force him to reveal you his gas units. If you see none, there's probably a banshee underway.
"reads"
Not not foolproof but many bad players conform to these.
If somebody bunker rushes you after going 1rax-gas, especially if sending more than 1 scv, expect a banshee followup.
If somebody opens 2 rax but is not applying pressure and seemingly just sitting in his base, expect a 4+rax marine-scv allin.
I stole most of not all of the above from Sheth. Credits to him, you're awesome Sheth!
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I have not experienced reaper expand much but that is usually the case if your drone sees a tech lab on the first barracks.. I shall add it to the flow charts
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these flowcharts are great. It's easy to read and feel like I know all this stuff, but once in a while I get into a game (especially after playing too much random) and forget stuff like "hey, this early 2nd gas could still mean a bio push." Maybe I'm just bad though.
Thanks again. So many of the world's problems can be solved in flowchart form.
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Very nice guide. As a Terran player who off races Zerg, its great to be able to visualize and get a good idea of what the Terran player is up to.
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Thanks for a halpful guide
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Nice guide, have been trying to figure out scouting terran openings for awhile now. This is really helpful.
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