• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 00:51
CEST 06:51
KST 13:51
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2914Serral wins Maestros of the Game 243ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12
Community News
SC4ALL II: Brood War - $2500 - Dec 5-64SC4ALL II announced - $10,000 prize pool, Dec 5-63PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August)8Neeb returns to progaming; rejoins ONSYDE15Weekly Cups (July 20-26): Early returns on 5.0.16b8
StarCraft 2
General
August World Ranking: Clem climbs to #2 Daily SC2 Player Grid - feedback wanted Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Life's Huge Gambling Spree After IEM Katowice 2014 Neeb returns to progaming; rejoins ONSYDE
Tourneys
RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event INu's Battles #19 2-Days Event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament SC4ALL II announced - $10,000 prize pool, Dec 5-6 PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August)
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 537 Hostile Territory Mutation # 536 Railroad Switch Mutation # 535 Assembly of Vengeance
Brood War
General
ASL22 General Discussion BW General Discussion Making an Online Broodwar Manager Game BW Drama: Terror's Debt Incident + C9 disbanding BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/
Tourneys
SC4ALL II: Brood War - $2500 - Dec 5-6 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues 2v2v2v2 Tournament Escore Tournament - Season 3
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Fighting Spirit mining rates Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation PvT advise for noobs
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread ZeroSpace Early Access is Now Live! Nintendo Switch Thread Beyond All Reason Path of Exile
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread Artificial Intelligence Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine
Fan Clubs
The Scarlett Fan Club The IdrA Fan Club The HerO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023 McBoner: A hockey love story
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Simple Questions Simple Answers FPS when play League Of Legend on laptop
TL Community
Northern Ireland Global Starcraft The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Please support my new stand…
Peanutsc
What is a Gamer?
TrAiDoS
Hello guys!
LIN1s
ASL S22 English Commentary…
namkraft
Poker (part 2)
Nebuchad
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 3907 users

[D] Terran - when to go for Orbital Command?

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
StarcraftMan
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
Canada507 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-27 03:18:17
March 27 2010 03:09 GMT
#1
Couldn't find a good discussion for this in the strategy forum after a search so I'm starting a new discussion on this.

As a Terran player, in general against all races, when should one go for an Orbital Command to maximize resource intake? Specifically, the Orbital Command gives you a mule which will boost your mineral income in the long run. But going for an Orbital Command earlier - at say the 13/14 scv mark - leaves you with less scvs that you could use to get gas, etc.

(Edit: Stripped a nonsensical comment by me)

Anyways, here are the questions:

1) When do the top platinum Terran players go for their Orbital Commands? Specifically, after how many SCVs produced should one go for an Orbital Command?

2) Should you get an Orbital Command before your first refinery? Or should you build a refinery before an Orbital Command?

PS. I understand there are race specific strategies to consider, but I'm considering a general case for this discussion
YPang
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
United States4024 Posts
March 27 2010 03:12 GMT
#2
i get it right after rax.
sMi.Gladstone | BW: B high| SC2: gold T_T
Rice
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
United States1332 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-27 03:17:18
March 27 2010 03:16 GMT
#3
I'm assuming that most decent Terran builds will go for a barracks before an Orbital Command to prevent early rushes but if you have a good reason why you should get an Orbital Command before a barracks, feel free to explain!


well the main strategical reason you go for a barracks before an orbital command is because having a barracks is a prerequisite of building an orbital command.


edit: you should pretty much always build your orbital command right when your barracks finishes, I cant really think of any reason not to.
Freedom will be defended at the cost of civil liberties.
Matrijs
Profile Joined May 2009
United States147 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-27 03:17:18
March 27 2010 03:17 GMT
#4
On March 27 2010 12:09 StarcraftMan wrote:
I'm assuming that most decent Terran builds will go for a barracks before an Orbital Command to prevent early rushes but if you have a good reason why you should get an Orbital Command before a barracks, feel free to explain!


Orbital Command requires that you have a barracks. That's a good reason.

EDIT: beaten : /
StarcraftMan
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
Canada507 Posts
March 27 2010 03:19 GMT
#5
On March 27 2010 12:16 Rice wrote:
Show nested quote +
I'm assuming that most decent Terran builds will go for a barracks before an Orbital Command to prevent early rushes but if you have a good reason why you should get an Orbital Command before a barracks, feel free to explain!


well the main strategical reason you go for a barracks before an orbital command is because having a barracks is a prerequisite of building an orbital command.


edit: you should pretty much always build your orbital command right when your barracks finishes, I cant really think of any reason not to.


My bad, lol.

But should you get an Orbital Command before getting a refinery?
CursOr
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
United States6335 Posts
March 27 2010 03:20 GMT
#6
I let that last SCV finish, but I go to Orbital on the next time the CC is available to train. Every time, every MU... its worth it, even at say 15 supply.
CJ forever (-_-(-_-(-_-(-_-)-_-)-_-)-_-)
Rice
Profile Blog Joined July 2007
United States1332 Posts
March 27 2010 03:22 GMT
#7
On March 27 2010 12:19 StarcraftMan wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 27 2010 12:16 Rice wrote:
I'm assuming that most decent Terran builds will go for a barracks before an Orbital Command to prevent early rushes but if you have a good reason why you should get an Orbital Command before a barracks, feel free to explain!


well the main strategical reason you go for a barracks before an orbital command is because having a barracks is a prerequisite of building an orbital command.


edit: you should pretty much always build your orbital command right when your barracks finishes, I cant really think of any reason not to.


My bad, lol.

But should you get an Orbital Command before getting a refinery?


yes, orbital command pays for itself in like 15 seconds, iirc.
Freedom will be defended at the cost of civil liberties.
Angra
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
United States2652 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-27 03:25:57
March 27 2010 03:24 GMT
#8
You can build a refinery after barracks (on 13 or sometimes 14) and still have enough money for an orbital command once the rax finishes. If you have constant SCV production it syncs up really nicely with the last SCV finishing just as the rax finishes so you can start the orbital command right then.

And yeah unless they're doing some super early cheese rush it's almost always a good idea to get the orbital command as soon as your barracks finishes because it pays for itself incredibly fast and then gives you a huge boost in economy, so you want it as early as possible.
StarcraftMan
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
Canada507 Posts
March 27 2010 03:29 GMT
#9
On March 27 2010 12:22 Rice wrote:
yes, orbital command pays for itself in like 15 seconds, iirc.


15 sec? That's a bit fast for the return on the investment. Does anybody have the numbers for this?

Specifically, the time it takes you to build an orbital command, how many minerals/scvs could you have produced in that time period?
StarcraftMan
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
Canada507 Posts
March 27 2010 03:32 GMT
#10
On March 27 2010 12:24 Angra wrote:
You can build a refinery after barracks (on 13 or sometimes 14) and still have enough money for an orbital command once the rax finishes. If you have constant SCV production it syncs up really nicely with the last SCV finishing just as the rax finishes so you can start the orbital command right then.



Nice. Do you have a good link to a video example on YoutTube for this example?
imBLIND
Profile Blog Joined December 2006
United States2626 Posts
March 27 2010 03:47 GMT
#11
On March 27 2010 12:32 StarcraftMan wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 27 2010 12:24 Angra wrote:
You can build a refinery after barracks (on 13 or sometimes 14) and still have enough money for an orbital command once the rax finishes. If you have constant SCV production it syncs up really nicely with the last SCV finishing just as the rax finishes so you can start the orbital command right then.



Nice. Do you have a good link to a video example on YoutTube for this example?


It's easier to try it out in game or in an unranked game.
im deaf
Silent12ill
Profile Blog Joined November 2009
United States358 Posts
March 27 2010 03:59 GMT
#12
On March 27 2010 12:16 Rice wrote:
edit: you should pretty much always build your orbital command right when your barracks finishes, I cant really think of any reason not to.


I agree but disagree against protoss 1 gate core. I'm trying to figure out why im able to
so well and what to look out for that will stop it but I find it best(still talking about mid and long
run) to right after my rax if i scout 1 gate core from protoss I immediately drop a CC in my nat
then orbital then drop a bunker and fill with rines. By they time they have any kind of early force
I have plenty of marine muraders from 3 rax picking off unit from my cliff. Oh big thing there is
if its a map like LT where I can have units on my cliff back up my bunker I drop to defend nat.

http://www.sc2rc.com/index.php/replay/show/431

StarcraftMan
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
Canada507 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-28 07:40:37
March 28 2010 07:34 GMT
#13
Ok, I was on LZ's channel chatting up with other players, and I got a good build order. Let me know if you have any comments/feedback on this order:

10 - Supply Depot
11 - Rax (or 11ish)
13 - Refinery
15 - OC
CakeOrI)eath
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
United States327 Posts
March 28 2010 07:44 GMT
#14
On March 28 2010 16:34 StarcraftMan wrote:
Ok, I was on LZ's channel chatting up with other players, and I got a good build order. Let me know if you have any comments/feedback on this order:

10 - Supply Depot
11 - Rax (or 11ish)
13 - Refinery
15 - OC


I do exactly this but I have my own subtle tweak. The first supply depot finishes at about ~90 minerals so the scv that built it just stands there waiting for the 150 to build the rax. I fix this by scouting with this scv. At 100 minerals I send an scv from my mineral line to where I want to build the rax and on most maps it gets there right at 150.
Opportunities multiply as they are seized.
Kantutan
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Canada1319 Posts
March 28 2010 07:58 GMT
#15
from the very start I've always done

9 supply
11 rax
12 refinery
14 OC

worked for me thus far
BentoBox
Profile Joined November 2009
Canada303 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-28 10:44:05
March 28 2010 08:07 GMT
#16
I pull a 10 rax, 12 ref, 13 orb by cutting a probe or two... so I can get my first siege tank (w/ upgrade) by 25 or so~
Only dead fish swim with the stream
kickinhead
Profile Joined December 2008
Switzerland2069 Posts
March 28 2010 08:13 GMT
#17
as soon as possible!

The longer u have occ, the more mins you'll get from it. on most maps I'd go for it right after rax.
https://soundcloud.com/thesamplethief
mianmian
Profile Joined March 2010
Canada11 Posts
March 29 2010 16:15 GMT
#18
Lately I've been going

9 rax
10 depot
11 OC/refinery

I can crank out 1-2 marines while the Orbital Command is building then tech lab right away. The main issue I guess with this BO is that while you can pull ahead/stay even on minerals you have less gas then an OC at 14 because you don't have enough SCVs to double gas.
JTPROG
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States254 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-03-29 20:09:36
March 29 2010 20:09 GMT
#19
There are two popular openings:

first will give you slightly better econ
second will give you faster tech

10 depot
11 rax
12 gas
14 OC
14 rine

..or..

9 rax
10 gas
11OC
11depot
11rine
inflowgaming.net
bt-scubasteve
Profile Joined March 2010
United States13 Posts
March 30 2010 03:26 GMT
#20
I can stress this enough to my friends, OC is amazing*. Get it right after rax, whatever the timing is, get it asap. Unless you beat your opponent with wizards and hobbits, you need minerals.

*see the income gained from one mule(270~300minerals)
Plat 1v1, plat 2v2, d+iccup
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 6h 9m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RuFF_SC2 247
NeuroSwarm 214
Nina 57
SpeCial 39
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 4025
GuemChi 2474
sSak 124
Bale 67
Tasteless 66
Noble 32
Icarus 10
Dota 2
Fuzer 91
League of Legends
JimRising 681
Counter-Strike
summit1g9571
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King161
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor117
Other Games
Maynarde138
Livibee67
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick812
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Kozan
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Migwel
• intothetv
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• IndyKCrew
StarCraft: Brood War
• RayReign 111
• iopq 7
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota21332
• lizZardDota273
League of Legends
• Rush1258
• Lourlo1069
• Stunt329
Upcoming Events
WardiTV Weekly
6h 9m
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 5h
INu's Battles
1d 6h
Percival vs Zoun
Cure vs Rogue
ByuN vs Classic
Clem vs NightMare
PiGosaur Cup
1d 19h
Replay Cast
2 days
Kung Fu Cup
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
The PondCast
3 days
INu's Battles
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
[ Show More ]
IntoTheTV X SOOP
4 days
RSL Revival
5 days
RSL Revival
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

ASL Season 22: Qualifier #2
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
RSL Revival: Season 6
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026

Upcoming

Acropolis #5
Escore Tournament S3: W6
Escore Tournament S3: W7
CSLAN 4
ASL Season 22
Escore Tournament S3: W8
Acropolis #5 - TRS
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
Thunderpick World Champ.
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
Logitech G Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.