The Terran Help Me Thread - Page 95

On December 19 2011 22:40 TheDwf wrote:

Your problem had little to do with the map size. You lost your first push because you were way too reckless; you need to scan ahead, stim a small group of Marines (not your whole group of Marines, especially if you don't have enough Medivacs, a problem you had the whole game) and get rid of all Tumors (and Spines in that case) while pre-splitting your Marines behind and slowly deploy your Tanks. You have to be really cautious on the creep, otherwise you will be fungaled to death the way it happened.

Second push, watch his sight at 18'55: again, he sees nearly everything because there are still 2 Tumors near your army. You sit around doing nothing, so he has time to prepare and you get swept because your army was weakened by your losses in the former push.

I think you did not scout enough this game; from what I watched, you didn't know he was going Mutas yet pre-emptively built mass Turrets. What if he had went Ling/Infestors instead? You also didn't scout his Hive timing (which was earlier than usual), which means you couldn't really prepare in time for his Tier3.

You have 92 SCVs when he goes your fourth, this is way too many. Stop around 70-75, maybe 80 at most.

About finding where the Zerg army is, you can use Sensor Towers near your bases, and scans to know if it's safe to go out and take Towers.

On December 19 2011 22:52 Absentia wrote:


Lost 3 hellions for basically nothing. You have to remake/build more hellions to compensate which slows down any timing push/expansion etc.

If you're going for a delayed starport, (as you do). I'd recommend building at least one medivac before you build the reactor.
It'll allow you to stim a little bit more and, as a result, allow you to defend against the early mutalisks that bit easier.
It can also allow you to do a bit more poking around the map since you'll actually be able to stim a little.

Since your hellions have died, you've basically got no map control. You have no idea if he's taking a 4th, if he's continuing to build mutalisks or if he's swapped tech. Try to send two marines to a watchtower, (if you don't want to push out with your whole army). You should be able to get an idea of where about his army is, (i.e if it's not within watchtower vision range or if the marines aren't killed along the way, it's most likely his army is on his side of the map.
If the zerg is bad, then they'll send their muta flock to clear it out. If they're good, they'll send a couple of lings. At the very least you get an idea of where his army is located.
You do a scan at the 15:00 mark which essentially gains less information than 2 marines at a watchtower would.
Similiarly drops can be used to gather an idea of how big a mutalisk flock is, (since zergs will bring ALL of their mutalisks to clear it up the vast majority of the time).

I suppose you could wonder why this is significant. Well a large mutalisk flock, as you are well aware, will require a different response than a small one will. Large mutalisk flocks you want to be adding thors and keeping a small group of marines in your base.
A small mutalisk flock often indicates a switch to infestors and hive tech. In the latter case, you need to be doing a lot of poking to fill up the zergs supply with units he doesn't want to build, (like zerglings) so he ends up with a 200/200 supply of weaker units.
The push you do around the 15:30 minute mark seems to agree with this logic but your execution is a bit off.

The very fact he hasn't been harassing constantly with mutalisks should be a sign that he's switching tech. The most likely choice for a tech switch is infestors.
You're trying to do a double drop but by doing a double drop with such a low medivac count, you're leaving yourself extremely vulnerable to fungal growth as well as limiting your stim usage. In this situation, given your low medivac count, I wouldn't have bothered with the double drops and just kept them with your main army.
At the 16:00 mark you get WAY too eager with the attack. You end up sieging too late and having significant clumps of marines fungaled.
You clear up his first attack sure, but you're WAY too damaged for it. Zergs don't care if you beat their first push if they can crush you with the second. In this case, the zergs follow up push destroys four of your tanks and the rest of your marines. You're only building off 1 factory so a 4 tank loss at this point is HUGE.

At 16:00 you should be thinking about taking a 4th because it's around this point your main beging to dry up. Furthermore, against infestor based strategies, you should be thinking about the possibility of hive tech at this point and preparing accordingly.
You build your 4th at around the 17 minute mark so I guess the first half of my analysis there isn't quite so important.

Your +1 vehicle weapons is finshing at the 18 minute mark that's incredibly late. +1 vehicles is one of THE most important upgrades in the entire matchup. The sooner you can get it, the better. The earlier push you did at 15:30 would've been significantly stronger if you'd have +1 tanks.

Given everything that's happened, a 4 siege tank push at the 18 minute mark is NOT enough to warrant a committed push. You're in a very dfficult position at the moment because you can't afford to turtle, (or else you'll get rolled by hive tech units + superior economy) nor can you afford to committ because your army just isn't strong enough.
Constant poking to fill up the zerg's supply is the best you can hope for at this point. Siege up, clear some creep up and get out of there.
Instead you decide to sit in that wide open area with a weak army - that army is going to get cleared up easily by the first - if not the second zerg attack.
If you're setting up an offensive position in such a wide open area at such a late stage in the game, you NEED a decent tank count; 8+ at least.

After that push gets cleared up, the game is basically over. He's getting hive tech units and you're basically still on the mid game tech of marine/tank.
You needed to recognise the time when marauders/ghosts or vikings should've been built.
You've already lost because of the army you lost in that engagement but your lack of tech is going to be the nail in the coffin.

One final thing is you build too many scvs.
I encounter the same problem but you've really got to work on keeping an scv count at around 70. Zergs can afford smaller armies because they can rely on reinforcements to clear up. We terran's cannot.
Just get into a habit of thinking 'ok stop producing scvs'. You can take time to check your scv count or, (as I do) arbitrarily choose to stop building when you think you have enough.

Hope some of that helps.