[G] TvZ Gas Before Rax FE into Marine-Raven

(with constant scvs)
10 depot (put this one in your minline, don't wall with it)
12 gas
13 rax (send the scv that finishes this rax to scout)
16 factory (start pulling guys off gas at 88 gas, so you can make your CC quicker)
16 orbital command
17 marine (stop producing marines, you've got a rax/fac wall, you only need 1 marine to kill the scouting drone or deny overlords)
17 depot ( i found depot before CC allows constant scv production, since CC takes forever to build)
20 CC (plug up the corner hole in your rax/fac wall with this cc, put guys back on gas now)
20 helion
after this i don't really have exact supply counts

Make a bunker if you're really that nervous when you land your CC in the natural.

Make a starport when you have 100 gas and take your second gas at that time. You're only going to make 1 viking out of this starport before you add on a tech-lab. Research raven energy ASAP, then HSM when it's done. Use this viking to scout and harass overlords, so you can save all your OC energy for mules.

Add on more barracks as money allows. I found that once I got my natural saturated, i could support 3 port production, with 2 techlabs for raven and 1 reactor for medivacs, plus about 8+ barracks. Once you have your third cut a round of marine production and add reactors. It is also important to make continuous helions out of your one factory.

Don't forget your e-bay. I'm not really sure when to get it, but I normally make my ebay at the latest after spire is finished. Make your armory when +1 is about 2/3rds done so you can research +2 right away. I add a techlab to one barracks when I add on two barracks, so I'm running on 3rax 1 fac 1port while I'm still saturating my bases. I generally get stim before marine HP, but I think that's situational and depends on how fast his mutas are and when you start medivac production.

Push when you've got enough energy on your ravens for at least 2 HSMs. You should be able to deal a pretty heavy blow to his army and/or deny his third double gas.

Mules are fucking awesome. They mine at a ridiculous rate. The only thing more awesome than producing mules out of one orbital is producing mules out of two orbitals. However, zerg can produce more drones than you can make out of two CCs, even if you have orbital. That's why putting pressure on zerg early game is so important, so that they're forced to spent larvae on things like roaches or lings, instead of more drones.

I want to expand as early as humanly possible, but it's really not safe or worth it if Zerg can just kill your expo right away with ling/roach, or saturate his bases to 50+ while you're still on 20 workers. Expanding off 1 rax with no gas seems like just a bad idea to me, since roaches rape marines pretty badly, whereas with this you've already got the gas, you can just throw some scvs in there faster and make a techlab. Therefore, I go gas before barracks to get early helions. Gas after barracks means your helions and expansion are later. This puts a ton of pressure on zerg. Now he has to choose between
A) making queens to deal with helions
B) making roaches to deal with helions
C) making speedlings to deal with helions

A) is pretty meh, but it delays his lair. B) is the best possible outcome: it's an incredible gas sink, roaches are 2 supply instead of 1 now so he can't even make that many without spending a ton on overlords, and you can make marauders and 1a to victory. C) is probably the optimal response; he only needs to make as many lings as he feels he can get away with to micro against helions with queen support. If your helion micro is better than his ling micro, then you're already way ahead. While he wastes larvae on lings, you're making nonstop scvs from 2 CCs.

The viking is important because it forces Zerg to get some kind of anti-air, or lose total map control and vision. Also you don't have to worry about scanning badly and missing his teching pattern.

Infestor/baneling/speedling

Infestors cost gas. Banelings cost gas. Every single infestor or baneling they make means less gas for ultras and a slower hive. Marines cost 50 minerals each. As long as you don't lose like 10 marines to one baneling, you're coming out ahead in terms of resources. You also produce marines much, much faster than he can produce banelings. Also you should be able to soften up lings/banelings with those helions you've been making off your 1 factory, and even sacrifice them to tank if needed.

You should be sniping infestors with your ravens. Banelings are annoying, but they're only actually "HOLY SHIT" annoying if your marines get fungal'd. You could also put an HSM in an idle baneling group and giggle when all his lings die because he didn't have any banelings mixed in. You'll also never get caught off guard by a burrowed baneling trap with your ravens.

mutas

HSM +stim marines lol.

Seriously thors are fucking slow and expensive and suck against mutas for cost anyways. Don't make thors, they're bad. Try to sandwich the mutas between your ravens and marines so when they run from marines they get HSM in the face.

hydras

Worst possible response to mass marine/medivac/raven. Drop PDD, stim, win.

roaches

Eh. I've never really played someone who made roaches in the midgame, but you've got 3 rax with no addons. Make some marauders and you should come out pretty even.

ultras
You have +2 attack, with +3 finishing by now, right? If you've survived the muta/infestor/baneling/speedling midgame then he should be pretty gas starved unless you couldn't deny his third double gas at all. Make sure that you don't have your marines in one control group (this also applies to fighting banelings) and try to soften them up with autoturrets/HSM before you actually engage. You should also add on a couple of techlabs to your barracks for marauder production, but you should still be more marine heavy since they take one more hit to kill than marauders do. You can also add banshees since you've already got starports with techlabs.

baneling bust

It's a free win. You have rax/fac/cc wallin with helions. Add your second gas and make banshees.

Blistering sands, he went roach hydra into ultras. he attacks his ultras into a choke and they all die instantly.



This is a game where I haven't worked out the whole thing yet. I build thors and miserably fail against mutas.



This one is a hilarious fail. I let 10 mutas in my base because I flew my viking right over his spire and decided that I was too manly for turrets.



This is a pretty nice game I thought, played against one of my teammates. Waves and waves of marines die to baneling/infestor/ultra but I come out ahead anyways because MM is more cost efficient and his macro isn't exactly amazing.



This is another one where I haven't worked out my BO fully yet, I get 3rax before port. I also add a pretty heavy igniter helion count, so this isn't pure MM +raven. This is probably the best player out of these replays with 924 points, so I guess it kinda works vs mid-diamond?



I get roach rushed here. I think here I lost the game, rather than the Z winning. If I hadn't cut helion production and put 2 helions behind my wallin, I could have forced him away or at least gotten all his lings and then he couldn't have broken my bunker. Maybe. I thought I could have gotten away with it in this game if I played better anyways.