[G] Micromancer's TvP Reaper Opening

-fast expansion
-early harass options
-upgrades started early
-powerful timing attack to punish unprepared/ greedy players
-transition into a standard midgame!

I wanted to do a quick section on my thoughts on the reaper, because i feel it is a very underused unit that many people don't quite understand.

-Harassing- most people are aware that reapers can be used for this, that it takes 3 shots to kill a probe and they can jump over small cliffs. I would just like to add that with +1 reapers can kill probes int 2 shots....

-Scouting- make sure that if your doing multiple reaper harasses over the course of the game that you send them down different routs to and through your opponent's base, just by setting a few extra way points you can check likely proxy locations that would otherwise be hard to scout, and once in the base you can get a great look at your opponents build order.

-As combat units- Reapers can kill a sentry 1 on 1, a great trade early on, if your opponent opts to go sentry first instead of stalker, you can kill the sentry and sometimes even get a few probes on top of it! Against zealots you can out micro them but they take a long time to kill, it is usually best to kite past them and then start targeting the probe line. 3 reapers can kill a single stalker if they only leave one behind to defend a mineral line, however it is usually best to just take the hits and target probes, as you will be 1 shoting them.

-As an economic tool- what i find the most interesting about reapers is their economic function, because they have very low resource costs coupled with a very long build time you have alot of excess minerals to spend on other things. I use this early on in my build to get a fair amount of infrastructure up a lot quicker than you would normally be able to but this can also have late game applications: feeling safe for a min and want to expand? Make a round of reapers! Will let you save up the needed money very quickly and give you an excellent harass unit. Need to get a bunch more barracks up because you just expanded? Make another round of reapers!

This is a variation on a two racks expand however you will notice that you get your expansion and following structures up a lot quicker because of the reaper instead of marauder production.

-supply at your ramp –send scv to scout after
-barracks
-gas
-supply also at your ramp (after this just don't get supply blocked, i don't remember the supply timings)
-marine/orbital command at the same time
-tech lab on racks
-2nd racks
-you are going to start making the first of 4 consecutive reapers from your first barracks you will send your first one to scout/ harass and hide your next 3
-reactor on 2nd racks

At this point there is a bit of a deviation, depending on what you scout, it is going to determine how fast you can squeeze out your expansion. You are looking for his gateway production and chrono boost usage, If he either sends his first zealot at your base immediately, or uses any chrono on his gateway, you need to build a bunker walling off between the supply depots at your ramp immediately. For the very early part of the game you will only have 1 marine and if he pushes with his first few units and you don't have the wall off and bunker ready you are in for a world of hurt. If he does not spend any chrono on his gateway and either chases your scv with his zealot or sends it to his ramp you can build your cc alot faster.

So, if you see chrono on gateway or an aggressive zealot
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Passive zealot/ no zealot and no chrono on stalker
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around this point your first reaper should be getting to your opponent's base, if you can keep your initial scouting scv alive and hide it close by it is awesome to poke up the ramp and then run away to see if you can draw his units after it while you hop up into the back of his main to scout/harass.

After your harass you should have a wall off with a bunker. You should have 3 racks 1 reactor 2 tech labs, and 2ccs in your main. Your army at this point probably consists of either 1-3 marines and 2 reapers, depending on how long your harass lasted and when your reactor finishes. At this point your next move is going to be your 3 reaper harass. This is important however, only build 1 marauder out of your 2nd tech racks, it should finish about the same time as your last reaper. You should have ~ 1 marauder, 7 marines and 3 reapers. At this point you have some choices to make. In general there are around 3 different looks you will see from the protoss. I am not going to go too much into detail into the scouting because there are other guides out there that already go into that very well.

Protoss has expanded and is at his ramp
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Protoss is one basing: 4 gate or void ray all in

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Protoss is containing you with sentries at the bottom of your ramp and expanding behind it.

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After the reaper harass is over you are going to gear up for a ghost, stim , combat shield +1 timing attack.

Besides the 1 marauder you made out of your third barracks, you dont want to make any more for awhile, just pump marines, you are going to spend your gas on upgrades.

After the orbital comand on your expansion is done you want to spend your minerals on an e-bay and a second refinery. Your gas should be spent on and in this order: stim, +1 attack, combat shield, ghost academy, make a round of marauders, make 2 ghosts.

Around the 10 min mark you should be ready to attack you should have around 3 marauders, 2 ghosts, and a tone of marines. People underestimate this attack and it has potential to do game ending damage around the 11 min mark. It should be timed so that his tech is either not out or just starting to come out. I personally like to send my ghosts back to my base after they emp, if you baby sit them those ghosts will last the whole game and that is worth way more than whatever damage they do in a fight. As you move out you are going to add a factory and 2 more racks, with the intent of getting a reactored starport up right away. You can also try expanding behind this push if you have the minerals.

At the time this push ends you should have 5 racks, a reactor starport, a ghost academy, and possible your third on the way. At this point you can play the game out according to your style and tendencies.

As you can probably tell I'm a big fan of drawing thier army out of position with an scv or your own army, then popping reapers or a drop in the back!

As a follow up, if you do a lot of army damage, aka he won't be able to attack for a bit, make another round of 4-6 reapers, get them reaper speed and and poke at him while you expand! Be light with their harass, don't be scared to run away, you can find a hole later and do more damage with them!

Have some late game reapers? drop a ghost in his base with cloak, nuke his ramp to prevent his army from coming back up into his main and go to town on his buildings with your reapers!

I mentioned I like to babysit my ghosts, if they end up getting caught in front after they emp and your up for a bit of micro, pick them up in a medivac and take them to the back of the army where they belong.

Like early aggression? If your initial scouting scv doesn't see a zealot being made out of the gateway and they don't chrono boost their stalker send your first marine straight into their base, coupled with your scouting scv you can usually get somewhere between 1-3 probe kills and you always disrupt their mining. If you want to try this you have to send your first marine immediately, and then keep an eye on their gateway, if you see him start a zealot, or throw down any chrono just turn your marine right back around. If you wait to see if he starts a zealot it will be too late to send your marine. Also if you do get your marine into his base it is good to build another marine out of your second barracks before starting your reactor, so you have something to put in your bunker if he pushes right back with his stalker.

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Here is a game where i kind of fumbled through the opening, I was thrown off by his nexus first. But if you want to see how I like to approach the late game vs zealot archon, high templar style I thought this was a really good example.



And if your a T player who wants a bit of a laugh check this one out!