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Active: 1459 users

[B] Hellion Ghost Nuke TvZ

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
Opeasy
Profile Joined August 2011
107 Posts
February 27 2012 19:29 GMT
#1
Hello Teamliquid viewers! This will be my first guide, so please don't be to harsh (except if you think the build is terrible, then feel free to rant and rage away).

Who am I
+ Show Spoiler +
I am a terranplayer in platinum league, trying my best to get up in diamond. My favorite match up is TvT, but i feel like the terran numbers are dwindling, at least in EU plat, last 25 games, i got 2 TvTs. So i make this guide to get some of you protosses and zergs to see what great potential lies in terran, and maybe you'll consider joining me in TvTs in the future


Discalmer, is this post redundant?
+ Show Spoiler +
There was one kind of similar guide, but it included marines and excluded the actual build orders, so I will make this, and hope it is helpful for you!


The basic idea
[image loading]
You get hellions to deal with lings, while your nukes should be killing spines, (don't go for the drones, even though it is tempting, because hellions kill drones pretty fast when no spines hinder them. Your ghosts will also be used to snipe queens (which are psionic :D).

Build Order
You start of with the standard hellion reactor opening.
- 10 supply
- 11 gas
- 13 Rax
- 16 make 1 marine (to scare of a drone scout or overlord)
- 17 factory
- 18 Orbital
- 18 make your second refinery (when this finish, you should keep to scvs working in each refinery)
- As soon as your marine finish, you start the reactor on your rax
- 18 supply depot (this is my last supply depot timing tip, just don't get supply blocked from now on)
- 18 make hellion from factory (use this hellion to find his base, and scout for all in/fast roach pressure)
- switch factory and rax the moment your reactor/hellion finishes. (constant double hellion from now on)
- 23 Start your techlab on the rax.
- 23 Build ghost academy.
- 30 Start your ghost. (constant ghost from now on.
- 31 Start your nuke. (why ghost before nuke: ghost take 45 sec, nuke takes 60, but you want your ghost to come to his base as soon as possible, and your nuke will finish before he gets there regardless)
- From now on, keep making ghosts, hellions and nukes. Remember, you can start a new nuke already when you fire the first one, not only when it lands.

Execution
What your first hellion scouts is key:
If they spine up, you're good to go. http://i.imgur.com/UP3VQ.jpg = good to go
If they make roaches, sack your plan and use your rax for marauder (it's now time to do a hellion marauder all in, or whatever you feel is best).
I recommend you put your ghost academy in a controlgroup for faster nuke production.
Nuke the spines ( http://i.imgur.com/ds1Cu.jpg )/( http://i.imgur.com/s94ch.jpg ), snipe the queens and roast the lings and drones. If they lift spines, you must consider if the damage the nuke does is worth it, or if you should cancel, and kill the spines with your hellions and ghosts.

When should you do it?
I have had best results on maps with a ramp up to your natural xp. Shakuras, antiga, Tal'darim and entombed valley.
"Why?", you may ask. Because if they smell out what you are up to, they will make mass lings, and in chokes, lings are not very nice vs hellions.

Warning
This will, for some reason, cause bm from your opponent
example of soft bm (some of the bm i got is not suitable for this forum)
http://i.imgur.com/Sx5ob.jpg
+ Show Spoiler +
Noob? i just killed you with nukes son :D


Replays
http://drop.sc/122271
http://drop.sc/122272
+ Show Spoiler +
more replays will be uploaded if requested


Credit were credits due
I must admit, i did not create this build, even though I wish i did. All credit goes to one of the greatest talents out there: Mr. SlayersTaeja. And if both He and I can pull this off, so can you! Good luck and have fun TL'ers
Grobyc
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Canada18410 Posts
February 27 2012 19:40 GMT
#2
I've seen Dragon and a few other players do this build as well. Sometimes it was successful, but I've also seen it fail from Z just massing speedlings and killing your force. You can micro the hellions to an extent but you're bound to lose any marines you have and your ghost.
If you watch Godzilla backwards it's about a benevolent lizard who helps rebuild a city and then moonwalks into the ocean.
Sbrubbles
Profile Joined October 2010
Brazil5776 Posts
February 27 2012 19:48 GMT
#3
You're right about one thing. This does make me wanna switch to terran (then again, so does everything else involving nukes)
Bora Pain minha porra!
Crow!
Profile Joined September 2011
United States150 Posts
February 27 2012 19:48 GMT
#4
When I was a gold/platinum terran I did something similar for a while, with marauders alongside one ghost.

The usual reaction they have if they're quick thinking is to uproot the spines and put them near the mineral line. The moment you cancel the nuke they can start reburrowing, even if they aren't at their intended eventual destination, and without marauders or many marines, actually removing the spines is hard. Also, speedlings are annoyingly not terrible against non-blue-flame hellions, so by the time the second nuke would land your timing could already be closed if they started reacting early enough.

I'd also like to note that this is even more all-in now than it used to be - previously, dealing non-lethal damage here put you in the awkward but survivable spot of needing to defend mutas with ghosts. Nowadays Ghosts can't fight mutas very well at all.

But yes, occasionally it all comes together and is very satisfying.
Papulatus
Profile Joined July 2010
United States669 Posts
February 27 2012 20:45 GMT
#5
This is a bad build for any high level play. Mass lings or mass roaches or ling/bane or anything that zerg has early game would crush this absolutely. Even if Z has spines all he has to do is move them from the nuke and defend the hellions with queens and lings are are popping while the spines burrow. This build has no follow up so all zerg has to do is defend then its an auto win.
4 Corners in a day.
WeddingEpisode
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United States356 Posts
February 27 2012 21:03 GMT
#6
On February 28 2012 04:29 Opeasy wrote: Warning
This will, for some reason, cause bm from your opponent



For others who want to just concentrate on the game, hit 'F11" and "Block" chat with opponent.
Still diamond
yoona2012
Profile Joined February 2012
Denmark196 Posts
February 27 2012 21:33 GMT
#7
It´s a very cute strategy but it suffers from bad transitional play. From your screenshot you´re 1 base at 8.24 and I don´t see you having a 2nd cc in your main. While it is possible to expand while doing this opening, its very vulnerable to the counter attack. Mass roach would be extremely scary or fast mutas but even mass ling bane would probably bust and kill you.

Especially now with snipe nerf it´s risky to open with ghosts. If you must open with fast ghosts, I would rather get a medivac and try to drop ghosts to snipe queens before there are any mutas on the map and try to keep his production low while macroing for a push to take advantage of his low larva count (assuming we sniped several queens)
Opeasy
Profile Joined August 2011
107 Posts
February 27 2012 21:39 GMT
#8
On February 28 2012 05:45 Papulatus wrote:
This is a bad build for any high level play. Mass lings or mass roaches or ling/bane or anything that zerg has early game would crush this absolutely. Even if Z has spines all he has to do is move them from the nuke and defend the hellions with queens and lings are are popping while the spines burrow. This build has no follow up so all zerg has to do is defend then its an auto win.


I believe Taeja plays at the highest level, so unless you are MMA or MKPs smurfaccount, it would work on your level too. But yes it is quite all in, and i find all in builds to be very exiting and risky. thanks for the reply though.

If any mods could change to [B] in the topic line to a [G] it would be much appreciated my bad there
Murlox
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
France1699 Posts
February 27 2012 22:43 GMT
#9
Fun build, I think your post would gain to have the actual images displaying instead of links
Resistance ain't futile
Pulimuli
Profile Blog Joined February 2007
Sweden2766 Posts
February 27 2012 22:54 GMT
#10
roach builds are way too common these days to do this sadly :<
654321
Profile Joined December 2011
Belize100 Posts
February 28 2012 02:47 GMT
#11
this could work. My build usually gives me many hellions so zerg just sit back behind crawlers. I could use nuke spam . CC before rax give me huge advantage over zerg economy anyway.
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