Table of Contents:
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I. INTRODUCTION
II. POSITIONAL BASICS
II. DO NOT WANT:
A) Nada vs JangBi
B) Fantasy vs Stork
III. DO WANT:
A) Fantasy vs JangBi
B) Fantasy vs Kal
IV. MAP OF TANK SPOTS
V. END NOTES & CREDITS
II. POSITIONAL BASICS
II. DO NOT WANT:
A) Nada vs JangBi
B) Fantasy vs Stork
III. DO WANT:
A) Fantasy vs JangBi
B) Fantasy vs Kal
IV. MAP OF TANK SPOTS
V. END NOTES & CREDITS
I. INTRODUCTION
Ah, Siege Tanks. Probably the second reason for all Terran players to choose this race.
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First reason is BoxeR, of course
The hated weapon of terror with bigh mothafucka gun mounted on heavy-armored body: can be anything better than that? Surely, a dozen of Tanks can easily melt down any number of enemies, when used properly. This guide is for all Tank users, and, probably, all Tank haters as well. I'll be discussing TvP examples, partially because Tanks are so important in this matchup.
Before you start reading, have this in mind:
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SIEGE TANK (SIEGE MODE):
Advantages:
> 70 Damage.
> Splash damage.
> Great range.
> Shooting over obstacles.
Disadvantages:
> Can't move.
> Hurts own units.
> Has minimal range.
> Deploying takes time.
Advantages:
> 70 Damage.
> Splash damage.
> Great range.
> Shooting over obstacles.
Disadvantages:
> Can't move.
> Hurts own units.
> Has minimal range.
> Deploying takes time.
II. POSITIONAL BASICS
You may want to skip this, if you are above D level.
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Since Tanks' terryfing power lies in Siege Mode, the positioning issue is critical. When deployed, Tanks cannot move, so placing them on awkward spots often results with huge loss of time (at best) or total disaster (at worst). Let's take a look and analyze some samples:
Note: In all these pictures I assume Toss will attack from the North.
I call this formation "The Blob". Tanks look scary when set up like that, yet it is an illusion. Any competent Protoss player will destroy such armor cluster without too much trouble. Psi Storm, Zealot bombs or simple run of Speedlot gang and Terran shall be screwed. On some ocassions "The Blob" may work, but most often it will lead to disaster.
In contrary to previous example, this is kind of almost-perfect formation. Tank line has "depth", meaning it will reveal it's full power gradually, as enemy approaches. Not only the opponent will have longer distance to run under fire - he will often miscalculate his chances of successful breakthrough. (Note that due to his limited vision, he may assume there are not that many Tanks on his way).
Tanks at the bottom of this formation are not split like those above, to increase efectiveness of massive fire. It's unlikely for Toss to break throught the whole line, so they don't need to be spread out that good as initial ones.
A typical example of self-ownage. Tanks are occupying terrible position on a minefield, meaning it will take only a Shuttle with 4 Zealots on it to kill them all. If you ever wondered why progamers are sometimes killing his own mines, let this be a good explanation.
Very standard setup, albeit not perfect. Simply speaking, Mines are clustered and placed very close to the Tank line. They will probably destroy each other and on a ocassion, hit own units as well (remember, those Spider crawlers are incredibly stupid). If Mine God will smile, this should be probably enough to survive an attack, but who needs to risk that much?
Here is the solution: Mines are spread out and placed further from Tanks, giving Vulture support just enough time to deal with the Zealots. Furthermore, Tanks are split better as well. Thanks to SCV support, the area is covered by Turrets, which makes Zealot bombing more difficult and nullifies half of the Protoss Arbiters' advantage. Some Depots and EBay provide additional cover in case of run-by.
Good, but rarely seen setup. Tank is covered by swarm of moving SCV's and CC. Furthermore, workers can repair it when needed.
Tanks like Destination. Below, two samples of placement for profit:
Early-game setup. Tanks are moved a bit further from cliff's edge to avoid Goons' return fire.
Mid-game setup. This time tanks on high ground are placed on the edge to maximize their range.
Note: In all these pictures I assume Toss will attack from the North.
I call this formation "The Blob". Tanks look scary when set up like that, yet it is an illusion. Any competent Protoss player will destroy such armor cluster without too much trouble. Psi Storm, Zealot bombs or simple run of Speedlot gang and Terran shall be screwed. On some ocassions "The Blob" may work, but most often it will lead to disaster.
In contrary to previous example, this is kind of almost-perfect formation. Tank line has "depth", meaning it will reveal it's full power gradually, as enemy approaches. Not only the opponent will have longer distance to run under fire - he will often miscalculate his chances of successful breakthrough. (Note that due to his limited vision, he may assume there are not that many Tanks on his way).
Tanks at the bottom of this formation are not split like those above, to increase efectiveness of massive fire. It's unlikely for Toss to break throught the whole line, so they don't need to be spread out that good as initial ones.
A typical example of self-ownage. Tanks are occupying terrible position on a minefield, meaning it will take only a Shuttle with 4 Zealots on it to kill them all. If you ever wondered why progamers are sometimes killing his own mines, let this be a good explanation.
Very standard setup, albeit not perfect. Simply speaking, Mines are clustered and placed very close to the Tank line. They will probably destroy each other and on a ocassion, hit own units as well (remember, those Spider crawlers are incredibly stupid). If Mine God will smile, this should be probably enough to survive an attack, but who needs to risk that much?
Here is the solution: Mines are spread out and placed further from Tanks, giving Vulture support just enough time to deal with the Zealots. Furthermore, Tanks are split better as well. Thanks to SCV support, the area is covered by Turrets, which makes Zealot bombing more difficult and nullifies half of the Protoss Arbiters' advantage. Some Depots and EBay provide additional cover in case of run-by.
Good, but rarely seen setup. Tank is covered by swarm of moving SCV's and CC. Furthermore, workers can repair it when needed.
Tanks like Destination. Below, two samples of placement for profit:
Early-game setup. Tanks are moved a bit further from cliff's edge to avoid Goons' return fire.
Mid-game setup. This time tanks on high ground are placed on the edge to maximize their range.
III. DO NOT WANT
Below, two examples of Tank-commander rage. Watch and cry:
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And here are the full games, in which this happened:
A) JangBi <Othello> NaDa
(2 Set, KHAN vs WeMade, Proleague, 20.04.2008)
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JangBi goes 1 Gate Goon, Nada 1 Fac expo. JangBi scouts wrong and he is not able to get into Nada's base. Nada chooses to build Starport right away after his CC, and prepares Siege drop. Protoss gets Observers first and sneaks it into Terran base. JangBi spots drop early and nullifies it easily while double expanding. Nada expands again as well and builds more Turrets to intercept the Shuttle. JangBi builds another Nexus at 9 o'clock. He then sends Shuttle with Reaver to harass, but with no success. On another drop attempt he fails even more, losing two Shuttles, Reaver and a Dragoon to clever Turret placement. Nada then tries some Vulture harassement, yet JangBi's forces are in place and Toss has already secured himself 4th expo. Nada Drops 2 Tanks over new enemy outpost, still of no avail. He is willing to sacrifice a lot of Vultures in exchange for Probes from Toss' third expo. However, as the game is progressing, Terran forces are more and more contained in his 11 o'clock corner, while servants of Aiur are taking almost all available resource nodes. Finally Nada manages to wreck mining at one enemy base, but at cost of more Vultures. Shortly after this, he moves out with massive Tank army. The "Terran killer" mode unleashes out of the blue and Nada's army dies in few seconds to extraordinary effort of Khan's Executor. After few more minutes JangBi's expo count is revealed to his opponent and he has nothing more to do that typing gg.
This macro-fest was severly interrupted by MBC Refree, who lagged in the midgame and was eventually dropped from game. (Both players seemed relieved after this.)
In this particular game, both players simply omitted mid-game, and went towards long struggle by multi-expanding. However, the key factor were Nada's Vultures. They used to be his trademark, but here they did too little damage, and were repeatedly sacrificed in sake of Probehunting. Actually, PvT like this might be forgotten 5 minutes after it ended, if JangBi had less skill at storming. Still, Nada blew it by not having enough Vults at critical point and fighting on unfavourable area. He also skipped some necessary Goliaths, so Shuttles and Arbiters had easy time winning this game.
Conclusions:
> Avoid Tank clusters.
> Do not surrender map control.
> Never make Tank-only army. Never.
B) Stork <Chupung-Ryeong> fantasy
(5 Set, InCruit OSL Finals, 1.10.2008)
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Stork scouts with 7th Probe and steals Fantasy's gas, following this with 1Gate Goon range. Fantasy answers this with fast 1Rax into expo and Bunker in his natural. Some well-positioned Goons are intercepting Fantasy's SCV scouts, but Probe scout is denied as well. Then Stork manages to snipe Fantasy's 1st Tank, forcing Terran to spent a lot of minerals on repairing a Bunker. Stork retreats after Siege Mode is up and sits on his ridge while double expanding. Using Pylon blocks, he shuts Vulture holes at both natural and 3rd base. Fantasy gets more Factories, but fails to do any damage with Vults. The Observers are are following Terran army as it's repositioned to low ground above Fantasy's 1st ridge. Stork however, has much larger force, and attacks shortly after Fantasy moves out. Overrun by superior numbers, Terran loses most of his units and the control over "his" hill. With some sneaky tactics, Fantasy opts for ninja expo at 9 o'clock and finally scores some Probe kills with Vultures. However, his 2nd attempt to move out is swiftly countered by Dragoons attacking from high ground and, more importantly, some miraclous Storms. Stork smashes Terran natural and marches up his ramp. GG, Dino Toss clinches his 1st title.
Stork's facial expression after this game was probably 2nd greatest heart-melting feature in SC progaming, beaten only by Calm's tears after recent MSL Semifinal.
Hard pressed from the beginning, Fantasy deployed his 1st Tank outpost on low ground, despite some nice cliff behind his back. It looked like he was safe there, but without mines on the way, and support from behind, his position was doomed. Notice that Stork's Observer followed Terran army all the way it moved out, and revealed that there was no "depth" at enemy position. Knowing this, forces of Aiur were able to win first battle without single Storm being casted.
The second battle was determined by map structure. After taking the high ground, Stork had a choice when to attack and simply ran over Fantasy when he tried to move out (he was forced to do this since Toss had full map control). Simply speaking, Terran was behind in troop count, ground control and vision (attacking uphill).
Conclusions:
> Abuse cliffs as hard as possible.
> Scan your forces and snipe incoming Observers.
> When moving out, plant mines on new position before sieging.
This was as sad as this:
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But time for something more appealing...
IV. DO WANT
Tremble with fear, Protoss, Tanks below are made of win:
fantasy <Chupung-Ryeong> JangBi
(1 Set, SKT1 vs KHAN, Proleague, 20.12.2008)
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JangBi gets 1Gate Goon range and blocks ramp with two Probes. He then plants ninja Citadel to get fast DT's. Fantasy plays standard 1Fac expo. Protoss forces are chasing 1st SCV scout so hard that they somehow let another Terran worker to sneak in and reveal his build. Fantasy survives Templar trouble with almost no damage. JangBi gets his natural running and adds 2 more Gateways. With very fast Arbiter tech instead of another expo, servants of Aiur are planning some timing agression, but this is repeatadly intimidated by marauding Vultures. Fantasy moves out to 1st ridge unspotted and drops 4 Vultures on JangBi's main. 2nd drop gets pretty well intercepted by Goons, but so does recall attempt, which costs JangBi an Arbiter. Terran secures 3rd expo and smashes first Toss attack on it. Another Protoss attack goes through east lane, but it's repulsed again by massive Tank and Vessel force. After securing his control over bottom ridge, Fantasy takes the opportunity and assaults new 3 o'clock expo. With same number of bases, JangBi settles for a recall in Terran main. This area is filled with mines and Fantasy's reinforcements, turning the attack into a suicide. Another recall hits 5 o'clock, this time to greater effect, but Terran control over high ground remains overwhelming. Fantasy pushes through west lane and even titanic efforts are not enough for Toss to stop this. Left with pitful few units and no additional expos, JangBi surrenders to the massive Tank army.
Fantasy's defensive potential and reactions were both so awesome, he even managed to EMP Arbiters, which were Hallucinated just to annoy him.
Fantasy did his homework after OSL finals and used Tanks properly. Notice that this time he expands more and takes full control of Chupung's hills instead of going through centre. Also, his reaction time is absolutely amazing, as well as army compositions and tactical insight. JangBi's unfortunate Arbiters and lack of early pressure backfired in late game, when Terran had easy time shutting middle expos at 3 and 9 o'clock.
Conclusions:
> Late game Tanks >> Late game Goons+Zealots.
> Remember to set up minefields in your main base.
> Use Goliath support.
fantasy <Destination> Kal
(1 Set, SKT1 vs STX, Proleague, 15.06.2009
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Game opens with Fantasy scouting for proxy Gates, while Kal employs 14Nexus. After standard 1Fac expand, Terran opts for timing attack with 3 Tanks, 3 Vultures and 3 Marines. By abusing backdoor lane, Fantasy cuts off mining supply at Protoss natural and brutalizes it even more with frontal Vulture raid. Some gigantic effort allows Kal to save himself, but his counter (Shuttle) is intercepted by another counter (Wraith). Kal rushes to Arbiters and horribly fails with another drop attempt (or rather is brilliantly caught by Fantasy's Gosu Starsense). One more agressive move by Toss is repulsed, and Terran has his 3rd Gas secured. SKT1 Terrorist livens up to his nickname by 2Vult 1Tank Drop at Kal's main followed by another Vulture invasion. Warriors of Adun are rammed once again when Fantasy catches their 1st Arbiter with 4 Goliaths sent to 2 o'clock expo. Kal jumps through central bridges, but he is unable to breakthrough and he gets trapped at Terran backdoor. 1st Recall is interrupted by EMP, while second one fails within a... second to impenetrable human defense. Shortly after this, Kal loses 8 o'clock expo and brand new Nexus at 5 o'clock. Last full-control group of Goons melts under Mech fire and this is the end of Protoss' suffering.
A must-watch. Fantasy's defence again was flawless. Even when Kal managed to get a recall he was so utterly destroyed, that it raises questions about some kind of in-game bug.
In this game, Fantasy fully abuses Destination's tank-friendly layout. From nice backdoor timing attack to impeccable defense of his own natural, Jung Myung Hoon shows that not only Vultures are his trademark. Watch it carefully, as this game is full of great interception moves and defensive manuevers. In fact, Kal was on his back foot the whole time and never managed to launch a successful attack.
Conclusions:
> Destination is Tank-friendly map.
> Use floating buildings to extend Tank range.
> When given a chance, try to corner Toss forces at your backdoor.
IV. MAP OF TANK SPOTS
Yellow dots are marking good Tank positions and/or typical areas where Tanks are being sieged during the game. Note that some maps have considerably less Tank spots than other - this however, does not mean that they are less Tank-friendly (well, at least not always).
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Blue Storm:
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Destination:
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Heartbreak Ridge:
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Outsider:
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Andromeda:
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Byzantium:
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Colosseum:
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Katrina:
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Destination:
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Heartbreak Ridge:
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Outsider:
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Andromeda:
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Byzantium:
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Colosseum:
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Katrina:
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V. END NOTES & CREDITS
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I focused on TvP matchup, but I want to make two more threads with TvT and TvZ.
(Should I do it? Fill the poll, please.)
Some of those thoughts may be a bit irrelevant. I'm not an expert player.
If I messed up someting, just write it here or PM me.
Special Thanks To:
SgtHK0223 (YouTube user; for banner inspiration),
Jon747 (aka Baezzi, for videos),
4chan (for rage thread inspiration),
You (for reading this).
No Pandabearguys were harmed during the making of this guide.
(Should I do it? Fill the poll, please.)
Some of those thoughts may be a bit irrelevant. I'm not an expert player.
If I messed up someting, just write it here or PM me.
Special Thanks To:
SgtHK0223 (YouTube user; for banner inspiration),
Jon747 (aka Baezzi, for videos),
4chan (for rage thread inspiration),
You (for reading this).
No Pandabearguys were harmed during the making of this guide.
Poll: Should I make more Tank guides?
(Vote): Absolutely, this one was great!
(Vote): Yes, we'll see if you will improve.
(Vote): No, learn more about SC first.
(Vote): Never, this was horrible :-(